Freedom and happiness, we are told, either openly or subconsciously by the way everything in our current society is wired, is the liberty to choose among a thousand unlimited opportunities the one that pleases you the most. Acknowledging, accepting, and even embracing and cherishing limits and limitations and living in submission to them is thoroughly counter-cultural. And it is at the heart of the one true religion, the last pocket of resistance.
It could be a topic for a whole book, I guess, but I will limit myself to a couple of almost random reflections on the art of limiting ourselves in two chapters.
Good limitations: rooted in our human nature and given by God’s grace
God did not cast Adam and Eve into a vast and limitless nothingness. He put them in a garden, a confined space with boundaries and limits. And he created Adam and Eve as bodies, with Adam taken from dust and Eve taken from Adam‘s flesh and bones. Adam and Eve are bodily creatures, coming in exactly two distinct, clearly rendered versions: male and female – they are not wobbling and wafting spirits with “mind over matter“ superpowers.
“And the Lord God had planted a paradise of pleasure from the beginning: wherein he placed man whom he had formed.“
Genesis 2: 8
He put them in a world that was already formed and was very good, a structured and ordered world, and He gave them the task to cooperate with him in maintaining its perfect form. They were supposed to be gardeners of a beautiful garden, stewards of a fruitful vineyard. The stewards were given three commands: cultivate paradise, fill paradise with more stewards, and while enjoying the bliss of paradise accept one single limit:
“And he commanded him, saying: Of every tree of paradise thou shalt eat: But of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat. For in what day soever thou shalt eat of it, thou shalt die the death.“
Genesis 2: 16-17
We all know how it went down with that, how Adam and Eve failed exactly here: in accepting the limitation. They pushed the boundaries, the limits – just to find themselves cast out into the wilderness, beyond paradise, roaming the earth restlessly and enduring then in fact not only one, but many limitations and very painful ones: suffering and death.
With the people of Israel, God starts all over again. He chooses one out of all the nations on the vast plains of the earth to gradually reveal Himself to them and to slowly re-educate them, re-introduce them into the nature of true humanity, which Adam and Eve had once forfeited for themselves and for all their descendants, when they failed to accept the inbuilt a priori condition for human flourishing: limitations.
At Mount Sinai, the children of Israel receive the Torah – commandments, laws and precepts for the freshly liberated nation – through Moses, their prophet. In a concerted attempt to free their hearts and minds from the way of life of the Egyptians, who forced the Israelites into building more and higher “storage cities for Pharaoh“ (Exodus 1: 11), the children of Israel are told, over and over again, that whoever keeps the law of Yahweh, of the God of their fathers, who has led them out of slavery, is blessed, and whoever transgresses it is cursed. Happy the one living within limitations – accepting, embracing and cherishing them. Happy the one who serves only one God – the one true God – with one heart, and mind, and soul – with all his heart, and mind, and soul. Happy the one who keeps one day a week holy – the one blessed day of God‘s rest. Happy the one who sticks to one husband, one wife for all his life. Happy the one who can tame his tongue and speak only truth, never lies – utter only blessings, never curses. Happy the one who is happy with what he himself has, and does not desire, covet, seek what another man has. And then, following the general framework, there are, in the five books of Moses, many more and various ethical, social and liturgical rules: rules for almost everything.
Sometimes, people think that in the writings of the New Covenant we would find less limitations, commandments, laws, and rules than in the writings of the Old. But is this true? Is it not the exact opposite, if we only read carefully and with an open mind accepting plainly what is said? Read the gospels again, and the letters of the Apostles – of Saint Paul, Saint Peter, Saint Jude, Saint James, and Saint John – with a mind not warped by this antinomian prejudice and count the “rules“, the „do‘s“ and „don‘t‘s“. I think, we would eventually find that the New Covenant is more demanding in that respect than the Old (which already just reading the “Sermon on the Mount“ in the gospel of Matthew should be able to convince us of) – precisely because it never “abolishes“ the Old, but adds to it. It is almost as if the Old Covenant asks the people of Israel to lift weights – and the New Covenant asks them to lift more and heavier weights, but by the power of the Holy Spirit, in grace. Grace – God’s Spirit sanctifying our bodies and pouring forth into our hearts and renewing our minds – is sort of the power to do it, not something exempting us from doing it. This is how every education towards maturity, how every training towards perfection, how every disciplining of a father towards his children works: more, not less.
“Do not think that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets. I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill.“
Matthew 5: 17
If only we could rediscover the beauty praised and the joy ringing in verses as we find them in Psalm 118, a poem that knows only one theme: thankfulness for God‘s commandments, with stanzas dedicated to each of the letters of the Hebrew alphabet from Alev to Tav, wherein the skillful artist has limited himself to opening each and every line of the stanza with a word that begins with this very one letter.
