The Ascetical Homilies of St. Isaac the Syrian - Homily II, Part II

Gratitude is placing ourselves into the hands of God, trusting in His providence and allowing Him to guide us where He wills (without asking us for permission or our understanding His purpose). It is like having a bucket of cold water dumped over our heads. We are suddenly awakened and our whole being is set on edge. 

We realize in the words of Saint Isaac the Syrian that gratitude and faith are often not what we imagine or want them to be. To show gratitude to He who is crucified Love means that we embrace that Love in our lives, are driven by the same desires as Christ, and willing to bear affliction patiently and with joy. 

In the Scriptures, we hear the surprising words: “He was made perfect by what he suffered“. We see the perfection of love and the mercy of the kingdom most fully when Christ allows himself to be broken and poured out on the cross. Life allows himself to be swallowed up by death.  From the perspective of human understanding, it seems to be absurdity and failure.

Despite our acknowledgment and the celebration of the resurrection of Christ - trampling death by death, so that those in the tombs might be granted life, we do not want this reality to shape our experience of life in the world. Saint Isaac is not presenting us with anything different from the gospel and yet our almost infinite capacity for rationalization makes us avoid affliction at every cost and become resentful when we find it ever present in our lives. 

The kingdom of heaven is within. Salvation is now. The life that we are called to live and the love that we are to embody has been freely given to us. Not to embrace this life and love, not to allow it to shape the very essence of our lives is the height of ingratitude.

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Text of chat during the group:

00:01:11 Fr. Charbel Abernethy: Page 120

01:10:34 Catherine Opie: I think that we have been indoctrinated into only being grateful when things go the way we want, I read a story about St Dominic that he took great pains to build a church on a hill. When it was finally complete the local king demanded it be torn down stone by stone until nothing was left. St Dominic upon finding this out declared joyously "Praise the Lord!". This really struck me deeply because it is so the antithesis of the attitude I was brought up in where we bemoan and curse God for misfortune and only are grateful when we get what we want. Or we see relationship with God only as a place to demand what we want.

01:10:56 Kathleen: Tall order. Very difficult.

01:11:35 Maureen Cunningham: Wow it hard but many rewards . That we can not see

01:11:36 Kathleen: It’s a decision one makes with complete awareness of the situation at hand

01:11:47 Rebecca Thérèse: Sometimes there's no option but to suffer. Uniting one's suffering to the redemptive suffering of Christ gives it purpose.

01:12:36 Art iPhone: Reacted to "I think that we have…" with 👌

01:13:48 Catherine Opie: Reacted to "Sometimes there's no..." with ❤️

01:15:03 David: I don't remember who said it but " It is only in suffering we know we have faith and grow". When everything is easy or pleasurable there is always doubt if this is the ego or faith and virtue.

01:15:28 Elizabeth Richards: We so want to create meaning & give purpose to our suffering (make sense of it), but Isaac seems to be showing that entering into suffering is entering into Christ.

01:17:25 Joseph: The heart of asceticism is stripping away the palpable, to open up space for the noetic

01:18:38 Kathleen: Yes

01:18:48 Ren Witter: ALS

01:19:03 Kathleen: Yes

01:19:28 Kathleen: Yes

01:19:50 Kathleen: Thank you!!!!

01:20:03 Maureen Cunningham: Thank you Father

01:20:04 Julie: Thankyou

01:20:47 Andrew Adams: Thanks be to God! Thank you, Father!

01:20:52 Catherine Opie: 🙏🏻❤️ Thank you

01:20:54 Rebecca Thérèse: Thank you, happy Easter everyone🙂

01:20:56 Matt S: Thank you!

01:20:57 David: Thanks father!

01:20:57 Jeffrey Ott: Thank you!

01:21:08 Andrew Adams: Thanks everyone. Great comments tonight!