Read also/Lea también: Definition of Prelest - Definición de Prelest
ENGLISH:
New Concept of Sanctity
So we've seen in the Middle Ages the rationalism, logicalness, replacing faith or taking over and shaping now faith, becoming the criteria, romantic elements entering in. And now we come to a very important concept which is maybe even more important than Scholasticism, because in the end this will do more to bring about Antichrist than Scholasticism. This is the concept of sanctity which becomes now different from the Orthodox concept of sanctity. And the best example of this is the life of Francis of Assisi.
The fact that this man became so popular, in fact, tremendously popular wherever he went, people went around, acted like Christ Himself coming to them; and they sang and accompanied him. He aroused great enthusiasm, which shows that he was very much in the spirit of his times. But if we look at his life, we see that it is so strange from the Orthodox point of view; and we can say that it's not at all an Orthodox Life of a Saint.
For one thing, he founded a new manner of life. He invented the rule of poverty because in church one day the Gospel was being preached about poverty, about the Apostles not taking anything with them when they preached, although later on, of course, the Apostles did take with them money and so forth. The first time they went out they went by two's to the cities preaching to the Jews and took nothing with them. And he heard this in church and became inspired to invent a new rule, a new way of life, a rule of poverty based on the Gospel, as though there was no monastic tradition before him, which there was. And there were many great Saints at this time.
Of course, he could look around, perhaps the monasteries were corrupt and so forth, and he wanted something different. But there's something already suspicious to think he's going to do something new, a whole new rule of life, based not on Holy Fathers. And if he didn't like the recent Latin Fathers, he could have gone back to St. John Cassian, the Egyptian Fathers and so forth, but he didn't. He went instead to the Gospel, like the Protestants. He went and invented himself a rule of poverty. Nothing special, of course -- monks are poor-- but he made something special out of it, just as later we'll see that the Catholics are making something special about the Mother of God as though she's some kind of unearthly being and so forth.
And he gave it and himself and his followers new names.
They were not now to be called just monks, they were the "Penitents of Assisi," or the "Lord's Minstrels," they called themselves, going about singing. So already we see that they think they're not like previous monks and ascetics, but something new, a new spirit which is very much in accord with the spirit of the times.
There was a time, on Christmas in the year 1223, he decided to celebrate the Nativity in a new manner. And so he reproduced in the church were he was in Italy the stable of Bethlehem. And thus began the so-called devotion to the crib in the Latin Church and around this he had some kind of a play which is beginning of the mystery plays in Italy -- and helping thus the rise of the drama. And the drama of course is something which, although it arose from this very same thing, we're not going to talk about that. The mystery play, which comes from the Liturgy actually, was centered around the Mass and religious themes, and is an adaptation to the new spirit of the times to make religion more interesting, more in accordance with everyday life, more close to the believers, as though Orthodoxy is not enough.
Another aspect of his so-called "sanctity." One historian of him says, "His very asceticism was often clothed in the guise of romance." So he woos the Lady Poverty, thinks about her as though she's a real person, and keeps wooing her, as the bridegroom, and of course about Sister Death and all of these personifications.
And a very typical example of something new which is not at all Orthodox is what happened once when he was sick. He ate meat. And an Orthodox person who isn't a monk maybe might eat meat during sickness or something. If he did he would feel repentant about it, ask God's forgiveness, and feel that "I'm no good anyway," and ask that if He would, God forgive him. But not Francis of Assisi. Instead, he went out to preach to the people. There was a large crowd, thousands of people as usual, and he said, "Stop. Everyone stay here until I come back." And he went to the church nearby, and he forced two of his disciples to do whatever he told them out of obedience. One of them poured over his head ashes, a bucket full of ashes; the second put a rope around his neck and led him out before the people who were all waiting to see what's going to happen. And here comes Francis of Assisi led by a rope with ashes on his black head, and he looks at them and says, "You consider me a saint, but I ate meat when I was sick."
By this, he's making a public display that "I am really supposed to be very holy, and if I made a mistake I got to make up for it so they'll still think I'm holy." So we see that he's already playing the role of a holy man who must appear before the people as pure, whereas a genuine holy man would repent, and it's all the better if people think he's bad or evil.
Fr. H: Well, here's a good example: the general fools for Christ's sake, they do exactly the opposite. They act crazy in order to be put down....
Fr. S: And of course the people who are already having new ideas about sanctity say, "Oh, how humble this man is!" And actually there is fake humility; this is not humility. And in fact the key to his sanctity is pride. He is conscious of himself as being a holy man. He said, "I do not see in myself any sin which I have not expiated by confession and repentance. For the Lord in His mercy has presented me the gift of clearly recognizing at prayer that in which I have been pleasing to Him and that in which I have not been pleasing," that is, spiritual self-satisfaction. "I'm holy; I've sinned but I've made up for them by a certain number of penances, and making myself, dragging myself before the people, and now I know that I am pure."
