WATCHFULNESS, PRAYER AND HOLY CONFESSION
A homily by Elder Ephraim of Filotheou and Arizona,
translated from the Greek by Fr. Seraphim Bell, pastor of St. Silouan the
Athonite Orthodox Church in Walla Walla, WA.
My beloved children,
Today we will say a few things about the great virtue
of watchfulness.
As you know, watchfulness is a patristic teaching, it
is the experience of the great neptic fathers of the Church and of the desert.
The word nepsis comes from nepho, which means to be sleepless, to guard, to inspect,
examine, watch over, keep under surveillance. All these things the fathers sum
up in one continuous attention to the nous. Watchfulness is described as the
axe which shatters the large trees, hitting their roots. And when the root is
struck, it doesn’t spring up again. Thus also when the nous of the man, of the
Christian, has heed for the soul, it keeps watch over the heart and the five
senses of the soul, the bodily as well as the spiritual. When the nous is
awake, when it is attentive, when it keeps watch over the speculations, the
thoughts, when it controls the imagination, then the whole man, body and soul,
is kept pure. And when the man is rendered pure through watchfulness and
spiritual works, his prayers have boldness before God, they cross the sky, they
go beyond the stars, they pass through the heavens and draw near to the Divine
Throne of Grace, where the blessings of God are granted. And this being the
case, the man at prayer is enriched by the grace of God.
The neptic fathers tell us that one of our thoughts
may rise to heaven and another may descend to hell. By our thoughts we are
improved or defiled. In other words, a thought which may inattentively attack
us, may pollute us, may pleasure us, and is able to render us worthy of hell. A
heavenly thought, a thought of self-denial, a brave thought a thought of prayer
and the vision of God, makes us worthy to draw near the Divine throne and to
taste of heavenly things. By the thoughts either we will become unclean or we
will become better. The beginning of sins starts with the thoughts.
The thoughts come from the five senses, the spiritual
as well as the physical. When we allow the sense of sight to be un¬controlled
and it carelessly sees anything, this carelessness will become no end of dirty
and sinful images. Since these images are placed in the imagination, afterwards
they drip the poison
of sinful pleasure inside the heart of man. This
pleasure is the poison, by which the heart is polluted and then becomes unclean
and guilty before the unsleeping eye of God. Just like the sense of sight, so
it is also of touch, and also of taste and hearing and of smell. And so the
five senses create analogous sinful images, which render the man unclean before
the face of God. Here rests the entire philosophy of the spirit.
All sermons are beneficial, exactly because when a
tree which is diseased is pruned, it is cleansed, and thus the word of God
helps in the reduction of a passion. However, the teaching of the Fathers
concerning watchfulness radically effects the cleansing from the passions. When
the mattock, when the axe strikes the root, the entire tree falls down, it
withers and is finished. So also when watchfulness takes a place in the life of
the Christian, a tree of passion falls, it withers and thus in time, the old
man, the man of sin and of passion, the earthly Adam is freed and he becomes a
new man. For this reason, the neptic work frees us radically from evil. Here
then we must give heed to our life. If we want to cleanse ourselves, we should
make sure to enrich our nous by the application of watchfulness.
A part of watchfulness is also noetic prayer. The
vision of God is another part of watchfulness. Spiritual warfare is also
another part. All these parts, when they are united in an effort of man, in
time bring about holiness.
Abba Paphnoutios, a great desert father, was going
along one day on his way and there he saw two men committing some sin. The
thought of his passion said: “Look what great evil they are doing!” The eye saw
them and immediately the thought flared up, trying thereby to attack the purity
of the saint’s soul by judging the brother or also by his being tempted. Having
watchfulness, however, he was being vigilant, immediately his mind was
enlightened and he said to his thought, “They are sinning today, I will sin
tomorrow. They will repent, but I know myself to be a hard man, unrepentant,
egotistical, and thus, I won’t repent. I will be punished since I am worse than
these two. And what do I have to do about these careless sinners, since I am a
much greater sinner and more passionate?” And speaking in this manner and
putting a lock on the provocation of sin, he was saved and didn’t judge the
brothers who were sinning.
He didn’t go very far and an Angel of God appeared
before him having a double-edged cutless dripping blood; in other words, a
knife which had cut from both sides and he says to him:
“Paphnoutios, you see this knife? Do you see that it
is drip-ping blood?”
“I see it Angel of God.”
“With this knife I kill by taking the heads of the
ones who judge their neighbors. And since you didn’t judge, you didn’t condemn
those who were in fact sinning—not imagining or guessing that they were
sinners, but seeing them sin
with your own eyes—but you condemned yourself more,
for this reason your name has been written in the book of eternal life.”
