The Ladder of Your Daily Life

Perhaps the most prominent ladder in our culture is the one associated with careers. It is an image of the American road to success. We begin at or near the bottom and, step by step, make our way towards the top. It is a metaphor that works well with our modern notions of hard work, persistence and reward. It also serves as a justification for many of the structures in our society and colors our common view of those who linger around the bottom. It is through this cultural image that the Ladder of St. John of Sinai (Climacus) comes into distorted view. I have often thought that certain images are not safe in the hands of modernity – and this is one of them.

There is something buried deep in the human soul surrounding the image of climbing and God. The story of the Tower of Babel is an account of a vast human effort to build a tower that would reach into heaven itself. One of the ancient Ziggurats built by Nebuchadnezzar was called, “The place where earth and heaven meet.” Mountains have always played a major role in the meeting place of God and humanity. Our instinct is that we “go up” to meet God.

The Tradition clearly indicates that this instinct has value. But like all human instincts, it has its dark side as well. Our culture’s notion of the “pinnacle of success” is a prime example of this darkness. By its very name, this peak experience is held out as a desirable goal. But we have the strange reality that those at the top are rarely personalities that we would want to nurture in our children. There is nothing that the pinnacle offers other than money and power, neither of which is beneficial to the soul.

This distorted “ladder” often gets translated into the moral life in what is little more than an exercise in Pelagianism. Our struggles for moral improvement frequently have more to do with our inability to bear the shame of moral failure than with any desire for goodness. As such, our struggles represent a neurosis rather than a morality. St. John gives us a “ladder” for our consideration. It is worth noting, however, that the fourth chapter in his work concentrates on shame – with the observation, “You can only heal shame by shame.” This is not a “ladder” in any modern sense of the word.

Consider the Beatitudes. Christ offers something of a “list” as He reveals the nature of His Kingdom. Who are the blessed?

The poor in spirit;
Those who mourn;
Those who are meek;
Those who hunger and thirst for righteousness;
Those who are merciful;
Those who are pure in heart;
Those who make peace;
Those who are persecuted.

The list is not a ladder, a movement from one virtue to another. It is, however, a characterization of the “virtues” that find their place within the Kingdom. Who are these people?

It would seem that there is a consistent picture of those who are best positioned regarding the Kingdom. They are poor, disadvantaged, oppressed, and sorrowful. They are also longing for things to be set right, while at the same time they are merciful and kind towards others.

This same summary can be seen throughout the gospels and in St. Paul:

For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, (1 Cor. 1:26-28)

The ladder of the spiritual life leads downwards rather than up (or it leads us back to where we already are). The lives of the saints are replete with those who abandoned wealth in order to become poor and find God. I can think of no stories in which a saint acquired wealth in order to enter the Kingdom.

I do not think it is necessary for everyone to abandon what they have and head to the deserts. It is sufficient, in my experience, to simply practice mercy, kindness and generosity where you are, and to bear your own failings and incompetence with patience. And, though this sounds easy, it is more than most are willing to do.

I am always leery when asked about various spiritual undertakings. Whether it’s a rule of prayer or a rule of fasting, the true struggle is never found in doing what is extraordinary. It is, rather, the very difficult matter of enduring what is given to us. God, in His providence, allows us all that is necessary for our salvation. Grace is primarily found within the ordinary faithfulness of our life.

Of course, the monastic example might make many question this “ordinary” route. What is not seen by most is the exceedingly ordinary task that confronts the monastic. The greatest struggles within a monastery are not always in the prayers, vigils and fasting. Most often, they are found in the daily grind of remaining in place. It is said in the desert, “Stay in your cell and your cell will teach you everything.”

We can also know that the good God who loves mankind will never abandon us. No matter how far we may run from the mundane struggles of our existence, the struggles will follow. It is among the promises of Christ: “Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.” (Matt. 6:34)

I will add a couple of thoughts. In the icons of the Ladder of Divine Ascent that illustrate St. John Climacus’ writings, the figure of the Patriarch Jacob is often depicted as sleeping on the ground beside it. Thus, it connects the Ladder of St. John to the Ladder that Jacob saw in his dream. That Ladder, in Orthodox thought, is none other than the Theotokos, she through whom the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. She is thus depicted as one who illustrates all of the virtues. I heard in a sermon on the Ladder the small reminder, that “as soon as you place a foot on the bottom rung, you’ve have left the earth behind.”

