11. Sicknesses of the Will and Heart. Anger.

Such, then, are the varied difficulties facing a priest which arise from the convictions of

his flock: from their unbelief, weak faith, false beliefs and various types of delusion or,

on the other hand, from despondency and despair. Most of these ailments have appeared

recently, not more than 50 or 60 years ago, and have spread throughout the Russian

Empire only in the last 25 to 30 years. These sicknesses are still almost completely

unknown to the other local Orthodox Churches which have been under the power of the

Turks.

Now it is time to move on to the discussion of sicknesses of the will and heart, that

is to say, the sicknesses of Christians within the society of the Church. (Almost all the

sicknesses of the soul which have been mentioned thus far place people outside the

Church, and such people have, in effect, to be received back into the Church if they offer

repentance.)

The ancient Fathers usually expound the teaching about healing the soul according

to the eight or nine basic passions. All the holy teachers of asceticism give an almost

identical list of the passions. Such a diagnosis of our spiritual infirmities and approach to

healing them is incomparably more correct than the enumeration of sins or sinful acts,

which is accepted by the Latins. To wage war only with the sins that make their

appearance as actual deeds would be just as unsuccessful as cutting down weeds in a

garden instead of digging them up at the root and throwing them out. Sins appear as

inevitable outgrowths from their roots, the passions of the soul. Spiritual fathers must

explain to their flocks in their sermons, and especially in the sermon before confession,

that their struggle must be waged against the passion itself, against the sinful disposition,

and that limiting repentance to sinful acts is far from sufficient. On exactly the same

principles, it is impossible to set one’s mind at ease by the fact that one allows oneself to

commit relatively few sinful acts: Christian perfection consists of constant good

inclinations and dispositions, and it is essential to cultivate these in oneself. The Ten

Commandments of the Old Testament prohibit sinful deeds, but the Beatitudes of Christ

concern not deeds, but dispositions. Of these, surely only peacemaking can be called a

deed, but even this is only attainable for those faithful who have nourished their souls

with heartfelt good will towards people. The endless dispute of the theologians of Europe

as to whether a Christian is saved by faith or by good deeds reveals in both camps a

common lack of understanding of our salvation. If these theologians do not wish to learn

a correct understanding of this from the Saviour, then the Apostle Paul depicts it even

more clearly: “The fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness,

goodness, faith, meekness, temperance” (Gal. 5:22). It is not the deeds by themselves that

have value in the eyes of God, but the constant state of soul which these words describe.

Of course, one must force oneself to perform deeds both of piety and of brotherly love,

but their value is only relative, as a means of maintaining and increasing the intensity of

one’s virtuous and grace-filled state, which will be extinguished without corresponding

struggles and inner warfare, like a fire without fuel. Stephan Yavorskyxiii was, therefore,

quite correct when he wrote in his Rock of Faith that faith, contrary to the teaching of the

Protestants, does not of itself compel anyone to do good deeds, except in certain isolated

instances. These instances, I will add myself, will be less and less frequently repeated if a

Christian does not carry out the two exercises of spiritual warfare or asceticism, selfopposition

and self-compulsion: otherwise he will undergo a “shipwreck of faith,”xiv as

the Apostle Paul puts it, for only “by works is faith made perfect” (James 2:22). Thus

faith is not a “merit,” faith by itself does not save, but it is an essential condition for

spiritual perfection, through which salvation is attained; and it is in this sense that the

Apostle says that without faith it is impossible to please God. Pleasing God consists

precisely in these fruits of the spirit, about which St. Paul speaks, and which are

cultivated by inner warfare and labours of piety; not by one’s own strength alone, but

with the assistance of the grace of God, given in answer to the prayer of a believer.

A spiritual father must interrogate and advise those coming to confession from this

point of view, so that they will understand that they sin against God and their salvation

not only by allowing themselves sinful actions or repeating them many times, but also by

not being concerned to implant Christian virtues in their souls, and not struggling against

the passions which are concealed in the soul and drive it towards sinful thoughts,

feelings, words and actions.

Now let us approach mere closely the question as to what sort of advice a priest

should give to penitents. He must open their eyes to the passions and sinful tendencies

arising from them, which will be a constant and unstemmable source of sins until the

cause itself is taken away. Thus, for example, a Christian laments to you that she (or he)

is constantly quarrelling with the people at home, cannot live in harmony with her

husband or other relations and admits that she herself is to blame for this: she constantly

“gets cross” whenever her instructions are not fulfilled and whenever she is addressed or

otherwise treated with insufficient respect. In this case it must be explained that she (or

he) does not “get cross,” but is angry because of a sinful tendency towards anger, one of

the eight chief passions which lead us away from salvation. Once one has realized how

sinful and destructive this passion is (for almost none of the world’s most terrible crimes

would occur if people did not give themselves up to anger), the first step in healing it is to

admit that one is suffering from this passion, or its inception: to admit that one is

spiritually sick and needs to be healed. According to the teaching of the Holy Fathers, the

second medicine against this passion, as against every other passion, should be our

