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 On Harmony of Thunder Orthodox podcast: We return to the great sixth century preacher St. Dorotheos of Gaza - this week, to his sermon entitled "On Renunciation." This disciple of Sts. Barsanuphius and John has some profound insights into the spiritual discipline of humility. It's something every Christian believer can hear and enjoy!
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Click below to read a transcript of this week's program.
Harmony of Thunder, Program 22 : St. Dorotheos of Gaza, On Renunciation
If you listened to Harmony of Thunder’s program on the first week after Pascha, you might remember that you and I explored a sermon by St. Dorotheos of Gaza. I want to go back to that same preacher for the next couple of weeks, using a translation of his writings by Eric Wheeler, published as the book St. Dorotheos of Gaza, Discourses and Sayings, by Cistercian Publications in 1977.
Hi, welcome to Harmony of Thunder, where we explore and enjoy the rich tradition of Orthodox preaching. I’m your host, Fr. David Smith. Each week, Harmony of Thunder chooses a sermon from scripture or from the works of a saint and we spend our time together looking at the style, the illustrations, and the spiritual message of the preacher.
Lord Jesus Christ, through the prayers of Your Most Pure Mother and of all the saints, bless your Holy Orthodox Church with great preachers and people who want to hear them. Amen.
St. Dorotheos was born in Antioch in the early sixth century, probably to a wealthy Christian family. The monastery that he entered benefitted from large gifts given by his older brother, indicating that the family fortune was preserved from the parents to the children. St. Dorotheos maintained a long correspondence with Sts. Barsanuphius and John, the great spiritual guides whose book Guidance Toward Spiritual Life even today helps many Christians with its remarkably simple yet profound insights into spiritual growth. St. Dorotheos often wrote, and received answers, from both these great spiritual masters.
His sermon entitled "On Renunciation" begins with a time honored technique of many good preachers: he reviews salvation history starting at the beginning, bringing his narrative right up to the present day, right into the spiritual lives of the listeners standing before him. The sin of Adam is the first bump on the road: "When he disobeyed the command and ate of the tree that God commanded him not to eat of, he was thrown out of paradise and fell from a state in accord with his nature to a state contrary to nature, i.e. a prey to sin, to ambition, to a love the pleasures of this life and the other passions; and he was mastered by them and became a slave to them through his transgression."
The law given by God tells men how they should live, but they find it impossible to follow the law as they should. "Everything was a slave to sin,” says the preacher. Into this mess came our Lord Jesus Christ, with a new law: “Then at last the good, man-loving God sends his only begotten Son.
It was for God alone to heal and prevail against such miseries; and the prophets were not ignorant of this.” Christ brought with Him a new law: “Therefore, the Man God have us instructions, as I said, which purify our passions and those evil dispositions which come from our inner man. He instilled into man’s inner conscience the power of judge good and evil; he woke it from sleep; he showed the causes from which sins rise and he said to us, ‘The Law says, ‘Do not commit adultery,’ but I say to you, do not entertain desire. The Law says ‘Do no murder,’ but I say, do not give way to anger. If you do entertain a fleshly desire and today you do not commit adultery, it does not cease inwardly troubling until it whips you into action’.”
Dear listener, I don’t like when people say that our Lord was a psychologist, but you can certainly see in St. Dorotheos’s description of the new law brought by Jesus Christ the way that He trained us to understand our minds and ourselves. St. Dorotheos tells us that the Old Testament law was given as a way to convey the will of God, and the motivation for obeying the law came from the fear that God will punish us for not obeying. The new law given by our Savior, however, is a law that teaches us about ourselves, about the ways in which we condemn ourselves to disobedience even before we sin. The war starts in the mind long before we commit any act of sin. The old law addressed actions, the new law is written on the heart.
