On the Christian Spiritual Struggle

St. Vasily of Kanev, Confessor (+1933)

Homily on Friday of the Second Week of Great Lent, February 20, 1904

 

 

Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation: the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.

Matt. 26:41; Mark 14:38

 

This is why constant spiritual watchfulness, spiritual sobriety, and continual attentive concern for oneself, for one’s inner life, are necessary: our spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak. As is evident from the Gospels, the spirit of Christ’s disciples was willing; they were always ready for the greatest sorrows, privations, sufferings, even for death itself for the sake of their Beloved Teacher. Nothing, according to their words, could ever separate them from the Lord.

When once Christ the Savior asked two of His closest apostles whether they could drink the cup which He had to accept—the cup of sufferings, of the most shameful Cross, the cup of the greatest torments and reproaches—they boldly and fearlessly answered: “We are able” (Matt. 20:22). There was not the slightest shadow of doubt in their words, not the slightest wavering in this holy resolve to follow the Lord everywhere and to endure all things for His sake.

On another occasion, when Christ the Savior spoke prophetically: All ye shall be offended because of Me this night: for it is written, I will smite the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock shall be scattered abroad, the Apostle Peter answers: Though all men shall be offended because of Thee, yet will I never be offended (Matt. 26:31, 33). What “willingness” of spirit, what holy zeal, what unconditional devotion to Him for Whose sake everything had been left behind—both house, and brothers, and sisters! (Matt. 19:27). The same holy Apostle Peter expresses his boundless love for the Lord still more strongly and decisively: Though I should die with Thee, yet will I not deny Thee (Matt. 26:35). The same thing is repeated also by the other disciples of the Lord (Matt. 26:35).

But what do we see afterward?… The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak (Matt. 26:41; Mark 14:38). The most zealous confessor of faith in Christ, the Apostle Peter, denies his Beloved Teacher “for fear of the Jews,” and earnestly swears that he does not know this Man (Matt. 26:69 ff.); when the Lord is taken into custody, all the disciples leave Him in fear and flee (Matt. 26:56 and parallel passages).

And in the Garden of Gethsemane, on that great night, in those hours of prayer concerning the cup, the chosen and closest Apostles of Christ cannot “watch” with their Lord even one hour, and give themselves over to sleep at the very time when the soul of their Teacher is sorrowful even unto death, when, in His heavy ascetic struggle of prayer, bloody sweat appears upon His face, when He grieves and is deeply distressed, and an angel of the Lord strengthens Him (Matt. 26:37; Luke 22:42–44).

Such, in general, is the property of our nature: our spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak. Our spirit is a divine principle; it is a flame from the divine flame; it is from heaven, and therefore, naturally, turns toward heaven as to its true fatherland, where it can find complete repose for itself. It thirsts for righteousness, strives toward truth, inclines toward eternal and unchanging beauty; it seeks the things above, and delights only in the law of God (Rom. 7:22).

But, O wretched man that I am: who shall deliver me from the body of this death? (Rom. 7:24)… The flesh, or carnality, fastens us to what is earthly, external, and sensual; it weakens or even entirely suppresses the Godlike impulses of our spirit. With my mind, says the holy Apostle, I serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin (Rom. 7:25). For the flesh lusteth against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh (Gal. 5:17).

Let us look attentively into our inner, spiritual life, and we shall clearly see this constant, tormenting discord within us between the eternal and the temporal, the heavenly and the earthly, the spiritual and the carnal.

We are often inspired by the most exalted, noble, and pure desires and aspirations. To live according to God, to do everything from the soul, to accomplish everything according to conscience, according to a sense of duty—this is what stands before us as something absolutely necessary on our part, something without which our very life is unthinkable and will lose its true meaning. Truth, honesty, complete disinterestedness, unceasing labor for the good of others—this is what inspires us.

We are ready to come forward as self-sacrificing fighters for every trampled justice, to stand firmly in defense of the offended and oppressed person. The highest ideals of goodness shine before us as a bright guiding star… What, we think, is our self-loving person, our petty worldly interests, our empty ambition?… All this must be offered as a sacrifice to our neighbor; one must think less of oneself and more of others; for in love is the fullness of life, in love man is perfected. Forgive, endure, love, struggle, suffer—be ready to embrace all in your arms: this is true life.

And deeds—we think—how many deeds there are in every field, deeds of the most fruitful and life-giving kind, where it is necessary to apply one’s strength self-sacrificially; for the harvest in every field is plentiful, but the laborers are few. And how, we wonder, do people live without being conscious of all this—without being conscious of that which gives life its true value? No, we sincerely repeat: “Though all should deny Him, we will not deny Him.”

