NOTES for Luk 11:23-26
"Whoever is not with Me is against Me, and whoever does not gather with Me scatters." These words, which the Lord speaks today, give us an exhaustive mental picture of what at the same moment is described very vividly by the parable of the seven spirits more evil than the first. "Whoever is not with Me..." What does this mean? As for those possessed by demons, things are more or less clear: they are not with the Lord. But now there are no demons; they have been driven out...
Let us pay attention to the words: coming, he finds it swept and put in order. In this tidiness one sees a symbol of emptiness, for a house can be tidy if its occupants have gone away for a long time, while in a house where people live, such tidiness does not occur. Because when we tidy up, we immediately disturb the order achieved for a moment; this is natural. There is even an English proverb: "this house is clean enough to be healthy and dirty enough to be happy." But in the swept condition mentioned in today's reading, we see a symbol of the absence of life, a symbol of abandonment, in other words, a symbol of emptiness.
But what is emptiness, since we know perfectly well that "nature abhors a vacuum" (Aristotle)? Here, it seems, is a metaphysical parallel to our parable. Let us pause for a second and think about what relation this order has not to summer-home settlements in winter, but to our souls.
There exists a type of person, the type of the rationalist, the positivist, the scholar, or let us recall at least the old prince Nikolai Bolkonsky. These are people of enormous intelligence and diligence. But they value above all else the inner order gained by such enormous labor. Moreover, their considerable knowledge gives them an understanding of what ignorance and error are. Therefore they always maintain neutrality. Intellectual, spiritual, religious, political. Because they see so much falsehood, error, and misunderstanding among people and texts...
But a great man said: "The hottest places in hell are reserved for those who, in times of the greatest moral upheaval (that is, at every time, as we understand it), maintained neutrality" (Dante). Because neutrality, whatever it may be, is the main thing opposed to love. Where there is neutrality, there is no love. Someone may point to the words: "...bearing with one another in love" (Eph 4:2, in Bishop Cassian's translation), saying, there you have a kind of neutrality in love. But here some purely linguistic misunderstanding arises. To bear with someone means to accept, to be together despite incongruity, while neutrality means leaving and closing the door behind oneself. Not slamming the door and running out, but leaving and quietly closing the door.
There is one more thing worth paying attention to today. St. Silouan the Athonite said: "Keep your mind in hell and do not despair." It is impossible to exhaust the meanings of this phrase here; dissertations could be written about it, but one blade of grass can be taken out of the bouquet of its meanings. Coming to God does not consist in soaring in thought and soul toward His unearthly perfection, but in entering the very filth of hell, the filth of lies, stupidity, error, misunderstanding, and cruelty, and being there. Not being afraid of filth, for hell is very filthy. However, perhaps for this one will have to take off the professor's suit...