Asceticism and grace: human power

and God’s assistance

Abstract: Why some feel the desire for spiritual realities and strive to acquire them
while others live as if there is no spirit? If the gifts of grace depend exclusively of
God, even though human being seeks acquire them through ascetical practices, it
will be always God who is going to have the last word. Isn’t it already by grace that
the soul is inflamed with desire and longing for spiritual reality? Isn’t it already
grace the capacity to correspond to grace? We will address the problem about the
tension between human will and divine grace in the spiritual life, according to
Gregory Palamas.

Keywords: Grace, free will, asceticism.

For it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose.
(Philippians 2: 13)

God wills, man dreams, the work is born. (Fernando Pessoa, Mensagem)

According to the Hesychast spiritual tradition, ascesis is a movement of the

human will directed at creating the right conditions for the union with God. It
consists of several exercises, which can be divided into those for the, like vigils,
fasting, standing in just one place etc.; and those of the intellect, in order to purify
the nous, which include participation in sacraments and disclosure of thoughts to a
spiritual father or mother1. It is the part that belongs to human beings
responsibility and that they must do. «If you don’t strive here to gain this life [the
true life] in your soul, do not deceive yourself with vain hopes about receiving it

1 Deprivation of food, drink, sleep, clothing; exposure to heat and cold; rigorous enclosure
in a cell, cave or tomb; prolonged silence, vigils and prayer; arduous labour, wandering
through the desert, bodily fatigue…

1
hereafter, or about God then being compassionate towards you», states Gregory
Palamas2.
The history of spirituality is full of examples of great ascetics. Some of them
can seem to us, nowadays, very bizarre. The book of Jacques Lacarrière, Les
hommes ivres de Dieu3, gives us an idea of the life and practices of early Christian
ascetics. In Pratum spirituale, by John Moschos (ca. 540-619) we can read, in
accounts which are barely short of first-hand testimonies, brief narratives about
many men and women who were devoted to God. Among them there were
solitaries living on treetops, the dendrites, like David of Thessalonica (450-540); or
inside holes in tree trunks, like Adolas. Moschos tells us that this Adolas even
carved a window through which he spoke with people4. Unlike Adolas or David of
Thessalonica, who seemed to enjoy receiving people in their cells, another
dendrite, named Maro, of whose life we know through John of Ephesus, used to
shut himself in silence inside the tree whenever someone approached to be
healed5.
There were solitaires, stylites, living on pillars, like Simeon. Some used to
stand, enduring rain and sun. There were the boskoi, who ate nothing but wild
herbs. Others didn’t wear clothes. Some made themselves into recluses and some
into fools.
Yet, however odd it may seem, some movements against asceticism may
also be found in the history of Christian spirituality. Even in the first centuries of
Christianity there were some monks that, in a certain way, opposed asceticism.
Such is the case of Jovinian (+398), whom St. Jerome calls the “Epicurus of
Christianity” and Vigilantius (400).

2 Gregory Palamas, To the most reverend nun Xenia, 16, in Che cos’è l’ortodossia.
Capitoli, scritti ascetici, lettere, omelie, E. Perrella (ed.), Milano: Bompiani, 2006.
3 J. Lacarrière, Les hommes ivres de Dieu, Paris: Arthaud, 1961.

4John Moschos, Spiritual meadow, 70, J. Wortley (transl.), Kalamazoo: Cistercian

Publications, 1992.

5John of Ephesus, Lives of the eastern saints, 4, in Patrologia Orientalis, T. 17, Paris: Firmin
Didot et C., 1923.

2
 Palamas’ biography and works show that he was an ascetic. For instance,
Philotheo Konkinos, mentions that he exceeded the most experienced ones in
asceticism and was an example of indifference toward passions, of sobriety, silence
and all the virtues that come from ascetic practices6. What does this need of
ascesis tells us? The need of ascesis means that the condition in which human
beings come into this world is not definitive and presupposes the imperfection of
the human soul and body. In order to achieve that perfection which is the calling of
a human being, i.e, union with God, it is necessary to change the bad motions that
strike him. As Kallistos Ware wrote «Man was called to cooperate with God's grace
and so, through the correct use of his free will, slowly and by gradual steps he was
to become perfect in God (the 'likeness')»7. The ideal of apatheia has a long
standing and is connected with issues like the value of matter, the body, the pre-
lapsarian state and primordial sin. Apatheia is a state of tranquillity in which a
human being reaches self-mastery. It is the health of the soul, as Evagrius states.
Impassibility, according to Palamas, «does not consist in mortifying the passionate
part of the soul, but in removing it from evil to good, and directing its energies
towards divine things; and the impassible man is one who no longer possesses any
evil dispositions, but is rich in good ones, who is marked by the virtues, who has
had his irascible and concupiscent appetites tamed by the faculties of knowledge,
judgment and reason in the soul. The prize is earned by him who has put that part of
his soul under subjection, so that by its obedience to the mind, which is by nature
appointed to rule, it may ever tend towards God, as is right, by the uninterrupted
remembrance of Him. Thanks to this remembrance, he will come to possess a divine
disposition, and cause the soul to progress towards the highest state of all, the love of
God»8. So, according to Palamas, asceticism is necessary, not to eradicate the

6Philotheos Konkinos, Life of Palamas, 19, in Atto e luce divina. Scritti filosofici e teologici,
E. Perrella (ed.), Milano: Bompiani, 2003.

