The writings of the Desert Abbas and Ammas portray a people living with a remarkable singleness of mind. They left all, because heaven was real to them. In speaking of these ascetics, Cassain describes scopos (goal) and telos (the end that is proper to them), through examples of other professions, the warrior, the merchant, and the athlete. All such individuals endure deprivations and dangers because their minds are focused on the end result, the reward. The same lessons apply to monastics and to Christians. Cassian says, The end of our profession… is the kingdom of heaven. But, he says, the goal or scopos is purity of heart, without which it is impossible for anyone to reach that end. Fixing our gaze on this goal, then, as on a definite mark, we shall take the most direct route. And what is that route? Finding first the kingdom of God within our own souls, being aware of the presence of God within.
The desert fathers lived an ascetical life precisely to find that kingdom of God. It prompted them toward sacrifice and abstinence, tears and prayers, sighs and groans. All became part of the process of emptying the heart of all that was not pure, so that they might see God here and now, within.
John Tauler says: Those who look within themselves for the gifts and decrees of God partake of them at their very fountainhead, and there they give them back again. They draw and taste at the very fountainhead… nowhere can they find their own selves in a way so certain and so simple as in that innermost depth, where we feel the immediate presence of God…[From The Sermons and Conferences of John Tauler].
Jean Vanier says that we forget that God comes to us in the deepest part of our beings, at the source of our life, the innermost heart…[from The Heart of L’Arche: A spirituality for every day]. Our task is to prepare our eyes to see the pearl of great price hidden within the field of our own heart.
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