August: Day 13: Teaching 2: Venerable Dositheos

August: Day 13: Teaching 2:
Venerable Dositheos*
 
(Humility and Obedience Are the Path to Spiritual Perfection)

By Archpriest Grigory Dyachenko

I. Venerable Dositheos, commemorated today by the Church, in his youth, despite the fact that he was noble and rich, left the world and retired to a desert monastery, which was distinguished by the special strictness of the life of its monks.

The young Dositheos was taken under the guidance of Venerable Dorotheos and given the obedience to look after the sick. The experienced leader gradually led Dositheos along the path of ascetic life. First of all, he tried to cut off any attachment to sensual things in Dositheos, no matter how unimportant they were. Thus, one day a good knife was brought to the hospital, which Dositheos liked very much, and he, showing it to the mentor, said: “Really, father, the knife is very good.” But the latter sternly answered him: “Dositheos! Do you want to be a slave to this knife, and not to God, and to bind yourself with an attachment to this knife, so that the knife would possess you, and not God; go, put it down, and never touch it again.” And Dositheos obediently did this: all the others used this knife, but he never even touched it again. 

Dositheos always walked in shabby clothes. The mentor often gave him new clothes to sew and Dositheos diligently did the work, but the new clothes were always given to another brother, and Dositheos remained in the old ones. Dositheos' obedience to the will of his mentor was amazing. He accepted everything from him, believing that this was how it should be, and knowing that all this was for his own good. 

To cultivate humility in Dositheos and to cut off all conceit and vanity in him was also the concern of his mentor. It happened that Dositheos gently made the beds of the sick and, seeing the mentor passing by, said to him: "Father, I make the beds well." Dorotheos answered him: "It is a marvelous thing, you have become a good servant and a good bedchamber attendant, but you have not become a good monk." The young Dositheos was quiet and meek in all matters, and he diligently served the sick.

Dositheos lived in the monastery for only five years, and the Lord called him to Himself. In his dying illness, Dositheos sent to tell the great hermit Barsanuphios: "Father, forgive me, I can no longer live." And the elder replied to him: "Go in peace, my child, and stand before the Holy Trinity, and pray for us." Venerable Dositheos died. But the brethren were perplexed as to how the deceased had deserved these parting words from Venerable Barsanuphios. He was so young, had not spent so long in the monastery, was not distinguished by such fasting as the others, did not always make it to the beginning of the church service, and sometimes, busy caring for the sick, did not come at all. What had he done? The brethren did not know of that great humility, that great purity of soul which the late Venerable Dositheos had attained in such a short time, and therefore they judged it that way. But the Lord soon revealed the blessed state of young Dositheos. A great hermit came to the monastery; it happened that he saw in a vision some of the elders of this monastery who had previously reposed and who had pleased God. He saw them rejoicing in the Kingdom of God, and among them was young Dositheos. Then the brethren thanked the Lord that the holy youth in a short time had been deemed worthy to please Him with his life and deeds.

II. You see, brethren, how pleasing to the Lord are obedience and humility, and how quickly they lead a person to spiritual perfection!

a) Why is this so? Because humility is the unshakeable foundation of all Christian virtues; it is the single true and direct path to eternal glory – the path that our Lord Jesus Christ Himself has shown us, who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a servant, humbled Himself, and became obedient even to death, and that was the death of the cross. Therefore, God has highly exalted Him; hence, in His followers, humility and complete devotion to the will of God are the most pleasing to Him. Without the gift of prophecy, says the Venerable John of the Ladder, without foresight, signs, and wonders, many have been saved, but without humility, no one shall enter the wedding chamber. And indeed, on whom does the Lord God look with an eye of goodwill, love, and mercy? "Only upon the meek, the humble, the quiet, and those who tremble at My words," says the Lord Himself. To whom does He grant His all-powerful and all-sanctifying grace? To the humble; for it is said: "God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble." To whom does He promise true greatness and glory? To the humble: "He who humbles himself shall be exalted," says the Lord. "Therefore, humble yourselves," the Apostle exhorts, "under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time." What is the most pleasing sacrifice to God? "A broken spirit," the Prophet replies; "a broken and contrite heart, God will not despise." Who is the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven? The humble: "he who humbles himself like a child," says the Lord, "is the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven; unless you humble yourselves and become like children, you will not enter the Kingdom of God." In short: whatever deeds you may accomplish, whatever virtues you may acquire, without humility — all will be in vain, and all your labor will be lost to no purpose; the Lord will turn His face away from you, just as He turned it away from the many virtues of the Pharisee who took pride in them. Without humility, no one will enter the nuptial hall; on the contrary, if you cultivate humility, from it, as from a fruitful root, all other virtues will naturally spring forth: meekness, brotherly love, compassion, modesty, patience, a spirit of repentance, constant tenderness and tears, indifference to all worldly matters, and ceaseless diligence.

b) Complete, perfect, unquestioning obedience is combined with humility. "In humility," says Saint John Climacus, "there is not the slightest form of contradiction or stubbornness." The highest example of this virtue was shown to us by our Lord Jesus Christ Himself, who was obedient to the will of His Father even to the death of the cross: "I came down from heaven," He says, "not to do My own will, but the will of the Father who sent Me." Look also at the example of the most pure Mother of the Lord. Her parents, according to the vow they had given, bring Her, a three-year-old maiden, to the Temple of God and leave Her there forever, and She obeys their will with complete readiness, joyfully leaves Her home and Her relatives, and settles at the Temple among people who are strangers to Her, and thus the parental vow becomes the vow of Her own heart. The priests of the Temple, despite Her desire to remain forever at the Temple, betroth her to Joseph, following the general custom of that time not to leave virgins who are not betrothed to a husband, and she humbly submits to their will, leaves the quiet haven of the Temple of God, and goes to Nazareth to be a servant in the house of a Nazareth carpenter, under the name of his wife. Thus her whole life was a constant obedience to the will of God's Providence, no matter through what instruments this supreme will was manifested. "Behold the handmaiden of the Lord, be it unto me according to thy word!" Thus She thought and felt not only when the archangel announced to Her the seedless conception and birth of the Son of God, but also when Righteous Symeon predicted to her: "A sword shall pierce through thy own soul," and when she stood at the cross of her Divine Son. Such complete, unquestioning and willing obedience to the will of God, expressed in obedience to the will of every God-appointed authority, is pleasing and pleasant before God. For, as without humility all our virtues are worthless, so without obedience all exploits, as the fruit of willfulness, self-will and self-indulgence, are abominable before God: "As sin is idolatry, so is disobedience, and as sin is enchantment, so is disobedience," says the Prophet of God. Amen.

 

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

 

Notes:

 

* In the Slavic Calendars, Venerable Dositheos is commemorated on February 19th, and it is under this date which the current text can be found in the original. It is placed under August 13th due to the fact that he is commemorated in the Greek Calendars on August 13th, together with his spiritual father Venerable Dorotheos.