The Gospel ascetic is a witness and an apostle. That is why the monastic tradition, later than that of the desert, dwelt upon the letters of St. John, and insisted on love of neighbor and the ascesis of the heart. It is striking in its excess, not of fear, but of overflowing love and of cosmic tenderness “for every creature, even for reptiles and demons”
The “individual salvationist” who is concerned only with the salvation of his soul manifests a dangerous distortion. We can never keep ourselves alone before God; we are saved only together, “collegially”, as Solviev said: he will be saved who saves others. St. Dorotheus gives a beautiful and clear picture of salvation under the form of a circle. Its center is God, and all men are on the circumference. In directing themselves toward God, each one follows a ray from the circle, and the nearer he approaches the center, the nearer the rays are to one another. Thus the shortest distance between God and man passes through the neighbor. Those exclusively devoted to action should understand that the hermits, by their incessant prayer, intervened actively in history. The efficacy of all human action is dependent on the intercession of their prayer, on the flame of their prayer that they send into the heart of the world. They know that man cannot respond to the entreaties of earth, and that is why they become hermits. St. Isaac the Syrian (in his Sentences) said so to his disciple: “Here, my brother, is a commandment that I give you–let mercy turn the balance of your scales until the moment that you feel in yourself the mercy that God feels toward the world.” At this moment of maturity the recluse can return to the world.
Paul Evdokimov – The Ages of the Spiritual Life
