The Conferences 12.11–13.7

“Therefore the perfection of chastity is distinguished from the laborious rudiments of continence by its lasting tranquillity. For this is the consummation of true chastity: that it does not fight the movements of carnal desire but detests them with all horror, keeps its purity continual and inviolable, and can be nothing other than holiness. This will come about when the flesh, ceasing to “lust against the spirit,” consents to its desires and its virtue, and they begin to be bound to each other in the firmest peace, and, according to the psalmist’s saying, “brothers dwell together in unity,” possessing that blessedness promised by the Lord, of which he says: “If two of you agree on earth about anything whatever that they ask, it will be done for them by my Father who is in heaven.” Whoever, then, has passed beyond the stage of that spiritual Jacob, that is, the supplanter, will rise, the sinew of his thigh numbed, from that wrestling of continence and supplanting of the vices to the merit of Israel by the constant uprightness of his heart. This order blessed David also distinguished by the prophecy of the Holy Spirit, saying first: “God is known in Judah,” that is, in the soul that is still held in the confession of sins, for Judah is interpreted “confession.” But “in Israel,” that is, in one who sees God, or, as some interpret it, who is most upright before God, he is not only known, but “his name is great.” Then, calling us to higher things and wishing to show the very place in which the Lord delights, he says: “And his place has been made in peace,” that is, not in the conflict of battle and the wrestling with the vices, but in the peace of chastity and the lasting tranquillity of the heart. If anyone, then, deserves to obtain this place of peace by the extinction of the fleshly passions, advancing from this stage too, and having consequently become the spiritual Sion, that is, the watchtower of God, he will also be his dwelling place. For the Lord dwells not in the conflict of continence but in the continual watchtower of the virtues, where he no longer beats back or restrains, but has broken for ever “the powers of the bows,” from which the fiery darts of lust were once aimed against us. You see, then, that as the place of the Lord is not in the wrestling of continence but in the peace of chastity, so also his dwelling is in the watchtower and contemplation of the virtues. Hence the gates of Sion are rightly preferred to all the tents of Jacob: “For the Lord loves the gates of Sion above all the tents of Jacob.” As for your argument that the movement of the flesh is unavoidable because urine, when it has filled the bladder by continual dripping, rouses the resting members: although this movement, when this necessity alone sometimes arouses it, and only during sleep, is no prejudice to true followers of purity in obtaining it, you must know that, if they have been stirred, they are brought back to their own rest by the command of chastity, so that they subside not only without any itch but without even the slightest remembrance of lust. And therefore, so that the law of the body may agree with the law of the mind, excess must be curbed even in the drinking of water, so that the daily accumulation of fluid, flowing more slowly into dried members, may make that movement of the body which you think unavoidable not only very rare but also slow and lukewarm, and may stir up, so to speak, a cold fire and a flame that bedews without any burning heat, like that wonderful vision of Moses, so that the bush of our flesh, surrounded by a harmless fire, is not burned; or like that of the three young men, for whom the flame of the Chaldean furnace was so scattered by a bedewing wind that the smell of fire did not even touch their hair or the fringes of their garments; so that we may begin already in this body to possess in a way what is promised to the saints through the prophet: “When you walk through fire, you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not burn in you.”

