Step 22: Faith, Hope, and Love

“And now at last, after all that has been said, there remains that triad, faith, hope, and love, binding and securing the union of all.”

--St. John Climacus

“Whoever loves me will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our dwelling with him.”

--John 14:23

One of the things that I like most about The Ladder of Divine Ascent is this last step.  It’s here that the humanity of Climacus is revealed most clearly.  Some ancient writers talk about contemplation of God as the ultimate spiritual goal. Others talk about a mystical union with God.  Climacus is a little more down to earth than that.

Climacus talks about love.  And while he says that this kind of love is hard to put into words (what kind of love isn’t hard to put into words?), he’s not afraid to try to describe it.  Some mystics said that it was incorrect to compare the bond of love between God and the believer with plain old love between human beings.  Not Climacus; “There is nothing wrong about offering human analogies for longing, fear, concern, zeal, service, and love of God.  Lucky the man who loves and longs for God as a smitten lover does for his beloved.”

For Climacus, as for Jesus, love of God is tied to love of neighbor, “He who loves the Lord has first loved his brother, for the latter is proof of the former.”  Love of God means becoming like God, and God is love.  In part that means that the love between God and me cannot stay just between us.  It overflows.  The channel between me and God is not deep enough to hold the great outpouring of God’s love and so it spills over into my other relationships.

Another thing that I appreciate about Climacus is that he doesn’t let the method of spirituality overshadow the goal of spirituality.  He doesn’t get hung up on technique.  Sometimes a particular practice works, sometimes it doesn’t.  What’s important is that we come to love God and reflect his image in the world.  That’s a good thing to remember.  Being a Christian does include living in a particular way.  There are things that Christians do, ways we pray and worship, ways we conduct ourselves, things we consider right and wrong, but these things are not ends in themselves.  “So faith, hope, love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love (1 Corinthians 13:13).”  At its heart, Christianity is about the free flow of love between God and us, his creation.

Prayer:

O God,  you indeed are love, and to you be praise, dominion, power.  In you is the cause, past, present and future, of all that is good forever and ever.  Amen. (St John Climacus)

St. John Climacus, pray for us.

Step 21:Dispassion

“Dispassion is an uncompleted perfection of the perfect.”

--St. John Climacus

“I have been crucified with Christ; it is not longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me; and the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”

--Galatians 2:20

This step on The Ladder is about as monkish as Climacus gets.  He says of dispassion, “Its effect is to sanctify the mind and to detach it from material things, and it does so in such a way that, after entering this heavenly harbor, a man, for most of his earthly life, is enraptured, like someone already in heaven, and he is lifted up to the contemplation of God.”

Dispassion is not so much a step in itself as it is the fruit of all the previous steps.  When we get our priorities straight, when we confront our own sinfulness and mortality, bring our emotions, our tongues, and our desires under control, when we leave behind fear and vanity, then we will achieve this perfect communion with God.  And that, some of you may be thinking, will be the day pigs fly.

Achieving this spiritual perfection seems impossible.  That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try.  The very opposite is true.  Impossible goals are the most important ones to strive for.  We may never attain them, but we are better for having made the attempt.

There’s also another way of looking at this step of dispassion.  At the beginning of a long trip there is a period of adjustment to being on the road.  If it’s a long hike, your leg muscles have to get warmed up and you have to get used to the weight of your backpack.  If it’s a car trip, it’s getting everything situated in the car so that what you need is near at hand, the seat and mirrors in the right position, the right CD in the player.  And you have to get used to your traveling companions, find the right divisions of labor, the right balance between talking and silence, make your compromises for each other’s comfort.  Eventually, you find your rhythm.  Your legs loosen up and you hit your stride or you settle in for the long haul.  You get comfortable with your fellow travelers and work together with them to make the trip successful. Climacus’ idea of dispassion is kind of like this.

Eventually as we make our pilgrim way through life, spirituality becomes less of a struggle.  We may hit rough patches, but as we progress we learn how to deal with them.  We find the rhythm of life lived on the way to God.  Praying and serving, holy living and awareness of God’s presence become more natural to us.  We find our place in the community of God’s people and God becomes a friend.  For most of us dispassion is the confident assurance that we are on the right trail with the right equipment, with a few miles of experience behind us and a good guide in front of us.

Prayer:

O God, bring us to the place where we can rest in you.  Help us to keep living the Christian life until it becomes as natural as breathing for us and your way becomes truly ours, through Christ our Lord.  Amen.

St. John Climacus, pray for us.

Step 20: Prayer

“Prayer is by nature a dialog and a union of man with God.  Its effect is to hold the world together.”

--St. John Climacus

“Therefore, I tell you, all that you ask for in prayer, believe that you will receive it and it shall be yours.”

--Mark 11:24

Climacus speaks so beautifully about prayer in this step on the ladder that I’m going to let him speak for himself today:

“Pray in all simplicity.  The publican (Luke 18:9-14) and the prodigal son (Luke 15:11-22) were reconciled to God by a single utterance.”

“But heart-felt thanksgiving should have first place in our book of prayer.  Next should be confession and genuine contrition of soul.  After that should come our request to the universal King.”

“In your prayers there is no need for high-flown words, for it is the simple and unsophisticated babblings of children that have more often won the heart of the Father in heaven.”

“Try not to talk excessively in your prayer, in case your mind is distracted by the search for words. …Talkative prayer frequently distracts the mind and deludes it, whereas brevity makes for concentration.”

