Spiritual Healing from the Divine Scriptures and the Holy Fathers: Part 2

By Archimandrite Photios (Spassky) (+1838)

Abbot of St. George (Yuriev) Monastery, Novgorod

 

 

Discourse 2. On self-love

 

Question. What is self-love?

Answer. If you love yourself more than God, and do not love your neighbor as much as yourself, but instead of pleasing God slavishly please your passions, observing only your own benefit and advantages, then this is precisely sinful self-love.

Question. But how is one not to love oneself?

Answer. It is natural for every man to love himself, but a true Christian must love himself without corruption.

Question. How am I to love myself without corruption?

Answer. Love yourself without violating love toward God and neighbor, so that you render to each what is due—to God, to your neighbor, and to yourself.

Question. What should be rendered to God?

Answer. Believing in Him, love Him with all your heart and perform good deeds according to His holy commandments.

Question. And to the neighbor?

Answer. To every man wish and do good in whatever way possible, not only to those who love in return, but also to your enemies, according to Christ’s commandment: “Love your enemies… do good to those who hate you” (Matt. 5:44). And wish and do nothing evil to anyone: “Love does no harm to the neighbor” (Rom. 13:10). Concerning the fruits of love, read in the first epistle to the Corinthians, chapter thirty.

Question. What should be rendered to oneself?

Answer. “If you wish to be righteous, render to each of the parts within you what is fitting—both to the soul and to the body. To the rational part of the soul, readings, spiritual contemplation, and prayer. To the irascible part, spiritual love opposed to hatred. To the appetitive part, chastity and self-control. And to the bodily part, food and clothing, only what is necessary” (St. Maximus the Hundred Chapters). [13]

Question. Describe to me one who is conquered by self-love.

Answer. Worthy of pity is that unfortunate man who is conquered by self-love. He is a Christian idolater, slavishly serving his passions. He is an enemy of the Cross of Christ and a transgressor of the Gospel. For, having forgotten God and not having in mind His holy Law, he does not care for his salvation, but does everything that is pleasing to his senses and to his corrupted will. He is a lover of pleasure more than a lover of God. Luxury, gluttony, and drunkenness are his consolation. He is money-loving, fond of possessions, miserly, without mercy, prone to anger, resentful, envious, and so attached to temporal goods that, not obtaining them or being deprived of them, he is plunged into unbearable sorrow. In spiritual labors he is negligent, or even if he performs virtue, he does so not from good intention, but in order to be glorified by men. For his heart is filled with vainglory and pride. May the Lord deliver every man from this evil!

Question. From what does such shameful self-love arise?

Answer.

1. From bad upbringing.
2. From one’s own negligence.
3. From association with self-lovers.
4. From the instigation of the devil.

Question. By what is it further strengthened?

Answer. In the unbelievers—by unbelief, and in us, the faithful—by negligence. For the negligent man, little by little yielding to his inclinations, finally comes to extreme self-love.

Question. What harm comes from self-love?

Answer. Self-love, having separated the mind and heart from God, casts man into all evil passions, vices, and lawlessness, for the committing of which God justly and righteously brings temporal punishments, and if a man does not correct himself—he will not escape the eternal torments in Hades, as we see from the parable of the rich man and Lazarus.

Question. What in general does self-love produce?

Answer. The root of every lawlessness is self-love. It “corrupts judgment, darkens speech, obscures the mind, corrupts the will, and shuts the gates of salvation” (Philippus the Desert Dweller). [14]

Question. What does self-love produce in the rich man?

Answer. Misuse of wealth. Either he irrationally squanders it on luxury, or he is miserly and without mercy toward his neighbors.

Question. And in the poor man?

Answer. It gives rise to envy, murmuring, deceit, theft, murder, and other evils.

Question. Is it possible, with self-love, to follow Christ and to save one’s soul?

Answer. No! Behold the words of our Savior: “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me” (Matt. 16:24). And, “He who loves his soul shall lose it; and he who hates his soul in this world shall keep it unto eternal life” (John 12:25). For self-love prevents one from pleasing God: “You cannot serve God and mammon” (Matt. 6:24). Do not be self-loving, and you will be God-loving; do not be self-pleasing, and you will be brother-loving.

Question. But how am I to overcome self-love?

Answer.

1. Have a good disposition toward self-denial.
2. Acknowledging your weakness before God, unceasingly and earnestly ask Him for help.
3. Have no friendship with self-lovers; toward every sinful passion have hatred and aversion.
4. Being passionate, do not follow your own will and reason, but the will of God and the will of your spiritual guide.
5. Be sober in mind continually, and, keeping watch over the inclinations of your heart, do not permit yourself any indulgence to do—even the least thing—according to self-love against conscience. For from the neglect of small sins a man comes into great evils (holy venerable Abba Dorotheos). [15]

Question. And when there is no inclination toward self-denial, what am I to do?

Answer. Stir up your unwilling and passionate heart to it by force through the fear of God, reflecting on the justice of God that punishes lawlessness, and remembering your inevitable death, the dread Judgment of Christ, eternal torments, and the Kingdom of Heaven.

Question. What follows upon the victory over self-love?

Answer. All evil passions are weakened. Then a man, by the power of the grace of God, being freed from the yoke of the passions, attains a measure of perfection, is in union with God and with his neighbors, is enriched with gifts from above, enjoys the peace of the Angelic realm, and attains the Heavenly Zion.

Question. Having learned how destructive self-love is, and how beneficial self-denial is for the soul, I shall now begin to overcome self-love by the rejection of sinful passions and the subjection of my will to the will of God. But at the same time, I wish to know what I should do with regard to my belly?

Answer. Concerning gluttony there will be the next discourse.

 (To be continued.)

 

NOTES

13. Philokalia, vol. III. Third Century on Love, 44.

14.. Dioptra, or Soul-Seeing Mirror, part 3, chapter 9.

15 Soul-profiting Instructions. Instruction 3. On conscience.