Summary of talk Demonic temptation: the teaching of St. Mark the monk by Metropolitan Kallistos, given on 16 July 2013 during the IOCS summer school.

Transcription

1 Summary of talk Demonic temptation: the teaching of St. Mark the monk by Metropolitan Kallistos, given on 16 July 2013 during the IOCS summer school. Note: this is a summary produced by Omar Choudary while taking notes during the presentation. There might be many mistakes. Also note that some passages might be incomplete or rephrased and that some names might be incorrect. If in doubt please try to ask the speaker. Summary: 2 short stories: 1) during a tutorial many years ago with philosophy supervisor, he was surprised that Metropolitan Kallistos believed in the devil. 2) when went to a father confessor, the father confessor would always say to Metropolitan Kallistos: yes, I know, it is the devil. Now Metropolitan Kallistos knows both of them were wrong: (1) was wrong because the devil is found in both scripture and experience. (2) was wrong because although demons do tempt us, they are not responsible for what we do. Therefore it is not just the demons. It is not wise to talk too much about demonic powers. The earliest religious experience that Metr. Kallistos remembers: I was about 5 years old, standing in front of Bath Abbey. I ve seen Jacob s ladder depicted. Standing on the ground below this seemed very impressive to me. I was very moved then. Let s stay firm, be in knowledge, that the angels are very close to us: as a Saint said: if you pray faithfully you will feel the presence of angels. Citation from Seasons of the spirit : each of us has an angel when the congregation is assembled for Liturgy, there are 2 communities: the community of people we can see and the community of guardian angels that we cannot see. From the life of St. Anthony written by St. Athanasius (bishop of Alexandria): (Note: I think the book is most probably this one: Anthony Classics Western Spirituality/dp/ /ref=sr_1_2 1, The life of St. Anthony (Classics of Western Spirtuality Series) ) St. Anthony (lived around ) is considered father of Christian monasticism. Living in Egypt.

2 In later years disciples were gathering around him. Refused to go to school, presumably because he did not want to mix with pagans. Did never learn how to read/write properly. Sold everything and went to desert, but first he stayed in his own village, he worked under guidance of local ascetics and tried to pray continuously. In his village St. Anthony soon becomes subject to temptations. At the start of these temptations, he sees the devil as a small boy, as an Ethiopian. We often see the devil as those in the outside of our society. Little is said in St. Anthony s life about sexual temptations. Later, St. Anthony withdraws away from village. Here the temptations of demons intensify in the tomb where he went to live. The devil appears to him as wild animals. The demons do not only tempt him through the mind, but sometimes even physically (animals byte him). A person that was bringing him food once found him almost inconscient. St. Anthony resists all these temptations and finally he feels the presence of Christ (note that he feels Christ, he does not say that he saw Christ). St. Anthony asked Christ: where were you, why did you not help me from the beginning?. Christ replied: I was here all the time, but I wanted to see you fighting.. As St. Anthony then travels through the desert, he encounters the demons that cry: what do you do here in the desert, why did you come to disturb us?. From this encounter we see that the desert was the place of demons. Where is the place of demons today? Now we have a kind of a reversal: in the inner city we feel threaten, the place of demons is now in the outskirts of large cities. St. Anthony tells us that we should not be afraid of demons. They are basically week. They do not deserve our respect, but at most contempt and pity. There is no glory in a demon. God made nothing bad: so demons were originally good as well. The demons envy us. Types of demons based on their actions: (1) despic the heart by pleasures that are evil. (2) scare us by horrific images. (3) pretend to prophesize and predict things that are going to come. In fact they have no real knowledge, they are only guessing. The devil is a liar, the father of lies. Do not believe what the devil says. (4) they will try to tempt us with what is apparently good (e.g. citing from scripture).

3 A story from monk in mount Athos: figure in icons started to pray together with him. He thinks is an angel, but does not tell to his spiritual father, who later finds. The spiritual father realizes this is not good and requests the monk to ask his angel to make the sign of the cross. Immediately the demon that was pretending to be an angel screamed and departed. Therefore we should remember that the sign of the cross is very powerful against demons. Demons do not make the sign of the cross. This is one way to challenge them. Fear God alone! Criteria between good (heavenly) and bad (fallen) angels: If appearance is heavenly we might be initially frightened (like St. Mary was at annunciation) but then cheerful immediately. If appearance is demonic we shall feel uneasy, thus fear will continue and will disturb us. The effect upon us of the apparition is an important criteria of discrimination. satan appears to St. Athanasius and said: why do you continuously trouble me, why are Christians disturbing us? It is not me who tortures you, but it is yourselves that are responsible for your own torments. Therefore, we must not be too quick to say that it is the demons, as it might be ourself responsible. (Addition based on later discussion with Mitr. Kallistos: the devil was probably not being entirely honest here either. Indeed we are responsible for our own actions, as will be detailed later, but the demons are responsible as well for constantly coming with temptations). Demons will adapt their methods of attack according to our passions. From Mark the monk (Mark the ascetic, from Philocalia): living in early 5th century, not certain if in Egypt or Asia Minor. provides series of terms to describe temptations. These were taken up by St. John Climacus and St. Maximus the confessor (7th century). Steps in temptations: (1) Provocation/assault: Initial excitement to evil. We are not responsible for this, it comes from outside, from the devil. Even in the garden of Eden was the serpent tempting Adam and Eve before they committed any sin. It comes to us without us wishing it. if we reject this provocation, then we are not to blame. We must be on constant watch, we must reject all provocations and then the process is terminated. (2) Momentary disturbance: We feel disturbed. The provocation has had an effect on us. From this moment on there is moral responsibility.