“righteous anger” against the passion that is afflicting us, in this case, against our anger

itself. The Creator placed the faculty of anger in us so that we can direct this feeling

against our own sins, against passions and the devil, but certainly not for use against our

neighbors or enemies. Jesus the son of Sirach says, “The very action of anger is already a

fall.” But, of course, these methods of struggle are still insufficient. The passion is

weakened by half when this is realized, but it is not killed. It remains to strive gradually

after perfect angerlessness. It will be understood that the principal means is to pray about

this morning and evening, and also whenever you meet a person with whom you

habitually become irritated. Then struggle with the actual appearance of your passion,

and if you cannot restrain your tongue from angry and offensive words, then stop the

conversation: either go away from the place where it began, or stop talking, or lead the

conversation on to another subject. In most cases it will be sufficient for you to do this

two or three times for the other person to follow your lead; and the first rays of mutual

friendship shining forth will strike the soul with such joy that both will be amazed at

themselves, as to why they quarreled and tormented themselves and each other, depriving

themselves of the joy of holy friendship. Certainly it is not always possible to remove the

spirit of anger and arguing from one’s family or society. It sometimes happens that, at the

inspiration of the devil, one of your neighbors becomes even more argumentative when

he notices that you have humbled yourself in your heart. Instead of emulating you, he

might well be imbued with malicious envy of your meekness, and will become even more

daring and increase his malicious words and acts. Then you should know that this cross

comes to you from God, and if you cannot go away from such a person or, as it is said in

spiritual books, “give place to anger,” then at least try to preserve peace and good will

toward such a person, as it says in the Psalm: ‘I was peaceful with those who hated

peace.” Preserve your soul from anger and malicious revenge and give special

consideration as to what attitude to take towards your malicious neighbour, praying to

God and asking the advice of your superiors. To some people it is not even useful to

show a constant and meek submission, especially to a malicious wife or conceited son.

One should be punished and the other separated from oneself. God will guide you in this,

and if, wishing the best, you make a mistake, you will not be to blame for this before

God, provided only that anger did not penetrate into your heart and rule over it.

Angerlessness is a great acquisition: you will obtain a multitude of friends with this

gift, both in heaven and on earth. If we thought more about our souls and the value of

spiritual gifts, we would understand how much joy the latter obtain for us even on earth

in comparison with the material treasures that most people chase after. Thus they forget

God and their conscience but, when they have acquired them, all they have is

disillusionment.

Angerlessness and the meekness which comes with it is a life-giving light which

pours itself out, without any effort on the part of the person bearing it, on those around,

and fills them with zeal to emulate it. This very freedom from anger was one of the most

important reasons for the spread of Christianity, both in its earliest period and in the lives

of the more recent preachers of the faith — Leonty of Rostov, Stephan of Perm and

others. This was the meaning of the words of the Saviour, and even earlier, of the

Psalmist — “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth” (Ps. 36). But if you do

not manage to acquire freedom from anger so successfully, and this passion, to which you

have long been enslaved, again and again overcomes you in the form of angry outbursts

against your neighbours, then offer tearful repentance over this, lest anger should turn

into hatred, the most repulsive sin in God’s eyes: “He who hates his brother is a

murderer,” as the Apostle John writes in his first epistle. The most effective medicine

against anger and irritability, although it is also the most bitter at the first draught, is to

ask forgiveness after a quarrel. It is bitter for human pride but, if it is bitter, hasten even

more to make use of it, for it is bitter only for the proud, and if it seems so intolerable to

you, then know that you have within you yet another serious disease, pride. Sit down and

think over your own soul, and pray that the Lord help you to master yourself and to ask

forgiveness and peace from the person you have offended, even if he is more to blame

than you.

Is it necessary to speak of the joyful fruits of such a victory over yourself and over

the devil? Once your heart has been softened, how easy it will be the second time, even

without any struggle to ask forgiveness! This is like the ability to swim: until a person has

made himself to float on the water and swim it seems impossible to him; he is terrified

and struggles with himself. But when he has swum even once, he will subsequently jump

in and swim without any fear. Pay attention also to the opposite side of things: if you do

not make peace with your neighbour, your prayers will be in vain and your repentance

fruitless, and receiving Communion will be to your judgement. This is why a priest must

unfailingly ask all those coming to confession whether they harbor any malice against

their neighbors and if they have made peace with all those with whom they have

quarreled — or, if unable to see them personally, if they have made peace with them in

their hearts. Explain at this point that on Mount Athos spiritual fathers not only do not

permit monks who bear malice against their neighbour to serve in church or commune the

Holy Mysteries; but also, when they read their rule of prayer, they have to omit from the

Lord’s Prayer the words “forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors,” so as not to be

liars before God. Thus the monk is made to realize that he is no longer a Christian, if he

cannot even say the Lord’s Prayer.