“For great indeed and wonderful, and known to no one at all except those who have experienced them, are the things which the Lord with ineffable generosity bestows on his faithful while they are still in this vessel of corruption. The prophet, surveying them with purity of mind, cried out both in his own person and in that of those who reach this state and disposition: “Wonderful are your works, and my soul knows it very well.” Otherwise the prophet would be understood to have said nothing new or great, if he were believed to have spoken these words with some other disposition of heart or about other works of God. For there is no one who does not recognize that the works of God are wonderful, even from the greatness of creation itself; but those which he dispenses in his saints by daily working and pours out abundantly with special generosity, no one knows except the soul of the one who enjoys them. In the secret of its conscience it is the sole witness of his benefits, so that it cannot express them in any words, nor even embrace them in feeling and thought, when, leaving that fiery fervor, it has fallen back to these material and earthly perceptions. For who would not marvel at the works of the Lord in himself when he sees that the insatiable greed of the belly and the costly and ruinous luxury of the palate have been so suppressed in him that he takes even a small and very cheap meal rarely and unwillingly? Who would not be astonished at the works of God when he feels that the fire of lust, which he used to believe natural and as it were inextinguishable, has so cooled that he does not feel himself stirred even by a simple movement of the body? How could anyone not tremble at the power of the Lord who sees that men once fierce and savage, who were provoked to the highest fury of anger even by the most flattering attentions of their subordinates, have passed to such gentleness that they are not only moved by no injuries but even rejoice with the greatest magnanimity when injuries are inflicted? Who, indeed, would not marvel at the works of God and cry out with all his heart, “For I know that the Lord is great,” when he sees either himself or someone else changed from most rapacious to generous, from prodigal to self-restrained, from proud to humble, from delicate and tender to unkempt and shaggy, and even enjoying of his own will poverty and scarcity of present things? These are indeed the wonderful works of God which the soul of the prophet, and of those like him, knows in a special way, astonished at the sight of a wonderful contemplation. These are the wonders which he has set upon the earth, and the same prophet, considering them, calls all peoples to marvel at them, saying: “Come and see the works of God, what wonders he has set upon the earth, taking away wars to the ends of the earth. He will break the bow and shatter the weapons, and burn the shields with fire.” For what greater wonder can there be than that in the briefest moment the most rapacious tax collectors become apostles, and savage persecutors are made most patient preachers of the gospel, so that they spread by the shedding of their own blood the faith they persecuted? These are the works of God which the Son declares he works daily together with the Father, saying: “My Father is working until now, and I am working.” Of these works of God blessed David sings in the Spirit, saying: “Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, who alone does great wonders.” Of these also the prophet Amos says: “He who makes all things and changes them, and turns the shadow of death into morning.” This indeed is “the change of the right hand of the Most High.” For this saving work of God the prophet prays, saying: “Confirm, O God, what you have wrought in us.” I pass over those secret and hidden dispensations of God which the mind of all the saints sees being carried out within itself in a special way at every moment: that heavenly inpouring of spiritual joy by which the dejected soul is lifted up by the eagerness of an inspired gladness; those fiery ecstasies of the heart and those consolations of joy as ineffable as they are unheard of, by which, when we are sunk in the most sluggish torpor, we are sometimes roused to most fervent prayer as from the deepest sleep. This, I say, is the joy of which the blessed apostle says: “What eye has not seen nor ear heard, nor has it entered into the heart of man,” that is, of one who, dulled by earthly vices, is still a man, clings to human feelings, and sees nothing of these gifts of God. Finally, the same apostle added, both of himself and of those like him who had already departed from human ways of life: “But God has revealed it to us by his Spirit.”

“In all these things, then, the further the mind has advanced toward a finer purity, the more sublimely it will see God, and it will gain within itself increases of wonder rather than find the power of speaking or words to tell of it. For as one without experience cannot grasp the force of this joy with his mind, so one who has experienced it cannot explain it in words. It is as if someone wished to describe in words the sweetness of honey to one who had never tasted anything sweet: the one will surely not take in with his ears the pleasantness of a taste he has never received in his mouth, nor will the other be able to express in words the sweetness he knew by the pleasure of taste; but, drawn only by his own recognition of the sweetness, he can only marvel in silence within himself at the delight of the taste he has experienced. So, then, whoever deserves to reach this state of the virtues that we have described, surveying with silent mind all these things that the Lord works in his own by special grace, and set on fire by the astonished consideration of them all, will cry out with the inmost feeling of his heart: “Wonderful are your works, and my soul knows it very well.” This, then, is the wonderful work of God: that a man of flesh, placed in the flesh, has rejected fleshly feelings, and in so great a variety of things and assaults keeps one state of soul and remains unmoved through every change of circumstance. Grounded in this virtue, a certain old man at Alexandria, surrounded by crowds of unbelievers who pressed him not only with curses but with the most grievous insults, was asked mockingly: “What miracle has your Christ, whom you worship, done?” He replied: “This: that I am neither moved nor offended by these insults, or by greater ones if you inflict them.”

Germanus: “Wonder at this chastity, which is not human or earthly but plainly heavenly and angelic, has so confounded us with sudden astonishment that it has struck us with the terror of despair rather than stirring our souls to seek it. We therefore ask you to instruct us, with the teaching of a very full discussion, about the manner of the practice and the length of time in which it can be acquired or perfected, so that we may believe that it can be achieved and be encouraged to seek it within a fixed space of time. For we judge it in a way beyond the reach of those placed in this flesh, unless an order and way by which it can be reached is shown to us by a sure method.”