Success. His name is written in eternal life, because
he didn’t judge the sinners, he didn’t condemn the sin of his brother. He would
have judged if he hadn’t had watchfulness, if he hadn’t been vigilant
noetically in guarding his soul. Do you see what good attention he produced?
And do you see what harm he would have suffered, if he had been inattentive to
the thought and allowed it to work within him! But his thought said that they
were in fact sinning, he saw them. In spite of these things, however, even
though the thought was spoken to him, the correct thought triumphed and thereby
he escaped the shipwreck of his soul.
All of the passions have their own images, their own
fan-tasies and their own pleasures. Murder has one image and another pleasure,
gluttony has another and so many other sinful passions have others. Ail of the
pleasures are otherwise poisons which bring about the death of the soul.
We must
take as our view that, if we want to clean the “inside of the cup,” the
interior of the soul, our heart, this center of man, we must strive to keep
watchful. We should take care to become better, that is, we should be vigilant
to always have our hand on the trigger. With the first appearance of the enemy,
we should shoot. As soon as an evil thought comes to us, immediately knock it
down. A dirty image comes, immediately spoil it. We shouldn’t allow it to
become more vivid in colors and in appearance, because thereby we will come to
immediate difficulty. When the evil is struck at the root, it is impossible to
sprout and to increase. When this struggle comes about with diligence, we will
cleanse our soul and thereby we will be found clean and with boldness before
God.
A pagan priest asked some monks:
“Does your God appear to you? Do you see Him? Does he
speak to you?”
The fathers said:
“No.”
The pagan says:
“If he doesn’t speak to you and doesn’t appear to you,
this means that you don’t have pure thoughts. When I pray, my God answers me.”
Naturally, God didn’t answer the pagan, the demons answered
him, but nevertheless the fathers took it as an occasion of benefit and said:
“Indeed, the impure thoughts prevent man from communicating
with God.”
Watchfulness does nothing less than cleanse the nous
and the heart from every impurity. For this reason, with a little ascetical
toil, watchfulness brings about the greatest spiritual results. When we strive
ascetically and aren’t mindful of our thoughts, we accomplish nothing.
The Sacred Chrysostomos wrote many chapters about
prayer and about wakefulness. And in the midst of them he says something very
beautiful:
Prayer, he says, is enlightenment of the soul, true
consciousness of God, a mediator between God and man, a physician of the
passions, an antidote against diseases, medicine against every illness,
tranquility of the soul, a guide which carries us to heaven, which doesn’t
revolve around the earth, which marches towards the apse of heaven. It passes
over the buildings, it passes mentally through the air, it walks above the air,
it passes over the whole of the stars, it opens the gates of heaven, it
surpasses the angels, it transcends the Thrones and Principalities, it passes
over the Cherubim and when it has passed through all of the foundation of
nature, it comes near to the unapproachable Trinity. There it worships the
Divinity. There it is made worthy to become an interlocutor in the Heavenly
Kingdom. Through this (theprayer), the
soul, which is lifted up in the air to the heavens, embraces the Lord in an
inexpressible manner, exactly as the baby embraces its mother and with tears
cries loudly, desiring the enjoyment of divine milk. But it seeks the things
which are necessary and receives a gift superior to all visible nature.
Prayer is our venerable representative. It gladdens
the heart. It gives rest to the soul. It creates within us thefear of the
punishment of hell, the desire for the Kingdom of Heaven. It teaches humility,
it grants awareness of sin and in general it adorns man with every good thing,
like a robe adorned with all the virtues which enfolds the soul. It brought a
gift to Anna, Samuel, and it made known that Prophet of the Lord. This prayer
also made Elias a zealot of the Lord. And it became a guide for the descent of
the heavenly fire for the sacrifice. For while the priest of Baal was calling
all day long to the idol, he, after he Lifted up his voice which came from his
pure heart and cried out through his mouth and his soul, the fire came down from
heaven as a sign of the righteousness of his prayer. Since he was standing like
an eagle over the altar with his fierce nature, he offered everything as a
sacrifice. But the great servant of God, the zealot Elias, did this, as all
that happened then, teaching us by the spirit, that we also crying loudly from
the depths of our soul to God, should move the ineffablefire of the Holy Spirit
to come down to the altar of our heart and to offer ourselves fully as a
sacrifice to God.
All of the great fathers of the Church, especially the
fathers of the desert, succeeded in becoming worthy of great gifts exclusively
and only with watchfulness and vision of God (,theoria). Keeping vigil all
night and coming to the vision of the Light of God.
We have St. Gregory Palamas, the instructor of the
desert, the instructor of neptic activity, the teacher of noetic prayer. This
saint would remain enclosed in his cell for the entire week. He didn’t go
outside at all. There on his knees and with hands upraised, he was vigilant
about his nous and his heart and he received heavenly theology (literally
“theology from above”—trans.) by the Holy Spirit. The theology which
made known the Uncreated Light of the Divine Glory, of
the Divine Nature.
