Follow

Introduction to the Life, Times and Writings of St. John Cassian Part II

Philokalia Ministries

II. Conquest of Sin:Both eastern and western spirituality as a whole conceives of the ascetic life as a slow progress upward toward God, a climb of the hill by spiritual exercise - - prayer, mortification of the carnal lusts, growth in the knowledge of God - until the soul has become Christ like, God-like.This being true, there developed early on principles upon which asceticism might be conducted. Cassian does not develop a system to be followed, but establishes certain principles to be followed in one's spiritual life. As always he makes these principles understandable to the western mind.A. Flesh and Spirit:1. basic antagonism between the two - a war in which neither ceases to attack or defend does not mean the material substance of the body but the carnal desires, the passions. 2. The essence of the Christian life is seen as a war within the personality.3. Cassian experience was that the body was not evil in essence, but is inclined to andencourages evil, though its union with and war against the spirit is nevertheless for thebenefit of the spiritual life.4. the Christian way is not quiet or gentle or pleasant; it is a battle fought in the soul. This battle is the condition of spiritual progress.5. Apart from this violence of warring, there is nothing but indifference, lukewarmness. Advance to attack expresses Cassian's outlook; for the lustful will is the chief adversary of man.B. The Goal:1. the ultimate goal is the kingdom of heaven, but the aim(skopos) of the purgativeprocess is purity of heart. The purgative process must place a person in a state offreedom from the passions, to produce in the mind a concentration of thought upon God,in the soul an indifference to all apart from the Creator. To this goal the monk mustmarch along the royal road unswervingly, must close his eyes like the competitor in ashooting contest to all but the bullseye. Asceticism is a means toward the skopos2. Behind this theory lay the ideal of the angelic life.This was the notion that man must aim at contemplating and worshipping and praising God like the angels and at doing his will on earth as the angels in heaven. But according to Cassian sinlessness is impossible, temptations never cease in this life and there is always the need to fight.3. Perfection in this life is relative perfection, not to be identified with sinlessness butrather with the completion of the purgative process, which can be described as the stateof purity of heart. It is possible to achieve freedom from the grosser passions, but this does not mean immunity from temptation. Purity of heart is but the moral platform from whence God can be seen.C. The Principal Sins:1. Cassian list contained eight principal sins: gluttony, fornication, avarice, anger, dejection, accidie, vainglory, pride. Cassian treated them as sin produced bycorresponding temptations.2. The order is not random. They are linked together as cars in a railroad train. Becausethey are so intimately coupled an attack upon one is an attack upon all and conversely asurrender to one is a surrender to all, and because gluttony acquires its capital place inthe list as the root instigator of the corrupting series, fasting and abstinence must becomethe first and most valuable element in all ascetic practice.3. Cassian writing is intended to drive the mind to seek the reason for sin, not in superficial symptoms but in the latent evil in the human heart. Fight, strive, press on, struggle, resist, conquer - - are all key words. Cassian can only repeat, "here is the evil - fight against it.4. In all of this grace is presupposed: God is both the goal and the means by which thegoal is attained. Grace is what leads us to embrace methods of spiritual progress.D. The Motive of the Life of Virtue:1. Three things enable men to control and remedy their faults: a) the Fear of hell, or the penalties of earthly laws, b) the thought of and desire for the kingdom of heaven and c) a love of goodness and