ASCETICISM by +Metropolitan Cyprian of Blessed Memory

ASCETICISM

by +Metropolitan Cyprian of Blessed Memory

It is a real tragedy, one that every struggling Christian lives through each day, that our nature is inundated by the passions. We incline towards sin as if in accordance with our nature. Along with the Fall, we have inherited this sick nature from our forefathers. The first, earthly Adam, gave us the mortality of our nature along with our robes of skin. But the second Adam, the heavenly Adam - our Savior Jesus Christ - has raised us up again, fashioned our nature anew, and become the Founder of a new race, of a new breed of man - members of His Body - which we become through Holy Baptism, receiving the command to do battle against our weak nature our whole life long, and through His Church to become holy and to make ourselves divine.

This painful struggle with the sin that dwells within us is called by the holy Fathers 'asceticism'; A Christian devoid of asceticism is inconceivable. Faith must be generated in a crucible of voluntary and involuntary sufferings in order to be purified of the dross of sin. Along with the patience we must have afflictions - which our Master, Who loves mankind, allows to come upon us - it is indispensable that there be added the related struggle towards a life of overall abstinence. St. Maximus the Confessor defines the perfect man thus: 'He is perfect who struggles with voluntary afflictions through abstinence, and with involuntary afflictions by restraining himself with patience'; 

One must practice asceticism to endure temptations patiently, yet at the same time one must take care not to exhaust the body, lest through weakness it become the lair of passions.  However, it is incontestable that from this bitter and terrible contest against sin and the passions and the battle to acquire the virtues, there is born the sweet flower of humility and repentance. You will see the full extent of the wretchedness of our fallen nature, and you will understand that you are nothing; you will become contrite and humble, seeking both redemption and the Redeemer. The blessed Bishop Ignatius Brianchaninov describes this phenomenon with great profundity: 'Perfect virtue is to understand that only Christ can redeem you, and to place yourself before Him as a slave, realizing that any virtue you might have is not due to yourself, and that you cannot possess any worthiness apart trom Christ and independent of the Person of the God-man';

True and deep humility, which places us on the true path of repentance, is the shocking realization of our own wretchedness - blessed self-knowledge. And this is given to us as a gift of divine grace when we struggle amid both voluntary and involuntary afflictions with patience and abstinence. 

May the Lord strengthen us!