And we can contrast this with any number of Lives of Orthodox Saints, for example, St. Sisoes, who was preparing to die and then lived for a short time longer because, when his disciples asked him, "Why are you coming back?" he said, "An angel told me I was not ready; I must repent even more." He's supposed to have lived a holy life, and he said, "I have tried all my life to please God, and now at the end I do not know whether I have pleased Him or not." And Francis knows that he pleased God. This is the spirit already of the Pharisee.
At his death-bed Francis says, "Behold, God calls me, and I forgive all my brothers both present and absent their offenses and errors, and I remit their sins in so far as this is in my power." He was not a priest, so even in that indirect sense, he had no power; that is, he had some kind of recognizing in himself the power of sanctity by which he can remit the sins of people, which is totally un-Orthodox. And his last words were, "I have done what I had to do. I return to God. May He have mercy on you." That is, "I'm perfect; I've done it, I'm finished, I'm perfectly justified."
Again, typical of this kind of sanctity is an incident in his life when Christ supposedly appeared to him at prayer and offered him whatever favor he might desire. Already this is romance and all fairy tales -- three wishes and so forth. But this kind of familiarity of a saint with God is typical of prelest, spiritual deception. And Francis asked, since he was very much burdened with his love for men, that a plenary indulgence be granted to all who confess and visit his chapel, at the center of his Order. And Christ agreed, but said the Pope must ratify it. The Pope did this. And from that day to this on August Second you can get a plenary indulgence by going to his chapel, receiving confession, which means that you will not have to suffer the temporary or temporal consequences for your sins. A whole new system of indulgences of course is exact already in this thirteenth century; it's already there.
Fr. H: In Metropolia magazine for children, they have a life of St. Francis, Metropolia magazine for children, called Young Life. And Orthodox children receiving this together with St. Seraphim and something else. Can we unite with them?
Fr. S: But there's one thing more, which is the most striking characteristic of this so-called "sanctity;" in fact, the most striking characteristic of his deception, that is, he imitated Christ in an outward manner. When he had his first, I believe, seven disciples or perhaps twelve -- probably twelve and starts with seven. He took them together, and he sent them by two-and-two to go preach the Gospel: one, two, he went himself to France, supposedly to France, two to someplace else, England, Italy, and so forth. And he used the very words of the Gospel: I am sending you by two-and-two to go and preach the forgiveness of sins. First of all he sent them to Christian countries and only later he sent to non-Christian countries, as if he is teaching a new Gospel, as if this had not already been done, as if he is a new christ, sending out his own people who are preaching his gospel; because these countries already have their bishops or their priests, the whole system, and he's sending them into these same countries which already have their Christian government to preach his gospel. Indeed they go and they found the Franciscan Order.
Again, just before he died, he had bread brought to him. He blessed the bread, he had it broken, and it was given to his disciples, and the life of Francis says he remembered the sacred meal which the Lord celebrated with His disciples for the last time; consciously giving them a "last supper."
Again, there is a very interesting thing which happened to him when he received the stigmata, which is the marks of the wounds of Christ, five marks in the hands, in the side, the feet. Before receiving this, which in the Catholic Church is accepted as a real sign of a saint, he prayed that he might suffer what Christ suffered in soul and body and, quote, "that I might as much as possible feel with all my being that limitless love with which Thou didst burn, O Son of God, and which caused Thee to endure so many torments for us sinners."
This is a brazenness which is unheard of in true Saints: that they want to have God's love itself, and they want to suffer what He suffered feeling the flesh. This is not spiritual striving. This is a search for bodily sensations and the great pride he felt at wishing to feel the very feelings of God. And you can contrast this with any -- Christ does appear to saints. He appeared to St. Seraphim as he was serving as a deacon in church, and St. Seraphim did not pray, "manifest yourself to me," or "make me feel what You felt." He was praying in church; Christ appeared to him. And he did not even want to speak about it.
And then when he [Francis] received the stigmata there was a vision of a seraphim with Christ crucified superimposed on it, which came to him and which we'll show you in one of their icons of this, shoots out rays, sun rays and gives him the stigmata. And at this time, according to his Life, Francis felt himself totally transformed into Jesus, which is blasphemy. That is the root of the whole of Catholic spirituality: this sweetness that Jesus is approaching, "I am all one with Him and He's with me" -- all this is prelest.
And later, sure enough, his disciples call him the "new Christ." In one Life, it even says, which Ignatius Brianchaninov likes to quote, that when Francis died and was lifted to heaven, God beholding him did not know who was greater, Francis or His own Son.
