Spiritual Healing from the Divine Scriptures and the Holy Fathers: Part 1

By Archimandrite Photios (Spassky) (+1838)

Abbot of St. George (Yuriev) Monastery, Novgorod

 

Discourse 1. On evil passions in general

 

 

Question. For what reason did the Most High Creator will to create man, subject to evil passions?

Answer. Man was not created such, but free from evil passions: “God made man upright” (Eccl. 7:30).

Question. From what, then, did he become subject to passions?

Answer. From the fact that he did not preserve himself in his original state.

Question. And in what state was he?

Answer. In perfect holiness and blessedness.

Question. Tell me about this more fully.

Answer. He was created in the image of God and according to the likeness—endowed with wisdom, holiness, free will, without sinful inclinations, with immortality of soul and body, and with dominion over the animals. And as the place of his dwelling, he had the God-planted Paradise, where from the tree of life he partook of immortality, and from all the trees of Paradise he enjoyed their fruits. But after this he was deprived of it.

Question. In what manner?

Answer. Having been deceived by the serpent (the devil), he desired for himself the highest deification, to become equal to God in knowledge; he tasted of the forbidden tree, and by his disobedience angered his Creator.

Question. What followed from this?

Answer. Alas, a lamentable condition! As a transgressor he was driven out of the paradise of sweetness, deprived of the tree of life—the earth, cursed in the works of his hands, began to bring forth thorns and thistles. And the Cherub, with his flaming weapon, barred also the way to the God-planted Paradise.

Question. What befell his body?

Answer. Heavy labors, various illnesses, and death.

Question. And the soul?

Answer. Darkening of the mind and corruption of the will.

Question. Why so?

Answer. From the uprising of evil passions, to which his soul, after the transgression, became subject.

Question. What are passions?

Answer. Passions are those evil inclinations of the human heart which draw him to do that which is contrary to sound reason, a pure conscience, and the Law of God.

Question. By what other names are passions called?

Answer. Diseases, sufferings, ulcers, wounds, thorns, and the like.

Question. Why are they called diseases?

Answer. Because passions produce the same effects as bodily diseases. If someone’s leg hurts, he, although he desires, cannot walk without limping. In the same way the soul, when it has its wound (a passion), suffers. And from this a man cannot, although he desires, walk blamelessly in the Law of God, but, being crushed within himself, says: “Why do I suffer? Alas! For the good that I will, I do not; but the evil that I will not, this I do” (Rom. 7:19).

Question. And why are they called thorns?

Answer. Because just as thorns hinder the good seed from sprouting, so passions do not allow the sprouting of virtues to arise.

Question. Is every man subject to such passions?

Answer. “For as from one Adam the human race multiplied upon the earth, so an equal evil corruption in passions has settled in the whole human race,”*—says Macarius the Great. And the holy Apostle: “By one man,” he says, “sin entered into the world…” (Rom. 5:12).

Question. What is sin?

Answer. Sin is a transgression of the Law of God in thought, desire, feelings, word, and deed, to which the passions incline.

Question. Are passions indeed the cause of sin?

Answer. So it is! “But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own lust and enticed: then lust, having conceived, gives birth to sin” (Jas. 1:14–15).

Question. From what does this sinful thorn spring up within us?

Answer. 1. From bad upbringing.

2. From one’s own negligence.
3. From the example of passion-loving people.
4. From the flesh warring against the spirit.
5. From the tempter, the devil, who deceived Adam and even dared to tempt the Son of God Himself.

Question. In what manner does the devil tempt us?

Answer. He wars against us not by anything else, but by our own instruments. Through our senses he wounds us and with the fire of our lusts he inflames our hearts. And as Delilah bound Samson with the braids of the hair of his head (cf. Judg. 16:14), so the devil binds us with the braids of our passions. However, he draws no one to evil by force, but it depends upon our will: to accept the temptation or not to accept it (Saint John of Damascus).

