Letters of the Elder Joseph of Vatopedi, No 8

“How is the spiritual law applied?”

Nea Skete 12/2/1984

To my dearly beloved in Christ for whom I wholeheartedly pray,

I found your letter upon my return, and I am sending my reply, even if it is brief, until such time as we meet again in Christ. I will immediately get to the point, especially since it has to do with my dearest daughter.

You were correct in saying that a person alone cannot get on top of temptation. But the same happens with the Lord, Who also “finds it difficult” to intervene without one’s consent. God’s powerlessness is not natural. God willingly stands back so as not to infringe upon man’s will; respecting his personal freedom, with which He had initially endowed him in His creation, since “the Lord’s gifts are irrevocable”.

When God’s Will unites and cooperates appropriately with the will of man in order to do good, then what is impossible becomes possible according to the saying “What is impossible for man to do, it is possible for God”. A man’s will is tested practically by his ability to choose. If this choice coincides with God’s Will, then Divine Grace intercedes, accepting the correct decision and strengthens man to win over the force of sin.

The Spiritual Law is the comprehensive Divine Justice and Concession, which controls and governs Creation, but especially human beings. “A man’s life is not his own” say the Scriptures. And again: “Whatever one sows, this he will reap” and “we must marvel at Lord’s Justice”.

In the writings of Saint Marc the Asketic and St Maxim the Confessor we found a good explanation of what the Spiritual Law is. Saint Marc’s words are found in the Filokalia in the chapter: “On the Spiritual Law and on those who think they can be justified by their work”. Saint Maxim’s teaching is also found in Filokalia in “Hundred chapters on Love”. People’s intentions are finely tuned by the application of the Spiritual Law; people move and act on these intentions even though they think otherwise. Here we note that “Every violation and disobedience receives its just punishment” and with“Honest scales and balances” He will punish or commend every human act.

You may rightly say that this is the only thing which does not happen, for we see exactly the opposite. Some do evil and live happily and some suffer and live in misery, many times unfairly. The situation seems like this, but this is not the reality. We do not know what causes this neither the reasons behind this state of affairs nor as to their timing, position or quantity. These issues are varied and numerous and very difficult to differentiate; we will talk about them face to face.

Now onto your question: When you keep your penance, that is, your spiritual regime, you find yourself in touch with the divine Grace and Help. The reason is that this dependence keeps both parties, the Divine and the human, together and therefore, “you find strength in Christ’s ability to give you His own”. If, however, you do not keep your penance and disobey, you break the tie. When alone, you hear:”Without Me you can do nothing!”

Similarly with selfishness; when it is practiced, it rebukes God’s Assistance and Grace, since God “opposes haughtiness”. This means that God not only deserts the haughty but also pushes them away. Therefore, they are heading for a crash. It is not just haughtiness which insults the divine Grace but any wickedness, which is called a “sin”. A sin has the same destructive result. When the demons cooperate with each other, intellectual and carnal passions are linked. One devil gives way to the other in order to bring about our demise and distraction.

Various illnesses progress and have a variety of complications; if one is neglected it can become more serious. In the same way, if various passions take hold on the soul they may fasten on to relating vices in order to ruin the human personality. The onslaught of carnal desire is, of course, not always the result of selfishness but it has many other causes. Again, one thing is to speak about carnal desire, another thing about the natural movement of the flesh and entirely different about dispassion. However, we will discuss all these face to face; write them down somewhere so that we do not forget.

We have received the goods and we reciprocate with many thanks.

 Yours,

 Humble, elder Joseph.