“By becoming a man of piety, you gave yourself to God; and, shining forth through your good deeds, Casian, you shone like the sun, illuminating the hearts of the faithful who honour you with the light of your divine teachings. For this reason, pray earnestly to Christ our God for those who praise you, with fervent love’1
For the Holy Fathers of the Church in the early centuries, the concept of ‘charism’ was not a particular focus of their homilies or dogmatic treatises, nor even of the spiritual testaments of the Desert Fathers. Charisms were part of the reality of a pure life lived according to Christ’s commandment in the spirit of Holy Scripture and of the Holy Apostolic Fathers and their successors, without becoming an end in themselves for these holy men, but merely means by which they, in perfect humility, strengthened those who were weak in faith, or worked for the salvation of many in accordance with God’s command.
Before delving into the patristic teaching on spiritual charisms as found in the work of Saint John Cassian, it is appropriate to explain what is meant, from a theological perspective, by the term ‘charism’:
The Greek word ‘charis’ was frequently used to translate the Hebrew word ‘hen’, which originally means ‘favour’ and refers to the action of a superior – whether divine or human – towards an inferior, and conveys the idea of gratuitous and undeserved favour. It is interesting to note that there are examples of ‘hen’ on God’s part: ‘Thus says the Lord: The people who escaped the sword found mercy in the wilderness. Israel has reached its place of rest’ (Exodus 31:2), yet there is no instance of ‘hen’ from man towards God, since no man can bestow a gratuitous favour upon God. We note here that some Neo-Protestants have adopted this translation of ‘free favour’, with which they have replaced the word ‘grace’2).
‘Charisma’, as a direct translation from the Greek word ‘charisma’, is the special gift of the Holy Spirit, which He works through and bestows upon whomever He wills. In Holy Scripture, in the First Epistle to the Corinthians, we find the various gifts of the Holy Spirit, which were at work in the Apostles, within the church hierarchy, and even in Christian believers immediately after their reception of Holy Baptism and the laying on of the Apostles’ hands upon them. There were special charisms of an internal nature, such as wisdom, knowledge, faith, love and hope, and charisms of an external or spectacular nature, such as prophecy, the working of miracles, the casting out of demons, speaking in tongues and the interpretation of tongues 3. These were manifested within the Church, closely linked to worship and in full obedience to the Church’s pastors.
The charisms manifested as works of the Holy Spirit in the early Church are the very fulfilment of the eschatological promises conveyed through the prophets of the Old Covenant. We have the Prophet Isaiah, who attributed to the Spirit the gifts promised to the Messiah: ‘And the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon Him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord’ (Isaiah 11:2), whilst the prophet Joel foretold the outpouring of the Spirit’s ‘free gifts’ upon all people: ‘But afterwards I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh; your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, and your young men shall see visions’ (Joel 3:1)4. The first manifestation of the charisms in the New Covenant is seen on the day the Holy Spirit descended upon the Holy Apostles, who proclaimed Christ in all languages. These special gifts are granted, first and foremost, to the Apostles, but they are also manifested in those around them (the deacons Stephen and Philip), with the common aim of the good of the Church of Christ.
Having thus understood the etymology and meaning of the word ‘charism’, it is fitting that we proceed to examine the Second Conversation of St John Cassian with Father Nestor 5, in which the theme of spiritual charisms is discussed. The Discourse is structured into ten chapters. The first of these is the chapter in which we are told about the charism of thaumaturgy, or the working of miracles, and how this has a threefold basis.
