Achieving True Knowledge of Scripture
Conferences by John Cassian (2.14.10)
“If you wish to achieve true knowledge of Scripture you must hurry to achieve unshakable humility of heart. This is what will lead you not to the knowledge which puffs a man up but to the lore which illuminates through the achievement of love. It is impossible for the unclean of heart to acquire the gift of spiritual knowledge. Therefore be very careful that your zeal for scriptural reading does not, because of empty pretentiousness, prove to be a cause of perdition, instead of being for you the source of knowledgeable light and of the endless glory promised to the man enlightened by knowledge.
“Then, having banished all worldly concerns and thoughts, strive in every way to devote yourself constantly to the sacred reading so that continuous meditation will seep into your soul and, as it were, will shape it to its image. Somehow it will form that ‘ark’ of the Scriptures (cf. Heb 9:4–5) and will contain the two stone tablets, that is, the perpetual strength of the two testaments. There will be the golden urn which is a pure and unstained memory and which will preserve firmly within itself the everlasting manna, that is, the eternal, heavenly sweetness of spiritual meanings and of that bread which belongs to the angels. The branch of Aaron is the saving standard of our exalted and true high priest Jesus Christ. It leafs out forever in the greenness of undying memory. This is the branch which was cut from the root of Jesse and which after death comes more truly alive.
“Now all of these things are covered over by the two cherubim, that is, by the plenitude of historical and spiritual lore. Cherubim means knowledge in abundance. They provide an everlasting protection for that which appeases God, namely, the calm of your heart, and they will cast a shadow of protection against all the attacks of malign spirits.
“And thus your soul will not only become the ark of God’s testament but it will be carried forward into a priestly realm and, by its unfailing love of purity, its concentration upon the disciplines of the spirit, it will implement the priestly command imposed by the Lawgiver: ‘He will not emerge from the holy place, lest he profane the sanctuary of God’ (Lv 21:12). That is, he will not depart from his own heart where the Lord promised to live continuously when He said, ‘I will live and walk among them’ (2 Cor 6:16).
“Therefore the sequences of holy Scripture must be committed to memory and they must be pondered ceaselessly. Such meditation will profit us in two ways. First, when the thrust of the mind is occupied by the study and perusal of the readings it will, of necessity, avoid being taken over by the snares of dangerous thoughts. Second, as we strive with constant repetition to commit these readings to memory, we have not the time to understand them because our minds have been occupied. But later when we are free from the attractions of all that we do and see and, especially, when we are quietly meditating during the hours of darkness, we think them over and we understand them more closely. And so it happens that when we are at ease and when, as it were, we are plunged into the dullness of sleep, the hidden meanings, of which we were utterly unaware during our waking hours, and the sense of them are bared to our minds."
John Cassian, John Cassian: Conferences, ed. John Farina, trans. Colm Luibheid, The Classics of Western Spirituality (New York; Mahwah, NJ: Paulist Press, 1985), 164–165.
The basic flow of what is being argued here by Nesteros here is as follows:
The pre-requisite of moral re-formation through humility that allows one to be formed by Scripture
A perpetual encounter with Scripture in both its historical and spiritual meaning
Memorization of Scripture that allows deep meditation