Overview of Spiritual Warfare - Saint John Cassian the Roman — Part 1

THE GOAL AND PURPOSE OF THE FIGHT OF SPIRITUAL STRUGGLE

All sciences and arts have a goal and purpose. Fixing their gaze on them, a zealous lover of art gladly endures all the efforts and needs. Thus, a farmer, enduring now heat, now cold, tirelessly cultivates the land, having the goal of clearing it of weeds and making it more fertile. He is convinced that otherwise he cannot achieve an abundant harvest in order to support himself and multiply his wealth. So too, our feat of spiritual struggle has a goal and purpose for the sake of which we tirelessly and contentedly endure all the labors, for which the scarcity of ascetic food does not burden us, for which we rejoice in exhaustion from vigil. For the sake of this daily purpose of ours, the reading of the Holy Scripture with reflection knows no satiety, for which we are not afraid of constant labor and work, nor of renunciation of everything and scarcity in everything, nor of the horrors of the boundless desert.

The purpose of our life in the feat of spiritual struggle is the Kingdom of God, and the goal is purity of heart without which it is not possible to achieve this purpose. By fixing our gaze on this goal, we should most accurately direct our life as if on a straight line. And, if our thought deviates in the slightest from the goal, we should, as if by some rule, immediately correct it by returning to its consideration.

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The apostle Paul teaches this when he says to those who have accepted the gentle yoke of Christ: You have your fruit unto sanctification, and the end eternal life (Rom. 6:22).
He thus seems to say, your goal is purity of heart, and your purpose eternal life. Therefore, we should hold on with all our strength to that which can direct us to that goal, that is, purity of heart, and avoid that which distracts us from it as destructive and harmful. For we do and endure everything for its sake. Thus, in order to preserve a constant purity of heart, we leave behind parents, homeland, ranks, wealth, comforts, and all the pleasures of this world. If we always have this goal in mind, all our actions and thoughts will be directed towards its attainment. But if the goal is not constantly before our eyes, all our labors and efforts will be wasted, since they were not directed only towards it.
Therefore, for the sake of purity of heart, we should desire and do everything. For its sake we should go to the desert, to observe fasting, vigils, labor, physical poverty, reading and other virtues. By doing this we should make our heart free from all destructive passions and keep it so. For the sake of this main goal, namely purity of heart, we should practice fasting, vigils, solitude, teaching in the Holy Scriptures. For their sake we must not allow ourselves to violate this main virtue. For, if this main virtue is preserved intact in us, there will be no harm if some of the aforementioned feats are omitted in a particular case out of necessity. But we will not benefit at all if we maintain all of them, but purity of heart alone is violated. Therefore, we should do everything for its sake. Virtues are not perfection but means to achieve perfection. Therefore, he who stops the aspiration of his heart on them, being satisfied with them as the highest good, will labor in vain, since they will not lead him to the achievement of the purpose for which they are desired.

IN ACCORDANCE WITH THIS GOAL, IT IS NECESSARY TO DETERMINE THE TYPE OF OUR RENUNCIATION FROM THE WORLD

There are three kinds of renunciation of the world. The first, in which we physically leave behind all the riches and acquisitions of the world; the second, in which we leave behind former habits, vices, and passions of the soul and body; and the third, in which, withdrawing the mind from all that is present and visible, we look only to the future and long for what is invisible. The Lord told Abraham to make all three renunciations at the same time: Go out from your country, and from your kindred, and from your father's house (Genesis 12:1).