“Blessed are the undefiled in the way, who walk in the law of the Lord. Blessed are they who search his testimonies: that seek him with their whole heart. For they that work iniquity, have not walked in his ways. Thou hast commanded thy commandments to be kept most diligently. O! that my ways may be directed to keep thy justifications. Then shall I not be confounded, when I shall look into all thy commandments. (…) I have been delighted in the way of thy testimonies, as in all riches. I will meditate on thy commandments: and I will consider thy ways. I will think of thy justifications: I will not forget thy words. (…) Set before me for a law the way of thy justifications, O Lord: and I will always seek after it. Give me understanding, and I will search thy law; and I will keep it with my whole heart. Lead me into the path of thy commandments; for this same I have desired. (…) I meditated also on thy commandments, which I loved. And I lifted up my hands to thy commandments, which I loved: and I was exercised in thy justifications. (…) I remembered, O Lord, thy judgments of old: and I was comforted. (…) I rose at midnight to give praise to thee; for the judgments of thy justification. I am a partaker with all them that fear thee, and that keep thy commandments. The earth, O Lord, is full of thy mercy: teach me thy justifications. (…) Teach me goodness and discipline and knowledge; for I have believed thy commandments. Before I was humbled I offended; therefore have I kept thy word. Thou art good; and in thy goodness teach me thy justifications. (…) It is good for me that thou hast humbled me, that I may learn thy justifications. The law of thy mouth is good to me, above thousands of gold and silver. (…) Thy hands have made me and formed me: give me understanding, and I will learn thy commandments. (…) For ever, O Lord, thy word standeth firm in heaven. Thy truth unto all generations: thou hast founded the earth, and it continueth. By thy ordinance the day goeth on: for all things serve thee. Unless thy law had been my meditation, I had then perhaps perished in my abjection. (…) I have restrained my feet from every evil way: that I may keep thy words. I have not declined from thy judgments, because thou hast set me a law. How sweet are thy words to my palate! more than honey to my mouth. By thy commandments I have had understanding: therefore have I hated every way of iniquity. (…) Thy word is a lamp to my feet, and a light to my paths. (…) Therefore have I loved thy commandments above gold and the topaz. (…) Thy testimonies are wonderful: therefore my soul hath sought them. The declaration of thy words giveth light: and giveth understanding to little ones. I opened my mouth and panted: because I longed for thy commandments. Look thou upon me, and have mercy on me, according to the judgment of them that love thy name. Direct my steps according to thy word: and let no iniquity have dominion over me. Redeem me from the calumnies of men: that I may keep thy commandments. Make thy face to shine upon thy servant: and teach me thy justifications. (…) Let thy hand be with me to save me; for I have chosen thy precepts. I have longed for thy salvation, O Lord; and thy law is my meditation.“
Psalm 118
Let us listen to this song of praise and understand that there is no opposition between God‘s goodness and mercy and his laws and precepts for us, which give us things to actively seek and do and things to actively shun and avoid, prescribe for us boundaries and limits meant for our protection and well-being, and lead us within the confines of a narrow path, the path of life. In fact, to make us believe otherwise, to make us believe that limitations do not proceed from God‘s goodness, love and mercy, but from some sort of “envy“ on his side that anxiously attempts to keep his creatures below him – to make us believe this lie was the serpent‘s, was Satan‘s desire and will, when tempting Eve in the garden. But Satan is the one aflame with envy:
“For God created man incorruptible, and to the image of his own likeness he made him. But by the envy of the devil, death came into the world.“
Wisdom 2: 23-24
The art of limiting ourselves: walking in step with good limitations
How do we learn and practice the art of limiting ourselves? Thanking God for each and every limitation given to us from His gracious hands, like the psalmist did, is most certainly a good starting point. We have to radically reorient our minds, we need to turn the current cultural bias around, – and put the world turned upside down back on its feet, back on the firm foundation of reality.
In reality, we are not omnipresent… We can only be in one place at a time. In reality, we are not lords over time… We can only live one moment at a time. In reality, we are not dancing at many weddings, we are not trodding many paths, and we are not multitasking for two or three. We are lucky and we are to be called blessed, if we dance at one wedding, discover the lamp for our feet stumbling forward on our own single path, and at the end of our lives hear the words:
“Well done, good and faithful servant: because thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will place thee over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord.“
Matthew 25: 23
In reality, the sky is the limit, the roof is a ceiling, and we cannot diffuse through walls like some subatomic particles. In reality, the laws of gravity apply, and the laws of our human nature do apply as well.
If for years upon end, we work seven days a week instead of six, our bodies and our souls will not, cannot be healthy. If we only eat, but never fast, if we only take in, but never take out, if we only consume, but never cease, we will transgress the limits of the digestive capabilities both of our bodily organs and of our minds and souls, and both our bodies and our souls will grow “oversized“ and haughty – as well as weak and enslaved to external stimuli and gratification.
If we don‘t limit our wealth and possessions through lambs of sacrifice slaughtered unto the praise of the Lord, rendering the first portion to Him and to the celebration of His holy festivals, and through almsgiving, remembering the needs of others, avarice and stinginess will grow in our hearts.
This is how the world is made and this is how our human nature works. Let us accept it, embrace it, cherish it, let us not try to find our way around it.
