Love
Is Higher Than Knowledge
When
someone visits the Holy Mountain and sees the humble monks, they could think
this is a lazy life without purpose. It seems so, when one sees things from the
outside. This is because few people can understand the fearsome and
uninterrupted war undertaken within the souls of the monks.This war is almost
supernatural, invisible and (conducted) not only against the demonic powers of
the rulers of darkness, but for beginners it is also against the flesh, that
is, against lusts and passions.Elder Silouan was my teacher. Once I asked him:
"Father Silouan, perhaps these many people bring disturbance to your mind
and your prayer? Would it not be better for you to go to a hermitage in
Karoulia and live there in peace, like Fr. Artemios, Fr. Dositheos and Fr. Kallinikos?
Or you can live in a remote cave like Fr. Gorgonios?" Fr. Silouan
responded to me: "I live in a cave. My body is a cave for my soul and my
soul is a cave for the Holy Spirit. And I love the people of God and minister
to them, without coming out of my cave."Despite his willingness to
minister to everyone and his admirable modesty and willingness of affection, he
spoke about God with extraordinary excitement and the boldness of someone
speaking about a friend: "I know God. He is affectionate, good and quick
to help." When the Elder said this, a certain monk, Fr. Theophanes,
listened with fear and thought Fr. Silouan had lost the fear of God. But later,
when he read the writings of Fr. Silouan, he changed his mind and said:
"Fr. Silouan went towards and reached the measure of the Fathers of the
Church."I think the texts of Father Silouan should take their place among
the books of psychology. If for no other reason, at least to confirm that
(their author) was a spiritual warrior of the 20th century and to validate what
the glorious Fathers of the Church taught and wrote.There is something new
among the teachings of Fr. Silouan: "Keep your mind in Hades and despair
not." These words express a motivation and reminder against melancholy and
sloth. I personally never heard such words.Important is the other expression:
"Love is higher than knowledge (epistemology)." This is the daily and
fundamental teaching of St. Silouan.With his love, which was tied together with
his tears in prayer, he forgave the sins of sinners, upheld the weak, corrected
those who did evil works, healed the sick, and pacified the winds. In the
monastery he did backbreaking work. He had the warehouse with the heavy
objects.Once I told him that the Russian monks were in great turmoil, because
of the tyranny of the Bolsheviks in the Russian Church of God. He then replied:
"I also in the beginning had turmoil over this issue. However, after much
prayer the following thoughts came to me: the Lord loves all inexpressibly. He
knows everyone's plans and the time of each. The Lord allowed the persecution
of the Russian people for some future good. I cannot understand it nor stop it.
I am left only with prayer and love. I say these things to the brothers who
have turmoil: You can only help Russia with prayer and love. Anger and cries
against the atheists will not correct things.
On Smoking
In 1905 Father Silouan spent
several months in Russia, often visiting monasteries. On one of his train
journeys he sat opposite a shopkeeper, who in a friendly gesture opened his
silver cigarette-case and offered him a cigarette. Father Silouan thanked him
but refused to take one. Then the shopkeeper began talking, asking, ‘Are you
refusing, Father, because you think it is a sin? But smoking is often a help in
life. It relaxes you, and makes a few minutes’ break. Smoking helps one to get
on with one’s work or have a friendly chat, and in general…’ And so on, trying
to persuade Father Silouan to have a cigarette. In the end Father Silouan made
up his mind to say to him, ‘Before you light up a cigarette, pray and repeat
one “Our Father…”’ To this the shopkeeper replied, ‘Praying before having a
smoke somehow doesn’t work.’ To this Silouan observed, ‘So better not start anything
which cannot be preceded by untroubled prayer.’
Whatever means he employs, the proud man will never attain to genuine union with God. Just by wishing it, man cannot unite the mind with the deep heart, and even if the mind does somehow penetrate into the heart, it will see only itself, its own created beauty - splendid, undoubtedly, having been created in the Divine image - but God Himself will not be found.
This is why the Blessed Elder in his striving after humility seized on the fiery weapon given him by God: 'Keep thy mind in hell, and despair not.'* Here was no subtle intellectual talking, but a 'simple', and 'ignorant' man who many a time was found worthy of pure contemplation of God, and had, indeed, grounds for saying, 'If you pray purely, you are a theologian.' Or, 'There are many on earth who believe but very few who know God.' By 'knowing God' he meant, not gnostic theories, not theological speculations, but the experience of lively communion, of real union with the Divine Light. Knowledge is co-existence - that is, a sharing of being.
