Have Peace in your Heart by St Isaac of Syria
I found a most amazing passage from the writings of St Isaac of Syria, in a little booklet entitled, "Daily Readings with St Isaac of Syria", Introduced and edited by A. M. Allchin, Translated by Sebastian Brock, Templegate Publishers, Springfield Illinois 1990
It reads, " Someone who has actually tasted truth is not contentious for truth.
Someone who is considered among men to be zealous for truth has not yet learned what truth is really like: once he has truly learnt it, he will cease from zealousness on its behalf.
The gift from God and of knowledge of him is not a cause for turmoil and clamour; rather this gift is entirely filled with a peace in which the Spirit, love and humility reside.
The following is a sign of the coming of the Spirit; the person whom the Spirit has overshadowed is made perfect in these very virtues.
God is reality. The person whose mind has become aware of God does not even possess a tongue with which to speak, but God resides in his heart in great serenity. He experiences no stirring of zeal
or argumentativeness, nor is he stirred by anger. He cannot even be aroused concerning the faith." p.61 translated by Dr. Sebastian Brock.
Of course, reading something like this has to make one wonder, How often do we state the truth with such passion even anger, as if Truth which is Reality Itself, was so fragile it needed our protection? Or even worse, what if all we are doing by affirming Truth (or our
misunderstanding of it as mere facts) is affirming our egos, our self-image and asserting ourselves in dominance over those around us?
We do well if, before we speak or act, we pause for a moment and make an honest assessment of our emotional and spiritual state. We do even better if, more than anything else, we pursue a first-hand personal experience of this Ultimate Reality, our Triune
God in a spirit of peace, humility and love.
This longing for the Truth must be first and foremost a longing for the transformation of our own hearts, that the prayer of our Lord Jesus Christ be fulfilled in us, when He prayed,
"Sanctify them in the truth; Your word is truth. As You sent Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world. For their sakes I sanctify Myself, that they themselves also may be sanctified in truth."
John 17:17-19 NASB
Which means;
Sanctify them (Make them holy, preserve them in holiness, restore them to spiritual health)
in the truth (in Me- "I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me" John 14:6; John 15:15, "apart from Me you can do nothing".)
Your Word is truth ( "In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God, and the Word was God John 1:1. Again the Lord is saying, "I am the Word of God and I am the Truth")
As you sent Me (the Word of the Father and the Truth) into the world, I also have sent them into the world (we must become, by Grace, the very Word of God to our generation, the Truth of God to our generation, not merely as ideology but in our
very beings, we must become a healing presence to those who are broken and ill with the sickness of sin!)
For their sakes I sanctify Myself (I offer Myself on the cross for their healing and restoration )
that they themselves also be sanctified in truth (that they themselves be made holy- be healed- in Me)
With compunction of heart we must entreat our Lord Jesus Christ and pray,
"Sanctify me by your mysteries, illumine my mind with knowledge of you, cause your hope to shine forth in my heart, deem me worthy to supplicate for it, God my Father and Lord of my life;illumine your lamp within me, place in me what belongs to you so that I may forget what belongs to myself.
Cast upon me the constraint of wonder at you, so that the constraint of nature may be overpowered by it. Stir upon within me the vision of your mysteries so that I may become aware of what was placed in me at holy baptism.
You have placed within me a guide: may he show me your glory at all times. You made me to be light and salt for the world: may I not prove a stumbling-block for my companions.
Seeing that I have left the world, may I never again look back to it and to the things which I renounced when I made my promise to you.
Cast reigns of delight upon my heart, so that my senses may not gaze beyond the paths of your law. Rig together my impulses for the ship of repentance, so that in it I may exult as I travel over the world's sea until I reach the haven of your hope.
When I am tempted, may my mind take courage from the recollection of you. Illumine the dark path before me by the brilliance that comes from awareness of you,"
St Isaac the Syrian, The Prayers of St Isaac the Syrian p.16, Trans. by Sebastian Brock, Divine Ascent Press 2011.
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