March 7, 1999
Great Lent: Now is
the Time to Get Started!
With Orthodox Lent now upon us, I
want to bring your attention again to a wonderful, little book by Tito Colliander called
"Way of the Ascetics." If you have not yet read this wonderful book, I urge you
to do so during this Lenten season. This book is excellent reading any time, but it is
especially good to read each year at the beginning of Lent. In today's thought, I will
share with you the first two chapters of Colliander's book in which he (quoting the Holy
Fathers) discusses the need to act NOW to undertake the spiritual life and the necessity
of turning to God and not relying on one's own strength in following that path.
Chapter 1
BEGIN: If you wish to save your soul and win eternal life, arise from your lethargy, make
the sign of the Cross and say:
In the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.
Faith comes not through pondering but through action. Not words and speculation but
experience teaches us what God is. To let in fresh air we have to open a window; to get
tanned we must go out into the sunshine. Achieving faith is no different; we never reach a
goal by just sitting in comfort and waiting, say the Holy Fathers. Let the Prodigal Son be
our example. He "arose and came" (Luke 15:20).
However weighed down and entangled in earthly fetters you may be, it can never be too
late. Not without reason is it written that Abraham was seventy-five when he set forth,
and the laborer who comes in the eleventh hour gets the same wages as the one who comes in
the first (hour).
Nor can it be too early. A forest fire cannot be put out too soon; would you see your soul
ravaged and charred?
In baptism you received the command to wage the invisible warfare against the enemies of
your soul; take it up now. Long enough have you dallied; sunk in indifference and laziness
you have let much valuable time go to waste. Therefore you must begin again from the
beginning; for you have let the purity you received in baptism be sullied in dire fashion.
Arise, then; but do so at once, without delay. Do not defer your purpose till
"tonight" or "tomorrow" or "later, when I have finished what I
have to do just now." The interval may be fatal.
No, this moment, the instant you make your resolution, you will show by your action that
you have taken leave of your old self and have now begun a new life, with a new
destination and a new way of living. Arise, therefore, without fear and say: Lord, let me
begin now. Help me! For what you need above all is God's help.
Hold fast to your purpose and do not look back. We have been given a warning example in
Lot's wife, who was turned into a pillar of salt when she looked back (Genesis 19:26). You
have cast off your old humanity; let the rags lie. Like Abraham, you have heard the voice
of the Lord: "Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy
father's house, into a land that I will show thee" (Genesis 12:1). Towards that land
hereafter you must direct all your attention.
Chapter 2
The Holy Fathers say with one voice: the first thing to keep in mind is never in any
respect to rely on yourself. The warfare that now lies before you is extraordinarily hard,
and your own human powers are altogether insufficient to carry it on. If you rely on them
you will immediately be felled to the ground and have no desire to continue the battle.
Only God can give you the victory you wish.
This decision not to rely on self is for most people a severe obstacle at the very outset.
It must be overcome, otherwise we have no prospect of going further. For how can a human
being receive advice, instruction and help if he believes that he knows and can do
everything and needs no directions? Through such a wall of self-satisfaction no gleam of
light can penetrate. "Woe unto them that are wise in their own eyes, and prudent in
their own sight" cries the Prophet Isaiah (5:21), and the apostle St. Paul utters the
warning; "Be not wise in your own conceits" (Romans 12:16). The kingdom of
heaven has been "revealed unto babes," but remains hidden from "the wise
and prudent" (Matthew 11:25).
We must empty ourselves, therefore, of the immoderately high faith we have in ourselves.
Often it is so deeply rooted in us that we do not see how it rules over our heart. It is
precisely our egoism, our self-centeredness and self-love that cause all our difficulties,
our lack of freedom in suffering, our disappointments and our anguish of soul and body.
Take a look at yourself, therefore, and see how bound you are by your desire to humor
yourself and only yourself. Your freedom is curbed by the restraining bonds of self-love,
and thus you wander, a captive corpse, from morning till eve. "Now I will
drink," "now I will get up," "now I will read the paper." Thus
you are led from moment to moment in your halter of preoccupation with self, and kindled
instantly to displeasure, impatience or anger if an obstacle intervenes.
If you look into the depths of your consciousness you meet the same sight. You recognize
it readily by the unpleasant feeling you have when someone contradicts you. Thus we live
in thraldom. But "where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty" (II
Corinthians 3:17).
How can any good come out of such an orbiting around the ego? Has not our Lord bidden us
to love our neighbor as ourselves, and to love God above all? But do we? Are not our
thoughts instead always occupied with our own welfare?
No, be convinced that nothing good can come from yourself. And should, by chance, an
unselfish thought arise in you, you may be sure that it does not come from you, but is
scooped up from the wellspring of goodness and bestowed upon you: it is a gift from the
Giver of Life. Similarly the power to put the good thought into practice is not your own,
but is given you by the Holy Trinity.
from Tito Colliander, "The Way of the Ascetics," (San Francisco: Harper
& Row, 1982), pp. 1-6
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