John Cassian

In his own words on Jeremiah

• Jeremiah 1:10

  But you should know that we must work twice as hard to drive out vice as we do to acquire virtue. And this is not simply our own opinion, but we were instructed by the opinion of the One who alone knows the strength and the method of his work: "See," he says, "I have set you this day over nations and over kingdoms, to pluck up and to break down, to destroy and to overthrow, to build and to plant." He points out that four things are required for getting rid of poisonous elements: to root up, to pull down, to waste and to destroy. But in order to do good and acquire righteousness, all that is required is to build and to plant. It is perfectly evident that it is a harder thing to tear up and eradicate the ingrained passions of body and soul than to introduce and plant spiritual virtues.

  CONFERENCE 2:14.3

• Jeremiah 1:18-19

  A saint is different from a sinner, not because he or she is not tempted in the same way but because he or she is not defeated even by a great assault, while the other is overcome even by a slight temptation. The strength of any good person would not, as we said, be worthy of praise, if the victory was gained without being tempted. Most certainly there is no room for victory where there is no struggle and conflict. "Blessed is the one who endures trial, for when he has stood the test, he will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love him." According to the apostle Paul also, "power is made perfect" not in ease and delights but "in weakness." "And behold," says he, "I make you this day a fortified city, an iron pillar and bronze walls, against the whole land, against the kings of Judah, its princes, its priests and the people of the land. They will fight against you; but they shall not prevail against you, for I am with you, says the Lord, to deliver you."

  CONFERENCE 3:18.13

• Jeremiah 2:11

  The same erroneous notion by which they used to worship devils formed in the figure of people they use even now in thinking that the incomprehensible and ineffable glory of the true Deity should be worshiped under the limitations of some figure. They think they are unable to grasp and hold anything if they do not have some image set before them that they can continually address while they are at their devotion and that they can carry about in their mind and have always fixed before their eyes.… Jeremiah also says, "My people have changed their glory for an idol."

  CONFERENCE 1:10.5

• Jeremiah 2:19

  So also that unwearied goodness of God and his unchanging nature hurt no one indeed, but we ourselves by falling from on high and tending to the depths are the authors of our own death, or rather the very fall becomes death to the one who falls.… For "your own wickedness shall reprove you, and your apostasy shall rebuke you. Know and see that it is an evil and a bitter thing for you to have left the Lord your God"; for "everyone is bound by the cords of his sins."

  CONFERENCE 3:23.9

• Jeremiah 2:19

  This then is that body of death from which we cannot escape, confined in those who are perfect, who have tested "how gracious the Lord is," daily feel with the prophet "how bad for himself and bitter it is for a man to depart from the Lord his God."

  CONFERENCE 3:23.16

• Jeremiah 3:6

  It is written in the law: "You shall not commit adultery." This is rightly observed according to the simple meaning of the letter by one who is still in bondage to foul passions. But by one who has already forsaken these dirty acts and impure affections, it must be observed in the spirit, so that he may forsake not only the worship of idols but also all heathen superstitions and the observance of auguries and omens and all signs and days and times, or at any rate he should not be entangled in the conjectures of words and names that destroy the simplicity of our faith. This is the kind of fornication by which Jerusalem is said to have been corrupted, the fornication "on every high hill and beneath every leafing tree." The Lord criticized Jerusalem for this through the words of the prophet, "Let them stand and save you, these astrologers who studied the stars and counted the months so as to tell from these what was coming to you."

  CONFERENCE 2:14.11

• Jeremiah 3:19-20

  Our obstinacy and scorn, reflecting our spirit of rebellious disdain for him when he urges us to return and be saved, is described in the following comparison. He says, "And I said you shall call me Father and shall not cease to walk after me. But as a woman that despises her lover, so has the house of Israel despised me, says the Lord." It is only appropriate that as he has compared Jerusalem with an adulteress forsaking her husband, he compares his own love and persevering goodness with a man's undying love for a woman. For the goodness and love of God that he has always shown to the human race could not be more appropriately described by any comparison than the case of a man inflamed with most ardent love for a woman. God's love is overcome by no injuries that might make him stop caring for our salvation or that might drive him from his first intention as if he were defeated by our sins. Instead, he is consumed by a more burning passion for her, the more he sees that he is slighted and despised by her.