“If it happens that, as you pray, some word evokes delight or remorse within you, linger over it; for at that moment our guardian angel is praying with us.”

“However pure you may be, do not be forward with God.  Approach him rather with all humility, and you will be given still more boldness.”

“Make the effort to raise up, or rather, to enclose your mind within the  words of your prayer; and if, like a child, it gets tired and falters, raise it up again.  The mind, after all, is naturally unstable, but the God who can do everything can also give it firm endurance.”

“After a long spell of prayer, do not say that nothing has been gained, for you have already achieved something.  For, after all, what higher good is there than to cling to the Lord and to persevere in unceasing union with him?”

“Get ready for your set time of prayer by unceasing prayer in your soul.”

“We are not all the same, either in body or soul.”

“You cannot learn to see just because someone tells you to do so.  For that, you require your own natural power of sight.  In the same way, you cannot discover from the teaching of others the beauty of prayer.  Prayer has its own special teacher in God, who “teaches man knowledge” (Psalm 93:10).  He grants the prayer of him who prays.  And he blesses the years of the just.”

Prayer:

Lord, teach us to pray, through Christ our Lord.  Amen.

St. John Climacus, pray for us.

Step 19: Discernment

“Among beginners, discernment is real self-knowledge; among those midway along the road to perfection, it is the spiritual capacity to distinguish unfailingly between what is truly good and what in nature is opposed to the good; among the perfect, it is a knowledge resulting from divine illumination, which with its lamp can light up what is dark in others.”

--St. John Climacus

“Do not conform yourself to this age but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and pleasing and perfect.”

--Romans 12:2

Discernment comes after humility on The Ladder of Divine Ascent because discernment requires teachability.  Wisdom is only found by those who are humble enough to know they need it.

Climacus subdivides the step of discernment into three levels.  The first and most basic is discernment concerning the state of my own soul.  In the tradition, in the shared life of the community and by the leading of the Spirit God reveals what is good.  In applying that knowledge I begin with myself.  I need to get to know myself.  That’s not as easy as it might sound.  It takes courage and insight to do honest self-appraisal.  It involves knowing my weaknesses and the temptations that are most troublesome for me as well as my strengths and talents.  Most of us are neither as good nor as bad as we think we are.  That may sound strange but it’s true.  Discernment begins by being able to take inventory of what God and I have to work with.

The next step after learning the good and knowing myself is to discern what is good for me.  By that I mean what is the good that God wants me to do.  There are lots of good things a person can do.  I can’t do all of them.  What role does God have for me with my unique combination of strengths and weaknesses (you can see now why self understanding is important)?  The guidance of the Holy Spirit helps us.  He speaks through prayer and meditation.  Getting input from mature Christians that we trust is also very important.  And listen to your desires.  Don’t be afraid to entertain the possibility that what you want to do is what you should do.  That’s not always the case, but often it is.

Climacus reserves the last step, discernment concerning others, only for “the perfect.”  There is nothing more rewarding than walking with others as they discern God’s will for them, but we need to do so with great humility and caution.  Some of us find it hard to mind our own business and fight the temptation to avoid offering unsolicited advice.  Even when someone asks our opinion it’s usually better to just listen and ask questions and resist the urge to make pronouncements.

Discernment is a virtue that requires a great deal of cultivation.  It takes time spent with Scripture and in prayer.  It takes practice and there are no shortcuts.  The good thing is that God promises to help us.  If we seek, we will find.

Prayer:

O God, show us your ways.  Lead us in the path you would have us follow so that your will might be done.  Renew us and use us to renew the world, through Christ our Lord.  Amen.

St. John Climacus, pray for us.

Step 18: Humility

“Friend, remember that corn and the fruit of the Spirit will stand high in the valleys.  The valley is the soul made humble among the mountains of labors and virtues. …Repentance lifts a man up.  Mourning knocks at heaven’s gate.  Holy humility opens it.”

--St. John Climacus

“Humble yourselves before the Lord and he will exalt you.”

--James 4:10

I once heard someone try to summarize the Old Testament in one sentence, “There is only one God and you are not him.”  I don’t know if that’s really a good summary of the Old Testament, but it’s certainly a good thing to remember.  Humility is the prerequisite for holiness.  It is the only soil in which God is able to grow godly people.  Humility comes with remembering who I am, who God is, and who I am in God.

First I remember that I am not perfect.  I make mistakes.  I sin.  When I confess my sins, God forgives them.  He even forgets them, but I don’t.  We shouldn’t beat ourselves up over them.  God has dealt with them, but it’s a healthy thing to remember that I am not the person that I want to be.  I need help. And I need to be humble enough to ask for it.  That’s when I remember who God is.

God wants to help me be the person I should be.  From the time he created the universe God has been bending over it like a parent teaching a toddler to walk, holding us up, coaxing us forward, encouraging us with outstretched arms to come to him.  Reading the prophets, Hosea for example, one gets a sense that God yearns for us intensely.  It’s almost embarrassing that the Lord of all creation loves us so much.  It’s definitely humbling.

God loves us so much that he became one of us so that we could become like him.  The purpose of the life, death, and resurrection of Christ was to raise us up to be with him where he is.  In Christ, I have a place in the household of God.  There is nothing I could do to earn that place.  God gives it to me freely, out of love.  And all I can do is accept it humbly and try to live up to the generosity that God has shown me and the grace that he has given to me.  When it comes to the capacity for love, there is only one God and I am not him.  Not even close.

