Many of us hope to spend the summer enjoying the outdoors, going on trips, and taking some vacation time. But whether we are busy at work or have some time off, summer is a good time for reflection. The season seems to invite us to think more deeply about our lives and to return to the source of inner peace and spiritual strength.
This year, we will not offer long readings for our Summer Emphasis. We will offer some very brief sayings of wisdom for meditation and prayer. Every month, a list of these short sayings will be provided at our Sunday services. This list will have sayings of wisdom from a selected saint for the month. The idea is to take this sheet home with you and to include the reflection on the saying for each day in your daily prayers and devotions.
In June we will start with St. Isaac the Syrian. Our saint was a Sixth Century ascetic from Qutar on the Persian Gulf. Little is known about his life except that he and his brother joined a monastery when he was a young man. In due time, church authorities recognized his gift of teaching and he was ordained Bishop of Nineveh, the ancient city on the Tigris River in today’s Iraq.
After only five months of his installation as bishop, Isaac suddenly left Nineveh for a remote monastery to the south. It is said that the reasons for this abrupt resignation of his office are “known only to God.”
However a story in Arabic from a Syrian source might give a hint. On the day of his ordination as bishop, two men appealed to him to settle their quarrel about a loan. The lender demanded the immediate repayment of a loan. The debtor pleaded for more time to pay. In an attempt to reconcile the two, the new bishop referred to the Gospels. The lender replied that the Gospels should be set aside, implying that they had nothing to do with this case. Bishop Isaac replied, “If the Gospels are not present, what have I come here to do?”
In his introduction to The Ascetical Homilies, Photios Kontoglou speculates that Bishop Isaac was an outsider to the city of Nineveh. In the midst of the heated controversies of the day, the bishop encountered unyielding suspicion and hostility as a “foreigner.” Thus, it is likely that he followed his own teaching of meekness and humility and refused to enter into inevitable arguments with his members of his flock. '
Whatever the reason, Isaac left for a monastery in the mountains of Iran. There it is said that he studied the scriptures so ardently that he became blind. In his later years in the blessed isolation of the monastery, Isaac wrote down his teachings on hesychasm, the spiritual way of stillness and silence.
Saint Isaac's greatest work is the Ascetical Homilies. This is a massive volume of seventy-seven sermons on the spiritual struggle. In these sermons Saint Isaac teaches that the “good fight of faith” is more than a matter of resisting the common temptations of stealing, lying, and hurting others, etc. Rather, we reach a deeper level of the spiritual struggle when we hear the call of the Lord to “Be merciful as your Father [in Heaven] is merciful” (Luke 6:36).
Saint Isaac takes his teaching from the Sermon on the Mount when the Lord Jesus Christ instructs his disciples to pray for and to forgive those who hate and harm them. In loving our enemies, we most clearly reflect the perfection of God (Matthew 5:43-47). In this spirit, Saint Isaac says, “Conquer evil men by your gentle kindness, and make zealous men wonder at your goodness. Put the lover of justice to shame by your compassion.”
Of course, this way of following the meekness of Christ is not easy. It involves discipline and suffering as Jesus Christ himself suffered. Thus Saint Isaac says, “Fire does not blaze among fresh wood, and enthusiasm for God does not break forth into flames in a heart that loves comfort.” Still the saint insists that this spiritual struggle is the way of healing: “A merciful man is the physician of his own soul, for as with a violent wind, he drives the darkness of the passions out of his inner self.”
The writings of Saint Isaac are challenging not only because of the depth of their wisdom but because of the demands of their prescriptions for the spiritual life. Yet for those who wrestle with them, these teachings are powerful antidotes to the spiritual disease of attachment to this world. All are urged to take the list of the teachings of Saint Isaac home from our worship services and to reflect on the saying given for each day of the month. Along with other Christians through the ages, you will find that they are strong medicine for your spiritual growth.