September: Day 28: Teaching 2: Saint Chariton the Confessor

September: Day 28: Teaching 2:
Saint Chariton the Confessor
 
(Why Is the Path to the Kingdom of Heaven Indicated by the Gospel Narrow?)

By Archpriest Grigory Dyachenko

I. On the day of Venerable Chariton, now glorified in the Church’s hymns and readings, who attained the Kingdom of Heaven by the narrow path, first through suffering for Jesus Christ under the Emperor Aurelian, and then through works of love for God and his neighbors and through strict asceticism in the monasteries he founded, it is fitting, my beloved brethrens, to speak with you about why the path to the Kingdom of Heaven indicated by the Gospel must be narrow and constricted, that is, difficult and sorrowful.

II. The path to the Kingdom of Heaven is narrow:

a) Because it gives no passage to our passions and our vices.

Does the Gospel path seem too narrow to you? Do you want to widen it? How? Everyone wants to be given free rein to his favorite inclinations: one to his ambition, another to his greed, a third to his sinful attachments, a fourth to his resentment and delight in the misfortunes of others, and all together to their secret idolatry. Nothing irritates you more than the Gospel declaration that absolute self-denial is the only reasonable service of the Christian God. Let us try to widen the path, then, and let your desire be fulfilled. Let us create a moral teaching that suits your heart. You are now satisfied with it. But who can assure me that you will still be satisfied with it tomorrow? Who will tell me that your passions, increasingly exceeding all bounds and satisfied by nothing, will not demand further concessions from the Gospel? And even if you yourself manage to set a limit to them, who will assure me that others will be able to stop, as you have, and will not, in the name of breadth, proceed to destroy the remaining barriers that still stand in the way of their whims? “There is no more narrowness,” all the passions and desires will cry out together. “Give us a broad path! Away with religious prejudices, that empty scrupulousness of timid souls, and all these chains that have burdened us for so long! Pleasure for us, the present hour with all its joys for us, and for us—the cup of pleasures with which the fortunate have already quenched their thirst without us, to moisten our parched lips!” And in the terrible chaos of all these desires, without doubt, victory will belong to the wildest self-love, the most animal-like egoism. This is the final word of human broadness! Therefore, we are left to choose either the broad path of sinful passions, which leads to hell, or the narrow road of holiness, which leads into paradise.

b) Let us take one step further. The path of the Gospel is narrow because it is the path of humility.

I have shown that it gives no passage to our passions and our vices; now I affirm that it is closed to pride, even honest and generous pride. To humble oneself, sincerely to acknowledge one's unworthiness before the Holy God, laying aside one's own virtues and merits, and thus to accept salvation as a gift, this is the only fitting position for us. But how grievous this is for natural man! It is precisely for this reason that the Gospel appears too narrow for modern people. How much more willingly would they pay for their salvation with the most splendid sacrifices, if only that salvation were the work of their own hands, if only by doing so they could appease heaven! Mercy—that is, complete forgiveness! Mercy, without which the Gospel would be more unyielding than the law of Sinai! How much resistance does it provoke! And yet this is the only path by which fallen beings can enter into communion with the holy God.

So, did God make this path narrow? Judge for yourselves. There, in the middle of the night, stands a house engulfed in flames. Everywhere the fire is spreading rapidly. Cries of alarm are heard, because inside there is a man asleep amid the flames that will soon consume him. He awakens and looks around in terror. Before him there remains only one exit, narrow indeed, but sufficient for escape from the danger. What does he do? With a greedy, feverish hand he seizes everything he can from his possessions. Laden with his belongings and bending beneath their weight, he approaches the narrow door, which refuses to let him through. “Come to me!” he cries. “Help! The door is too narrow.” Poor madman! Leave your possessions there, for they will cost you your life; free yourself from what prevents you from fleeing the danger, and sacrifice everything. Your salvation can be purchased only by such a sacrifice.

Do you understand me, brethren? The collapsing house is our life; the consuming fire is the judgment of the holy God; the open door is forgiveness; and the treasures ready to destroy you are those merits, virtues, and achievements that you want to preserve at all costs. Yes, the door to heaven is too narrow for those who are righteous in their own righteousness, and it is precisely for this reason that the Gospel arouses such aversion and irritation in them.

O! The delirium of human pride is something appalling. At a time when we hear that even the holiest people the world has ever known tremble at the thought of their unworthiness and cry out for mercy; at a time when we are perplexed even by the anguish of righteous souls, we must make an effort to imagine the following spectacle. Here are people whose virtuous life is, before God, an entire fabric of unseen transgressions and ingratitude; here are people who, like you and me, have hidden pages in their lives that they would not wish to expose to a single human eye. Suppose that they reject pardon as something too humiliating for them and resent being offered forgiveness. They speak of their virtues and their good deeds, without thinking that their very pride already destroys the merit of their good deeds before eternal justice, which is joined to the concept of retribution. Thus they go toward death, thinking only of justice, and this before the Cross, which offers them mercy and forgiveness. They depart to demand their rightful place among the society of the saints, in that spotless and inaccessible light where the Lord dwells. They go, not knowing that a single glance from the righteous Judge, illuminating with dreadful light the depths of their secret life, would be enough to condemn them. O! Let us thank God, brothers, if He dispels our blindness and disturbs our carnal confidence.

