Category Archives: Passions

Entering the Great Fast

20 Monday Feb 2012

Posted by in Fasting, Lent, Passions, Salvation, Theosis

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 Homily of Fr. James Hademenos Sunday February 19, 2012 at Assumption of the Virgin Mary Orthodox Church

Today is the Sunday of the Last Judgment.  We all know that these Sundays before Great Lent are Sundays of Preparation.  What are they preparing us for?  Obviously, for the Great Fast.  But, why does the Church place such emphasis on the Great Fast, even giving us these preparatory Sundays?  Why is the Sunday of the Last Judgment one of those preparatory Sundays?

To answer these questions, we must first ask another question.  What is the purpose of our life in the Church?  The answer is quite simple, actually:  everything that the Church does, all the Holy Mysteries, all the services, all the Feasts and Fasts, the cycles of the Church year, everything has but one purpose.  That purpose is to bring all of us along on a journey of salvation.

In the teaching of the Orthodox Church, salvation is a process.  It’s not magic or automatic.  Salvation, or theosis, is something that we actually have to work out in co-operation with God.  We actually have to deliberately enter into this process and struggle with it; however, we do have free will.  We can choose to enter into this process, or we can choose to ignore it.  But the consequences of our choice are huge.  They are eternal.  This is a matter of eternal life or eternal death.

What are the steps or stages of this process?  “What must I do to be saved?”

According to the Fathers of the Church, there are two aspects to the process.  First, there is the cleansing of the passions, and second there is the winning of the virtues.  This is expressed in a number of ways in the Holy Scriptures.  St. Paul talks about dying to self, that Christ may live in us.  He talks about “putting off the old man and putting on the new”.  He talks about putting to death the works of the flesh and gaining the fruit of the Holy Spirit.  All of these are talking about the same thing:  the cleansing of the passions and the winning of the virtues.  They are talking about this process of theosis, of salvation, this process of turning from our old fallen ways and turning to God, coming into union or communion with God.

We must be persistent, as the Canaanite woman was, and to keep on seeking salvation and healing from God no matter what the obstacles may be.  We’ve already focused upon the fact that God is a loving god and that He wants us to come back to Him, no matter how far we’ve wandered away.  When we do turn from our old ways and flee back to Him, He welcomes us with open arms and great joy.  That was the message of the Prodigal Son.

We’ve already talked about the passions and the virtues.  Pride is a passion, humility is a virtue.  We had that vivid picture of this on the Sunday of the Publican and the Pharisee.

But, the question now is:  why should we enter into this process?  What will motivate us to actually begin to work on these things?  That’s what this Sunday is all about.  Judgment day is coming!  The day when we will finally stand before God, when all of our masks will be stripped from us and our eternal destiny will become clear.

So, the question becomes:  “What have I done to prepare for the Judgment?”  Have I just continued in my old ways, continued in the works of the flesh, continued doing what I’ve always done?  Or have I entered into the process of returning to God?  Am I putting to death the old man in order that Christ may live in me, or is the old man alive and well?  Have I actually struggled with the cleansing of the passions, and the winning of the virtues?

The fear of the Last Judgment is that which will motivate us to do something about our eternal life.  In fact, St. Maximus the Confessor lists the fear of God, the fear of sin, and the fear of the Last Judgment as the second stage, or step, in the process of salvation.  This is what the Sunday of the Last Judgment is all about.  The Church reminds us of the judgment of God in order to motivate us to actually do something about our salvation.

And this doing something, actually entering into the process, is what the Great Fast is all about.  It’s a time of participating in the death of Christ that we may also participate in the Resurrection of Christ.  It is a time of actually struggling with putting off the passions and putting on the virtues.

And just what are the passions that we are to struggle with during the Great Fast?  Passions are such things as gluttony, greed, anger, dejection, apathy, self-esteem, and pride.  And these are listed in a hierarchy.  Let’s talk about the first passion in the list; that is, gluttony which is dealing with the passion of the stomach.  We must replace this passion with the virtues of self-control, of hungering and thirsting after Righteousness, of hunger for God, of hunger for the Holy Body and Blood of Christ.

If we don’t enter into the fast, we haven’t even begun to struggle with our passions!  Obviously, we haven’t been sufficiently motivated to even take the first step in this Lenten journey to Holy Pascha.  “And Jesus said to them, ‘I am the bread of life.  He who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst.’”

The Great Fast, the Lenten journey is full of great joy, for it’s a time for drawing ever closer to the Lover of our soul, for actually working out our salvation in the embrace of His loving arms.

