The Ascetical Homilies of St. Isaac the Syrian - Homily XV, Part I

There are moments in the writings of St. Isaac the Syrian where one realizes that what he is speaking about is not “religion” as we commonly understand it at all.

He is not concerned with external religiosity, spiritual image, theological sophistication, emotional experiences, or moral performance. He speaks instead about the transformation of the human being into a living place of divine communion. The entire struggle of the ascetic life is directed toward one thing: purity of heart. Not moralism. Not perfectionism. Purity.

And purity for Isaac is not primarily about behavior. It is about vision.

“The pure in heart shall see God.”

The Fathers understood this literally.

The heart darkened by distraction, anger, judgment, vanity, endless speech, lust, resentment, self-construction, and immersion in the noise of the world loses the capacity to perceive reality as it truly is. Man ceases to remember God because he has become filled with himself. The tragedy is not simply that we sin. The tragedy is that the heart becomes opaque. Heavy. Fragmented. Unable to behold the Kingdom already present within it.

Isaac speaks with terrifying clarity here:
“He who restrains his mouth from speech guards his heart from the passions.”

Modern man speaks endlessly because he cannot bear silence. We drown ourselves in commentary, analysis, outrage, explanations, arguments, entertainment, notifications, and noise because silence threatens the ego. Silence exposes the inward chaos we spend our lives trying to conceal.

But Isaac tells us something almost unbearable:
the mysteries of God become visible only in stillness.

A wrathful heart cannot behold the mysteries of the Kingdom because wrath keeps the self at the center of reality. A judgmental man may speak about theology endlessly and yet remain entirely estranged from the life of God. A proud man may appear religious and still dwell inwardly in darkness.

Why?

Because the Kingdom is not perceived through brilliance but through purity.

This is why Isaac places such immense emphasis upon guarding the tongue, fleeing gossip, withdrawing from quarrels, avoiding angry speech, and refusing distraction. He is not prescribing pious behavior merely for the sake of morality. He understands something we do not: every movement of the soul either clarifies the heart or darkens it.

And so Isaac speaks of continuous remembrance of God.

Not occasional remembrance.
Not Sunday remembrance.
Not remembrance during emotional prayer alone.

Continuous remembrance.

The modern mind hears this and immediately turns it into technique. But Isaac is not describing a method so much as an identity. Man was created to live in continual orientation toward God. Prayer is not an activity added onto life. Prayer is life restored to its natural condition.

This is why Isaac says:
“That which befalls a fish out of water, befalls the mind that has come out of the remembrance of God.”

What a terrifying image.

We imagine ourselves spiritually neutral when we live immersed in distraction, noise, anxiety, worldly conversation, vanity, and continual mental agitation. Isaac says otherwise. The soul outside remembrance gasps for life without understanding why it is suffocating.

And this is precisely the condition of modern man.

We are overstimulated yet inwardly deadened.
Connected constantly yet unable to descend into the heart.
Religious perhaps, but incapable of stillness.
Surrounded by information while starving for theoria.

Isaac uses that extraordinary image of the dolphin moving through the calm sea. When the sea of the heart becomes still from wrath and agitation, divine mysteries begin moving within the soul. The Kingdom is not absent. The heart is simply too turbulent to perceive it.

This is why the Fathers fled distraction so fiercely.

Not because they hated the world.
But because they desired reality.

And reality, Isaac tells us, is infinitely more luminous than the fantasies by which we continually feed ourselves.

The terrifying thing is that modern people often imagine remembrance of God to be restrictive. In truth, distraction is the prison. Remembrance is freedom. The man who remembers God continually gradually becomes transparent to divine life. His thoughts change. His speech changes. His desires change. His vision changes. Mercy begins appearing naturally. Humility deepens. Judgment weakens. The passions lose their violence because the soul has found greater beauty.

Isaac’s vision is nothing less than transfiguration.

The purified heart becomes Heaven itself.

Not symbolically.
Actually.

“Lo, Heaven is within you.”

The human person becomes a living icon of the Kingdom. The mysteries cease being abstractions and become life. The soul begins beholding Christ “at every moment.” Not through imagination, but through participation. Through communion. Through the gradual purification of the inner man.

This is why the saints seem luminous to us. Not because they became extraordinary personalities, but because they ceased obstructing the Radiance of God within them.

And Isaac insists that this path is deeply practical.

Guard the tongue.
Flee distraction.
Withdraw from useless speech.
Avoid judgment.
Remain in remembrance.
Practice silence.
Study God continually.
Refuse the fragmentation of the passions.
Seek meekness.
Seek humility.
Seek hiddenness.

Not as legalism.
But because every movement either opens the heart toward the Kingdom or closes it inwardly upon itself.

The modern world trains us in continual forgetfulness.
The ascetic life trains us in remembrance.