  CONFERENCE 2:13.8

• Jeremiah 5:21

  One who does not carefully weigh every word of the opinions uttered cannot rightly discover the value of the assertion. For someone like this, who only possesses skill in disputation and ornaments of speech, cannot penetrate to the very heart of Scripture and the mysteries of its spiritual meanings. True knowledge is acquired only by true worshipers of God. And certainly this people does not possess it to whom it is said, "Hear, O foolish people, you who have no heart, you who have eyes but do not see and who have ears but do not hear." And again, "Because you have rejected knowledge, I also will reject you from acting as my priest." It is said that in Christ "all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are hidden." So how can we hold the opinion that someone has acquired spiritual knowledge when that person has not even wanted to find Christ, or, when he does find him, blasphemes him with impious lips or at least defiles the catholic faith by his impure actions? "The Spirit of God will avoid deception and does not live in a body that is subject to sin." There is then no way of arriving at spiritual knowledge but by this which one of the prophets has accurately described: "Sow to yourselves for righteousness. Reap the hope of life. Enlighten yourselves with the light of knowledge."

  CONFERENCE 2:14.16

• Jeremiah 8:5

  Those then who perish, perish against his will. This he testifies against each one of them day by day: "Turn from your evil ways. Why will you die, O house of Israel?" And again: "How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her chickens under her wings, but you would not." And: "Why has this people in Jerusalem turned away with a stubborn revolting? They have hardened their faces and refused to return." The grace of the Christ then is at hand every day. For it "wills all to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth." It calls all without any exception, saying, "Come to me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will refresh you."

  CONFERENCE 2:13.7

• Jeremiah 8:17

  You should know that the disease of envy is harder to cure than any other. I would say that someone tainted by its poison is almost beyond healing. This is the plague described figuratively by the prophet: "See, I will send you serpents against which there are no incantations, and they will bite you." The bites of envy are quite rightly compared by the prophet with the lethal poison of the basilisk.

  CONFERENCE 3:18.16

• Jeremiah 9:4-5

  "For every brother will utterly supplant, and every friend will walk deceitfully. And a man shall mock his brother, and they will not speak the truth, for they have bent their tongue like a bow for lies and not for truth." But often a pretended patience excites to anger more keenly than words, and a spiteful silence exceeds the most awful insults in words. The wounds of enemies are more easily borne than the deceitful blandishment of mockers, as is well said by the prophet.

  CONFERENCE 2:16.18

• Jeremiah 9:5

  Everyone is so inflamed by the love of sin and desire to carry out what they like, that they look out with watchful care for an opportunity to commit wickedness. They are afraid of being too slow to enjoy their lusts, even glorying in their shame and the great number of their crimes, as the apostle says in censure. They seek credit for themselves out of their own confusion. The prophet Jeremiah also maintains that they commit their heinous crimes not only willingly and with ease of heart and body but with laborious efforts to such an extent that they come to toil to carry them out. They are even impeded from their deadly quest of sin by the burdensome effort the actualizing of their evil desires requires, as he says: "They have labored to do wickedly."

  CONFERENCE 3:23.1

• Jeremiah 10:23

  The saints have never claimed that their own efforts would have enabled them to find their way along the road they were traveling to perfect virtue. Rather, they sought it from the Lord, praying, "Direct me in your truth" and "direct the road I take in your sight." And someone else asserts that he grasped this not only through faith but also through direct experience of how things are: "I learned, Lord, that a person is no master of the road he takes, nor is it in man's power as he goes his way to control his steps." The Lord had this to say to Israel: "I will lead him on, like a greening fir tree, and the fruit you bear comes from me."