Chaeremon: “It is quite rash to fix a definite measure of time for the perfecting of this chastity of which we are speaking, especially with so great a diversity of wills and strengths, since this cannot easily be determined even in the material arts and visible disciplines; for each person must grasp them more quickly or more slowly according to the intentness of his mind and the quality of his talent. Yet we can lay down with complete confidence the method of the practice and the measure of time within which its possibility may be recognized. Whoever, then, withdrawn from all idle conversations and dead to all anger, anxiety, and worldly care, is content with only two paxamatia as his daily meal, and, taking less than his fill of water, limits the rest of sleep to three, or, as others have laid down, four hours, and yet believes that he will attain it not by the merit of his labors or of this continence but by the Lord’s mercy (since without this faith every effort of human labor is vain), will know within no more than six months that its perfection is not impossible for him. It is, however, a clear sign that purity is already near when one begins not to hope in the diligence of one’s own labor. For if each one has truly grasped the sense of that verse, “Unless the Lord builds the house, they labor in vain who build it,” it follows that he will neither be lifted up by the merits of his purity, understanding that he has obtained it not by his own diligence but by the Lord’s mercy, nor be moved with harsh rigor against others, knowing that human virtue is nothing unless divine virtue helps it.

“Therefore, for each of us who struggles with all his strength against the spirit of sexual immorality, the singular victory is not to hope for a remedy from the merit of his own effort. Although this faith seems easy and plain to all, it is as hard for beginners to possess as the perfection of chastity itself. For when even a little purity has smiled on them, at once, as a kind of elation slips subtly into the secret places of their conscience, they flatter themselves; and believing that they have obtained it by the effort of their own diligence, they must be stripped a little of that heavenly protection and be oppressed by those passions which divine power had extinguished, until they learn by experience that they cannot obtain the good of purity by their own strength and effort. And to conclude briefly our discussion on the end of fullest chastity, which has been carried on through a long night’s vigil, gathering into one all that has been set out at length and in scattered fashion: this is the consummation of chastity, that no delight of lust should touch the monk when awake, that no delusion of dreams should deceive him at rest, but that when, only while he sleeps, a movement of the flesh has stolen upon him through the carelessness of the sleeping mind, it should subside without any itch of the body, just as it was roused without any titillation of pleasure. These things about the end of chastity we have set out as best we could, with experience rather than words as our teacher. Although I think that the slothful and negligent will perhaps judge them impossible, I am sure that the zealous and spiritual will recognize and approve them alike. For there is as great a distance between man and man as between the things toward which their minds are directed, that is, as heaven from hell or Christ from Belial, according to the saying of the Lord and Savior: “If anyone serves me, let him follow me, and where I am, there will my servant be also,” and again: “Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.” Thus far blessed Chaeremon discoursed on the perfection of chastity. He closed his admirable teaching on the most sublime purity with these words, urging us, astonished and anxious as we were, since the greater part of the night had now passed, to give our limbs a little rest and by no means to cheat them of the natural food of sleep, lest the mind too, languishing with the torpor of the body, should lose the vigor of its holy intention.

When, after a little sleep, we were returning to the morning synaxis and waiting for the old man, Abba Germanus was troubled by a great scruple: that in the previous discussion, whose power had filled us with the highest desire for a chastity unknown to us, the blessed old man had, by adding a single sentence, made void the merit of human effort, maintaining that a man, however much he strives with the utmost strength toward good fruit, cannot possess the good unless he has received it solely by the generosity of the divine gift, and not by the effort of his own work. As we were turning this question over in astonishment, blessed Chaeremon came out of his cell, and, sensing that we were murmuring something to each other, went through the solemn office of prayers and psalms more briefly than usual and asked what was troubling us.

Then Germanus said: “As much as we are almost shut out, if I may say so, from belief in its possibility by the sublimity of the most excellent virtue that was disclosed in the night’s discussion, so much does it seem to us absurd (by your leave) that the wage of the labors, that is, the perfection of chastity, which is acquired by the persistence of one’s own sweat, should not be credited particularly to the effort of the one who labors. For it is foolish, if, for example, we see a farmer giving unremitting effort to cultivating the land, that we should not ascribe the harvest also to his effectiveness.”