7 K. Ware, The orthodox way, Crestwood: St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 1986, p. 66.

8Gregory Palamas, Défense des Saints Hésychastes (=Tr.), 2, 2, 19, J. Meyendorff (transl.),
Louvain: Spicilegium Sacrum Lovaniense, 1959.

3
passions, but to transform and to sanctify them9. This is a necessary condition to
deification.
But I will not discuss this issue. Rather, I want to stress the problem about
the tension between human will and divine grace in the spiritual life. The problem
is why some feel the desire for spiritual realities and strive to acquire them while
others live as if there is no spirit? On the other hand, it seems that for some
everything is rightly placed in their path while for others it seems that there is no
clear calling to return to God. As William Blake puts it,
Every Night and every Morn
Some to Misery are Born.
Every Morn and every Night
Some are Born to sweet delight.
Some are Born to Endless Night.
Let’s look, for instance, at the vocation of St. Matthew. He was there sitting
at his desk, collecting taxes, when Christ suddenly appeared and called him. Why
was that particular man chosen and not another? Had he prepared himself through
asceticism?
There were two major tendencies besides the orthodox position regarding
this issue: Messalianism in the East and Pelagianism in the West. According to
Hausherr, Messalianism is the great heresy of the Christian East10, not only from
the fourth to sixth centuries, but throughout the whole course of Christian
spirituality. These two perspectives seem totally opposed. Pelagianism ascribes to
human will all the power in the works of salvation. Messalianism ascribes it to
prayer only, i.e., to the assistance from above. But, in fact, they are similar. Prayer,
for messalians, depends on the effort of human being.

9 Cf. Gregory Palamas, Tomus hagioreticus, 6, in Dal sovraessenziale all’essenza.

Confutazioni, discussion, scritti confessional, documenti dalla prigionia fra I turchi, .
Perrella (ed.), Milano: Bompiani, 2005.

10 Cf. I. Hausherr, L’erreur fondamentale et la logique du messalianisme, in Études de

spiritualité orientale, Roma: Pontificium Institutum Studiorum Orientalium, 1969,
p. 64.

4
 For sure, Gregory Palamas follows the tradition according to which there is
a cooperation of man with God, a synergy, that is, a simultaneous concurrence of
grace and human will. Gregory Palamas says to Nun Xenia that «Self-determination
[αὺτεξούσια] is always part and parcel of this present life. And it lies within the
power of free will to choose or to reject the road of life or the road of death»11. And
that God gives us the power to gain divine sonship and daughtership if we so wish.
The theologian Vladimir Lossky puts it in this way: «Personal beings constitute the
peak of creation, since they can become God by free choice and grace». Hereby I
underline that this synergy, according to patristic thought, and unlike
semipelagianism, is a cooperation of God and human being in the entire process of
spiritual life.
The ascetical techniques, by themselves, do not lead to God, i.e., the
technique without the fire of the spirit is but a mere empty formality. Rather, the
ascetical practices must be a consequence of the spirit, though, at the same time,
they have a role similar to that of oxygen, in that they keep the fire of spirit burning
in the hearts of human beings. Silence is very important, for it is in silence and
through silence that one is able to hear the voice that lies between words, where
the spirit is hidden. This can be called an intuitive faculty that God bestows upon
everyone and that one must develop in order to discern more clearly the presence
of the Spirit. As Kallistos Ware puts it, «Unless we co-operate with God's grace –
unless, through the exercise of our free will, we struggle to perform the
commandments – it is likely that the Spirit's presence within us will remain hidden
and unconscious»12. Human beings were made in the image of God. This enables
them to search for his similar, i.e., God, for they bear a trace of divinity in their
souls. As Palamas says, «of all earthly and heavenly things human being alone was
created in the image of his Maker, so that he might look to him and love him»13.

11 Gregory Palamas, To the most reverend nun Xenia, 17, in idem.

12 K. Ware, Orthodox way, p. 133.

13 Gregory Palamas, One hundred and fifty chapters, 26, in Che cos’è l’ortodossia.
Capitoli, scritti ascetici, lettere, omelie, E. Perrella (ed.), Milano: Bompiani, 2006.

