Why is it so helpful to use material analogies to better understand immaterial concepts? Because we are human beings, of course, and because our bodies are part of who we are. Unlike angels, we really do eat food, engage in idle chatter, and climb ladders.
But is there actually a ladder to Heaven? The patriarch Jacob famously saw one when he was heading to Haran to escape death at the hands of his brother. Although Jacob saw the ladder only in a dream,1 Jews and Christians have been unpacking spiritual lessons from that vision for millennia.
One of the most famous mystics to utilize the analogy between Jacob’s ladder and an individual Christian’s journey toward God is Saint John the Scholastic, better known as Saint John Climacus (or “klimax”, ladder, in Greek). John’s feast day is March 30, and his greatest work is called The Ladder of Divine Ascent. He wrote this work after a friend (also named John) asked him to write about the lessons he had learned about the spiritual life during his many years as a monk and hermit.
John was born around the year 570 and was sixteen years old when he appeared at the gate of the famous monastery at the famous Mount Sinai in Egypt and asked to be admitted as a monk. After some time in the monastery, he asked permission to live a more solitary life. He left to live alone in a nearby hermitage, although under the guidance of an experienced hermit. It shouldn’t surprise us that monks and hermits, just like doctors, teachers, and those in every profession, need mentors, particularly as they start out in their vocations.
That’s why John wrote The Ladder, after all. He agreed that the lessons he had learned over decades should be shared with others. The Ladder is a work of thirty chapters, or thirty steps, each of which helps to lead the monk closer to God. His lessons can be easily adapted to those of us living in the world.
From the beginning of his book, John admits that leading a life of virtue and disciplining one’s passions is very hard work; his first chapter has the somewhat severe title “On Renunciation of Life”. But he concludes that chapter with the following advice that is as applicable for laymen as it is for monks:
Who, then, is the faithful and wise monk? It is the man who has kept unquenched the warmth of his vocation, who adds fire each day to fire, fervor to fervor, zeal to zeal, love to love, and this to the end of his life.2
In his zeal for a holy life, John began to live a life of solitude at the age of thirty-five, although he traveled to a church every Saturday and Sunday for Mass and the divine office. For the next forty years, he devoted himself to physical asceticism (it is said that he “tasted food” more than he ate it), constant reading of the Bible, study of the Fathers of the Church, and prayer alone with God.
His decades of seeking God’s presence bore fruit; the other monks and hermits began referring to him as “another Moses”. Just as Moses talked to God face-to-face at Mount Sinai, Saint John became known as a wise spiritual director near that same mountain, and he accepted the role of abbot and governed the monks living at the monastery near the end of his long life.
The chapters of The Ladder show his fatherly concern for the men under his direction; he knew the battles they faced because he fought them himself. Chapters discuss topics such as the value of detachment, the benefits of obedience (a long chapter with many personal examples), a true understanding of humility, and the virtue of silence.
A disagreement over the proper balance of silence and speech affected John personally at one point. Some of the monks complained that John had been wasting time through “unprofitable discourse”, presumably getting carried away a bit as he talked with them. Was John talking too much due to pride, or were those monks resentful of the attention paid to John out of their own pride? Only God knows who was truly at fault, but John accepted it as a valid criticism and condemned himself to complete silence—for a year.
Afterward, the monks noticed miraculous results from John’s prayers. One monk, who was almost at the point of despair because of lustful temptations, was completely freed from temptation after John prayed with him. Another monk was saved from a potentially life-threatening accident by the sound of John’s voice—though John was nowhere nearby. In a time of great drought, people begged John to intercede to God for them, and his prayers for God’s mercy were followed by rain.
That, after all, was one of John’s most important lessons for those who wanted to climb the ladder to Heaven: the value of prayer. Near the end of The Ladder, John’s chapter on prayer begins with the following: “Prayer is by nature a dialog and a union of man with God. Its effect is to hold the world together. It achieves a reconciliation with God.”3
The decisions we make about what we eat, how much we talk, and the priority of prayer may seem minor in comparison to earthshaking world events and headline news. But the reverse is actually true. By taking the steps that will keep us pointed toward our heavenly destination—with God’s grace—we are not only reconciling our own souls with God, we are helping to bring about a reconciliation of the entire world to Him. Fortunately, the words of saints like John Climacus can help us pick ourselves up when we fall and keep climbing that mystical ladder.
Endnotes:
1 Gen. 29:12
2 John Climacus, The Ladder of Divine Ascent, trans. Colm Luibheid and Norman Russell (Mahwah, N.J.; New York: Paulist Press, 1982), 80.
3 John Climacus, The Ladder of Divine Ascent, 274.
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Although, born in Greek Constantinople 6th 7th century the hermit monk is honored for his saintliness by Catholic, [the Latins as sometimes referred to] Orthodox, and, for some fellow Catholics, the preferred brand Eastern Catholic.
Dawn notes Saint Climacus was given to excessive talk apparently causing the brothers distress. Perhaps, a reason why he may have been encouraged to move out into the desert and practice a more severe, reclusive eremetic life. At some point he apparently reentered the community and became their new Moses. Now for a pause from our own Lenten severity, a dash of humor.
Might Climacus have turned to dance as a means to manage his long windedness. I wonder too if the Gershwin brothers George and Ira were familiar with Climacus’ Ladder of Divine Ascent when they wrote the music and lyrics for Stairway to Paradise. After all they mention the clergy.
All you preachers Who delight in panning the dancing teachers, Let me tell you there are a lot of features Of the dance that carry you through The gates of Heaven.
Stand aside, I’m on my way ! I’ve got the blues And up above it’s so fair. Shoes! Go on and carry me there! I’ll build a stairway to Paradise With a new step every day.