Fasting is not about food

21 Monday Nov 2011

Posted by in Fasting, Humility, Passions, Spiritual Disciplines

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Icon of the Nativity of our Lord

Last week the 40 day Nativity Fast began. For those who are not familiar with fasting in the Eastern Orthodox tradition, the fast begins on November 15 and runs through Christmas morning. During this fasting period one is to refrain from meat and dairy. Fish is allowed for the first couple of weeks. After that only vegetables, fruit and grains are eaten. Considering the time of year, this is a particularly difficult fasting period.  Hence, it was appropriate that I read the following from Elder Ephraim shortly after the fast began.

Fasting is not just about abstention from food, but primarily strict abstinence of the senses. When the senses are fed by external things, they transmit a corresponding amount of poison to the nous and the heart, which kills the poor soul’s life in God.

Fasting, it seems is not really about food at all. It is about removing from us focus on external things and reorienting towards the internal and spiritual. Our senses open us up to the world around us. Our senses of taste, sight, smell, touch and hearing. And, it is through our senses that the poison of the world infects us. Food is essential for life, but what do we let it become? We let it and our stomach become our master. After each meal we begin to wonder, “What will I have for dinner?” We long and even lust after rich and luxurious foods because they are pleasing to smell,  and taste. During the Holiday season, we give ourselves free license to indulge in whatever we desire. But, this preoccupation with that which is pleasing to us is not limited to our stomach.

Our eyes long to turn to frivolous and lurid entertainment. Our ears search for gossip, and the loud cacophony of music and incessant talk to fill our hours and minds. We long to touch what we cannot have. And, each of these things, when not held in proper balance, introduces the lust and poison of the passions into our heart.This is what fasting is about – reorienting our focus off of our physical senses and redirecting us toward the spiritual senses. We should fast not only from food but from  that which we most desire to do. It is the gate to the freedom of the Spirit.

Peace be with you.

Step 25 of the Ladder – Destroy the passions

14 Thursday Apr 2011

Posted by in Denial of Self, Lent, Passions, Spiritual Formation

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Part of a series of Lenten reflections on “The Ladder of Divine Ascent” by St. John Climacus

King Canute rebukes his courtiers

Humility is the destroyer of the passions. The passions are those things, and desires that control us, that drive our experience and life. They are the same, and yet they are different for each of us – anger, pride, arrogance, lust, pleasure, wealth, covetousness, greed, jealousy  - these are the things that separate us from the life of God. They cannot be conquered by will power, vows, resolutions and even our own work and effort. They can only be overcome through humility. The only way to become more like God is for us to deny ourselves and our desires, and to seek to become less and less.

It is ironic that when we think we have attained humility, with that thought we immediately fall in to pride again.  Humility is something that we can only attain through experience. St. John writes that trying to explain humility to another by words, “is like a man who by words and comparisons wants to give an idea of the sweetness of honey to people who have never tasted it.” “Humility,” John goes on, “is a nameless grace in the soul, it’s name known only to those who have learned it by experience.”

It is through repentance that this experience comes. St. John likens this work to the process of baking bread. By repentance the soul is broken and refined, like the grinding of the grain into flour. Through this it is brought to  a certain unity which God can then work and commingle with the water of genuine mourning. When we are ready, kindled by the fire of God the bread of blessed humility grows and is made firm without the leaven of pride.  We know this process through its effects and properties. First, we  learn to accept indignity with the greatest pleasure. Next follows the loss of bad temper, and the gaining of humility in its place. And, third, is the distrust of one’s good qualities and a constant desire to learn.

Most of us cannot or do not achieve this because we really do not believe that we are sinners. We might say that we are sinners, but, as St. John writes, it is when we suffer from indignity that our heart is truly tested. When you are insulted does your spirit grow stiff and angry, chaffing at the indignity? If so, then you really believe you are righteous and void of sin. We must learn that we are sinners. Repentance is the only true prerequisite for spiritual growth. Without a spirit of repentance our desire to grow in humility is futile.

But, growing in repentance and humility cannot be done alone, it must be learned in a community. Only by seeing humility lived out, can we learn what it is. St. John describes this well. “A horse when alone often imagines that it is galloping, but when it is with others it finds out how slow it is.” Humility is a tower of strength and the only sure guard against evil and sin for, “there is one virtue only [humility] which the demons cannot imitate.” After all it was arrogance, pride and vainglory that caused Satan to fall.

Humility does not come from the mind or the attitude. It is born out of our bodily activity. It was the Master himself who showed us this truth. “The Master knowing that the virtue of the soul is modelled on outward behaviour, took a towel and showed us how to walk the way of humility.” It is in this way, John says, the soul becomes like the bodily occupations and conforms itself to the body’s activities and takes its shape from them. This reveals again the unity of the spirit and the body and enlightens for us the path to humility. It is action, and not thoughts and words that make us into the image of God.

Pax Vobis

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