Sunday of St. John Climacus

March 29, 2020

One of the great struggles of mankind, fallen as such from the divine vision of Gods ineffable light, & groping as it were in the darkness of this age, he seeks to build through established truths a “ladder “that can lift him up out of the depths of ignorance and misery. Here is found the threshold of classical learning, science, mathematics, and of course medicine. Man’s careful study of created things and the underlying principals found there, the natural law as the Christian fathers call it, the principalities of creation, the wisdom. This has in fact caused great advances in the dignity and quality of man’s existence that we take for granted, this is undeniable.

Among the greatest of achievers in this realm are the Hellenistic philosophers who developed the capacity of the human mind to a pursuit of excellence that cast down a world of erroneous conceptions and through God given reason set in place a foundation that we yet stand upon today. Of course, Socrates is one remembered in his arrival of thought that there must be one God overall and his defense on monotheism he was willing to die for and in fact did die for rather than give credence to falsehood. Of course, salvation eluded the rational mind for as is spoken in the wisdom of Sirach “He who lives forever has created the sum of all things; nothing can be added to them, nothing subtracted. It is impossible to fathom the marvels of the Lord. When someone finishes, he is only beginning, and when he stops, he is as puzzled as ever.”

One of these Hellenistic fathers Hippocrates, called the father of modern medicine, who’s oath is yet spoken today by all who practice medicine, dealt also a blow to a false understanding of sickness when he concluded that epilepsy, called superstitiously “the sacred “was a physical malady like other maladies. And that sickness was not absolutely a punishment of God as was the belief, but a causal event. The prophet Job in his discourses defends this view point and its superstitious nature when he spoke; one person dies in the fullness of strength; and another dies in bitterness of heart having never tasted happiness, and both lie down together in the dust.

Hippocrates was not unerring in his viewpoint and in his castigation of the religious leaders of his time, but his point endures till today. The nexus between faith-based revelation and reasonable deduction should be one of symphony and mutual respect with a healthy skepticism. Scientific research has often been led astray and flat out wrong (bloodletting) whereas religious vision can also fall into delusion (πλανι) and has historically. Therefore, it is not religion that hypocrates contradicts but false religion and zeal led astray. Again, the wisdom of Sirach; “treat the doctor with the honor that is his due, for he too has been created by the Lord. My child when illness threatens, do not rebel, but pray to the Lord and He will heal you. Renounce you’re faults, offer incense and as rich an offering as you can afford, then let the doctor take over.....for there is a time when good health depends on the doctors. Where today are the proud who cry “conspiracy” who believe we should ignore the coronavirus, pay no heed to the good order of government who the apostle Peter said “for the sake of the Lord, accept the authority of human institution, the governors who are commissioned to do good and punish evildoers. It is by Gods will that by your good deeds you should silence the ignorant talk of fools. “Yet a generation which abhors the simplicity of obedience and derides easily even our hierarchy in the church when they are faced with difficult decisions, who stand in St. Peters place in our time, should again hear the blessed Peters words” never use your freedom as a cover for wickedness” again,” have respect for everyone, and love your fellow believers, fear God and honor the authorities.

Our Lord heals the demoniac with a word.... but the father of the child needs help with his wavering faith. Even the apostles had not the power to help to their consternation, yet the Lord a prescription procures, that of fasting and prayer as a bulwark against the demonic powers. Is not this tradition the very one we the Orthodox Christians of true worship carry out till this very day? And would not any physician of merit not gain say the health benefits of this holy commitment we make? Would not the environmentalist also chime in pleased at the relief afforded to both body and biosphere? But we do by our Lords command with prayer as an offering on behalf of all and for all. And our reward, if we are wise and discreet shall be in the gift of the Holy Spirit and a Pascha which shall ransom from sorrow. Here is the example of harmony between science and faith.

But let us turn now to those whom we celebrate today, the holy fathers of the Christian faith led by St. John of the Ladder. Here now are the strategists of the hidden warfare and that spiritual ascent that the blessed set their heart upon. They chronicled the handbook of the monastics, those accounts of the desert fathers written down by St. John Climacus. He went around to the monasteries in the holy land, Syria, and the deserts of Sinai during the golden age of monasticism of the 6th and 7th centuries. He compiled a wealth of wisdom on human nature and the human dilemma, the pitfalls of spiritual pursuit and the encyclopedic lectionary of terminology that define the Christian spiritual life. The ploys of demons laid bare for all to see, now as helpless as sparrows. A classic of Christian orthodox literature which parses the true religious nature from the masquerade which counterfeits as Christianity in our times today. Fasting anyone? As written in the fathers “the mother of all of the virtues”. Lord! I believe; help my unbelief!

Rational sheep and beloved children of Christ let us embrace wholeheartedly the social distancing and use the loneliness of this time as if given for spiritual pursuits. Let us remember our fathers who sojourned in the desert and found the Lord for the kingdom of heaven is within. Let us show stellar obedience out of respect unto Christ and flee from the backbiters who would turn us against our shepherds. And let us receive from Christ the physician of our souls and bodies a prescription against the demons. Come, let us fast an acceptable fast before the Lord.