Prayer:

O God, who are we that you should love us so much?  What have we done to merit the blessings you give so freely?  In humility we offer ourselves to you, recognizing the smallness of our offering and the greatness of your gift, through Christ our Lord.  Amen.

St. John Climacus, pray for us.

Step 17: Poverty

“The poor monk is lord of the world.”

--St. John Climacus

“Look at the birds in the sky; they do not sow or reap, they gather nothing into barns, yet your heavenly Father feeds them.  Are you not more important than they?”

--Matthew 6:26

Strange, isn’t it, how God’s values are often the opposite of the world’s.  Yesterday we looked at the way that wealth can become a problem.  Today we look at the way that poverty can be a blessing.  If we look at poverty as a healthy indifference toward our possessions, it doesn’t matter if we have a little or a lot.  We can all benefit spiritually from a spirit of poverty.

Yesterday I said that wealthy people are not, as some Christians think, necessarily bad people.  Poor people are not necessarily good either.

Climacus says, “A man who is poor for no good reason falls into a double misfortune.  He goes without present goods and is deprived of these in the future.”  I think that what he means is that there is no virtue in not having things.  Being poor and bitter means that one is poor both materially and spiritually.  But if I learn from my poverty how to be grateful for what I do have and how to rely on God, then in the end, I will come out a richer man for it.

I don’t have to be poor economically to learn these lessons.  Poverty often comes in the form of illness, grief, family conflict.  Any time our own resources; material, emotional, or spiritual, are not enough and we are dependent on the charity of God and others, that is an opportunity for us to learn the lessons of gratitude and faith that poverty teaches.

Prayer:

Heavenly Father, give us the grace of knowing that if we have you, we have enough, through Christ our Lord.  Amen.

St. John Climacus, pray for us.

Step 16: Avarice

“Avarice is the worship of idols and the offspring of unbelief.”

--St. John Climacus

“Let your life be free from love of money but be content with what you have, for he has said, ‘I will never forsake you or abandon you’.”

--Hebrews 13:5

Some Christians are under the mistaken impression that having wealth is sinful, or if not sinful, at least not very saintly.  Jesus does warn us about the temptations of wealth (“It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God”), but the mere fact of having money is not a problem by itself.  Why and how we earn our money and what we do with it is what should concern us with regard to the state of our souls.

One’s attitude toward money tells a lot about what he really believes and where his faith really lies.  Do we trust God for the hard times or do we trust our savings account?  Am I using the material goods that God has given me for God's purposes, caring for the poor, advancing the gospel, or for my own?  We need to act responsibly with our finances, but we need to keep them in perspective.

Prayer:

 O God, we are the recipients of your abundance and mercy every day.  You give us everything we need.  Help us to trust your providence so that we may live confidently and share generously the goods which you have placed in our hands, through Christ our Lord.  Amen.

St. John Climacus, pray for us.

Step 15: Chastity

“Chastity is a name common to all virtues.”

--St. John Climacus

“Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own?  For you have been purchased at a price.  Therefore, glorify God in your body.”

--1 Corinthians 6:19-20

We live in an age that is hypersensitive about sexuality.  Our society is soaked in sex.  It is analyzed, trivialized, and advertised.  It’s glorified, vilified, and in the church, sanctified.  Sex is holy and like all holy things it is not to be taken lightly or handled carelessly.

Climacus is very sympathetic with the person who struggles with chastity.  He recognizes that our sexuality is a natural part of being human and that when we place limits on its expression we are going up against a powerful force.  He writes, “By what rule or manner can I bind this body of mine?  By what precedent can I judge him?  Before I can bind him he is let loose, before I can condemn him I am reconciled with him, before I can punish him I bow down to him and feel sorry for him.  How can I hate him when my nature disposes me to love him?  How can I break away from him when I am bound to him forever?  How can I escape from him when he is going to rise with me?  How can I argue with him when all the arguments of nature are on his side?”

Chastity is all about respect.  First of all it’s about respect for God who has given us the gift of our sexuality and spelled out for us how it is to be expressed.  Secondly, Chastity is about respect for others.  Sex is not simply a recreational activity and human beings are not objects to be used for our own gratification.  Sex is for marriage.  Sex is for the creation of new life.  And sex is for the creation and sustenance of a unique and uniquely powerful bond between two individuals.  Honoring God by honoring his directions for sexual expression allows God to bless our relationships.

Prayer:

Thank you, God, for the gift of sexuality.  Help us to use this gift in ways that glorify you.  Give us the strength to resist those forces and attitudes that cheapen and trivialize it so that it might be for us a pure expression of love, commitment and unity, through Christ our Lord.  Amen.

St. John Climacus, pray for us.

Step 14: Gluttony

“Control your appetites before they control you.”

--St. John Climacus

“Do not work for food that perishes but for the food that endures for eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you.”

--John 6:27

As I sit down to write to you about gluttony I have just come from lunch where I had two pieces of chocolate cake.  Was it good?  Absolutely.  Was it good for me?  Probably not.  Has it imperiled my soul?  Well…

Fasting is one of the spiritual disciplines that has come to be identified with Lent in a special way.  It’s an effective way of reminding ourselves of what we really need to live and where it all comes from.  It is an act of solidarity with the poor and hungry who are particularly dear to God’s heart.  Our physical hunger can inspire and symbolize our spiritual hunger for God.

