Homily for the Fourth Sunday of Great Lent, in Commemoration of St. John of the Ladder #
By Metropolitan Korniliy (Titov)
With words of consolation and encouragement, the Holy Church strengthens those among us, brethren, who bear the burden of the fast firmly and joyfully, a fast which brings peace to the soul and the awareness of a fulfilled Christian duty. Having now completed half of the Holy Fast and looking upon the Honorable and Life-Giving Cross of the Lord, which strengthens our feeble strength, let us strive to complete the remaining time of the fast without fault.
When a man begins any work—especially one that is pleasing to God—he encounters difficulties, sorrows, and dangers. But when the labor draws near to its blessed end, he finds joy and spiritual satisfaction in the good work accomplished. Thus, a soldier, going off to war, suffers inner anguish, fears, confusion, and dark forebodings; but when he returns safely to his homeland, to his loved ones—especially if he comes back with honor and reward—he forgets the labors and trials, the dangers and deprivations, and remembers all that has passed with the feeling of duty fulfilled. So too must we, brethren and sisters, bear the many labors of fasting and abstinence, and strive to complete this saving path to the end. Let us pray to the Lord for strength and grace, that we may joyfully meet the bright Resurrection of Christ, when in spiritual rejoicing we shall forget the hardships of our Lenten efforts. God grant us to come to Holy Pascha in the joy of a completed struggle, which we resolved to undertake at the beginning of the Fast—striving to pray unceasingly, to fast strictly, and hoping to be freed from the sin that holds us captive in spiritual prison.
A great joy is promised to us by Saint John Chrysostom, who says in his Paschal homily: “Ye who have fasted and ye who have not, ye who have labored and ye who have been slothful—come all! For the Lord receives all equally; to some He repays a debt, to others He grants the gift of His love.” Therefore, no matter how weary we may be, let us pass through these final weeks of the Fast with courage and patience; let us walk step by step toward the light of the Resurrection, that we also may be illumined with the light of divine being.
Today we commemorate the memory of our venerable father John of the Ladder. The Church is indebted to this saint for having left to all Christians a great spiritual treasure—his book The Ladder of Divine Ascent, a guide for rising from earth to heaven, from the depths of sin to the summit of divine love and union with the Lord. The Ladder consists of thirty chapters—thirty steps that lead to the Kingdom of God—and truly, it is a ladder of salvation. Saint John calls us to this path: “Go forward, and do not look back; if you fall, rise up again and continue the journey.” The contents of The Ladder are profound, full of imagery, and filled with saving power. He writes about fasting: “Just as a bird grown fat cannot fly to heaven, so a man who serves his flesh cannot be saved.”
At the beginning of the ascent up the Ladder, Saint John tells us: “Brethren, we shall not be condemned because we did not work miracles, but because we did not weep over our sins.” Here is where our salvation begins. Let us remember: when was the last time we wept in our life? Was it not over losses, or over insults inflicted on us by others, or over our illnesses, or over the many forms of sorrow that come to us in life? But none of these tears unite us with God. The only true misfortune in life, the only one worthy of tears, is sin—yet we are often insensitive to it, forget it easily, and grieve little over it. Sin destroys our relationship with both people and with God. By tearing apart the bonds of love, faith, and friendship, sin separates us from the righteous, before whom we are ashamed. It separates us even from those who were our accomplices and witnesses in sin, for they become a living and painful reminder of our guilt. Around the sinner, there forms a circle of estrangement: from God, from the righteous who loathe his sin, and from the sinners with whom he once sinned. This circle can only be broken by the tears of repentance.
This is why Saint John of the Ladder places at the very heart of our salvation the call to weep over our sins. But in order to weep, one must first be horrified by what has been done, by the realization that we could have acted in such a way. We must cry out to the Lord, asking for healing, for cleansing, for mercy and forgiveness. The awareness of the unbearable truth—that we have offended the Lord and are thereby estranged from Him, the consciousness of our spiritual crime, the murder of our soul by sin—this can draw forth from our eyes the tears that cleanse. And then we can say, “I repent, O Lord, forgive me!” and in those tears we shall be washed clean from our sins.
Saint John calls us to a wise moderation and gradualness in the ascent toward moral perfection. The struggle against vices and sins is crowned with success when it proceeds in stages, from lesser to greater, in accordance with our spiritual and bodily strength. After the long path of the Ladder, walked with humility and chastity, after the labor of bridling the unrestrained tongue, after fasting and prayers—a man ascends the final step: the summit of love. Love—gracious, forgiving, and peaceful—meets the struggler in the Heavenly Abode.
The Ladder, this wise Christian book, ought to be our constant companion, to which we can turn throughout our life, using it for our salvation. Bishop Mikhail Semyonov, in his homily for the Fourth Sunday of the Holy Forty Days, writes:
“Brethren!… We stand with you before a ladder that leads to heaven. And the fast—that too is a kind of ladder. All of life is a ladder. And see how varied are the attitudes of Christians toward this ‘ladder.’
Some gaze up at the ladder. ‘How high it is,’ they say, ‘we shall never reach the top.’ And so they remain content to dwell in the dust of the earth. They do not begin the fast, nor the labors of the spiritual life…
Others: they do begin to ascend, but they are so burdened with a heavy load of cares, love for the world, pursuit of wealth, honor, and so forth, that they are unable to continue. The heavy burden drags them down to the earth, and they fall away upon one of the first steps.”
Then there is a third group: those who have climbed halfway and stopped… ‘That’s enough… We are not saints—we cannot reach the summit. What we’ve already done is sufficient.’ These are the dead in spirit. Whoever halts on the path of salvation is a son of perdition: he is neither cold nor hot, and the Lord shall spue him out of His mouth (Rev. 3:16).