The greatest sin, then, is not a particular act, but it’s an attitude: pride. And neither is the way to salvation an act, but an attitude: humility. St. Dorotheos takes us back to Adam for a look at the beginnings of sin: “See, brethren, what arrogance does? See what lowliness is able to do! What need was there for all these contortions? If from the beginning man had humbled himself and listened to God and obeyed his command, there would have been no fall. Again, after Adam had done wrong, God gave him a chance to repent and be forgiven and yet he kept on being stiff necked and unrepentant. For God came to him and said, ‘Adam, where are you?’ …But there was no sign of humility. There was no change of heart but rather the contrary. He replied, ‘The wife that you gave me’ – mark you, not ‘my wife deceived me,’ but ‘the wife you gave me,’ as if to say, ‘this disaster you placed upon my head.’ So it is, my brethren, when a man has not the guts to accuse himself, he does not scruple to accuse God Himself.”
This is the sin of Adam, pride. And what is the virtue of Christian leaders? Humility. The fathers of the church did not obey God based on fear, but on love: “Our Fathers, as I said, having crucified the world to themselves, were earnest in the fight to crucify themselves to the world.” One does not crucify oneself to the world in order to avoid punishment, but in order to express love for God. This is why, the preacher points out, that the new law given to us by our Savior comes to us in a different form than the commandments of the old law: “Neither did Christ give the commandment ‘Sell your property!’ He did not choose to do so when the lawyer approached him saying, ‘Good Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?’ He replied, “You know the Commandments. Do not kill, do not steal, do not commit adultery, do not bear false witness against your neighbor,’ etc. When the answer came ‘All these things I have kept from my youth,’ he added, ‘If you want to be perfect, sell your property and give the money to the poor,’ etc. See, he did not say, ‘sell your property’ as a commandment, but as a counsel. This is clear from the condition imposed, ‘if you wish to be perfect’.”
What a brilliant point the preacher makes here! I don’t know about you, dear listener, but having someone tell me that I have to do something to avoid punishment makes me want to do it much less than if I’m told to do something as an expression of love. I’m going to fulfill the second request
much more willingly, and even go beyond what is required. Where I work, if I ask a staff member to do something and say, “do it or you’ll lose your job,” I know that the person will do the job only begrudgingly, and that the attitude of fear and resentment that I have planted in this person will
bleed out into the entire staff. But if I say, “Please do this because it’s good for the patients and they deserve the best care we can offer,” then I know that a different attitude will infect everyone, an attitude of respect, dignity, and love.
I really enjoyed the last part of St. Dorotheos’ sermon, dear listener, because he tells some great monastic stories that are interesting and inspirational. I want to read you one of them: “I will tell you another thing which likewise happened in my time, that you may learn how obedience, and not following one’s own will, snatched a man from death. At the time when I was one of Abba Seridos’ disciples there came a disciple of a great old monk from the region of Ascalon about some business for his abbot. He had the command from his senior to return after vespers to his own cell. When the time came to leave, a violent thunderstorm arose, with rain heavy enough to cause flooding, and yet he wanted to leave as the senior had told him. We begged him to stay, seeing that it was impossible to get safely across the river. He would not be persuaded to stay with us. At last we said, ‘let us go with him as far as the river. When he sees it, he will return of his own accord.’ So we went off with him, and when we reached the river he took off his cloak and bound it round his head, tied up his scapular and jumped into the raging water of the river. We just stood there astonished and fearful that he would be drowned, but he kept afloat, and very soon he was seen on the other bank. He put on his cloak, threw us a profound bow from there, received ours in return, and went off at a run. But we stood in wonder, astonished at the power of virtue. We came near with fear, but he went through without danger because of his obedience.”
We came near with fear, but he went through without danger because of his obedience. I’ll tell you what that’s a great quote of the day. We came near with fear, but he went through without danger because of his obedience. That’s the attitude of renunciation that St. Dorotheos is telling us about I pray that we all find it in the new law of love in Jesus Christ.
Lord Jesus Christ, Savior of the world, fill us all with your Holy Spirit that we may obey you motivated only by love, we pray, in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, one God, Amen.
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