The first is the grace of healing, which most of the holy men have attained by virtue of the purity and righteousness of their lives, grounded in the Saviour’s own promise: ‘Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse those with leprosy, cast out demons; freely you have received, freely give’ (Matthew 10:8). In the Book of the Acts of the Apostles we find countless examples where this charism of healing was at work through the Holy Apostles. ‘But Peter said, “I have no silver or gold; but what I have I give you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk!’ (Acts 3:6). Regarding this charism of healing, Saint Isichius of Sinai says that it is not granted solely on the basis of spiritual struggle or the extent of one’s ascetic endeavours, but also depends directly on one’s worthiness in faith and one’s natural disposition; and, quoting Saint Maximus the Confessor, we learn that natural love for people is the instrument of the charism of healing 6. We also learn about the charisms of healing that, alongside the other charisms such as faith, hope, persistent tears and dispassion, they are all deeply rooted in pure prayer 7. Another great Philocalic Father, Saint Barsanuphius the Great, in his 29th Letter to Abba John, tells us that, in order to acquire and practise the charisms, faith is absolutely essential; without it, the ascetic can neither acquire nor preserve nor exercise the charisms of the Holy Spirit—faith in God and faith in the spiritual father 8.
The second theme is itself divided into two scenarios. On the one hand, we have the situation in which the charism of healing works either for the strengthening of the Church, or for the strong and living faith of those who ask God for healing even through a sinner and an unworthy person 9. Many of the Fathers speak of the purity required of one who possesses charisms, but it is Saint Basil the Great who emphasises in one of his homilies on the struggle against the enemy that a state of sinfulness and passion causes the Christian, whether a cleric, a monk or a layperson, to lose the battle against the devil, whom he permits through sin to harm him both spiritually and in his charisms. ‘And sin causes the charism given to us through the bath of rebirth to vanish. Fornication, a blow; adultery, another blow; a blow, envy; a blow from each of these, a blow that strikes these vital organs, a blow dealt by thieves, by the demons who lead us into sin. After the blows, the one who was beaten was stripped naked. If what I am saying were to be taken literally, they would first have stripped him, to spare his clothes, and then dealt the blows. Or, after stripping him, they would have struck him in such a way that the garment would be spared, whilst the victim would be wounded. Now, however, the wounds come before the stripping, so that you may learn that sin precedes the relinquishment of the charism, that which was bestowed upon you through the Lord’s love for mankind. To Him be glory for ever and ever. Amen!”10 The second circumstance is when, because of the unbelief of those seeking healing, grace does not work, even if they were to meet a certain person who has received from God the gift of healing, and the most conclusive example of this is the very situation of our Saviour Christ: ‘And He did not perform many miracles there, because of their unbelief’ (Matthew 13:58); and it is the Saviour Himself who recalls the moment when, because of unbelief, only one man was healed of leprosy by the great prophet Elisha: ‘And there were many lepers in Israel in the days of the prophet Elisha, but none of them was cleansed, except Naaman the Syrian’ (Luke 4:27).
The third theme is that of false or feigned healing, ‘which is an imitation of the play and deceit of demons’11). In such cases, the saint shows that the enemy, who is a tireless sower of ‘tares’ and a skilful weaver of snares of destruction, if he finds a man full of iniquity and stained by a multitude of sins, he will not hesitate to engage in a kind of ‘game’ with that person, through which he will fill them with Luciferian pride when they come to believe that, through themselves, demons are cast out and people are helped, and to deceive people through this supposed charismatic figure, the latter, being eager to have a spiritual father, will lose their souls by following another blind man into the pit, as Christ says: ‘Can a blind man lead a blind man? Will they not both fall into the pit?’ (Luke 6:39), and ‘For false Christs and false prophets will arise and perform great signs and wonders, so as to lead astray, if possible, even the elect’ (Matthew 24:24). On this subject, the experienced teacher in the craft of salvation, Saint Ignatius Brianchaninov teaches us that true charismatics are always steeped in humility, warding off the sweet temptation of pride and vain glory by keeping their attention steadfastly fixed on their own sins. ‘The saints of God have always recognised themselves as sinners, even though they were overwhelmed by evident spiritual gifts; on the contrary, the great evildoers have always justified themselves and, sinking ever deeper into their transgressions, never ceased to proclaim their virtues’12”.