And remembrance gradually becomes vision.

Then prayer ceases being something we “do” and becomes the atmosphere in which the soul breathes.

At the center of Isaac’s vision lies something fierce and beautiful:
man was created not merely to think about God, but to behold Him within the heart and become radiant with His life in the world.

This is the true meaning of purity.

Not moral self-consciousness.
But transparency to divine life.

Not religious performance.
But the gradual emergence of Heaven within the human heart.

---

Text of chat during the group:

00:18:52 Una: Father, do you know much about Saint Nikiphorus the Leper?

00:19:03 Una: Perhaps a saint for the disabled

00:19:10 Una: My mike isn't working

00:20:33 Bob Čihák, AZ: Remember, in these texts, “men” means all humans, “men and women.”

00:23:23 Una: Reacted to "Remember, in these..." with 👍

00:23:55 Bob Čihák, AZ: P 203 Homily 15

00:29:08 David Swiderski, WI: I guess going into politics is out.

00:30:08 Una: It's noise pollution

00:30:48 Adam Paige: How should we respond appropriately to brothers who want us to indulge in distractions with them ? I often get invited to watch movies and sports, etc.

00:31:58 Una: What about watching the Harry Potter movies dozen of times?

00:32:14 Bob Čihák, AZ: I don't think they thought about politics except for the very uncommon times when politics impacted them.

00:33:05 Art: Replying to "How should we respon..."

Consider it as an act of penance. 🙂

00:35:34 Bob Čihák, AZ: P 203 second paragraph

00:48:10 Ben: Anna;  If a person knows he will fall in terms of gossip or even detraction, every time this person is around friends, should he avoid his friends?

00:56:10 Una: Are these sexually explicit pictures?

00:56:23 Bob Čihák, AZ: Ben + Anna = BenAnna?

00:56:26 Una: OK

00:56:32 Una: Oh dear

00:57:01 Ben: Anna; What if the weakness/ problem is not someone else?  (I have heard that if the problem is someone else, complimenting someone else is a gentle way to redirect the conversation.)

00:57:43 Ben: Anna: (Sorry my sister dropped in with things for my new baby)

00:58:28 Julie: Sometimes I feel like a two edge sword ,I finished a 3 day silent retreat full of prayer, meditation,spiritual reading then back to reality with all it’s requirements from you and constantly speaking,…
When you look back and see what life is like with in that stillness so close to our Lord 
Like a bird flying and a piece of string around its leg pulling you back …limiting you how far you can go.

01:00:32 Ben: Reacted to "Ben + Anna = BenAnna..." with 👍

01:07:44 Larry Ruggiero: Can you elaborate on  “WALK THE PATH OF HEART STILLNESS” I think I read this in the Philokalia Vol 5

01:15:59 Catherine Opie: Such a brilliant movie thanks for reminding me of it Fr.

01:16:47 Joan Chakonas: Father can you define “identity”?

01:19:16 Joan Chakonas: I worry I either don’t have an identity or think about it enough

01:19:36 Maureen Cunningham: Adam walk with God in cool of the day

01:20:33 Catherine Opie: My identity tends to be related to what I identify with/as...I am a mother until my children leave home, I am a (whatever my job is) until it is not. But I am always a child of /god this is the only constant thing in my life

01:20:41 Joan Chakonas: Very interesting

01:21:35 Anna: My son drew it

01:21:50 Anna: He's laughing

01:22:12 Julie: Job, was stripped of all… but still knew he was precious to Our Lord.

01:22:25 Catherine Opie: Reacted to "Job, was stripped of..." with ❤️

01:22:28 Nypaver Clan: Reacted to "pic-87fd3c16-e457-442d-b907-326abc561d45.jpg" with ❤️

01:22:48 Janine: Reacted to "pic-87fd3c16-e457-442d-b907-326abc561d45.jpg" with ❤️

01:23:10 Anna: What's your email and we'll send it over...

01:23:23 Anna: Reacted to pic-87fd3c16-e457-442d-b907-326abc561d45.jpg with "❤️"

01:25:30 Nypaver Clan: Job didn’t lose his wife though.  He lost all 10 children and all his flocks, but not his wife.  She ended up having 10 more children.

01:26:10 Nypaver Clan: That’s what I was thinking...

01:27:36 Janine: Thank you Father!

01:28:21 Rebecca Thérèse: Thank you☺️

01:28:21 Bob Čihák, AZ: Thank you and bless you,  Father.

01:28:22 Ben: Baby scheduled to be induced on Sunday/  Prayers please

01:28:22 David Swiderski, WI: Thank you Father may God bless you, your mother and this group.

01:28:25 Catherine Opie: God bless.

01:28:37 Jacqulyn Dudasko: Reacted to "Baby scheduled to be..." with 👍