Therefore, while salvation is still open to us, let us accept it as mercy, and let us hasten, as though fleeing from a fire, to the narrow path, because it alone leads to life.

c) Finally, we affirm that the path of the Gospel is narrow because it is the path of love.

We know that such a thought may seem strange. We are not accustomed to hearing the concept of narrowness joined with the concept of love. On the contrary, nothing is heard more often today than discussions of a religion of love, in which all the confessions that have hitherto divided people are supposedly to be reconciled. They say: “After all, ‘God is love’; what, in essence, does He care about our errors and weaknesses? How can the actions of transient beings disturb the serene tranquility of the universal Being? Open the infinite Mercy to those who have gone astray! Why trouble their passing joys? Why poison their pleasures? Man is so weak, and life is so short!” Thus they speak, and even on their questionable pages they sing the praises of God's love. Yes, from unclean lips come unclean praises of the love of God. But this is a sanctuary into which they should not have entered without trembling; this Holy of Holies has now been turned into a public thoroughfare, where everyone boldly wants to take his place and conceal his thoughts, his unbelief, his vices, and even his blasphemy.

Do you know what lies beneath these thoughts? Apart from vile sacrilege, there is in them a loathsome mixture of egoism and pride. “God is love,” they say, “therefore we are free—free to think, act, and love as we please. Heaven is open to us all!” This is something that cannot be allowed to pass without refutation.

Without doubt, all Christianity can be reduced to the single concept of mercy and love. But what an abyss lies between love as the world understands it and love as the Gospel sets it forth! Yes, love for God is religion itself, but what is this love for God, the very Author of all being and life? He is the holy God, whose eyes are too pure to look calmly upon evil, the God before whom even the angels cover their faces. He is a jealous God: it is His due to reign undividedly over hearts that are free from every idol and every likeness. Therefore, the love He extends toward us is holy and jealous, as He Himself is. Thus, the love we must feel toward Him must be the same.

It is narrow in the sense that it excludes everything incompatible with it. It seeks God; therefore, it cannot be indifferent to anything that concerns God. Everything that offends God offends it as well; every insult against God is an insult against it itself. Christian love brings with it an evident hatred of everything opposed to it, according to the beautiful saying of the Psalmist: “You who love the Lord, hate evil.” Far from justifying indifference, love is repelled by indifference, and if before sinners it appears as infinite mercy, then before sin it is uncompromising holiness.

Here we appeal to your own judgment. Is this not how you love—you who know how to love? Is it a matter of indifference to you, “mother,” if the heart of your child gives itself over to every passion, every shameful temptation and deed? “Wife!” Would you agree that your husband should remain faithful to you only until the first opportunity to betray you, and that he should surrender himself to temptations that draw him toward sorrow?

And so, your love is narrow: narrow because on the day when it ceases to be love, on the day when you agree to yield to another the first place in being loved, when you remain indifferent and cold in the face of this disgrace, on that day love will no longer burn upon the extinguished hearth of your heart, and only ashes will remain upon it.

What then? Do you think that the all-holy God of the Gospel of Jesus Christ requires less of us than people require of one another? And who, indeed, has a claim upon our heart, if not the One who created it? From these treasures of deep tenderness, from these irresistible impulses, from this ardent thirst for sympathy, from this need to admire someone, to worship someone, from this energy of the human heart—shall we bring nothing to God alone, the One who placed all this within us?

I think that you yourselves would cease to believe in such a God if He required of you less self-denial than that demanded by your life and your heart. The Gospel path is narrow precisely because the one who enters upon it has henceforth only one goal: to serve God in love. This is what frightens you, O my brothers! This exclusive love repels you: to devote your life to God, to love everything through Him and for Him, to lose your soul for His sake, as the Gospel says—this is too narrow a road for a heart enamored of itself.

Meanwhile, we must choose: either the broad path of self-love, where one saves one's soul in order to lose it, or the narrow path of love, on which one loses one's soul for God in order to save it. (See the Sermons of Bercier.)

III. We have shown you, brothers, why the path of the Gospel is narrow. Am I mistaken in asserting that while I was speaking to you, your conscience, agreeing with me, was secretly confirming my arguments?

Now let us conclude my discourse. Ask those who have taken the narrow path whether they regret their deprivations and sacrifices. Ask them whether all the allurements of the flesh and pride are worth the immeasurable joy of a soul reconciled with God, living in what is true and assured of its eternal happiness. Ask them whether all the pleasures of self-love are worth the pure joy of love, which begins here on earth in order to blossom in heaven in its infinite fullness.

No, Lord! You do not deceive us; You do not deal with us as the world does. The world promises us joy, but gives us only bitterness; You promise us the Cross and give us joy. The world opens before us a broad road, but it is a road of hopeless wanderings and deceptions; You open before us a narrow path, but it leads us surely to heaven.

O! Grant us all, O Lord, through the prayers of Venerable Chariton and the other venerable ones, to walk this path, that we may attain that true life in which we shall grow in knowledge, holiness, and love. Amen.

(Compiled by Priest G. D-ко according to the sources indicated.)

 

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