A Commentary on St Philoxenus of Mabbug's Ascetic Discourses: Part 1

A Commentary on

St Philoxenus of Mabbug’s

'Ascetic Discourses'

Part 1: Discourse 1 - The Prologue

By Andrew Youssef

02/03/10

The only existing English translation of St Philoxenus’ 'Ascetic Discourses' is the 1894 translation by E.A. Wallis Budge. The text is freely available online at www.tertullian.org/fathers. For a direct link to the Prologue under discussion in this first part of my commentary, please click here.

Contents:

1. Attaining Perfection: Where Do We Begin?

2. Ready (Wisdom), Set (Knowledge), Go (the Remembrance of God)!

3. “The Ascetic Discourses”: Not Synonymous to “The Monastic Discourses”.

4. No Pain, No Gain.

1. Attaining Perfection:

Where Do We Begin?

Now if the farmers…of [this] world know that there are certain seasons for sowing grain and planting trees, and others for harvest and the ingathering of fruit, and they preserve the order of the seasons that their affairs suffer not injury and become not confused, how much more is it proper for the spiritual farmer and for the true disciple to know what things befit his first beginning in instruction, and where it is proper for him to begin? (p. 10)

The above-quoted segment of St Philoxenus’ Prologue to his Ascetic Discourses summarily expresses the preponderant concern that he seeks to impress upon the reader’s conscience as they consider the prologue of their own spiritual journey towards its final chapter of perfection: there must be a prudently prepared and systematic plan to our spiritual endeavours for there to be ultimate success.

Diligent commitment is no doubt another important concern emphasised by St Philoxenus in his zealous attempt to rouse the faithful towards pursuit of spiritual perfection; yet St Philoxenus cannot stress enough that such commitment, as sincere and tenaciously executed as it may be, will be of no effect to one’s spiritual progress if not applied to a wisely organised plan. In fact, the spiritual impasse that inevitably follows such rudderless commitment in turn provokes a sense of frustration and disheartenment that may then even procure spiritual regression.

St Philoxenus’ analogy to the work of farmers prompts us to ask ourselves: if a healthy balance between positive commitment and prudent planning is unquestionably appreciated to be a basic pre-requisite to the success of our various earthly pursuits, then why should we expect any different when it comes to our spiritual pursuits? The logic undergirding the great Syrian Father's sentiment reflects that used by the Incarnate Son of God in His parable of the unjust steward (Lk. 16:1-12). Despite the steward’s deceit, employed towards the end of securing a roof over his head upon termination of his stewardship, our Lord commended him for shrewdly preparing for his long-term earthly future and in turn lamented the sons and daughters of God who fail to apply such shrewdness in a just and righteous manner towards a more glorious and eternal end.

It is on account of the above that we may begin to appreciate the unique value of St Philoxenus’ Ascetic Discourses amongst the wealth of patristic works available to us; for whilst explaining and arguing the need for a prudently prepared and systematic plan towards the goal of achieving spiritual perfection, St Philoxenus’ Ascetic Discourses also constitutes that very plan.

To appreciate the Ascetic Discourses as such a plan, it is worthwhile to note that the ordering of its thirteen chapters, the subjects of which correspond to various virtues and vices, speaks to the systematic and logical arrangement of the work. It is clear, as will be more specifically demonstrated later in this commentary, that each chapter sets forth the theoretical axioms and arguments and the practical pre-requisites which serve to promote efficient and effective progression towards appreciation and exercise of the principles pertinent to the subject of the following chapter. Thus, the Ascetic Discourses is not--as a cursory review of its contents may mislead one to believe--simply a compilation of various mini-works on miscellaneous spiritual topics. Such an impression may have the effect of inclining the reader who is primarily concerned, for example, with the sin of gluttony, to skip straight to that chapter (Chapter 10); yet, the structure and fundamental premises of the Ascetic Discourses dictate that a true and proper understanding and application of the principles associated with the defeat of gluttony, firstly presupposes the same in relation to the subjects of the previous chapters [e.g. Simplicity (Chapters 4 and 5) and Poverty (Chapters 8 and 9)].

Another noteworthy quality of the Ascetic Discourses is its comprehensiveness. In mapping out and directing the difficult, yet achievable journey towards spiritual perfection, the Ascetic Discourses can be likened to the latest electronic GPS navigator. It not only directs the reader to their destination, but it also warns the reader of all, ‘Accident Black Spot Areas’ (stages in the journey infamous for attracting failures and setbacks); it advises the reader of when they’ve reached their ascetic speed limit for the relevant stage in their journey; it alerts the reader to dead-ends, and re-directs them to alternative routes in the event of departures from that which was originally set; generally, it gives as much detailed direction and guidance as necessary to guarantee an efficient and practicable journey towards spiritual perfection.

