Reflections on Ladder of Divine Ascent, Intro

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I am writing some reflections on the Ladder of Divine Ascent, a spiritual classic from the fifth century by St John Climacus. Please feel free to comment on this, and in particular, if you have a copy, what your thoughts on these chapters.

This chapter is split into two parts, see next post

© Copyright 2009

Looking Up at the Foot of the Ladder of Divine Ascent - Intro Part A

What is the focus of your life? What do you want the focus of your life to be? Do you want to Love God? Do you want to strive to learn what it means to Love God? Do you want to lead a godly life? Is Loving God a feeling, or a doing? Is Loving God a simple choice, or is it hard labor?

How can we even comprehend what it means to Love God? How can we know we worship the One True God, who demands of us perfection and holiness that seems ever out of reach? How do we know we are not worshipping a false god we fashion in our minds, who turns a blind eye to our failings, who permits us to fashion our own contract of conduct that we find easier to follow?

To decide to Love God where there was no love before, and the decision to read the Ladder of Divine Ascent, these are both simple choices you make in a moment of time. But the focus of this devotional is on the everyday, evermore, ever climbing, up the ladder, until we meet our Savior, Jesus Christ. The climb is a struggle, everyday, evermore, with the demons dragging to the abyss those who look to the left, or to the right, who do not truly Love God, who do not truly love their neighbor, who do not focus on the climb.

The first rung is about the climb, ever persisting, ever repenting, ever climbing, as the final paragraph impresses on us:
  1. So who is a faithful and wise monk? He who has kept his fervor unabated, and to the end of his life has not ceased daily to add fire to fire, fervor to fervor, zeal to zeal, love to love.
    This is the first step. Let him who has mounted the ladder not turn back.
The Ladder of Divine Ascent was written in the seventh century by John Climacus, an abbot of St. Katherine’s Monastery at the foot of Mt. Sinai in the deserts of Egypt, which still houses monks to this very day. He was asked to write a guidebook for beginning monks on how to live the monastic life.

The Ladder of Divine Ascent consists of thirty rungs, one for each year of the life of Jesus before he started His ministry on Earth. This is not a book to sample, skim or skip through, or to criticize. If you do not want to lead a godly life, or repent and begin your life anew, if you do not want to lead a life of daily repentance, it would be better for you to put the book back and not even crack the binding.

Do not think that just because you are not contemplate becoming a monk or a nun that you cannot climb the ladder. Leading a godly life, leading a Christian life, is a monastic calling, whether you decide to become a monk or nun or not. Marriage, work, career, school, child rearing, these are all monastic callings. If you think only of yourself and your selfish pleasures of the moment, you cannot successfully climb any of these ladders.

Marriage is a monastic calling. Marriages are only truly happy when each spouse puts the needs of the other first. Marriages are truly happy where the love each spouse has for the other is like the love St Paul describes, patient, kind, not jealous or boastful, not rejoicing in the wrong but rejoicing in the right, bearing all, believing always, hoping always, enduring everything, never failing.

Work, career and schooling are monastic callings. To get a good job, we spend many years of schooling to learn our trade or profession. If we spend all our school years partying and not studying, we pay for our lack of attention for the rest of our lives. To keep our job, we need to keep our bosses and customers happy. Even when know they are wrong, we bite our tongues and endure, because we work for them, and they are often right anyway. Our job is to serve them. If we mistakenly think they are there to serve us, we will have no job. If the company loses sight of their customers’ needs,
the company itself may fold.

Child rearing is a monastic pursuit. When children are small they demand your attention, and sometimes they cry and you don’t know why. You can spend fun time with your children when they are little, playing with them and taking them places, or you can spend anguished time with them later, answering to judges and policemen. St Paul tells us that mothers are saved through child rearing if they lead a godly life. We are all saved if we put the needs and desires of others ahead of our own selfishness.

Paul exhorts us to pray without ceasing. To Love God is to pray without ceasing. To pray without ceasing is to Love God. Monastics can approach the ideal of praying without ceasing, but how can we who live in the world, with jobs and wives and kids and dogs, how can we pray without ceasing? Truthfully, none of us truly pray without ceasing, but we can all pray more. We can light our candles and pray in the morning and the evening; we can guard our mind against ungodly thoughts.

