“Blessed is one who discovers Wisdom, one who acquires discernment! She is more rewarding than silver, her yield is more valuable than gold. She is beyond the price of pearls, nothing you desire is her equal. In her right hand is length of days; in her left hand, riches and honour. Her ways are filled with delight, her paths all lead to peace. She is a tree of life for those who hold her fast, those who cling to her are blessed.“
Proverbs 3: 13-18; 2: 11-12
“… and understanding will be your guardian to keep you from the way of evil, (…)“
In the sixth Collation, Saint John Cassian presents the teaching of Abba Theodore. Let us look at three key pieces of it: Abba Theodore spells out what is to be called good in life, what is to be called evil, and what is to be considered to be indifferent; he explains why we shall learn to be “ambidextrous“ like Ehud the warrior-savior in the third chapter of the book of Judges, like Job, and like Joseph; and he ends his discourse with stating that there is only either progress or decline in the spiritual life.
Who was Abba Theodore?
Abba Theodore was “a man remarkable for his practical instruction“, Saint John Cassian relates, who “was living in Cellae at the time, a place lying between Nitria and Scete, five miles from the monasteries in Nitria, and distant eighty dreary miles from the remoteness of Scete where we were then living“ (Collations, p. 122).
What is to be called good, what is to be called evil, and what is indifferent
Abba Theodore reminds us that “nothing is good except virtue alone which comes from the fear of God and his love“ and that nothing is evil “except sin alone, which cuts us off from God“ (ibid.., p. 125).
“There are three conditions in this world, the good, the bad and the indifferent. We must inform ourselves of what the good really is, what is evil and what indifferent, so that through this true knowledge our faith may remain unshaken, fortified in all its trials. We should not consider anything to be the supreme good for man other than virtue of soul, which leads us to God in real faith and makes us cling to that unchangeable good. On the other hand, nothing is to be called evil except sin alone, which cuts us off from the goodness of God and unites us to the evil one, the devil. In between are those things which can be turned towards either side depending on the choice and will of those who use them. Examples are wealth, power, honour, physical health and strength, good looks, life itself and death, poverty, ill-health, injury and such matters which, depending on the free choice of the individual, may be used for a good end or an evil one.“
John Cassian, Abbot of Marseilles: The Collations. Being a Collection of Twenty-Four Conferences Divided into Three Parts, translated by a Father of the Oxford Oratory, Gracewing 2015, p. 123-124
He quotes a passage from Saint Paul‘s letter to Saint Timothy in order to illustrate the point that worldly goods – riches, wealth – can indeed be used for good if they are shared with others. Being rich or wealthy is not the supreme good which is communion with God – yet it also does not hinder one to cling to God rather than to money and possessions. It is a state that is neither good nor evil but rather indifferent.
“Instruct those who are rich in this world‘s goods that they should not be proud and should set their hopes not on the uncertainty of money, but on God who provides everything richly for our enjoyment. They are to do good and be rich in good works, generous in giving and always ready to share, storing up for themselves a fine treasure for the future that they may take hold of the only life that is real.“
1 Timothy 6: 17-19
The wealthy person can also choose otherwise:
“But riches are diverted towards evil if they are accumulated just to be hoarded or squandered, and not distributed for the needs of the poor.“
John Cassian, Abbot of Marseilles: The Collations. Being a Collection of Twenty-Four Conferences Divided into Three Parts, translated by a Father of the Oxford Oratory, Gracewing 2015, p. 124
The same “indifference“ and free choice applies to all the other worldly features mentioned before:
“Power also, and honour, physical health and strength, are all indifferent and apt for either outcome, as we can easily see from the many saints of the Old Testament who were possessed of all these things, living in great wealth and esteem, and physical strength, but were acknowledged as most acceptable to God. Others who used them badly, and diverted them to evil ends, were justly punished and exterminated, as the books of Kings often recount.“
John Cassian, Abbot of Marseilles: The Collations. Being a Collection of Twenty-Four Conferences Divided into Three Parts, translated by a Father of the Oxford Oratory, Gracewing 2015, p. 124
All in all, what is called “good“ in the thinking of this world – riches, power, status, health, strength, and the like – is not “the greatest good which lies only in virtue, but only something indifferent“ (ibid., p. 125).