5
 But, there’s no doubt, that according to Palamas, human beings have to do
their part. They have to cut away everything that impedes the union with God:
«wealth, food, vain honours, all things that are transitory and ephemeral, every
abominable passion of soul and body, all the things that dissipate the intellect,
everything heard, seen and spoken that can bring injury to the soul»14.
As for the method of prayer, Palamas states that it is not indispensable. The
method, states the theologian Mantzarides, is not an essential issue for Palamas15.
According to the later, method is necessary only for beginners who are unable to
calm their minds. By itself, the method has no efficacy; it is not a magic spell to
attract grace and manipulate God’s freedom. The efficacy depends on divine grace.
As Gregory from Sinai states «no one can master the intellect unless first the
intellect is tamed by the Spirit”»16.
Grace is always a gift of God and does not constrain human will. If it
depends exclusively of God, even though human beings seek to acquire it through
ascetical practice, it will always be God who has the last word in granting the
fullness of grace. As Andrei Bloom puts it, «asceticism intervenes only accidentally,
because of our fall, and if it is true that without it the decayed human being can’t
arrive at contemplation, it is also certain that it is incapable of assuring a
contemplative life to him who will rely on it. Union is a free mutual gift, and God,
who gives himself to us without measure, doesn’t allow himself to be taken by any
artifice»17.
Sometimes, Palamas seems to claim that there is a kind of fatalism in
deification. When he, for instance, says that God has organized the world, forming
it of multiple aspects and that he wanted for some things merely to be, while

14 Gregory Palamas, To the most reverend nun Xenia, 20.

15Cf. G.I. Mantzarides, The deification of man, Crestwood: St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press,
1984, p. 95.

16Gregory from Sinai, On prayer, in Philokalia. Compiled by Nikodimos of the Holy

Mountain and Makarios of Corinth. Vol. 4, transl. by G.E.H. Palmer, Ph. Sherrard, K. Ware, p.
176.

17A. Bloom, «Contemplation et ascèse: contribuition orthodoxe», in Technique et

contemplation, Paris: Desclée de Brouwer, 1949, p. 49.

6
others would have not only existence but also life; that some were to be bestowed
with intellective life, while others with sensitive life only; that some were to have a
mixture of both; and that, of those whom he granted both sensitive and intellective
life, some would, by a voluntary inclination towards him, be granted unity with
him and thus live in a divine and supernatural manner18. On the other hand,
Palamas states that God conveys himself to man according to each one’s capacity,
and to the way each one seeks and desires him19.
As St Macarius puts it, « When the will of man is lacking, God himself does
nothing"»20. The problem is: how to get the will to want? How to make the will
desire to struggle? Even if human beings have to do violence to themselves, what
makes them willing to do this? How many wish for a strong will, yet «don’t do the
good they will but the wrong they don’t will?» Isn’t it already by grace that the soul
is inflamed with desire and longing for spiritual realities? Isn’t it already by grace
that it has the capacity to correspond or to be open to grace?
The writings of Mark the Ascetic against Messalianism can be enlightening
regarding these questions. He asserts that the kingdom of God is not a reward for
our works, but a gift of grace, given to human beings through the blood of Christ21.
And when we want to do something but cannot, it is as if we have done it already.
This is true whether the intended action is good or bad22. While Macarius instead
advises to make violence to oneself23 in order to perform good works and by this,

18Cf. Gregory Palamas, Unity and distinction, 16, in Atto e luce divina. Scritti filosofici e
teologici, E. Perrella (ed.), Milano: Bompiani, 2003.

19 Cf. Tr. 3, 1, 28.

20 Macarius of Egipt (pseudo-), The Fifty Spiritual Homilies and the Great Letter, 37:
10, G.A. Maloney (transl.), New York: Paulist Press, 1992.
21Cf. Mark the Ascetic, On those who think that they are made righteous by works, ch.
2, in The Philokalia: The Complete Text, vol. I, G.E.H. Palmer, Philip Sherrard, and Kallistos
Ware (trans. and eds.), London & Boston: Faber & Faber, 1979), pp. 125- 146. And also:
here are some that think that fulfilling the comandments will give them the kingdom as a
reward. A Master is under no obligation to reward his slaves», idem, ch. 19.

22 Idem, ch. 16.

23 Cf. Macarius of Egipt (pseudo-), Homily 19.

7
to be full with the Holy Spirit, Mark, the Ascetic, on the other hand, says that
without grace these works cannot contribute to our sanctification. «To refrain from
sin is a work within our own natural powers, but not something that buys us the
kingdom»24.
But how can someone wish or strive to be saved if he is unaware of being
lost? And this can happen. As St Gregory Palamas says: there are those who, being
used to the lack of intellectual nourishment, lack even the appetite to nourish
themselves. The latter do not even acknowledge that they are suffering with the
default25, living a life similar to that of the beasts.

24Mark the Ascetic, On those who think that they are made righteous by works, ch.
25.
25 Cf. Homily III, 2: «and therefore they do not even have the perception of the default».