The Ascetical Homilies of St. Isaac the Syrian - Homily I, Part I

It bears saying that we find ourselves upon a privileged path as we begin this new journey with Saint Isaac the Syrian. To have access to his writings and access to such a translation in the West is a recent phenomenon and one not to be taken lightly. Further it is often said that Isaac is the greatest of the Desert Fathers in that through his writings one can move from being a novice in the spiritual life to the heights of contemplation.

Immediately, one discovers that Isaac is unique and distinctive in his manner of approaching the spiritual life. He appeals to our capacity in faith to comprehend divine love and what has been revealed to us through Christ. It is what we comprehend in faith that fills the heart with wonder; that we are embraced by a love that never ends and that only seeks to raise us up out of the darkness of sin to the fullness of light. Isaac understands that, made in the image and likeness of God, we are going to be driven by desire; that is, a sense of lack and incompleteness. God has made us for himself and we only find our identity and the fullness for which we long in him.

Our struggle is our attachment to the things of this world, including our own ego – the self. There are so many things that vie for our attention that the “one thing necessary” is often pushed out to the margins of our life or out of mind altogether. The love out of which we have been created and the lavish love through which we have been redeemed is often supplanted by that which eventually turns to dust.

Our awareness of this should produce within us a fear that creates a movement toward God. Repentance is simply or acting on that awareness; turning away from our sin and our attachment to the things of this world and opening ourselves up to the healing grace and mercy of God. It is for this reason that Isaac does not focus on the development of virtue and the overcoming of vice as others do. For ultimately, we are not seeking the perfection of natural virtue or even to exceed what we understand as the heights of virtue. Rather, we are to understand the ascetic life is radically tied to being “in Christ”. In other words, the radical transformation that takes place through the grace that we receive through baptism, the Eucharist, and through the gift of the Holy Spirit leads to our participation in the life of the Trinity. Deification is what has been promised to those of faith. It is divine humility, divine love, divine compassion, and divine vulnerability that we are to embody. This takes place not through raw grit but rather through abandonment to Christ in a spirit of humility. As we let go of the illusion of self identity, independent of Christ, the true self begins to emerge. 
Thus if we take anything away from this evening’s discussion and reflection it should be the sense of wonder and desire that Isaac seeks to cultivate within the human heart. Love alone endures and the desire it produces inflames the heart to pursue the Beloved and the Life of the Kingdom.

---

Text of chat during the group: 

00:15:34 Bob Cihak: Father's Substack comments are another blessing for me. The come by email to me, several times daily and are beautifully succinct, most of the time.

00:17:15 Sr. Mary Clare: Thank you, Father!

00:36:18 Ren Witter: Sr. Barbara - would you mind sending your question to the whole group in the chat so that the people reading/listening to the podcast know what you asked? (I think your question must have been sent directly to Fr. Charbel).

00:36:30 mflory: The whole first paragraph is a chain of practices/virtues: reflection on the “restitution” (providence/the second coming) leads to withdrawal from the world which leads to control of thoughts which leads to faith which leads to fear of God which leads to virtue.

00:36:33 Jamie: Reacted to "Sr. Barbara - woul..." with 👍

00:37:26 mflory: Mark

00:38:37 Sr Barbara Jean Mihalchick: Sentence two begins with "It"  - referring to fear of the Lord or to faith?

00:38:42 Eric Jobe: Some comments:
The fear of God - it strikes me like the Freudio-Lacanian notion of symbolic castration, whereby we are inscribed into the divine order of virtue.

In Syriac, St. Isaac specifically says that one “takes the opportunity to withdraw his mind from the world” This is important I think - we have an opportunity that we must deliberately take.

…
00:39:21 Ren Witter: Reacted to " Sentence two begins..." with 👍🏼

00:40:19 Eric Jobe: This “reflection on the restitution to come” is more evocative in the Syriac. There is a kind of dazzling imagination - sharagragriatha. And “restitution” is the order of the age to come - tuqana. It is a positive thing to meditate on imaginatively, not the judgment to come.

00:41:15 Josh: Would it be possible to get a link to the copy of the book that is being used? I missed the email that may've said it.

00:41:47 Ren Witter: https://www.bostonmonks.com/product_info.php/products_id/635/?srsltid=AfmBOorJmXoZG7njKJoH-E9BPgTnoNHhClUY3JtkWMW_1R4AAeZ_fCRp

00:41:47 ANDREW ADAMS: Replying to "Would it be possible..."

https://www.bostonmonks.com/product_info.php/cPath/75_105/products_id/635

00:41:55 Jamie: Can we interpret fear as aligned with awe? By that I mean: fear implies awareness of unknown about the object we fear. God is the ultimate mystery...we can't know him perfectly, so the fear is a healthy appreciation for "other". It's living in the reality that God is entirely other than creation. We appreciate how utterly other God is as object, so we fear God in awe and wonder. We will never fully know God, even as we grow in intimacy with him, so we continue to fear / awe God. It's a healthy thing. Is this a workable interpretation? If this is workable, it would seem the beginning of virtue is to appreciate God as not me, akin to he must increase and I must decrease. It's a fear that leads me closer to God -- not driven away, because this Utterly Other is the object who can provide for me all my needs.

