The Shepherd, June 2004
BLESSED IS THE MAN
By St Ignatius of the Caucasus
(1807 - 1867 A.D.)
“Blessed is the man that hath not walked in the counsel
of the ungodly, nor stood in the way of sinners,
nor sat in the seat of the pestilent.
But his will is rather in the law of the Lord and
in His law will he meditate day and night.”
Psalm 1:1-2
THE DIVINELY INSPIRED MINSTREL AND PSALMIST plucks musical strains from his strings.
When the noise of the world deafens me, I cannot pay him attention. But now, in the quiet of solitude, I begin to pay heed to the mystical psalmist. And those strains and his song start to become more comprehensible to me. It is as if new skills were opened up within me, the ability to pay him heed and the ability to comprehend him. In his strains I catch a new feeling, and in his words I perceive a new thought, something wondrous, wondrous, as is the wisdom of God.
“Saul, cease from raging! Thrust the evil spirit away from you…” - so sings the holy minstrel David as he plucks his harmonious lyre.
I call my mind Saul; it is uneasy; thoughts arise therein which derive from the prince of this world. At the very foundation of the kingdom of Israel, that is at its creation, or later at the redemption of man, it, my mind, was appointed by God as king, as a master over soul and body, but by failing to heed God and by breaking the commandments of God, by severing its unity with God, it deprived itself of worthiness and of grace. No longer would the mental and physical faculties submit to it, and it fell under the influence of the evil spirit.
The holy poet David announces the concept of Heaven. Indeed the sounds from his Psalter are heavenly sounds. And the subject of his hymnology is the blessedness of man.
Brethren, let us hearken to the Divine teaching, which is expounded in the Divine hymnography. Let us hearken to the voices, let us hearken unto the sounds, which speak to us, which thunder to us:Heaven.
You who seek after happiness, who are driven by pleasure, who thirst for enjoyment, come rather and listen to the sacred song, hearken to the saving teaching. How long will you wander, scouring the hills and dales, the impenetrable wildernesses and the thickets? How long will you torture yourselves with unremitting labours and with futile searching, which remains uncrowned with any kind of success? Incline a ready ear; hearken to what the Holy Spirit says through the lips of David concerning human blessedness, which is indeed what you strive for, and what all men thirst for.
Let all around me fall silent! And within me let my very thoughts fall silent! Let the heart be silent! Let only reverent attention live, let only it act! And let there arise in the soul, through its action, holy impressions and thoughts!
David was a king, and yet he did not say that the royal throne was a throne of blessedness for man.
David was a military commander and hero; from his youth even unto old age he contended against those of foreign tribes in bloody strikes. How often did he give battle, how often did he bear away the victory! From the banks of the Euphrates to the banks of the Jordan he transferred cities into his domain. And yet he did not say that it was in the glory of bearing off a victory or in military prowess that the blessedness of man consists.
|