There are also those who ascend high, but fall from the steps close to the end of the ladder. These are they who proceed with great zeal for God, but without gracious humility. At such heights, their heads begin to spin. They are not bound to Christ the Lord by the humble bond of love, like travelers on snowy mountains who tie themselves to their guide with a rope; rather, they ascend the ladder by the feet of pride and self-exaltation. And from such heights they fall—into a dark abyss… Oh, if only we might master the Ladder of Saint John through labor and prayer! And enter the bridal chamber of the Lord, in the glory of His Resurrection!”
The life of Saint John of the Ladder is short in written form, but it contains much in little. This is how his life unfolded: from his youth, he loved the Lord, and although endowed with great talents and learning, he left the world and withdrew to the monastic community on Mount Sinai. For twenty years he dwelt in the monastery in obedience to an experienced elder, laboring and humbling himself, cutting off his own will and reasoning. When his elder departed unto the Lord, Saint John, desiring greater spiritual perfection, left the monastery and gave himself over to stillness in a remote place. For forty years, in strict abstinence and ascetic labor, in ceaseless, tearful prayer and contemplation of God, he was granted special gifts from the Lord: clairvoyance and the working of miracles. Later, when it became necessary to choose a new abbot for the monastery, the brethren turned to Saint John with one accord and asked him to become their igumen.
Like a new Moses, he descended from the mountain of solitude and divine vision, and in the four years that he spent in the monastery, he gave the brethren his holy Ladder, like tablets of the Law written by God, as Moses once gave to Israel. This is the entire course of his life. One can observe that Saint John ascended to perfection through the following virtues: renunciation of the world, obedience to the will of his elder, and then stillness, which made him worthy of the special gifts of God. These stages of ascent to spiritual perfection are common to all the saints. These same steps of virtue must be undertaken by us all if we desire not only to appear as Christians but truly to be such—if we desire salvation.
But one might think that the life of a desert monk and the life of a layperson are incomparable, and though we may wish to imitate the lives of the saints, we find ourselves in different circumstances. Indeed, the specific steps of spiritual ascent that Saint John passed through may not be traversed in the same form by us. Yet we, brethren and sisters, can pass through them as they may be fulfilled in the world—that is, in a different form, but in the same spirit and strength. Saint John himself wrote: “How can laypeople imitate monks? Do all the good that you are able to do—do it! Do not judge anyone, do not defraud anyone, do not lie, do not exalt yourself before anyone, do not abandon the Church, give to those in need, be content with what you have, and turn away from evil.” God desires to save all: monks and laypeople, the wise and the unlearned, the young and the old, the weak and the strong—that is, all of us sinners. We all may become imitators of Saint John of the Ladder, growing strong in good deeds, in prayer and pious reflection, and in the labors of righteousness.
Saint John renounced the world and withdrew to the Sinai monastery. We, brethren, being zealous for our salvation, must renounce a sinful and passionate life—for the “world” is the image of life according to sin. Whoever forsakes sin and strives to live in holiness does the same as a monk who leaves the world; he becomes one who is other to the world. In fasting and sincere repentance, in weeping over our sins as the only misfortune truly worthy of our tears, let us set foot upon the spiritual Ladder that leads to heaven. But to step onto the ladder, we must first tear ourselves away from the earth. So also must we take the first step—that is, turn away from our passions and vices and press forward to the practice of the virtues. The holy prophet David instructs us: Depart from evil, and do good (Ps. 34:14).
Indeed, it is not enough merely to turn away from wicked deeds and a sinful life; we must also bring forth fruits worthy of repentance—that is, having repented, we must begin to change our lives, journeying from the depths of sin toward perfection, toward union with God’s virtue.
Saint John bore the labor of obedience under the guidance of an elder. In the life of a Christian living in the world, obedience must consist in the keeping of God’s commandments, by which each of our lives is ordered. Obedience to the Holy Church is salvific, when from youth to old age we live not by our own will, but by the command of God. Saint John had a spiritual guide, and our guides are the pastors of the Church. If we seek their counsel and follow it, we fulfill not our own will, nor even that of a priest, but the teaching of the Gospel and the holy Church of God.
Following the example of Saint John of the Ladder, let us also strive to dwell in silence, removed from distractions, to spend more time in solitude in order to guard against the scattering of the mind. Physical isolation from all people is impossible in the world, but interior solitude is within our reach. It can be attained by carefully striving to enter frequently into the inner chamber of our soul, and there, alone, to devote ourselves to God. Whether you are at home, on the road, at work, or in church, turn the gaze of your mind inward with attention to your heart; let not the eye of your soul depart from beholding God.
But as long as passions and sinful habits nest in the heart, true silence cannot be found. Only after long labor in fulfilling the commandments of God and performing good deeds does quietness arise in the soul, along with union with God; peace enters in, bringing such depth of silence that one may not even notice the passing of time. Sometimes, at the end of a service, despite the outward effort, people in church are grieved to leave prayer, which gives a blessed warmth of heart and a gracious disposition.
Each of us, brethren and sisters, may become a true imitator of the labors of Saint John of the Ladder—if we discipline the flesh, do not grow weak or lazy, depart from evil and do good. Having purified the heart from passions, we shall be able, in the fullness of love and spiritual joy, to behold God—for it is said in the Beatitudes: Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God (Matt. 5:8). Let us go bravely and cheerfully up the spiritual ladder of Great Lent, that being strengthened from strength to strength, with the help of God we may reach, at the summit of this ascent, that perfection to which the Lord calls and obliges us, saying: Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect (Matt. 5:48).