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Lenten Retreat: The Dismantling of the Religious Self, Session Four Lenten Retreat 2026 Fourth Reflection The Man Who Has Nothing Left But God
On the Life That Appears When the Self That Lived Has Died “I live, yet not I, but Christ lives in me.”
Galatians 2:20
There comes a moment that the man cannot perceive di
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Lenten Retreat 2026 Fourth Reflection The Man Who Has Nothing Left But God
On the Life That Appears When the Self That Lived Has Died “I live, yet not I, but Christ lives in me.”
Galatians 2:20
There comes a moment that the man cannot perceive directly, because the one who would perceive it is no longer there.
He has passed through the loss of support. He has passed through the disappearance of certainty. He has passed through the collapse of identity. He has passed through the experience of abandonment in which he could no longer locate himself in relation to God or even in relation to himself.
He has stood where nothing remained to sustain the sense that he existed.
He did not cross this threshold through effort. He did not achieve it through discipline. He did not arrive there through understanding.
He arrived there because everything he used to sustain himself had been taken. And he did not die.
This is the first revelation.
He did not die.
The self he knew has disappeared. The structure that allowed him to experience continuity has dissolved. The identity he inhabited cannot be recovered.
And yet he remains.
But he does not remain as he was.
Before this, he experienced himself as existing from himself. Even in humility. Even in repentance. Even in dependence on God, he remained the one who depended. He remained the center from which his life was lived.
Now this center cannot be found.
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He cannot locate himself as the source of his own existence. He cannot experience himself as self originating.
He exists.
But not from himself.
The Psalmist speaks from within this mystery when he says, “My soul clings to You; Your right hand upholds me.” Psalm 62:8
Before this, the man believed he clung to God. He believed his faith held him in relation to God. He believed his perseverance sustained his life.
Now he sees that even his clinging was sustained.
He sees that he has never lived by his own strength.
He sees that he has never possessed life in himself.
St. Symeon the New Theologian writes that when grace reveals itself fully, the soul sees that it has always existed by borrowed life.
Not poetic life.
Actual life.
The man now experiences himself as upheld.
Not helped.
Upheld.
This produces a peace that cannot be explained to the man who still lives from himself.
Because the man who lives from himself must constantly preserve himself. He must maintain continuity.
He must protect identity.
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He must secure stability.
He must ensure that he continues.
Fear is inseparable from this condition.
Fear of loss.
Fear of failure.
Fear of death.
Fear of disappearance.
But the man who no longer lives from himself cannot preserve himself.
Because he no longer possesses himself.
Christ says, “Whoever loses his life for My sake will find it.” Matthew 16:25
This finding is not recovery.
It is discovery.
The discovery that life was never his.
The discovery that existence belongs to God.
St. Isaac the Syrian writes that the man who has come to know his nothingness has come to know the truth of his existence.
Nothingness does not mean nonexistence.
It means the absence of autonomous existence.
The man exists entirely in God.
St. Paul says, “In Him we live and move and have our being.” Acts 17:28 Before this, these words were believed.
Now they are known.
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Not as thought.
As being.
The man no longer moves toward God.
He moves in Him.
He no longer depends on God as one thing depends on another.
He exists as one upheld from within.
Christ says, “Abide in Me, and I in you.” John 15:4
This abiding is not effort.
It is the end of resistance.
The man no longer attempts to ground himself.
He no longer attempts to preserve himself.
He no longer attempts to exist from himself.
These movements have ended.
Because the one who performed them has died.
St. Silouan the Athonite writes that the soul that has come to know God through the Holy Spirit no longer fears anything.
This fearlessness does not arise from strength. It arises from dispossession.
Nothing remains to be protected.
Nothing remains to be preserved.
Nothing remains to be secured. The man exists.
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But he does not belong to himself.
St. Sophrony writes that the human person becomes fully real only when he ceases to exist as an autonomous center.
Autonomy is the consequence of separation from God. Communion is the restoration of life.
The man who lives in communion no longer experiences himself as isolated existence.
He experiences himself as relation.
Relation becomes the ground of his being.
This does not remove suffering.
It removes separation.
The man still suffers.
He still experiences uncertainty.
He still experiences weakness.
But these no longer threaten his existence.
