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가. A LIST OF THE PASSIONS by Saint Peter of Damaskos
The passions are:
harshness,
trickery,
malice,
perversity,
mindlessness,
licentiousness,
enticement,
dullness,
lack of understanding,
idleness,
sluggishness,
stupidity,
flattery,
silliness,
idiocy,
madness,
derangement,
coarseness,
rashness,
cowardice,
lethargy,
dearth of good actions,
moral errors,
greed,
over-frugality,
ignorance,
folly,
spurious knowledge,
forgetfulness,
lack of discrimination,
obduracy,
injustice,
evil intention,
a conscienceless soul,
slothfulness,
idle chatter,
breaking of faith,
wrongdoing,
sinfulness,
lawlessness,
criminality,
passion,
seduction,
assent to evil,
mindless coupling,
demonic provocation,
dallying,
bodily comfort beyond what is required,
vice,
stumbling,
sickness of soul,
enervation,
weakness of intellect,
negligence,
laziness,
a reprehensible despondency,
disdain of God,
aberration,
transgression,
unbelief,
lack of faith,
wrong belief,
poverty of faith,
heresy,
fellowship in heresy,
polytheism,
idolatry,
ignorance of God,
impiety,
magic,
astrology,
divination,
sorcery,
denial of God,
the love of idols,
dissipation,
profligacy,
loquacity,
indolence,
self-love,
inattentiveness,
lack of progress,
deceit,
delusion,
audacity,
witchcraft,
defilement,
the eating of unclean food,
soft living,
dissoluteness,
voracity,
unchastity,
avarice,
anger,
dejection,
listlessness,
self-esteem,
pride,
presumption,
self-elation,
boastfulness,
infatuation,
foulness,
satiety,
doltishness,
torpor,
sensuality,
over-eating,
gluttony,
insatiability,
secret eating,
hoggishness,
solitary eating,
indifference,
fickleness,
self-will,
thoughtlessness,
self-satisfaction,
love of popularity,
ignorance of beauty,
uncouthness,
gaucherie,
lightmindedness,
boorishness,
rudeness,
contentiousness,
quarrelsomeness,
abusiveness,
shouting,
brawling,
fighting,
rage,
mindless desire,
gall,
exasperation,
giving offence,
enmity,
meddlesomeness,
chicanery,
asperity,
slander,
censure,
calumny,
condemnation,
accusation,
hatred,
railing,
insolence,
dishonour,
ferocity,
frenzy,
severity,
aggressiveness,
forswearing oneself,
oathtaking,
lack of compassion,
hatred of one's brothers,
partiality,
patricide,
matricide,
breaking fasts,
laxity,
acceptance of bribes,
theft,
rapine,
jealousy,
strife,
envy,
indecency,
jesting,
vilification,
mockery,
derision,
exploitation,
oppression,
disdain of one's neighbour,
flogging,
making sport of others,
hanging,
throttling,
heartlessness,
implacability,
covenant-breaking,
bewitchment,
harshness,
shamelessness,
impudence,
obfuscation of thoughts,
obtuseness,
mental blindness,
attraction to what is fleeting,
impassionedness,
frivolity,
disobedience,
dullwittedness,
drowsiness of soul,
excessive sleep,
fantasy,
heavy drinking,
drunkenness,
uselessness,
slackness,
mindless enjoyment,
self-indulgence,
venery,
using foul language,
effeminacy,
unbridled desire,
burning lust,
masturbation,
pimping,
adultery,
sodomy,
bestiality,
defilement,
wantonness,
a stained soul,
incest,
uncleanliness,
pollution,
sordidness,
feigned affection,
laughter,
jokes,
immodest dancing,
clapping,
improper songs,
revelry,
fluteplaying,
license of tongue,
excessive love of order,
insubordination,
disorderliness,
reprehensible collusion,
conspiracy,
warfare,
killing,
brigandry,
sacrilege,
illicit gains,
usury,
wiliness,
grave-robbing,
hardness of heart,
obloquy,
complaining,
blasphemy,
fault-finding,
ingratitude,
malevolence,
contemptuousness,
pettiness,
confusion,
lying,
verbosity,
empty words,
mindless joy,
daydreaming,
mindless friendship,
bad habits,
nonsensicality,
silly talk,
garrulity,
niggardliness,
depravity,
intolerance,
irritability,
affluence,
rancour,
misuse,
ill-temper,
clinging to life,
ostentation,
affectation,
pusillanimity,
satanic love,
curiosity,
contumely,
lack of the fear of God,
unteachability,
senselessness,
haughtiness,
self-vaunting,
self-inflation,
scorn for one's neighbour,
mercilessness,
insensitivity,
hopelessness,
spiritual paralysis,
hatred of God,
despair,
suicide,
a falling away from God in all things,
utter destruction -- altogether 298 passions.
