Okay
so we have two more rungs to go. Rung 29 and Rung 30 are the last two that we
will be discussing before we move on. I am planning several things and discussions
to follow up after I finish with the Ladder, including a possible explanation
of the Catechetical Lectures of St. Cyril of Jerusalem. However, we will need
to finish this first before we can continue on our discovery of Orthodoxy. So
with that being said, let us delve once again into the Ladder and ascend to the
29th rung, the Rung in which St. John of the Ladder discusses Heaven
and the role it plays in our salvation. He also discusses the resurrection before
the general resurrection at the Second Coming of Jesus Christ. We have now
reached the point in which we are covered by the darkness of the world and the
contemplation of the shadow of death. In this I am reminded of the Psalm that
reads, “Yea, though I walk
through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; For You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.” (Psalm
22/23:4)
Here we find ourselves now nearing the end of
our journey. We have climbed the ladder and have not stopped in our pursuit of pure
holiness and perfection. St. John realizing that the journey was almost coming
to an end, notes that we are experiencing heaven on earth. We have rooted out
the passions from our souls, and are striving towards heaven getting a glimpse of
it here in our earthly lives. In doing so it must be noted that every time we
attend a divine liturgy and experience the prayers and the hymns of the church
we too are glimpsing heaven through the spiritual eyes. We are lifting
ourselves up to the throne of God and are bringing about a change in our hearts.
St. John says, “This perfect, but still unfinished,
perfection of the perfect, as someone who had tasted it informed me, so
sanctifies the mind and detaches it from material things that for a
considerable part of life in the flesh, after entering the heavenly harbour, a
man is rapt as though in Heaven and is raised to contemplation. One who had
experience of this well says somewhere: For God’s strong men of the earth have
become greatly exalted. Such a man, as we know, was that Egyptian who prayed
with some people for a long time without relaxing his hands which were stretched
out in prayer” In our thoughts and minds and in the
hearts of those who have achieved success through the ladder, we have entered
heaven. We have detached ourselves from the material things and sanctified our
minds. Those like St. Moses of Ethiopia who St. John refers to as the Egyptian have
been able to spend long time in prayer and solitude of their soul. St. John of
Shanghai and San Francisco was known to stand in prayer before the holy icons
for hours and often would sleep in a chair if at all because of his devout and
pure understanding of heaven on earth. The soul therefore experiences the
divine in a way that those of us including myself have not been able to see because
we have not cast down the cares of this world and replaced them with the
eternal fire that burns and does not consume. Those that can remove themselves
from this world and replaces it with the spiritual world are greatly exalted
and are often considered living saints, like Patriarch Pavle of Serbia. They do
not wish to be removed from God and are always living in two places, the physical
and spiritual world. St. John writes, “He who has been granted such a state,
while still in the flesh, always has God dwelling within him as his Guide in
all his words, deeds and thoughts. Therefore, through illumination he
apprehends the Lord’s will as a sort of inner voice. He is above all human
instruction and says: When shall I come and appear before the face of God? For
I can no longer bear the force of love; I long for the immortal beauty which
Thou hast given me in exchange for this clay.” The actions and the thoughts
of the person able to live and dwell in this beauty is one that has God for his
Guide, and has from Him, the eternal reward of the life to come. The inner
voice of God speaks and moves through this person without hinderance, without
obstacles. The person in which has completed the other rungs and the other
tasks on his journey into heaven has become the temple of the Holy Spirit,
clean and pure. The sanctuary of the heart has been given to Him as an altar in
which the Living God dwells as he did in the Temple of Solomon with clouds of
smoke and the presence centered in him.
All
of this achieved of course, through dispassion, the removal of all cares of
this life. That does not mean he has passion for things in the English sense of
the word. No, rather his passion, is that for God. To dwell and live with Christ
above all else. This is the heaven of which St. John writes in this chapter of
the Ladder. He explains, “ Imagine dispassion as the celestial palace of the
Heavenly King; and the many mansions as the abodes within this city, and the
wall of this celestial Jerusalem as the forgiveness of sins. Let us run,
brethren, let us run to enter the bridal hall of this palace. If we are prevented
by anything, by some burden or old habit, or by time itself what a disaster!
Let us at least occupy one of those mansions around the palace. But if we sink
down and grow weak, let us make sure of being at least within the walls. For he
who does not enter there before his end, or rather, does not scale the wall,
will lie out in the desert of fiends and passions. That is why a certain man
prayed, saying: Through my God I shall scale the wall. And another says as if
in the person of God: Is it not your sins that separate you from Me? Friends,
let us break through this wall of separation which we have erected to our own
harm by disobedience; and let us receive the forgiveness of our sins, because
in hell there is no one to pardon our debts. So then, brethren, let us devote
ourselves to our task, for we are on the roll of the devout. There is no room
for any excuse whether of a fall, or opportunity, or burden. For to all who
have received the Lord by the baptism of regeneration He has given power to be
come children of God, saying: Be still and know that I am God and am
Dispassion. To Him be the glory for ever and ever! Amen.” Our sins still
separate us from the heavenly Jerusalem. Everything that we hold dear and believe
to be important in this life is vain and destructive for the soul. Our hope and
salvation comes from God alone and yet, we do not seek forgiveness and
spiritual gifts from God that we might be able to enter into the bridal chambers
of God. We throw away our lives in search of temporary glory. As the song says,
“Live a life you will remember.” But that life will pass away. We do not need
to be seeking and finding a life that we will look back on with fond memories,
but rather one that has focused on God. Experiences in this life will not
matter at the Awesome Judgement Seat of Christ, save those that we have had
living for Christ. Not going to Disney World, not going to Yankees games or meeting
your favorite celebrity. None of that matters. What will matter are those
moments in which you fed the poor, took the Eucharist, went to church when you
felt sick and terrible. Those moments. When you have fled from the keeping up
with the Jones’ mentality and decided that everything in this life is granted
by God to root out the pride and sinfulness that has plagued your heart, then
and only then are you able to experience heaven on earth. It is not something
that many will achieve and even then, those that do achieve it do not speak of
it, for they do not want to sound prideful and lofty. I have spoken often to
you, dear brothers, and sisters, of removing yourselves from this world. The
only thing that matters is the Church. The only thing that matters is Christ. Without
Christ we have nothing. Just be still and know that he is God.
Amen.
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