Great spiritual teachers of the Eastern Church
appeared even as far as the borders of Persia, where Orthodox Christianity thrived for many
centuries before the appearance of Islam. Such a man was St. Isaac of Nineveh, also
known as the Syrian, who was born on the peninsula of Qatar in 613 A.D., which at the time, jurisdictionally
was in the territory of the Syriac Church of Persia. This was right before Islam began to spread
across the Middle East. At this time, the Persian Church had sparse
relations with the Church within the Christian Roman Empire due to its geographic isolation
and its quarrels with them regarding the Council of Chalcedon, starting almost two centuries
before. The Syriac spiritual masters had their own
approach to the mystical. If the Romans took pride in their legal precision
and the Greeks in their philosophical reflection, the Syriac people to the East tended to prefer
expressing their faith in poetry, exploring the symbolism, the paradox and the beauty
of the faith through poetic verse. Isaac certainly grew up with a keen awareness
of St. Ephrem of Nisibis, also known as St. Ephraim the Syrian, whose hymns and poetry
reflecting this Eastern love of symbolism, paradox and beauty, shaped much of the religious
thought of his time. During Isaacâs lifetime, controversies raged
within the Church regarding various doctrinal and liturgical issues. Sometimes the debates could be passionate
and even violent, but Isaac steered clear of these controversies and focused on the
core theology of the Love and Mercy of God. As a young boy, Isaac was of a contemplative
nature and tended to avoid theological debates, focusing rather on his relationship with Jesus
and the purification of his own heart to reflect the light of Christ. Following the footsteps of St. Ephrem of Nisibis,
he expressed this dynamic in terms of Syriac poetry, where he compares the heart to a mirror
made of metal. Just like with the mirror, where in order
to make it render an accurate image, the metal must be polished and shined thoroughly and
habitually, in the same manner, constant ascetic practices are necessary to polish the heart
so that it may accurately reflect the light of Jesus. Isaac points out that prayer is not just a
meditation. It is a conversation with God. As such, it entails an increasing silence
within, so that Godâs voice may be heard. And he explains:
Love of God proceeds from conversing with him; this conversation of prayer comes about
through stillness, and stillness comes with the stripping away of the self. The goal of ascetic practice is to discern
the will of God while âstripping awayâ all desires which impede doing what God would
have us do. According to Isaac, regular meditation and
payer âpolishesâ the heart in order to remove the dross of our selfish passions and
reflect divine light in this world of darkness, thus recovering the blissful nature which
God intended for us. At a young age, Isaac entered the monastery
at Mar Matthew, near Nineveh (present-day Mosul, Iraq). Before long, he was mentoring other monks
as a spiritual advisor, and by popular acclamation from his brothers, he was soon elevated to
Abbot. Shortly thereafter, he was named Bishop of
Nineveh and was compelled to move to the city. The administrative life, however, did not
agree with him as it entangled him with the strife of mundane affairs and doctrinal disputes. He was disgusted by the pettiness and coarseness
of city life: Once, two Christians came to him, asking him
to settle a dispute. One man acknowledged that he owed money to
the other but asked for a short extension. The lender threatened to sue his debtor and
force him to pay. St. Isaac, citing the Gospel, asked him to
be merciful and give the debtor more time to pay. The man said, "Leave your Gospel out of this!" St. Isaac replied, "If you will not submit
to the Lord's commandments in the Gospel, then what remains for me to do here?" After about five months, bishop Isaac fled
to the desert again and lived as a hermit, eventually settling at the Monastery of Rabban
Shabur (near present-day Alqoush Iraq, about 28 miles from Mosul). Isaac was not alone in his disillusionment
with his contemporary Church which was torn by dissention. Many others had fled the cities seeking stillness. But, although many fled to the desert, the
Syriac interest in ascetic practices was not always expressed isolation from society. Some small groups of men and women sought
an ascetic lifestyle by living in covenant with one another among the general population. The Bnay qyÄmÄ (or sons of the covenant)
were people who had taken holy vows of sanctification. These included two types: celibate individuals
called bthĆ«lÄ (virgins; applicable to both male and female) or qaddÄ«shÄ (holy ones)
who were married. There was a particular group within the bthĆ«lÄ
who lived in isolation called Ä«áž„Ä«dÄyÄ, an interesting word that can be translated
as hermit, but in Syriac it is also the term used to describe Adamâs nature before the
fall. It was widely held that baptism and spiritual
discipline lead to the acquisition of the nature of the âsecond Adam,â restoring
us to the pre-fall life of Eden on the earthly realm. This understanding reflects an important notion
in Isaacâs approach to contemplation. Baptism was seen to be the re-entry to the
Garden of Eden made possible by Christâs baptism and resurrection. In other words, it was the beginning of a
life-long journey from the ephemeral world of change to the eternal world of Heaven in
order to recover the state of existence God intended for us. Our prayerful conversation with Jesus invites
him into our heart so that he may guide us away from the mirage of earthly affectation
and develop our senses to perceive the divine. St. Isaac explains:
The nature of the soul is to be a receptacle of blessed light, but when it is moved by
affectations, it has abandoned its nature. The understanding of created things is natural
to the soul, but contemplation moves it above nature. St. Isaac calls us to step into a blinding
light that is perceived as darkness. Effectively, we are moving towards a distant
land that is actually our home, forgotten after Adam fell. Although we must go single file along treacherous
paths, we are not alone. For,
He who meditates on God in the night will acquire Him as a housemate. One who is pliable to His will, will find
the angels of heaven to be his teachers. St. Isaacâs description of this journey
is marked by the Syriac love of metaphor. It is like a trek through the desert in which
the town of origin is a simple mirage that fades from sight before the destination slowly
comes to increasing visibility. It is a kenotic journey in which one empties
oneself of selfish passion, causing Godâs presence in the heart to become clearer as
our spiritual eyes grow accustomed to the brilliant desert sun. As is often the case in caravans moving through
the desert, illusory oases often tempt the faithful with evanescent rewards and lead
them astray. These illusions and temptations, however,
lose their power as God grants us the humility which cures our selfishness. In remembering oneâs transgressions and
imperfections, the solitudinous journey cleanses the heart,
raising the mind Above the reproach and accusations of others
and above zealotry; by not being one whose hand is against everyone and against whom
is everyoneâs hand, but rather one who remains alone and isolated, not taking on the concern
of anyone else in the world apart from himself. In an age of pitched ecclesial battles, St.