This kind of sanctity, spirituality is already much worse than the rationalism of Scholasticism, because this means that -- you can have rationalists teaching in your seminaries and still be a holy person, still cling to the source of the spirituality -- but when the standard of spirituality itself becomes this deceived, presumptuous thing full of pride, then the root is complete closed off. And so it is, obviously, that this kind of spirituality -- and this is already 1200, the end of the eleventh, into the twelfth, even the thirteenth century, a hundred years after the Schism, 150 years later -- the concept of spirituality is so different from the East, [that there is] no more contact possible. This is what we call a deceived person. This would be a classical example of a person who is living in prelest.
Well, it's obvious that this was simply bound up with his, he had a very apparently strong power of imagination. And this we don't even know the laws of all these kinds of things, but it's on the side of the corrupt properties. It's maybe not black magic itself, but it's very bound up with all that darker realm of the psychic, in which tombs can appear and all kinds of things.
But there's worse to come. The followers of Francis are very interesting because in them there comes out the logical conclusions of this new kind of spirituality, this new kind of sanctity. They see that there's some kind of new, even calls him a "new Christ," some kind of a new spirit enters into the world, new spirituality. And so, it is to one of his disciples, Joachim of Flores, that there appears this, actually for the first time, the concept of the Coming of the "Third Age of the Holy Spirit" which is the foundation of all modern philosophies of progress, chiliasm and the New Age. He himself obtained this revelation about this -- it was not by thinking it through -- it was in a vision. This very interesting book on Meaning in History gives a philosophy of history, of various people from the Middle Ages to modern times. And he [the author of Meaning in History] says the following about this:
"It was a decisive moment in the history of the Christian church when an Italian abbot, a renowned prophet and saint and man trained in the most austere discipline of the Cisterican Order, after arduous study and meditations in the wilderness of his Calabrian mountains received an inspiration at Pentecost (between 1190 and 1195)." Actually he wasn't a true disciple of Francis; he was at the same time, "revealing to him the signs of the times in the light of St. John's Revelation." He says, "When I awoke at dawn, I took to the Revelation of St. John. There, suddenly, the eyes of my spirit were struck with the lucidity of insight, and it was revealed to me the fulfillment of this book and the concordance of the Old and New Testaments." And he therefore has a whole new interpretation of what is the meaning of the Old and New Testaments.
"The general scheme of Joachim's discriminating interpretation is based on the Trinitarian doctrine. Three different dispensations come to pass in three different epochs in which the three persons of the Trinity are successively manifested. The first is the dispensation of the Father, the second that of the Son, the third that of the Holy Spirit. [The latter is just beginning now, i.e., toward the end of the twelfth century] and is progressing toward complete 'freedom' of the 'spirit.' The Jews were slaves under the law of the Father." That is the Old Testament. "The Christians of the second epoch were, though incompletely, spiritual and free, namely, in comparison with the moral legality of the first dispensation. In the third epoch, St. Paul's prophetic words will come true, that we know and prophesy now only in part, >but when that which is perfect is come, that which is in part shall be done away.'(I Cor. 13:9-10)"
And he says, Joachim, " 'Already we can apprehend the unveiling of the final liberation of the spirit in its plentitude.' The first epoch was inaugurated by Adam in fear and under the sign of the law; since Abraham, it has borne fruit to become fulfilled in Jesus Christ. The second [was inaugurated by Uzziah in faith and humility under the sign of the gospel] since Zechariah, the father of John the Baptist, it had borne fruit to become fulfilled in future times. The third was inaugurated by St. Benedict" -- because he was very monastically oriented -- "in love and joy under the sign of the Spirit; it will come to pass with the reappearance of Elijah at the end of the world…." The ages overlap.
Este es un extracto del p. Curso de supervivencia de los serafines. Para ayudar a ponerlo en el contexto de todo el curso, primero aquí hay una "Tabla de contenido" básica del curso. El material ejercitado se toma de la Lección 2.The fact that this man became so popular, in fact, tremendously popular wherever he went, people went around, acted like Christ Himself coming to them; and they sang and accompanied him. He aroused great enthusiasm, which shows that he was very much in the spirit of his times. But if we look at his life, we see that it is so strange from the Orthodox point of view; and we can say that it's not at all an Orthodox Life of a Saint.
For one thing, he founded a new manner of life. He invented the rule of poverty because in church one day the Gospel was being preached about poverty, about the Apostles not taking anything with them when they preached, although later on, of course, the Apostles did take with them money and so forth. The first time they went out they went by two's to the cities preaching to the Jews and took nothing with them. And he heard this in church and became inspired to invent a new rule, a new way of life, a rule of poverty based on the Gospel, as though there was no monastic tradition before him, which there was. And there were many great Saints at this time.