Thus far we have alluded to the goal or destination of the Christian’s spiritual journey in terms that St Philoxenus himself employs; namely, perfection. Describing in a nutshell the nature of this destination that he seeks to lead us to, within the context of his summation of what he hopes to achieve by his Ascetic Discourses, St Philoxenus concludes his Prologue to that work, saying:

we will show where it is proper that the disciple should begin, and how he should advance and ascend all the levels of the Christian life and conduct, until he arrives at the topmost step of love, from which he shall ascend to the level of perfection. It is then that the spiritual land of the joy of Christ will receive him, and when he has stood upon it he will be free from passions, and will be delivered from lusts, and he will have subdued all his enemies under his feet, and that man will speak with boldness the word of the Apostle, saying, "Yet I live; [and yet] no longer I, but Christ lives in me": to Whom be glory for ever. Amen.

It is crucial to note the manner in which perfect love and joy flourish only at the final stage of our spiritual struggle. Thus, the one who has not perfected, amongst other things, his faith (the subject of Discourses 2 and 3) cannot and should not expect, for example, to be able to authentically and wholeheartedly lovingly forgive his enemy, though he is no doubt expected to continue struggling towards this end. Furthermore, it follows that perfect joy will never be realised until all our passions have been conquered. We should thus not be surprised or set back by periods of dryness, or worse yet, sorrow, along our journey, but always encouraged along our journey by hope in that perfect love and joy that most certainly await us at our journey’s end.

2. Ready (Wisdom), Set (Knowledge),

Go (the Remembrance of God)!

St Philoxenus’ Prologue to his Ascetic Discourses lays the foundational framework of our journey to spiritual perfection by fleshing out three general propositions integral to each stage of that journey, and by emphasising the three virtues that generally correspond to those propositions:

Proposition 1:

We must always be conscious and appreciative of the need to commit to a prudently prepared plan of our spiritual endeavors. How we plan such endeavors will affect their outcomes.

Corresponding virtue:

Wisdom.

St Philoxenus: “Our Lord and our Redeemer Jesus Christ in His living Gospel invited us to draw close, in wisdom, to the work of keeping His commandments, and to lay within ourselves the foundation of His discipline rightly, in order that the edifice of our life and character might mount up straightly. For he who knoweth not how to begin wisely the building of this tower which goeth up to heaven is not able to complete [it] or to bring it to the finish which is of wisdom. For knowledge and wisdom should order, and arrange, and [p. 4] work the beginning and end and founding [of the edifice], and whosoever beginneth thus is called a wise man by the word of our Redeemer, "Whosoever heareth these My words, and doeth them, is like unto a wise man who hath dug, and made deep, and set his building upon the rock: and the rain descended, and the rivers came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not; for its foundations were laid upon the rock. But whosoever heareth and doeth not, is like unto a foolish man who set his building upon the sand, and even if feeble things beat upon his building they will sweep it away".

Some Key Considerations:

Often during our spurts of spiritual zeal, we either set ourselves lofty spiritual goals well beyond the level of those we first need to conquer, or we compact our spiritual program with numerous goals which we pursue haphazardly and disorderedly. In so doing, we often find ourselves failing miserably in pursuit of such goals and, upon so failing, we begin to question whether they are at all worth the effort of trying to pursue again. St Philoxenus advises us to take some time to consider that the problem is not with the goals themselves, but with the arrangement (or lack thereof), pace and style of our approach to pursuing them.
Do you struggle with pride? Do you struggle with lust? Do you struggle with gluttony? Whatever the struggle be that occupies the prime focus of your conscience, it remains the fact that the ultimate root problem which must first be dealt with before all else, is our lack of faith. Faith is the subject of the next discourse of St Philoxenus’ work, thus suggesting, in light of what has been said thus far, that wisdom demands that we must first deal with our deficiencies in faith if we are to make substantial progress in tackling anything else.

Proposition 2:

We must make sure that our plan is indeed prudently prepared.

Corresponding virtue:

Knowledge.

St Philoxenus: “For it is meet for the man who would begin in the way of the Commandments of Christ to know where he should begin, and what stone should properly be the first in the edifice of his instruction, and what stone should be second, and what stone should be third, lest being ignorant of the art of building, and not having learned where to begin, he know not also where and how to finish, and lest, by reason of his lack of knowledge of instruction, he make the last things first and the first last, and place some of them in the middle.

… [Consider how] those who are chosen for the military service of [this] world learn the art of war on this system, and their instruction is neither confounded nor confused, but each of the things which they learn they learn in its proper place and order. And so with everything else in [this] world, of which the beginning and middle and end are known. Now therefore, [judging] from the examples of the demonstrations which we have brought, this systematic order of things is especially useful to us, and the knowledge of the first rule of conduct of the Christian life and of that which followeth is very necessary for us.”

Some Key Considerations:

The sinful passions of the flesh and soul are best conquered not by direct elimination, but rather by the acquisition and imposition of over-powering contra-passions; that is to say, by "crowding out", so to speak, our sinful passions with righteous passions directed towards the opposites of the objects to which our sinful passions are directed (cf. [p. 22]).
We must defer to the wisdom and guidance of the Holy Fathers who have experienced the very journey we traverse and who have completed it successfully until its very end (cf. p. 12 & p. 18). Our personal instincts, intuitions, and so-called "common sense", will surely fail us if relied upon as ultimate guiding authorities.