Isaac saw the wisdom in casting the beam out of oneâs eye before trying to remove the
mote from the eyes of others. He saw the struggle for humility as an absolute
necessity. The arduous journey through the desert is
painful by nature and is a lifelong quest. St. Isaac tells us, that this spiritual journey
must be motivated by love of God rather than fear of judgement and punishment:
As a handful of sand thrown into the ocean, so are the sins of all flesh as compared with
the mind of God. Just as a strongly flowing stream is not blocked
up by a handful of earth, so the compassion of the Creator is not overcome by the wickedness
of his creatures. It is Godâs initial love for us, that is
the model. And we respond to Him by seeking to reflect
his love for the cosmos. God the creator is not separate from God the
lover of Creation. St. Isaac explains that devotion involves
our entire being and is not simply a matter of intellectual conviction or of mere mental
contemplation. As creation groans for the manifestation of
the sons of God, St. Isaac tells us that âevery prayer in which the body does not toil, and
the heart does not feel sufferingâ is âwithout a soulâ and invalid. Just as a long trek through the Arabian desert
implies suffering in torrid heat and profound thirst, we are also moving slowly through
arid regions towards our ultimate home. We are in âthe land of thornsâ which Adam
experienced after the Fall, and until we partake of the heavenly bread, offered in divine love,
our labor is in vain, even if it is offered for righteousnessâ sake. It is the acceptance and reflection of the
love of Christ that validates our earthly efforts. He further explains:
Whoever is sustained on love is sustained by Christ who is God over all. Jesus testifies to this, saying âGod is
love.â This is the air in which the righteous find
delight at the resurrection. St. Isaac went to the desert to contemplate
God in solitude. He left behind him a bishopric that was beset
with strife. Some may have considered this to be the abandonment
of an important post in a time of stress. To the denizens of our âworld of thornsâ
it may appear so, and he certainly suffered accusations and reproach from the zealots
of his time. But it is one of those paradoxes, which the
Syriac saints love so well. Effectively, in his total surrender to the
transcendent God and unwavering desire to fulfill his loving will, St. Isaac made a
diocese for the ages to come. Immersed in the love of Christ, he reflected
and expressed Godâs unifying love of creation and his writings have served as a guide to
spiritual pilgrims for over a thousand years. The kenotic surrender of the self begins in
an apparent loneliness, but God the loving creator offers so much more than is initially
apparent. The desert overflows with an ocean of compassion
and the heart reflecting the creatorâs love, âŠis a heart on fire for the whole of creation,
for humanity, for the birds, for the animals, for demons and for all that exists. At the recollection and at the sight of them,
such a personâs eyes overflow with tears owing to the vehemence of the compassion which
grips the heart; as a result of his deep mercy, his heart shrinks and cannot bear to hear
or look on any injury or the slightest suffering of anything in creation. This is why he constantly offers up prayers
full of tears, even for irrational animals and for the enemies of the truth, even for
those who harm him, so that they may be protected and find mercy. As one treks in solitude across the desert
with Christ as the intimate guide, the loving nature of God outshines all else and fear
is conquered. Paradoxically, the seemingly lonely journey
leads to a unity with all. God the Creator is no different from God the
Lover. St. Isaac tells us:
This shall be for you a luminous sign of the serenity of your soul: when on examining yourself,
you will find full compassion for all humanity, and your heart is afflicted with pity for
them, burning as through fire, without making the distinction between one person and another. When the image of the Father becomes visible
in you by means of the continual presence of these things, then you can recognize the
measure of your way of lifeânot from your various labors, but from the transformation
your understanding receives. The body is then likely to be bathed in tears,
as the intellect gazes on things spiritual. St. Isaac the Syrian crossed the threshold
to Godâs eternal reality from his temporary home in the Monastery of Rabban Shabur sometime
around the year 700 AD. Yet, he still remains a living guide and a
spiritual well-spring to us who dwell in the desert of the World seeking a path to our
transcendent home, which God has prepared for us in His loving embrace. St. Isaac, pray for us.
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