These, then, are the passions which I have found named in the Holy Scriptures. I have set them down in a single list, as I did at the beginning of my discourse with the various books I have used. I have not tried, nor would I have been able, to arrange them all in order; this would have been beyond my powers, for the reason given by St. John Klimakos: 'If you seek understanding in wicked men, you will not find it.' For all that the demons produce is disorderly. In common with the godless and the unjust, the demons have but one purpose: to destroy the souls of those who accept their evil counsel. Yet sometimes they actually help men to attain holiness. In such instances they are conquered by the patience and faith of those who put their trust in the Lord, and who through their good actions and resistance to evil thoughts counteract the demons and bring down curses upon them.
A LIST OF THE PASSIONS, Saint Peter of Damaskos
The Philokalia; The Complete Text compiled by St. Nikodimos of the Holy Mountain and St. Makarios of Corinth, Volume Three
나. What are the Passions and How to Fight Them?
In order to understand what the passions are and how the Church defines them, let us see how Saint Basil the Great explains them. He starts first by defining what is a virtue, which is when we take the faculties and gifts that God created inside us when He created us in His image and use those same faculties and gifts to be able to turn towards God and to turn into His likeness. Contrary to this is what the passions are: we take those same faculties and gifts and turn toward something that is temporal, that is created, instead of using them towards the Creator. Thus, our passions and pleasures, grow and develop inside us.
After defining virtues and passions, we must now understand where passions came from. They were never part of the original image of God that was placed inside of humanity. Therefore, what the Christian has to realize is that virtue is what is natural, and the unnatural is seeing passions develop inside the human being, as we have mentioned earlier. However, in today’s generation, the belief that is spread is that weaknesses, brokenness, and passions are natural, “normal.” Nevertheless, the Church does not adopt that kind of language. As a matter of fact, it is not natural, neither normal, for us to give in to the passions. It is when humanity fell and distanced itself from God and from His goodness that passions came to be. We let ourselves exposed to the evil that could occur inside us. Saint Macarius the Great says the following: “Through the first man’s (Adam) disobedience, we received in ourselves an element alien (foreign) to our nature: the malice of the passions, which having passed into habit and inveterate (deeply engrained) disposition has become our nature.” What he is saying is that through the introduction of sin, passions came, and suddenly our nature changed. Unfortunately, what was once unnatural has become something we are nowadays used to.
Now, what do the passions do to us? What we see is that when a person is overtaken by his/her passions, something inside him/her happens, and that something is unruly. It becomes an addiction, so he/she acts in a way that is unnatural. Thus, this is a struggle and there comes a state of illness. The Fathers of the Church speak of passions as if they turned a person mad (madness, craziness). Why? Because passion pushes people to do things that naturally they themselves would not do. We see this very clearly depicted in the words of Saint Paul the Apostle in Romans 7:15-20. Saint Paul presents us a very sad image of the tragedy that happens to the human being when passions take over.
Now what are these passions? Although the list can be exhaustive, the Church names eight of them: self-love, gluttony, lust, love of money and greed, sadness, acedia (sloth & dejection or apthy and boredom anger, fear, vainglory, and pride. They are all interconnected.