Overindulgence, on the other hand, can impede our spiritual progress.  On a purely material level eating and drinking too much is just not good for us and it slows us down, makes us sleepy and lethargic.  On a spiritual level, giving in to our every appetite is not good for us either.  It can make us begin to think of luxuries as necessities.  It can lead to self-centeredness and a preoccupation with satisfying our physical desires that distracts us from other more important things like relating to others and attending to their needs or listening to God.

An extra piece of chocolate cake isn’t going to kill me, but a pattern of self-indulgence is something that needs to be looked at.  It’s not just about food.  How much of my energy and resources am I putting into myself and how much am I sharing with God and other people?  A good question to ask after a good lunch.

Prayer:

O God, thank you for giving us everything we need.  Teach us temperance and moderation.  Help us to see the difference between what we need and what we want.  Keep us from overindulging ourselves with luxuries when we could be helping others with necessities, through Christ our Lord.  Amen.

St. John Climacus, pray for us.

Step 13: Despondency

“Tedium reminds those at prayer of some job to be done, and in her brutish way she searches out any plausible excuse to drag us from prayer, as though with some kind of halter.”

--St. John Climacus

“Persevere in prayer, being watchful in it with thanksgiving.”

--Colossians 4:2

Ancient spiritual writers like St. John Climacus had a lot to say about a temptation that they called akidia.  It’s that feeling of lethargy or listlessness that sometimes comes over us when we try to maintain a disciplined prayer life.  Most of us go through periods when we wonder if there is any point to praying.  We might not feel like we’re “getting anything out of it,” or we may not see any visible answers to our prayers and we might wonder if we shouldn’t find a more productive use of our time.

Climacus has a couple of suggestions for dealing with these spiritual dry spells.  One is to remember that we are under orders.  We don’t pray because it makes us feel good, although it often does.  And we may pray for years without seeing any tangible results.  That’s OK.  We pray first of all because God commands us to.  It helps to remember that even if we don’t feel that we are being effective in prayer, we are at least being faithful to our calling as Christians.  That’s the most important thing anyway.

Another way to fight this roadblock to prayer is to confess it and try to move on.  Make your difficulty with prayer an object of prayer.  Examine it.  Ask God to help you find the cause of it and deal with it.  Maybe you’re trying to pray at a time or place that isn’t good for you.  Maybe there’s a topic you need to talk to God about, but you’re trying to avoid it.  Confront your reluctance to pray and then move on.  Don’t let yourself get stuck in it.

Finally, Climacus recommends making yourself accountable to another person or persons about your prayer life.  Find a spiritual director.  Make a prayer covenant with a friend.  Join a prayer group.  It’s easier to pray with others to encourage us and hold us to our commitments.  You can push through this.  Just do it!

Prayer:

O God, help us to pray when our hearts aren’t in it.  When the flame of our enthusiasm has almost gone out, help us to persevere.  Help us to remember that water never tastes so good as when we are thirsty.  May our spiritual dry times make us look even more diligently for the springs of living water which you give through Christ our Lord.  Amen.

St. John Climacus, pray for us.

Step 12: Falsehood

“The man gifted with fear of the Lord has given up lying, for within him he has conscience, that incorruptible judge”

--St. John Climacus

“God is Spirit, and those who worship him must worship in Spirit and truth.”

--John 4:24

One of the characteristic features of the Gospel of John is the sharply contrasting imagery that is used to describe the difference between God and his kingdom and those who oppose God.  Probably the most prominent image is that of light and darkness.  Jesus is the light of the world coming to those who live in the darkness of separation from God.  Another image that the Evangelist uses is the contrast between truth and falsehood.  Jesus is the embodiment of truth.  He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life.  Lying then, must be seen as the antithesis of who Christ is and what he stands for.

We lie for many different reasons; to impress others, to get ourselves out of trouble, to get what we want, to hurt others or to protect others from being hurt.  Many times our lies are about trivialities and sometimes we lie for what might be considered good reasons.  But if God is Truth we cannot take falsehood lightly.

St. John Climacus says, “Hypocrisy is the mother of lying and frequently its cause.”  It’s hypocrisy, being one thing and pretending to be another, that gives rise to the lies we tell.  Hypocrisy is the real disease and lying is a symptom.  Transparency and honesty with God and with ourselves are essential to our spiritual health.  When we practice deception we get so good at it that we can even deceive ourselves.  But no matter how good we get at it the truth usually comes out eventually and when it does it can cause more damage than would’ve occurred if we hadn’t lied in the first place.

Ultimately, lying is useless.  The one person who matters most cannot be deceived.  We can’t impress God by lying, we can’t get around him and we can’t avoid him.  The good news is, we don’t have to.  God knows us better than we know ourselves.  He knows all our secrets, even the ones we keep from ourselves and he loves us anyway.  Being honest with God and with others makes it possible for us to deal with the things that trouble us.

Prayer:

O God, you can neither deceive nor be deceived.  Help us to be honest with you, with our neighbors and with ourselves so that all of our relationships might be built on a firm foundation of truth, through Christ our Lord.  Amen.

St. John Climacus, pray for us.

Step 11: Talkativeness and Silence

“The man who recognizes his sins has taken control of his tongue, while the chatterer has yet to discover himself as he should”

--St. John Climacus

“Know this, my dear brothers: everyone should be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath.”

