Burning off the Warts and Becoming God: An Introduction to Eastern Orthodox Spirituality

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God became man that man might become God.

St. Athanasius

For Eastern Orthodox Christians, the end for which every human being has been created is union with God. We are to become “become partakers in the Divine Nature” and become by Grace what God is by nature (2 Peter 1:4).  But, in order for this to happen, we must “escape from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire.”  We must, in other words, escape from our bondage to sin.

Sin

Unlike the West which often frames sin as the disobedience of moral rules, the Orthodox see sin as a pathogen or sickness which turns us away from our natural end, from who God made us to be.  This pathogen or sickness is any disposition or inclination which turns us away from our natural desire for God and toward this world, ourselves, or vain imaginations apart from God.  Such sinful dispositions and inclinations cause us to be “impassioned” which is another way of saying that they cause us to lose control of our faculties and be ruled by an emotion, a desire, or attachment to an end outside God’s will.  When one is “impassioned” one his controlled by a “passion” and once any “passion” takes control of us, we lose the capacity to be open to and receptive to God and for him to unite us to himself and translate or transform us into himself.

The Origin of the Passions

The vehicle through which the passions become active in us is thought.  St. Maximus the Confessor teaches us that we can have two kinds of thoughts.  Simple thoughts and complex thoughts.  Simple thoughts take place when the image of something comes to mind.  Complex thoughts take place when the image of something comes to mind coupled with a suggestion to incline ourselves or dispose ourselves in a certain manner towards this thing.  An example of the difference between a simple thought and complex thought is the difference between an image of a person coming to mind and an image of that person coming to mind along with the impulse to lust after that person or to be angry with that person or to judge that person. 

If we are attentive to ourselves and have obtained a measure of stillness, then we can let thoughts like this pass by or turn away from them and turn to God in prayer before they take hold of us.  But if we are not attentive and entertain the thought, it will take root in our heart.  This is how passions develop.  A complex thought comes to mind, we dwell on it, it enters our heart, we come to identify with it, and before we know it, a habit or passion has formed in our heart and moves us to sin before we have a chance to consciously consent to it. 

Active Passions

One analogy I’ve developed for the passions that are active in our hearts is that they are a lot like warts.  They start as something other than us, but once they implant themselves in our hearts it quickly becomes hard to distinguish where we end and the passions begin.  Just as a wart seems to be part of us, it is hard for us to not see our passions as our very self.  We think not, “the spirited aspect of my soul is impassioned and being infected by a power outside of me,” but rather, “I am angry.”  We think not that a demon’s taking hold of the desiring aspect of our soul and inflaming it with lust, but that “I need to be with this person.”  We think not that the devil is flooding our mind with despair, but that “I am worthless and undeserving of love.”  

The Solution

The best way to stop identifying with the passions and recognize the passions for what they are is by developing a habit of Watchful prayer.  The standard Eastern Orthodox prayer for developing this habit is “Lord Jesus Christ have mercy on me.” When we recite this prayer repeatedly even for a few minutes, focusing only on the words and opening our heart to God, we can identify what our passions are by taking note of what thoughts distract us from prayer.  They are guaranteed to be related to some passion of ours (St. Maximus the Confessor).  Moreover, if we practice such prayer consistently, we will find ourselves entering deeper and deeper into our hearts until one day we find ourselves in a place deeper in our hearts than the thoughts, feelings, and desires distracting us.  This is the place where the warts end and we begin.   From here we can confidently ask God to burn away the warts from our heart for this is where we meet God who is to our soul what our soul is to our body (St. Gregory the Theologian).   

One Last Thought 

It is important to remember that we will never find success in our struggle against the passions if we do not realize our utter deficiency to fight this battle.  We are utterly dependent on God to heal us.  The only way for us to ultimately become Watchful or not to give into temptation is to learn to think nothing of ourselves and to trust completely in God.  It is God who will heal us, but only if we have faith that he will do it.  It is God who will heal us, but only if we receive all that he gives us with thanksgiving knowing that it can and will be used by God to our benefit if we have faith in him.

Resources

The Mystical Marriage by Elder Aimilianos of Simonapetra

Philokalia by numerous authors.

Unseen Warfare by Theophan the Recluse and St. Nicodemus of the Holy Mountain.