Two Criteria of Authentic Spirituality.

        “Test the spirits,” admonishes Saint John (I Jn 4:1). What are the chief signs of genuine spiritual life? Staretz Silouan knew well the subtleties of the spiritual struggle and how easily we can fall prey to pride and vainglory. He especially emphasized two criteria of authentic Christian life: love and humility. In his own struggles Silouan was drawn more and more to Christ's humble, self‑emptying love for all people and for all creation. Silouan lived the strict life of Athonite monasticism but his spirit was not rigid, doctrinaire, self‑righteous or triumphalistic. He strove to understand and to serve every person. Those who differed with him, he treated with gentleness and respect. He was a man with a child‑like, tender heart. Spontaneous love radiated from him and embraced all people and all things without differentiation.

  Silouan held a remarkably enlightened view of people of other faiths. He would not pronounce judgment on any person, far or near. Sure of his own faith experience, he intuitively sensed that God has His ways with all of the world's people whom He loves dearly. Silouan constantly prayed that all people might turn to God and come to know His love. Once in a conversation with a certain hermit, the latter declared with evident satisfaction: “God will punish all atheists. They will burn in everlasting fire.” Distressed with such an attitude, Saint Silouan replied: “Tell me, supposing you went to paradise and there looked down and saw somebody in hell‑fire, would you feel happy?” The hermit responded: “it can't be helped. It would be their own fault.” Silouan said: “Love could not bear that. We must pray for all.”^[117]

        Silouan shed many tears especially for those who did not know God. He wrote: “Day and night I pray to the Lord for love, and the Lord gives me tears to weep for the whole world.”^[118] This is an image of how God loves us, gently and without reproach, just as the father of the Gospel story did not reproach his prodigal son. When a Christian experiences such love everything rejoices in him. When he loses awareness of it, he can not find peace, is troubled, blames others, and does not realize that he himself is at fault. Love of God and love of neighbor are the highest aspects of the Christian experience. Without them life becomes burdensome. Silouan is lyrical about God's love as reflected in the following references:

O brethren, there is nothing better than the love of God when the Lord fires the

soul with love for God and our fellow‑man... The man who knows the delight of

the love of God... loves both God and man (and) knows in part that the Kingdom

of God is within us. Blessed is the soul that loves her brother, for our brother is

our life.^[119]

Divine love, according to Silouan, reaches out to all things, including all creatures and plants. A story in the newspapers some time ago related how a dog jumped into a well after a three year old boy and held him up until the lad was rescued. Love is in all things and unites all things. A person must respond with love not only to people but also to nature and everything in it. Here are Silouan's words about a simple leaf:

That green leaf on the tree which you needlessly plucked: it was not wrong, only

rather a pity for the little leaf. The heart that has learned to love feels sorry for every

created thing. But man is a supreme creation, and therefore if you see that he has

gone astray and is bringing destruction upon himself pray for him... the soul that acts

after this fashion is loved of the Lord, for she is like unto Him.^[120]

The highest expression of love, and the surest criterion of Christian truth, is love of enemies, says the Saint. True love cannot suffer a single soul to perish. For Christ there are no “enemies,” for the very word implies rejection. They are brothers and sisters who need our love and prayers. Christ prayed for those who crucified Him. Saint Stephen the First Martyr prayed for those who stoned him. So we must urge ourselves to love those who revile or injure us. If we cannot love, at least let us not revile. A person who reviles or despises those who are against him, brings spiritual injury to himself and shows that an evil spirit is working in him. But divine love cannot be attained by human beings without divine grace. We cannot love our enemies without having the Holy Spirit. When we humble ourselves and pray for those who affront us, God works impossible things in the heart. On one occasion Silouan states that the soul is so wounded by divine love that it “loses its wits.” Even devils can rouse its pity because they were once God's creatures now fallen from the good.

        The second criterion of authentic spiritual life is humility. “Were I to be asked,” declares Staretz Silouan, “what would I have of God, what gifts, I should answer: 'The spirit of humility in which the Lord rejoices above all things.'“^[121] Silouan learned true humility after years of intense struggles which seemed to cast him into the abyss of despair. According to the Staretz, one night while yet in the midst of his struggles, his cell was filled with devils. A large devil stood in front of him so that Silouan could not pray before his icon without seemingly worshiping the foul creature. Silouan prayed fervently to God saying: “Tell me what I must do that they may leave me.” The Lord's reply was: “The proud always suffer from many devils... Keep your mind in hell, and despair not.”^[122] According to Silouan's interpretation, this was not a counsel of despair but an admonition to check spiritual pride. Let the Christian keep his mind on his sinfulness and the judgment of hell, but let him despair not because of God's love which forgives, reconciles and saves.

        True humility is the crucifixion of self‑will and obedience to God's will under all circumstances and in all things. The whole spiritual warfare wages around humility because the proud person does not want to obey God. He likes to be his own master. But where there is pride, there cannot be grace. Fight the evil one, exhorts Silouan, with the weapon of humility. Humility is the principal power. The soul of the humble person is like the sea: throw a stone into the water and for a moment it will the surface. But then it sink to the bottom. We are not humble and therefore we torment ourselves and others. We boast and compete over trifles, and so make ourselves and others unhappy. The humble soul enjoys great peace, while the proud soul is a torment to itself. The Christian can lapse into self‑assurance and spiritual pride in subtle ways, as the Saint had learned from experience:

At first when a man begins to work for the Lord grace gives him the strength to

be zealous after good, all I s easy and effortless; and seeing this, in his inexperience

he thinks to himself: 'I shall continue thus zealously all my life long,' and at the

same time he exalts himself above those who live carelessly, and begins to pass

judgment on them. And so he loses the grace that was helping him to keep God’s

commandments. And he does not understand what happened everything was going

so well with him, but now it is all so difficult and he feels no desire to pray.^[123]

If such a person who exalts himself over others does not humble himself and repent, a ravaging inner struggle begins. He becomes inwardly oppressed until he turns to the Lord. But suffering will profit him nothing if he does not humble himself. So long as the soul lacks humility, wrong thoughts and evil impulses will always torment it. But when the soul humbles itself, it will find forgiveness, serenity and holiness in God.

        Silouan was greatly attracted to the humility of Christ who said: “Learn from me; for I am gentle and lowly in heart” (Mt. 11 :29). The Staretz instructs Christians to take great pains to preserve the humble spirit of Christ, for without it the light of grace is extinguished and the soul dies. Some, says Silouan, after many years of struggle, do not understand why things are not well with them, why they do not feel peace and their souls are cast down. The reason is that they have not walked the humble way of the Lord but inwardly exalt themselves. But when the soul truly sees that the Lord is meek and lowly, it utterly humbles itself. Then the peace of Christ enters the soul and the soul, like the righteous Job of the Old Testament, is glad to sit among the ashes and behold others in glory. Out of love the soul wishes every human being more good than it wishes for itself. It delights when it sees others happier and grieves when it sees them suffering. This is the way of the Lord.