Instructed by these testimonies of the Holy Spirit, and by many others with which the pages of Holy Scripture are sown, we boldly affirm this: sorrows sent to man by the providence of God are a sure sign that man has been chosen by God. When Jesus loved the young man, He proposed to him the following of Himself and the bearing of the Cross (Mk 10:21). Let us not reject the calling. The calling is accepted when, at the coming of sorrow, a Christian acknowledges himself worthy of sorrow. A Christian follows the Lord with his cross when he thanks and glorifies the Lord for the sorrows sent to him. He does so when he does not count his life dear to himself (Acts 20:24), when he wholly surrenders himself to the will of God. He does so when he hastens with still greater zeal to fulfill the Gospel commandments, especially the commandment of love for enemies.
The sign of election by sorrows is so sure that the Holy Spirit greets those subjected to sorrows with a heavenly greeting. "Rejoice," He proclaims to them, "rejoice! Count it all joy," that is, the greatest joy, "when ye fall into various temptations" (Jas 1:2). "Blessed are ye when they revile you and persecute you, and say every evil word against you falsely for My sake. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven" (Mt 5:11-12). The holy Apostle Peter says to Christians that sufferings are their calling (1 Pet 2:21).
Such is the divine appointment for man during his earthly life. He must believe in the Redeemer, confess Him with heart and lips, and confess Him by his activity. He does this by accepting with obedience the cross that Jesus is pleased to lay upon His disciple. He who has not accepted the cross cannot be a disciple of Jesus (Lk 14:27). "Let those who suffer according to the will of God," says the Apostle Peter, "commit their souls in well-doing to a faithful Creator" (1 Pet 4:19). The Creator of our souls is the Lord. He builds the souls of those who believe in Him by sorrows. Let us surrender ourselves to His will and providence, as clay silently yields to the will of the potter. As for ourselves, let us apply every effort to fulfilling the Gospel commandments. [...]
Holy Scripture joins the idea of temptation with the idea of rebuke: "My son," it says, "do not despise the chastening of the Lord, nor lose heart when thou art rebuked by Him" (Heb 12:5). The same is seen from the Lord's words cited above: "As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten." On what basis is rebuke joined with temptation? On this: every sorrow reveals the hidden passions in the heart by setting them in motion. Before sorrow, a man appears to himself calm and peaceful. But when sorrow comes, then passions unknown to him rise up and reveal themselves, especially anger, grief, despondency, pride, and unbelief. The rebuke of sin secretly nesting within him is essentially necessary and useful for the struggler. Moreover, sorrows accepted and endured as they should be strengthen faith. They show man his infirmity and provide humility by overthrowing self-opinion.
May our all-good Lord Jesus Christ strengthen you. He redeemed us by His priceless Blood. May He grant you patience in your illnesses and other sorrows. May He inspire you to give thanks for them as for the greatest benefits. Hear His most holy voice saying, "As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten." Remember righteous Job, deprived of his children and all his possessions, covered with foul sores, sitting on the dunghill and saying, "The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord from henceforth and forever" (Job 1:21). Remember the prophet Jonah, who from the belly of the whale confessed his transgression and glorified the justice of God. Remember the three youths, cast into the fiery furnace and blessing God from the heart of the furnace. Remember all the saints and the path by which they reached salvation. Was it not the narrow and sorrowful path of temptations that led them into the dwelling of life? Remember all this and be zealous for the lot of the saints. Say to your faint-hearted thoughts: even all the hairs of my head are numbered by God, so how can I grow despondent? "I shall not send," He promises me through the mouth of His Apostle, "a temptation beyond your measure." But in the temptation itself I shall secretly grant you deliverance from the temptation (2 Cor 10:13). I deliberately strike you with illnesses and afflictions, so that you may not become attached to anything vain. In contrition of heart, seek to cleave to Me, your Creator, by fulfilling My commandments, and acquire Me within yourself. When you acquire Me within yourself, then all your members will leap with endless gladness. For I am Goodness itself and Blessedness itself, inexhaustible and unchanging. Giving thanks for everything to the merciful God, let us pray that He preserve us in love and concord, to the glory of His holy name.
All forms of demonic delusion to which the struggler in prayer is subjected arise because repentance has not been laid as the foundation of prayer. Repentance has not become the source, soul, and aim of prayer. "If anyone," says Saint Gregory of Sinai in the article cited above, "with self-confidence founded on self-opinion, dreams of attaining lofty states of prayer, and has acquired zeal that is not true but satanic. The devil easily entangles him in his nets as his servant." Anyone who tries to enter the wedding of the Son of God without pure and radiant garments prepared by repentance, but directly in his own rags, in a state of oldness, sinfulness, and self-deception, is cast out into outer darkness, into demonic delusion.
"I counsel thee," says the Savior to one called to the mystical priesthood, "to buy from Me gold refined by fire, that thou mayest be rich. And white garments, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness may not appear. And anoint thy bodily eyes and the eyes of thy mind with the eye-salve of tears, that thou mayest see. As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten. Be zealous therefore, and repent." Repentance, and everything of which it is composed, such as contrition or pain of spirit, mourning of the heart, tears, self-condemnation, remembrance and foretaste of death, the judgment of God, and eternal torments, the sense of God's presence, and the fear of God, are gifts of God. They are gifts of great price, primary and fundamental gifts, pledges of higher and eternal gifts. Without receiving them first, the giving of subsequent gifts is impossible. "However exalted our ascetic labors may be," said Saint John Climacus, "if we have not acquired a heart that feels pain, these labors are false and vain." Repentance, contrition of spirit, and mourning are signs and testimony of the correctness of the labor of prayer. Their absence is a sign of turning aside into a false direction, a sign of self-deception, delusion, or barrenness. One or the other, that is, delusion or barrenness, forms the inevitable consequence of incorrect practice of prayer. Incorrect practice of prayer is inseparable from self-deception.
In the original it says: "if anyone dreams of attaining high things with opinion." An explanatory expression has been used here to show more clearly the meaning of the word opinion.
The Ladder, Step 7.
THEOSIS