The Ascetical Homilies of St. Isaac the Syrian – Homily 24

On the subject of a discourse spoken by true knowledge*

 Everything that can be perceived by the senses, whether an action or a word, is a manifestation of something hidden within, if the cause of the thing [perceived] is not accidental and the thing is a continual activity. A recompense is reckoned for the latter case, but the former is only slightly taken into account; that is to say, the strength or weakness of the will in the doing of evil or good deeds is not evidenced by anything that happens accidentally, but the proof of [the will’s] free choice is understood from [a thing’s] continued existence.

Sometimes power is given to an accidental occurrence so as even to defy the free will. Accidental occurrences, whether good or evil, befall a man as an incentive, or a trial, or for training, or as a recompense. The occurrence which is an incentive is good; the trial is considered evil [by men]; but the occurrences for training and for recompense are both [good and evil]. There are no chance occurrences, for nothing fortuitous happens to a man, whether good or evil. The will of God, which anticipates prayer, provides for every prayer, and by His wisdom He determines accordingly what is for our help. There is a Pilot Who steers the things of this world; and there is a guardian¹ with each one of us, whose notice nothing escapes and who never weakens, but all occurrences are very carefully managed by this appointed guardian, and in these four kinds [of accidental occurrences] his management is active.

The prayer filled with sorrow, when a suitable manner of life is joined with prayerful sorrow, changes the character of occurrences and brings about improvement [in a man]. It strengthens and makes steadfast the good man, while to the evil man it gives a change to the opposite direction. Therefore do not doubt what I have said: there is no occurrence that is by chance and has no Pilot. If indeed prayer combined with integrity of life is able to alter or to restrain [occurrences], we should believe that every occurrence has a Pilot. Blessed is the man who compares every occurrence that befalls him with his own hidden state, who seeks out its cause and sees Him that governs it!

For him that would be wise towards God, there is no other way but to be a fool to the world and a hater of human glory. Astonishing is the son of man who by self-reproach conceals the greatness of his labor; at such a man the angels marvel. Let involuntary shortcomings be reckoned by you as the custodians of righteousness, for these are even found from time to time in vigilant men.

There is no prayer so quickly heard as the prayer whereby a man asks to be reconciled with those who are angry with him. For when he charges himself with the offense, this prayer is immediately answered.

If, although you do what is proper and are vigilant over your life, you see yourself as feeble and are despicable in your own eyes and hate the glory of men, then know that in very truth you walk on the path of God. But if you perceive in yourself that you are far from these things and, when you sound yourself out, you see that even imaginary thoughts of censure cause you pain, then know that you are devoid of the truth and are deceived by vainglory.

* This homily is found only in Syriac

¹ i.e. the guardian angel

The Ascetical Homilies of St. Isaac the Syrian – Homily 10

On the words of the divine writings which urge men to repentance, and that they were said with a view to men’s weakness, lest they perish from the living God, but that one must not employ them as an excuse for sinning

The encouragement that the Fathers give in their divine writings, and the help for repentance that is found in the writings of the apostles and the prophets, must not be employed by us as an aid for sinning, and for breaking the Lord’s inviolable decrees, which by the power of God were decreed from ancient times, through the mouth of all the saints in all their writings and legislations, in order to abolish sin. The fact that repentance furnishes hope should not be taken by us as a means to rob ourselves of the feeling of fear, so that one might more freely and fearlessly commit sin. For behold how God in every wise preached fear in all the Scriptures and showed Himself to be a hater of sin.

Why indeed was the generation of men in the days of Noah drowned in the deluge? Was it not because of their lasciviousness when they raved over the beauty of the daughters of Cain? ^{Gen. 6:2 ff.} At that time there was no avarice, no idolatry, no sorcery, no wars.

Why were the cities of the Sodomites consumed by fire? Was it not because they gave their members over to lust and impurity, such that it dominated over all of them in every abominable and unnatural act, even as they willed? ^{Gen. 18:20 ff.} Was it not because of the fornication of one man that in one instant five and twenty thousand of the sons of Israel, the first-born of God, fell and died? ^{Num. 25:6-9}

Why was the mighty man Samson rejected by God, he who was set apart and consecrated to God while still in the womb; whose birth was announced by an angel, like John, the son of Zacharias; who was granted great power and worked great wonders, and by the supernatural strength which God poured into his body smote a thousand men with the jawbone of an ass and became a saviour and judge unto Israel? Was it not because he defiled his holy members by union with a harlot? For this reason God departed from him and surrendered him to his enemies. ^{Judg. 16:4 ff.}

And David, who was a man after God’s own heart, who because of his virtues was found worthy to generate from his seed the promise of the Fathers, and to have Christ shine forth from himself for the salvation of all the world, was he not punished because of adultery with a woman, when he beheld her beauty with his eyes and was pierced in his soul b y that arrow? For it was because of this that God raised up a war against him from within his own household, and he who came forth from his loins pursued him. These things befell him even after he had repented with many tears, such that he moistened his couch with his weeping, and after God had said to him through the prophet, ‘The Lord hath forgiven thy sin.’ ^{2Kgs. 12:13}

I wish also to bring to mind certain men before David. For what reason did wrath and death come upon the house of the priest Eli, the righteous elder who was eminent for forty years in his priesthood? Was it not because of the iniquity of his sons Ophni and Phineas? For neither did he sin, nor did they with his assent, but it was because he did not have the zeal to demand from them the Lord’s vindication¹ and he loved them more than the statutes of the Lord. Lest any surmise that the Lord manifests His wrath only upon those who pass all the days of their life in iniquities, behold how for this unseemly sin He manifests His zeal against His genuine servants, against priests, judges, rulers, men consecrated to Him, to whom He entrusted the working of miracles, and how He in no wise overlooks their transgression of His statutes, as it is written in Ezekiel, ‘I said to the man whom I commanded to go into Jerusalem with an invisible sword: Begin at My sanctuary, and have no mercy upon the old man and the youth.’ ^{Ezek. 9:5, 6}

Thus He showed that His true servants and friends are those who walk before Him in fear and reverence and do His will, since virtuous deeds and purity of conscience are things holy and beloved of God. But when men repudiate His paths, the Lord repudiates them, casts them away from His face, and takes his grace away from them. For why was the sentence against Baltasar issued so swiftly and why did it strike him down as it were in the form of a hand? Was it not because he acted with audacity toward the untouchable vessels of offering which he seized from Jerusalem, drinking out of them, both he and his concubines? ^{Dan. 5:1 ff.} In the same manner, those who have consecrated their members to God, but are so audacious as to use them once more for worldly deeds, the same perish, being smitten by an invisible blow.

Therefore, let us not disregard the oracles and threats of God by reason of our confidence in repentance and the good courage given us by the divine Writings, and so anger Him by our wicked deeds and defile our members that have been consecrated once and for all to the service of God. For lo, we have consecrated ourselves to Him, as Elias, Elisseus, the sons of the prophets, and all the other saints and virgins, who worked great wonders and spoke with God face to face. And further, as all those who came after them: John the Virgin, Saint Peter, and the other heralds and preachers of the New Testament, who consecrated themselves to the Lord, from Whom they received the knowledge of mysteries – some from His very mouth, others through revelation – and who became intercessors between God and men and receptacles of His revelations, and preachers of the Kingdom tot he whole world.

¹ i.e. to punish them. Vide I Kgs. 3:13