How can we then fight those passions? The Church offers many solutions that we see in Her traditions when we read the Church Fathers. We even see in the lives of the saints that there is hope for us to conquer these passions. The Lord has promised us so since He conquered the world. In the morning prayer of the Agpeya, in the second litany, the prayer is a clear request from every believer to raise their heart to God and to ask Him to inspire them and conquer over these passions. Furthermore, the Church Fathers, whom we consider heroes of our faith, have also left us the example on how it is that we can conquer. The writings of Saint John Cassian presents this clearly: “Like skilful doctors who not only treat existing diseases, but also know how to prevent future ones and to take precautions with wise advice and medicine, in the same way these true doctors of the soul treat the emerging diseases of the heart in advance with their spiritual teaching like a heavenly antidote, and do not allow them to grow in the minds of the young ones, instructing them both in the causes of their present temptations and the means to cure them.” In future videos, we will explore these passions in details, one by one, how they manifest and how to cure them.
다. 나는 사랑하기 때문에 사랑하고,사랑하기 위해서 사랑합니다.
사랑은 그 자체로 만족을 줍니다.
사랑은 다른 것 때문이 아닌 그 자체로 마음에 드는 것입니다.
사랑은 그 자체로 공로도 되고 상급도 됩니다.
사랑은 그 자체 말고는 다른 이유나 열매를 필요로 하지 않습니다.
사랑의 열매는 사랑하는 것-바로 그것입니다.
나는 사랑하기 때문에 사랑하고 사랑하기 위해서 사랑합니다.
사랑은 보배로운 것입니다.
그러나 사랑이 참된 사랑이라면 자신의 시초로 되돌아가고
자신의 기원으로 돌아서며 자신의 원천으로 되흘러가야 합니다.
거기에서 항상 자신의 물줄기를 받아야 합니다.
사람은 많은 지향과 감정과 정을 지니고 있지만 그 가운데서 피조물은
사랑을 통해서만 창조주께 보답해 드릴 수 있습니다.
비록 창조주께서 우리에게 해주신 것과 같은 정도로는 못하지만
그래도 사랑을 통하여 같은 방법으로 보답해 드릴 수 있습니다.
하느님께서 누구를 사랑하실 때 그 보답으로 사랑만을 원하십니다.
하느님께서 사람들이 당신을 사랑함으로써 행복을 누릴 수 있다는 것을 아시고,
사랑하실 때 사랑을 받으시는 것 외에 다른 목적을 두지 않으십니다.
신랑의 사랑은, 즉 사랑이신 신랑은 보답으로 다만 사랑과 성실을 찾습니다.
따라서 사랑을 받는 사람은 보답으로 사랑할 수 있습니다.
사랑 자체이신 분의 신부가 사랑하지 않을 수 있겠습니까?
사랑 자체께서 사랑받지 못하면 되겠습니까?
신부는 자신의 모든 여타의 정을 포기해 버리고 자신의 전존재로
사랑에게만 헌신합니다.
신부는 보답으로 사랑을 줌으로써 사랑에 응답할 수 있습니다.
그러나 그가 사랑 안에 자신의 전존재를 쏟아 낸다 해도
이것은 영원한 사랑의 원천에서 흘러 나오는 그 분출에 비하면
아무것도 아닙니다.
물론 사랑하는 사람과 사랑 자체이신 분, 영혼과 말씀이신 그리스도,
신부와 신랑, 피조물과 창조주, 그리고 목마른 사람과 샘에서 흘로
나오는 사랑은 그 풍요성에서 동일하지 않습니다.
그런데 동일하지 않다 해서, 즉 경주에 있어서 거인과,
단맛에 있어서 꿀과,온유함에 있어서 어린 양과, 순결에 있어 백합화와,
광채에 있어 태양과, 그리고 사랑에 있어서 사랑 자체이신 분과
겨루지 못한다 해서 혼인하는 이의 욕망과 애통하는 이의 갈망과
사랑하는 이의 열정과간청하는 이의 희망이 사라지고 만다는 말입니까?