“(…) if the just use them wisely and well they are beneficial and helpful (for they provide an opportunity for good works which bear fruit in eternal life), while if others use these means badly, they are dangerous and damaging, giving occasion to sin and death.“
John Cassian, Abbot of Marseilles: The Collations. Being a Collection of Twenty-Four Conferences Divided into Three Parts, translated by a Father of the Oxford Oratory, Gracewing 2015, p. 125
And the things which often are called “evil“ by people – poverty, sickness, injury, death? The beggar Lazarus who won “a place of bliss in the bosom of Abraham“ (ibid.,p. 125), as recorded in the sixteenth chapter of the Gospel of Luke, is proof “how bodily illness may be an advantage; for Scripture does not suggest he had any merits other than enduring poverty and sickness with patience“ (ibid.).
Referencing holy Job, Abba Theodore argues that “no one has ever been able to force the evil of sin on another who was unwilling and resisting, but only on one who accepted it through a weak spirit and corrupt will“ (ibid.).
“In the case of the holy man Job, the devil afflicted him with every evil in his armoury in the attempt to force him to sin; he stripped him of all his property, caused him the dreadful grief of losing his seven sons, slain so unexpectedly, and proceeded to wound him terribly from the crown of his head to the soles of his feet, loading intolerable pain on him, but could not impose the stain of sin on him in any way; Job remained unmoved by all this and never agreed to a single blasphemous word.“
John Cassian, Abbot of Marseilles: The Collations. Being a Collection of Twenty-Four Conferences Divided into Three Parts, translated by a Father of the Oxford Oratory, Gracewing 2015, p. 125-126
Not only did holy Job not sin as he did not despair and blaspheme, as he “returned no joy to the devil“ (ibid., p. 128) while all sorts of terrible things where happening to him, but rather he “acquired great merit by enduring patiently“ (ibid.).
Ambidextrous saints
Abba Theodore sees in both Job and Joseph examples for us when it comes to handling the trials and afflictions in life. They, as well as all the saints, were “not proud in prosperity nor cast down by adversity“ (ibid., p. 128). Of them it was true “that for those who love Good everything works together for good“ (Rom 8: 28).
In the spiritual warfare, we are to fight with both hands according to Saint Paul the Apostle:
“(…) but in every way we commend ourselves as servants of God through great endurance, in hardships, in need, in oppression (…) with the weapons of righteousness on the right and on the left (…).“
2 Corinthians 7: 4-7
In antiquity, the “right hand“ or the “right side“ was the good and favorable side, the side of prosperity, and the “left hand“ or “left side“ the bad and unfavorable one, the side of adversity.
But according to Abba Theodore we ought to be like Ehud (spelled Aod in the following translation) who saved Israel from being enslaved to the “exceeding fat“ (Judg 3: 17) Moabite king Eglon – with his “left hand“ (Judg 3: 21). Here is the whole Ehud vs. Eglon story:
“And the children of Israel did evil again in the sight of the Lord: who strengthened against them Eglon king of Moab: because they did evil in his sight. And he joined to him the children of Ammon, and Amalec: and he went and overthrew Israel, and possessed the city of palm trees (i.e. Jericho). And the children of Israel served Eglon king of Moab eighteen years: And afterwards they cried to the Lord, who raised them up a saviour called Aod, the son of Gera, the son of Jemini, who used the left hand as well as the right. And the children of Israel sent presents to Eglon king of Moab by him.
Judges 3: 12-30
And he made himself a two-edged sword, with a haft in the midst of the length of the palm of the hand, and was girded therewith under his garment on the right thigh. And he presented the gifts to Eglon king of Moab. Now Eglon was exceeding fat. And when he had presented the gifts unto him, he followed his companions that came along with him. Then returning from Galgal, where the idols were, he said to the king: I have a secret message to thee, O king. And he commanded silence: and all being gone out that were about him, Aod went in to him: now he was sitting in a summer parlour alone, and he said: I have a word from God to thee.
