Overview of Spiritual Warfare - Saint John Cassian the Roman — Part 6

FIGHTING WITH THE SPIRIT OF ANGER

In the fourth battle, we are faced with the task of uprooting the deadly poison of anger from the depths of our souls. For as long as anger nestles in our hearts and blinds the eye of our mind with a deadly darkness, we can neither acquire the right distinction between good and evil, nor the sharpness of honorable perception, nor the maturity of counsel; nor can we be partakers of life, nor fearlessly adhere to justice; nor receive true spiritual light, since it is said: My eye is troubled by anger (Ps 6:8); nor become partakers of wisdom, even if everyone considers us wise, since anger rests in the bosom of fools (Eccl. 7:10); nor achieve long life, even if other people consider us prudent, since anger destroys even the prudent (Prov. 15:1); nor be able to always keep the measure of justice well according to the manifestation of the heart, since an angry man does not work out the righteousness of God (James 1:20); nor to be able to possess important respect, as is common among the people of this life, even if we are considered important and respected by virtue of birth, since an angry man is not of good disposition (Prov. 11:25); nor to be able to possess maturity of counsel, even if we appear to be those who have acquired much knowledge, since an angry man does everything without counsel (Prov. 14:17); nor to be calm from unrest and confusion, nor free from sin, even if we are not disturbed at all by others, since an angry man stirs up strife, and a furious man reveals sins (Prov. 29:22).

In their efforts to justify this fatal disease of the soul, some try to minimize its inappropriateness by misinterpreting Scripture, saying: "It is not terrible if we are angry with our brothers who sin, since the Lord himself is angry with those who either do not want to know him, or do not want to honor him as they should, even if they do know him, as for example: And the anger of the Lord was kindled against his people (Ps 105:40), or, as in another place, where the prophet prays, saying: Lord, do not rebuke me in your anger, nor chastise me in your wrath " (Ps 6:2). They do not understand that by doing so they not only give people freedom to act according to passion to their own destruction, but also dishonorably attribute impure bodily passion to the infinite God, the source of all purity.
If these and similar passages in the Holy Scripture are understood literally, in a gross physical sense, it will turn out that God sleeps and wakes, that He sits and walks, that He is kind to some and turns away from others, that He approaches and moves away, that He has bodily limbs: head, eyes, hands, feet, and the like. He cannot avoid the ultimate error who understands all this literally about Him who, according to the testimony of the Holy Scriptures: is invisible, indescribable, and present everywhere. Likewise, one cannot attribute to Him, without blasphemy, the disturbance of anger and wrath. Under the name of bodily limbs and movements, God's attributes and His mental actions regarding us are designated, which we can more easily understand through comparison: eyes signify that God sees and knows everything; hands and feet His creation and deliberation, muscles His strength and omnipotence, etc. Likewise, when we read about the anger or wrath of God, we should be careful not to think of something that is encountered in man. By this we should understand as befitting God something that is alien to all anger, namely that He is the judge and justly requites everything that is not done rightly in this world. When reading sayings of this kind, we should fear the just punishment of God, and in every way guard ourselves from everything that is contrary to His will.
Therefore, a monk who strives for perfection and who wants to lawfully perform a spiritual feat should be alien to every movement of anger and rage. He should listen to what the Apostle Paul commands him: Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, with all malice (Eph 4:31). Saying: Let all anger be put away from you, he does not exclude any movement of anger, even that which seems necessary or useful. A monk who rushes, if it turns out to be necessary, to heal a brother who has sinned should be careful not to become angry, lest, while he is anxious to heal one who is suffering from a slight fever, he fall into a still worse disease of blindness. For he who wants to heal the wound of another must be healthy and free from all disease, lest that gospel word be said to him: Physician, heal thyself (Luke 4:23), and also:And why do you see the speck in your brother's eye, but do not perceive the log in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, "Let me take the speck out of your eye," when, behold, the log is in your own eye (Mt 7:3-4).
