Father Vassilios Papavassiliou in his excellent book, Thirty Steps To Heaven, groups the 30 steps from the Ladder Of Divine Ascent into 7 parts. This article will examine the first two of these parts in some detail. Each step begins with a high level quote from the Ladder that outlines the step. This quote is then followed by a short extract of Father Papavassiliou’s commentary for that step. The article also outlines the additional parts and the steps associated with them.
Part 1 – Break With The World
Step 1 – Renunciation
A friend of God is the one who lives in communion with all that is natural and free from sin and who does not neglect to do what good he can. The self-controlled man strives with all his might amidst the trials, the snares, and the noise of the world, to be like someone who rises above them.
Every Christian is called to a life of renunciation: “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will save it” (Luke 9: 23–24).
Before baptism, we “renounce Satan, and all his works, and all his angels, and all his worship, and all his solemn rites.”
Christ tells us, “My kingdom is not of this world. If My kingdom were of this world, My servants would fight . . . but now My kingdom is not from here” (John 18: 36). Therefore, those who follow Him are not of the world either: “If you were of the world, the world would love its own. Yet because you are not of this world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you” (John15:19)
St. Paul warns us, ”Do not be conformed to the pattern of this world” (Rom. 12:2)
Step 2 – Detachment
Derided, mocked, jeered, you must accept the denial of your will. You must patiently endure opposition, suffer neglect without complaint, put up with violent arrogance. You must be ready for injustice, and not grieve when you are slandered; you must not be angered by contempt and you must show humility when you have been condemned. Happy are those who follow this road and avoid other highways. Theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Derided, mocked, jeered, you must accept the denial of your will. You must patiently endure opposition, suffer neglect without complaint, put up with violent arrogance. You must be ready for injustice, and not grieve when you are slandered; you must not be angered by contempt and you must show humility when you have been condemned. Happy are those who follow this road and avoid other highways. Theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Detachment from pride is the imitation of Christ, because if anyone did not deserve to be derided, mocked, jeered, beaten, and put to death, it is Christ. Who are we to think that we deserve better than He? “Yet our pride makes us think we deserve respect, dignity, comfort. And if we think as the world thinks, we may be right. Wicked people do wicked things and get everything they want, while good people suffer. Where is the justice in that? But as Christians who have renounced the ways and, indeed, the justice of the world (for Christ’s sacrifice was by no means justice, but mercy), we are to compare ourselves not to others, but to Christ alone.
Step 3 – Exile
Exile is a disciplined heart, unheralded wisdom, an unpublicized understanding, a hidden life, masked ideals. It is unseen meditation, the striving to be humble, a wish for poverty, the longing for what is divine. It is an outpouring of love, a denial of vainglory, a depth of silence. . . . Yet for all that it is praiseworthy, it requires discretion, since not every kind of exile is good if taken to extremes.
If we have renounced the world and detached ourselves from worldly ways, then we live on this earth as exiles. “For here we have no continuing city, but we seek the one to come” (Heb. 13: 14). St. John Chrysostom writes:
If you are a Christian, no earthly city is yours. Of our City “the Builder and Maker is God.” [Heb. 11: 10] Though we may gain possession of the whole world, we are withal but strangers and sojourners in it all! We are enrolled in heaven: our citizenship is there! 5
Spiritual exile often means that we have very different, sometimes completely opposite, values from the world in which we live. Consider the above passage from the Ladder and how against the grain of worldly standards this is. We live in an age where self-promotion, competition, wealth, 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, hidden, masked, unseen; it is the striving to be humble, a wish for poverty . . . a denial of vainglory.
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 praised, announced, and publicized. It is so easy to say to oneself, “I am doing it for God,” “I must spread the gospel,” “I must share my faith,” “I must be the light of the world,” when our true motive is to satisfy our ego. This is why detachment 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.
But St. John also warns us that exile requires discretion, since not every kind of exile is good if taken to extremes.
Part 2 – The Fundamental Virtues
Step 4 – Obedience
Obedience is unquestioned movement, death freely accepted, a simple life, danger faced without worry, an unprepared defense before God, fearlessness before death, a safe voyage, a sleeper’s journey. Obedience is the burial place of the will and the resurrection of lowliness.
The first fundamental virtue of the Ladder is obedience. As flower comes before every fruit, so exile of body or will precedes all obedience. But why is obedience a virtue? Many regard it as something for the weak, something that does not become a “real man.” The only time it is tolerated is when it is considered a necessity. If soldiers did not obey their commanding officers, the army would be a shambles, and this in turn would threaten national security.
But this is not the obedience of which we speak. The virtue of obedience is rooted not in fearful pragmatism, but in humility. True obedience, like true love, cannot be forced—it must be free. Obedience and humility go hand in hand. They feed and nourish one another. We cannot learn obedience without humility, and we cannot acquire humility without obedience. Together, these two virtues can take us to the very heights of spiritual perfection.
From obedience comes humility. . . . And from humility comes discernment. Take courage from this. For if you are able to do something as basic and simple as to obey, then you are already on your way to learning one of the greatest and highest virtues of all: humility.
Step 5 – Repentance
Repentance is the renewal of baptism and is a contract with God for a fresh start in life.
The Greek word for repentance, metanoia, means “to have a change of heart or mind,” while the Greek word for sin, hamartia, means “to miss the mark.” Now if sin means missing the mark, then repentance means getting back on target. It is only when we understand repentance in this way that we can comprehend it as an ongoing, positive, and creative process.