Do the small things – the next things. There is a ladder of grace that is given to us all.

Glory to God!

About Fr. Stephen Freeman

Fr. Stephen is a retired Archpriest of the Orthodox Church in America. He is also author of Everywhere Present: Christianity in a One-Storey Universe, and Face to Face: Knowing God Beyond Our Shame, as well as the Glory to God podcast series on Ancient Faith Radio.



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20 responses to “The Ladder of Your Daily Life”

  1. Randall Avatar
    Randall

    Thank you, Father! About 45 seconds before I pulled this up on my tablet I finished reading chapter 4 of ‘The Ladder’! There are no coincidences…

  2. Michael Wenberg Avatar

    Thanks Father!

    This reminded me of the line from Thessalonians and what I’m working on lately: “…and to aspire to live quietly, to attend to your own matters, and to work with your own hands, as we instructed you.”

  3. Dee of St Herman Avatar
    Dee of St Herman

    Randall,
    I agree with you, indeed, there are no coincidences! Glory to God for His mercy!

    Dear Father, thank you for this article to remind us!

  4. Fr. Stephen Avatar

    Michael,
    I ran across this quote from CS Lewis today (it did not cite the source):

    “It is one of the evils of rapid diffusion of news that the sorrows of all the world come to us every morning. I think each village was meant to feel pity for its own sick and poor whom it can help, and I doubt if it is the duty of any private person to fix his mind on ills which he cannot help. (This may even become an escape from the works of charity we really can do for those we know.) A great many people now seem to think that the mere state of being worried is in itself meritorious. I don’t think it is. We must, if it so happens, give our lives for others; but even while we’re doing it, I think we’re meant to enjoy our Lord and, in Him, our friends, our food, our sleep, your jokes, and the birdsong and the frosty sunrise.”

    Exquisite.

  5. Dee of St Herman Avatar
    Dee of St Herman

    Father,
    Thank you for this timely article (we’re hell-bent on climbing mountains and ‘being on top’ of the world — on the ‘pinnacle of the temple’ as Christ was tempted). I think of all the business/work/corporate ideas of getting ahead and moving up.

    Thank God our lives in Christ are not so constructed.

    And thank you so much for your answer to Michael! Such a lovely quote! This comment and your article were exactly what I needed today! Indeed, there are no coincidences! Glory to God!

  6. Jenny Avatar
    Jenny

    Father, in your additional thoughts, you wrote:

    “That Ladder, in Orthodox thought, is none other than the Theotokos, she through whom the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. She is thus depicted as one who illustrates all of the virtues.”

    I am not Orthodox. In fact, my background is Protestant. However, I have found myself learning more about the Mother of God in the last year or so, almost, one might say, without trying to do so.

    What you wrote seems quite beautiful and I was hoping you or one of your regular readers might expand on it a little. Are you saying that her life was the highest example of climbing the ladder of the Beatitudes- of meekness, of mourning, etc?

  7. Laurie Marvin Avatar
    Laurie Marvin

    Hi, Fr. Stephen. On a somewhat different track- how do you understand modernity and providence? Is the fact that we live in modernity part of Providence or part of the evil we must endure? I’m always a little confused by Providence because I’ve never been convinced that whatever happens is simply Gods will. But of course in some sense events must at least be “allowed”. I confess the thought of the Holocaust as preoccupied as of late when I go to church. It feels like an event that I cannot get past.

  8. Scott Marckx Avatar

    Thank you Father!
    I’m just commenting so I can be notified of all of the cool comments!
    All the best, Scott

  9. Fr. Stephen Avatar

    Jenny,
    The early Church Fathers were constantly commenting on the symbolism of events and things portrayed in the Old Testament. For them (and for us), everything in the Old Testament was about Christ – not just foretelling – but somehow revealing Him, but in symbols or “types” as they called them. St. Paul, for example, does this in comparing Hagar and Sarah:

    “Tell me, you who desire to be under the law, do you not listen to the law?For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by a slave woman and one by a free woman.But the son of the slave was born according to the flesh, while the son of the free woman was born through promise.Now this may be interpreted allegorically: these women are two covenants. One is from Mount Sinai, bearing children for slavery; she is Hagar.Now Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia; she corresponds to the present Jerusalem, for she is in slavery with her children.” (Galatians 4:21–25)

    They especially see the Theotokos (Mary) in a number of Old Testament figures/stories. They see the ladder in Jacob’s dream as a “type” of Mary – a foreshadowing of her role as the one through whom the Word becomes flesh and dwells among us. So they will sing of her and call her “the ladder,” etc. She is seen in the Ark – in that the Ark held the manna bread (a type of Christ who is the Bread from Heaven). She is the “bush who is not burned.” The fire is Christ, but she is the bush that bore him – without suffering damage, etc. And so on. It’s very rich.