그렇지 않습니다.
피조물이 창조주보다 더 작아서 그분보다 덜 사랑한다 해도
힘을 다해 사랑한다면 부족함이 없고 있을 것이 다 있습니다.
그래서 이렇게 사랑하는 이는 주님과 혼인했습니다.
이 정도 사랑을 베푸는 사람은 사랑을 받지 않을 수 없기 때문입니다.
완전한 혼인이란 양 배우자가 서로 합의하는 것입니다.
말씀이신 주님께서 먼저 또 더 위대하게 사랑하셨다는 것을
누가 의심하겠습니까?
- 성 베르나르도 아빠스의 [아가에 대한 강론]에서
라. 성 베르나르도의 사랑의 4 단계
On Loving God, St. Bernard of Clairvaux points toward a spiritual theme of journey and self-knowledge. By doing so, he describes four degrees of love.
In the first degree,
man loves himself for his own sake.
Here, Bernard laments that “since we are carnal and born of carnal desire, it is unavoidable that our desire and love should begin with the body and if it is rightly directed, it will then proceed by grace through certain stages, until the spirit is fulfilled.” (XV.39) Within this first state, man serves nature and pursues a bodily love that Bernard notes “will cease to be satisfied in the narrow channel.” (VIII.23) As such, man necessarily finds himself struggling for meaning within a material world where more is necessarily an improvement over his prior reality. By his adherence to the first precept (to pursue that which is good) of the Natural Law, man attempts to pilot his aircraft via visual-flight rules. Nevertheless, his attempts to share his material abundance with neighbors, while noble, will ultimately fail to bring about a true and perfect justice. As Bernard writes: “To love one’s neighbor with perfect justice, it is necessary to be prompted by God. How can you love your neighbor with purity if you do not love him in God? God brings about your love for him, just as he causes other goods.” (VIII.25)
In the second degree,
man loves God for his own good.
At this juncture, man moves toward an understanding that “seeds of faith” have been given him and “that he cannot be the author of his own existence.” (XV.39) In developing an awareness that God is not only the author of life, but also his protector, there is a shift. Man begins to recognize God.
In the third degree,
man loves God for God’s sake.
in describing this love as chaste and trusting, Bernard recalls the Psalmist (33:9). As man tastes and sees the goodness of the Lord, he is moved toward a deeper form of love and begins to detach himself from his former finite understanding of love. By trusting in the Lord because He is good (Ps 117:1), “we love God for God’s sake and not our own.” (IX.26)
In the fourth degree,
man loves himself for the sake of God. According to St. Bernard, this “…seems impossible. If anyone has experience of it, let him say so. But I have no doubt that that is how it will be when the good and faithful servant is led into the joy of his Lord (Mt 25:21) and intoxicated by the riches of the house of God (Ps 35:9).” (XV.39) As St. Paul declares: “If we have known Christ according to the flesh, we have not known him.” (1 Cor 5:16) Furthermore, “No one knows himself according to the flesh, for flesh and blood will not possess the kingdom of God.” (1 Cor 15:50) At this, St. Bernard exclaims that “our weak human affections will be changed into divine affections.” (XV.39)
성 베르나르도의 사랑의 4단계
1. 내 자신을 위해 나를 사랑하는 것
2. 나를 위해 하느님을 사랑하는 것
3. 하느님을 위해 하느님을 사랑하는 것
4. 하느님을 위해 자기를 사랑하는 것
마. 성 베르나르도 사랑의 4단계 The Four Degrees of Love
St. Bernard of Clairvaux (1090 – 1153) was a monk who was very influential in his day and has been ever since. Even the Protestant Reformers, including John Calvin and Martin Luther, looked back on his writings with fondness and respect. Among his most popular writings is a treatise called On the Love of God. There, we find a wonderful little document examining the why’s and how’s of loving God. Early on, he describes four levels (or degrees) of loving God. Let’s take a look at them.