But all these noble thoughts and desires of ours grow pale and, with the passage of time, evaporate like smoke. We hear the reproachful words of the Lord: Simon, sleepest thou? couldest thou not watch one hour? (Mark 14:37). Where is our former spiritual watchfulness, where is the lofty exaltation and exertion of our spiritual powers? Where are the former youthful, holy ideals that inspired us?… Where?… “Simon! Sleepest thou?”…

Having entered into life, for the Lord’s sake, for the fulfillment of His holy will, we often cannot watch with Him even one hour. Where are our former holy aspirations and impulses?… Mammon has stifled them, as thorns choke the growing grain of the earth (Matt. 13:7). And we become slaves of petty worldly care and vanity, which make us base and cowardly; slaves of our self-love—this most powerful master, with its whole crowd of various servants in the form of diverse sensual impulses and passions.

Yes, our spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak. Let us look attentively into our spiritual life. What do we see? Like the publican of the Gospel, we cry out: “God, be merciful to me a sinner,” and with the Pharisee of the Gospel we think: I am not as other men are (Luke 18:11). With the thief we cry: “Remember me, O Lord,” and with the unbelieving Gadarenes we do not wish to receive the Lord Who comes to us.

From the depth of our soul we cry: “Open unto me the doors of repentance, O Giver of Life,” and again we remain in our former impenitence, again we return to our habitual sins. We weep and fall down, and pray together with Mary Magdalene, but we do not do the deeds of this holy woman… O wretched man that I am: who shall deliver me from the body of this death? (Rom. 7:24).

From this the necessity of constant spiritual watchfulness, of spiritual sobriety, is clearly revealed; the latter is accomplished only with the help of the all-powerful grace of God, which heals our infirmities, and not by our own weak powers. Be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might (Eph. 6:10)—in hope in the Lord, in trust in His almighty power (Eph. 3:20).

Christianity requires from all of us a moral struggle, an unceasing spiritual warfare. It does not call everyone into deserts and monasteries, but it commands everyone to subject his flesh to the spirit. There are different forms of Christian asceticism, but in essence the life of a Christian is ascetic discipline: a constant active striving to give triumph to the spiritual principle over the carnal, to make the body a worthy instrument of the spirit, and, through the development of the spirit, already here, insofar as this is possible, to transform the natural body into a spiritual body (1 Cor. 15:44 ff.).

“The foundations of life in the deserts… are identical with the general Christian foundations of life: there the evangelical universal human ideal was given and developed, or more precisely, clarified… The Church considers the ascetic element in Christianity to be a common component of the life of the Christian, and recognizes ascetic labor as obligatory not only for the hermit or the monk, but also for everyone who wishes to live in Christ and according to Christ, both in the world, and in the family, and in society.”

How mistaken, therefore, are those who at the present time so zealously defend the “flesh,” the natural human element taken in itself, resolutely affirming that this human element contains in itself no unconditional impurity, and that it must be received by Christianity and united with it, for the path to the supernatural, to the Christian, lies for us only from this natural, human element taken in itself.

He who knows the Scripture and who looks attentively into his inner spiritual life knows well that this human, natural element in us is darkened, infected, sinful; in it there is no unity and harmony, but a constant discord is observed between the spirit and the flesh. Here are the works of the flesh: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, quarrels, envy, anger, strife, dissensions, temptations, heresies, hatred, murders, drunkenness, disorderly conduct, and the like (Gal. 5:19–21). And here are the works of the spirit: love, joy, peace, longsuffering, goodness, mercy, faith, meekness, temperance (Gal. 5:22–23).

Therefore, Christianity cannot receive the human element in its immediate naturalness, but must transform it, spiritualize it. That which is born of the flesh is flesh (John 3:6); it always bears upon itself the stamp of sensuality, carnality, sinfulness. Christ the Savior assumed our flesh, apart from sin, and therefore the God-manhood of Christ the Savior by no means speaks of the existence in us of “holy flesh.”

And what, one may ask, is the point of this praise of the natural human element taken in itself, this proud self-complacency over the purity of human nature, when Christianity also does not deny in us the beginnings of good, though darkened, and does not suppress the better aspects of the human, but only cleanses the latter from every kind of tare that has grown upon it? Is it good for a sick man, who can become healthy with proper medical help, to keep insisting that he is perfectly healthy and requires no physician? Is it good for a man who does not know, but who can possess knowledge, to keep saying that he knows much and has no need of the help of education? Does this not mean leading us into obvious deception, weakening in us the spiritual energy we need? And this is precisely how these defenders of “holy flesh” act.

