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XXXIX

HELPFUL ADVICE BASED ON LOVE

 

Hardships for the sake of the good are loved as the good itself. Nobody can acquire real renunciation save him that is determined in his mind to bear troubles with pleasure. Nobody can bear trouble save him that believes that there is something more excellent than bodily consolation which he shall acquire in reward for trouble. Every one that has devoted himself to renunciation, will first perceive the love of trouble stir within himself; thereupon the thought of renunciating all worldly things will take shape in him. Every one who comes near unto trouble will at first be confirmed in faith; then he will come near unto trouble. He that renunciates [worldly] things without renunciating the senses, sight and hearing, he prepares twofold trouble for himself and he will find tribulation| in a twofold measure. Or rather: while he refrains from the use of things, he delights in them through the senses; and by the affections which they cause he experiences the same from {297} them that he had to endure in reality before; because the recollection of their customs is not effaced from the mind. If then imaginary representations existing in the mind alone can torture man, apart from the things corresponding to them in reality, what shall we say when the real things are close at hand?

Beautiful therefore is solitary life and very helpful, because it silences the deliberations with force and gives us strength to train ourselves in endurance; and teaches a man patience by the exercise given by cruel troubles, which accompany the life of the solitary necessarily.

Do not seek the advice of him that is not thy fellow in behaviour, though he be very prudent. A layman who has experienced things is more to be trusted than a sage who speaks on the basis of theoretical knowledge but without experience.

What is experience? Experience is not this that a man goes and touches things, without acquiring knowledge concerning their advantages and their defects and without remaining with them during a certain time. How often the faces of things give the impression of defect, whereas within them is found matter full of advantages. In the same way are to be judged things of the opposite aspect.

Many are those who from profitable things gather defects. Neither is the testimony of these concerning their knowledge to be trusted. This is only the case with him that has learned to examine things with patient distinction. Not all man’s advice, therefore, is to be trusted; but [only] that of him who has behaved well before, who has knowledge founded upon experience in all things, who does not love himself, or who does not shun disdain.

{298} As often as thou findest thy course in peace, without variations, then be suspicious. For thou art deviating from the divine ways trodden by the weary footsteps of the saints. The more thou proceedest on the way towards the city of the kingdom and approachest its neighbourhood, this will be the sign: that thou meetest hard temptations. And the more thou approachest, the more thou wilt find difficulties.|

So, as often as thy soul on its way perceives varying states which cause difficulty thou must know that thy soul has secretly been advanced to a higher state and that it has acquired a gift of increase in comparison with the degree it occupied before.

The hard temptations into which God brings the soul are in accordance with the greatness of His gifts. If there is a weak soul which is not able to bear a very hard temptation and God deals meakly with it, then know with certainty that, as it is not capable of bearing a hard temptation, so it is not worthy of a large gift. As great temptations have been withdrawn from it, so large gifts are also withdrawn from it. God never gives a large gift and small temptations. So temptations are to be classed in accordance with gifts. Thus from the hardships to which thou hast been subjected thou mayest understand the measure of the greatness which thy soul has reached. In accordance with affection is consolation.

What then? Temptation, then gifts; or gifts and afterwards temptation? Temptation does not come if the soul has not received secretly greatness above its previous rank, as well as {299} the spirit of adoption as sons1. We have a proof of it in the temptation of our Lord and of the Apostles; for they were not allowed to be tempted before they had received the Comforter. Those who partake of good have also to bear temptations. Along with good are the oppressions [in behalf of it]. So it has pleased God, who is wise in all things.

Thus is the state of things; and accordingly, the apperception of temptations is anterior to the apperception of gifts, in order to test freedom. Grace never reaches a man before he has tasted temptations. In reality it is anterior; to the apperception it is posterior.

It is true therefore, that there are with thee at those times two opposite feelings, not resembling one another. What are they? Joy and fear. Joy, because thou findest thyself as appears from the sign of the temptations going the way that has been trodden by the saints, nay even by the saviour of the world. Fear, lest thou be tempted by these temptations through haughtiness. But the humble are gifted with prudence by grace, so as to be able to recognize the distinctions of these things, namely [to distinguish] between the temptations that arise from| haughtiness, and cheeks that burn from love. For the temptations that serve to improve behaviour are to be distinguished from those temptations which are permitted [by God] with the purpose of overcoming the presumption of the heart.