The 1st Degree: Loving Yourself For Your Own Sake (Selfish Love)
The love of self, as St. Bernard observes, “is not imposed by a command but it is implanted in nature, for who ‘ever hated his own flesh?’ (Eph. 5:29). But truly if this love, natural as it is, begins to be too precipitate or too lavish and is not at all satisfied with the riverbed of necessity, overflowing rather widely, it will be seen to invade the fields of pleasure. At once its overflow is held in check by the commandment that opposes itself to it: ‘You shall love your neighbors as yourself’ (Matt. 22:39).”
We need to be awakened to love for God by hearing his commands and observing his acts of love toward us. As Psalm 146 puts it, “You [God] open your hand and satisfy the desire of every living thing.” St. Bernard continues, “There is no doubt, surely, that He who is not absent in the midst of plenty will gladly be present in the time of need. He says ‘Seek first the Kingdom of Heaven and these other things will be given to you besides’ (Luke 12:32). He promises that He will, of His own accord, give whatever is necessary to him who restricts himself in superfluities and loves his neighbor.
This twofold work of God’s law (restricting our sinfulness) and God’s grace (tugging at our heart) brings us to the second degree of love.
The 2nd Degree: Loving God for Your Own Blessing (Dependence on God)
St. Bernard describes the second degree as loving “God but still for a time for one’s own sake, not for God’s. It is, however, a sort of prudence to know what you are able to do by yourself, and what you are able to do with God’s help, and to preserve yourself guiltless for Him who keeps you unharmed.”
There is a dynamic of struggle that seems to characterize this stage of love for God. On one hand, you have willfully committed yourself to loving God, yet you realize that you aren’t able to love God with all your heart. You see that you never measure up, you always fall short, and you need God’s help just to hang on, let alone to grow in love.
Our progress through this second degree love, comes from frequent time spent before God. Especially in the worship of the Church, where we receive Christ through His Word & Sacrament, we “taste and see how good is the Lord” (Psalm 34:9). And, as St. Bernard says, “when once His sweetness has been tasted, it draws us to the pure love of God more than our need impels.”
The 3rd Degree: Loving God for God’s Own Sake (Intimacy with God)
“Just as in the case of the Samaritans who said, speaking to the women who had announced that the Lord had come, ‘We no longer believe because of your word, for we have heard for ourselves and we know that this is the Savior of the world’ (John 4:42), similarly, I say, we too, following their example, speaking to our flesh we may justly say: We now love God, not from your necessity; for we ourselves have tasted and know how sweet is the Lord.”
The witness of our own hearts, minds, and bodies, that we need God for everything, including loving Him properly, is a basic witness that gets us started, but it is the grace of God Himself that lifts us from the second degree of love, characterized by dependence on God, to the third degree of love, characterized rather by intimacy. 1 Peter 1:22 says, “Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly love, love one another earnestly from a pure heart, since you have been born again… through the living and abiding word of God.” This sincere and earnest love, loving God for the sake of God alone, is beyond our natural ability; it comes only through the rebirth given by the Holy Spirit.
St. Bernard gives an interesting description of this third degree of love. “This love is deservedly acceptable because it is disinterested – not offered with a view to obtaining more favors.” ‘Disinterested’ love highlights that love has no agenda. This level of love no longer seeks gain from God, but only to enjoy Him. “Give praise to the Lord, for He is good,” Psalm 118 begins. It doesn’t say God is good to me; God just is good.
The 4th Degree: Self-Love for God’s Sake (Being United with God’s Love)
And yet there is a more perfect way, St. Bernard describes. “Happy is he who has deserved to attain as high as the fourth degree where a man does not love even himself except for the sake of God.” This doesn’t mean we cease to care about our own existence, exactly, nor does it presume that we somehow become so important to God that he needs us. Rather, the love of God becomes our everything. Perhaps some quotes from Scripture can help describe this.