Bearing in mind that during his travels in Asia Minor, Saint John Cassian became acquainted with the communities founded by Saint John Chrysostom and Saint Basil the Great, where he sought to absorb their edifying and salvific teachings; and adding to this the fact that hehe personally met the great Teacher and Father of the Church, Saint John Chrysostom, in Constantinople—where he was ordained a deacon by him 13—it is not difficult to discern in his works the beautiful Chrysostomian influence which places Holy Scripture as the foundation of all spiritual teaching.
In the second chapter of this spiritual discourse by Saint John Cassian, with a foundation of teaching firmly anchored in Holy Scripture—and more specifically in the First Epistle to the Corinthians by Saint Paul the Apostle— he clearly shows that it is not the charisms or gifts of the Holy Spirit that are the Christian’s aim or goal—for these are the fruits of a living communion between man and God—but rather that love is the true and greatest of the Holy Spirit’s charisms 14. The holy men did not seek out or look upon with admiration those who were miracle-workers, but rather they sought to discover and follow the one who had attained dispassion by putting to death within himself all passions and who thusmade himself a vessel full of divine love, a bearer of God. ‘God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him’ (1 John 4:16). Furthermore, Saint John Chrysostom, in his Homily XXXIV, in his commentary on the First Epistle to the Corinthians by Saint Paul the Apostle, teaches us that all charisms and all achievements in life are firmly rooted in love, which he elevates above all philosophies and far above any charism, the Apostle’s aim in this being to comfort those without spectacular charisms and to humble those who boasted of glossolalia, which they regarded as the greatest of the Holy Spirit’s charisms, the apostolic charism 15. Continuing his exposition, the Holy Archbishop of Constantinople sheds clear light on the thaumaturgical charisms and situates them within the historical context of the Early Church as gifts bestowed by the Holy Spirit upon the Church for the propagation of the faith, whilst the charism of love is shown to be ever necessary, ever present and ever fruitful for the life of Christian communities. ‘If these gifts (prophecy, glossolalia, etc.) were given to strengthen the faith, then once the faith has been spread far and wide, the use of these gifts will undoubtedly become superfluous. But loving one another will never cease; rather, it will grow even more—both now and in the future, and especially in the future more than now’16 Naturally, the love of which Saint Paul the Apostle speaks must be understood not merely as a love involving a relationship between the self and God, but as a love that is active towards one’s neighbour. This awareness of openness towards the person next to us, in whom ‘the image of God’ is reflected, is necessary for attaining the divine love to which we are called—a true charism and, in fact, the only true love. This charism is called by St John Chrysostom the ‘golden chain’17; and in order to experience the joy of such a treasure, one must strive and not be content with a ‘weak love’, but to ascend spiritually in order to acquire that charism of love which becomes, for the ascetic, a ‘teacher’ on the path to salvation 18. Love for one’s neighbour founded on Christ is spiritual love because it has neither a self-centred nor a possessive purpose, but rather a much higher purpose; it is enduring, invincible and unbreakable. We too should strive for such love, so that we may attain the grace of God.
This awareness of openness towards the person next to us, in whom ‘the image of God’ is reflected, is necessary for attaining the divine love to which we are called—a true charism and, in fact, the only true love.
Love for one’s neighbour founded on Christ is spiritual love because it has neither a self-centred nor a possessive purpose, but rather a far higher purpose; it is enduring, invincible and unbreakable.
In the following chapters—specifically Chapters III, IV and V— we find several accounts from the Egyptian Paterikon which Saint John Cassian paraphrases in order to present them as arguments for his teaching, which shows us that the holy men never exercised the gift of charisms for any purpose other than to lead the pagans to the true faith the pagans to the true faith, to rebuke and expose heretics, and to assist the faithful who sought their help as a last resort. In his notes, Professor Nicolae Chițescu mentions that St John Cassian does not make undue use of the miracles of the saints; on the contrary, the miracles he cites are only those very well-known ones dating from the early centuries 19.