--James 1:19

There are few things that I enjoy more than a good conversation.  I am blest to know some very interesting people and good conversationalists.  Some think that having a good conversation means keeping the words flowing and the best conversationalist is the one who can keep talking, but in my experience it is often the person who has the least to say who is most worth listening to.

Real communication can only happen if we occasionally stop talking and listen. This is the case if we want to get to know another human being, if we want to get know ourselves, and if we want to get to know God.  One cannot really talk and listen at the same time.

Being quiet and really listening is a challenge.  It takes concentration and courage.  It takes concentration because listening is more that just hearing, it’s engagement with another person’s ideas and feelings.  It takes courage because that engagement often calls our own ideas into question and places the needs and desires of others alongside our own.

When I stop talking and listen to my fellow human beings they stop being strangers and start becoming sisters.  When I quiet the hum rattling around in my skull and try to listen to my deepest self, I may discover that I am a different person than I thought I was.  When prayer becomes listening to God as well as talking to him, I may finally find the purpose and the peace I’ve been looking for.

Prayer:

O God, speak for your servant is listening.  Amen.

St. John Climacus, pray for us.

Step 10: Slander

“A charitable and sensible mind takes careful note of the virtues it observes in another, while the fool goes looking for faults and defects.  It is of such a one that it was said, ‘They have searched out iniquity and died in the search (Ps. 63:7).’”

--St. John Climacus

“Stop judging, that you may not be judged.”

--Matthew 7:1

The legal definition of slander is to say something untrue about someone that is defamatory or damaging to that person’s reputation. St. John gives the word a broader meaning.  He calls slander any public airing of another’s sins or faults, whether true or untrue.

John calls slander the child of hatred.  Passing judgments and gossiping is also born out of our insecurity concerning our own sinfulness.  It draws our attention away from our own shortcomings and puts the spotlight on others.

Seeing only the bad in others and taking pleasure in making it public is a symptom of a soul that is not oriented toward God.  If our goal is to become holy, it is much more useful to look for the good in people and to celebrate and encourage it.  Not that we should ignore sin in ourselves or in others.  But helping another deal with their sins is a very tricky business  If it must be done, it’s best done by invitation and in private and with the deepest humility, recognizing that I have as much need of God’s grace and forgiveness as anyone else. 

When God looks at us he does not see vice-ridden evil-doers.  He sees his beloved children trying to find their way home.  Let’s do all we can to help each other get there.  Our words have the power to heal and strengthen.  They also have the power to destroy.  Let us choose our words carefully.

Prayer:

O God, help us to keep watch over our words.  Help us to build each other up with words of encouragement and compassion.  Keep us mindful of our own need of your mercy so that we might be more charitable toward others and help us to see and celebrate the good in each other, through Christ our Lord.  Amen.

St. John Climacus, pray for us.

Step 9: Remembrance of Wrongs

“Remembrance of wrongs comes as the final point of anger.  It is a keeper of sins.  It hates a just way of life.  It is the ruin of virtues, the poison of the soul, a worm in the mind.  It is the shame of prayer, a cutting off of supplication, a turning away from love, a nail piercing the soul.”

--St. John Climacus

“If you forgive others their transgressions, your heavenly Father will forgive you.  But if you do not forgive others, neither will your Father forgive your transgressions.”

--Matthew 6:14-15

The word, “grudge” is one of those words that achieves a good match between sound and meaning.  “Grudge” is an ugly, heavy, brutish sounding word.  It would make a good name for a troll in a fairytale. Bearing a grudge is an equally ugly, heavy and brutish thing to do.  Few attitudes are as destructive as carrying around with us the bitter memories of the wrongs we have suffered.

Hatred of those who have wronged us is very dangerous, because it is very easy to justify.  It’s also dangerous because imagining our revenge can seem very satisfying.  Climacus describes it as “a pleasureless feeling cherished in the sweetness of bitterness.”  But justified or not, sweet-tasting or not, it is still hatred and hatred deforms the image of God within us.

The image of God is revealed in Christ.  It is an image of gentleness, patience and unrelenting love.  Climacus recommends contemplating Christ’s refusal to bear malice toward those who inflicted suffering upon him as a cure for the corrosive effects of malice on our own souls.  He also recommends praying for those who have wronged us.  Even if our prayers are not exactly fervent and heart-felt at first, prayer changes us, and it is difficult for hate to flourish in an atmosphere of prayer.

As Jesus reminds us in the passage above from Matthew’s Gospel, every opportunity we take to practice forgiveness toward others is an opportunity for us to experience the forgiveness of God toward us.

Prayer:

O God, forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us, through Christ our Lord.  Amen.

St. John Climacus, pray for us.

Step 8: Placidity and Meekness

“Meekness is a permanent condition of the soul which remains unaffected by whether or not it is spoken well of, whether or not it is honored or praised.  The first step toward freedom from anger is to keep the lips silent when the heart is stirred; the next, to keep the thoughts silent when the soul is upset; the last, to be totally calm when unclean winds are blowing.”

--St. John Climacus

“Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you.  Not as the world gives do I give it to you.  Do not let your hearts be troubled or afraid.”

--John 14:27

Much has been said and written about the necessity of expressing our emotions in order to be psychologically healthy.  I believe that’s very true.  Being honest and open with ourselves and others about the way we feel is very important, not just for our individual well-being, but for healthy relationships as well.  There is a danger, however in allowing our emotions to run completely unchecked.

