Comments on St. Seraphim
On Acquiring the Holy Spirit
St. Seraphim of Sarov was a Russian saint who lived in the 1700’s. I’d never heard of him until a pastor friend emailed, “Do you remember Acquiring the Holy Spirit by St. Seraphim? Do you have any thoughts on it?” with the links to FatherAlexander sermon and a Patheos blog entry. I read the essays at links he sent and this essay is my reply to his question. I post it at his suggestion. It makes more sense if you read it as a commentary on the essays.
Dear ___,
The first thing to strike me about St. Seraphim was his lovely heart to seek God so assiduously for a long, long time. But my heart hurt because His journey was so arduous. I thought, “Poor fellow.” How he suffered to find the fullness of Jesus.
It struck me odd that he needed to emphasize that the acquisition of the Holy Spirit was the true end of our Christian life. I’ve always taken that for granted. Jesus Himself made it clear to His disciples that He had to die to send us the Holy Spirit. Then He instructed His disciples to wait for the Paraclete. How could receiving the Holy Spirit not be the aim of the Christian life?
I first heard the Eastern Orthodox Church teaching that Adam lost the Holy Spirit by his disobedience in Eden back in a Bible College theology course in the late ’80’s and it made so much sense that I’ve forgotten all the other theories about original sin as less important. It’s undergirded my thinking,
St. Seraphim’s means of acquiring the Holy Spirit puzzled me and troubled me. It always puzzles me when the ascetic route to union with Jesus seems to become masochistic. Do you recall how at the end of his life St. Francis said if he’d had to do it over again he’d be kinder to Brother Ass (his body)?
That said, it’s fearful to judge how God guides or how another hears. I can’t know the Holy Spirit’s steps to facilitate how another person sheds off flesh and culture, nor can I ever know the degree of another’s union with God when my own is always imperfect. Even St. Paul toward the end of his life was still reaching toward the goal of the knowledge of Jesus.
To me, though, it seems that many believers have acquired a saintly closeness and infusion with the Holy Spirit by more economical routes than St. Seraphim’s and I would encourage believers to seek God for means to reach their goal of union with Him more efficiently— if possible.
For example, by looking at the outward fruit of Brother Lawrence, Reese and Samuel Howells, Martha Wing Robinson, and Mme. Guyon, it sure looks like they all showed a consistent fullness of Jesus presence and love in discernment, knowledge, wisdom, miracles and gifts of healing — as well as in effectiveness in teaching and the ability to bring degrees of revival and God’s convicting and empowering manifest presence to others.
Although they suffered, they did not pursue suffering. Perhaps the suffering journey to God is different for a Catholic or Eastern Orthodox believer because of presuppositions (strongholds) to overcome as their church history has nurtured a different view of suffering than a protestant tradition.
But, NO journey toward total surrender to God and total obedience of faith can ever be easy and the keys are always costly to purchase and use. And, across the board, a total obedience of faith and total surrender to God and dependence upon His living Word do seem to be the keys for the door to open us to His indwelling.
Some details in the article almost beg nitpicking criticism—But these are minor and it’s quite possible they might be related to translation nuances or the editor’s interpretations. For example: Since the Holy Spirit is a person, I can’t see how the Holy Spirit could ever be thought of as capital that believers can own like a possession: we don’t possess the Holy Spirit, HE possesses us— if we are so fortunate as to be able to receive Him, to surrender, to let Him. Another questionable detail is St. Serpahim’s idea that Adam was wiser than Jesus. The Bible teaches that Jesus, the second Adam, was wiser than Adam in my reading of it.
And clearly there are vast cultural and historical differences making gaps between us and St. Seraphim. Those differences would probably make a very long and interesting study — possibly a boring or dead one too. Isn’t it better to seek the Holy Spirit about our own lives and be about His work of faith in us? That said, FYI, here are only a few examples of culture gaps that a more complete discussion might touch on —
1) The 21st century definition of good works might be vastly different and might not include virginity and prayer
2) St. Seraphim’s perspective was from within a dead yet outwardly religious Christian culture, driven by what seems like a rigorous emphasis on reaching God by “good deeds”, whereas our perspective is what do they call it? post-modern? And clearly more secular and a more faith bent.
3) I would need to have more insight into the good saint’s understanding of “good deeds” before I could condemn it as a works approach to God. My own route is by faith through grace. But faith without works, as James taught us is dead and including prayer and generosity in good deeds speaks to me.
4) St. Seraphim’s extreme withdrawal from others and prolonged silence might likely be diagnosed as depression or mental illness today—unless it were a supervised prescribed spiritual discipline of a contemplative order.
That fourth point is too bad because historically withdrawal from others to seek solitude and the practice of silence have been recommended by great saints like Thomas a Kempis, Theresa of Avila, and St. John of the Cross. God-seekers like St. Seraphim and George Fox, the founder of the Society of Friends, were led to profound illumination in their seasons of withdrawal from others.
Silence, stilling our tongues and speaking only as the Holy Spirit gives utterance is surely needful to keeping the faith for continual surrender to the Holy Spirit.
Cultural gaps not withstanding, it’s clear that St. Seraphim knew God intimately. The good saint points us to God and reveals His profound love for all who truly seek Him with all their hearts and souls and minds.
