The Ladder of Divine Ascent - Chapter III: On Exile, Part II

We began this evening with Step 3 “On Exile.”The connotation of the word, as we discussed, can lead one to think of punishment or being removed from the things that are needed or loved. However, as we make our way through the step we begin to see that exile is a path to freedom. It is a gradual turning away or separating oneself from the world in order that one might become inseparable from God. At the heart of exile is a deep desire for God; the longing of the heart that leads one to run toward Him as the source of life. The more we begin to see this truth the clearer it becomes to us that we cling to things with a sense of needing them for meaning or purpose. Exile is so important because it removes that illusion. It shows us that so many things that we have had in our lives hold no lasting promise within them. God is to be the beginning and end of all things for us; and exile gives birth to the kind of detachment that allows us to be ever so confident in what He alone can provide.

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Text of chat during the group: 

00:14:06 FrDavid Abernethy: page 63, para. #2

 

00:14:22 David Robles: Dear Father David, Thank you for inviting me to the meeting today. What step and section?

 

00:14:58 FrDavid Abernethy: page 63 par 2

 

00:15:02 FrDavid Abernethy: On exile

 

00:15:21 Robyn Greco: hi , Hope everyone is well

 

00:15:23 Sheila Applegate: This time the link said it was a malicious link.

 

00:15:37 Sheila Applegate: But the zoom one works.

 

00:16:12 Anthony: Do you spray with Copper Sulfate, Vicki?

 

00:16:14 David Robles: I'm not using your edition. I have the Holy Transfiguration Monastery Edition.

 

00:16:30 FrDavid Abernethy: Thats the edition we use

 

00:16:33 FrDavid Abernethy: 2012

 

00:17:28 Sr Mary of our Divine Savior solt: Greetings too!

 

00:18:07 Joseph Caro: fr

 

00:18:13 David Robles: Mine is 1991. Second edition

 

00:18:16 Fr. Miron Kerul-Kmec Jr.: I don’t like being a boss! Haha

 

00:18:45 Joseph Caro: I have been meaning to thank you for the little book you sent awhile ago, but I keep forgetting!  thank you!

 

00:19:24 David Robles: Step 4 Obedience starts on page 20.

 

00:23:43 David Robles: Oh I see Exile. Found it

 

00:31:27 David Robles: Father, would you agree that the intensity and character of the exile for a lay person, a cenobitic monk or a hermit are different levels? Is there an interior exile that is the same for all?

 

00:32:29 David Robles: St Isaac the Syrian is pretty radical on this, as it is required of a hermit

 

00:36:04 Anthony: This keeping the "mind" inseparable from God, is he referring to cogitation, a constant stream of thought, or something else?  Is "mind" more like "nous" or heart or merely presence here?  I'm thinking it's not cogitation, since that can be exhausting and since the Fathers remind us our imaginations can willingly and unwillingly be the playground of evil.

 

00:39:25 David Robles: Dianoia is rational discourse

 

00:39:32 Sam Rodriguez: St Paul often talks about Sin and Death as Dominions. Where there is a Dominion of Sin, a Dominion of Death. Or, in other words, that we are born into a Lordship of Sin, a Lordship of Death, by virtue of Original Sin. And thus, to be "Delivered" as a Christian, represents being transferred from one Kingdom to another. To be transferred to the Kingdom where Jesus is Lord. And Has Dominion over our lives. Where our lives no longer belong to ourselves. Our bodies no longer belong to ourselves. They have been ransomed at a price. And thus, I'm wondering if this language of Exile is a restatement of a Deliverance process. Where its not that those things in our lives are bad, but that they require His Lordship in order for the Goodness of those Created things to be Received and Revealed and Shared. Being intentional about how we use our time. Or our phones. Or approach our relationships. That we are actively inviting Him to continually Conquer our attraction to those things, Exercise His Dominion over them.

 

00:45:35 Bridget McGinley: I recently came across the book The Way of a Pilgrim. I am memorized by his desire for separating himself from the active world to desperately seek the concept of unceasing prayer yet he does not enter a monastery and wanders the earth mixing with others. Unceasing prayer is a commandment from God, correct? This concept of exile seems unloving to the Eastern societies especially in our country where human contact is considered charitable. When we want to separate even from family and friends because they distract us we are sometimes accused of lacking "charity" but it is well understood in the Orthodox cultures that this is a great gift. I relate to what Robyn just said.

 

00:49:34 Joseph Caro: the idea of exile (separation) to keep us inseparable to God reminds me of marriage , where one keeps themselves from others in order to be in union with ones spouse.

 

00:52:27 Sam Rodriguez: Regarding what Father shared earlier, saying that we should perhaps genuflect before a newly-Baptized baby.... there's a beautiful story of St Louis IX, the French King. After one of his babies was Baptized, the Saint is reported to have joyfully picked up his baby and gave the baby a kiss, right where the baby's heart was, and exclaimed "Hello, Jesus!"

 

01:01:49 Ren: There is an interesting reversal at play here. Normally, when we say someone is exiled, it is exile from something/some place - a banishment from the good, the community, the kingdom - and the place of exile does not matter at all. Here, however, exile is an action taken for the sake of something, and the place of exile - that place in which the soul remains unseparated from  God - is the only thing that matters.

 

01:04:42 Ren: Much the same kind of reversal that turns the barren desert into a place of encounter with Life itself!

 

01:06:18 Erick chastain: how does exile give place to the demon of sensuality?

 

01:15:09 Ashley Kaschl: Exile being the mother of detachment makes a lot of sense. While we’ve been talking about exile in a way that it leads to greater intimacy with God, a direct confrontation with the passions, and a renunciation of the world, I learned it the other way around: that, almost by proxy, a choosing of Christ over everything else in the day-to-day life, moment by moment, leads one to be exile by default. Is this the thought of the West, that one winds up in exile through intimacy with Christ, while the East encourages exile to find that intimacy with Christ?

 

01:18:29 Rachel: YES!! Fantastic points!

 

01:19:31 Rachel: 🙃 wow

 

01:20:03 Ashley Kaschl: Great. Thank you, Father!

 

01:22:47 Anthony: Slavonic. ;)

 

01:24:08 Ren: Hi baby Orlandi!