Soul and Body |
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'What then are we to do?' perchance some one
may ask. What else than to care for the soul, never leaving an idle
moment for other things? Accordingly, we ought not to serve the body any
more than is absolutely necessary, but we ought to do our best for the
soul, releasing it from the bondage of fellowship with the bodily
appetites; at the same time we ought to make the body superior to
passion. We must provide it with the necessary food, to be sure, but not
with delicacies, as those do who seek everywhere for waiters and cooks,
and scour both earth and sea, like those bringing tribute to some stern
tyrant. This is a despicable business, in which are endured things as
unbearable as the torments of hell, where wool is combed into the fire,
or water is drawn in a sieve and poured into a perforated jar, and where
work is never done. Then to spend more time than is necessary on one's
hair and clothes is, in the words of Diogenes, the part of the
unfortunate or of the sinful. For what difference does it make to a
sensible man whether he is clad in a robe of state or in an inexpensive
garment, so long as he is protected from heat and cold? Likewise in
other matters we must be governed by necessity, and only give so much
care to the body as is beneficial to the soul. For to one who is really
a man it is no less a disgrace to be a fop or a pamperer of the body
than to be the victim of any other base passion. Indeed, to be very
zealous in making the body appear very beautiful is not the mark of a
man who knows himself, or who feels the force of the wise maxim : 'Not
that which is seen is the man,' for it requires a higher faculty for any
one of us, whoever he may be, to know himself. Now it is harder for the
man who is not pure in heart to gain this knowledge than for a
blear-eyed person to look upon the sun. To speak generally and so far as
your needs demand, purity of soul embraces these things: to scorn
sensual pleasures, to refuse to feast the eyes on the senseless antics
of buffoons, or on bodies which goad one to passion, and to close one's
ears to songs which corrupt the mind. For passions which are the
offspring of servility and baseness are produced by this kind of music.
On the other hand, we must employ that class of music which is better in
itself and which leads to better things, which David, the sacred
psalmist, is said to have used to assuage the madness of the king. Also
tradition has it that when Pythagoras happened upon some drunken
revelers, he commanded the flute-player, who led the merry-making, to
change the tune and to play a Doric air, and that the chant so sobered
them that they threw down their wreaths, and shamefacedly returned home.
Others at the sound of the flute rave like Corybantes and Bacchantes.
Even so great a difference does it make whether one lends his ear to
healthy or to vicious music. Therefore you ought to have still less to
do with the music of such influence than with other infamous things.
Then I am ashamed to forbid you to load the air with all kinds of
sweet-smelling perfumes, or to smear yourselves with ointment. Again,
what further argument is needed against seeking the gratification of
one's appetite than that it compels those who pursue it, like animals,
to make of their bellies a god?
St. Basil the Great: Address to Young Men on the Right use of Greek Literature
In the Gospels the Lord teaches us that when
Satan returns and finds his home swept and empty - finds, that is to
say, the heart barren - he then musters seven other spirits and enters
it and lurks there, making its last state worse than its first (cf.
Matt. 12: 44-45). From this we must understand that so long as the Holy
Spirit is in us, Satan cannot enter the depths of the soul and remain
there. Paul too clearly conveys this same spiritual understanding. When
he looks at the matter from the viewpoint of those still engaged in the
ascetic struggle, he says: ‘For with the inward man I delight in the
law of God; but I see another law in my members, warring against the law
of my intellect, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which
is in my members’ (Rom. 7: 22-23). But when he looks at it from the
viewpoint of those who have attained perfection, he says: ‘There is
therefore now no condemnation of those who are in Christ Jesus, who do
not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. For the law
of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has freed me from the law of sin
and death’ (Rom. 8: 1-2). Again, so as to teach us once more that it
is through the body that Satan attacks the soul which participates in
the Holy Spirit, he says: ‘Stand, therefore, having girded your loins
with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness, and having
shod your feet with the gospel of peace; above all, taking the shield of
faith with which you will be able quench all the fiery arrows of the
evil one. And take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit,
which is the word of God’ (Eph. 6: 14-17).
Captivity is one thing, battle is another. Captivity signifies a violent abduction, while battle indicates a contest between equally matched adversaries. For precisely this reason the Apostle says that the devil attacks with fiery arrows those who carry Christ in their souls. For someone who is not at close grips with his enemy uses arrows against him, attacking him from a distance. In the same way, when, because of the presence of grace, Satan can lurk no longer in the intellect of those pursuing a spiritual way, he lurks in the body and exploits its humours, so that through its proclivities he may seduce the soul. We should therefore weaken the body to some extent, so that the intellect does not slide down the smooth path of sensual pleasure because of the body’s humours. We should believe the Apostle when he says that the intellect of those pursuing the spiritual way is energized by divine light, and therefore obeys and rejoices in the law of God (cf. Rom. 7:22). But the flesh, because of its proclivities, readily admits evil spirits, and so is sometimes enticed into serving their wickedness. Thus it is clear that the intellect cannot be the common dwelling place of both God and the devil. How can St Paul say that ‘with my intellect I serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin’ (Rom. 7:25), unless the intellect is completely free to engage in battle with the demons, gladly submitting itself to grace, whereas the body is attracted by the smell of mindless pleasures? He can only say this because the wicked spirits of deception are free to lurk in the bodies of those pursuing a spiritual way; ‘for I know that in me - that is, in my flesh - there dwells nothing good’ (Rom. 7: 18), says the Apostle, referring to those who are resisting and struggling against sin. Here he is not merely expressing a personal opinion. The demons attack the intellect, but they do so by trying through lascivious temptations to entice the flesh down the slope of sensual pleasure. It is for a good purpose that the demons are allowed to dwell within the body even of those who are struggling vigorously against sin; for in this way man’s free will is constantly put to the test. If a man, while still alive, can undergo death through his labours, then in his entirety he becomes the dwelling-place of the Holy Spirit; for such a man, before he has died, has already risen from the dead, as was the case with the blessed Apostle Paul and all those who have struggled and are struggling to the utmost against sin. St Diadochos of Photiki: On Spiritual Knowledge
Saint John of Kronstadt (1829-1908), when
remarking on caring too much for the flesh, said, "It is
remarkable that however much we trouble about our health, however much
care we take of ourselves, whatever wholesome and pleasant food and
drink we take, however much we walk in the fresh air, still,
notwithstanding all this, in the end we sicken and corrupt; whilst the
saints, who despise the flesh, and mortify it by continual abstinence
and fasting, by lying on the bare earth, by watchfulness, labours,
unceasing prayer, make both their souls and bodies immortal. Our
well-fed bodies decay and after death emit an offensive odour, whilst
theirs remain fragrant and flourishing both in life and after death.
It is a remarkable thing: we, by building up our body, destroy it,
whilst they, by destroying theirs, built it up-by caring only for the
fragrance of their souls before God, they obtain fragrance of the body
also."
The Spiritual Counsel
of Father John of Kronstadt, ed. by W. Jardine Grisbrooke
(London: James Clark & Co. Ltd., 1967), pp. 152-153.
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