The Uncreated Light is the glory of the Divine Nature.
There was the goal and the conclusion of asceticism and of prayer. When the
saints received this Light, they became all Light. And since the light floods
the nous and the heart, how could they know less than the mysteries of the
secrets which are known only to the angels? Through watchfulness the fathers
attained to the pinnacle of the virtues and of the graces.
And we, if we are watchful, if we pray, even if we are
in the world, and even if we don’t attain to similar states, no matter what, we
will attain to a condition of purity. When we succeed by watchfulness in not
judging our brother, this is no small achievement. We put into practice the
commandment of our Christ, which is as follows: Do not judge, that you be not
judged. For with what judgment you judge, you shall be judged, and with what
measure you mete, it shall be measured to you. (Mt 7:1-2).
It is the commandment of Christ. It is not the commandment
of some saint. It is God’s. And therefore we have put into practice a Divine commandment.
When we do not judge, we will not be judged. Judge, and we will be judged. Sin
is widespread. Wherever we turn our eyes and our imagination, we recognize the
errors of men. Therefore, if we are inattentive, without watchfulness, we will
always be found in the error of violation of this evangelical commandment of
not judging our neighbor.
There was a monk in some monastery. The tempter had
conquered him in negligence. He didn’t do his canon, he didn’t got to church,
he didn’t do his rule of prayer, and thus the fathers didn’t know him and
regarded him as negligent. The hour of death came and the fathers drew near him
to see something, which perhaps God would show, in order that they may be
benefited. Drawing near to the dying negligent monk, the fathers saw that he
was very joyful. They were perplexed and they said in their thoughts:
“Look, why is he peaceful? The negligence which he had
in his life doesn’t worry him? What happened to the debts which have been
gathered because of sloth? His conscience doesn’t rebel? It doesn’t make him
worry? He doesn’t despair?”
He continued to be joyful. They compelled him to
answer their question:
“Forgive us, brother, we see you doing so-so. We know
and you know that you lived in negligence and sloth in monastic duties. Now you
are heading to the judgment of Christ, and you should be somewhat sorry,
worried, etc. But we see you otherwise, joyful, peaceful, with hope and we
question; what supports this condition of yours?”
He answered them and said:
“You are right, my fathers, that’s how it is. I was
negligent and didn’t do what you did, but one thing I guarded in my life: not
to judge my brother. I read in the Holy Gospel,
where the Lord says that the one who does not judge,
will not be judged. Thus I tried, at least, not to judge. And I hope in the
mercy of God that I will not be judged. For this reason I am departing with
faith that God will apply his word.”
The fathers looked into it among themselves and said
that in fact the brother was very clever and masterfully gained his salvation.
If we are watchful, we will not criticize. For with
the offense of judging, immediately watchfulness will set up a barrier and the
thought of judgment will be prevented from continuing. Then will happen what
took place with Abba Paphnoutios. And so we will escape from the sin of judging
and of criticism of the tongue and our names will be written in eternal life. A
man who keeps his tongue pure, both inner and outer, that is to say, the inner
thought and the tongue, and does this in the knowledge of God, this is a
guarantee that he is saved.
This spiritual attention becomes light and as light,
illumines the path.
And an illumined path of watchfulness is also a path to
sacred confession. The attention illumines it, which urges the man to settle
his account with God. And he is guided by the light of watchfulness to this
great mystery and there he deposits the entire debt, all the uncleanness of sins.
He enters into this bath and he comes out entirely clean. And I say that we
must have much joy in our souls when we are accounted worthy to come into this
bath. We must celebrate and thank the Lord who allowed this bath on earth, who
allowed this authority of “binding and loosing.” Whatever things your spiritual
father looses, God also looses. Whatever the representative of God forgives,
the Lord also forgives.
And when the man has been judged here below, he is not
judged above in the great and fearsome judgment. It is a great occasion if the
man arrives as far as that. For this reason, all those who have been accounted
worthy of this bath and continuously cleanse every soiling of the soul with
this spiritual bath of the mystery of God, should have very great joy, because
the door of Paradise will always be open. And even if death follows, there is
no anxiety. He is prepared and not disturbed. When the man is prepared, he is
not disturbed at the approach of death. He knows that it is not possible for the
word of God, which gave this authority, to be wrong. We experience it as a
mystery of the Church and we see it in action and in application. When the man
makes sacred confession with ardent desire, with humility, and with awareness,
he feels the happiness within his soul, the lightness and the elation. A vivid
proof that his sins have been forgiven. And when sins are forgiven, then every
anxious and uncertain fear about the next life is removed.