And he forthwith rose up from his throne, and Aod put forth his left hand, and took the dagger from his right thigh, and thrust it into his belly, with such force that the haft went in after the blade into the wound, and was closed up with the abundance of fat. So that he did not draw out the dagger, but left it in his body as he had struck it in. And forthwith, by the secret parts of nature, the excrements of the belly came out. But Aod carefully shutting the doors of the parlour and locking them, went out by a postern door. And the king’s servants going in, saw the doors of the parlour shut, and they said: Perhaps he is easing nature in his summer parlour. And waiting a long time till they were ashamed, and seeing that no man opened the door, they took a key: and opening, they found their lord lying dead on the ground.
But Aod, while they were in confusion, escaped, and passed by the place of the idols, from whence he had returned. And he came to Seirath: And forthwith he sounded the trumpet in mount Ephraim: and the children of Israel went down with him, he himself going in the front. And he said to them: Follow me: for the Lord hath delivered our enemies the Moabites into our hands. And they went down after him, and seized upon the fords of the Jordan, which are in the way to Moab: and they suffered no man to pass over. But they slew of the Moabites at that time, about ten thousand, all strong and valiant men: none of them could escape. And Moab was humbled that day under the hand of Israel: and the land rested eighty years.“
I suppose we can see the Moabite king Eglon, whose name translates itself to “calf-guy“, as representing idolatry, pride, complacency, gluttony, and sloth – all sorts of vices. He sits and rests comfortably in his “abundance of fat“ in his “summer parlour“, occupying all the places the Israelites once conquered – until the children of Israel enslaved to him are finally saved by the swift left hand of Ehud, whose name is related to the name “Judah“ with the root yada, meaning: “I shall praise“.
The Desert Father explains what being both right- and left-handed as Ehud would mean in the spiritual life:
“There are some men in Holy Scripture called in parable amphoterodexioi, that is to say, ambidextrous – like Ehud in the Book of Judges (…). We can imagine as a metaphor that we too possess this quality, if we are able to use correctly both prosperity on the right, and ill-fortune on the left, using them both as the right and turning whatever comes upon us into what the apostle calls ‘armour of justice.‘ Thus we can see how on both sides, with both hands so to speak, our inner person may prosper. There has never been a saint who lacked the use of his left hand, for perfect virtue is found when he can use either as his right hand for a good purpose. To understand what we are saying more plainly, a holy man has a right hand which is spiritual success; he uses it when he is zealous and master of all his desires and passions; safe from any attack of the devil he can reject and eliminate all carnal vice with no trouble or difficulty. Raised above the earth he can look upon all present earthly things as so much smoke, or empty shadow; he can despise them, for they soon pass away, when he longs and yearns for the things to come in his mental exhilaration, and indeed sees them more clearly, feeding upon spiritual insights. He perceives the shining heavenly mysteries laid up for him, he pours out eager pure prayer to God, he is so fired with the spirit that his whole being is transfixed by the invisible things of eternity and he scarcely believes that he still exists in the flesh.
John Cassian, Abbot of Marseilles: The Collations. Being a Collection of Twenty-Four Conferences Divided into Three Parts, translated by a Father of the Oxford Oratory, Gracewing 2015, p. 129-130
In the same manner he uses his left hand, when he is caught up in a whirlwind of temptation, inflamed with the burning desires of the flesh, inflamed with the passion of fierce anger, battered by the forces of pride and vainglory, crushed with the sadness that leads to death, assaulted and ensnared by the wiles of depression; when he loses all spiritual fervour and is sunk in listlessness and inexplicable grief; when he louses touch with holy aspirations and thoughts and even finds psalms, prayers, reading and the isolation of his cell abhorrent. In such case all the means to virtue seem unbearable and tedious – when a monk feels all this happening he should realise that he is being pressed from the left side.
Now of when he is in the state we have described as being on the right he avoids being at all elated by vanity, and when he is attacked from the left he is firm in resisting, nothing will make him lose heart. Then he will in fact take up an armour of endurance from both sides, in his strife for virtue, and will be using either hand is has right. Victorious on both fronts he will gain the palm of victory over both conditions, both those to right and to left.“
Saint Paul describes this “smooth path“ and “Royal Road“ where one “is not deflected from (one‘s) calm progress onto the right side by joy, nor to the left by any assaults of gloom or sadness“ (ibid., p. 128) in the letter he sent to the Church at Philippi:
“For I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, to be content therewith. I know both how to be brought low, and I know how to abound: (everywhere, and in all things I am instructed) both to be full, and to be hungry; both to abound, and to suffer need.