Chaeremon: “By the very example you have put forward it is proved more plainly that the effort of the one who labors can accomplish nothing without God’s help. For when the farmer has spent all his efforts in cultivating the land, he cannot at once credit the yield of the crops and the abundance of the harvest to his own effort, which he has often found to be in vain unless the timeliness of the rains and the calm fair weather of winter follow it; so that we have often seen fruits already grown and firmed in full ripeness snatched, as it were, from the hands of those who held them, and that constant persistence of sweat has given the laborers nothing, because it was not directed by the Lord’s help. Just as, then, divine kindness does not give this abundance of crops to idle farmers who do not work their fields with frequent ploughing, so all-night anxiety will not profit those who labor unless it has been prospered by the Lord’s mercy. Yet in this let human pride by no means try either to make itself equal to the grace of God or to mix itself with it, and to insert itself as a sharer in God’s gifts by thinking that its labor is the cause of the divine generosity, and boasting that the yield of most abundant crops has answered to the merits of its own effort. For let it consider and weigh with truthful examination that it could not have spent by its own strength even those efforts which it put forth intent on its desire for wealth, unless the Lord’s protection and mercy had strengthened it for carrying out all the work of the field, and its will and strength would have been ineffective unless the divine mercy had also provided the means of accomplishing it, which is sometimes cheated either by drought or by too much rain. For even when the strength of the oxen, the health of the body, and the prosperity of all works and actions have been granted by the Lord, one must pray that it may not happen to him, as it is written, that “the heaven be brass and the earth iron,” and that “what the locust has left the caterpillar may eat, and what the caterpillar has left the cankerworm may devour, and what the cankerworm has left the mildew may consume.” Nor does the effort of the laboring farmer need divine help in this alone, but also that he may avert unexpected accidents by which, even if the field has been enriched with the desired fruitfulness of crops, he will not only be cheated by the vain expectation of his hope, but will even be robbed of the abundance of the crops already gathered and stored on the threshing floor or in the barn. From this it is plainly gathered that the beginning not only of good actions but also of good thoughts is from God, who both inspires in us the beginnings of a holy will and grants the strength and opportunity to carry out what we rightly desire. For “every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights,” who both begins what is good and carries it on and completes it in us, as the apostle says: “He who gives seed to the sower will also supply bread to eat, and will multiply your seed and increase the fruits of your righteousness.” But it is ours humbly to follow each day the grace of God that draws us, or else, resisting it “with a stiff neck and uncircumcised ears,” as it is written, to deserve to hear through Jeremiah: “Shall one who falls not rise again? Or shall one who has turned away not return? Why then has this people in Jerusalem turned away with a stubborn turning? They have hardened their necks, they have refused to return.”

Germanus: “This view, whose piety cannot be rashly rejected by us, seems to be opposed by the fact that it tends to the destruction of free will. For since we see many of the pagans, who certainly do not merit the grace of divine help, shining not only with the virtues of frugality and patience but, what is more wonderful, even of chastity, how are we to believe that these were conferred on them by God’s gift, with the choice of their free will taken captive, when the followers of worldly wisdom, knowing not only nothing of God’s grace but nothing even of the true God himself, are said, as we have learned from the course of our reading or from the tradition of certain people, to have possessed the highest purity of chastity by the effort of their own labor?”

Chaeremon: “I am glad that, burning with the greatest love of knowing the truth, you put forward even some foolish things, so that by your objection the strength of the catholic faith may appear better proved and, if I may say so, more thoroughly tested. For what wise man would use such contradictory propositions as to believe that the heavenly purity of chastity, which yesterday you maintained could not be conferred on any mortal even by God’s grace, was now possessed even by pagans by their own strength? But since you raise these things, no doubt, as has been said, out of zeal for searching out the truth, notice what we hold about them. First, we must by no means believe that the philosophers attained such chastity of soul as is required of us, who are commanded that not only sexual immorality but not even uncleanness be named among us. They had a kind of partial chastity, that is, a small portion of chastity, namely abstinence of the flesh, so that they restrained their lust only from intercourse; but this inner purity of mind and lasting purity of body they could not attain, I will not say in practice, but even in thought. Finally that most famous of them, Socrates, as they themselves celebrate, was not ashamed to declare this of himself. For when a certain physiognomist, looking at him, said: “The eyes of a corrupter of boys,” and his disciples, rushing at him, wanted to avenge the insult offered to their master, he is said to have checked their indignation with this saying: “Stop, friends; for I am, but I restrain myself.” It is shown most clearly, then, not only by our assertion but by their own profession, that only the consummation of unchastity, that is, the shamefulness of intercourse, was suppressed by them by violent necessity, but that the desire and delight of that passion was not shut out of their hearts. And with what horror must that saying of Diogenes be quoted! For what the philosophers of this world were not ashamed to put forward as something memorable cannot be spoken by us or heard without shame. For to someone who was to be punished for the crime of adultery, he is reported to have said: “Do not buy with death what is sold for nothing.” It is certain, then, that they did not even know the virtue of the true chastity that is sought by us; and therefore it is quite certain that our circumcision, which is in the spirit, can be possessed only by God’s gift, and is present only in those who serve God with the whole contrition of their spirit.

