Solitude.
In today’s world the people do not know the meaning of this word. That is for
certain. We have fast food, fast cars, television, YouTube and various other
social media platforms that keep us up twenty hours, seven days a week. This causes
us to lose the ability to have solitude in body and soul. We have entered the
last trials. The five final rungs, and have passed the rung of discernment and
entered the rung of solitude. This does not require just physical solitude, but
also a spiritual. We must quiet the passions in order to live a virtuous life.
St. John of the Ladder writes, “The beginning of solitude is to throw off
all noise as disturbing for the depth (of the soul). And the end of it is not
to fear disturbances and to remain insusceptible to them. Though going out, yet
without a word, he is kind and wholly a house of love. He is not easily moved
to speech, nor is he moved to anger. The opposite of this is obvious.”
As
we approach Holy Week, we are recalled to the final week of Jesus’ earthly
ministry and his glorious resurrection on Pascha. Now is the time to recall our
commitment to God and to focus on solitude. The Church offers services every
day of the week during Holy Week so that we can participate in the solitude of
the Church. In doing so, even if just for a moment we are able to throw off the
yoke of this world and to remain completely silent as we are transported to Jerusalem
and the moments that are the greatest of importance within our faith. Christ provides
us with the clearest example of solitude within the soul during this time.
Being completely human and completely divine, Christ taught us how to not fear
the disturbances of our souls and the world around us as we progress our
journey towards salvation. The clearest example I can think of during this time,
is that of the Garden. In the Garden, Christ was distressed by the coming
trials and his crucifixion and sweated blood. But his constant prayer was that
whatever the will of God is he would do it. He would fulfill his purpose and
the purpose of God. So too when we obtain solitude of our souls we are able to
discern the will of God and proceed despite the consequences that will befall us.
We live our lives according to the will of God, not man. When we become
distracted by the thoughts of this world, we leave the divine grace of God and
he will not dwell within us. It is at this point one should repent and strive
to continue living in solitude. When he does St John says, “The celestial
powers unite in worship with him whose soul is quiet, and dwell lovingly with
him. And the opposite to this is obvious.” That means the angels and the saints and the
Holy Spirit of God will worship within us the Triune God. We become the vessels
of divine grace and are able to pour out this grace in the world by shining our
light for Christ. Not all of us will be granted visions like the saints, but we
can rest assured that by allowing solitude within our souls that the angels and
all other celestial powers of heaven are surrounding us.
St.
John also says, “He who has attained to solitude has penetrated to the very
depth of the mysteries, but he would never have descended into the deep unless
he had first seen and heard the noise of the waves and the evil spirits, and
perhaps even been splashed by these waves. The great Apostle Paul confirms what
we have said. If he had not been caught up into Paradise, as into solitude, he
could never have heard the unspeakable words.1 The ear of the solitary will
receive from God amazing words. That is why in the book of Job that all-wise
man said: ‘Will not my ear receive amazing things from Him?” The noise
around us is great today, whether it be physical or spiritual. I mentioned all
the forms of social media that keep us constantly seeking noise, but so too do
the demons have their own form of social media that they try to manipulate the
people with. They give us the noise to drown out the voice of God. The voice of
God is constantly calling us back to the fold, like the shepherd in search of
his lost sheep. The voice of the demons is shouting as loud as it can trying to
muffle out God and lead us away from the calming of the storm. In quieting our
minds and souls we are able to hear clearly. Thus we become like St. Paul who
was brought up into the heavens and heard the words of God Himself. It is the calling of all Christians, not just
monks and clergy to hear the voice of God. We are called to worship at his
footstool and to proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ. But without the voice of the
demons we cannot discern the voice of God. God’s voice nourishes us, it calms
us, it brings peace and hope to the soul. The voice of the demons brings
torment and destruction. By using the rung of discernment we are able to clear
the path for God.
Finally
the most important part of solitude is faith. Without faith, we can achieve
nothing. It is not a once in a lifetime prayer or something that magically
appears when we accept Christ. That must come in time. We must grow as all
things do. We do not magically receive salvation the moment we pray a prayer or
walk an aisle. For faith is something that is entirely based on the daily life
of the person. One moment you can have all the faith in the world, and the next
because of unseen circumstance, you lose it. That is why we must keep treading
along the straight and narrow path of salvation brothers and sisters. St. John
writes, “Faith is the wing of prayer; without it, my prayer will return
again to my bosom. Faith is the unshaken firmness of the soul, unmoved by any
adversity. A believer is not one who thinks that God can do everything, but one
who believes that he will obtain all things. Faith paves the way for what seems
impossible; and the thief proved this for himself. The mother of faith is
hardship and an honest heart; the latter makes faith constant, and the former
builds it up. Faith is the mother of the solitary; for if he does not believe,
how can he practise solitude?” As I have
said many times, there will be trials and tribulations. But with faith, we overcome
these obstacles because we know that all things allowed by God for our
salvation. Without hardship we see that there is no need for God. We believe
that we are not in need of salvation because God has provided all things to us
in this life. However, these things will pass away, they will perish when the
world is renewed. God will not ask of us how much money or fame we had on
earth, rather how much faith we had. Will we say that we had little, and be
given little in return? We will we say we had much faith and be given much in
return? Or heaven forbid, that we say we had no faith and be cast into the
fires of Gehenna? The choice is clear that with solitude comes faith, and with
faith comes solitude. We therefore should strive to at the judgement day boldly
stand before Christ and say that we have tried to live a Godly life and that we
know we have failed, but that our faith was unwavering. For many of us, we will
hang our heads in shame because we never did this. I wish to not be one of those,
but I know in my heart that I will be. Pray for me brothers and sisters, as I pray
for you.
Amen.
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