The Ascetical Homilies of St. Isaac the Syrian - Homily XI, Part II

There is something striking in the way that St. Isaac the Syrian speaks about the monastic life. He does not speak of it romantically. There is no sentimentalism in him. No fascination with externals. No praise of extraordinary feats meant to astonish the imagination. What he describes is hiddenness. Poverty of spirit. Chastity. Vigilance. Tears. Silence. Freedom from worldly rumor. Perseverance in prayer. The steady remembrance of one’s true country.

And yet he calls these things beauty.

This is important.

Because the world has almost entirely lost the capacity to recognize spiritual beauty. We are trained to admire visibility, influence, accomplishment, charisma, productivity, youth, power. Even within religious life, we often admire the gifted personality more than the purified heart. We praise success more readily than humility. We are impressed by what shines outwardly while remaining almost blind to the soul that quietly dies to itself in love for God.

But Isaac sees differently.

For him, the true beauty of the monk is not found in appearance, status, or achievement. It is found in a human being becoming transparent to grace. A person who no longer lives from the compulsions of the fallen self but from communion with God.

This is why his teaching cannot be reduced merely to anchorites living in caves or hermits hidden in the desert. Certainly, Isaac is speaking directly to monks. But what he describes is nothing less than the flowering of baptism itself.

The monk becomes for Isaac an icon of what every Christian life is meant to reveal.

Because Christianity is not merely moral improvement. It is not religious affiliation. It is not the management of behavior through rules and obligations. The Gospel reveals something infinitely greater and more terrifying than that.

Man is created in the image and likeness of God.

And through Christ, man is drawn into the very life of God.

This is the great vision underlying all authentic asceticism. The struggle is not an end in itself. Fasting is not the goal. Silence is not the goal. Vigilance is not the goal. The goal is communion. Participation. The purification of the heart so that the human being might become capable of receiving divine life.

Theosis.

To modern ears, Isaac’s words can sound severe. “To weep without pause day and night.” “To have a sad and furrowed countenance.” “To divorce himself from worldly rumors.” But Isaac is not describing psychological misery. He is describing a soul awakening from intoxication.

The tears of the saints are not despair. They are the breaking open of the heart before Love itself.

A man who begins to see reality truthfully cannot remain superficial. He begins to perceive how fragmented his heart has become through vanity, distraction, gluttony, lust, self-love, and the endless noise of the world. He sees how easily he lives outside himself. How little of his life is actually rooted in God.

And so mourning begins.

But this mourning is luminous.

Because the very pain of repentance becomes the place where grace descends.

Isaac’s monk is beautiful because he has stopped fleeing. He stands before God as he is. He no longer seeks refuge in reputation, entertainment, argument, possession, or pleasure. He allows the fire of divine love to reveal everything false within him.

And gradually another life begins to emerge.

Prayer becomes simpler. The heart becomes quieter. The need to be seen diminishes. Compassion deepens. Chastity ceases to be repression and becomes freedom to love rightly. Silence ceases to be emptiness and becomes communion.

A human being slowly becomes whole.

This is why Isaac insists upon examining each virtue specifically. Not because Christianity is legalistic bookkeeping, but because the heart is subtle in its self-deception. A man must learn where he is still divided. Where he still clings to the world. Where he still seeks himself rather than God.

The ascetical life is ultimately an act of honesty.

And this honesty is beautiful because it restores us to reality.

The monk, then, is not simply a religious specialist. He becomes a sign of humanity healed. A witness to what man looks like when he begins truly to live from God rather than from the ego-self. His life becomes a proclamation that communion with God is not fantasy but the very purpose of human existence.

And in truth, every baptized Christian carries this same calling within them.

The mother caring for her child in exhaustion.
The old man praying quietly in hiddenness.
The laborer struggling to keep his heart free from bitterness.
The priest battling vainglory.
The solitary widow learning to trust God in silence.
The young man resisting the fragmentation of lust and distraction.
The Christian who quietly forgives an enemy instead of condemning him.