From our country , that is, from worldly wealth and earthly acquisitions; from our lineage , that is, from our former way of life, former habits and vices, which are very similar to us as if they were of the same blood with us, adhering to us from the very birth; from our father's house , that is, from every memory of the world and everything that meets our gaze in it. This is achieved when, having died with Christ to the elements of the world, according to the apostle Paul, we look not at what is seen, but at what is unseen, because what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal (2 Cor 4:18); when, having left this temporary and visible house with our hearts, we turn our eyes and mind towards the house in which we will dwell eternally; when, living in the flesh, we do not wage war in the flesh in the Lord (2 Cor 10:3), proclaiming by our deeds and lives that saying of the apostle Paul: Our citizenship is in heaven (Phil 3:20).
We will not benefit much if, with all the fervor of faith, having made the first renunciation, we do not also make the second with the same zeal, and having succeeded in acquiring it, we achieve the third in which, when we leave the house of our former father according to the old man, we will completely direct the gaze of our mind towards heaven. Therefore, if we want to achieve true perfection, we should strive, since we have left: physical parents, homeland, riches and worldly pleasures, to leave everything we have left in our hearts, and never return with lust to what we have rejected with contempt. Otherwise, we will be like the Israelites who, after leaving Egypt and tasting the heavenly manna, desired the unclean and sinful food of Egypt, saying: It was good for us in Egypt, when we sat by the pots of meat (Ex 16:3; Num 11:5).
And anyone who, after renouncing the world, returns to his former cares or desires, says in deed and thought the same as they: "It was good for us in Egypt, that is, in the world." It will not benefit us if we leave the world only in body or if the move from this world is only in place. In the same way, we need to acquire renunciation of the heart, which is much greater and more beneficial. Here is what the apostle Paul declared about the renunciation that we have called bodily: And if I give away all my possessions, and if I give my body to be burned, but do not have love, it profits me nothing (1 Cor 13:3). This means that it will not benefit me to renounce everything and burn the outer man, nor to be martyred and burn my body, which I give up for Christ, if I am: impatient, angry, envious, proud, if I get angry because of the insults of others, or seek my own, if I think about what is evil, or if I do not patiently and reluctantly bear everything that happens to me. Because, at the same time, the inner man is still covered with former passions.
Therefore, with all perseverance we should hasten to remove from ourselves and cast off from our inner man all that it has accumulated in the previous life, that is, the wealth of passions which, growing with the body and soul, are in the true sense ours. And if, while we are still in this body, they are not cut off and cast off, they will not cease to accompany us even after leaving the body. Just as virtues (or love itself, which is the source of virtue) acquired in this life make their lover beautiful and luminous at the end of this life, so also vices, having covered the soul with disgusting colors, do not depart from it soiled in the next life. The beauty or ugliness of the soul is born from the quality of virtue or vice. Some of these colors, which are obtained from them, make it either so bright and beautiful that it is worthy to hear the prophetic word: And the king will desire your beauty (Ps 45:11), or completely black, impure and impersonal, so that it can itself, confessing its torments, say: My wounds stink and fester because of my foolishness (Ps 38:6). Therefore, those virtues and passions are our personal wealth that resides inseparably with the soul, and which neither the king can give us nor the enemy take away from us. They are precisely our wealth, which even death itself is not strong enough to tear away from the soul. To spend the evil wealth of passions means to mortify them, which is impossible to achieve without a struggle with them. Therefore, those who have renounced the world inevitably face a struggle with passions. They should embrace them from the beginning.

THE BATTLE OF THE BODY AGAINST THE SPIRIT

There is a struggle in our members, as we read in the apostle Paul: For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other, so that you do not want to do what you do not want to do (Gal 5:17).

According to God's plan, this struggle seems to have grown into our very nature. And can we not consider it a natural feature of the human system after the fall of Adam, since it is common to all without exception? However, it is necessary to believe that, if it is already natural to everyone, it is in us by the will of God and for our good, and not for evil. It was left in us in order to awaken zeal for higher perfection.
The word flesh in this place should be understood in the sense of the carnal will or evil desires, and not in the sense of man as a being. Likewise, the word Spirit should not be understood as a personal being, but as the good and holy desires of the soul. This is the sense defined by the apostle Paul, saying: Walk by the Spirit, and you will not fulfill the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusts against the Spirit (Gal 5:16-17). Since both desires are in one and the same man, there is a constant struggle within us. While the lust of the flesh, tending mainly to the sinful, finds satisfaction in what concerns the provision of the necessities of this present life, the spirit, on the contrary, desires to cling entirely to spiritual works, neglecting even the most necessary bodily needs and not paying the slightest attention to the corruptible body. The flesh delights in abundance and pleasures of every kind, while the spirit is not pleased even with the care of the objects of natural needs. The flesh desires to be satisfied with sleep and to be full of food, while the spirit is fed by vigilance and fasting to such an extent that it would not want to allow itself even as much sleep and food as is necessary for life. The flesh desires to abound in riches of every kind, while the spirit is not satisfied even with a small amount of bread for daily use. The flesh desires to be pampered and to be surrounded by a crowd of flatterers, while the spirit finds comfort in a strict life and the vastness of a difficult-to-access desert, where the presence of mortals is not pleasant to it. The flesh is carried away by the honors and praise of men, while the spirit finds pleasure in persecutions and insults.
Guided by self-love and worldly wisdom, our will imagines that it can achieve a middle ground (otherwise, worthy of all condemnation) between these two endeavors, with the intention of abstaining from bodily passions so as not to suffer at all the troubles that are inevitable in fulfilling the demands of the spirit. It would like to achieve bodily purity without punishing the body, to acquire purity of heart without the effort of vigilance, to abound in spiritual virtues despite bodily tranquility, to obtain the grace of suffering without fierce slander, to show the humility of Christ without losing worldly honor, to follow the simplicity of piety with the vanity of this world, to serve Christ with human glory and approval, to boldly speak justice without encountering even the slightest sorrow. In general, it would like to achieve future treasures without losing present ones. Such a will does not lead to true perfection, but by establishing a state of undesirable warmth, it makes people worthy of the rebuke that the Lord mentions in the Revelation:I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were cold or hot! But because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spew you out of my mouth (Rev. 3:15-16).