My beloved spiritual children in Christ Our Only True God and Our Only True Savior,
CHRIST IS IN OUR MIDST! HE WAS, IS, AND EVER SHALL BE. Ο ΧΡΙΣΤΟΣ ΕΝ ΤΩ ΜΕΣΩ ΗΜΩΝ! ΚΑΙ ΗΝ ΚΑΙ ΕΣΤΙ ΚΑΙ ΕΣΤΑΙ.

THE FOUR HUNDRED CHAPTERS ON LOVE (Part III)
by Saint Maximus the Confessor

THIRD CENTURY

The reasonable use of thoughts and things is productive of moderation, love, and knowledge, the unreasonable use, of excess, hate and ignorance.
"You have prepared a table for me, etc." "Table" here signifies practical virtue, for this has been prepared by Christ "against those who afflict us." The "oil" which anoints the mind is the contemplation of creatures, the "cup" of God is the knowledge of God itself; His "mercy" is His Logos/Word and God. For through His incarnation He pursues us "all days" until He gets hold of those who are to be saved, as He did Paul. The "house" is the Kingdom in which all the saints will be restored. The "length of days" means eternal life.
The vices, whether of the concupiscible, the irascible, or the rational element, come upon us with the misuse of the faculties of the soul. Misuse of the rational faculty is ignorance and folly, of the irascible and concupiscible faculty, hate and intemperance. Their right use is knowledge and prudence. If this so, nothing created and given existence by God is evil.
It is not food which is evil but gluttony, not the begetting of children but fornication, not possessions but greed, not reputation but vainglory. And if this is so, there is nothing evil in creatures except misuse, which stems from the mind's negligence in its natural cultivation.
The blessed Dionysius says that among the demons this is what evil is irrational anger, senseless lust, reckless imagination. But among rational beings unreasonableness, recklessness, and rashness are privations of reason, sense, and circumspection. Now privations follow upon habits, so then the demons once had reason, sense, and religious circumspection. If this is correct, then neither are the demons evil by nature, rather they have become evil through the misuse of their natural faculties.
Some passions are productive of intemperance, others of hate, and still others of both intemperance and hate.
Excessive and sumptuous eating are causes of intemperance; greed and vainglory cause hatred of neighbor. But their mother, self-love, is the cause of both.
Self-love is the passionate and irrational affection for the body, to which is opposed love and self-mastery. The one who has self-love has all the passions.
"No one," says the Apostle, "hates his own flesh," of course, "but mortifies it and makes it his slave," allowing it no more than "food and clothing" and these only as they are necessary for life. So in this way one loves it without passion and rears it as an associate in divine things and takes care of it only with those things which satisfy its needs.
When a person loves someone, he is naturally eager to be of service. So if one loves God, he is naturally eager to do what is pleasing to Him. But if he loves his flesh, he is eager to accomplish what delights it.
What pleases God is love, temperance, contemplation, and prayer. What pleases the flesh is gluttony, intemperance, and what contributes to them. Therefore, "those who are in the flesh cannot please God. And those who are Christ's have crucified their flesh with its passions and lusts.
When the mind inclines toward God, it keeps the body as a servant and allows it nothing more than what is necessary for life. But when it inclines toward the flesh, it becomes a servant of the passions and always makes provision for its lusts.
If you want to prevail over your thoughts, take care of your passions and you will easily drive them from your mind. Thus for fornication, fast, keep vigil, work hard, keep to yourself. For anger and hurt, disdain reputation and dishonor and material things. For grudges, pray for the one who has hurt you and you will be rid of them.
Do not compare yourself to weaker men, but rather reach out to the commandment of love. For by comparing yourself to these you fall into the pit of conceit; in reaching out for the latter you advance to the heights of humility.
If you are really observing the commandments of love of neighbor, for what reason do you bear him the bitterness of resentment? Is it not clearly because in preferring transient things to love and in holding on to them you are making war on your brother?
Not so much out of necessity has gold become enviable by men as that with it most of them can provide for their pleasures.
There are three reasons for the love of money: pleasure-seeking, vainglory, and lack of faith. And more serious than the other two is lack of faith.
The hedonist loves money because with it he lives in luxury; the vain person because with it he can be praised; the person who lacks faith because he can hide it and keep it while in fear of hunger, or old age, or illness, or exile. He lays his hope on it rather than on God the maker and provider of the whole creation, even of the last and least of one's need.
There are four kinds of people who acquire money, the three just mentioned and the financial administrator. Obviously only he acquires it for the right reason: so that he might never run short in relieving each one's need.
All passionate thoughts either excite the concupiscible, disturb the irascible, or darken the rational element of the soul. From this it comes about that the mind is hampered in its spiritual contemplation and in the flight of prayer. And because of this the monk, and especially the solitary, should give serious heed to his thoughts and both know and eliminate their causes. Thus, for instance, he should know that passionate memories arouse the concupiscible element of the soul and are caused by incontinence in eating and drinking, as well as by frequent and unreasonable association with these same women. Hunger, thirst, vigils, and solitude eliminate them. Again, passionate memories of those who have hurt us stir up the temper; their causes are pleasure-seeking, vainglory, and attachment to material things, for the aroused person is saddened because he has either lost these things or not attained them. Disdain and contempt of these things for the love of God eliminates them.

(To be continued)

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"Glory Be To GOD For All Things!"--Saint John Chrysostom

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With sincere agape in His Holy Diakonia,
The sinner and unworthy servant of God

+Father George