Of course, he could look around, perhaps the monasteries were corrupt and so forth, and he wanted something different. But there's something already suspicious to think he's going to do something new, a whole new rule of life, based not on Holy Fathers. And if he didn't like the recent Latin Fathers, he could have gone back to St. John Cassian, the Egyptian Fathers and so forth, but he didn't. He went instead to the Gospel, like the Protestants. He went and invented himself a rule of poverty. Nothing special, of course -- monks are poor-- but he made something special out of it, just as later we'll see that the Catholics are making something special about the Mother of God as though she's some kind of unearthly being and so forth.
And he gave it and himself and his followers new names.
They were not now to be called just monks, they were the "Penitents of Assisi," or the "Lord's Minstrels," they called themselves, going about singing. So already we see that they think they're not like previous monks and ascetics, but something new, a new spirit which is very much in accord with the spirit of the times.
There was a time, on Christmas in the year 1223, he decided to celebrate the Nativity in a new manner. And so he reproduced in the church were he was in Italy the stable of Bethlehem. And thus began the so-called devotion to the crib in the Latin Church and around this he had some kind of a play which is beginning of the mystery plays in Italy -- and helping thus the rise of the drama. And the drama of course is something which, although it arose from this very same thing, we're not going to talk about that. The mystery play, which comes from the Liturgy actually, was centered around the Mass and religious themes, and is an adaptation to the new spirit of the times to make religion more interesting, more in accordance with everyday life, more close to the believers, as though Orthodoxy is not enough.
Another aspect of his so-called "sanctity." One historian of him says, "His very asceticism was often clothed in the guise of romance." So he woos the Lady Poverty, thinks about her as though she's a real person, and keeps wooing her, as the bridegroom, and of course about Sister Death and all of these personifications.
And a very typical example of something new which is not at all Orthodox is what happened once when he was sick. He ate meat. And an Orthodox person who isn't a monk maybe might eat meat during sickness or something. If he did he would feel repentant about it, ask God's forgiveness, and feel that "I'm no good anyway," and ask that if He would, God forgive him. But not Francis of Assisi. Instead, he went out to preach to the people. There was a large crowd, thousands of people as usual, and he said, "Stop. Everyone stay here until I come back." And he went to the church nearby, and he forced two of his disciples to do whatever he told them out of obedience. One of them poured over his head ashes, a bucket full of ashes; the second put a rope around his neck and led him out before the people who were all waiting to see what's going to happen. And here comes Francis of Assisi led by a rope with ashes on his black head, and he looks at them and says, "You consider me a saint, but I ate meat when I was sick."
By this, he's making a public display that "I am really supposed to be very holy, and if I made a mistake I got to make up for it so they'll still think I'm holy." So we see that he's already playing the role of a holy man who must appear before the people as pure, whereas a genuine holy man would repent, and it's all the better if people think he's bad or evil.
Fr. H: Well, here's a good example: the general fools for Christ's sake, they do exactly the opposite. They act crazy in order to be put down....
Fr. S: And of course the people who are already having new ideas about sanctity say, "Oh, how humble this man is!" And actually there is fake humility; this is not humility. And in fact the key to his sanctity is pride. He is conscious of himself as being a holy man. He said, "I do not see in myself any sin which I have not expiated by confession and repentance. For the Lord in His mercy has presented me the gift of clearly recognizing at prayer that in which I have been pleasing to Him and that in which I have not been pleasing," that is, spiritual self-satisfaction. "I'm holy; I've sinned but I've made up for them by a certain number of penances, and making myself, dragging myself before the people, and now I know that I am pure."
And we can contrast this with any number of Lives of Orthodox Saints, for example, St. Sisoes, who was preparing to die and then lived for a short time longer because, when his disciples asked him, "Why are you coming back?" he said, "An angel told me I was not ready; I must repent even more." He's supposed to have lived a holy life, and he said, "I have tried all my life to please God, and now at the end I do not know whether I have pleased Him or not." And Francis knows that he pleased God. This is the spirit already of the Pharisee.
At his death-bed Francis says, "Behold, God calls me, and I forgive all my brothers both present and absent their offenses and errors, and I remit their sins in so far as this is in my power." He was not a priest, so even in that indirect sense, he had no power; that is, he had some kind of recognizing in himself the power of sanctity by which he can remit the sins of people, which is totally un-Orthodox. And his last words were, "I have done what I had to do. I return to God. May He have mercy on you." That is, "I'm perfect; I've done it, I'm finished, I'm perfectly justified."