Many console themselves with the thought that the time for struggle, for spiritual sobriety, for attentive self-observation, is still ahead, and that for now it is better simply to live—to take from life everything it gives, to experience every kind of amusement and sensual pleasure.

Oh, this is a dangerous path in life!… One must fight the enemy when he is still only approaching us, when he is plotting against us and devising his cunning snares against us. But when the enemy has surrounded us on every side and taken away from us all our best possession, then the struggle against him is difficult, and often completely impossible.

How many precious lives perish precisely because the first temptations, the first assaults of the enemy, were not repelled; and, gradually submitting more and more to his destructive influence, they were finally captured alive in the nets of the devil. Do we not see a handsome, healthy young man, raised in a truly Christian family, who, failing to repel the first unhealthy pleasures of his youth, perished prematurely in the storm of passions burning him up? Do we not see a girl pure as an angel of heaven, who did not understand the first impulses of her loving heart and likewise perished prematurely?…

And this unfortunate man, exhausted, broken, barely dragging his feet, having almost lost human appearance!… Who is he? He has been ruined by those same passions which, like a serpent, crept up to him and gradually sucked out of him all that was best… We regret the life we have lived, we scourge and curse ourselves, but it is already too late: the enemy has taken possession of us.

Spiritual struggle, spiritual watchfulness, and sobriety are always necessary. In this spiritual warfare the Christian is not left to his own infirm powers, but divine weapons are given to him, capable of destroying every stronghold of the enemy (2 Cor. 10:4).

“Take,” the holy Apostle teaches us, “the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having overcome all, to stand. Stand therefore, having your loins girded about with truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and having shod your feet with the readiness to preach the gospel of peace; and above all, take the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one; and take the helmet of salvation, and the spiritual sword, which is the word of God” (Eph. 6:13–17).

The most important Christian weapon in spiritual warfare is faith, which serves for the Christian warrior as a great shield, protecting him from the strongest assaults of the enemy. From faith comes truth, girding the loins of the Christian’s thought, directing his thoughts upward and not allowing them to be scattered in worldly vanity; from faith comes righteousness, or a virtuous life, protecting the Christian warrior like a breastplate from the evil that clings to him. Faith also gives birth to self-sacrificing readiness for the struggle with the enemy, in the name of the Gospel of God, which has brought us peace. Faith provides the spiritual helmet, which is salvation or redemption, granted to us in Christ; from faith and according to faith comes the speech of God, or the evangelical word, sharper than any two-edged sword.

We hear the reproachful words of the Lord: Simon, sleepest thou? (Mark 14:37). Could ye not watch with Me one hour? (Matt. 26:40). But we also hear other words: Lord, teach us to pray (Luke 11:1); Increase our faith! (Luke 17:5). Under the action of living faith and pure, strong prayer, “we shall overcome all things by the power of Him Who loved us”; then nothing “shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Rom. 8:38–39). Then no struggle will be fearful to us; the Lord will send us the boldness of Peter and John (Acts 4:13).

Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation: the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak (Matt. 26:41). Stand, says the holy Apostle, praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit (Eph. 6:18). If ever, then especially now, spiritual watchfulness and sobriety are needful for us, because the struggle with the external enemy can be successful only when the inner struggle is being waged victoriously by us—the inner purification of ourselves.

Thanks be to God, our spirit is willing! We have risen up, as one man, against the pagan enemy who tramples upon every Christian relation. What unity, indeed, has been manifested among us!… What a lofty elevation of spirit!… What fervent prayers!… What boundless readiness to offer everything in sacrifice to the Tsar and the fatherland!… It is impossible to hear without true heartfelt compunction how many deprive themselves at times even of the most necessary things, only so as to bring their own modest contribution to the great Russian cause, to the defense of the glory and honor of Holy Rus’.

In the name of the Gospel of peace, let us boldly, in hope of God’s help, wage the struggle against the enemy who has violated our blessed peace. We have many ill-wishers who look with envy upon our strength and might, our external and internal growth, but the Lord will deliver us from them all. Great are the prayers of our Russian hierarchs, and great is the spirit of our people in the hour of grievous trials.

Thanks be to God, our spirit is willing! May the infirmity of our flesh, then, not weaken it! “Watch and pray!” Amen.

 

Russian source: Труды Киевской духовной академии, 1904, No. 1, pp. 359–368.