Watchfulness
Just as in conventional war, the fighter is constantly is a state of awareness, so too in spiritual warfare we must constantly be on guard. Watching over the soul and it’s three powers should be a constant activity. This should take place in thought, feeling, word, and action. We must vigilantly guard our heart from unfitting thoughts and impressions, and from disordered feelings. According to the words of the writer of the Proverbs:
Above all else, guard your heart; for everything you do flows from it.
According to St. Hesychios the Priest († AD 450), watchfulness is “a continual fixing and halting of thought at the entrance to the heart.” He continues by laying out the practice in more detail:
Watchfulness is a spiritual method which, if sedulously practiced over a long period, completely frees us with God’s help from impassioned thoughts, impassioned words and evil actions. It leads, in so far as this is possible, to a sure knowledge of the inapprehensible God, and helps us to penetrate the Divine and hidden mysteries. It enables us to fulfill every Divine commandment in the Old and New Testaments and bestows upon us every blessing of the age to come…. Once established in us, it guides us to a true and holy way of life. It teaches us how to activate the three aspects of our soul correctly, and how to keep a firm guard over the senses. It promotes the daily growth of the four principal virtues and is the basis of our contemplation.
In this activity, the fighter in the spiritual life is a defender. We must always be in the watchtower, awake, alert, and ready for anything. St. Hesychios concludes:
No Christian, believing rightly in God should ever be off his guard. He should always be on the lookout for temptation, so that when it comes, he will not be surprised or disturbed, but will gladly endure the toil and affection it causes, and so will understand what he is saying when he chants with the prophet: ‘Prove me, oh, Lord, and try me’ (Psalm 26:2).
If the enemy is constantly watching us, looking for opportunities to attack, ambush and subdue us, so too we should confront our enemies with constant and relentless watchfulness. In the classic work, Unseen Warfare, Scupoli provides the following warning:
Since the enemy watches you constantly, waiting for an opportunity to sow evil in you, be doubly watchful over yourself, lest you fall in the nets spread for you.
When we let down our guard is always when the enemy strikes. When we are doing well, and when we seem to be making progress in life, and in our spiritual endeavors, we tend to tell ourselves, “I am doing well, and therefore I deserve to relax.” We tell ourselves that this or that rest, comfort, or consolation is deserved. Then we let down our guard and before we know it, we are assailed by temptations in thought, which quickly translate to bodily gratification.
Watchfulness should always be accompanied by sobriety. As St. Paul says, “Therefore, let us not sleep, as do others; but let us watch and be sober.” (Thessalonians 1 5:6). When we are sober, we have clarity, and when we have clarity, we can see clearly when the enemy is lurking and lurching towards the soul.
The activity of watchfulness is primarily conducted in the mind or in thoughts. Being on guard means to be vigilant over our thinking. St Philotheos of Sinai breaks it down this way:
It is by means of thoughts that the spirits of evil wage a secret war against the soul. For since the soul is invisible, these malicious powers naturally attack it invisibly. Both sides prepare their weapons, muster their forces, devise stratagems, clash in fearful battle, gain victories and suffer defeats.
He points out that this battle is different from conventional war in that in physical war, typically there is a proclamation of war. This makes spiritual warfare that much or challenging:
But this noetic(spiritual) warfare lacks one feature possessed by visible warfare: declaration of hostilities. Suddenly, with no warning, the enemy attacks the inmost heart, sets an ambush there, and kills the soul through sin.
Vigilance in all thoughts and actions should be to accompanied with the virtues. We should train ourselves in this so that the virtues are the default operation. With every thought, word and deed we must struggle to keep diverting back to a virtuous response. All the virtues are like a full quiver for the archer. With these arrows we can slay the enemies. When sin and passions surface, we must quickly turn to God and reapply a virtuous mindset.
For modern people, this method or tactic is challenging, as we are constantly assailed by an endless flow of distractions, curiosities, and diversions, all of which are seeking to undermine this goal of watchfulness. Modern comforts, technology and the general framework of modern life are antithetical to watchfulness. However, we must struggle daily to push back on this and keep waking ourselves up, for there is too much at stake—our soul.
Just before the crucifixion, Jesus went in the garden to pray. When he returned, he found them sleeping and asked:
Couldn’t you men keep watch with me for one hour? Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.
We too must watch and pray, and not allow ourselves to be lulled to sleep by apathy, comfort and complacency. We must always be in the watchtower, keeping guard.