Philippians 4: 11-13
I can do all these things in him who strengtheneth me.“
Besides Ehud and holy Job, also Israel‘s son Joseph can be seen as a good example for the “ambidextrous saint“:
“Joseph is another one we can call ‘ambidextrous‘, for in his prosperity he was his father‘s favourite, more pious than his brothers, more pleasing to God; in adversity he was chaste, faithful to his master, acquiescent in his imprisonment, unmindful of wrongs, generous to his enemies, and towards his jealous brothers who had done their best to be his murderers he was not only loving but even munificent.
John Cassian, Abbot of Marseilles: The Collations. Being a Collection of Twenty-Four Conferences Divided into Three Parts, translated by a Father of the Oxford Oratory, Gracewing 2015, p. 131
Such men and those like them are rightly called ambidextrous, for they use either hand as the right one (…).“
Abba Theodore contrasts the “ambidextrous saints“ with the fools by quoting from the book of Jesus ben Sirach:
“A holy man continueth in wisdom as the sun: but a fool is changed as the moon.“
Ecclesiasticus 27: 12
The path of wisdom, the path of life not death, is straight and not crooked as Sacred Scripture teaches in many places. It is the path of faithfulness on a steady pilgrimage, the gaze “straight before you“ (Prov 4: 25), holding fast “to discipline, never let her go, keep your eyes on her, she is your life“ (Prov. 4: 13) while climbing mountains and passing through valleys. The rock of life is the triune God, and a soul rooted in Christ, the true vine, is blessed with peace under changing circumstances.
“No one is made secure by wickedness, but nothing shakes the roots of the righteous.“
Proverbs 12: 3; 16: 6-7
“Faithful love and constancy expiate sin; fear of the LORD keeps a person free of evil. If the LORD is pleased with someone‘s way of life, he will turn that person‘s enemies into friends.“
To always advance
Finally, Abba Theodore tells us, again quoting Saint Paul the Apostle, that “it is a clear indicator of decadence if we realise we are making no progress“ in the life of virtue (ibid., p. 137), for it is said:
“(…) be renewed in the spirit of your mind (…).“
Ephesians 4: 23
“(…) forgetting all that lies behind me, and straining forward to what lies ahead, I am racing towards the finishing-point to win the prize of God‘s heavenly call in Christ Jesus. So those of us who are mature should think in this way, and if you are thinking differently in any way, then God will make this matter clear to you. Meanwhile, let us hold fast to what we have already attained.“
Philippians 3: 13-16
According to the teaching of Abba Theodore we either advance in virtue, or we fall back into vice, declining spiritually. There is no neutral middle position where one just “sits“ and holds the place. Saint Paul compared the Christian life several times to a race. In a race you always run.
When men have fallen into sin, “we must not imagine that (…) (they) did so by a sudden collapse“ (ibid., p. 139), Abba Theodore says. Rather, they have come down into a “wretched state“ “through long carelessness“ with vices growing “little by little“ (ibid.).
“Just as a house never collapses all of a sudden, unless the foundations were originally at fault, or the inhabitants are consistently lazy, so that tiny raindrops make their way in and gradually weaken the covering of the roof.“
John Cassian, Abbot of Marseilles: The Collations. Being a Collection of Twenty-Four Conferences Divided into Three Parts, translated by a Father of the Oxford Oratory, Gracewing 2015, p. 139
“We must therefore apply ourselves with unremitting zeal to the pursuit of virtue, and busy ourselves ever with its exercise, for if our efforts fail, we shall straightaway find ourselves in decline. I say again, it is impossible to remain in the same frame of mind, that is without gaining an increase of virtue or suffering its loss. Not to progress is to decline, and if we no longer desire to advance we will not escape the danger of falling back. (…)
John Cassian, Abbot of Marseilles: The Collations. Being a Collection of Twenty-Four Conferences Divided into Three Parts, translated by a Father of the Oxford Oratory, Gracewing 2015, p. 137-138
Anything we can acquire or preserve through attention, can be lost through inattention.“
“If you pursue virtue you will attain it and put it on like a festal gown.“
Ecclesiasticus 27: 8
Saint John Cassian, pray for us!