Who would not run this fair course of obedience?

Venerable John Climacus ~ The Ladder of Divine Ascent
Step 4 ~ On Obedience

¶ 105. From obedience comes humility, as we have already said earlier. From humility comes discernment as the great Cassian has said with beautiful and sublime philosophy in his chapter on discernment. From discernment comes clairvoyance, and from clairvoyance comes foreknowledge. And who would not run this fair course of obedience, seeing such blessings in store for him? It was of this great virtue of obedience that the good Psalmist said: Thou hast in Thy goodness prepared for the poor, obedient soul, O God, Thy presence in his heart.

Be zealous within your soul, not outwardly

Venerable John Climacus ~ The Ladder of Divine Ascent
Step 4 ~ On Obedience

¶ 82. Be zealous within your soul, without showing it in the least outwardly, either by visible sign or by word or by a hint. And you will only do this when you stop looking down on your neighbour. But if you are still inclined to do this, become like your brethren so that you do not differ from them simply in being conceited.

Struggles of those in obedience

Venerable John Climacus ~ The Ladder of Divine Ascent
Step 4 ~ On Obedience

¶58. The devil battles with those in obedience, sometimes to defile them with bodily pollutions, and make them hard hearted, and sometimes make them more agitated than usual. At other times, he makes them dry and barren, sluggish in prayer, drowsy and benighted, in order to tear them away from their struggle by making them think they have gained nothing by their obedience, but are only backsliding. For he does not allow them time to reflect that often providential withdrawal of our imagined goods or blessings leads us to the deepest humility.

How obedience leads to humility

Venerable John Climacus ~ The Ladder of Divine Ascent
Step 4 ~ On Obedience

¶55. I once asked one of the most experienced fathers, and pressed him to tell me how humility is obtained by obedience. He said: ‘The obedient man who has discernment, even if he raises the dead and receives the gift of tears and freedom from conflict, will still think that it is the prayer of his spiritual father that has done it, and he remains foreign and alien to vain presumption. For how could he possibly pride himself on what is done, as he himself admits, by the help of his father, and not by his own effort?’
¶56. But the practice of the above virtues is unknown to the solitary. For his rigours have brought him conceit and suggest to him that his achievements are due to his own effort.
¶57. He who lives in obedience has eluded two snares and remains eternally an obedient servant of Christ.

Obedient even when our spiritual father is absent

Venerable John Climacus ~ The Ladder of Divine Ascent
Step 4 ~ On Obedience

¶54. When in the absence of the superior we imagine his face and think that he is always standing by us, and avoid every meeting, or word, or food, or sleep, or anything else that we think he would not like, then we have really learnt true obedience. Base-born children regard the absence of their teacher as a joy, but legitimate ones think it a loss.

Confession restrains further sin

Venerable John Climacus ~ The Ladder of Divine Ascent
Step 4 ~ On Obedience

¶53. By resolving to make one’s confession, the soul is thereby held from sinning as by a bridle. For what we do not confess, that we do fearlessly as though in the dark.

When our spiritual father gives us a task

Venerable John Climacus ~ The Ladder of Divine Ascent
Step 4 ~ On Obedience

¶51. If, without constraint, anyone receives some task from his father, and in doing it suffers a stumble, he should not ascribe the blame to the giver but to the receiver of the weapon. For he took the weapon for battle against the enemy, but has turned it against his own heart. But if he forced himself for the Lord’s sake to accept the task, though he previously explained his weakness to him who gave it, let him take courage; for though he has fallen, he is not dead.

The conscience of one truly obedient

Venerable John Climacus ~ The Ladder of Divine Ascent
Step 4 ~ On Obedience

¶50. If anyone has his conscience in the utmost purity in the matter of obedience to his spiritual father, then he daily awaits death as if it were sleep, or rather life, and is not dismayed, knowing for certain that at the time of his departure, not he, but his director, will be called to account.

He who is not submissive

Venerable John Climacus ~ The Ladder of Divine Ascent
Step 4 ~ On Obedience

¶49. He who is not submissive in speech, clearly will not be so in act either. For he who is unfaithful in little is also unfaithful in much, and is intractable. He labours in vain, and he will get nothing from holy obedience but his own doom.

He whose desire in conversation is to establish his own opinion

Venerable John Climacus ~ The Ladder of Divine Ascent
Step 4 ~ On Obedience

¶48. He whose will and desire in conversation is to establish his own opinion, even though what he says is true, should recognize that he is sick with the devil’s disease. And if he behaves like this only in conversation with his equals, then perhaps the rebuke of his superiors may heal him. But if he acts in this way even with those who are greater and wiser than he, then his malady is humanly incurable.

A man will know that he loves his brother when

Venerable John Climacus ~ The Ladder of Divine Ascent
Step 4 ~ On Obedience

¶47. A man will know his brotherly love and his genuine charity when he sees that he mourns for his brother’s sins, and rejoices at his progress and gifts.