Proposition 3:

We must commit to that prudently prepared plan.

Corresponding virtue:

The remembrance of God.

St Philoxenus: “We are…bound by the word of our Teacher not to be constant listeners only to the Word of God but also constant doers. For the man who, though listening not, doeth, is better than the man who is constant in listening and empty of works…Now as for the man who is constant in reading and remote from deeds, his reading is his own condemnation, and he is the more deserving of judgment, in that while he listeneth every day, he mocketh and is contemptuous every day, and he is thenceforth like a dead man and a corpse which hath no feeling, for if ten thousand trumpets and horns were to blow in the ear of a dead man he would not hear [them]; even thus is the soul which is dead in sins. And the understanding, from which the remembrance of God hath perished in the death-dealing error of the thoughts [of evil things], will not hear the sound of the cries of the divine voices, nor will the trumpet of the word of the Spirit move it, but it is sunk into the sleep of death which is pleasant to it; and although dying, it perceiveth not its death that it might turn and seek life for itself. And as the man who hath died according to nature is not sensible of his death, even so the dead man who dieth by his own will to the knowledge of God feeleth not his death, [p. 6] nor perceiveth his destruction, that he might find a way and seek out an invention of life for himself. … The soul dieth without the remembrance of God, and when it dieth all its discretion dieth therewith, and all its emotions of thought of heavenly things are annihilated therefrom. …The disciple of God, then, should seek to have the remembrance of his Master Jesus Christ fixed in his soul and to meditate upon it day and night…”

Some Key Considerations:

The remembrance of God is that divine consciousness that alerts us to the quality and nature of our acts, prompts us to redirect such acts should they be of a quality and nature at tension with the divine standard, and fuels us to pursue acts of a quality and nature apropos to the divine standard.
The one constantly engaged in external religious practices—attendance of Liturgy, the reading of Scriptures, the hearing of sermons etc.—without active commitment to that which he hears, sees, reads, and meditates upon, progressively paralyses the functionality of the remembrance of God within him.

3. “The Ascetic Discourses”:

Not Synonymous to

“The Monastic Discourses”

'Asceticism'—a term which denotes the life of rigorous self-denial—is a term that is often attached to the monastic life in a way that tends to falsely suggest a disparity between the moral ideals and objectives of the monks on the one hand, and those of the laity on the other hand.

Historically, the rise of monasticism did not mark the emergence of a new Christian moral standard, but rather of a new way of life—a new way of pursuing the one Christian moral standard to which all Christians are called; namely, the standard of perfection, the end of which is perfect love and joy.

The title of St Philoxenus’ work, therefore, immediately dispels any idea that the layman’s position of being immersed in worldly affairs secures any sort of moral concession when it comes to living the life of righteousness and holiness. There is only one road to perfect sanctity, love and joy, for the monk and the layman: the road of asceticism. It is simply the case that monks have adopted a different “vehicle”, so to speak, in their journey along that one and the same narrow road.

4. No Pain, No Gain:

Whilst setting our sights loftily towards the land of spiritual perfection, St Philoxenus makes clear that he is in no way offering an easy and smooth route there but rather the only authentic and reliable route, pursuit of which necessitates the breaking of a spiritual sweat and the aching of our spiritual muscles.

St Philoxenus offers three different metaphorical models which accurately reflect the genuine spiritual struggle we are to actively prepare ourselves for if we are to expect positive progress on our journey towards, and a secure arrival at, our final destination.

The Athletic Model: we must be stirred by a zealous sense of competition which drives us to vigorously support, encourage and train virtue and goodness in opposition to sin and evil.
The Warfare Model: we must be stirred by a sense of passionate patriotism for the God-given territory of our souls so as to strenuously and aggressively defend it against the invasion of the enemy, even at the cost of our worldly selves.
The Surgical Model: we must endure the sting of the needle of self-denial and the anguish of the amputation of our sinful attachments.

As difficult as the journey is, St Philoxenus nevertheless assures us that it is nevertheless indeed practical. At times, some of us may feel that the struggle for spiritual perfection is beyond the human ability. We proceed to deceive ourselves by a line of logic which argues that since humanity is intrinsically imperfect we are therefore justified in remaining in imperfection since in so doing we are simply abiding by the normative state of human nature. St Philoxenus anticipates this misguided sentiment and addresses it as follows:

[The disciple of Christ] should know that, although he is human according to the body, he is chosen to work spiritual things, and that, by the grace of God, he has been held worthy of the life of heavenly things, and that, although he exists in the flesh in [this] world, he should walk in the path which is superior to his nature.

Whilst the perfection to which we are called is indeed beyond human nature, we must remember that we have been destined to transcend our humanity, and that we have furthermore, by the saving work of Christ and the Grace of the Life of the Church, been granted the power and ability to do so.

May the prayers of St Philoxenus be with us all, and Glory be to God, forever. Amen.

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