January: Day 5: Teaching 2: Venerable Syncletike

January: Day 5: Teaching 2:
Venerable Syncletike
 
(On the Necessity of Crucifying One's Flesh)

By Archpriest Grigory Dyachenko

I. Venerable Syncletike, whose memory is celebrated today, lived in the fourth century. She was born in Alexandria to noble and wealthy parents. Having fallen in love with the Heavenly Bridegroom Christ, she rejected suitors seeking her hand, "scorned all the blessings of this world," and devoted herself to fasting and prayer. When her parents died, she distributed all their possessions to the poor and settled in a secluded cave. "In her body the holy ascetic saw herself as her most dangerous enemy, and suffered many temptations from it. To humble her flesh, she increased her fasting and labors." But as soon as the temptations abated, she relaxed her strictness towards herself, so as not to harm her health. Many pious women and virgins, hearing of Venerable Syncletike's ascetic life, began to flock to her. At first, out of humility, the Saint refused to be their mentor, but later she was forced to yield to their requests. And she guided them all not only with her wise words but also with her exemplary life. "Before her death, Venerable Syncletike suffered from a terrible illness for three years, but never uttered a single word of complaint, enduring her illness with remarkable patience." Notified of her death, she died around 350, at the age of 83.

II. Venerable Syncletike, who used all means (prayer, fasting, intense labor) to bridle her flesh, teaches us also to "crucify our flesh with its passions and lusts." It is not easy to say decisively: "I will crucify the flesh." But it is also not easy to resolve to say the opposite: "I will not crucify the flesh." A crucial circumstance in our fate depends on one or the other of these resolves: to be or not to be Christ's. "Those who are Christ's have crucified the flesh with its passions and lusts." Therefore, if we wish to be Christ's, we must crucify the flesh.

After this reflection, it should not seem foreign to any of us to ask a certain question: a) what does it mean to crucify the flesh with its passions and lusts? and b) how can this be accomplished?

a) The flesh is not the same as the body. The body, with its natural properties and actions, was created by God, and not for death. By violating God's commandment, by eating the forbidden fruit, flesh begins to be known, and its destiny is death. The Apostle presents the flesh as "resisting " the Spirit and explains its essence through its actions and manifestations. He says: "The deeds of the flesh are manifested, which are dultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like" (Gal. 5:17-21). Therefore, by the name of the flesh we must understand the self-love and sensuality aroused in man, which reveal themselves in a false life in passions and lusts, and in deeds controlled by passions and lusts.

With this understanding of the flesh, the thought of crucifixion of the flesh not only becomes understandable but also ceases to be terrifying. To mortify the feeling of malice, to kill the inclination to murder, is clearly not a destructive action, but a protective one. Crucifying the inclination toward debauchery is, of course, not torture, but a safeguard against the spiritually and materially painful state to which the path of debauchery more or less quickly leads.

b) We, Christians, are commanded to mortify the flesh not by punitive instruments, not by torturing or mutilating God's creation, not by damaging the instrument of the soul, but by the spirit, that is, by spiritual law, spiritual reasoning, spiritual rules, spiritual outlook on the way of life and crucifixion of Christ, and by the strength drawn from these living sources.

The flesh wants to have fun, to burst into laughter, perhaps even to jump and utter or listen with pleasure to “revelries and the like;” therefore, strike it with blows not of a knife or a whip, but of the spiritual word: “Woe to those who laugh: blessed are they who mourn now” (Luke 6:25, 21), and moderate innocent joy, killing sinful joy.

The flesh is irritated by the one who has offended it and is eager to insult it in return: bind it not with bonds of rope or iron, but with the bonds of spiritual reasoning and the fear of God: “the wrath of a man works not the righteousness of God” (James 1:20); “whosoever hates his brother is a murderer” (1 John 3:15); “whoever says, You fool, shall be liable to the fiery Gehenna” (Matt. 5:22).

The flesh, not content with what is necessary, craves pleasure, seeks enjoyment, and is ready to make it the purpose of life: direct it to another object and goal — the cross, raised on Golgotha to purify the earth from impure pleasures through deprivation and suffering; quench the thirst for pleasure with the thirst of Golgotha; in earthly sweetness place the vinegar and gall offered to the crucified Lord; and with the help of His instruments of suffering, not materially employed but spiritually contemplated, crucify lust, luxury, and indulgence with simple moderation, self-restraint, fasting, and labor.

III. Therefore, and in like manner, brethren, let us mortify the deeds of the flesh by the Spirit, and let us crucify the flesh with its passions and lusts, that we may be Christ's, that Christ may live in us, and we, finally, may live in Him and in His eternal glory with the Father and the Holy Spirit. Amen. 

 

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