The Way to Christ

The Way to Christ is Within and Through the Heart

Icon of Christ in the Church of Agia Sophia, Istanbul, Turkey
Used with permission Dick Osseman

The way to Christ is within and through the heart. If we desire to meet the Lord

Jesus Christ and have communion with Him we must first purify our nous and

our innermost being, our heart, and in this way prepare a holy habitation for 

our Lord. Fr Zacharias Zacharou, the blessed disciple of Elder Sophrony of 

Essex, explains in his book, 'The Hidden Man of the Heart' p.1, Edited by 

Christopher Veniamin Mount Thabor Publishing 2008; "All the ordinances 

of the undefiled Church are offered to the world for the sole purpose 

of discovering the deep heart (Ps.64:6) the center of man's hypostasis 

(person). According to the Holy Scriptures, God has fashioned every

heart in a special way, and each heart is His goal, a place wherein He 

desires to abide that He may manifest Himself.

     Since the kingdom of God is within us (Luke17:21), the heart is the

battlefield of our salvation, and all ascetic effort is aimed at cleansing it 

of all filthiness, and preserving it pure before the Lord. 'Keep thy heart 

of with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life', exhorts the wise

Solomon, the wise king of Israel (Prov.4:23). These paths of life pass 

through man's heart, and therefore the unquenchable desire of all who

ceaselessly seek the Face of the living God is that their heart, once 

deadened by sin, may be rekindled by His grace."

Our great father among the saints, St. Macarius, whose words are so filled 

with Grace, tells us in his Homily No. 13 that; " All visible things God created, 

and gave them to men for recreation and enjoyment, and he gave them also 

a law of justice. But ever since Christ's coming, God demands other fruit 

and another righteousness, namely, a purity of heart, a good 

conscience, profitable speech, holy and good thoughts, and all the works of 

the saints. For the Lord says: "Unless your righteousness exceeds that of the

Scribes and Pharisees, you cannot enter into the Kingdom of Heaven. It is 

written in the Law: Do not commit adultery. But I tell you, Do not lust or be 

angry" (Mt. 5:20 ff.).

For it is necessary that he who truly desires to be a friend of God keep himself 

from the mire of sin, but for the eternal fire which is in us, (This refers to the 

presence of the Holy Spirit as fire within the human soul that accepts divine 

grace and lives in a way that becomes a living temple of the Holy Spirit. Cf.

Homily 25:9). This makes us worthy of the kingdom. Glory to his mercy and to

his propitious will toward us, Father and Son and Holy Spirit. Amen. From 

Pseudo-Macarius, The Fifty Spiritual Homilies and the  Great Letter, p 104, 

Translated and Edited by George A. Maloney, S.J., Paulist Press 1992

 And in Homily 19 p. 146-147 St Macarius states that, "The person that wishes

to come to the Lord and to be deemed worthy of eternal life and to become the

dwelling place of Christ and to be filled with the Holy Spirit so that he may be

able to bring forth the fruits of the Spirit and perform the commandments of 

Christ purely and blamelessly ought to begin first by believing firmly in the Lord

and giving himself completely to the words of his commands and renouncing 

the world in all things so that his whole mind may not be taken up with anything

ephemeral. And he ought to persevere constantly in prayer, always waiting in 

faith that expects his coming and his help, keeping the goal of his mind ever 

fixed upon this. Then he ought to push himself to every good work and to doing

all the commandments of the Lord, because there is sin dwelling within him. 

Thus let him strive to show humility before every person and to consider himself

the least and the worst. Let him not seek honor or praise or the glory of men as

it is written in the Gospel (John. 12:44).

But let him only have always before his eyes the Lord and His commands,

wishing to please him alone in the meekness of his heart , as the Lord 

says: "Learn of me, because I am meek and humble of heart and you will find

rest for your souls" (Matthew 11:29). Likewise let him accustom himself to be 

merciful, compassionate and good according to his power, as the Lord says:

"Be good and kind, even as your heavenly Father is merciful" (Luke 6:36). And

again he says: "If you love me, keep my commandments" (John14:15). And 

again: "Strive to enter through the narrow door" (Luke 13:24). Above all, let him

take the humility and conduct of the Lord, his meekness and conversation, as 

his model by ever remembering him.

 Let him continue incessantly in prayers, always beseeching and believing that

the Lord may come to dwell in him and may perfect and give him power to 

accomplish all his commands and that the Lord himself may become the 

dwelling place for his soul. And thus the things he now does with effort of a 

reluctant heart, he may perform one day willingly, accustoming himself always

to the good and remembering the Lord and waiting for him always in great love.