You may know someone who always seems to be angry, always at a low boil, the kind of person you have to tip-toe around and are afraid of setting off.  Or you may know someone who is a perpetual downer, embittered toward the world, who never seems to see the good in life or someone who is always afraid and anxious.  All of us from time to time can become trapped in our feelings, able to see our circumstances through only one set of emotional lenses.

These emotional cul-de-sacs can be detrimental to our spiritual lives.  One of the emotional dead ends that The Ladder is particularly concerned with is anger.  John describes how a flash of hot temper can set us back and undo whatever spiritual growth we may have attained.  Anger in and of itself is neither right nor wrong.  Like all emotions it simply is.  What we do with our anger is what makes it right or wrong.  Anger managed in one way may inspire us to address injustices and confront evil.  Handled in another way it may sour us on life.  We all need to learn how to manage our anger.

The real problem is not just anger, but anger as a way of life.  The first step to finding emotional equilibrium is to acknowledge our anger and examine it carefully.  Talking about anger as an illness, St. John says, “I would propose that each sick man should very carefully look for his own particular cure, and the first step here is the diagnosis of the cause of the disease.”  Why am I angry?  Is it something inside of me or outside of me that is the source?  Is there something about myself that I am unhappy with or am I frustrated with another person?  Is the source of my anger something I can control or not?  If so, what can I change?  If not, how can I come to terms with it?   What can I learn about myself and about God from the situations that make me angry?

Asking these questions prayerfully, in the presence of God, can help not only to defuse our anger, but also to further our conversation with God and open up more of our lives to his healing and leading.

Prayer:

O God, pour out your peace upon us and quench the fires of rage and bitterness that threaten to steal our joy and consume us.  Help us to open our hearts to you, examining our emotions in the light of your love so that we may not be ruled by them, but by your Spirit, through Christ our Lord, Amen.

St. John Climacus, pray for us.

Step 7: Mourning

“Mourning which is according to God is a melancholy of the soul, a disposition of an anguished heart that passionately seeks what it thirsts for, and when it fails to attain it, pursues it diligently and follows behind it lamenting bitterly.”

--St. John Climacus

“Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted’”

--Matthew 5:4

It’s not hard to see a connection between this step in The Ladder of Divine Ascent and the previous one, the remembrance of death.  Just as we saw that keeping our mortality in mind doesn’t have to be morbid but can be an incentive to make the most of our time for God and the Kingdom, so mourning has a more important meaning than moping around draped in black crepe.

The above quote from St. John Climacus would suggest that his understanding of mourning in the context of growing as a Christian is slightly different from the common usage of the word.  Yes, there is the element of melancholy and lament, but there is also passionate longing and relentless pursuit.  In some ways, John’s concept of mourning is more akin to another of the beatitudes, blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness.

The desire for righteousness is a hunger that we will never satisfy in this life.  Perfection is a goal that we will never achieve this side of eternity.  Some people, when faced with their own imperfections, will give up trying to be holy.  Others will see it as a challenge to be faced.  This is, I believe, the more Christian response.  You and I are called to be heroes.  Heroes do not always achieve their goals, but heroes do not give up.  And heroes usually have a healthy sense of their own shortcomings.  That’s where St. John’s idea of mourning comes in.

None of us may be able to achieve perfection, but all of us can become more perfect.  The first step is to recognize where we need strengthening.  The next step is to develop the resolve to be strengthened.  That’s what mourning is.  It is sorrow for our weakness accompanied by a passionate resolve to overcome it for the love of God.  It is lamenting how far from perfect we are even as we struggle forward, striving to lessen the distance.  It is the spirit that creates champions and saints, which is what you and I are called to become.

Prayer:

O God, give us a healthy sorrow and a longing for your presence so that we may never be satisfied with where we are in our spiritual journey.  May we always have the passion and desire to take the next step toward holiness, the next step toward you, through Christ our Lord.  Amen.

St. John Climacus, pray for us.

Step 6: Remembrance of Death

“The remembrance of death … produces freedom from daily worries, and breeds constant prayer and guarding of the mind, virtues that are the cause and effect of the thought of death.”

--St. John Climacus

“’Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on.’ ‘Yes,’ said the Spirit, ‘Let them find rest from their labors, for their works accompany them.’”

--Revelation 14:13

In art, monks and mystics are sometimes shown holding human skulls.  This is to symbolize an important spiritual practice; the contemplation of death.  Far from being a morbid preoccupation, remembering that we are mortal, finite beings who will one day stand before our Creator and give an account of our lives is a healthy encouragement to make the most of the time that we have.

Turning on the nightly news provides us with countless reminders of how fragile life us.  They can drive a person to despair or they can drive a person to action.  I am not referring here to action in terms of confronting issues of violence, justice, or poverty that lead to death.  These are important and necessary.  But I am more concerned in the context of these devotions with actions that we can take to further our spiritual growth. 

As I mentioned above, the remembrance of death can spur us to ask healthy questions about how we are using the gift of our lives.  How much of what I do during the day is really of lasting significance?  How much do the things I worry and fret over really matter?  Have I been faithful to my family, my community, my calling as a Christian?  We will be held accountable for how we use our time on earth. 