Regardless of the reason for which it has flared up in us, the movement of anger blinds the eyes of the heart. By imposing a veil on the sharpness of the mental vision, it prevents us from seeing the Sun of justice. It is the same whether the eyes are covered with gold or lead, or with some other metal: the value of the metal does not affect the difference in blindness. Moreover, anger also does us a very useful service if we are angry at the lustful movements of our heart and if we protest that in the recesses of our breasts there is a liking for what it is shameful to do, and even to say before men, and because of which we tremble with fear at the thought of the presence of angels and God Himself, who is everywhere and fills everything, as well as the all-seeing eye of God, from which no secrets of our conscience can be hidden. It is also useful when we are angry against anger itself, that is, because it has crept into us, inciting us against our brother. For then we reject its destructive suggestions with anger, not allowing it to hide in the secret places of our breasts to our harm. The prophet who resolutely rejected this passion from his feelings teaches us to be angry in this way. He did not even want to take revenge on his public enemies whom God had delivered into his hands. When Shimei loudly cursed him in front of everyone, throwing stones at him, and when Abishai, the son of Zeruiah, wanted to cut off his head as punishment for such an insult to the king, the blessed King David piously rebelled against such an intention, fearlessly preserving his meekness, and showing a model of humility and hard suffering, saying: What have you to do with me, sons of Zeruiah? Let him curse; for the Lord said to him: Curse David. Who then can say: Why do you do so? David also said to Abishai and all his servants: Behold, my son, who came forth from my loins, seeks my life, and how can this Benjaminite not? Let him curse, for the Lord has commanded him. Perhaps the Lord will look on my affliction, and the Lord will repay me good for his cursing today (2 Sam 16:10-12).
In this way, we are allowed to be angry, but for salvation, that is, at ourselves and at the bad thoughts that come to us. Therefore, we can be angry at them, and not sin, that is, not put them into practice to our own destruction. The same meaning is expressed even more clearly in the following verse: Speak in your hearts and grieve on your beds (Ps 4:5). Namely, what you think in your hearts when you are suddenly overcome by disturbing thoughts, correct and smooth out with saving contrition, after having previously managed to silence every noise and unrest of anger through calm reasoning, which will be similar to lying down on a comfortable bed. Taking advantage of the lesson of this verse, the apostle Paul said: Be angry, but do not sin , and then added: Do not let the sun go down on your anger, nor give place to the devil.(Eph 4:26-27). If it is fatal to allow the Sun of righteousness to set in our anger, and if we, being angry, immediately give place to the devil in our hearts, why then does he earlier command us to be angry, saying: Be angry, and do not sin ! Does he not say the following: Be angry with your passions and with your anger itself, so that when you indulge in anger, the Sun of righteousness or Christ may not begin to set in your minds darkened by anger. For by His departure you would give place to the devil in your hearts.
In a figurative sense, under the sun we can understand reason. It is rightly called the sun because it illuminates all the thoughts and endeavors of our heart. On the other hand, under the prohibition of anger we should understand the command not to extinguish that light with the passion of anger, so that, with its setting, the darkness of turbulent unrest together with its culprit, that is, the devil, may not seize our whole heart. For then, enveloped in the darkness of anger as in a dark night, we would remain ignorant of what to do. Such an understanding of this passage in the Apostle Paul is handed down to us in the teachings of the elders. They do not allow us to allow anger to creep into our hearts even for a moment. They advise us to be careful in every way so as not to come under the condemnation pronounced in the Gospel: Everyone who is angry with his brother without a cause will be liable to judgment (Mt 5:22). Moreover, if it were permitted to be angry until sunset, the passion of anger would always rush to satisfy itself with its revenge, supposedly justified, before the sun sets in the west.
And what can be said of those whose implacability does not cease even after sunset, and who hold a grudge against those against whom they are angry for many days? They sometimes say that they are not angry, although their actions often openly reveal a great deal of resentment when, for example, they do not address someone with a polite word or when they do not speak with the usual courtesy. It seems to them that they are not wrong in this, since they do not seek revenge for their irritability. However, they simply cannot or do not dare to express it, while their hearts are boiling. By remaining silent, they survive it, thereby turning the poison of anger to their own ruin. They do not expel the bitterness of anger immediately with the strength of the soul, but simmer it over many days, and only in time do they tame it to some extent.