“And therefore, although it can be shown in many, indeed in all things, that men always need God’s help and that human frailty can accomplish nothing that concerns salvation by itself alone, that is, without God’s help, yet in nothing is this shown more clearly than in the acquiring and keeping of chastity. For, to put off for a while the discussion of the difficulty of its integrity, let us meanwhile speak briefly of its instruments. Who, I ask, however fervent in spirit, could endure by his own strength, supported by no human praise, the squalor of the desert, or the dry bread, I will not say its daily hunger, but even its full measure? Who could bear the continual thirst for water without the Lord’s consolation, and cheat human eyes of that sweet and delightful morning sleep, and confine all the refreshment of rest by a constant rule within the limit of four hours? Who could manage, without the grace of God, unceasing persistence in reading and unremitting diligence in work, seeking no advantage of present gain? All these things, just as they cannot be continually desired by us without divine inspiration, so neither can they in any way be accomplished without his help. And to make these same things plainer, not only as proved to us by the discipline of experience but also by sure signs and arguments: is it not so that in many useful things we wish to carry out, when neither full ardor of desire nor perfect will is lacking, some interfering frailty makes void the vows we have conceived, and the effect does not attend our purpose unless the power of accomplishing it has been given by the Lord’s mercy? So much so that, though there is a countless multitude of those who faithfully desire to cling to the pursuit of the virtues, you find very few indeed who are able to carry them out or endure them. Not to mention that even when no infirmity at all holds us back, the full power of doing what we wish does not lie in our control. For we do not keep, according to our own choice, the silence of withdrawal, the strictness of fasts, or persistence in reading, even at the time when we are able; but when certain circumstances arise we are often drawn away from our saving practices even very much against our will, so that we must beg from the Lord the opportunity of place or time in which we can practise them. And it is certain that what we are able to do is not enough for us unless the opportunity of carrying out what is certainly possible for us is also granted by the Lord (of which the apostle says: “For we wanted to come to you, once and again, and Satan hindered us”). So much so that we sometimes feel that we are called away from these spiritual pursuits for our good, so that, while the intention of our course is interrupted against our will and we relax something for the weakness of the flesh, we may be kept, even unwillingly, for saving perseverance. Of such a dispensation of God the blessed apostle says something similar: “For this I asked the Lord three times that it might depart from me. And he said to me: ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness,’” and again: “For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought.”

“For the purpose of God, by which he made man not to perish but to live for ever, remains unchangeable. When his kindness sees that even the smallest spark of good will has shone out in us, or which he himself has struck, as it were, from the hard flint of our heart, he fosters it, rouses it, and strengthens it by his inspiration, “willing all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.” For, he says, “it is not the will before your Father who is in heaven that one of these little ones should perish,” and again: “Nor does God will that a soul should perish, but he reconsiders, thinking how he who is cast off may not perish altogether.” For he is true and does not lie when he declares with an oath: “As I live, says the Lord God, I do not will the death of the wicked, but that he should turn from his way and live.” For if he does not will that one of the little ones should perish, how can he be thought, without great sacrilege, to will that not all universally but only some be saved instead of all? Whoever perish, then, perish against his will, since he cries out daily against each of them: “Turn from your most evil ways; and why will you die, O house of Israel?” and again: “How often would I have gathered your children, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you would not!” and: “Why has this people in Jerusalem turned away with a stubborn turning? They have hardened their faces, they have refused to return.” The grace of Christ, then, is at hand daily, which, since “it wills all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth,” calls all without any exception, saying: “Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will refresh you.” But if he calls not all universally but only some, it follows that not all are burdened either by original or by actual sin, and that the saying, “For all have sinned and lack the glory of God,” is not true, nor should it be believed that “death has passed to all men.” And so truly do all who perish perish against God’s will that it is not even said that God made death itself, as Scripture testifies: “For God did not make death, nor does he rejoice in the destruction of the living.” And hence it is that often, when we ask for harmful things instead of good ones, our prayer is heard slowly or not at all; and again the Lord, like a most kind physician, deigns to bring upon us, even very much against our will, things we believe harmful, for our good; and sometimes he holds back and recalls our pernicious plans and deadly efforts from their detestable outcome, draws back to salvation those who are hastening to death, and pulls out of the jaws of hell those who do not know it.