Our ceaseless senseless seeking of pleasure and entertainment distracts us from our climb up the ladder of Divine Ascent. We are fools if we think we can drink ourselves into a drunken stupor on Friday night and yet attend the Divine Liturgy days later with a clear conscience. We are fools if we think we can climb the ladder of Divine Ascent on Sundays only, and suspend the climb on the other days of the week. We are fools if we can devote ourselves to the arduous climb up the ladder of Divine Ascent if we ceaselessly glare at the talking idol in our living rooms all our waking hours.
 
© Copyright 2009

Looking Up at the Foot of the Ladder of Divine Ascent - Intro Part B

Why is it that we balk at trying to pray ceaselessly, neglect remembering our Lord our every waking hour, yet we expect God to cheerfully, ceaselessly forgive our every sin? God does ceaselessly forgive as we should ceaselessly pray, but when we carelessly sin the same sins every day we may be forgiven, but we lose the discipline of ceaselessly trying to live a godly life. Spiritual discipline is what the Ladder of Divine Ascent is about. We should be mindful of the Catholic definition of mortal sin, which is a sin if repeated often enough causes us to lose our capacity to Love God.

Will God always forgive ceaselessly, without ceasing? There is a troubling verse that God will not forgive sins against the Holy Spirit, but this type of sin is not defined. The Church teaches that when hearing confessions priests should rarely or never assume a sin is committed against the Holy Spirit, that all sins are confessable. Truly when Jesus told Peter he should forgive his neighbor not merely seven times, but seven times seventy times, He must have meant that God is just as forgiving. But will God forgive five hundred willfully committed sins, no remorse, no improvements, no regrets?

What we do know is this verse saying sins against the Holy Spirit are not forgiven tells us God can lose patience with our ceaseless sinful ways, and this is the true lesson of the Exodus desert saga. God may be tolerant of sinners, but He does not tolerate willful ceaseless sin. We must strive for perfection, not tolerating the sin in our lives, ever climbing the ladder. What this verse tells us is that it is possible to **** God off so He turns His back on us. What this verse tells us is that it is possible to **** God off so thoroughly He turns His back on us forever, permitting us to fall off the ladder into the abyss of Hell.

Many pray for show, and John Climacus knows this. How a brother in the monastery treats those around him as a window into the true state of his soul. He who truly Loves God treats his brothers with respect and kindness and humility. He who truly Loves God repents of his failings when he treats his brothers poorly.

Indeed, when John Climacus advises those who live in the world on how to live the solitary life, he doesn’t emphasize prayer and fasting, but rather he cares more how they treat their neighbors:
  1. Some people living carelessly in the world have asked me:
    ‘We have wives and are beset with social cares, and how can we lead the solitary life?’
    I replied to them: ‘Do all the good you can; do not speak evil of anyone; do not steal from anyone; do not lie to anyone; do not be arrogant to anyone; do not hate anyone; do not be absent from the Divine Services; be compassionate to the needy; do not offend anyone; do not wreck another man’s domestic happiness, and be content with what your own wives can give you. If you behave in this way, you will not be far from the Kingdom of Heaven.’
The advice John Climacus gives mirrors the advice Jesus gives to the young man in Matthew 19 when he asks:

“Good Teacher, what good thing shall I do that I may have eternal life?”
So Jesus said to him, “Why do you call Me good? No one is good by One, that is, God. But if you want to enter into eternal life, keep the commandments.”
He said to Him: “Which ones?”
Jesus said, “You shall not murder; you shall not commit adultery; you shall not steal; you shall not bear false witness; honor your father and your mother; and, you shall love your neighbor as yourself.”

But the young man thinks there is something else he can do, something he has not been told, maybe something more spiritual he can do. So,
The young man said to Him, “All these things I have kept from my youth. What do I still lack?”

Jesus said to him, “If you want to be perfect, go, sell what you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me.”

This story is in all three synoptic Gospels. The version in Mark has Jesus bidding the young man to come, take up your cross, and follow Me. The most common interpretation of this story is how difficult it is for the rich to enter the Kingdom of Heaven, and indeed true monasticism bids us to lead a life of poverty.
 