Contemplating death also helps us to cherish life and those whose lives are so important to us.  And it reminds us that we are not all-powerful and self-sufficient.  Every day of breathing in and breathing out is a gift from God.

Prayer:

O God, teach us to count our days aright, that we may gain wisdom of heart, through Christ our Lord,  Amen.

St. John Climacus, pray for us.

Step 5: Penitence

“Repentance is the renewal of baptism and is a contract with God for a fresh start in life. …Repentance is the daughter of hope and the refusal of despair.”

--St. John Climacus

“But now we must celebrate and rejoice, because your brother was dead and has come to life again; he was lost and has been found.”

--Luke 15:32

As many of you know, my wife Pam and I became Catholic in 2003.  One of my favorite experiences in the process of coming into the Church was my first experience of the sacrament of Penance.  I will never forget the feeling of lightness and newness.  Coming away from Confession I felt that there was hope for me; hope in the sense that I was reassured that God still loved me and hope that I could become a better person.

It might seem strange to some to put repentance and hopefulness together, but as St. John reminds us, the possibility of repentance is a sign that God has not and never will give up on us.  There is nothing that we can do that is so evil, so wrong, that it would make God stop loving us.  When we separate ourselves from God by choosing to do things that run counter to God’s nature and his will for us, God never stops reaching out to us, calling us back, longing and looking for us like the father in the story of the Prodigal Son from Luke’s Gospel.

Real repentance requires that we take our sin seriously.  We sometimes dismiss sin as a mere faux pas, a trivial mistake, when in fact, the consequences of sin that is not dealt with are serious.  Sin that is not repented of and confessed can dull our consciences, making us susceptible to worse sin.  It makes it harder for us to hear God or feel his presence.  And it limits God’s ability to give us the help of his grace.

Is there something in your life that is blocking the flow of God’s grace?  Turn away from it.  Repent.  Go to Confession and be free of it.  And know that as often as we need it, the forgiveness of God is always there for us.

Prayer:

O God, your mercy is from everlasting to everlasting.  As far as the East is from the West, so far have you promised to remove our sins from us.  Help us to trust in your mercy, turn away from our sins, and turn to you, so that cleansed and renewed, we might continue to walk with you in hope, through Christ our Lord, Amen.

St. John Climacus, pray for us.

Step 4: Obedience

“From obedience comes humility,…And from humility comes discernment… From discernment comes insight, and from insight comes foresight.  And who would not run this fine race of obedience when such blessings are there ahead of him.”

--St. John Climacus

“Although he (Jesus) was a Son, he learned obedience through what he suffered; and being made perfect he became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey him.”

--Hebrews 5:8-9

In this step and the one that follows, Climacus cites examples of monastic discipline that seem extreme to us, even cruel and debasing.  We live in a different age from John.  Some of the particular practices he recommends would probably be unhealthy for us.  But we shouldn’t let that blind us to the valuable principles that he can teach us.

Obedience is all about openness to being taught.  It’s a trait that is not very popular today because it requires the humility to admit that I do not know everything and I need to improve some areas of my life.  It also requires that I trust someone else enough to let them help me learn what I do not know and acquire those virtues that I do not possess.  Humility and trust, along with obedience are not big hits in America today.

They are, however, essential traits of the Christian.  Christ made himself obedient to the will of the Father even to the point of death.  As Christ’s disciples, those called to mirror his existence in the world today, we must be seeking to know and do the will of God which was revealed to the Apostles and has been handed down to us by their successors.   Climacus writes specifically about the obedience that one should give to one’s spiritual director.  Many have benefited from this type of relationship.  On another level, we must also listen to the Spirit and to the shepherds of the Church as we interpret God’s will for our own lives.  We must trust the Church enough to allow ourselves to be taught by its wisdom and experience.

This is a difficult thing to do.  We all know of the terrible abuses of trust that have taken place.  The Church has been instituted by God, but it is made up of sinful human beings.  I am not saying that we should never question.  And we need to hold our leaders accountable.  All of us together are, after all, the Church.  But the fact remains that our shepherds, the bishops and priests, have been charged with teaching God’s Word and handing on the Tradition of the faith.

How open are you to being taught?  How do you react to the Church’s teaching authority, with respect or resentment?  There is a lot of pain and confusion out there.  Obedience is a hard word.   For some, it may be too much to ask that they do whatever the Church teaches.  But is it too much to ask that we stay open enough to listen to her?

Prayer:

O God, your will for us is that we might have life in all its fullness.  Conform our wills to yours.  Expand our hope and save us from our own cramped vision of what is possible, through Christ our Lord.  Amen.

St. John Climacus, pray for us.

Step 3: Exile

“A true exile, despite his possession of knowledge, sits like someone of foreign speech among men of other tongues”

--St. John Climacus

“Beloved, I urge you as aliens and sojourners to keep away from worldly desires that wage war against the soul.  Maintain good conduct among the Gentiles, so that if they speak of you as evildoers, they may observe your good works and glorify God on the day of visitation.”

--1 Peter 2:11-12

Have you ever experienced what it’s like not to fit in?  Most of us probably have at some point been the new kid on the block or the new person on the job.  Often the feeling of being a stranger in a strange land wears off after awhile.  We become acclimated to a new environment.  We learn the lay of the land.  We learn the rules, written and unwritten.  We learn who to trust and who to watch out for.