Does not he who does only what he can of what anger moves him to do satisfy his revenge and anger? So do those who restrain the movements of anger, not from a desire to be peaceful, but from the inability to take revenge, although they vent it with what they can. Having no possibility of doing anything more to those against whom they are angry, they vent their anger by not speaking to them with ordinary kindness. Therefore, it is not enough to tame the manifestation of sin in action. Anger must be cast out of the secret place of the heart, otherwise, due to the eclipse of darkness, sound judgment and the light of knowledge will be lost, and a person will cease to be a temple of the Holy Spirit. For although it does not grieve those around him, hidden anger in the heart drives out the brightest radiance of the Holy Spirit, just as expressed anger does.
Can we think that God allows us to hold onto anger for even a minute, if we know that He does not allow us to offer the sacrifices of our spiritual prayers when we are aware not only that we are angry with another, but also when the other has something against us: Therefore 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 (Mt 5:23-24)? And how can we think that we are allowed to hold onto anger against our brother even until sunset (not to say for many days), if we are not allowed to offer our prayers to God even when he has something against us, and when the apostle Paul commands us: Pray always (1 Thess 5:7), and: Therefore I will that the men pray in every place, lifting up holy hands, without anger and doubting (1 Tim 2:8)? Therefore, if we keep such poison in our hearts, we are left with either never praying and being guilty before the apostolic and evangelical commandment, which commands us to pray constantly and in every place, or we are aware that, by pouring out our prayer regardless of the prohibition, we are in fact showing our arrogant disobedience in a spirit of rebellion, and not offering prayer to the Lord.
We do not need to dwell longer on the evangelical and apostolic commandments when the Old Testament, which seems to somewhat succumb to our weaknesses, warns against the same thing, saying: You shall not hate your brother in your heart (Lev 19:17), and again: The ways of those who remember evil lead to death (Prov 12:28), and again: You shall not be vengeful, nor bear a grudge against the children of your people (Lev 19:18). Do you see that here too, bad moods towards brothers are cut off not only in action, but also in secret thoughts, since it is commanded to root out hatred from the heart so that, not only would they not retaliate for an insult, but they would not even mention it.
Having felt a special inner impulse to correct our disordered and careless nature, and having been overcome by pride or impatience, we complain to ourselves that we lack the desert. By this we seem to mean that there, undisturbed by anyone, we would immediately acquire the virtue of patience, apparently justifying our inaction in taming the impulse of anger, and blaming the cause of its emergence on our brothers, and not on our own impatience. However, if we, in this way, attribute the causes of our disorder to others, we will never reach the necessary measure of patience and perfection. Do not place the work of correcting and calming your heart in the hands of the free will of another, who is not at all in our power, but who keeps it in the good mood of his will. Our not falling into anger should not depend on the perfection of another, but on our own virtue, which is acquired not by the suffering of others, but by our own generosity.
Therefore, seeking the desert is befitting for the perfect and purified of all passions, who have eradicated all passions in communion with their brothers. One should not enter the desert out of a despondent flight, but out of a desire to reach the height of God's contemplation, since even the perfect cannot attain it without the desert. For the unhealed passions that we carry into the desert will remain hidden within us, but not eradicated. For those who are pure in heart, the desert provides the purest contemplation, and in the most faithful visions it reveals the knowledge of spiritual secrets, while for those who have not yet been purified, it usually not only nourishes passions, but also intensifies them. In such a case, a person can appear to himself to be patient and humble until he sees or comes into contact with a person. But as soon as some occasion provokes it to action, it immediately returns to its former nature, that is, at that moment the passions that were hidden spring up in it, and like untamed horses fattened by long rest, with the greatest effort and fury break out of their prisons to the ruin of their rider. For, unless they have been previously cleansed, the passions act with greater fury in us after the cessation of the occasions of their manifestation and taming among men. And the very shadow of suffering, which, as it was imagined, we had apparently mastered by living together with our brothers, and which we showed, at the very least, out of respect for them and out of shame at appearing faint-hearted before everyone, we lose in the desert carelessness.