Again, typical of this kind of sanctity is an incident in his life when Christ supposedly appeared to him at prayer and offered him whatever favor he might desire. Already this is romance and all fairy tales -- three wishes and so forth. But this kind of familiarity of a saint with God is typical of prelest, spiritual deception. And Francis asked, since he was very much burdened with his love for men, that a plenary indulgence be granted to all who confess and visit his chapel, at the center of his Order. And Christ agreed, but said the Pope must ratify it. The Pope did this. And from that day to this on August Second you can get a plenary indulgence by going to his chapel, receiving confession, which means that you will not have to suffer the temporary or temporal consequences for your sins. A whole new system of indulgences of course is exact already in this thirteenth century; it's already there.
Fr. H: In Metropolia magazine for children, they have a life of St. Francis, Metropolia magazine for children, called Young Life. And Orthodox children receiving this together with St. Seraphim and something else. Can we unite with them?
Fr. S: But there's one thing more, which is the most striking characteristic of this so-called "sanctity;" in fact, the most striking characteristic of his deception, that is, he imitated Christ in an outward manner. When he had his first, I believe, seven disciples or perhaps twelve -- probably twelve and starts with seven. He took them together, and he sent them by two-and-two to go preach the Gospel: one, two, he went himself to France, supposedly to France, two to someplace else, England, Italy, and so forth. And he used the very words of the Gospel: I am sending you by two-and-two to go and preach the forgiveness of sins. First of all he sent them to Christian countries and only later he sent to non-Christian countries, as if he is teaching a new Gospel, as if this had not already been done, as if he is a new christ, sending out his own people who are preaching his gospel; because these countries already have their bishops or their priests, the whole system, and he's sending them into these same countries which already have their Christian government to preach his gospel. Indeed they go and they found the Franciscan Order.
Again, just before he died, he had bread brought to him. He blessed the bread, he had it broken, and it was given to his disciples, and the life of Francis says he remembered the sacred meal which the Lord celebrated with His disciples for the last time; consciously giving them a "last supper."
Again, there is a very interesting thing which happened to him when he received the stigmata, which is the marks of the wounds of Christ, five marks in the hands, in the side, the feet. Before receiving this, which in the Catholic Church is accepted as a real sign of a saint, he prayed that he might suffer what Christ suffered in soul and body and, quote, "that I might as much as possible feel with all my being that limitless love with which Thou didst burn, O Son of God, and which caused Thee to endure so many torments for us sinners."
This is a brazenness which is unheard of in true Saints: that they want to have God's love itself, and they want to suffer what He suffered feeling the flesh. This is not spiritual striving. This is a search for bodily sensations and the great pride he felt at wishing to feel the very feelings of God. And you can contrast this with any -- Christ does appear to saints. He appeared to St. Seraphim as he was serving as a deacon in church, and St. Seraphim did not pray, "manifest yourself to me," or "make me feel what You felt." He was praying in church; Christ appeared to him. And he did not even want to speak about it.
And then when he [Francis] received the stigmata there was a vision of a seraphim with Christ crucified superimposed on it, which came to him and which we'll show you in one of their icons of this, shoots out rays, sun rays and gives him the stigmata. And at this time, according to his Life, Francis felt himself totally transformed into Jesus, which is blasphemy. That is the root of the whole of Catholic spirituality: this sweetness that Jesus is approaching, "I am all one with Him and He's with me" -- all this is prelest.
And later, sure enough, his disciples call him the "new Christ." In one Life, it even says, which Ignatius Brianchaninov likes to quote, that when Francis died and was lifted to heaven, God beholding him did not know who was greater, Francis or His own Son.
This kind of sanctity, spirituality is already much worse than the rationalism of Scholasticism, because this means that -- you can have rationalists teaching in your seminaries and still be a holy person, still cling to the source of the spirituality -- but when the standard of spirituality itself becomes this deceived, presumptuous thing full of pride, then the root is complete closed off. And so it is, obviously, that this kind of spirituality -- and this is already 1200, the end of the eleventh, into the twelfth, even the thirteenth century, a hundred years after the Schism, 150 years later -- the concept of spirituality is so different from the East, [that there is] no more contact possible. This is what we call a deceived person. This would be a classical example of a person who is living in prelest.
Well, it's obvious that this was simply bound up with his, he had a very apparently strong power of imagination. And this we don't even know the laws of all these kinds of things, but it's on the side of the corrupt properties. It's maybe not black magic itself, but it's very bound up with all that darker realm of the psychic, in which tombs can appear and all kinds of things.
