Devour (Being Devoured/Devouring Each Other)
- Michael Haldas
- Sep 23
- 3 min read
“…the Lord offers us the choice to “eat the good things of the land” or “be devoured by the sword” (Isaiah 1:19-20). What is inescapable in human nature is our moral freedom. We choose to accept or refuse God, “for the mouth of the Lord has spoken” (vs. 20).” (Dynamis 3/8/2022)
“The passions are a perversion of natural human qualities and needs. Human nature has a need for food and drink and a desire to continue the race. Anger can be righteous (for example, towards enemies of the faith), and it can lead to murder. Frugality can turn into avarice. We mourn the loss of loved ones, but it shouldn’t escalate into despair. Determination and perseverance shouldn’t lead to pride. One Western theologian…compares a passion to a dog. It’s very good when a dog is chained up and guarding our house, but it’s trouble when he gets his paws on the table and devours our lunch.” (Archpriest Pavel Gumerov)
“Being a Christian means waging a relentless struggle against the evil powers and spirits that rule in the world…a Christian must always be armed with spiritual weapons, for his spiritual enemies are ever at the ready to devour him. Let us add to this the need to fight with visible enemies—evil people, with our own passions and wicked inclinations that always seduce and alienate us from the Lord…if we always…observe our great Christian faith and are strengthened by Divine grace, we can easily prevent any danger and successfully continue our spiritual ascent, overcoming our enemies and temptations…Inasmuch as this world is a sea of lies and injustice, you’ll inevitably drown in it if you don’t adorn yourself with truth and righteousness….a Christian must preserve in his heart that peace…that is given us by the grace of the Gospel. Faith should be a Christian’s shield, and the word of God a spear in his hand. Only the Christian thus armed will be able to defeat spiritual and bodily enemies and pass through numerous dangers unharmed, to establish himself in the Kingdom of God.” (St. Gabriel of Imereti)
“Repentance is the beginning of healing from self-will, the beginning of submission to the will of God. Living by his own will, a man quickly loses his royal...No single man on earth has ever been able to live by his own will and remain a man. ‘Man’ cannot be synonymous with ‘self-will’; a man, a true man, means total submission to a higher will, the discerning and infallible will of God. The self-willed live in lunatic asylums, in houses of the deepest darkness and the gnashing of teeth. Their bodies are darkness and the gnashing of teeth, as are their souls. Self-will opens the door to the ever-vigilant worm, that devours the sinner’s soul and body. Repentance is the uncovering of this nest of worms in oneself.” (St. Nikolai Velimirovic)
“ ‘The heart itself is but a small vessel, yet dragons are there, and there are also lions; there are poisonous beasts and all the treasures of evil. But there too is God, the angels, the life and the kingdom, the light and the apostles, the heavenly cities and the treasuries of grace—all things are there’… bodies are a “temple of the Holy Spirit,” a saying that has been tragically reduced to a moral exhortation. Rather, we should have this Psalm in mind: One thing I have desired of the LORD, that will I seek: That I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the LORD, and to inquire in His temple. (Ps 27:4)…To behold that beauty and to make such an inquiry requires that we also encounter lions and dragons, poisonous beasts and all the treasures of evil. Those who do not undertake this singular pilgrimage spend the whole of their lives without knowledge of God or the true self. They remain people of the surface, doomed to act out the puppetry dictated by the self of shame. Over time, it adds to the treasures of evil and gives birth to ever more dragons and lions. It is little wonder that we bite and devour one another in our public life.” (St. Macarius, Father Stephen Freeman)
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