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| The Ladder of Divine Ascent, a 12th-century icon preserved at St. Catherine's Orthodox Monastery, Sinai Peninsula, Egypt |
“Tell me how you relate to pain and I will tell you who you are.” ~ Ernst Jünger, On PainIn the Catholic tradition, ascesis is not simply self-denial, nor an end in itself. It is the intentional discipline of body and soul, strengthening the will and ordering the passions, so that one may conform more perfectly to the will of God. Through this, man, fallen yet redeemed by Christ, may be prepared for the heights of contemplation and the ineffable union with God known as theosis. [1]
The great spiritual writers of East and West viewed ascesis as the “purgative way,” the first of the three stages of the spiritual life. It involves the arduous clearing of the briars and the burning away of the thorns of sin and disordered passions, so that the garden of the soul may be ready for God’s planting. Without this foundation, the higher rungs of the ladder of divine ascent set forth by St. John Climacus remain out of reach.
For those seeking God, ascesis is not about rejecting creation, but about properly ordering it. Fasting, prayer, and work (ora et labora), custody of the senses, [2] and the conscious mortification of desires are not acts of disdain toward the material, but acts of liberation from its tyranny. This discipline restores man to the original hierarchy of his being: reason illuminated by faith guiding the will, the will directing the passions, and all oriented toward God as the Summum Bonum, the highest good.
In this context, ascesis prepares the soul for contemplation, not the empty idleness mistaken for prayer, but the deep stillness that comes when the interior battlefield has been brought into order. It is the silence of a heart no longer pulled by competing loves, but wholly devoted to the one eternal Love. Here begins the path to theosis, whereby man, by grace, shares in the divine life: Deus fit homo ut homo fiat Deus, God became man so that man might become God. [3]
In an age overwhelmed by noise, indulgence, and self-affirmation, the traditional practice of ascesis stands as a salvific call to return to the order of grace. It requires renunciation, so that the soul may rise, free and illuminated, to behold God in the uncreated light.
~ By Giovanni di Napoli, July 19th, Feasts of San Vincenzo de’ Paoli, Sant’Arsenio il Grande, and Santi Giusta e Rufina
Notes:
[1] Theosis (or divinization) is the process by which man, redeemed and sanctified by grace, comes to participate in the divine life.
[2] Custody of the senses is the ascetical discipline of guarding the soul by regulating what one allows through sight, hearing, and other senses. It seeks to avoid occasions of sin, preserve interior recollection, and ensure that the senses serve the soul’s pursuit of God rather than lead it into distraction or temptation.
[3] That is, man, redeemed and sanctified by grace, is raised beyond the limits of his fallen nature to share eternally in the life and communion of God.