Our thanks to God must be unceasing. Our thanksgiving
must never stop, because we are made worthy every time we want to receive this
cleansing, and every time we feel a sin, immediately turn the mind to God. “I
have sinned Lord, forgive me. ” With this “I have sinned Lord, forgive me, ”
God
answers: My child, you are forgiven; the power of the
law is remitted.
Proceed to the application of the law. And the application is
beneath the petraheli (stole). There, all the sinfulness of man is ended.
Forgiveness is so easy! It is very wrong for man, when this forgiveness is so
easy and so free, because of his egoism not to want to receive it, not to want
to open the doors of paradise and walk eternally in the glory of God!
Many men say: “Man should call upon God because of one
sin? But this thing is wrong. Where is the love of God? Isn’t God a father?”
Yes, he is a father, but when every good moment comes for him to forgive you,
why do you turn your back? Why do you not receive His mercy? Why do you refuse
His embrace and go far away? Why do you accept the embrace of the devil and not
of God? Perhaps your god seeks money or possessions or favors and you don’t
have all these things and for this reason you don’t come to let go of your
debt? No.
God is very rich, as we see also in the parable of the
prodigal son. He wanted to depart far away. He demanded that part of the
possessions which belonged to him. And God gave him what he was owed as
physical gifts. He didn’t deprive him of them. However, he squandered these
gifts, the spiritual possessions, living prodigally. And when he arrived at the
wretched end, he came to his senses, he came to himself. For he was not himself when all the
prodigality reigned. And when he came to
himself he said: How many serve my father and they enjoy the good things of His
possessions, and I His child, par excellence His child, am in such misery that
I graze pigs and am allotted husks! I will return; He is a Father, He will
receive me. I will ask forgiveness and will say to him, do not receive me as
Your child, neither restore me to the first adoption, but I will ask him to
become one of His servants. And this will be a great thing. When he thought
these things, already the Father came out from His house and waited for him
with open arms. He accepted him with all his heart and all his soul. He embraced
him, he kissed him, he wept from joy, because he was dead and he was restored
to life, he was lost and was found. He made him His child again with all of the
wealth. He forgave everything. He cleansed him of every filth. He clothed him in the original garments.
In the end, he gave him everything.
The Heavenly Father also does this when one who is a
sinner returns to Him. He cleanses him, washes him, he gives the original
garments of baptism, he gives him son ship and makes him worthy of His Kingdom.
Everything free. When the prodigal
returned, he didn’t seek an account, neither did he rebuke him nor did he seek
to blame him. He begins where he returned; this was sufficient for the Father.
Only to say “sinner,” to leave his sins with humility, to understand his
mistakes and from then on everything is loosed. But the sinful man doesn’t do
this. He doesn’t return, he isn’t humbled. He holds on to his egoism. The important
thing is to get to the confessional!
It’s just two steps. And from then on everything is finished. Yet the tears of
egoism hold him. And when he comes to the hour of death and the reality of it,
then he will repent and he will be remorseful, but he will be too late. In
this, God respects the one who doesn’t want to humble his spirit a little.
As for Lucifer, this great battalion commander, who
was in the first place of the angelic hosts, what was the cause of the fall?
What was the cause of the collapse, of the transformation from angels to
demons? Pride and egoism. The error came from these two passions. And as with
the angels, so also with our forebears. The fall of our forebears came about
from pride and egoism. Because, before God accomplished the verdict of guilt,
he approached the man Adam and said to him: Adam, why did you do this! Adam
didn’t seek forgiveness, he didn’t say: God forbid, I was wrong. If he had done
this, he wouldn’t have been turned out from Paradise and neither would we have
all this banishment and suffering today. By not saying God forbid all this mob
of evil came about. And thus now man doesn’t say God forbid and remains in his
evil. But just say it, O God stretch out the arms of forgiveness, and He takes
him in.
And again I say that because we have been made worthy
to know as Orthodox Christians this mystery of sacred confes-sion, we should
have very great joy, because even if any time we fall down in some sin, into
something evil, we can run immediately to correct it and to preserve the health
of our souls. And when death comes, we will go to meet the Lord, cleansed,
repentant, as prodigal sons returned, for our Heavenly Father accepts us and
places us in the Paradise of eternal bliss which has no end, which has no
conclusion to that bliss, which cannot be compared to anything earthly.
Even the holy Apostle Paul, who went up to the third
heaven and saw the eternal good things, nevertheless was unable with his
apostolic and graceful tongue to express with human words, the things of Paradise
and the life above! So inexpressible is the happiness of the attainment through
sacred confession.
Therefore with much yearning, with much love, with
much awareness we should run to be cleansed, to be made ready and when death
follows, to depart in peace. Amen.
Orthodox - Heritage, vol 16, issus 01-02
Orthodox - Heritage, vol 16, issus 01-02