Because his existence is no longer located where suffering occurs.
Christ says, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven.” The Kingdom belongs to those who possess nothing.
Because possession creates separation.
The man who possesses nothing exists without separation.
St. John the Baptist expresses this final truth with terrifying clarity.
“He must increase, but I must decrease.” John 3:30
This decrease is not moral humility.
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It is ontological disappearance.
The self that lived apart from God has ended.
What remains is life.
Not his life.
God’s life.
St. Paul writes, “For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.” Colossians 3:3
Hidden.
Not visible.
Not possessed.
Hidden.
The man no longer experiences himself as possessing life.
He experiences life as possessing him.
This is resurrection.
Not after death.
Now.
The man who has nothing left but God discovers that he has lost nothing. Because nothing he lost was life.
And what remains cannot be lost.
Because it is God Himself.
And there is no one left to live apart from Him.
⸻
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This life does not appear as triumph.
It appears as quiet.
It appears as simplicity.
It appears as the absence of self concern.
Because the one who was concerned for himself has died. Christ says, “Do not be anxious about your life.” Matthew 6:25 This command is impossible for the man who lives from himself. Because he must preserve himself.
He must anticipate loss.
He must guard against death.
But the man who no longer lives from himself has nothing to guard.
Nothing to preserve.
Nothing to secure.
His life is no longer his responsibility.
It is God’s.
St. Peter speaks this truth plainly, “Cast all your care upon Him, for He cares for you.” 1 Peter 5:7
Not as comfort.
As ontology.
The man no longer carries himself. He is carried.
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St. Silouan writes that when the soul comes to know this life, it desires nothing else. Even suffering cannot remove its peace, because its life is no longer located in what suffers.
The body may weaken.
The mind may grow silent.
The world may collapse.
But the life remains.
Because it is not created life.
It is participation in uncreated life.
Christ says, “Because I live, you will live also.” John 14:19 Not because you are strong.
Not because you are faithful.
Because I live.
Archimandrite Sophrony writes that at this stage, man begins to live hypostatically. He exists no longer as an isolated psychological individual, but as a person whose being is rooted in the divine Person of Christ.
This life is hidden even from the man himself. He cannot grasp it.
He cannot analyze it.
He cannot possess it.
He can only live it.
This is why the saints appear ordinary.
They do not experience themselves as extraordinary. They experience themselves as nothing.
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And precisely in this nothingness, God becomes everything.
Abba Macarius said, “The man who has truly come to know himself sees himself as beneath all creation.”
Not as metaphor.
As reality.
Because he no longer lives from himself. God alone lives in him.
Archimandrite Zacharias writes that when this life appears, prayer becomes self acting. The heart continues in God without effort. The man no longer generates prayer. Prayer becomes the life of God within him.
St. Paul speaks of this mystery, “The Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words.” Romans 8:26
Not we pray.
The Spirit prays.
The man has become the place where God lives.
This is why fear disappears.
Not because suffering ends.
But because death has already occurred.
The man has already lost himself.
There is nothing left to lose.
Christ says, “He who believes in Me, though he die, yet shall he live.” John 11:25
This is not only future. It is present.
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The man has died.
And now lives.
This life cannot be destroyed. Because it is not his.
It is Christ.
St. Ignatius of Antioch, walking toward martyrdom, said, “It is no longer I who live, but there is within me a living water that speaks and says, Come to the Father.”
This is the voice of the life that remains.
The life that appears when the self that lived has died.
This is the final dismantling.
The end of autonomy.
The end of separation.
The end of the illusion of self existence.
And the beginning of life.
The man who has nothing left but God discovers that God is everything. And that this is enough.
And that it has always been enough.
And that there is no one left to live apart from Him.
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Text of chat during the group:
00:02:25 Fr. Charbel Abernethy: From the dismantling of the religious ego there emerges first a profound poverty of heart. The man who once relied upon his virtues, his understanding, or his religious identity discovers that none of these can sustain him before God. What comes into being in this poverty is humility—not as an idea about oneself, but as a quiet truthfulness. The soul no longer needs to defend itself, justify itself, or measure its progress. Having seen its own weakness and the mercy of God, the heart become
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Date de publication : 16/3/2026 à 23:43:30
