3 - Intimacy with God

Summary

Prayer is the conjoining of man and God in unity. It means actual reconciliation with God, the mother of tears and also their daughter, the forgiveness of sins, the bridge to pass over tribulations and a support to our weakness. It puts away devilish wars, it is the work of angels, the food for those who need charity, happiness, the work that is beneficial, the core of virtues, and the giver of other gifts. It is nourishment for our souls, light to our minds, filling for our days, proof of our hope, our grace, the treasure of monks, and the repository of the silent in serenity.

(Pope Kyrillos VI)¹

The deliberate choice of poverty is a sacrifice, an action against one’s instincts in order to seek a higher good. We are all acquainted with garden-variety asceticism: We renounce eating certain foods for the sake of health or good looks; we willingly undergo the pain of exercise for fitness or for the thrill of athletic excellence; we give up sleep for years on end to nurture a child. The central difficulty in grasping Christian asceticism, at least for non-believers, is the transcendence of its goal and the ultimate mysticism bound into the workings of sacrifice. I find it simplest, and truest, to explain Christian asceticism as the discipline of true love. As Paul writes:

If I give away everything I own, and if I hand over my body to be burned, and have not love, I gain nothing.²

We are familiar with sacrifices for concrete loved ones: sleep for children, as I say, but also wealth or ambition for the sake of a spouse’s happiness; the sacrifice of a preference for the common peace; the sacrifice of peace and quiet so that others may pursue their activities; the sacrifice of time, trouble, pride, and comfort that all of us know well, if we have ever tried to love anyone. Those who love are plagued by worry; they sacrifice their peace of mind. Anxiety for the beloved can consume a person for the lifetime of their connection, and past it. Such worry is a natural outcome of any unconditional love. The one who chooses to love chooses to accept the shared pain of any harm to their beloved, and ultimately, their loss in death. Love requires the projected acceptance of debilitating grief.