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

Saint Isaac the Syrian begins this homily with the words: “The soul that loves God finds rest only in God.“ This thought permeates all that is to follow. Our weaning ourselves from our attachment to the things of the world and our own self-esteem and judgment opens our eyes to the love and freedom that is ours in Christ. To see this, Saint Isaac tells us, one must engage in the ascetic life; that is, we must discipline the body through vigils, prayer fasting and the like; cultivating the heart in such a way that not only desires God above all things, but is willing to suffer every hardship for his sake. Indeed it is suffering and humiliation that frees us from the yoke of the self to such an extent that we can embrace such hardship with joy. In fact, the one who flees the futile glory of this world already has come to see something of the hope of the age to come. St. Isaac wants us to understand that our freedom from attachment to the things of the world does not merely mean our possession of riches, but rather also the acquisition of anything to which our will clings. Until this takes place, we are scattering with one hand what we have gathered with the other. All that we hold onto prevents us from rising above a worldly understanding of justice and prevents us from experiencing true freedom in our actions.

We cannot show mercy to others except through what has been gained through our own labor and hardship. To sow from another man’s seed is to make our actions ingenuine and hypocritical. It’s a reflection of our desire to isolate ourselves from the suffering of our fellow man. What Isaac is preparing us to see is that we are not simply called to be merciful at the highest level of natural virtue or even what we would see as virtue elevated by the grace of God. Rather, we are called to be merciful as our Heavenly Father is merciful, to be perfect as our heavenly Father is perfect. This means giving to everyone who ask of us and not expecting our goods to return to us; not merely to suffer injustice or to have our possessions taken from us, but also to be willing to lay down our life for our brother. Our mercy must be such and our love for our brother so great that even if we were to be treated shamelessly and abusively, our desire would be not to grieve our brother‘s heart. 

Guided by intellect and reason alone we have already reached the level of absurdity. In the months to come, we will be shown that the mercy and love of God stretches far beyond the measures of man’s mind. The love of God has the very dimensions of God Himself.

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Text of chat during the group:

00:18:47 Bob Čihák, AZ: P. 141, start of Homily 4, first paragraph

00:34:05 Myles Davidson: On the subject of suffering for Christ, “contempt and humiliation with good will”… I’m reading an extraordinary book called The Autobiography Of A Hunted Priest by John Gerard S.J. written by an English Jesuit priest who survived the Elizabethan anti-Catholic police-state known as the penal times. These young English Catholic men would travel to the continent to attend seminary, knowing when they returned they would be constantly hunted and faced a high chance of imprisonment, torture and martyrdom via being hung, drawn and quartered. While the author lived to tell the tale, he did suffer horrendous conditions in prison and painful torture. What is striking about the story, is the joy and peace he often experienced under these conditions and the often profound effect he had on his jailers. A very real example of “suffering contempt and humiliation with good will”. The book is a real faith booster!

00:35:10 Ryan Ngeve: Father what makes the trope of the fool-for-Christ different from those who actively seek humiliation or other forms of false piety

00:40:18 David: The movie "The Island" has a good example of a fool for Christ who is ideal as a follower of Christ and showing humility and humor.

00:40:25 Anthony: St Gabriel of Georgia should be patron of political philosophers but he was a fool for Christ.

00:40:34 Ben: Replying to "The movie "The Islan..."

👍

00:40:49 Julie: Reacted to "The movie "The Islan…" with ❤️

00:42:05 Myles Davidson: Replying to "The movie "The Islan..."

Is that the Russian film?

00:42:06 Bob Čihák, AZ: P. 141, paragraph 3

00:42:35 Ben: Replying to "The movie "The Islan..."

@Myles Davidson That's right.

00:42:58 Myles Davidson: Reacted to "@Myles Davidson That..." with 🙏

00:45:25 Fr. C Mase: It reminds me of that overtaking desire that sometimes comes when we see something we really want and it turns out not to be all that great. Like a new phone or something like that.

00:47:54 Rod Castillo: LOL, I have neither PC nor Laptop.  I do everything on my phone.

00:50:46 James Hickman: Detachment from things so they don’t control us — not avoidance of potentially useful tools. We must posses them. The impoverished can be attached to his simplicity in a spiritually unhealthy way…pastor was preaching John of the Cross today because of Our Lady of Mount Carmel. Ultimate detachment even from spiritual things, but this detachment might be aided by a prayer rope, Rosary, or other material thing in our hands.

00:52:58 Maureen Cunningham: Prayer Of  Saint Patrick Christ Before  Me

00:55:25 Bob Čihák, AZ: "Words" do not break into the heart. I think a sense of shared EXPERIENCE is what we hope words can bring to others.

00:55:56 Anthony: The manipulation of stories & images already is part of life, getting people to assent to wars, etc.

00:58:24 Catherine Opie: AI is also terrible for the environment, it uses an incredible amount of power and water. Unbelivable. It has been designed by people whose aim in life is to become gods and live forever by downloading their consciousness into machines. Delusional. I think its anti God and anti life.

01:00:13 Eleana Urrego: Reacted to "AI is also terrible …" with 😱

01:03:28 Myles Davidson: There is a phenomena where people think they have led “their AI” to consciousness and are going down a very dangerous spiritual path with it

01:04:27 Thomas: One of my friends asked me why there has been a decline in ascetics, and I kinda guessed at a few things, but a lot of what I read is about awareness, do you think that part of the reason could be because phones and stuff like that just distract us, so nobody can be aware of anything and therefore they don’t even consider the level of repentance of a monk

01:04:28 Nypaver Clan: Replying to "AI is also terrible ..."

😲

01:04:46 Elizabeth Richards: There's an app called "Be Present" that I found helpful to help break the dopamine cycle

01:15:53 Anthony: Should we as Christians be more open about praying for the souls of enemies.....Hitler & Nazis or people who burn monasteries, etc ?  Or would that bring scandal?

01:22:34 Catherine Opie: Reacted to "There is a phenomena..." with 🤣

01:27:13 Naina: Thank you Father 🙏✝️❤️

01:27:33 Maureen Cunningham: Thank You   Father

01:27:38 Rebecca Thérèse: Thank you☺️

01:27:39 David: Thank you Father. God bless you and your Mother!

01:27:47 Catherine Opie: Thank you Fr. apologies for being on call.