But there's worse to come. The followers of Francis are very interesting because in them there comes out the logical conclusions of this new kind of spirituality, this new kind of sanctity. They see that there's some kind of new, even calls him a "new Christ," some kind of a new spirit enters into the world, new spirituality. And so, it is to one of his disciples, Joachim of Flores, that there appears this, actually for the first time, the concept of the Coming of the "Third Age of the Holy Spirit" which is the foundation of all modern philosophies of progress, chiliasm and the New Age. He himself obtained this revelation about this -- it was not by thinking it through -- it was in a vision. This very interesting book on Meaning in History gives a philosophy of history, of various people from the Middle Ages to modern times. And he [the author of Meaning in History] says the following about this:
"It was a decisive moment in the history of the Christian church when an Italian abbot, a renowned prophet and saint and man trained in the most austere discipline of the Cisterican Order, after arduous study and meditations in the wilderness of his Calabrian mountains received an inspiration at Pentecost (between 1190 and 1195)." Actually he wasn't a true disciple of Francis; he was at the same time, "revealing to him the signs of the times in the light of St. John's Revelation." He says, "When I awoke at dawn, I took to the Revelation of St. John. There, suddenly, the eyes of my spirit were struck with the lucidity of insight, and it was revealed to me the fulfillment of this book and the concordance of the Old and New Testaments." And he therefore has a whole new interpretation of what is the meaning of the Old and New Testaments.
"The general scheme of Joachim's discriminating interpretation is based on the Trinitarian doctrine. Three different dispensations come to pass in three different epochs in which the three persons of the Trinity are successively manifested. The first is the dispensation of the Father, the second that of the Son, the third that of the Holy Spirit. [The latter is just beginning now, i.e., toward the end of the twelfth century] and is progressing toward complete 'freedom' of the 'spirit.' The Jews were slaves under the law of the Father." That is the Old Testament. "The Christians of the second epoch were, though incompletely, spiritual and free, namely, in comparison with the moral legality of the first dispensation. In the third epoch, St. Paul's prophetic words will come true, that we know and prophesy now only in part, >but when that which is perfect is come, that which is in part shall be done away.'(I Cor. 13:9-10)"
And he says, Joachim, " 'Already we can apprehend the unveiling of the final liberation of the spirit in its plentitude.' The first epoch was inaugurated by Adam in fear and under the sign of the law; since Abraham, it has borne fruit to become fulfilled in Jesus Christ. The second [was inaugurated by Uzziah in faith and humility under the sign of the gospel] since Zechariah, the father of John the Baptist, it had borne fruit to become fulfilled in future times. The third was inaugurated by St. Benedict" -- because he was very monastically oriented -- "in love and joy under the sign of the Spirit; it will come to pass with the reappearance of Elijah at the end of the world…." The ages overlap.
ESPAÑOL:
Así que hemos visto en la Edad Media el racionalismo, la lógica, el reemplazo de la fe o asumir y moldear ahora la fe, convirtiéndose en el criterio, los elementos románticos entran en juego. Y ahora llegamos a un concepto muy importante que tal vez sea aún más importante que la Escolástica , porque al final esto hará más para lograr el Anticristo que la Escolástica. Este es el concepto de santidad que ahora se vuelve diferente del concepto ortodoxo de santidad. Y el mejor ejemplo de esto es la vida de Francisco de Asís.
El hecho de que este hombre se volviera tan popular, de hecho, tremendamente popular donde quiera que fuera, la gente daba vueltas, actuaba como si Cristo mismo viniera a ellos; y cantaron y lo acompañaron. Él despertó un gran entusiasmo, lo que demuestra que estaba muy en el espíritu de su época. Pero si miramos su vida, vemos que es tan extraño desde el punto de vista ortodoxo; y podemos decir que no es en absoluto una vida ortodoxa de un santo.
Por un lado, fundó una nueva forma de vida. Él inventó la regla de la pobreza porque en la iglesia un día se predicaba el Evangelio sobre la pobreza, sobre los Apóstoles que no llevaban nada con ellos cuando predicaban, aunque más tarde, por supuesto, los Apóstoles se llevaron dinero y demás. La primera vez que salieron fueron por dos a las ciudades predicando a los judíos y no se llevaron nada con ellos. Y escuchó esto en la iglesia y se inspiró para inventar una nueva regla, una nueva forma de vida, una regla de pobreza basada en el Evangelio, como si no hubiera una tradición monástica antes que él, que sí la había. Y había muchos grandes santos en este momento.
Y él se dio a si mismo y a sus seguidores nuevos nombres. Ahora no debían llamarse solo monjes, eran los "Penitentes de Asís" o los "Juglares del Señor", se llamaban a sí mismos, cantando. Entonces ya vemos que piensan que no son como los monjes y ascetas anteriores, sino algo nuevo, un nuevo espíritu que está muy de acuerdo con el espíritu de los tiempos.
