A Ladder from Earth to Heaven

As ever-blooming fruits, you offer the teachings of your God-given book, O wise John, most blessed, while sweetening the hearts of all them that heed it with vigilance; for it is a ladder from the earth unto Heaven that confers glory on the souls that ascend it and honor you faithfully. — KONTAKION OF ST. JOHN CLIMACUS

St. John Climacus entered the ascetic arena in his teenage years, struggled as a hermit for 40 years, and then became abbot of the monastery in Sinai. He wrote the Ladder of Divine Ascent in the sixth century.

The Ladder of Divine Ascent is most likely the foremost ascetical text in the Orthodox Church. We often think of the ascetical life as individual effort; an examination of conscience, a striving against the fallen passions, or sinful habits, to be formed more in the image of Christ. The ascetical life is often and rightly associated in our minds with the monastic life, though it is not the exclusive purview of monks and nuns, for all Christians are called to live the ascetical life.

And yet, one of the greatest ascetics of all time and the father of monastics, St. Anthony the Great, said, “Our life and death is with our neighbor.” The ascetical life, as given to us by St. John, is indeed focused on our interior struggle against the flesh, the world, and the devil. However, the ascetical life is not an end itself. The highest rung is love, and love primarily is about our neighbor. That is the end to which the ascetical life is given to us, so that we might overcome ourselves to better love God and our neighbor.

This week’s reflection is written by Rev. Father Gregory Hohnholt, of Holy Trinity Cathedral in Carmel, Indiana

Icon courtesy of the Temple Gallery