What should we conclude from this? That every idea of evil and every form of passion enters the heart through the mediation and service of the senses. And if the senses are not guarded, then the evil passions are also not guarded. How can they be guarded and closed to such passions? Listen. The windows of the Temple of Solomon were covered with fine nets to prevent the entry of impure insects (cf. Ezk 41:6). This may serve as a reminder that he who does not want any impure passions of the senses to enter into his soul must drape his senses with [spiritual] nets. What are these nets? It is the memory of death, for one; our account before Christ on the day of judgment; the memory of eternal suffering. Through these, man can put away the evil passions and sins, when they come before his eyes and his other senses. St. Neilos has confirmed that this is so: “Those who desire to keep their mind as a clean and pure temple, where the doors and windows are covered with fine nets to prevent the entry of any impure insects, must similarly cover their senses by meditating on the sobering realities of the future judgment which prevent the entry of any impure images to creep in.”
St Nikodemus of the Holy Mountain
Dear Mickey,
Cordial greetings and a very good day.
Thankyou for those extracts from St. Nikodemus of the Holy Mountain. This is strong meat indeed and seems so far removed from the ‘Catholicism Lite’ and the hand in hand with world type of religion that so many within the Church have now sadly embraced.
The whole rock and pop music debate is really about the much broader issue of sanctity and separation from the godless world, something which the saints of old would have clearly grasped. Indeed, I would venture to say that the whole topic of sanctity and separation is the elephant in the room because sanctification and mortification are probably two of the most unfashionable subjects in the contemporary Church, right across the denominational divides. Invariably, when you raise the topic of holiness and self-denial you are accused of wanting to take the Church in a Puritan direction and even of seriously damaging its credibility in the eyes of the world, who will, or so it is argued, dismiss us all as a bunch hidebound religious fanatics and prissy prudes. In point of fact, the very opposite is the case, because the Church is always respected when it is most unlike the world and has the courage to be different and challenging to ungodliness.
We are all, without exception, called to a life of sanctity and separation from all that is impious and unwholesome. The pursuit od holiness is not some sort of optional extra for the very keen, but a requirement for every man who names the name of Christ - in the modern parlance we must walk the walk, for without holiness no man shall see the Lord (Heb. 12: 14). "All Christians in any state or walk of life are called to the fulness of the Christian life and to the perfection of charity. All are called to holiness, ‘Be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect’ (
Catechism of the Catholic Church, para. 2013). Now positively this will include, of course, works of mercy and service to our neighbour; we must seek to do good in whatever capacity that we can. However, negatively, this will involve a rejection of all that is contrary to a profession of godliness and the life of faith, for “The way of perfection passes by way of the Cross. There is no holiness without renunciation and spiritual battle” (CCC, para. 2015). Thus evidently we are all called to be ‘spiritual types’, for that is the very essence of authentic Christian living, at least according to the Church and Sacred Scripture.
Our dear Lord said to His disciples that they were to be the “salt of the earth” (S. Matt. 5: 13), in other words they were to be a sort of moral disinfectant in a fallen world where moral standards are at an exceedingly low ebb, constantly changing, and sometimes virtually non-existent. Now if they, and we, are to do this effectively it is imperative that we do not become assimilated to the world and tainted by its many impurities. This will necessarily involve giving a wide berth to debased sensory material such as rock and pop music and culturally unwholesome films and TV programmes, which poison the mind and demoralize the life. The monumetal failure of Christians to do just this in recent times has seriously hindered the mission of the Church in the modern world. The Laodicean plight of the Church is inexcusable and we ought to hang our heads in shame and repent in sackcloth and ashes. This unwillingness on the part of multitudes of Catholics to heed the summons to sanctity and separation from the world is deplorable and is in complete disobedience to the teaching of Holy Mother Church.
Dearly beloved, if the extent of our worldliness is such that we are indistinguishable from our pagan neighbour, then we are clearly not sanctified and fit for our Master’s use and have become like saltless salt, that is useless and only fit to be cast out and trodden under the foot of men. Moreover, we have also failed miserably to provide a vibrant Christian counter-culture that our troubled world needs so urgently. Our witness to the world will be underpined when Christians keep their distance from that which is morally repugnant and unwholesone, such as rock and pop music. It is this that will make us attractive to non-Christians, because they will, at length, respect us for daring to be different and for daring to stand alone, even as Daniel of old (cf. Dan 1: 8).
Warmest good wishes,
Portrait
Pax