1 Corinthians 6:17, 19-20a “But he who is joined to the Lord becomes one spirit with him… do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price.”
Psalm 73:25-26 “Whom have I in heaven but you? And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.”
Proverbs 16:4 “God has made all things for Himself.”
Our prayer will be “Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven” (Matthew 6:10).
St. Bernard also argues, “Otherwise, how will ‘God be all in all’ (1 Cor. 15:28) if in man there is left anything at all of himself? The substance, indeed, will remain, but in another form, another glory, another power. Man’s human nature and individual identity will remain, transfigured.” When will all this happen? Is it even possible in this life? St. Bernard believed that this fourth degree of love “will not come to pass with perfect fulfillment… until the heart itself is no longer compelled to think about the body, and the soul ceases to have to attend to quickening the body and to providing it with sense-perception, and the body’s strength freed from vexations is made strong in the power that is of God. For it is wholly impossible to concentrate all these, heart, mind, and virtue, upon God and to hold them fixed upon His Face so long as it is necessary for them… to be subject to this frail and wretched body. And so, in a spiritual and immortal body (as promised in 1 Cor. 15:44), in a body perfect, calm, and acceptable, and in all things subject to the spirit, let the soul hope to apprehend the fourth degree of love, or rather, to be apprehended in it.”
바. 영 혼 육
인간은 영(spirit, 루아흐, 프네우마 ),혼(soul, 네페쉬, 프시케),육(body, 바살, 소마)으로 이루어져있다.(1테5,23)
육; 외적 인간(outer man), 오관능력(the five senses, 눈 귀 코 입 촉각)...physical part.(2고린 4.16 외적인간은 낡아지지만)... 인간이 외부물질세계나 다른 이와 접촉하고 만나고 받아들일 수 있는 능력이자 영역.
혼; 내적 인간(inner man), 의식의 영역 (지성, 의지, 감정, 기억, 상상능력) 자기를 둘러싼 것들을 의식하고 자각하는 정신세계인, 동시에 또한 바로 내 자신이 누구인가 하는 인격의 자리로 (에페 3,16당신 영으로 내적 인간으로 굳세어지게) 오관의 문을 통해 들어온 것을 내적으로 우리가 의식하고 자각하게 된다. 그러나 이 혼만으로는 하느님을 다 알 수가 없는 것이다.
*혼과 영의 다름은 히브리서4,12-13(하느님의 말씀은 살아있고 힘이 있으며 어떤 쌍날칼보다 날칼로와 영과 혼을 갈라놓고...)
영; 인간의 가장 심오한 영역이다.( the innermost part. hidden man of the heart 1베3,4 ) 영은 인간의 최상위 기관이 셈이다. (양심, 직관능력, 대신덕 즉 믿음, 희망, 사랑) 이 영으로 인간은 혼의 생각과 뜻에 대해 인식할 수있고 또 동의하거나 거부할 수 있게 된다. 하느님께서 인간 안에 만든 창조질서는 영은 혼을, 혼은 육을 다스리도록 만들어진 것이다. 만일 육이 혼을 다스리거나 혼이 영을 지배하게 되면 모든 것이 창조질서를 어기고 거꾸로 움직이게 되고 모든 것이 길을 잃게 된다. 성서 상 가장 비슷한 것은 ‘마음’이라 할 수 있다.-하느님이 머무는 곳이고 하느님의 신방 (to know God, to love God, to choose God freely )이다. 이 영으로 영이신 하느님을 인식하게 되고(1고2,1:하느님의 영 말고 누가 그분에 관한 것을 알 수 있단 말인가.) 하느님을 만나게 되며(믿음 희망 사랑의 덕) 하느님과 친교(1요한1,13)를 맺을 수 있는 능력을 갖게 된다. 우리에게 영적인 영역이 없다면 본래 순수 영이신 하느님과 우리가 소통하거나 통교할 수 없는 것이다.
