SUNDAY OF ST JOHN OF THE LADDER
Do you remember the childhood game of Snakes & Ladders? It is a simple game. Moving along the curving path of squares from the beginning square at the lower left hand of the board towards 'home' at the upper right of the board a player can land on a square that scoots him ahead on a ladder to a higher point, or sends him sliding down on a snake towards the beginning . Ladders advance; snakes are a set-back. The ladders are like virtues and the snakes are like vices. Learning, practising, mastering, persevering in virtue shapes our character in holiness and advances us toward the Kingdom of God. Each virtue builds on other virtues. Vice debases our character, obscures the image of God, sends us on a trajectory away from realising the Kingdom. Ever vice is linked to other vices, a slippery slope.
Of course, our metaphor of Snakes & Ladders will only get us so far. It is not only some squares that are ladders and others that are snakes. Every moment of our life, every choice we make, can be either ladder or snake.
In the Ladder of Divine Ascent, St John teaches us that our effort, our climb, is what we must do as an expression - a necessary expression - of our faith, hope and love. We are to struggle against wickedness and selfishness, and cultivate virtue, because the Lord says: If you love me, keep my commandments. We strive to keep the commandments, to overcome vice and pursue virtue, because we love Him. This effort shapes us towards the Kingdom. But at the end of the day we discover that it is not so much our climbing, our effort, that brings us to where we need to be, but the Lord's grace that brings virtue to its fruition. Our work puts in a position to receive His grace. Indeed, according to St John and as clearly seen in the icon of today's feast, even the one who perseveres in all the virtues discovers that at the very top of the Ladder there is an unbridgeable gap between it and the Kingdom of God, a gap that can only be overcome by the hand of the Lord, Who reaches down to save us and bring us home.
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The Sanctifier and bright Lord who is glorious in operation, the dispositioner, the effector of all trans-substantiations, who sets the traverse wall according to the measure of the angel with the reed, who knows best how to gather his epiklesis from that open plain, who transmutes their cheerless blasphemy into a lover's word, who spoke by Balaam and by Balaam's ass, who spoke also by Sgt. Bullcock.
Followers
About Me
- Священник села
- All I have ever wanted is the quiet of a private life. But my mother is determined to see me distinguished. Orator. Politician. Even a barrister would do, if I drove a barouche. What do you wish for? I prefer the church, but that is not smart enough for my mother. She prefers the army, but that is too smart for me. - Would you stay in London? - I hate London. Country living is my ideal. A small parish where I might do some good. Keep chickens ... Give very short sermons. - Edward Ferrars in Ang Lee's Sense and Sensibility (1995)
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