JOHN CLIMACUS
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POISON IN YOUR HEART: THE MEMORY OF INSULTS |
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The memory of insults is the residue of anger. It keeps sins alive, hates justice, ruins virtue, poisons the heart, rots the mind, defeats concentration, paralyses prayer, puts love at a distance, and is a nail driven into the soul. |
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If anyone has appeased his anger, he has already suppressed the memory of insults, while as long as the mother is alive the son persists. In order to appease the anger, love is necessary. |
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Remembrance of Jesus’ passion will heal your soul of resentment, by making it ashamed of itself when it remembers the patience of the Lord. |
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Some people have wearied themselves and suffered for a long time in order to extract forgiveness. By far the best course, however, is to forget the offences, since the Lord says: “Forgive at once and you will be forgiven in generous measure.” cf. Luke 6:37-38 |
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Forgetting offences is a sign of sincere repentance. If you keep the memory of them, you may believe you have repented but you are like someone running in his sleep. |
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Let no one consider it a minor defect, this darkness that often clouds the eyes even of spiritual people. |
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JOHN CLIMACUS
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HYPOCRISY AND LIES, MOTHER AND DAUGHTER |
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Fire is produced from stone and steel; lying comes from loquacity and gossip. And the lie destroys love. |
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No one who has any sense would say that telling lies is not an important sin. The Holy Spirit has severely condemned it. “You destroy those that speak lies,” says David to God. Ps. 5, 7 |
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The mother of lying is hypocrisy, mother and also, often, its substance as well. Hypocrisy in fact works out the lie beforehand and then puts it into practice. |
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Those who possess the fear of God are the furthest from telling lies, because they have an honest judge, their own conscience. |
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As with all the passions, we ought to recognize various types of lying according to the damage done. One person tells lies from fear of punishment; another when no danger is threatening; another because of conceit; another for enjoyment; another to raise a laugh; and yet another to do harm to his neighbour. |
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A child does not know what a lie is, so his soul is free of malice. |
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Someone who is elated with wine speaks the truth on all subjects, even without meaning to. In the same way, anyone who is inebriated with the spirit of penitence will never be able to tell lies. |
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JOHN CLIMACUS
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LIGHT,
FIRE AND FLAME
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Love in its nature makes a human being
like God, as far as is possible for a human being. The soul is intoxicated by
the effects of it. Its characteristics are a fountain of faith, an abyss of
patience, an ocean of humility. |
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Love is
the complete repudiation of any unkind thought about one’s neighbour, since,
‘Love thinks no evil.’ (1 Cor. 13:5) |
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Love,
unchangeable tranquillity and our adoption as children of God are different
from each other only in name. As light, fire and flame are present in the
selfsame operation, so are these three manifestations of the Spirit. |
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When
someone is completely permeated with the love of God, the brightness of his
soul is reflected by his whole personality as if in a mirror. |
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Therefore
the one who loves God also loves his brother or sister. Indeed, the second
love is the proof of the first. |
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