One of the challenging things about growing in the Christian life is, the deeper we grow in Christ, the less at home we feel with the world as it is.  When Christ Jesus comes to us, bringing the kingdom of God with him, he invites us into a different way of being.  It’s not a new way.  In fact, it’s the oldest way, the first way, the way of communion with God and with our fellow creatures, the way of Eden.  Humankind abandoned this way and the result has been the breaking of communion.  We have only the faintest idea, the dimmest memory, of what that way of being was like.

Christ has come to remind us and to bring us home.  But we have become so used to living in a broken world that the ways of our true home have become strange to us.  As we relearn those ways, the ways of love, justice, peace, and holiness, we ourselves become strangers to the world we once called home.  We live in two worlds.

Those of us who have had the experience of being immigrants may have a deeper understanding of how this feels.  As Christians we are all immigrants.  And we are all struggling to find our place. We need the strength of the Spirit to stand for the truth of God in a world that sometimes resists it.  We need the gentleness of the Spirit to speak the truth in love.  We need the patience and perseverance of the Spirit to remain faithfully in the world, but not of it.

Prayer:

O God, you invite us to a new and beautiful home where we will all be one in you.  We are not there yet, but we are on the way.  Help us as we live in a world that is not yet our home to remain faithful as we journey toward your kingdom, through Christ our Lord, Amen.

St. John Climacus, pray for us.

Detachment

“If you truly love God… then it will not be possible to have an attachment, or anxiety, or concern for money, for possessions, for family relationships, for worldly glory, for love and brotherhood, indeed for anything of earth.”

--St. John Climacus

“Do not love the world or the things of the world.  If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.”

--1 John 2:15

To my mind, one of the most controversial things that Jesus ever said appears in Luke 15:26, “If anyone comes to me without hating his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple.”  In this saying we hear the demands of the jealous God of Sinai who commands that we have no other gods before him.  How are we to understand this shocking ultimatum?  The answer, I think, is not that we should stop loving our families and others who are important to us or that we should not enjoy this marvelous world in which God has placed us, but that we should learn to love and enjoy them in the right way.

Pam and I used to have a Black Labrador Retriever named Rosie.  We called her our baby, but she was not a baby, she was a dog and we loved her dearly as a dog.  If we had expected her to act like a human child, all three of us would have been very frustrated.  We treated Rosie in ways that were appropriate to her dog-ness.  We all need to learn to love our fellow creatures, both things, like cars and food, and people, like spouses and sports heroes, in ways that are appropriate to their created-ness.

There is only one Necessary Being and that’s God.  The rest of us have been born out of the overflow of his life and love.  I love my family.  How much more should I love the God who gave them to me and who gave me the capacity to love in the first place?  God is our source and our destiny, the spring from which we flow and the ocean into which we empty.  When we remember that, our relationship with everyone and everything else is kept in proper perspective.

Prayer:

O God, help us to love you first and best so that we might use the good things of this world wisely and love our fellow creatures freely.  We turn over all our needs and wants to you, knowing that you alone can satisfy us.  We entrust those we love to your care, knowing that they do not belong to us, but to you, and we thank you for sharing them with us as we walk this earth together, through Christ our Lord, Amen.

St. John Climacus, pray for us.

Introduction

“Ascend, my brothers, ascend eagerly.  Let your hearts’ resolve be to climb.  Listen to the voice of one who says, ‘Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of our God’ (Isaiah 2:3), who makes your feet to be like the feet of the deer, ‘Who sets us on the high places that we might be triumphant on His road’ (Habakkuk 3:19)”

--St. John Climacus

This is an invitation.  It’s an invitation to go up higher, to draw nearer to God.  Like most trips into the high country it is best taken in the company of friends and with the help of an experienced guide.  For company I offer myself and some e-connected fellow pilgrims.  For our guide may I suggest St. John Climacus, author of the spiritual classic, The Ladder of Divine Ascent. 

John was the abbot of a monastery on Mt. Sinai during the 7^th century.  His reputation for holiness and skill in helping his brother monks on their spiritual journey led to an invitation from a neighboring monastic community to write down his approach to growing in the love of God.  The result was the book, The Ladder of Divine Ascent.  In The Ladder Climacus uses the Old Testament imagery of Jacob’s ladder (Genesis 28:12), a stairway between heaven and earth, to describe a series of steps or stages by which we may ascend toward knowledge and love of God.

You may be asking yourself, “How relevant can a book written by a 1400-year-old Middle Eastern hermit be?  What can a dusty old monk have to say to 21^st century Christians?”  I believe there is much we can learn from St. John of the Ladder.  He had to deal with many of the same issues and obstacles to spirituality that we face today: setting priorities, distractions, unhealthy appetites, relationships.   Climacus knows that there are things that are pulling us down, keeping us from real communion with God.  He is also encouraging, and knows that God is eager to help us and wants us to come to him.  And as a brother in Christ, Climacus shares with us a common goal, developing a love relationship with God.  Unlike some of his contemporaries, he doesn’t dwell on the contemplation of God, which can seem abstract or impersonal.  For Climacus the ultimate is a warm personal connection with God.  We can all relate to that.

Through the centuries The Ladder has proven itself very useful to Christians pursuing the upward call of Christ.  Shall we join them?  Let’s make the climb together.

Prayer:

O God, you call us all to yourself.  In this season of Lent we hear your call anew and recommit ourselves to climbing step by step toward our goal of communion with you, through Christ our Lord.  Amen.

St. John Climacus, pray for us.