  10. Fr. Stephen Avatar

    Laurie,
    Remember when you go to Church that there are also Orthodox (and Catholic) martyrs in the holocaust. St. Maria of Paris, St. Dmitri of Paris, were both murdered in the camps for their roles in trying to save Jews, etc. There are many others. So we do not stand apart from the holocaust.

    Providence is a peculiar thing and difficult to comprehend, though I believe it lies very much at the heart of all things. The great Bibilical story of providence is in Joseph the Patriarch. He suffers terrible things and is innocent. But God freed him and put him in the 2nd place of all Egypt. Through him, God saved his people from starvation. When Joseph confronts his brothers who sold him into slavery, he said, “You meant it to me for evil, but the Lord meant it to me for good.” That does not in any way absolve his brothers, or justify their actions. It’s always wrong to sell your brother into slavery!

    But, providence is at work despite evil. It preserves us in the goodness of God and brings the efforts of evil to nothing. That never justifies evil or makes it ok. But it is like the resurrection of Christ. The Romans meant His crucifixion for evil, but God meant it for good. He revealed that goodness on Pascha.

    Some things remain shrouded in mystery – the holocaust being a good example. It’s hard to see anything good that came despite that evil – though I believe it is true. I have only ever met one holocaust survivor. She taught at the synagogue in our town in Tennessee. She, and people like her, would have to be the ones to speak to that mystery.

    One element of goodness is that it came to an end and its perpetrators became stark examples of evil, even in our modern world.

    When I speak of “modernity,” I do not mean a period of time. I am referring to a philosophy of secularism (which has lots of facets). I believe it is a false idea that, strangely, came out of Christianity itself – sort of a Christian heresy that has come to dominate the world. But it is here, and it has its purpose (not the one that modernity itself imagines).

    It is the “fiery furnace” of our lives – the training ground of saints. I do not despise technology – human beings have always done technology. However, modern culture is very dangerous with its use of technology. It lacks a sufficient moral basis for wielding the massive power that our technology has unleashed. We now speak of any number of things that could end the world. Imagine all of that power with the morality of Hollywood and D.C. That’s dangerous.

    I write about this a lot because it is the world in which we live. So, if a Christian is asking “how should we live?” it is utterly necessary to talk about what it means to be Christian in the context of modernity. But I trust that what we have has been “allowed” in some sense. A lot of modernity is just stuff that we’ve brought on ourselves. It is sometimes the case that we are allowed to suffer the consequences of our stupidity in order to learn better how to live. We rarely, if ever, suffer the full consequences of our stupidity (or sin). God is merciful.

    I personally believe that we are in just such a period. It will crash, eventually. We will ask serious questions when that happens. If Christians live faithfully, we may be able to help give some answers to those questions. We need to begin learning them now.

    But, those are “big picture” thoughts. Mostly, it’s good to live small. To do good wherever we can. The big picture is constantly fed to us by the merchants of death and destruction – and it’s not a true picture.

    God give us grace.

  11. Laura Stanley Avatar
    Laura Stanley

    Thank you. I needed these reminders halfway through Lent

  12. Oliver Avatar
    Oliver

    Thank you for this post, Father Stephen.

    “ Our struggles for moral improvement frequently have more to do with our inability to bear the shame of moral failure than with any desire for goodness. As such, our struggles represent a neurosis rather than a morality.”

    I see more clearly a reality within my inner man as I contemplate these words you wrote. Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner. Help me to bear a little shame. Help me to bear a little shame in the midst of relationships with other men of faith.

    Are there any other men within this comment string that live in the Knoxville region of East Tennessee?

    Oliver

  13. Margaret Avatar
    Margaret

    I found this citation for the CS Lewis quote Fr. Stephen gives here in comments: quote from a letter by C. S. Lewis to Dom Bede Griffiths from December 20, 1946

  14. Nathan Fischer Avatar
    Nathan Fischer

    Thank you for this article, and the CS Lewis quote, Father! I love them both.