For we do not live in an empty world into which we can project whatever suits and pleases us, like postmodern constructivist theories would like to make us believe. We live in a created world being clay not in our own hands, but in the hands of our Creator, and we are merely – but what a sublime and beautiful vocation that is… – children of our heavenly Father. On the very first day of creation, God separated Light and Darkness, and we are called to “walk as children of light“ (Ephesians 5: 8), “in step with the Spirit“ (Galatians 5: 25) of the one who is the “Father of lights“ (James 1: 17), and God‘s “word is a lamp to my feet, and a light to my paths“ (Psalm 118: 105). The Holy Spirit, who “in the beginning“ hovered “upon the surface of the water“ (Genesis 1: 2) and whom the Father has sent in the name of Jesus the Messiah to hover over the waters of us being baptized into His name, “will teach you all things, and bring all things to your mind, whatsoever I shall have said to you“ (John 14: 26). God‘s Spirit is not an antinomian spirit, not a spirit of chaos, and not a spirit of the self-delusion of radical and boundless “autonomy“.
“In the beginning God created heaven, and earth. And the earth was void and empty, and darkness was upon the face of the deep; and the spirit of God moved over the waters. And God said: Be light made. And light was made. And God saw the light that it was good; and he divided the light from the darkness. And he called the light Day, and the darkness Night; and there was evening and morning one day. (…)
Genesis 1: 1-19
And God said: Let there be lights made in the firmament of heaven, to divide the day and the night, and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days and years: To shine in the firmament of heaven, and to give light upon the earth. And it was so done.
And God made two great lights: a greater light to rule the day; and a lesser light to rule the night: and the stars. And he set them in the firmament of heaven to shine upon the earth. And to rule the day and the night, and to divide the light and the darkness. And God saw that it was good. And the evening and morning were the fourth day.“
Where there is night, there is day. The world God created is one of order and rhythm. It is a world of mathematics and music – where 2 and 2 is 4, never 5, and where three tones resound together in harmony in a ladder of two tierces. It is a world of seasons for everything: a season for planting and a season for harvesting, a season for weeping and a season for joy.
Where there is a Sabbath, there also are six days of fruitful laboring. Where there is silence, there also is depth of conversation. Where there is solitude, there is the joy of community as well. Where there are days of fasting and abstinence, there are days of feasting and of celebration, too. But abandoning the former in order to gain more of the latter, we will contrary to our intentions always lose both. Yet whenever there is timely pruning in a vineyard, the fruits of the vine become most sweet.
Flames in a confined space, burning under control, subdued, are a powerful and warming fire, yet flames without boundaries are a ravaging and devastating tempest. Where the precepts of chastity reign, the floret of love is free, free from the attacks of stormy passions that render its gradual growth impossible. And where the marriage bed is kept undefiled, it is good for lying down with one another. The guarded, the protected heart is a strong heart – just like the heart muscle, when it is oversized, makes for a weak heart.
“With all watchfulness keep thy heart, because life issueth out from it.“
Proverbs 4: 23
We are not only living out what resides inside of us, we also take in and live into what affects, grabs, intrudes into us from outside. We are this body-soul combination, where, on the one hand, whatever we do with and to our bodies, always affects the state of our souls, and where, on the other hand, from our hearts “come forth evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false testimonies, blasphemies“ (Matthew 15: 19).
Therefore, where we bend our knees and bow our heads – in God‘s holy temple – our feet are put “upon a rock“, our steps are “directed“ (Psalm 39: 3) and we are “anointed with oil“ – “and my chalice which inebriateth me, how goodly is it!“ (Psalm 22: 5). Where we humbly accept our place before our Creator, we are lifted up by His grace.
In one of Jesus‘ parables, there are two men – one deluding himself and one living in reality:
“Two men went up into the temple to pray: the one a Pharisee, and the other a publican. The Pharisee standing, prayed thus with himself: O God, I give thee thanks that I am not as the rest of men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, as also is this publican. I fast twice in a week: I give tithes of all that I possess. And the publican, standing afar off, would not so much as lift up his eyes towards heaven; but struck his breast, saying: O God, be merciful to me a sinner. I say to you, this man went down into his house justified rather than the other: because every one that exalteth himself, shall be humbled: and he that humbleth himself, shall be exalted.“
Luke 18: 10-14
All of us are sick and delusional. All of us are living in a world turned upside, a world on its head, not on its feet, a world lacking our humble sense of reality way too often. This is the world we got, when Adam and Eve, in a vain desire to exalt themselves, chose to follow the jealous whisperings of a serpent, of a fallen angel in disguise, instead of the wise counsel of the Lord their God and Creator, and all of us have made this very same choice – rebelling against limitations – a thousand times in our lives…
All of us need to learn over and over again, in a long stay at the sanatorium for recovery, on a lasting and steady path to maturity and perfection: Where there are laws and limits, which we reverently and cheerfully embrace, there is true freedom, and peace of mind, and lasting, not fleeting – deep, and not cheap joy.