Otro aspecto de su llamada "santidad." Un historiador suyo dice: "Su mismo ascetismo a menudo estaba vestido con la apariencia de romance." Entonces él corteja a la Señora Pobreza, piensa en ella como si fuera una persona real, y sigue cortejándola, como el novio, y por supuesto sobre la Hermana Muerte y todas estas personificaciones. Y un ejemplo muy típico de algo nuevo que no es para nada ortodoxo es lo que sucedió una vez cuando estaba enfermo. Él comió carne. Y una persona ortodoxa que no sea monje tal vez podría comer carne durante una enfermedad o algo así. Si lo hiciera, se sentiría arrepentido al respecto, pediría el perdón de Dios y sentiría que "no soy bueno de todos modos," y pediría que si lo hiciera, Dios lo perdonara. Pero no Francisco de Asís. En cambio, salió a predicar a la gente. Había una gran multitud, miles de personas como de costumbre, y él dijo: "Detente. Todos quédense aquí hasta que regrese". Y fue a la iglesia cercana, y obligó a dos de sus discípulos a hacer lo que les dijera por obediencia. Uno de ellos vertió sobre su cabeza cenizas, un balde lleno de cenizas; el segundo le colocó una soga alrededor del cuello y lo condujo afuera ante la gente que estaba esperando ver qué pasaría. Y aquí viene Francisco de Asís, guiado por una cuerda con cenizas en su cabeza negra, y los mira y dice: "Me consideras un santo, pero comí carne cuando estaba enfermo."
El p. H: Bueno, aquí hay un buen ejemplo: los tontos generales por el amor de Dios, hacen exactamente lo contrario. Actúan como locos para ser humillados ...
El p. S: Y, por supuesto, las personas que ya tienen nuevas ideas sobre la santidad dicen: "¡Oh, qué humilde es este hombre!" Y en realidad hay falsa humildad; Esto no es humildad. Y, de hecho, la clave de su santidad es el orgullo. Es consciente de sí mismo como un hombre santo. Él dijo: "No veo en mí ningún pecado que no haya expirado por confesión y arrepentimiento. Porque el Señor en Su misericordia me ha presentado el don de reconocer claramente en la oración aquello en lo que le he estado complaciendo y eso en lo cual no he sido agradable," es decir, la autosatisfacción espiritual. "Soy santo; he pecado, pero los he compensado con un cierto número de penitencias, y me obligo a arrastrarme ante la gente, y ahora sé que soy puro."
En su lecho de muerte, Francisco dice: "He aquí, Dios me llama, y perdono a todos mis hermanos presentes y ausentes de sus ofensas y errores, y remito sus pecados en la medida en que esto esté en mi poder." No era sacerdote, así que, incluso en ese sentido indirecto, no tenía poder; es decir, tenía algún tipo de reconocimiento en sí mismo del poder de la santidad por el cual puede remitir los pecados de las personas, lo cual es totalmente no ortodoxo. Y sus últimas palabras fueron: "He hecho lo que tenía que hacer. Regreso a Dios. Que Él se apiade de ti". Es decir, "soy perfecto; lo he hecho, he terminado, estoy perfectamente justificado."
Nuevamente, lo típico de este tipo de santidad es un incidente en su vida cuando supuestamente Cristo se le apareció en oración y le ofreció cualquier favor que pudiera desear. Esto ya es romance y todos los cuentos de hadas: tres deseos, etc. Pero este tipo de familiaridad de un santo con Dios es típico del engaño espiritual más hermoso. Y Francis pidió, ya que estaba muy abrumado por su amor por los hombres, que se otorgara una indulgencia plenaria a todos los que confiesen y visiten su capilla, en el centro de su Orden. Y Cristo estuvo de acuerdo, pero dijo que el Papa debe ratificarlo. El papa hizo esto. Y desde ese día hasta hoy, el 2 de agosto, puede obtener una indulgencia plenaria yendo a su capilla, recibiendo la confesión, lo que significa que no tendrá que sufrir las consecuencias temporales o temporales por sus pecados. Un sistema completamente nuevo de indulgencias, por supuesto, es exacto ya en este siglo XIII; Ya está ahí.
El p. S: Pero hay una cosa más, que es la característica más llamativa de esta llamada "santidad;" De hecho, la característica más llamativa de su engaño, es decir, imitaba a Cristo de manera externa. Cuando tuvo su primera, creo, siete discípulos o quizás doce, probablemente doce y comienza con siete. Los tomó juntos y los envió por dos y dos para ir a predicar el Evangelio: uno, dos, él mismo se fue a Francia, supuestamente a Francia, dos a otro lugar, Inglaterra, Italia, etc. Y usó las mismas palabras del Evangelio: te envío por dos y dos para que vayas y prediques el perdón de los pecados. En primer lugar, los envió a países cristianos y solo más tarde los envió a países no cristianos, como si estuviera enseñando un nuevo Evangelio, como si aún no se hubiera hecho, como si fuera un nuevo Cristo, enviando su propio personas que predican su evangelio; porque estos países ya tienen sus obispos o sacerdotes, todo el sistema, y los está enviando a estos mismos países que ya tienen su gobierno cristiano para predicar su evangelio. De hecho, van y encontraron la Orden Franciscana.