Question. What should I do, that I may not fall under his temptation?

Answer. Be sober and watchful always with your mind, and repel the crafty suggestions and evil thoughts by the word of God and by prayer at their very beginning. And guard your heart with all your strength from corrupt desires, according to what is written: “Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walks about, seeking whom he may devour: whom resist, steadfast in the faith” (1 Pet. 5:8–9).

Question. For what reason does God permit the devil to tempt us by our passions?

Answer. Saint Maximus sets forth five reasons for this:

“1. That, being fought and fighting in return, we may come to discern virtue and evil.

2. That, having acquired virtue through struggle and labor, we may possess it as sure and inalienable.
3. That, advancing in virtue, we may not become high-minded, but may learn to be humble-minded.
4. That, having been tested by evil, we may hate it with perfect hatred.
5. That, having become passionless, we may not forget our own weakness, nor the power of God who helped us.” [3]

Question. Does not our own heart also have an inclination toward the passions?

Answer. It is very much inclined: “For the imagination of man’s heart is diligently inclined to evil from his youth” (Gen. 8:21).

Question. How strongly are men sometimes overcome by the passions?

Answer. So much so that many even deify them. The pagans, deifying the passions, called shameful lust Venus, wrath—Mars, drunkenness—Bacchus. And the holy Apostle calls the belly a god (Phil. 3:19), and covetousness—idolatry (1 Tim. 6:10).

Question. To whom is one who serves evil passions like?

Answer. To irrational animals: “Man being in honor did not understand; he was compared to the senseless beasts, and became like them” (Ps. 48:13).

Question. In such a state is a man pleasing to God?

Answer. No! “My Spirit shall not abide in these men forever, for they are flesh,” said God concerning those who lived corruptly before the Flood (Gen. 6:3).

Question. And to men?

Answer. Even well-disposed men turn away from such as serve evil passions, when they see that there is no hope of their correction.

Question. What harm proceeds from them?

Answer. As those infected with a pestilence destroy themselves and others, so those infected by their passions inflict harm upon themselves and their neighbors.

Question. In what way do they harm themselves?

Answer. 1. They are deprived of the grace of God, of light and strength in law-keeping.

2. They fall into godlessness, into heresies, into many vices and lawlessness.
3. They bring upon themselves the vengeance of God.
4. They are deprived of temporal goods.
5. They fall into manifold illnesses and sorrows.
6. They die an untimely and grievous death. And finally,
7. they shall not enter into the joy of the righteous; but, alas, with the impious they shall be condemned to eternal torments prepared for the devil and his angels.

Question. And how do they harm their neighbors?

Answer. Some they embitter, persecute, and kill; others they corrupt by their depraved life and by their evil counsels. But blessed is the man who has not walked in the counsel of the ungodly (Ps. 1:1).

Question. When it is so soul-destroying to indulge evil passions, what then should I do?

Answer. “Turn away from evil and do good, that is, struggle against the enemies (evil spirits), that you may diminish the passions. Then be sober, that they may not increase. And again struggle, that you may acquire virtues. After this be sober, that you may preserve them. And this is what it means to do and to keep,” says Saint Maximus. [4]

Question. For what reason is it so?

Answer. Since you are a man, it is not fitting to live contrary to your rational nature in an irrational manner. And since you are a servant of Christ, it is unseemly to be a slave of dishonorable passions.

Question. Is it not possible partly to please God and partly one’s passions?

Answer. No! “Whoever commits sin is a slave of sin. No one can serve two masters. You cannot serve God and mammon. Those who are in the flesh (living corruptly) cannot please God” (John 8:34; Matt. 6:24; Rom. 8:8).

Question. Must everyone conquer sinful passions?