All of them are standing within this same mystery.

The outer forms differ. The heart of the calling does not.

For the Gospel itself is monastic in its deepest ethos. It calls man beyond possession, beyond self-exaltation, beyond the tyranny of appetite, beyond worldly identity, into participation in divine life.

Into Christ.

And so Isaac’s words remain enduringly radiant because they reveal what human life becomes when grace is allowed to act deeply within it. Not merely disciplined. Not merely moral. But transfigured.

A human being becoming by grace what Christ is by nature.

And this alone is the true beauty that does not perish.

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Text of chat during the group:

00:02:02 Fr. Charbel Abernethy: Homily 11 page 196 bottom of the page

00:16:05 Bob Čihák, AZ: Homily 11 page 196 bottom of the page

00:17:18 Gwen’s iPhone: We have had blizzards in May.

00:20:29 Bob Čihák, AZ: Homily 11 page 196 bottom of the page

00:20:45 una: Being in Love: A Practical Guide to Christian Prayer by William Johnston (available at Thriftbooks.com)

00:41:54 Daniel Allen: On the “plucky fighter”… I recently read a story about a young monk that went to his spiritual father and said that he couldn’t take it anymore he had to sin. So the older monk told him ok and he’d go with him. They went to a brothel and when they got there the older monk said to let him enter first. He went in and gave money to the woman and then said “a younger monk is about to come in, I am giving you this money but before anything else tell him that you both must make 50 prostrations before sinning.” Then he walked out. The young monk entered, she told him as she had been instructed to, and before the 50 prostrations were done the young monk fled the brothel and returned to the monastery with the elder and was never plagued by temptations like that again. The moral of the story was that it’s hard to proceed with any sort of sin after making prostrations, and so when tempted in any way make a physical (not just mental) effort to pray and temptations will flee. Very stark example.

00:44:34 Wayne: need to leave now...

00:45:07 Erick Chastain: Nektarios

00:57:32 Bob Čihák, AZ: P. 197, paragraph 4, first full paragraph

01:01:54 Erick Chastain: What does he mean by orderly discipline of the senses?

01:02:49 susan: what was the title of the psychologist you just mentioned?

01:03:38 Daniel Allen: It is so odd that modernity which tells man he’s an accidental random outcome of the universe seems to have ensnared the minds of most, when Christianity says “you are made in the image of God.” I don’t know how it is that the obviously elevated view of man isn’t universally embraced.

01:03:46 Aaron: Orthodox Psychotherapy, by Metropolitan Hierotheos of Nafpaktos (Vlachos)

01:08:24 Erick Chastain: To weep without pause day and night as he asks, how can one do this?

01:08:37 David Swiderski, WI: On a silent retreat I found it really interesting a priest focused a talk on using the senses to our benefit. He had us find a stone that fit our hand from the lakeshore and use it when we prayed, To use incense when doing spiritual reading, obvious have icons and crosses around the house and carry a hold card of Mary close to your heart near to your wallet. It is amazing how these senses can bring us back to the contemplation or prayer faster or can be breadcrumb trails to bring us back to focus. A beautiful aspect of the apostolic traditions. We have had a number of evangelical, agnostic and Anglican converts and I find it funny they seem to be so drawn to holding the rosary, incense, icons etc.

01:11:53 Daniel Allen: Have a good night everyone. Thank you Father. I have to head out a few minutes early.

01:12:58 David Swiderski, WI: A funny comment from someone I was Godfather for on the Easter Vigil- When the demons come and someone is possessed no one calls Pastor Bob but looks for a priest.

01:15:19 Erick Chastain: Mean culpa I was catching up

01:15:25 Erick Chastain: Mea*

01:18:07 Jessica McHale: Many blessings, graces, and prayers for you all!!!

01:18:07 David Swiderski, WI: Thank you father, may God bless you , your mother and everyone in this group.

01:18:09 Rebecca Thérèse: Thank you ☺️