The cell is an environment for salvation because in that specific place the monk turns to God as the source of his or her true self. Salvation is the restoration of the soul to its true content rather than a purification of “the pollution of the body [29] This desert understanding of salvation is in contrast to both the contemporary Greek Gnostic thought of that period which valued the spirit over the body and to the later medieval Christian theology of salvation. The desert elders, and through them the Eastern Orthodox churches, deny any metaphysical dualism separating body and soul. At the same time they acknowledge the immense power of the body, when dominated by the unrestrained ego, to influence and dominate the soul, distracting a person away from his or her natural and sacred state. Therefore, emphasis is given to discipline the body and to place its influence under control of the soul. While this may appear as a dualistic relationship it is in reality a very street-wise recognition of the struggle every human being experiences. It reflects an “ethical dualism” or dilemma of behavior, rather than a dualism of being. [30] In this context, salvation is the union of the desires and behaviors of the body with the soul, the completion of the whole person. Salvation is congruency between the image of God in each person and the manifestation of the likeness of God in his or her manner of life. Salvation is the birth of the true self, made possible by God’s grace.
A glimpse of this awareness of salvation may be seen in two comments by Pachomius relating to what he calls spiritual miracles:
After the manifest healings of the body, there are also spiritual healings. For if a man intellectually blind, in that he does not see the light of God because of idolatry, afterwards is guided by faith in the Lord and gains his sight, in coming to know the only true God, is not this a great healing and salvation?… One of the brethren asked me [Pachomius], “‘tell us one of the visions you see.” And I said to him, A sinner like me does not ask God that he may see visions: for that is against His will, and is error… Hear all the same about a great vision. If you see a man pure and humble, it is a great vision. For what is greater than such a vision, to see the Invisible God in a visible man, His temple? [31]
The desert elders’ experience of salvation clearly has roots in the Jewish heritage of Jesus. The Hebrew Scriptures, especially the Psalms, were an essential focus for meditation in the cell. The comments by Pachomius reflect an earlier understanding of transformation expressed by the prophet Ezekiel, speaking as God’s messenger: “Have I any pleasure in the death of the wicked, says the Lord God, and not rather that they should turn from their ways and live?” (Ezek 18:23, NRSV). At the same time, the wisdom of Pachomius, as well as Evagrius, would have a significant influence on the thinking of the great hesychast and Archbishop of Thessalonica, Gregory Palamas (1296–1358): “What connection should we have with Christ, if he had made a temple in the first fruits taken from men, without making us temples of his divinity?” [32]
~David G.R. Keller, Oasis of Wisdom: the Worlds of the Desert Fathers and Mothers
Notes:
29. Stelios Ramfos, Like a Pelican in the Wilderness, trans. Norman Russell (Brookline: Holy Cross Orthodox Press, 2000) 34.
30. See Nicholas Arseniev, Mysticism and the Eastern Church, trans. Arthur Chambers (London: Student Christian Movement, 1926) Chapter 3 “Asceticism and Transformation,” 45-54.
31. S. Pachomii Vita graecae, ed. Halkin, Subsidia hagiographica 19, Brussels, 1932, cc. 47-48, quoted in Derwas J. Chitty, The Desert a City (Crestwood, N.Y.: St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 1995) 28.
32. Against Akindynos, III, fol. 74v. trans. John Meyendorff in A Study of Gregory Palamas (Crestwood, N.Y.: St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 1998) 182.