00:42:04 Niño: I think the modern day problem is that we often associate the Love for God with emotionalism or sensationalism ...but like what you said father..the discipline, the virtues are ways of showing and increasing our love for God 

00:42:05 David: Is the focus on fear of the lord similar to training wheels to focus our attention on God and push away the work of the evil thoughts often using fear. I see later writings say once you have mastered the fear then you focus on love of God and each moment and expression of love possibly leaving fear like training wheels behind?

00:42:07 Josh: Replying to "Would it be possible..."

Thank you!

00:42:15 Josh: Replying to "https://www.bostonmo..."

Thank you!

00:43:21 Eric Jobe: Replying to " Sentence two begins..."

“Fear” most likely. It’s ambiguous in Syriac, but “fear” is the grammatical topic.

00:44:16 Ren Witter: Standard procedure for questions: If you have a question you would like Fr. Charnel to respond to in the group, please type your question, and then “raise your hand.” Once Father sees the hand, and calls your name, send the message.

00:45:47 Anthony: So "restitution" is like "restoration."

00:45:54 Niño: Reacted to So "restitution" is ... with "❤️"

00:46:12 Jamie: Reacted to "Standard procedure..." with 👍

00:48:09 Anthony: A spirituality of "The Song of Songs."

00:48:34 Jamie: Reacted to "So "restitution" i..." with ✍️

00:50:34 Gina Marie: Reacted to "Standard procedure f..." with 👍

00:50:45 Rebecca Thérèse: I don't know about Syriac but in biblical Hebrew (a closely related Semitic language) "fear" as in "the fear of the Lord" can also be translated "reverence".

00:57:39 Anthony: $ for land too. 😉

00:58:08 Ryan Ngeve: Father is there a connection between Isaac’s phrase on the fear of God and proverbs 9:10?

00:59:04 David: Reacted to "Father is there a co..." with 👍

00:59:35 Nick Bodmer: People are realizing that they aren't fulfilled, so they are trying all these things to have a chance to fill the void within themselves.

01:00:22 Niño: Reacted to People are realizing... with "❤️"

01:01:48 Eric Jobe: “Contain himself” could be translated from Syriac as “recollects”, which brings up the prodigal son as well as the myriad of statements of the Fathers on the notion of recollection.

01:04:00 Eric Jobe: “Honor” is plural in the Syriac. It likely refers to many instances of others giving honor, like we may say in English: “He received many honors from the military.”

01:06:07 Jamie: In his high priestly prayer, Jesus prays that the Father would glorify him. Jesus can handle being honored, but he does NOT seek honor from men...he seeks it from his heavenly Father. If we are to imitate God in fear, healthy appreciate and awe for God as the provider of all our needs, then we should seek the glory God wishes to give us, which likely means Cross in this world and heavenly paradise in the next (because heaven we will see him face to face...the ultimate honor).

01:07:19 Catherine Eisenbrandt: Father how do you tell the difference between when you need to be obedient and accept “good” active things as service and when not to engage

01:12:13 Niño: Without Love for God, there is no real love for neighbor

Christ showed His love for us by dying on the cross to save us from sin death and hell... Therefore the Love of a neighbor also means to admonish them of obvious sin and to help them, if they are willing, to go to confession 

01:13:49 St. Stanislaus Kostka Religious Education: Next Sunday's Gospel includes being concerned more abou the splinter in the other's eye rather than the beam in our own.

01:17:04 maureencunningham: Thank  You Father Blessing

01:17:21 Jamie: Reacted to "Thank  You Father ..." with 🙏

01:17:40 Niño: Salamat Padre (Thank you Father-Filipino language)

01:18:34 Julie’s iPhone: Thank you Father 
You are in my prayers

01:18:53 Laura: Reacted to "Thank you Father 
Yo..." with 👍🏼

01:19:14 ANDREW ADAMS: Thanks be to God! Thank you, Father!

01:19:15 Dave Warner | AL: Thank you Father!

01:19:16 David: Thank you Father. God bless you and your mother!

01:19:17 Rebecca Thérèse: Thank you🙂

01:19:24 Jeffrey Ott: Thank you!

01:19:25 Mari: Thank you

01:19:31 Tommie’s iPhone: Glory to Jesus Christ

01:19:32 Gina Marie: Thank you, Father!

01:19:35 Sr Barbara Jean Mihalchick: Thank you!

01:19:45 Ben: Thank you, Father! God bless.