May
27, 2001
"The
Eight Principal Vices: Avarice and Anger"
-- Abba Serapion
In this issue, we will continue our study of St.
John Cassian's "Conferences" in which we are looking at the
teachings of Abba Serapion on "The Eight Principal Vices." In
the original text, these teachings are quite long (and incredibly rich
in wisdom!), but we will only look at some excerpts here. Last week we
studied gluttony and fornication and the relationship between them.
Today, we will look at avarice and anger, and then at vainglory. By the
way, today's text in the original has some Greek words spelled out using
the Greek alphabet, which we are unable to transliterate. Our apologies.
:)
BEGIN: "There are three kinds of avarice.
The first does not permit renunciants to be deprived of their wealth and
property. The second persuades us by a still greater covetousness to
take back what we have dispersed and distributed to the poor. The third
demands that we long for and acquire what in face we did not possess
before.
-- "There are three kinds of anger. One
blazes up interiorly . . . . Another breaks out in word and deed and
effect . . . . About these the Apostle says: 'Now, put all these things
away -- anger, indignation' (Colossians 3:8). The third, unlike that
which flares up, is not finished in a short space of time but is held
over for days and seasons . . . . All of these must be condemned by us
with an equal horror.
-- "There are two kinds of sadness. The
first is begotten once anger has ceased, or from some hurt that has been
suffered or from a desire that has been thwarted and brought to naught.
The other comes from unreasonable mental anguish or from despair. There
are two kinds of acedia (NOTE: this means "anxiety or weariness of
heart"). One makes those who are seething with emotion fall asleep.
The other encourages a person to abandon his cell and to flee.
-- "Although vainglory is multiform and
multifarious and exists in many subdivisions, nonetheless it is of two
kinds. The first is that by which we are uplifted because of carnal and
external things. The second is that by which we are inflamed with the
desire for empty praise because of spiritual and hidden things.
-- "Yet in one way vainglory is beneficial
for beginners, for those who are still stirred up by carnal vices. If,
thanks to a word spoken at the time when they happen to be harassed by
the spirit of fornication, they should think of the dignity of the
priestly office or of the opinion of people who might believe that they
are holy and blameless, and if only because of this consideration they
should reject the impure urges of desire, judging them as base and
unworthy either of their own good name or of that rank, they are
restraining the greater evil with a lesser one. For it is better for a
person to be troubled by the vice of vainglory than for him to fall into
the fire of fornication, from which he could not or could barely be
saved once he had been ruined.
-- "One of the prophets expresses this sense
very well when he speaks in the person of God: 'On my account I will
remove my wrath afar off, and with my praise I will bridle you lest you
perish' (Isaiah 48:9). That is to say: As long as you are shackled by
the praises of vainglory, you will never rush into the depths of hell
and sink irretrievably by the commission of deadly sins.
-- "It is not surprising that this passion
is so strong that it can hold back someone who is hastening to the
destruction of fornication, since the frequent experience of many people
shows that once someone has been poisoned by this disease he becomes so
tireless that he does not even feel fasts of two or three days.
-- "Even in this desert we have often seen
some people admit that when they were living in the cenobia of Syria
they were easily able to go without eating for five days, whereas now
they are so hungry at the third that they can hardly keep the daily fast
until the ninth hour. When someone asked why, after having lived in a
cenobium where he felt no hunger and often disdained to eat for whole
weeks, he should now be hungry at the third hour. Macarius replied
pointedly: 'Because here there is no one to see you fasting and to
support and sustain you with his praises. But there the attention of
others and the food of vainglory filled you to repletion." END
from St. John Cassian, "The
Conferences," (New York: Newman Press, 1997), pp. 191 - 193
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