    In regard to the question Laurie asked, I had a personal thought, not “grand” or on the scale of history so much, but I wonder if there’s some answers to be gleaned from it.

    I used to be upset with God and wonder why He allowed some of the things to happen that He’s allowing to happen in our world. But over time, my upsetness turned more inward. I started to see more and more my failures throughout my life – as a son, a brother, a friend, a husband, a father. It was so painful, and I started to ask God, “Why did you let me do these things? Why didn’t you stop me? You knew the harm I was doing to myself and to others.”

    I don’t know what “stopping me” would have looked like. At its darkest, I guess it would have looked like God taking me out of this life. And I was tempted sometimes to think that would have been better than to allow me to spread my sins around as I have, to hurt others.

    So why didn’t He do that? I’ve only got one answer: because He loves me, and He wants me to participate in His life. Somehow, in a way I truly cannot conceive of, His love for me was worth allowing me to do the harm I have in my life, so that I could still find time to repent and come to know Him more fully. It doesn’t make any of my sins “okay.” But it does make His Love greater than anything I could have imagined.

    Whatever He’s allowing to happen right now, I can only imagine that it’s for the same purpose. I don’t even know if God cares very much for the scale of history as we conceive of it. Maybe He does. But I’m certain He cares very much for each and every person, and the time He has given us all (including those who perpetuate evil acts and philosophies on a “grand” scale), He’s given to us in His wisdom and goodness for the sake of every person.

    He could put an end to this at any point, but we likely don’t understand what it is we’re asking Him to do by wanting that to happen. It’s akin to me wondering why He’s allowed me to commit the sins I have in my life that have so often hurt others. Why does He allow such things to continue? Because His love is greater than any of us can conceive – vastly bigger than the evils of this world that seem so big and so close to us. That these things are allowed to continue can be an assurance in itself of His goodness and love, if I’m able to see what He’s allowed in my own life and how patiently He has endured with me.

  15. Fr. Stephen Avatar

    Margaret,
    Thanks for the citation! I can hardly imagine corresponding with Lewis.

  16. Fr. Stephen Avatar

    Nathan,
    A very important verse for me is 2Cor.5:21

    “For He [God] made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.”

    Christ has utterly united Himself to us – even to the point of “becoming our sin” (yet He is “without sin”). He has become our suffering as well. I don’t think He sees the world as a “big picture” (what is “big” compared to God?). He sees everything in its unique particularity and all things in their relationship to all other things, etc. And He has utterly united Himself to us in all of these things – so that we might be united with Him in His wholeness and glory. He became what we are that we might become what He is. 2Cor. 5:21 is quite clear in saying this.

    We could not save things from our side – so God made Himself to be our side that we might be united with His side.

    This is love. It is the meaning of love.

  17. Andrew Avatar
    Andrew

    “Our struggles for moral improvement frequently have more to do with our inability to bear the shame of moral failure than with any desire for goodness.”

    An incisive cut of the scalpel Father. As the younger generation sometimes says, “I feel seen” by this observation. I’ve been thinking lately (really, often) about Fr. Thomas Hopko’s 53rd maxim:

    “Endure the trial of yourself and your faults serenely, under God’s mercy.”

    There are several of those maxims that are challenge, but this is the one I think I wrestle with the most. It’s difficult for me to even imagine what this might look like. I think, as you’ve observed, that my inability to ‘bear a little shame’ is a driving force behind many of my struggles for moral virtue and external compliance to the ‘rules’ and perceived expectations of being a ‘good’ Orthodox Christian. Conversely, I think it’s also a driving force behind my many escapes into pleasure, comfort and distraction. Anywhere but here, any moment but now.

  18. Fr. Stephen Avatar

    Andrew,
    I very much understand how it feels. My book on shame (Face to Face: Knowing God beyond Our Shame) comes from a lot of reflection on this.

    Hopko’s maxim is a version of a famous statement by St. Therese of Lisieux: “If you can bear serenely the trial of being displeasing to yourself, then you will be for Jesus a pleasant place of shelter.” It is a favorite saying. I have so much that displeases me. I’m working on building a really big shelter!

  19. Oliver Avatar
    Oliver

    Andrew,

    I’m right there with you.

    Oliver

  20. Nathan Fischer Avatar
    Nathan Fischer

    > We could not save things from our side – so God made Himself to be our side that we might be united with His side.

    Thank you so much, Father.

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