4 (3) Communion: we start to accept, not yet thought. We begin to contemplate the action. We still hesitate whether to act. We are responsible for entering into communion with this evil thought. (4) Assent: Now we have consent to it. We say yes, I would like to do it. Here we are definitely guilty and responsible. Now we are judged by God. The crucial distinction is between 1 (demons are responsible) and 2 (we are fully responsible). Other additional steps: (5) Prepossession: We start to get used to this sin. It gets harder and harder to resist temptation. (6) Passion: Once the sin becomes a passion we will find our freedom deeply reduced. In conclusion: do not just say it is the demons. We are also responsible. About guardian angel: During baptism you do receive a guardian angel. But it is possible that indeed he is already there since birth, but we get a closer relation at baptism. Little story: during a baptism of 3 children the priest told the younger one to stay calm and quiet or else his guardian angel will be upset. The small child was very calm and quiet during the whole baptism. At the end of the baptism he started very joyously to cry out: which is mine, which is mine? He was seeing all the three guardian angels. Questions and Answers: Q: Why God discussed with satan about Job? A: The idea of the devil has developed in time, at the beginning we considered him all evil, then this changed. The general view in Orthodoxy now is that it is pure evil. The idea that in the end he might be saved is very much in doubt. The devil has a constant relation with God: the role of the devil is to be the tempter. But we as humans should have no relationship with the devil. The general view is that the devil cannot repent, that angels that fell cannot ever rise. But we cannot be entirely sure of this. Let us not have any conversations with the devil and let us not be too definitive on this subject. Q: How to distinguish things that come from within from those from the devil? A: The idea that mental problems may come from the devil certainly has support in the Scripture: demons can be responsible. But maybe we should begin by checking if it is our own

5 responsibility and what can be done about it. We should first look at our own responsibility before blaming demons. Example on exorcism: as member of clergy we have the power to exorcise, although for example in the Anglican church this is restricted to a small number of people due to an event where a man, after being exorcised, killed wife and children. We must be very cautions about performing the exorcism, except for the baptism, when it is always done. Advice: go in confession to an experienced priest, say in confession what you are suffering from, then receive Holy communion and Holy oil. I would not use exorcism as first step, although there might be specific situations where this must be done. By exorcism I mean a prayer by which we address the devil directly and we command him to go out. It is a very serious thing and must be done very cautiously. I was once asked to exorcise a building because the TV being turned on overnight. My natural reaction was to ask first if they were not the children that were doing this. Then I asked the local bishop if there was something related to this house. The answer was positive: 2 people died together, one of them committed suicide after seeing that the other had died. In this case I did not do an exorcism, but bless the house. During the service of blessing I said let all evil go away, but did not address the devil directly. I also performed a memorial service for the people that had died, calling them by name. I am very reluctant on calling the devil directly, as he might release forces that are very dangerous. Q: What is the meaning of the temptations from the Lord s prayer? A: Through these temptations we get more powerful, we get stronger. Similarly with children: we shouldn t always protect our children: we should gradually trust them to develop their own abilities. Through temptations we advance, we learn to resist temptations. But we should not put ourselves into temptation. Many examples of this in the lives of Saints. If temptations come, we seek to resist them with God s help, but we should not pray to receive temptations. Expect temptation until your last breath. We should not call anyone blessed until he did not come

6 to his death. Maybe this is a way so that Saints are kept in humility, to realize that they depend on God until the end. Q: About prayer for those that committed suicide. A: The Orthodox church forbids the memorial services for those that committed suicide. There are exceptions, if the person was not mind stable, had some disturbances, etc... As we never know what was in a person s heart/mind, regardless of physical evidence, I prefer to allow funerals and memorial services and leave it on God s mercy. However, regardless of the priests, we as laity can always pray for those that are dead, even if they committed suicide. In fact this was even suggested by a bishop to a person that was seeking advice regarding a relative that committed suicide.