영이 들어감으로써 혼이 살아 움직이는 생명체가 된다.(주님께서 땅의 진흙으로 인간을 빚으시고 그 의 콧구멍에 생명의 숨, 즉 영을 불어넣으시자 비로소 인간은 살아있는 존재가 되었다. )
우리 생명의 근원으로 우리가 어떻게 생각하고 행동하는 원하는 그 방식으로 생각과 행동과 동기의 근원인 것이다. 영이 바뀌면 생각과 행동방식이 다 바뀌게 된다.
사. 유혹의 6단계 (그리스어 포함)
Temptation (πειρασμος — peirasmos): also translated in our version as ‘trial’ or ‘test’. The word indicates, according to context: (i) a test or trial sent to man by God, so as to aid his progress on the spiritual way; (ii) a suggestion from the devil, enticing man to sin.
Using the word in sense (ii), the Greek Fathers employ a series of technical terms to describe the process of temptation. (See in particular Mark the Ascetic, On the Spiritual Law, 138-41, in vol. i of our translation, pp. 119-2-; John Klimakos, Ladder, Step 15, translated by Archimandrite Lazarus [op.cit., pp. 157-9; Maximos, On Love, i, 83-84, in vol. ii of our translation, pp. 62-63; John of Damaskos, On the Virtues and vices, also in vol. ii of out translation, pp. 337-8.) The basic distinction made by these fathers is between the demonic provocation and man’s assent: the first lies outside of man’s control, while for the second he is morally responsible. In detail, the chief terms employed are as follows:
(i) Provocation (προβολη — proslovi): the initial incitement to evil. Mark the Ascetic defines this as an ‘image-free stimulation in the heart’; so long as the provocation is not accompanied by images, it does not involve man in any guilt. Such provocations, originating as the devil, assail man from the outside, and so he is not morally responsible for them. His liability to these provocations is not a consequence of the fall: even in paradise, Mark maintains, Adam was assailed by the devil’s provocations. Man cannot prevent provocations from occurring; what does lie in his power, however, is to maintain constant watchfulness (q.v.) and so reject each provocation as soon as it emerges into his consciousness — that is to say, at its first appearance as a thought in his mind or intellect (μονολογιστος εμφασις — monologistos emphasis). If he does reject the provocation, the sequence is cut off and the process of temptation is terminated.
(ii) Momentary disturbance (παραρριπισμος — pararripismos) of the intellect, occurring ‘without any movement or working of bodily passion’ (see Mark, Letter to Nicholas the Solitary: in out translation, vol. i, p. 153). This seems to be more than the ‘first appearance’ of a provocation described in stage (i) above; for, at a certain point of spiritual growth in this life, it is possible to be totally released from such ‘momentary disturbance’, whereas no one can expect to be altogether free from demonic provocations.
(iii) Communion (ομιλια — homilia); coupling (συνδυασμος — syndyasmos). Without as yet entirely assenting to the demonic provocation, a man may begin to ‘entertain’ it, to converse or parley with it, turning it over in his mind pleasurably, yet still hesitating whether or not to act upon it. At this stage, which is indicated by the terms ‘communion’ or ‘coupling’, the provocation is no longer ‘image-free’ but has become a logismos or thought (q.v.) and man is morally responsible for having allowed this to happen.
(iv) Assent (συγκαταθεσις — synkatathesis). This signifies a step beyond mere ‘communion’ or ‘coupling’. No longer merely ‘playing’ with the evil suggestion, a man now resolves to act on it. There is now no doubt as to his moral culpability: even if circumstances prevent him from sinning outwardly, he is judged by God according to the intention in his heart.
(v) Prepossession (προληψις — prolipsis): defined by Mark as ‘the involuntary presence of former sins in the memory’. This state of ‘prepossession’ or prejudice results from repeated acts of sin which predispose a man to yield to particular temptations. In principle he retains his free choice and can reject demonic provocations; but in practice the force of habit makes it more and more difficult for him to resist.
(vi) Passion (q.v.). If a man does not fight strenuously against a prepossession, it will develop into an evil passion.