*Keep thy mind in hell, and despair not. St. Silouan the Athonite
What does it mean - to 'keep the mind in hell'? Can it be that we are to use our imagination to conjure up circumstances for ourselves similar to those figured in some primitive painting? In this instance, no. Father Silouan, like certain great Fathers - St. Antony, St. Sisoë, St. Makarios, St. Pimen - during his lifetime actually descended into the darkness and torments of hell. They did this not once but over and over again until their hearts were so permeated that they were able to repeat the movement at will. They took refuge in it when passion - especially that most subtle of passions, pride - reared its head.
The struggle against pride is, in fact, the final stage in the battle against the passions. To begin with, the ascetic must wrestle with the greater passions of the flesh, then with irritability and, finally, pride. This last combat is undoubtedly the most painful of all. Taught by long experience that pride leads to loss of grace, the ascetic consciously descends into hell where every passion is 'seared with a hot iron'.
. . . the Holy Spirit, sweet and gracious, draws the soul to love the Lord, and in the sweetness of the Holy Spirit the soul loses her fear of suffering.
“Filled with love, the holy Apostles went into the world, preaching salvation to mankind and fearing nothing, for the Spirit of God was their strength. When St. Andrew was threatened with death upon the cross if he did not stay his preaching he answered: ‘If I feared the cross I should not be preaching the Cross.” In this manner all the other Apostles, and after them the martyrs and holy men who wrestled against evil, went forward with joy to meet pain and suffering. For the Holy Spirit, sweet and gracious, draws the soul to love the Lord, and in the sweetness of the Holy Spirit the soul loses her fear of suffering.”
Union with the Divine Light
Whatever means he employs, the proud man will never attain to genuine union with God. Just by wishing it, man cannot unite the mind with the deep heart, and even if the mind does somehow penetrate into the heart, it will see only itself, its own created beauty - splendid, undoubtedly, having been created in the Divine image - but God Himself will not be found.
This is why the Blessed Elder in his striving after humility seized on the fiery weapon given him by God: 'Keep thy mind in hell, and despair not.'* Here was no subtle intellectual talking, but a 'simple', and 'ignorant' man who many a time was found worthy of pure contemplation of God, and had, indeed, grounds for saying, 'If you pray purely, you are a theologian.' Or, 'There are many on earth who believe but very few who know God.' By 'knowing God' he meant, not gnostic theories, not theological speculations, but the experience of lively communion, of real union with the Divine Light. Knowledge is co-existence - that is, a sharing of being.
*Keep thy mind in hell, and despair not. St. Silouan the Athonite
What does it mean - to 'keep the mind in hell'? Can it be that we are to use our imagination to conjure up circumstances for ourselves similar to those figured in some primitive painting? In this instance, no. Father Silouan, like certain great Fathers - St. Antony, St. Sisoë, St. Makarios, St. Pimen - during his lifetime actually descended into the darkness and torments of hell. They did this not once but over and over again until their hearts were so permeated that they were able to repeat the movement at will. They took refuge in it when passion - especially that most subtle of passions, pride - reared its head.
The struggle against pride is, in fact, the final stage in the battle against the passions. To begin with, the ascetic must wrestle with the greater passions of the flesh, then with irritability and, finally, pride. This last combat is undoubtedly the most painful of all. Taught by long experience that pride leads to loss of grace, the ascetic consciously descends into hell where every passion is 'seared with a hot iron'.
. . . the Holy Spirit, sweet and gracious, draws the soul to love the Lord, and in the sweetness of the Holy Spirit the soul loses her fear of suffering.
“Filled with love, the holy Apostles went into the world, preaching salvation to mankind and fearing nothing, for the Spirit of God was their strength. When St. Andrew was threatened with death upon the cross if he did not stay his preaching he answered: ‘If I feared the cross I should not be preaching the Cross.” In this manner all the other Apostles, and after them the martyrs and holy men who wrestled against evil, went forward with joy to meet pain and suffering. For the Holy Spirit, sweet and gracious, draws the soul to love the Lord, and in the sweetness of the Holy Spirit the soul loses her fear of suffering.”
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