It is similar with poisonous snakes and beasts because while they hide in the desert, in their dens and hideouts, they do not bite, although not because they are harmless or because they have acquired good qualities, but because the desert forces them to do so. However, as soon as they seize the opportunity to bite, they immediately bring forth and express the venom and ferocity that is hidden within them. In the same way, it is not enough for those who want perfection not to be angry with people when they are not in communion and conflict with them, since the anger is still alive: it has only been lying dormant and is ready to immediately attack anything. I remember how, living in the desert, I sometimes got angry with a writing pen if I didn't like its thickness or thinness, sometimes with a knife if it got dull when cutting and didn't cut quickly, and sometimes with a flint if it didn't come out quickly a spark of fire flew out when I hurried to read. The movement of indignation sometimes surged with such force that one could involuntarily hear a curse on a soulless thing, or, inevitably, on the devil, from one's lips; this would remove the troubles and make the soul seem at peace. Accordingly, in the work of perfection, distancing oneself from people will bring little benefit. which anger would arise, unless we first acquire patience. For the passion of anger can be expressed even in silent things and in trifles. Remaining in our heart, it will not allow us to achieve a peaceful disposition, nor to free ourselves from other passions.
Therefore, If we want to achieve the highest treasure of God, which is spoken of: Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God (Mt 5:8), we are obliged to cast this passion out not only from our actions, but also to root it out from the depths of our souls. Because it will not do us much good to tame the fury of anger in words and not express it in action, if God, from whom the secrets of the heart cannot be hidden, sees it in the secret places of the heart. The evangelical word commands us to remove the roots of passion rather than their fruits, which will no longer be born after the roots are removed. In this way, the soul will get the opportunity to remain steadfast in all patience and holiness, since anger will not only be removed from the surface of our actions and actions, but also from the hiding place of thoughts. Therefore, anger and hatred should be deadened, so that we do not fall into the sin of killing a person, which cannot happen without them. Because everyone who is angry with his brother for nothing will be guilty of judgment (Mt 5:22), and: Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer (1 John 2:15). Namely, such a person in his heart wants to kill the one he is angry with. And, although men do not think that he shed blood with his own hand or sword, the Lord, because of the passion of his anger, declares him a murderer. Namely, he will repay everyone with either a reward or a punishment, not only for accomplished deeds, but also for the intentions of the will, as he himself says through the prophet: And, I know their deeds and their thoughts, and the time will come, when I will gather all the nations ( From 66:18). And the apostle Paul says:Since their thoughts accuse or justify each other on the day when God will judge the secrets of men (Rom 2:15-16).
Accordingly, the bearer of Christ's feat, who lawfully performs the feat, must root out the passion of anger from himself. For a perfect cure from this disease, the following treatment is necessary: ​​first of all, one should believe that it is not appropriate to be angry under any pretext, either for justified or unjustified reasons, knowing that, by the darkening of the original light that is in us by anger, by the darkening of the light of our heart, we will immediately lose both the light of distinguishing things, and the firmness of prudence and decency, and the measure of justice; next, we should hold to the conviction that if the spirit of anger remains in us, the purity of our spirit will inevitably be clouded, and it will no longer be able to become a temple of the Holy Spirit; and finally we should also remember that as long as we remain in anger we must not pray and pour out our petitions before the Lord. And, above all, having before our eyes the uncertainty of the limit of human life, we should constantly be aware that we may pass from the body any day. There neither the preservation of purity of chastity, nor the renunciation of all possessions, nor the contempt of wealth, nor the efforts of fasting and vigils will help us at all, since even because of anger and hatred the Judge of the universe threatens us with eternal torment.