July: Day 14: Teaching 1: Venerable Elli of Egypt

 

July: Day 14: Teaching 1:
Venerable Elli of Egypt
 
(On the Means of Combating Temptations)

By Archpriest Grigory Dyachenko

I. From his early youth, the Venerable Elli, whose memory is celebrated today, loved the strict ascetic life. In his adolescence, he had already attained such holiness that he was honored with miraculous grace: he would take, for example, burning coals in his clothes and, without harming the latter in the least, bring them to his elder mentor. Now this same Elli once withdrew into a remote desert for the highest monastic feats. He was walking, and suddenly he smelled honey. “With what pleasure would I eat honey now,” the passion for delicacies and gluttony prompted him. And then suddenly honey was found in the rock. What does the Venerable One do? He stops, thinks, and finally begins to reproach himself: “Get away from me, deceitful desire; for it is written in the word of God: 'Walk in the Spirit and do not fulfill the lusts of the flesh.'” And the Venerable One left that place without even touching the honey he had found, and went into the deepest desert, in order to humble his flesh still more by hunger. Three weeks later, while walking in the desert, he found beautiful apples lying on the ground. The feeling of lust again awakened in the Venerable One. And now the Venerable One stopped this sinful feeling with reflection. “I will not taste or touch this fruit,” he said to himself; “for it is written: 'Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.'” For such strict vigilance over himself during his four-week wandering in the desert, Venerable Elli was finally granted such consolation, that during his light slumber, an angel of God appeared to him and said: “Go over there, and there you will find food for yourself; you can use it without any doubt for the glory of God and you will be strengthened." Elli woke up and in the indicated place he really found a source of spring water and some fragrant herbs growing around it, very tasty. The Venerable One strengthened himself with the food and drink indicated to him with such spiritual joy, as he himself said, which he could not convey to the brethren when they asked him about it.

II. We have seen, brethren, that the Venerable Elli emerged victorious in the struggle with the temptations that presented themselves to him.

What means to overcome sinful temptations did he use ?

a) The first means which he used and which proved effective was the word of God. This same weapon was used by our Lord Jesus Christ during His forty days' fast in the desert, when He was tempted by the devil. And truly, the word of God is truth (John 17:17), life (John 6:68), and light (Psalm 119:105). "All Holy Scripture is inspired by God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto every good work" (2 Tim. 3:16, 17).

b) The second weapon commanded by the Lord for the defeat of sinful temptations (Mark 9:48) is the remembrance of death and eternal torment. We are conquered by our passions only because we forget about the punishments that follow them; we consider earthly sorrows to be grievous only because we have not experienced the torments of hell.

A certain monk, an ascetic, said to a holy elder: "My soul desires death." The elder answered: "You say so because you wish to avoid sorrows, and you do not know that future sorrow is incomparably more severe than this one." Another brother asked the elder: "Why do I, living in my cell, remain in negligence?" The elder answered: "Because you have not learned either the expected rest or the future torment. If you knew them as you should, you would endure and would not weaken even when your cell was full of worms, and you were standing in them up to your neck."

The ascetics of piety, who were shown the torments of hell, could not recall their visions without horror, and in unceasing tears of repentance and humility sought to find consolation - news of salvation. So it happened with the recluse of our native Kiev Caves, Athanasius. He, after a long illness, died. The brethren removed his body, according to monastic custom, but the deceased remained unburied for two days, due to some obstacle encountered. On the third night there was a divine appearance to the abbot, and he heard a mysterious voice: "The man of God Athanasius lies unburied for two days; and you do not care for him." Early in the morning the abbot and the brethren came to the deceased with the intention of committing his body to the earth, but found him sitting and weeping. They were horrified, seeing him alive; then they began to ask: "How did you come to life? What did you see and hear while you were parting from the body?” He answered all questions with only the word: “Save yourselves!” When the brethren persistently begged him to tell them something useful, he bequeathed to them obedience and unceasing repentance. Following this, Athanasius locked himself in a cave, and remained there without leaving for twelve years, spending day and night in unceasing tears, eating a little bread and water every other day, and not conversing with anyone during this entire time. When the hour of his death came, he repeated to the assembled brethren the instruction on obedience and repentance, and died in peace in the Lord. (From “A Word on Death,” Bishop Ignatius Brianchaninov, 4th ed., pp. 64–66.)

c) Finally, when you are faced with a temptation to sin, then imagine vividly that sin greatly angers the Lord, Who hates iniquity. "You hate all workers of iniquity” (Psalm 5:5). "And in order for you to understand this better, imagine a truthful, strict father who loves his family, who tries by all means to make his children well-behaved and honest, so that for their good behavior he can reward them with his great riches, which he has prepared for them with great labor, and who, meanwhile, sees, to his sorrow, that for such love of their father, his children do not love him, do not pay attention to the inheritance prepared by their father’s love, live dissolutely, and rush headlong to destruction. And every sin, mind you, is death for the soul (James 1:15 and others), because it kills the soul, because it makes slaves of the devil – the murderer, and the more we work for sin, the more difficult our conversion, the more certain our destruction. Fear with all your heart every sin.” (See the book: “My Life in Christ”, Archpriest John Sergiev of Kronstadt. 1st edition, pp. 5–6).

III. Therefore may the word of God, the fear of hellish torments, the fear of angering the merciful Lord help us to remain victors in the struggle with sinful temptations.

 

Source: A Complete Annual Cycle of Short Teachings, Composed for Each Day of the Year. Translated by John Sanidopoulos.