Mission Monthly – December 1999
“You look into a mirror so that you may know what is in your face, whether there are any blemishes in it, and having seen the blemishes, you cleanse them. Let the pure life of Christ be a mirror to your soul, look into it often and know what is in your soul… [For] in it you will see what is contrary to the life of Christ, and you will cleanse it all like blemishes with repentance and contrition of heart.”
St. Tikhon of Zadonsk
Three of my most favorite verses in the New Testament come from the first chapter of the Epistle of St. James. “22But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. 23For if any one is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who observes his natural face in a mirror; 24for he observes himself and goes away and at once forgets what he looks like.” If any of you are like me then together we must admit how difficult it is to remain determined in the “doing” of the Word of God in obedience to the life of the Church. The ease with which we forget, lose sight, or possibly even ignore our vocation to the royal priesthood (1 Peter 2:9), should be cause for great concern.
It is intriguing how the Orthodox Church defines “ascesis” as “the art of spiritual discipline.” What is an art and how can it be connected to spiritual discipline? An art is dynamic, creative, needful of concentrated practice, guided by certain rules and capable of producing great beauty. We see its connection in the lives of those “luminaries” revealed in the Church who have perfected their “ascesis” by affirming the action of God’s grace when man is both hearing and doing the Word of God.
One of the most profound labors of “ascesis” is truly an art unto itself. This is the art of self-examination. A great corollary of “ascesis” would be without the art of self-examination we are left to the hell of spiritual deception. The reasons lie in the fact that our fallen nature doesn’t really like being honest with itself. To be honest with oneself usually demands a response and the need for change… “repentance and contrition of heart.” To be honest with oneself inevitably reveals how weak and sinful we really are and, in our pride and self-indulgence, how unwilling we are to admit that we are often rebellious and spiritually lazy.
If I could choose one prayer to be answered today it would be for God to grant us the knowledge of the depth of His love for us. “Thou lovest me more than I myself know how to love,” says the morning prayer for God’s will by Metropolitan PHILARET. I believe completely that if we knew even a “mustard seed” of this compelling love we would be unable to resist the opening of our hearts before the throne of His mercy. And for what purpose? That His forgiveness might heal both soul and body. By opening our hearts to Him in faith and obedience to the “ascesis” required of all who bear the Name of Christ (i.e. fasting, prayer, virtue) we discover through the temptations we face not the indifference of a guilt-imposing God but rather the revelation of His merciful freedom in knowing the very sins of which we need to repent. For example, if I get angry when I fast it doesn’t mean that I should quit fasting. It means that I should increase my self-discipline and seek the grace of God for healing and patience. The revelation of our passions is God’s mercy showing us what we need to confess and where to aim the weapons of “violence” (Matt. 11:12) in our spiritual warfare.
Let us therefore be encouraged and look directly into the mirror of God’s mercy and be ready to cleanse the blemishes of our soul. For when we honestly embrace our Christian “ascesis,” courageously see our temptations and fearlessly resist the demands of our passions God teaches us how to love and reveals that He came not to punish but to save.