We have the miracle of Father Macarius of the Scitium wilderness, who powerfully countered the heretic Eunomius, who was deceiving many, leading them away from the true faith and luring them into the darkness of his heresy. Father Macarius avoids an oratorical debate with him and says: ‘For the kingdom of God does not consist in words but in power’ (1 Corinthians 4:20), summoning him to a certain cemetery to raise the dead, thereby proving which of them truly serves God. The heretic did not come, ashamed in his heart by his own pangs of conscience, but the saint went with the people, who had already come to doubt the true faith, and, in the presence of all, he asks a dead man whether he would have risen had the heretic been present, and the dead man replies that he would have risen, thereby strengthening the people’s faith in the true faith. Another story is that of Abba Abraham, who helped a woman whose infant was in danger of starving to death because she had no milk, and Abba Abraham gave her a glass of water to drink, over which he made the Sign of the Cross, and saved the infant from death. He also healed, in the name of Christ, a sick man who was being mocked by some pagans who pitied him, claiming that faith in Christ was futile. We find further accounts of such charismatic figures in the Paterikon, amongst whom we recall Saint Theogonius, who was ordained bishop in a small town near Jerusalem, and after his installation there, the sea threatened to overflow and destroy the entire community. At the people’s request, Saint Theogonius went and planted a cross at the water’s edge, saying: ‘Thus says the Lord: this far it shall come, and no further shall it go; but here your waves shall break’, and the sea receded and its waves never again crossed the boundary set by Saint20. The miracle wrought through the prayers of Saint Nina 21 is proof of how, through the gift of wondrous charisms, God works for the salvation of mankind. Upon arriving in Ivir, situated south of the Caucasus, between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea, the saint saw a great crowd thronging the summit of a mountain to worship the god Armaz with fear, and she, saddened to the point of tears by such a sight, began to pray to God, asking Him to crush this pagan idol once and for all and to bring these unfortunate people to the light of truth. A mighty storm broke out, which destroyed both the idols and the temple, so much so that even the mountain changed its shape. Thus began Saint Nina’s mission!22 Saint Sisoe once raised a child from the dead, and after performing this miracle, he sternly ordered the father and the child not to tell anyone what had happened, lest it become known. Here, then, we can see very clearly that the truly charismatic performed these deeds for the benefit of the many, and not for their own benefit, and amongst them, those who lived in hesychasm sought to conceal the miracles so as not to lose their peace and not to attract the glory of the world, living in utter humility. This correct account of the holy ascetics for Christ from the golden ages of the Church is proof of the divine apostolic guidance through living speech, through epistles and by personal example, as Saint John Chrysostom shows in his commentary on Saint Paul the Apostle’s Epistle to the Romans, when the Apostle to the Gentiles sought, as in his address to the Corinthians, to root out the passion of pride that was growing amongst those with the charism of prophecy or that of glossolalia, telling them that all gifts come from the One and Same Spirit and that all Christians are members of the same Body of Christ, and not some lesser and others greater. It is also shown here that the charisms operated in a person according to the measure of their faith 23.
Saint John Cassian, in Chapters VI and VII, using verses from Holy Scripture as arguments, shows us that the true ministers of the Word never took pride in their gifts, just as the Holy Apostles said: ‘Men of Israel, why are you amazed at this, or why do you stare at us as though it were by our own power or piety that we have made this man walk?’ (Acts of the Apostles 3:12). Indeed, drawing upon scriptural arguments, we observe that Saint John Cassian’s view of charisms as the active gifts of the Holy Spirit in man is inclear harmony with the tradition of the Egyptian Fathers and, above all, with the teaching of Chrysostom, for which he retained his admiration and fidelity even after his unfortunate departure from New Rome to the capital of the Western Roman Empire. The influence of both Origen and Evagrius can be discerned in the work Spiritual Conversations, yet the orthodoxy of his teachings cannot be suspected of any deviation, let alone of ‘semi-Pelagianism’, as some Protestants continue to regard his theology, since it is well known how close a disciple and confidant he was to Saint John Chrysostom, sharing the same faith regarding the cooperation between human will and divine will 24.