© Copyright 2009

Looking Up at the Foot of the Ladder of Divine Ascent - Intro Part C

There is another lesson to be drawn from this story. Only in the Matthew version does Jesus telling the young man what he needs to do if he wants to be perfect. The reason is Matthew is written to those young Christians who are either Jewish or are inquirers of Judaism. The trap for those following this path is the Decalogue is too simple, what they want is to learn the prayers of the elders of Optima or some other obscure spiritual practices that they think will lead them to the perfect life. What John Climacus and Jesus Christ are telling us is the Decalogue is that narrow path to follow, and that all the prayers and devotions and spiritual practices only help us along that narrow path, that they are not the path to themselves.

What is also common in all the synoptic Gospels is they are preceded by the story of the little children. Here we will recite the version from Mark:

Then they brought the little children to Him, that He might touch them; but the disciples rebuked those who brought them.
But when Jesus saw it, He was greatly displeased and said to them,
“Let the little children come to Me, and do not forbid them; for of such is the Kingdom of God. Assuredly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the Kingdom of God as a little child will by no means enter there.”

What Jesus is telling us is we should approach and absorb Scripture and the teachings of the church fathers, the Philokalia, the Ladder of Divine Ascent, which many devout regard as the source of the Philokalia, and all spiritual writings as if we were children sitting in the lap of Jesus, so that Jesus can touch our heart. The purpose of the spiritual discipline in the Ladder of Divine Ascent is simply so we can approach God as little children, big eyes full of awe and wonder at the majesty and loving kindness of God Almighty, ever ready to obey and imitate the Love of God, our hearts free of malice, overflowing with kindness. Scripture is clear, we have no options, if we do not receive the Kingdom of God as a little child, we are eternally outside the gates.

We need to try to see the world through the eyes of a child. Time and time again, a persistent urging in the Ladder of Divine Ascent is we should follow the advice of St. Ephrem, that our Lord should grant me to see my failings and not condemn my neighbor. Not seven times, but seven times seventy times should we forgive. It is easy for children to see the world in fresh colors, to see the good in their parents and all those around them, it is easy for children for they are naïve and innocent and ignorant of the evil in the world around them. To be like children we need to lead a life of purposeful naivety, to view the world fresh, to give those around us encouragement and another chance to lead a godly life, no matter how many times they have hurt us or disappointed us or stepped on us. Never should we judge our neighbor.

An interesting verse that hearkens to our ears when we read John Climacus is the command Jesus gives us after the Beatitudes. “If you are offering your gift at the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar and go; first be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift.” Jesus does not say go to your brother if you remember you have sinned against him. No, Jesus says to reconcile with your brother if he has something against you. What Jesus is saying is your brother is a better judge as to whether you have sinned against him. This is truly loving your neighbor. Without ardent love of your neighbor, there can be no true Love for God.

I remember a letter to Ann Landers I read in the paper many years ago. Someone was shopping and a cashier was acting very rude to the customers. This lady was preparing to lash out at her total lack of courtesy, when the lady in front of her when the lady in front of her asked her, my dear, what has happened to you to make you so upset? The cashier nearly burst into tears, her husband had just walked out on her, her children had very little to eat, she didn’t know how she was going to get by with her small pitiful paycheck. After reading that I never thought it right to stiff a waitress no matter how poor the service. After all, she is being punished quite enough; she is a waitress, isn’t she?

Why do we cringe when John Climacus says we should tolerate and even welcome the abuse others heap on us as being salves for our souls? Maybe monks can be excused for feeling this way, but when someone is nasty or even abusive in our world we might be more tolerant if we knew their life story, what made them that way. If we return kindness for meanness, if we extend some friendliness to those who have few friends, be generous to those who are needy, maybe we can make their day a little brighter, their life a little better. When we view our lives on the big IMAX screen in the sky, will be able to say that those who knew us were slightly better people because we entered their lives?

In the latter part of acts, when Paul sums up the Christian life, he says we should repent, be baptized, then lead a life worthy of repentance. Leading a life worthy of repentance is an Orthodox life, a monastic life, the life that John Climacus bids us to live in the Ladder of Divine Ascent. Leading a godly life is our daily struggle. In this battle John Climacus offers us much good advice, if we will but heed his counsel and not insist on going down our own path. Will we climb to the top of the ladder, or will the demons pull us off?
 
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