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The Evergetinos: Book Three - Chapter II, Part III

Philokalia Ministries

There is a fierce honesty in the fathers that modern Christians often find difficult to endure. They do not allow us the comfort of remaining spectators to the Fall. We prefer to think of Adam’s transgression as history, tragedy, doctrine, or inherited condition. But the fathers insist upon something far more painful: Adam’s sin is repeated in us daily. Not first through sensuality.Not first through disobedience.But through judgment. Abba Mark says something astonishing: the tree of the knowledge of good and evil is our constant distinction between “good” brethren and “bad” brethren. The Fall occurs whenever we separate ourselves inwardly from another human being through contempt, condemnation, suspicion, derision, or hidden hatred. We imagine ourselves discerning spiritually, morally, psychologically, or ecclesially, while in reality we are tasting again the forbidden fruit. This is why the fathers fear judgment more than humiliation. The modern mind often reduces sin to the violation of rules. But the fathers understand sin as the darkening of vision. The moment we begin to look upon another person without mercy, without reverence, without grief for our own condition, our sight becomes corrupted. We no longer behold the image of God. We behold instead the projection of our own passions. And this is why Abba Mark says:“In the eyes of one whose heart is possessed by the passions, no man is sanctified.” The impure heart cannot see purely. A man filled with anger sees enemies everywhere.A vain man sees inferiors.A lustful man sees objects.A fearful man sees threats.A proud man sees fools. The world slowly takes on the shape of our inner disorder. How terrifying this is for our age. We live in a culture built almost entirely upon commentary, denunciation, suspicion, exposure, ridicule, factionalism, and perpetual judgment. Men and women sit before glowing screens daily eating the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil, deciding endlessly who is worthy and who is contemptible. Entire identities are now constructed around outrage. Even religious discourse often becomes little more than sanctified accusation. One no longer needs to enter a battlefield to lose one’s soul.One need only remain online. The fathers would tremble at the atmosphere we inhabit. Not because they were naïve about evil, but because they understood something we do not: judgment wounds first the one who judges. The punishment is already contained within the act itself. The moment brotherly love dies, spiritual perception begins to die with it. Abba Mark says that once the mind tastes this fruit, it falls into the very sins it condemned. This is one of the great spiritual laws confirmed by centuries of ascetical experience. The one who delights in exposing others becomes inwardly exposed himself. The one obsessed with impurity becomes inwardly contaminated by the images he condemns. The one who cannot forgive slowly becomes incapable of receiving mercy. And yet the fathers do not say these things to crush us. They speak this way because they have seen Christ. This is what modern readers often miss. The fierce severity of the desert fathers is born from the overwhelming revelation of divine mercy. They have seen the humility of God in Christ. They have seen the Innocent One forgive His murderers, descend into our corruption, bear our nakedness, and unite Himself even to those who abandoned Him. Therefore every movement of contempt within themselves becomes unbearable to them. Their tears are not moralism.They are astonishment before mercy. The fathers know that no man truly sees his own sins and continues comfortably condemning others. When Isaiah saw the glory of God, he did not cry:“Those people are unclean.”He cried:“I am a man of unclean lips.” This is why humility and compassion always deepen together. The modern world confuses humility with low self-esteem or emotional softness. But the fathers understand humility as truthfulness before God. The