Prologue VI

[6.] They wear the sheepskin – those always carrying around in their bodies the death of Jesus (2 Cor. 4:10) and muzzling all the irrational passions of the body, cutting back the wickedness of the soul by their communion in good; and loving poverty but fleeing from avarice as the mother of idolatry (Col. 3:5)

The sheepskin or melote is piece of clothing gained by the slaying of a sheep. It therefore carries the connotation of death. Praktikos 52 and KG VI, 42 lifts the veil to the symbolic meaning of the sheepskin:

52. To separate the body from the soul belongs exclusively to him who united them; but to separate the soul from the body belongs to anyone who desires virtue The life of withdrawal has been called by the fathers a rehearsal for death and flight from the body.

42. The death of Christ is the mysterious operation that restores to eternal life those who have hoped in him in this life.

The sheepskin symbolizes the “beastly passions” (KG VI, 85), which we ought to “slay” in our ascetic efforts by “spiritual love”:

35. The The passions of the soul derive from men; the passions of the body derive from the body. The passions of the body are cut back by self-control; those of the soul are cut back by spiritual love.

The passions are not merely “bodily” as we shall see. There are also definite “spiritual” passions. This means that for Evagrius evil is not a necessary and constitutive part of being embodied. Evil is the perversion of that which is created good:

I,40. There was [a time] when evil did not exist, and there will be [a time] when it no longer exists; but there was never [a time] when virtue did not exist and there will never be [a time] when it does not exist: for the seeds of virtue are indestructible. And I am convinced by the rich man [almost but not completely given over to every evil] who was condemned to hell because of his evil, and who felt compassion for his brothers (Luke 16:19-31). For to have pity is a very beautiful seed of virtue.

All is created good without the presence of evil Evil is a latecomer and does not belong to the essence of things, because whatever is touched by evil can be converted back to the good as is evidenced in the story of the rich man and Lazarus. The rich man being completely self-centered by the fires of suffering learns the virtue of compassion and thereby gains a virtue. Evagrius takes a wholly different message from this passage of Scripture than many of us would today!
+ Fr. Gregory Wassen

Prologue V

[5.] The belt tied around their loins repels all impurity and declares, It is good for a man not to touch a woman’ (I Cor. 7:1).

The belt is a symbol of chastity because it wraps around the loins where the sensual desire (symbolically) resides. The freely chosen rejection of marriage for the sake of the Kingdom of Heaven is a characteristic property of monasticism. Let us allow Evagrius to interpret and explain himself:

In Jeremiah, it is said, ‘And you shall not take to yourself a wife in this place, for thus says the Lord concerning the sons and daughters born in this place: “They shall die a foul death” ‘ [Jer. 16. 2-4]. Here is what the word reveals: that (according to the Apostle) ‘the married man is concerned about things of this world, how he may please his wife’, and he is divided; ‘and the married woman is concerned about this world, how she may please her husband’ [1 Cor. 7, 33-34]. It is also clear that ‘they shall die a foul death’ was said by the prophet not just about the sons and daughters who come from a married life. It was also said about those sons and daughters who are begotten in the heart (that is fleshly thoughts and desires) that they shall die in the foul and sickly and enfeebled arrogance of this world and not be prepared for heavenly and eternal life. ‘But the unmarried’, he says, ‘is concerned about the things of the Lord, how he may please the Lord [1 Cor. 7. 32] and will produce the ever blooming and deathless fruits of heavenly life.

Such is the monk, and it is fitting that the monk be thus: abstaining from a wife, having neither son nor daughter in the heart, as mentioned above. Not only that, but he should also be Christ’s soldier not material, not concerned, set apart from business considerations and actions – as the Apostle also said: ‘No soldier embroils himself in the affairs of life, so that he may please the one to whom he signed on’ [2 Tim. 2. 4]. Let the monk make progress in these things, especially as he is one who has given up all the things of this world, and hurries toward the beautiful and good trophies of stillness. How beautiful and opportune! It’s yoke is easy and its burden light’ [Mt 11. 30]: the life is sweet, the struggle delightful.

For those of us who are married (clergy or not) this tells us not to turn our spouses into an idol and not be married to the world – for spiritually we are the ‘Bride of Christ.’

+ Fr. Gregory Wassen