Then the Lord, seeing such an intention and his good diligence, how he strives

to remember the Lord and always seeks to do good and is humble and meek

and loving, how he guides his heart, whether he wishes or not, to the best of his

ability with force, has mercy on him and frees him from his enemies and the 

indwelling sin. He fills him with the Holy Spirit. And gradually, without force or 

struggle he keeps all of the Lord's commandments in truth. Or, rather, it is the

Lord who keeps in him his very own commandments, and then he brings forth

purely the fruits of the Spirit." From Pseudo-Macarius, The Fifty Spiritual 

Homilies and the  Great Letter, Translated and Edited by George A. Maloney,

S.J., Paulist Press 1992

Fr. Zacharias continues, " The heart is the true temple of man's meeting with

the Lord. Man's heart 'seeketh knowledge' (Prov.15:14), both intellectual and 

divine, and knows no rest until the Lord of Glory comes and abides therein. 

On His part God, Who is a 'jealous God' (Ex. 34:14) will not settle for a mere

portion of the heart. In the Old Testament we hear His voice crying out, 'My 

son, give me thy heart' (Prov. 23:26); and in the New Testament He 

commands: 'Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy

soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength.' (Matt. 12:30). He is the 

One Who has fashioned the heart of every man in an unique and unrepeatable

way, though no heart can contain Him fully because 'God is greater than our 

heart' (1 John 3:20). Nevertheless when man succeeds in turning his 

whole heart to God, then God Himself begets it by the incorruptible 

seed of His word, seals it with His wondrous Name, and makes it shine

with His perpetual and charismatic presence. He makes it a temple of 

His Divinity, a temple not made by hands, able to reflect His 'shape' 

and to hearken unto His 'voice' and 'bear' His Name (cf. John 5:37;

Acts 9:15).

In a word, man then fulfills the purpose of his life, the reason for his 

coming into the transient existence of this world. The great tragedy 

of our time lies in the fact that we live, speak, think, and even pray to

God, outside our heart, outside our Father's house. And truly our 

Father's house is our heart, the place where 'the spirit of glory and 

of God' (1 Peter 4:14) would find repose, that Christ may be 'formed 

in us' (Gal. 4:19). Indeed only then can we be made whole, and 

become hypostases in the image of the true and perfect Hypostasis,

the Son and Word of God , Who created us and redeemed us by the 

precious Blood of His ineffable sacrifice.

Yet, as long as we are held captive by our passions, which distract our mind

from our heart and lure it into the ever-changing and vain world of natural 

and created things, thus depriving us of all spiritual strength, we will not know

the new birth from on High that makes us children of God and gods by grace.

In fact, in one way or another, we are all 'prodigal sons' of our Father in 

heaven, because as the Scriptures testify, 'All have sinned and come short of

the glory of God' (Rom. 3:23). Sin has separated our mind from the life-giving

contemplation of God and led it into a 'far country' (Luke 9:15). In this 'far 

country' we have been deprived of the honour of our Father's  embrace and, 

in feeding swine, we have been made subject to demons. We gave ourselves

over to dishonorable passions and the dreadful famine of sin, which then 

established itself by force, becoming the law of our members.

But now we must come out of this godless hell and return to our Father's house

(our heart-emphasis mine) so as to uproot the law of sin that is within us and 

allow the law of Christ's commandments to dwell in our heart. For the only path

leading out of the torments of hell to the everlasting joy of the Kingdom is that 

of the divine commandments: with our whole being we are to love God and our

neighbor with a heart that is free of all sin. The return journey from this remote

and inhospitable land is not an easy one, and there is no hunger more fearful 

than that of a heart laid waste by sin. Those in whom the heart is full of the 

consolation of incorruptible grace can endure all external deprivations and 

afflictions, transforming them into a feast of spiritual joy; but the famine in a 

hardened heart lacking divine consolation is a comfortless torment. There is no

greater misfortune than that of an insensible and petrified heart that is unable to

distinguish between the luminous Way of God's Providence and the gloomy 

confusion of the ways of this world.

On the other hand, throughout history there have been men whose hearts were

filled with grace. These chosen vessels were enlightened by the spirit of 

prophecy, and were therefore able to distinguish between Divine Light and the

darkness of this world. No matter how daunting and difficult the struggle 

of purifying the heart may be, nothing should deter us from this 

undertaking. We have on our side the ineffable goodness of God Who

has made man's heart His personal concern and goal. 

From  'The Hidden Man of the Heart' p.2-3, Edited by Christopher Veniamin, 

Mount Thabor Publishing 2008