Know, that in this unseen
warfare, two wills existing in us fight against one another:
one belongs to the intelligent part of our soul and is
therefore called the intelligent will, which is the higher;
the other belongs to the sensory part and is therefore
called the sensory will, which is the lower. The latter is
more frequently called the dumb, carnal, passionate will.
The higher will is always desiring nothing but good, the
lower—nothing but evil. Each equally happens by itself, so
that neither is a good desire in itself reckoned as good,
nor an evil desire as evil. The reckoning depends upon the
inclination of our own free will. Therefore, when our will
inclines towards a good desire, it is reckoned in our
favour; but when we incline towards an evil desire, it is
reckoned against us.
These desires follow one upon
another: when a good desire comes, an evil desire
immediately opposes it; and when an evil desire comes, a
good desire at once rises against it.. Our will is free to
follow the one and the other, and whatever desire our will
inclines towards, it becomes victorious on this particular
occasion. It is in this that all our unseen spiritual
warfare consists. Its aim should be never to let our free
will incline towards the desire of the lower, carnal and
passionate will, but always to follow only the intelligent,
higher will. For it is the will of God, to follow which is
the basic law of our being: ‘ Fear God, and keep his
commandments: for this is the whole duty of man “ says the
Preacher (Ecclesiastes xii. 13). Each of these desires draws
our will towards itself and wishes to subjugate it. Stifle
the lower desire and incline towards the higher—and victory
is yours; but disregard the higher and choose the lower, and
you will find yourself vanquished.St. Paulwrites of this: “I
find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present
with me. For I delight in the law of God after the inward
man: but I see another law in my members, warring against
the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the
law of sin which is in my members’ (Rom. vii. 21-53). And he
gives to all the rule: ‘Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not
fulfil the lust. of the flesh’ (Gal. v. 16). And this cannot
be accomplished without struggling with the flesh.
A particularly great effort
and laborious toil must be experienced to start with by
those who, before deciding to change their worldly and
carnal life to a righteous one and to give themselves up to
the practices of love and sincere service of God, had
enmeshed themselves in evil habits through frequent
satisfaction of the desires of their carnal and passionate
will. Although the demands of their intelligent will, which
they wish to follow, stand on one side of their free will
and arc made active by God, yet on the other side there
stand the desires of the carnal and passionate will, towards
which they still feel a certain sympathy. Opposing the
former, these desires pull it towards their side with the
same force as a beast of burden is pulled by its halter; and
only the grace of God gives them strength to remain firm in
the decision they have taken. .Long-drawn resistance and not
yielding them victory saps, the strength of carnal desires;
yet this does not end the struggle.
So let no one dream of
acquiring a true Christian disposition and Christian virtue,
and of working for God as he should, if he does not want to
compel himself to renounce and overcome all the passionate
impulses of the will of the flesh, whether great or small,
which he was formerly accustomed to satisfy, willingly and
fondly. The chief reason why so few people attain to full
Christian perfection is exactly their reluctance, through
self-pity, to force themselves to deny themselves absolutely
everything. But if, having overcome great passionate
tendencies, they do not wish, thereafter, to compel
themselves to overcome small ones, which seem unimportant,
then, since these small tendencies are the outcome and
expression of the great, by indulging in them they
inevitably feed the latter, and so make them continue to
live and act in the heart, in spite of the fact that they no
longer manifest themselves on a large scale. And so the
heart remains passionate and impure, and, above all, in no
whit freed from self-indulgence and self-pity, which always
make any practice to please God of doubtful value.
For example, there are men
who refrain from appropriating other people’s possessions,
but are excessively attached to their own, and who, on the
one hand, lay too much trust in what they have, and on the
other, arc slow to bestow alms. Others do not seek honours
by evil means, yet do not count them as nothing, and often
even welcome them, if those honours can be made to appear to
come against their will. Others again keep long fasts
according to the statutes, yet do not refrain from
satisfying their desire to eat their fill, and to eat well,
which deprives the fast of all value. Others lead a chaste
life, yet continue their connections and acquaintanceship
with people they like, and enjoy it, not wishing to
understand that, through this, they build a great obstacle
to perfection in spiritual life and union with God.
I shall add to this the fact
that some people disregard the natural defects of their
character, which, although not dependent on selfwill,
nevertheless make a man guilty if, seeing how much they
interfere with spiritual life, he does not trouble not only
to destroy them completely, but even to try and keep them
within harmless bounds, although this could be achieved with
the help of God’s grace, due attention to oneself and zeal.
Such defects are for example: aloofness, hot temper, and
excessive sensibility, with the consequent thoughtless
hastiness in words, movements and actions, harshness and
querulousness, obstinacy and argumentativeness, and so on.
All these natural imperfections and faults should be
corrected, in some by reducing excess, in others by adding
what is lacking, and by translating both one and another
into corresponding good qualities. For no natural feature,
no matter how savage and stubborn it is, can stand up
against the will if, armed with the grace of God, it resists
it with all attention and diligence.
And so it happens that some
perform good deeds, but these deeds remain imperfect, lame,
mixed with the lusts, which reign in the world (John ii.
16). And so such people make no progress on tile path to
salvation, but turn round and round on one spot, and often
even turn back and fall again into their former sins. This
shows that even from the first their love for true life in
Christ was not wholehearted, that they were not sufficiently
filled with the feeling of gratitude to God, Who had
delivered them from the power of the devil, and not perfect
in their decision to work only for Him and to please Him. As
a result such people remain forever untrained in good, are
blind and fail to see the danger in which they stand,
thinking that their position is secure and that no harm
threatens them. Owing to all this, my beloved brother in
Christ, I beseech you to love the hard toil and heavy
burdens which inevitably accompany our unseen warfare, if
you do not wish always to be overcome. The wise Sirach
counsels the same: ’Hate not laborious work’ (Ecclesiasticus
vii. 15). For this is the very foundation of the whole of
inner warfare. The more you love this hard toil, or this
pitiless driving of yourself, the more quick and complete
will be your victory over yourself and over that in
yourself, which resists the higher good. And through this
you will be filled with every virtue and good disposition,
and God’s peace will come to dwell in you.
