Obedience is the Child of Trust
Obedience is the complete renunciation of one’s own soul, demonstrated, however, by actions. More exactly, it is the death of the senses in a living soul.
Obedience is a freely-chosen death, a life without cares, danger without fears, unshakeable trust in God, no fear of death. It is a voyage without perils, a journey in your sleep.
Obedience is the burial of the will and the resurrection of humility.
Obedience is to give up one’s own judgment but to do it with wise consultation.
It is very costly, beginning to die to the will and the senses. To continue dying is hard but not indefinitely so. In the end all aversion stops and absolute peace takes command.
John Climacus
Stairway to Paradise, 4 (PG88, 680)
If You Think You Are Humble that Means You Are Not
A monk said: ‘Every time you feel a sense of superiority or a touch of vanity, examine your conscience. Ask yourself if you are keeping all the commandments, if you are loving your enemies and weeping for their faults, if you consider yourself an unprofitable servant and the worst sinner in the world. But even after this examination of conscience, do not take too high an opinion of yourself as if you were perfect: such an idea would wreck everything!’
Another monk said: ‘Whoever is praised and honoured more than is deserved suffers a great loss, while the one who does not receive honours from others will be glorified in heaven.’
People asked a monk: ‘What is humility?’ He replied: ‘Humility is if a brother or sister sins against you and you forgive them before they come to ask you to.’
A brother asked a monk: ‘What is humility?’ The monk said: ‘To do good to whoever does evil to us.’ The brother insisted: ‘And if one does not achieve as much?’ The monk’s reply was: ‘Then go away and try to keep your mouth shut.’
Sayings of the Desert Fathers, nos. r65ff. (PG65)
~ Thomas Spidlik, Drinking from the Hidden Fountain, A Patristic Breviary: Ancient Wisdom for Today’s World