Answer. Everyone must:

1. because the Heavenly Creator created all of us for this alone—that we might live without passions: “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them” (Eph. 2:10).
2. because He did not leave us, having fallen, to be utterly corrupted, but gave us His Law as a guide to passionlessness: “The commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes” (Ps. 18:9).
3. because He stirs us to a virtuous life through the prophets, of whom one cries out: “Turn away from evil and do good” (Ps. 33:15).
4. because in the last days He was pleased to send to us His Only-begotten Son, that He might lead us out of darkness and the shadow of death, those enslaved by passions, into the consolation of passionlessness (cf. Luke 4:18).
5. because the Son of God, for our sins, was tormented by the lawless and endured a shameful death on the Cross, that He might free us sinners from the tyranny of the passions (cf. Titus 2:14).
6. because all of us at Holy Baptism renounced Satan and all his works, and were joined to Christ, who requires a virtuous life. And at monastic tonsure we again make vows to a life of passionlessness. And finally,
7. because the wide gate and the broad way lead us to destruction, but the narrow gate and the strait way to eternal life (Matt. 7:13–14).

Question. By what, then, is one to restrain the striving of evil passions?

Answer. By the fear of God, which is born:

1. From reflection on the omnipresence of God, and that God in the very act of passions has destroyed and does destroy many.
2. From the remembrance of the last things, that is, death, the Judgment of Christ, the Heavenly Kingdom, and the eternal torments in Hades. And according to Saint Maximus: “We abstain from the passions either for the sake of human fear, or for the sake of the fear of judgment, or for the sake of the future recompense, or for the sake of the love of God, or for the sake of the conscience that reproaches” (Saint Maximus the Centurion). [5]

Question. In the struggle against the passions, what is most necessary?

Answer. The presence of the grace of God, that it may instruct in this spiritual struggle. For man by his own power can do nothing good: “For it is God who works in you both to will and to do” (Phil. 2:13). And grace is acquired by humility and unceasing prayer. Along with grace, one’s own zeal and labors are also necessary.

Question. I ask you to tell me what and how I should do with the help of grace.

Answer. First: Having in your heart the fear of God, be sober and watchful always with your mind, that, instructed and strengthened by grace and armed with prayer, you may more easily strike the noetic enemies, the evil thoughts introduced by the spirit of wickedness, with the sword of the Word of God at their very beginning. For from noetic sobriety evil thoughts vanish like smoke, and the power of the passions is weakened.

Second: Flee idleness, but always occupy yourself with blessed labors and the reading of the Word of God, of the books of the Fathers, especially those which teach the struggle against the passions.

Third: You must have a spiritual guide, able by word and deed to instruct how to arm oneself against each passion and by what to overcome each one. And to him open with a sincere heart all your thoughts and desires of the heart frequently, that he may be able to instruct you and establish you in this spiritual struggle. For “where there is no guidance, the people fall like leaves, but in much counsel there is salvation” (Prov. 11:14). Under an experienced guide, being subject to passions, never follow your own will and understanding, lest you fall, cast down by self-will. According to his instruction, follow his will and understanding.

Fourth: Withdraw from the fearless and corrupt, lest you learn to indulge corrupt passions. Likewise withdraw from those things, occasions, and causes which stir up the passions in us.

Fifth: If you are overcome by some passion, do not delay to rise up and conquer it in return. For it is easier to uproot a young shoot than to tear out an old thorn. Just as a fresh and still warm wound is quickly healed, so wounds (passions) neglected in our soul over a long time suffer the opposite, even if one should begin to treat them (Venerable John of the Ladder). [6]

Sixth: Even if it should happen many times that through the force of the passions you stumble, do not weaken yourself by despair, but, rising again courageously against them, take up the struggle, calling upon the All-powerful God for help and beseeching the intercession of those saints who, being subject to the same passions as we, also struggled.

Question. Is it possible to be rid at once of evil passions?

Answer. No! “Do not struggle against all the passions at once, lest perhaps, turning back, you should be unable to proceed and be found unfit for the Kingdom of Heaven; but fight against each passion one by one” (Saint Peter of Damascus). [7]

Question. What is the reason for this?

