Transfiguration

I have already shared with you the first three rungs of John’s Ladder. They are Renunciation, Detachment and Exile. The third rung, I believe, requires further explication.

Spiritual exile often means that we have very different, and even completely opposite values from the world in which we live. We live in an age where self-promotion, wealth, competition and fame are considered good. For some, these things constitute the very goal of life. To live as an exile, on the other hand, is to remain unheralded, unpublicized, masked, hidden, unseen; it is the striving to be humble, a wish for poverty and a real denial of vainglory. It is a realization that the goal of life is to become in the real sense of the words, God’s child. To strive for a likeness of God in our lives.

Christians are not often exempt from the desire for fame, self-promotion and worldly glory. A great temptation for us Christians is to use our faith as a pious excuse for satisfying these passions, all the while fooling ourselves into thinking that some higher purpose is what motivates us. So often we want everything we do for the Church, every good deed, every effort we make in Christ’s name, to be announced, praised and publicized. It is so easy to say to oneself, I am doing it for God. This is why St. John felt that detachment was the rung that precedes exile. For only when we have detached ourselves from the things of this world can we sincerely act in God’s name and not in our own, while using God or Church as a cloak to cover our otherwise naked vanity.

Exile requires discretion since not every kind of exile is good if taken to extremes. It is not pride to acknowledge your gifts and talents since they are gifts from God which are meant to be used for the sake of His Kingdom.