Repentance lies at the very heart of Christian life. The preaching of our Lord Himself began with repentance: “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Matt. 4: 17). All orthodox Christians have taught that there is no salvation without it. St. John of the Ladder is no exception:
It is impossible for those of us who have fallen into the sink of iniquity ever to be drawn out of it unless we also plumb the depths of the humility shown by the penitent.
It is clear that repentance, like obedience, is rooted in humility. A proud person cannot repent, for repentance allows no room for ego and conceit. Pride blinds us to our own sins, while we go on hating those very same sins when we see them in others. Humility alone is capable of seeing the truth, of enabling us to see ourselves as we really are.
Step 6 – Remembrance of Death
The remembrance of death . . . produces freedom from daily worries and breeds constant prayer and guarding of the mind, virtues that are the cause and the effect of the thought of death.
Many of us live in a death-denying culture. People do not want to talk about death or even think about it, as though pretending it will never happen can somehow stop its inevitability. While phrases such as “death comes to us all” and “death is a natural part of life” have become clichés, deep down many behave as though death only happened to other people—people they do not know or like or care about. When a loved one dies, even at a ripe old age, the faith of some Christians is shaken. This is because we are so busy driving the remembrance of death from our minds that we actually forget it is a certain and unavoidable fact.
On the one hand, the fear of death is natural, but we must not confuse this natural fear and the survival instinct with an unhealthy terror. As St. John writes:
Fear of death is a property of nature due to disobedience, but terror of death is a sign of unrepented sins. . . . Tin has a way of looking like silver but is of course quite different; and for those with discernment, the difference between natural and contranatural fear of death is most obvious. You can clearly single out those who hold the thought of death at the center of their being, for they freely withdraw from everything created and they renounce their will. . . . The Fathers assert that perfect love is sinless. And it seems to me that in the same way a perfect sense of death is free from fear.
The remembrance of death is closely linked to repentance, which is why it is the step that follows it. All Fathers of the Orthodox Church have taught that repentance is the purpose of our life. Death brings repentance to an end. What follows death is the fulfillment and consummation of our relationship with God here and now. So in Christian spirituality, the remembrance of death is, above all else, the remembrance of the Judgement.
Step 7 – Mourning
The tears that come after baptism are greater than baptism itself, though it may seem rash to say so. Baptism washes off those evils that were previously within us, whereas the sins committed after baptism are washed away by tears. The baptism received by us as children we have all defiled, but we cleanse it anew with our tears.
Repentance and meditation on death lead to mourning. Thus mourning is the step that follows them. But the mourning of which St. John speaks is not the kind we are all accustomed to. The Ladder refers to tears and mourning as a divine gift. It is a gift difficult for those who do not possess it to understand, and it is not easy to distinguish between natural tears and divinely given tears. As St. John writes:
Many of the Fathers declare that this problem of tears, especially where it concerns beginners, is a very obscure matter and hard to analyze since tears can come about in various ways. Tears come from nature, from God, from suffering good and bad, from vainglory, from licentiousness, from love, from remembrance of death, and from numerous other causes. Having trained ourselves in all these ways by the fear of God, let us acquire the pure and guileless tears that come with the remembrance that we must die. There is nothing false in these, no sop to self-esteem. Rather do they purify us, lead us on in love of God, wash away our sins and drain away our passions.
Step 8 – Meekness / Loss of Anger
Meekness is a permanent condition of the soul which remains unaffected by whether or not it is spoken well of, whether or not it is honored or praised.
We tend to think of meekness as a personality trait. When we hear the word meek, we usually think of someone softly spoken, easily pushed around, someone who never raises his voice, maybe even someone who is weak. But meekness is not the same as weakness, nor is it a particular kind of personality; it is a virtue, and, like all virtues, it cannot be judged by externals.
Our Lord described Himself as meek (Matt. 11: 29), yet He smashed up the markets outside the temple in Jerusalem (John 2: 13–22); He denounced the Pharisees, scribes, and Sadducees as “hypocrites” and a “brood of vipers” and told them they were going to hell (Matt. 23: 13–33). He frequently rebuked His apostles and admonished the Israelites for their faithlessness (Luke 9: 41). He was no pushover, until He voluntarily gave Himself up to humiliation, violence, and death, even though as God He had the power—and, indeed, the right—to destroy His oppressors on the spot.
As Christians we are called to take up Christ’s yoke and imitate His meekness. This does not mean we are called to be doormats. Instead it means we are to endure wrongs humbly and patiently and to let go of our anger, which is the fruit of pride.
Part 3 – The Spiritual Passions
Step 9 – Remembrance of Wrongs/ Malice
Step 10 – Slander
Step 11 – Talkativeness and Silence
Step 12 – Falsehood
Step 13 – Despondency / Tedium
Part 4 – The Physical Passions
Step 14 Gluttony
Step 15 – Lust and Chastity
Step 16 – Avarice
Step 17 – Poverty
Part 5 – The Spiritual Passions (Continued)
Step 18 – Insensitivity / Lack of Awareness
Step 19 – Sleep, Prayer, and Church
Step 20 – Alertness
Step 21 – Fear
Step 22 – Vainglory
Step 23 – Pride
Part 6 – The Higher Virtues
Step 24 – Meekness/Simplicity
Step 25 – Humility
Step 26 – Discernment
Part 7 Union with God
Step 27 – Stillness
Step 28 – Prayer
Step 29 – Dispassion
Step 30 – Faith, Hope, and Love
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