He who exposes every snake

Venerable John Climacus ~ The Ladder of Divine Ascent
Step 4 ~ On Obedience

¶46. He who exposes every snake shows that he has real faith; but he who hides them still wanders in trackless wastes.

Spiritually show God your faith in your spiritual father

Venerable John Climacus ~ The Ladder of Divine Ascent
Step 4 ~ On Obedience

¶45. Spiritually show God your faith in your father and your sincere love for him. And God, in unknown ways, will suggest to him that he become attached to you and kindly disposed towards you, just as you are well disposed towards him.

Acceptance of reproof leads to remission of sins

Venerable John Climacus ~ The Ladder of Divine Ascent
Step 4 ~ On Obedience

¶44. Blessed is he who, though maligned and disparaged every day for the Lord’s sake, constrains himself to be patient. He will join the chorus of the martyrs, and boldly converse with the angels. Blessed is the monk who regards himself as hourly deserving every dishonour and disparagement. Blessed is he who mortifies his will to the end, and leaves the care of himself to his director in the Lord; for he will be placed at the right hand of the Crucified. He who will not accept a reproof, just or unjust, renounces his own salvation. But he who accepts it with an effort, or even without an effort, will soon receive the remission of his sins.

Sorrow transformed into joy

Venerable John Climacus ~ The Ladder of Divine Ascent
Step 4 ~ On Obedience

¶43. When we are stung by rebukes, let us remember our sins until the Lord, seeing the force of our efforts (the efforts of those who do violence to themselves for His sake), wipes out our sins and transforms the sorrow that is gnawing at our heart into joy. For it is said: According to the multitude of the sorrows in my heart, Thy consolations brought gladness into my soul. At the right time, let us not forget him who said to the Lord: How great are the many and evil afflictions which Thou hast showed unto me; yet, having returned, Thou madest me to live, and out of the depths of the earth, after I had fallen, Thou broughtest me up.

Admire the labours of the saints

Venerable John Climacus ~ The Ladder of Divine Ascent
Step 4 ~ On Obedience

¶42. To admire the labours of the saints is good; to emulate them wins salvation; but to wish suddenly to imitate their life in every point is unreasonable and impossible.

Perfect obedience will escape judgment

Venerable John Climacus ~ The Ladder of Divine Ascent
Step 4 ~ On Obedience

¶9. He who submits himself, passes sentence on himself. If his obedience for the Lord’s sake is perfect, even if it does not seem perfect, he will escape judgment. But if he does his own will in some things, then although he considers himself obedient, he lays the burden on his own shoulders. It is good if the superior does not cease reproving him; but if he is silent, then I do not know what to say. Those who submit themselves in the Lord in simplicity run the good race without provoking the cunning of the demons against themselves by their exacting investigations.

Blessed obedience is confession of faith

Venerable John Climacus ~ The Ladder of Divine Ascent
Step 4 ~ On Obedience

¶8. The fathers have laid down that psalmody is a weapon, and prayer is a wall, and honest tears are a bath; but blessed obedience in their judgment is confession of faith, without which no one subject to passions will see the Lord.

How to trust our spiritual father

Venerable John Climacus ~ The Ladder of Divine Ascent
Step 4 ~ On Obedience

¶7. It is absolutely indispensable for those of us who wish to retain undoubting faith in our superiors to write their good deeds indelibly in our hearts and constantly remember them, so that when the demons sow among us lack of faith in them, we may be able to silence them by what is preserved in our memory. For the more faith flourishes in the heart, the more alacrity the body has in service. But he who has stumbled on distrust has already fallen; for all that does not spring from faith is sin. The moment any thought of judging or condemning your superior occurs to you, leap away from it as from fornication. Whatever you do, give that snake no licence, no place, no entry, no power; but say to that serpent: ‘Listen, deceiver, I have no authority to judge of my superior, but he has been appointed to sit in judgment on me. It is not I who am to be his judge, but he is deputed to be mine.’

How to find our spiritual father

Venerable John Climacus ~ The Ladder of Divine Ascent
Step 4 ~ On Obedience

¶6. When motives of humility and real longing for salvation incite us to bend our neck and entrust ourselves to another in the Lord, before entering upon this life, if there is any cleverness and prudence in us, we ought first to question and examine, and even, so to speak, test our helmsman, so as not to mistake the sailor for the pilot, a sick man for a doctor, a passionate for a dispassionate man, the sea for a harbor, and so bring about the speedy shipwreck of our soul. But when once we have entered the arena of piety and obedience, we must no longer judge our good manager in any way at all, even though we may perhaps see in him some slight failings, since he is only human. Otherwise, by sitting in judgment we shall get no profit from our subjection.