The Ascetical Homilies of St. Isaac the Syrian - Homily V, Part VIII

St. Isaac speaks as one who knows the earthquake at the root of the soul where pride fractures us from God and humility alone builds a refuge strong enough to endure the storm. His words are not gentle suggestions for the religiously inclined. They are fire. They are rope flung into deep water. They are an indictment of every heart that waits for suffering to discover prayer for temptation to discover the need for mercy for collapse to remember God.

“Before the war begins, seek after your ally.”
This is the secret. The humbled man begins today when there is no battle when the sea is calm and the sky soft. He builds his ark plank by plank small obediences simple prayers hidden acts of self abasement not because the flood is visible but because he knows it is certain. This is the wisdom of the saints: that peace is the time for labor not repose. The iniquitous drown because they mock preparation. They call upon God after pride has stripped them of confidence. Their throat is tight when they pray because they never bent it before in the dust.

Humility is the timber that keeps the soul afloat when the heavens split open.

St. Isaac dares to tell us that a good heart weeps with joy in prayer. Not from sentimentality not from sorrow alone but from the unbearable nearness of God. Tears become proof that the heart has softened enough to feel Him. A proud heart however disciplined outwardly prays like a clenched fist. It asks but it does not need. It petitions but does not depend. A humble heart begs like a man drowning and this is why God hears him.

“Voluntary and steadfast endurance of injustice purifies the heart.”
Here the Saint wounds our sensibilities. He tells us that we cannot become like Christ unless we willingly stand beneath the blow and let it fall without retaliation without argument without self defense. Only those for whom the world has died can endure this with joy. For the world’s children honor is oxygen. To be slandered or forgotten is death. But when the world is already a corpse to us when reputation comfort applause identity have all been buried then injustice becomes not humiliation but purification. Not defeat but ascent.

This virtue is rare he says too rare to be found among one’s own people one’s familiar circles one’s comfortable life. To learn it often requires exile the stripping away of all natural support so that only God remains. He alone becomes the witness of one’s patience. He alone becomes consolation. He alone becomes vindication.

And then comes the heart of St. Isaac’s blow:

“As grace accompanies humility so do painful incidents accompany pride.”
Humility is the magnet of mercy. Pride is the invitation to destruction. God Himself turns His face toward the humble not in pity but in delight. Their nothingness is spacious enough for Him to enter. He fills emptiness not fullness. He pours glory into the vessel that has shattered self importance. But when pride rises like a tower God sends winds against it not to annihilate us but to collapse what we build against Him.

The humble man does not seek honor for he knows what it costs the soul. He bows first greets first yields first. His greatness is hidden like an ember under ash but heaven sees it glowing. Divine honor chases him like a hound. It is the proud who chase praise and never catch it but the self emptying who flee honor and find it placed upon them by the hand of God.

“Be contemptible in your own eyes and you will see the glory of God in yourself.”
Not self hatred but truth. Not despair but sobriety. Not rejection of one’s humanity but recognition that without God we have no light no love no breath. When we descend beneath ourselves God descends to meet us. When we stop defending our wounds He heals them. Humility is not psychological abasement but the unveiling of reality: only God is great and the one who knows this sees God everywhere even within his own nothingness.

Blessed truly blessed is the man who seems worthless to others yet shines with virtue like an unseen star. Blessed the one whose knowledge is deep but whose speech is soft whose life is radiant yet whose posture is bowed. Such a soul is the image of Christ unadorned unnoticed unassuming yet bearing the weight of heaven within.

The Saint concludes with a promise that burns like gold:

The man who hungers and thirsts for God God will make drunk with His good things.

Not the brilliant not the accomplished not the defended but the hungry. The emptied. The poor in spirit who have thrown themselves into the furnace of humility and come forth with nothing left to claim as their own.

This is the narrow way.
This is the ark built in silence.

To bow lower is to rise.
To lose all is to possess God.
To become nothing is to become fire.

May we learn to bend before the storm begins.
May we kneel while grace is still soft.
May we lay plank upon plank obedience upon prayer meekness upon hidden sacrifice until the ark is finished and the floods come and we are held aloft by humility into the very heart of God.

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Text of chat during the group:

00:14:51 Bob Čihák, AZ: P 166, para 33, mid-page

00:15:33 Wayne: Avoid it

00:28:46 David Swiderski, WI: There is a quote by St. Augustine I don't fully understand but seems like pride in a virtue. - Often contempt of vainglory becomes a sources of even more vainglory, for it is not being scorned when the contempt is something one is proud of . - Is this the holier than thou type of attitude?

00:43:32 David Swiderski, WI: In this St. Teresa of Calcutta really changed how I saw the world with volunteering at St. Ben's a local homeless meal program. I began to see each person as a potential family member or myself and slowly Christ in each person no matter what they were challenged with addiction or trauma one sees suffering and seeks to heal with a simple smile or kindness but always wish we could do more. It is like my experience teaching the teacher often learns more about themselves and the world than the student by offering service.

00:43:37 Anthony: In my work, I almost constantly work with law breakers. Some feel deep shame. My experiences in Confession of kindness and healing has helped me relate to them and calm them. And it's sometimes led to conversations about other very human topics, like healing that they and all people need.

00:51:36 Erick Chastain: How do you heal when you are an unworthy recipient of that?

00:55:22 Una’s iPhone: When Isaac talks about kissing the head, etc, what might that look like today?

00:55:36 Kimberley A: Just got here .. what page are we on, please?

00:55:54 Myles Davidson: Replying to "Just got here .. wha..."

168 last para.

00:58:11 Joan Chakonas: The longer I live the more  I appreciate the immense privilege I experienced in my childhood with my excellent loving parents.  So many people didn’t have what I had and I think but for the grace of God.

01:01:24 Eleana Urrego: I went to the store and I was mean because of the delay, now I have to confess. =(

01:03:45 David Swiderski, WI: It is interesting I did M&A for a while with a multinational. Some of the best companies did not allow emails with "I" they had to use "we". It seems once there is us and them everything breakdown even in the world.

01:05:39 Kimberley A: What to do when we realize we are so far removed from being this way?

01:06:50 David Swiderski, WI: Reacted to "The longer I live th..." with ❤️

01:09:26 David Swiderski, WI: Mergers and adquistions

01:09:32 Joan Chakonas: Mergers and acquisitions

01:10:24 David Swiderski, WI: The early church talked of the way not the goal

01:12:34 David Swiderski, WI: I used to shoot archery and was delighted when I learned sin in Greek is aiming in archery. You keep your focus on the bullseye and just with effort and learning to narrow the aim

01:13:03 David Swiderski, WI: Sin=aim

01:13:45 David Swiderski, WI: Sin=missing the mark

01:15:12 David Swiderski, WI: I loved living in Latin America you kiss on the cheek who are close to you and it is a sign of caring. The French no not comfortable with that or the Russians ha ha

01:15:52 Art iPhone: I thought I was in the gay district when I was inTurkey

01:16:06 David Swiderski, WI: Strange the early church was known by a kiss

01:16:09 Ben: Reacted to "Strange the early ch..." with 😆

01:16:11 Eleana Nunez: Reacted to "I thought I was in t..." with 😂

01:16:25 Art iPhone: Reacted to "I thought I was in t…" with 😂

01:18:15 Janine: Thank you Father

01:18:20 Joan Chakonas: Thank you Father!!!

01:18:30 Gwen’s iPhone: Thank you

01:18:30 Art iPhone: Thank you Father!

01:18:30 David Swiderski, WI: Thank you Father and may God bless you and your mother