My beloved brothers and sisters in Christ Our Lord, God, and Savior,
CHRIST IS IN OUR MIDST! HE WAS, IS, AND EVER SHALL BE.
THE NEED TO POSSESS COMPUNCTION (Κατάνυξις)
IN YOUR SPIRITUAL LIFE
Man is known for his obstinacy. his unyielding. unreceptiveness, and lack of sensitivity. Much of that attitude is attributed to false pride and rudeness. In his spiritual life that can be translated as his deliberate defiance and obedience to God Himself. He may feel in his superego that he cannot be held accountable for his actions, even the Lord. The further one finds himself from the Eternal Source of Agape (love) the harder his heart becomes. It is love that softens one’s heart and it is love that should pierce one’s heart but not the artificial human love that we have come to know here on earth but the Divine Love of God. Another reason for man’s hard heart is the lack of faith in God and the absence of selfless kind of love, instead he is controlled by a self-seeking love.
We say and believe that all good things come down from heaven. Everything good is a Divine gift to man by God, including the power or ability of discernment and κατάνυξις (compunction). Saint John Climacus writes: "Great is the power of this compunction–greater than that which comes as a result of our effort and meditation." Saint John also states: "Compunction is an eternal torment of the conscience which brings about the cooling of the fire of the heart through silent confession. "Hold fast to the blessed and joyful sorrow of holy compunction" saint John writes, "and so do not cease laboring for it until it lifts you high above the things of the world to present you, a cleansed offering to Christ."
If we are looking for a way to soften our heart, to bring it warmth, to free it from impurities, we must allow God to touch its very core and to revive it through His Grace, the Grace of the Holy Spirit. To penetrate it and give it a new life. When our heart is pierced with God’s grace and love the heart will be healed and be transformed and renewed. Κατάνυξις (compunction) is translated as slumber. from the word κατανύσσω meaning pricked at heart or a deep sleep. Saint Issac the Syrian writes: "Compunction is the pain of the heart, or of the broken and contrite heart, that God does not despise. Sometime, however, we wonder: is the pain of heart that I am experiencing godly compunction? Are the tears the "gift of tears" that the Holy Fathers and Mothers speak about? Certainly there is such a thing as selfish tears, tears of self pity and anger. There are also tears of laughter and sentimentality. In my experience, it is usually easy to identify selfish tears. What I cannot identify in my own experience are tears that are godly, that are given by God and offered to God as prayer…whenever I feel compunction, pain of heart, and that pain leads to tears, I offer the tears to God as prayer. Sure it is impure prayer. All of prayer is impure. There is nothing pure in me. Yet all I have to offer to God is the mixed mess that I am. Saint Isaac also says, "that the fullness of prayer is the gift of tears."
Saint Issac states: "When I am feeling this compunction, I cannot say prayers. I cannot read. I can only sit or stand in pained silence with no thoughts at all, just an overwhelming sense of sadness that is sometimes, but not often, slowly overcome by hope. Most often the prayerful experience of compunction leaves as my thoughts distract me–almost always thought of how i can or should, or might "fix" things. The pain remains, but the prayer is gone. That’s when I have to return to the prayers, to psalmody and reading.
Furthermore, Saint Isaac says, "And yet my experience has the faint fragrance of something. And if all I have to offer God is something that smells faintly putrid, so be it. It is what I have. It is what I am. And in the end, that is all any of us have to offer to God: OURSELVES." Saint John Climacus states: "True compunction brings consolation while that which is bogus produces self-esteem. Like the fire that consumes the straw, so do real tears consume the impurity of body and soul." According to Psalm 144:17, "The Lord is just and is holy. Saint John Climacus, "He leads the inwardly silent man to inward compunction, and every day He brings joy to the one who is inwardly obedient. But he who does not practice compunction or submission with sincerity is deprived of mourning."
"Mourning which according to God is a melancholy of the soul, a depression of an anguished heart that passionately seeks what is thirsts for, and when it fails to attain it, pursues it diligently and follows behind it lamenting bitterly, wirtes Saint John Climacus…Hold fast to the blessed and joyful sorrow of holy compunction and do not cease laboring for it until it lifts you high above the things of the world to present you, a cleansed offering, to Christ." Our ascetic struggle strives to be "a cleansed offering for Christ." God purifies the hearts of those who have sincere faith no matter their background, nationality or origin (Acts 15:9). God "makes no distinction between us or between races in offering the gift of salvation in Christ. All good things will happen and as Saint Paul says, "in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God and the peace of God which surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus" (Philippians 4:6-7). "As the elect of God, holy and beloved, put on tender mercies, kindness, humility, meekness, longsuffering; bearing with one another, and forgiving one another, if anyone has a complaint against another, even as Christ forgave you, so you also must do" (Colossians 3:12-13).
Our Lord Jesus Christ wishes "to dwell in your hearts through faith, that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints, what is the width and length and depth and height–to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge that you may be filled with all the fullness of God" (Ephesians 3:17-19). It is prudent, therefore, that all faithful Christians remain steadfast in their faith in Christ Jesus and to live according to His Resurrection! Seek your "true life" in Christ awaiting the heavenly and glorious revelation. As baptized Christians we died with Christ, so we must will to experience death daily by "killing" old sinful and disintegrating passions (cf. Col.3:5). As we were raised with Christ, so we must will to experience life daily by the virtuous and unifying desires of the "new man" which we all are in the body of Christ.
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"Glory Be To GOD
For
All Things!"
– Saint John Chrysostomos
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With sincere agape in His Divine and Glorious Diakonia (Ministry),
The sinner and unworthy servant of God
The Eastern Orthodox Christian Ethos 