Nuevamente, justo antes de morir, le trajeron pan. Él bendijo el pan, lo partió y se lo dio a sus discípulos, y la vida de Francisco dice que recordó la comida sagrada que el Señor celebró con Sus discípulos por última vez; dándoles conscientemente una "última cena."
Este es un descaro que no se conoce en los verdaderos santos: que quieren tener el amor de Dios y quieren sufrir lo que Él sufrió al sentir la carne. Esto no es esfuerzo espiritual. Esta es una búsqueda de sensaciones corporales y el gran orgullo que sintió al desear sentir los mismos sentimientos de Dios. Y puedes contrastar esto con cualquiera: Cristo parece ser sagrado. Se le apareció a San Serafín mientras servía como diácono en la iglesia, y San Serafín no rezó, "se manifestó a mí" o "me hizo sentir lo que tú sentías". Estaba rezando en la iglesia; Cristo se le apareció. Y ni siquiera quería hablar de eso.
Y luego, cuando [Francisco] recibió los estigmas, hubo una visión de un serafín con Cristo crucificado superpuesto sobre él, que vino a él y que le mostraremos en uno de sus íconos, dispara rayos, rayos solares y le da los estigmas. Y en este momento, según su Vida, Francisco se sintió totalmente transformado en Jesús, lo cual es una blasfemia. Esa es la raíz de toda la espiritualidad católica: esta dulzura a la que Jesús se acerca, "Soy todo uno con Él y Él está conmigo," todo esto es lo más preciado.
Este tipo de santidad, la espiritualidad ya es mucho peor que el racionalismo del escolasticismo, porque esto significa que puedes tener a racionalistas enseñando en tus seminarios y seguir siendo una persona santa, aún aferrado a la fuente de la espiritualidad, pero cuando el El estándar de espiritualidad en sí mismo se convierte en esta cosa engañosa, presuntuosa, llena de orgullo, luego la raíz está completamente cerrada. Y así es, obviamente, que este tipo de espiritualidad, y esto ya es 1200, el final del undécimo, en el duodécimo, incluso el siglo XIII, cien años después del Cisma, 150 años después, el concepto de La espiritualidad es tan diferente de Oriente que [no hay] más contacto posible. Esto es lo que llamamos una persona engañada. Este sería un ejemplo clásico de una persona que vive en prelest.
Bueno, es obvio que esto simplemente estaba relacionado con el suyo, tenía un poder de imaginación muy fuerte. Y esto ni siquiera conocemos las leyes de todo este tipo de cosas, pero está del lado de las propiedades corruptas. Tal vez no sea magia negra en sí misma, pero está muy ligada a todo ese reino más oscuro de lo psíquico, en el que pueden aparecer tumbas y todo tipo de cosas.
"Fue un momento decisivo en la historia de la iglesia cristiana cuando un abad italiano, un famoso profeta y santo y hombre entrenado en la disciplina más austera de la orden cisterciense, después de un arduo estudio y meditaciones en el desierto de sus montañas de Calabria recibió un inspiración en Pentecostés (entre 1190 y 1195) ". En realidad no era un verdadero discípulo de Francisco; él estaba al mismo tiempo, "revelándole las señales de los tiempos a la luz del Apocalipsis de San Juan." Él dice: "Cuando desperté al amanecer, llevé al Apocalipsis de San Juan. Allí, de repente, los ojos de mi espíritu quedaron impactados con la lucidez de la comprensión, y se me reveló el cumplimiento de este libro y el concordancia del Antiguo y Nuevo Testamento." Y, por lo tanto, tiene una interpretación completamente nueva de cuál es el significado del Antiguo y Nuevo Testamento.
Y él dice, Joaquín, "'Ya podemos aprehender la revelación de la liberación final del espíritu en su plenitud'. La primera época fue inaugurada por Adán con miedo y bajo el signo de la ley; desde Abraham, ha dado sus frutos para cumplirse en Jesucristo. La segunda [fue inaugurada por Uzías en fe y humildad bajo el signo del evangelio] desde Zacarías, el padre de Juan el Bautista, había dado sus frutos para cumplirse en tiempos futuros. El tercero fue inaugurado por San Benito "porque estaba muy orientado monásticamente" en amor y alegría bajo la señal del Espíritu. ; sucederá con la reaparición de Elijah en el fin del mundo ... ". Las edades se superponen.
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