Although, at first glance, this ‘Discourse on Charisms’ might lead us to think that St John Cassian was, to some extent, reticent towards the charismatic manifestations of his time amongst the Desert Fathers, this perspective must be corrected by an understanding of the context in which, whilst he himself was by no means a stranger to such marvellous works of grace in his own life, nevertheless, from a pedagogical point of view, moderation in mentioning these miracles is the healthiest and most spiritual approach. It is all too easy for the good intention of bearing witness to the miracles of the Desert Fathers to be diverted into a ‘pursuit of miracles’, which serves no purpose whatsoever in relation to the aim set out from the outset. Nevertheless, as I have shown above, he does mention a few examples of miracle-working Fathers to reinforce the teaching on charisms, but he always emphasises that these must be conveyed with care, without fuelling a sensationalism that is neither educational nor beneficial to the reader, the emphasis being placed on dispassion 25. Continuing to elucidate Saint John Cassian’s teaching on charisms, we cannot fail to mention that, although he came into contact with both Pelagianism and Western doctrine, his legacy—grounded in asceticism and theology with deep roots in the ‘fruitful desert’ of Egypt and his discipleship under the great Antiochian Archbishop, John Chrysostom, ensured that the saint, a native of Tomis, remained an authentic teacher of the craft of salvation 26. First the will is stirred, and then grace works; yet without asceticism, fasting, vigil, prayer and manual labour, no one can be cleansed of passions and, consequently, cannot receive and retain the grace of the Holy Spirit; nor, for that matter, can human endeavours in and of themselves lead to perfection without the help and guidance of Divine Grace. We cannot overlook the fact that his entire teaching, and indeed the very way it is structured, demonstrates that it was composed for his disciples and for novice ascetics, whilst maintaining throughout an undeniable evidence of spiritual discernment. The emphasis of Saint John Cassian’s exhortation lies not on the value of charisms, but on becoming like the Image, which, as I have mentioned, begins with the struggle against the passions in order to attain dispassion, and this entails continuous ascetic endeavour and a deepening of prayer 27.
The tenth and final chapter of this ‘Conversation’ recounts a marvellous event from the life of the blessed Paphnutius which, in Saint John Cassian’s view, reinforces the teaching that divine love, attained through complete detachment from the passions, is of far greater value than any charism. Abba Paphnutius possessed the charism of casting out demons, and one day, whilst preparing food for guests, he burnt his hand; this led him to reflect that it was worrying that whilst demons fled from him, material fire was merciless. As he pondered this, he fell asleep, and the angel of God warned him that it is not the gift of casting out demons that constitutes perfection, but rather the overcoming of passions and union with God, which is achieved when every passion has died within a person. The angel urged him to undergo a test: namely, to seek out a young and very beautiful girl and hold her in his arms; and if the fire of the flesh did not stir within him, but there was only the undisturbed tranquillity of the heart, then he would have attained perfection; for it is a greater feat to extinguish the fire of the flesh than to cast out demons. Abba Paphnutius, coming to his senses, repented and did not proceed to carry out the test of the ‘Babylonian furnace’28
- 1
Mineiul for February, Church Books Printing House, Bucharest 1929, p. 286.
- 2
J.D. Douglas, M.A., B.D., S.T.M., Ph.D., New Bible Dictionary, translated into Romanian by Liviu Pup and Jhon Tipei, published by Cartea Creștină, Oradea, 1995, p. 518.
- 3
Rev. Dr Ioan Mircea, Dictionary of the New Testament, IBMBOR, Bucharest, 1995, p. 206.
- 4
Xavier Leon Dufour, Jean Duplacy, Augustin George, Pierre Grelot, Jacques Guillet, Marc François Lacan, Vocabulary of Biblical Theology, published by the Roman Catholic Archdiocese, Bucharest 2001, p. 253.
