Today the Church celebrates the Sunday of Saint John Climacus, or Saint John of the Ladder. He was a monk on Mount Sinai in the seventh century, having entered the monastery at the age of sixteen. He spent twenty years in strict asceticism as a hermit, but was forced to leave his hermitage when he was chosen as abbot. He was recognised as a wise spiritual father, and his book The Ladder of Divine Ascent has become a classic Orthodox text that guides and encourages all those on the ascetical way.
Today the Church holds up Saint John of the Ladder in order that his example may encourage us on our ascetical path during Lent. He is given to us an example of repentance who can inspire us and remind us Christian life involves a struggle as we seek to discipline the demands of the flesh so that we may grow in likeness to Christ.
However, our asceticism is not simply something negative. The texts of the Church remind us that our acts of bodily asceticism are only valuable if they bear fruit in an inner transformation and the softening of our hardened hearts. And the example of Saint John reminds us that it is love that motivates our asceticism. As we pray at Vespers: “This is why thou dost entreat us: Love God so that ye may live in His eternal goodwill, and let nothing be set higher than this Love.”