Saint Peter of Damaskos. Book 1. A Treasury of Divine Knowledge. From Philokalia, Vol. 3.
If by the grace of God you have received
the gift of discrimination, you should in great humility do everything
you can to guard it, so that you do nothing without it. Otherwise you
will bring on yourself greater chastisement by sinning knowingly because
of your negligence. If you have not received this gift you should not
think, say or do anything without consulting others about it, and
without a basis of firm faith and pure prayer. Without such faith and
such prayer you will never truly achieve discrimination.
Discrimination is born of humility. On
its possessor it confers spiritual insight, as both Moses and St John
Klimakos say: such a man foresees the hidden designs of the enemy and
foils them before they are put into operation. It is as David states:
‘And my eyes looked down upon my enemies’ (Ps. 14:7. LXX).
Discrimination is characterized by an unerring recognition of what is
good and what is not, and the knowledge of the will of God in all that
one does. Spiritual insight is characterized, first, by awareness of
one’s own failings before they issue in outward actions, as well as of
the stealthy tricks of the demons; and, second, by the knowledge of the
mysteries hidden in the divine Scriptures and in sensible creation.
As has been already explained, humility,
the mother of discrimination and spiritual insight, likewise has its
own characteristic by which it is known. The humble person must possess
every virtue and yet truly think himself the greatest of debtors and
inferior to everything else in creation. If, however, a person does not
think in this way, then he can be assured that he is in fact inferior to
everything else in creation, even though he seems to lead a life like
that of the angels. For even a true angel possessing so many virtues and
so much wisdom cannot conform to the Creator’s will unless he also
possesses humility. What, then, can a person who thinks that he is an
angel say for himself if he lacks humility, source of all present and
future blessings, begetter of that discrimination which illumines the
ends of the earth and without which all things are obscure?
Discrimination is not only called light;
it truly is light. We need this light before we say or do anything.
When it is present we are able to view everything else with wonder. We
can marvel at how God, on the first and greatest of days, began by
creating light, so that what was subsequently created might not he
invisible and as if it did not exist, as St John of Damaskos says.’ Let
it be said again: discrimination is light; and the spiritual insight it
generates is more necessary than all other gifts. For what is more
necessary than to perceive the wiles of the demons and with the help of
God’s grace to protect one’s soul? Other things most necessary to us
include, according to St Isaac, purity of conscience and, according to
the apostle, the sanctification of the body (cf. Rom. 12:1; 1 Cor.
6:19-20) without which ‘no one will see the Lord’ (Heb. 12:14).
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