- 5
Saint John Cassian, Monastic Rules and Spiritual Conversations, translated by Prof. Vasile Cojocaru and Prof. David Popescu, with a preface, introductory study and notes by Prof. Nicolae Chițescu (PSB 57), published by IBMBOR 1990, p. 568, line 6.
- 6
Isichie of Sinai, ‘A Discourse on Vigilance and Virtue’, in Philokalia, vol. IV, trans. Fr. Stavr. Dr. Dumitru Stăniloae, Archdiocesan Press, Sibiu, 1948, p. 56.
- 7
Calist and Ignatius Xanthopol, A Very Detailed Method and Rule for Those Who Choose to Live in Silence and Solitude, in The Philokalia, vol. VIII, translation, introduction and notes by Fr. Prof. Dr. Dumitru Stăniloae, published by IBMBOR, Bucharest, 1979, p. 87.
- 8
Saints Barsanuphius and John, Spiritual Letters, in The Philokalia, vol. XI, trans. Rev. Prof. Dr Dumitru Stăniloae, Humanitas, Bucharest, 2009, p. 47.
- 9
St John Cassian, op. cit., p. 568, line 15.
- 10
Saint Basil the Great, Authentic and Credible. Two (pseudo-)Basilian homilies: Homily delivered at Lakiza. Homily of Comfort for the Sick, translated from Ancient Greek by Constantin Georgescu, in Studii Teologice, no. 4, 2011, p. 267.
- 11
St John Cassian, op. cit., p. 569.
- 12
Saint Ignatius Brianchaninov, Crumbs from the Banquet, Reîntregirea Publishers, Alba Iulia, 2008, p. 108.
- 13
Prof. N. Chițescu, ‘Saint John Cassian as Portrayed in His Work’, in P.S.B. 57, published by IBMBOR, Bucharest, 1990, pp. 38–56.
- 14
St John Cassian, op. cit., II, p. 570.
- 15
St John Chrysostom, Commentary on the First Epistle to the Corinthians, published by Cartea Ortodoxă, Bucharest, 2005, p. 358.
- 16
Ibid., p. 359.
- 17
Vasile Bria, MA, ‘The Hymn of Love in the Homilies of St John Chrysostom’, in Theological Studies, no. 7–8, IMBBOR, 1961, p. 434.
- 18
St John Chrysostom, Homilies on Matthew, in P.S.B. 23, translation, introduction, indices and notes by Fr D. Fecioru, published by IMBBOR, Bucharest, 1994, pp. 702–703.
- 19
St John Cassian, op. cit., pp. 571–572.
- 20
The Gifts of the Holy Spirit. An anthology of charismatic manifestations, translated from the Greek and annotated by Dr Cristina Băcanu, Ed. Sofia, Bucharest, 2004, p. 137.
- 21
Saint Nina was born in 290 and passed away in 338. She is known as ‘equal to the apostles’ for the efforts made by this great saint in the Christianisation of Georgia.
- 22
Ibid., p. 133.
- 23
St John Chrysostom, Homilies on the Epistle to the Romans, trans. by His Grace Teodosie Atanasiu, Christiana Publishers, Bucharest, 2005, p. 187.
- 24
Stoyan Chilikov, St John Cassian and the Orthodox Teaching on Divine Grace, University of Plovdiv – Kardjali Branch, 2007, p. 168.
- 25
A. M. C. Casiday, Tradition and Theology in St John Cassian, Oxford University Press Inc., New York 2007, pp. 268–269.
- 26
Owen Chadwick, John Cassian: A Study in Primitive Monasticism, Cambridge University Press, London 1950, pp. 120–123.
- 27
John J. Levko, S.J., Cassian’s Prayer, University of Scranton Press, 2000, p. 66.
- 28
St John Cassian, op. cit., pp. 574–575.