Answer. It often happens that a man, at the beginning of his struggle, wishing to overcome the passions at once, but seeing them arise like waves one after another and plunge him into the depth of evils, becomes disturbed, falls into perplexity, is crushed, grows weak, and then even falls into despair. Therefore, not all at once, but first take up arms against that passion which most of all overcomes you. Does anger disturb your inner peace—overcome this passion. Does the carnal passion trouble you more—use all your powers and means to extinguish the flame of shameful lust. And when God helps you to become chaste, do not grow negligent, but also subject the other passions to reason with the help of God.

Question. From what is a passion recognized in me?

Answer. From thoughts: “For as the mind of one who hungers imagines bread, and of one who thirsts water, so also the glutton imagines various foods and drinks, the pleasure-lover imagines female faces, the vainglorious imagines honors from men, the lover of money imagines acquisitions, the resentful imagines revenge against the one who has grieved him, and the envious imagines the harming of those envied. For when the mind is troubled by passions, it receives passionate thoughts” (Saint Maximus the Centurion). [8]

Question. And are passions sometimes hidden even from ourselves?

Answer. “Many passions are hidden in our souls. If there are no things or causes that awaken the passions, they do not manifest their activity. But when there are things or causes present, then the passions also manifest their activity” (Saint Maximus the Centurion). [9]

Question. What are the causes of the passions?

Answer. Sweet foods, drinks of various kinds, beautiful-faced women, money, possessions, honor, glory, and the like.

Question. How can I know whether I love a passion or not?

Answer. “A sign that someone acts according to a passion willingly is that, when he is reproved or corrected concerning it, he becomes disturbed. But to endure reproof and correction concerning it without disturbance is a sign that he is overcome by the passion unwillingly or falls through ignorance,” says Saint Dorotheos. [10] “He who hates the passions removes their causes, but he who remains among the causes, even unwillingly, is attacked,” said the Venerable Mark the Ascetic. [11]

Question. For the restraint of evil passions, what else must be known?

Answer. It is necessary to know the initial passions, from which all vices and lawlessness, as evil branches from evil roots, spring forth.

Question. How many initial passions are there?

Answer. Eight, namely: gluttony, fornication, love of money, anger, sorrow, despondency, vainglory, and pride.

Question. Of these eight, which are the root ones?

Answer. Gluttony, love of money, and vainglory. For from these three the other five are born.

Question. And these three from what?

Answer. From self-love. “Guard yourself from the mother of evils, self-love, which is the irrational love of the body; for from it are born the first three passionate thoughts: gluttony, love of money, and vainglory. From these is born every assembly of evils” (Saint Maximus the Centurion). [12]

Question. Is it not necessary for me to know in detail about each of these passions?

Answer. It is very necessary. And first, let us begin the discourse concerning self-love.

(To be continued)

 

NOTES

* Quotations from the works of the holy Fathers are given by Archimandrite Photios in Church Slavonic, since most translations into Russian were made much later, in the second half of the 19th century. Here and below, editorial notes and explanations are given in square brackets.

1. Philokalia, vol. I. Instructions of Saint Macarius the Great on the Christian life, selected from his homilies, part 2, 17.

2. Exact Exposition of the Orthodox Faith. Book 2, chapter IV. On the devil and demons.

3. Philokalia, vol. III. Second century on love, 67.

4. Philokalia, vol. III. Second century on love, 11.

5. Philokalia, vol. III. Second century on love, 81.

6. The Ladder. Step 5, 30.

7. Philokalia, vol. V. Book two, discourse 5.

8. Philokalia, vol. III. Second century on love, 68.

9. Philokalia, vol. III. Fourth century on love, 52–54.

10. Soul-profiting instructions. Instruction 19.

11. Philokalia, vol. I. To those who think to be justified by works, 119.

12. Philokalia, vol. III. Second century on love, 59.

(To be continued.)