Translation:Cassian Conferences XXII/Chapter 6
1. But so that it might be more clearly demonstrated, that this inpurity can be elicited even by the action of the enemy: we know a brother, who though he constantly possessed chastity of heart, acquired by the greatest circumspection and humility, and was never tempted by nocturnal illusions, yet whenever he was preparing to receive the Lord's communion, he was polluted with an emission while sleeping. Who, when for a long time he had apprehensively abstained from the sacred mysteries, at last brought this problem before the elders, confident that he would find a cure to these attacks and his sorrow from their healing advice.
2. But when the learning of the spiritual doctors discussed the first cause of this sickness, which often derives from having previously consumed too much food, and discovered that the brother did not remember this to be the case, and this illusion could in no way be considered to emerge from the vice of over-fulness, both because of the brother's well-known strictness and because of this pollution occurring, exceptionally, only on solemn days; the course of the inquiry was transferred immediately to the second cause of this affliction, examining whether perhaps, by a fault of the soul, the flesh, exhausted by fasting, was provoked to impure illusions, through which even the strictest men, when they have become even slightly elated by their bodily purity, are polluted, through the vice of pride, because that is to say the special gift of God, that is chastity of body, they believe to have been obtained by human virtue.
3. Questioned therefore whether he believed that he had become fit for this virtue by his own efforts, such that he had no need for divine help, he cursed this impious opinion with great execration, and humbly affirmed that he would not have been able to retain bodily purity even on the other days, if he had not been helped in all things by divine grace. Thereupon, they turned to the third cause, and detected the hidden trap of diabolical action. And finding the fault to be neither one of the soul nor of the flesh, they most confidently judged that he ought to take part in the sacred feasts, lest that is in persisting in this determination, he should be bound by the clever snares of the enemy, and unable to participate in sanctification and the body of Christ, and so through this deceit be forever defrauded of the medicine of saving remedy.
4. Which done, the pantomime of diabolical operation was so completely exposed, that soon by the protecting virtue of the Lord's body the previous pattern of illusion ceased. In which the deceit of the enemy was clearly revealed and exposed, and equally the belief of the elders was confirmed, which teaches that often this impure emission is the fault neither of the body nor of the soul, but is impelled by deceits of the scheming adversary. Therefore, so that the deceitful imagination of dreams, siren of the impure emission, may be unknown either permanently or, allowing for our humble and (as it were) common condition, for a certain number of months, after that faith, by which we continually hope, through the special grace of God, to be worthy of the gift of purity, excess in food and drink is to be chastised.
5. Superfluity of which necessarily makes fluids of this sort more prone to be generated, and since their condensation can not but be discharged and by the very law of nature be driven out, they come out under the favourable moment of some itching or illusion. But once over-fulness with food has been removed, what follows is that these unclean emptyings are also generated more slowly. And so it may happen that as with the discharge of them, so even the illusions disturb the sleepers more rarely or less strongly, because not only does the emptying derive from the imagination, but also the imagination derives from the excess of the emptying.
6. For which reason, if we wish to be freed from the enticement of these illusions, we must struggle with all our virtue. First, that the passion of virtue be conquered, as the blessed Apostle says, let not sin reign in your mortal body, so that you obey its desires.[1] Second, so that once the enticed movement of the body itself has been thoroughly stilled and put to sleep, we may by no means offer our members as instruments to the sin wickedness.[2] Third, so that our inner human, all that tickling of desire having been in every way and thoroughly put to death, we may offer ourselves to God as if the living from the dead, and so through this achievement arriving at the uninterrupted peace of our body, we may offer even our members as instruments now not of desire but of righteousness to God.[3]
7. Having been established in this purity of chastity, sin will not longer control us.[4] For we are not under the law, which while it commends the permitted rights of marriage, even that by the help of which the drive for illicit fornication is assuaged, nevertheless feeds and preserves the fire deep within us; but we are under grace,[5] which while it instills imperishable virginity, destroys even that harmless and simple motion of the body, along with the desire for licit intercourse itself. And so, all the moisture of our impure sewerage having been dried up, we will be made those excellent and praiseworthy eunuchs, foretold by Isaiah, meriting that blessedness which was promised to them as their possession. For God says this to the eunuchs: who keep my sabbath, and choose what I will, and hold to my covenant: I will give them a place in my home and in my walls, and a name better than to my sons and daughters; an eternal name I will give to them, which will never perish.[6]