  CONFERENCE 1:3.13

• Jeremiah 14:12

  You see, then, that fasting is certainly not considered by the Lord as a thing that is good in its own nature, because it becomes good and well-pleasing to God not by itself but by other works. Again, from the surrounding circumstances it may be regarded as not merely empty but hateful, as the Lord says: "When they fast, I will not hear their prayers."

  CONFERENCE 3:21.14

• Jeremiah 17:13

  We must therefore not doubt that at the time when he was chosen by Christ and obtained a place in the apostolate, the name of Judas was written in the book of the living, and then he heard as well as the rest the words, "Rejoice not because the devils are subject to you, but rejoice because your names are written in heaven." But because he was corrupted by the plague of covetousness and had his name struck out from that heavenly list, it is appropriately said of him and of people like him by the prophet: "O Lord, let all those who forsake you be confounded. Let them who depart from you be written in the earth, because they have forsaken the Lord, the vein of living waters." And elsewhere, "They shall not be in the counsel of my people, nor shall they be written in the writing of the house of Israel, neither shall they enter into the land of Israel."

  CONFERENCE 2:17.25

• Jeremiah 17:13

  And again when all their efforts are exhausted and they have failed to deceive us, they must "be confounded and be ashamed" at the failure of their efforts, "who seek our souls to destroy them. Let them be covered with shame and confusion who desire evil against us." Jeremiah also says, "Let them be confounded, and let not me be confounded; let them be afraid, and let not me be afraid; bring on them the fury of your wrath, and with a double destruction destroy them."

  CONFERENCE 1:7.21

• Jeremiah 17:16

  For it is but little for a monk to have once made his renunciation, that is, in the early days of his conversion to have disregarded the present world, unless he continues to renounce it daily. For to the very end of this life we must with the prophet say this: "And I have not desired the day of man, you know it well." Wherefore also the Lord says in the Gospel: "If anyone will come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me."

  CONFERENCE 3:24.2

• Jeremiah 19:3

  Sometimes Holy Scripture may, by an improper use of terms, employ the term "evils" in place of "affliction"—not that these are properly and in their nature evils, but because they are imagined to be evils by those on whom they are brought for their good. For when divine judgment is reasoning with human beings, it must speak with human language and feelings. For when a doctor for the sake of health with good reason either cuts or cauterizes those who are suffering from the inflammation of ulcers, it is considered an evil by those who have to bear it. Nor are the spur and the whip pleasant to a restive horse. Moreover, all chastisement seems at the moment to be a bitter thing to those who are chastised, as the apostle says: "Now all chastisement for the present indeed seems not to bring with it joy but sorrow; but afterwards it will yield the most peaceful fruits of righteousness to those who are exercised by it," and "whom the Lord loves he chastens, and scourges every son whom he receives; for what son is there whom the father does not correct?" And so evils are sometimes used to stand for afflictions, as where we read, "And God repented of the evil that he had said that he would do to them and did it not." And again: "For you, Lord, are gracious and merciful, patient and very merciful and ready to repent of the evil," that is, of the sufferings and losses that you are forced to bring on us as the reward of our sins.And another prophet, knowing that these are profitable to some, and certainly not through any jealousy for their safety but with an eye to their good, prays thus: "Add evils to them, O Lord, add evils to the proud of the earth"; and the Lord says, "See, I will bring evils on them," that is, sorrows and losses, with which they shall for the present be chastened for their soul's health, and so they shall at length be driven to return and hurry back to me whom in their prosperity they scorned. And so we cannot in any way assert that these afflictions were originally evil, for they are good for many and ultimately offer occasions for eternal bliss. Therefore (to return to the question raised), all those things that are thought to be brought on us as evils by our enemies or by any other people should not be counted as evils but as things indifferent. For in the end they will not be what he thinks who brought them on us in his rage and fury, but what he makes them who endures them. And so when death has been brought on a saint, we ought not to think that an evil has happened to him but something indifferent. It is an evil to a wicked person, while to the good it is rest and freedom from evils. "For death is rest to one whose way is hidden." And so a good person does not suffer any loss from these evils because he suffers nothing strange, but by the crime of an enemy he only receives (and not without the reward of eternal life) that which would have happened to him in the course of nature and pays the debt of human death, which must be paid by an inevitable law, with the interest of a most fruitful suffering and the recompense of a great reward.