The temptations which take place under paternal control and serve to educate the soul, to train and to try it, so that it becomes illustrious, are: dejection, bodily weariness, relaxation {300} of the limbs, despondency, confusion of mind, bodily pains, temporary despair, darkness of deliberations, deprivation of human help2, want of bodily provisions and so on. For by these man acquires a solitary soul and humbleness and a mortified heart; and these things try him by the love of the creator; and the governor administers them to those to whom they are sent, in accordance with the force necessary to bear them. In them are mingled consolations and distress, light and darkness, struggles and help. In short: they make narrow and they enlarge, which is the sign of the increase of help. The temptations which happen by permission unto those who venture to puff themselves up in their mind before the bounty of the author of our boons so as to become injuriously haughty regarding His boons – are the following: the manifest temptations of demons which lie without the domain of the psychic forces, so that [those who are tempted] are destitute of the force which imparts to them prudence; a vivid sensation of the impulses of fornication which are let loose in order to suppress their presumption; a being led easily to anger; the setting up of the will; love of victory in dispute; rashness; a heart inclined towards contempt; complete aberration of the mind; abuse of Him whose honour be blessed; foolish thoughts full of jest, or rather weeping; contempt as to men; [endangering] personal honour by impudence; ridiculousness through many contrivances of the demons, secretly and manifestly; love of mingling and intercourse with the world; frequent evasions {301} of foolish words; novel individual inventions and false prophecies; frequent promises above one’s power; in the bodily sphere a continually hard involved fate most difficult of solution; perpetual meetings with evil and ungodly persons; falling into the hands of evil persons; perpetual emotions of the heart, caused by sudden fear without reason; repeated heavy falls| from rocks and high places and the like, such as destroys the body; the inability of the heart to lean on God’s care and to confide as is becoming to faith; in short: all unbearable forces which it is above one’s power to withstand, such as are let loose against the solitary and his surroundings.

All that I have expounded belongs to the temptations of haughtiness; the beginning of them shows itself in a man as soon as he becomes wise in his own eyes. He gets into all these evils according as he gives way to this deliberation3. So by distinguishing between thy temptations thou wilt gain insight into the narrow paths of thy mind. If thou lookest on and observest some [of these temptations] on thy mind’s paths, thou must know that the quantity of temptation is in accordance with the defiling working of presumption.

Hear also another consideration. All hardships and troubles which are not borne with patience, cause twofold torture. A man’s patience throws off his distress. Want of courage is the source of tortures. Patience is the source of consolations, a {302} certain strength born from courage of the heart. It is difficult for a man to find in his own soul in troubles, if it be not given him by God, that which is found through supplication and the pouring out of tears.

If God decrees that a man shall be troubled in a larger measure, He gives him into the hand of faintheartedness. And this will give birth to great despondency which gives the feeling of psychic suffocation; all these things taste after Hell. Thereupon the spirit of confusion is let loose against [the solitary], and from it rise innumerable temptations: perturbance, anger, abuse, vituperation, oscillating deliberations, moving from place to place, and the like. If thou sayest: Who is the cause of all these? I say: thou; because thou didst not care to find out the means to heal them. There is one remedy for all these and by it a man will at once find consolation within himself. What is this then? Humility of heart. Without it, it is not possible for a man to demolish the fence of these evil things, for he would find them far too strong. Be not angry with me for telling thee the truth: thou never hast sought this within thy soul. If thou wilt, follow it, then thou shalt see how it causes the destruction of thy evils.|

In accordance with thy humility will be given thee endurance in thy distress; and in accordance with thy endurance its weight will be lightened from thy soul which will be {303} consoled in its troubles; and in accordance with the consolation of thy soul, thy love in God will increase; and in accordance with thy love thy spiritual joy will increase. When our compassionate Father is of the will to relieve those who are real sons in their temptations, He does not take them away from them, but He imparts to them endurance under temptations, and all that good which they receive through it, to the perfection of their souls. May Christ in His grace make us worthy of bearing evils for the sake of His love, with thanksgivings of the heart. Amen.

1 Cf. Rom. 8, 15

2 This enumeration has been taken over by Bar Hebraeus, Book of the Dove, p. 528

3 viz. the deliberation of haughtiness