The Hesychast and the Ten Commandments - Third and Fourth Commandments
09/07/2007 Filed in: Church
Fathers & Mystics
For the
first and second parts of this series on Gregory
Palamas please go
here and
here,
respectively.
3. “You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain” (Exod 20:7), swearing an oath falsely because of some worldly thing, or out of human fear, or shame, or for personal gain. For a false oath is denial of God. Gregory therefore recommends to never take oath, whatever one’s reasons may be, since through an oath a man forswears himself, and this estranges him from God and numbers him among the wrongdoers. It is worth noting that the first consequence of taking God’s name in vain is not “going to hell” but becoming a stranger to God, which ultimately is pretty much the same thing. But if the consequence is the same, the psychology of such a wording is quite different.
4. One day of the week you shall ‘keep holy’ (Exod. 20:8).
This commandment is often overlooked in our modern societies. One day of the week must be consecrated to the Lord, “who on that day rose from the dead, disclosing and giving prior assurance of the general resurrection, when every earthly activity will come to an end”. Two interesting parts in this excerpt: first, the mention of a general resurrection of which Christ’s resurrection is the template, and second the eschatological horizon of which the one holy day a week is a small repetition. Keeping Sabbath is thus a training, or a preparation for the last judgement, in a similar way that personal reconciliation is a preparation for the reintegration of everything in God.
“On that day”, the “small” Sabbath, “you must not engage in any worldly activity that is not essential; and you must allow those who are under your authority and those who live with you to rest, so that together you may all glorify Him who redeemed us through His death and who arose from the dead and who resurrected our human nature with Himself.” As we are all aware, work ethic and cult are closely intertwined, and always have been in the religions of the Book and others.
However, the day of rest is not a day to be wasted watching TV or playing with your Xbox. Even “going to the Temple of God to attend service” is only to be done after you have renewed and cleansed your conscience: “You should bring to mind the age to come” (after the end of this world, you probably guessed that) “and meditate upon all the commandments and statutes of the Lord, and you should examine yourself in all ways.” Unless you have a clean conscience and a sincere faith, you are not ready to “receive the holy body and blood of Christ”.
Just as the whole day of Sabbath is a small repetition of the age to come, holy communion is a preparation for your own death: “You should make a beginning of a more perfect life and renew and prepare yourself for the eternal blessings to come”, for this life is the only chance you’ll get to cleanse your conscience “so as to be constantly near to God”.
“God thus being your refuge, you will not be distracted, the fire of passions will not burn you, and you will be free from the burden of sin. In this way you will sanctify the Sabbath, observing it by doing no evil deeds.”
So, according to Gregory Palamas, the cure for the evil in our lives starts with the meditation of the Lord’s commandments, and self-examination with regards to those commandments. Progressively striving to align ourselves with God’s will, through the contemplation of His precepts, we can cleanse our conscience. That preparatory work enables us to fully embrace communion with God, through one of the Church’s sacraments, the Holy Communion, which itself is only a preparation for things to come.
3. “You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain” (Exod 20:7), swearing an oath falsely because of some worldly thing, or out of human fear, or shame, or for personal gain. For a false oath is denial of God. Gregory therefore recommends to never take oath, whatever one’s reasons may be, since through an oath a man forswears himself, and this estranges him from God and numbers him among the wrongdoers. It is worth noting that the first consequence of taking God’s name in vain is not “going to hell” but becoming a stranger to God, which ultimately is pretty much the same thing. But if the consequence is the same, the psychology of such a wording is quite different.
4. One day of the week you shall ‘keep holy’ (Exod. 20:8).
This commandment is often overlooked in our modern societies. One day of the week must be consecrated to the Lord, “who on that day rose from the dead, disclosing and giving prior assurance of the general resurrection, when every earthly activity will come to an end”. Two interesting parts in this excerpt: first, the mention of a general resurrection of which Christ’s resurrection is the template, and second the eschatological horizon of which the one holy day a week is a small repetition. Keeping Sabbath is thus a training, or a preparation for the last judgement, in a similar way that personal reconciliation is a preparation for the reintegration of everything in God.
“On that day”, the “small” Sabbath, “you must not engage in any worldly activity that is not essential; and you must allow those who are under your authority and those who live with you to rest, so that together you may all glorify Him who redeemed us through His death and who arose from the dead and who resurrected our human nature with Himself.” As we are all aware, work ethic and cult are closely intertwined, and always have been in the religions of the Book and others.
However, the day of rest is not a day to be wasted watching TV or playing with your Xbox. Even “going to the Temple of God to attend service” is only to be done after you have renewed and cleansed your conscience: “You should bring to mind the age to come” (after the end of this world, you probably guessed that) “and meditate upon all the commandments and statutes of the Lord, and you should examine yourself in all ways.” Unless you have a clean conscience and a sincere faith, you are not ready to “receive the holy body and blood of Christ”.
Just as the whole day of Sabbath is a small repetition of the age to come, holy communion is a preparation for your own death: “You should make a beginning of a more perfect life and renew and prepare yourself for the eternal blessings to come”, for this life is the only chance you’ll get to cleanse your conscience “so as to be constantly near to God”.
“God thus being your refuge, you will not be distracted, the fire of passions will not burn you, and you will be free from the burden of sin. In this way you will sanctify the Sabbath, observing it by doing no evil deeds.”
So, according to Gregory Palamas, the cure for the evil in our lives starts with the meditation of the Lord’s commandments, and self-examination with regards to those commandments. Progressively striving to align ourselves with God’s will, through the contemplation of His precepts, we can cleanse our conscience. That preparatory work enables us to fully embrace communion with God, through one of the Church’s sacraments, the Holy Communion, which itself is only a preparation for things to come.