We hear about liberty and the necessity of man’s preserving it today from the lips of the “apostles” of this world, yet they never say anything about sin, the flesh, fasting or abstinence. On the contrary, what is heard is just the opposite to what we hear from the holy Apostle. But it is not liberty from God which desires what is contrary to the spirit, waging war against it, and quite opposed to the liberty which the holy Apostle commends to us. Truly it cannot be considered as such, for the liberty proclaimed to us by the Apostle speaks of struggle with the law of sin acting in our inner self, that is warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin (Rom. 7:23); whereas the “liberty” now proclaimed to us repudiates abstinence and all kinds of struggle with the law of sin, considering this effort and struggle (and not sin itself) as bonds which restrict the freedom of man, and preaching the law of liberty for a broad and unimpeded indulgence and satisfaction of the flesh. It is fed, it is kept warm, liberty is spoken to the body of this death (Rom. 7:24), it is given liberty and power over the spirit. Do we not see here a teaching contrary to that commanded by God, handed down to us by the Apostles, and taught by the Church? The flesh receives power to triumph over the spirit; sin is given victory and power over man; evil is loosed out of his prison and from the bottomless pit (Rev. 20:2-3); and he shall go out to deceive the nations (Rev. 20:7), preaching slavery as liberty, and sin as virtue.

No, liberty emphatically consists not in this obedience to the will of the flesh, and not in exemption from the laws of cause and effect, influence, posterity, evolution, etc., but in the ability to rise above those laws, to gain control over them, to subjugate them to one’s spiritual aims and purposes. It is not the liberty of indeterminism, says Professor I. A. Ilyin, about which people think only because of misunderstanding, and which would prove to be a most extreme calamity, bestowing on them the most terrible gifts of metaphysical arbitrariness, lack of education, improvidence, irresponsibility, chaotic capriciousness, and complete unworthiness to participate in this most beautiful cosmos and in the Kingdom of God. Spiritual liberty means not indeterminism, but the power over causes, the power of determining, and the ability of freely and purposely aiming one self toward the way of perfection. The entire meaning of man’s life consists in this - freely to desire the Godly, and freely to set oneself on the way towards Him.

Attachment to the earth, to this brief earthly life, forgetfulness of terrible reality in the fascination of the pleasures of the present vain life, and even the very inclination to sin, have become as natural to our being, as the disordered tendencies and feelings produced by illness are natural to a sick man.

Being overwhelmed by a sea of innumerable pleasures and attractions, which in great variety present themselves to us in the New World [the author lived in the States - ed.], and which look only towards the security of material welfare, we do not even wish to stop and think, or understand our present condition and the consequent sad reality of the future life.

Clinging with body and soul to the earth, adhering to it, we have become incapable of experiencing spiritual feelings; we have become completely carnal, truly deserving the severe rebuke of the word of God: My Spirit shall certainly not remain among these men for ever (Gen. 6:3). Woe unto you that are full, for ye shall hunger (Luke 6:25).

From such a condition of spiritual death we can only be delivered by powerful prayer, strengthened by fasting and temperance, for truly it is only with the help of fasting that we can withstand the magnetic power of earthly pleasures. Only with the aid of fasting can we break the fetters of sin. Only with the aid of fasting can our spirit be freed from the heavy bonds of flesh. Only with the help of fasting can our thoughts rise above the earth and look toward God! To the degree that we put upon ourselves the blessed yoke of fasting, to that degree will our spirit attain greater liberty and become enlightened, will our understanding be widened, our body become the temple of the Holy Spirit (1 Cor. 6:19; 3:16); shall we be built together for an habitation of God (Eph. 2:22), and our entire being be sanctified and enlightened, and become a partaker of eternal blessing.

The above article was written by the then Archimandrite Antony (Grabbe) & appeared in the March-April, 1963, issue of “Orthodox Life.”