  CONFERENCE 1:6.6

• Jeremiah 26:2-3

  But if one says that God revoked that severe sentence in consideration of their penitence, according to what he says by Ezekiel, "If I say to the wicked, 'You will surely die' and he becomes penitent for his sin and does judgment and justice … he shall surely live; he shall not die," we are similarly taught that we should not be obstinate in our resolve, but that we should with gentle pity soften down the threats that necessity called forth. That we may not conclude that the Lord granted this specially to the Ninevites, he continually affirms by Jeremiah that he will do the same in general toward all and promises that without delay he will change his sentence in accordance with what we deserve, saying, "I will suddenly speak against a nation and against a kingdom to root out and to pull down and to destroy it. If that nation repents of the evil which I have spoken against it, I also will repent of the evil which I thought to do to them. And I will suddenly speak of a nation and a kingdom, to build up and to plant it. If it shall do evil in My sight, that it obey not my voice: I will repent of the good that I thought to do to it." To Ezekiel also: "Leave out not a word, if so they will hearken and be converted every one from his evil way that I may repent of the evil that I thought to do to them for the wickedness of their doings." And by these passages it is declared that we ought not obstinately to stick to our decisions but to modify them with reason and judgment, and that better courses should always be adopted and preferred and that we should turn without any delay to that course that is considered the more profitable. For this above all that invaluable sentence teaches us, because though each person's end is known beforehand to God before his birth, yet somehow God so orders all things by a plan and method for all, and with regard to human disposition, that he decides on everything not by the mere exercise of his power or according to the indescribable knowledge that his foreknowledge possesses but according to the people's present actions, and he rejects or draws to himself each one, and daily he either grants or withholds his grace.

  CONFERENCE 2:17.25

• Jeremiah 30:11

  Although we say that trial is twofold, that is, in prosperity and in adversity, yet you must know that all people are tried in three different ways. Often they are tried for their probation, sometimes for their improvement, and in some cases because their sins deserve it. For their probation indeed! We read that the blessed Abraham and Job and many of the saints endured countless tribulations.… For improvement, because God chastens his righteous ones for some small and venial sins or to raise them to a higher state of purity, and he delivers them over to various trials that he may purge away all their unclean thoughts, and, to use the prophet's word, the "dross," which he sees to have collected in their secret parts. Thus may he transmit them like pure gold to the judgment to come, as he allows nothing to remain in them for the fire of judgment to discover when hereafter it searches them with penal torments according to this saying: "Many are the tribulations of the righteous." … To whom under the figure of Jerusalem the following words are spoken by Jeremiah, in the person of God: "I will make a full end of all the nations among whom I scattered you, but of you I will not make a full end. I will discipline you in just measure, and I will by no means leave you unpunished." … But as a punishment for sins, the blows of trial are inflicted, as where the Lord threatens that he will send plagues on the people of Israel: "I will send the teeth of beasts on them, with the fury of creatures that trail on the ground," and "In vain have I struck your children. They have not received correction." … We find, it is true, a fourth way also in which we know on the authority of Scripture that some sufferings are brought on us simply for the manifestation of the glory of God and his works, according to these words of the Gospel: "Neither did this man sin nor his parents, but that the works of God might be manifested in him," and again, "This sickness is not to death, but for the glory of God that the Son of God may be glorified by it." … The perfect person will always remain steadfast in either kind of trial; now let us return to it once more.

  CONFERENCE 1:6.11

• Jeremiah 32:39-40

  The prophet Jeremiah, speaking in the person of God, clearly tells us that the fear of God by which we can hold on to him comes from the Lord: "I shall give them one heart and one way so that they may fear me during all their days, so that all will be well for them and for their children after them. And I will make an everlasting covenant with them, and I shall not cease to do good things for them, and, as a gift, I shall put fear of me in their hearts so that they may never go away from me."

  CONFERENCE 1:3.18