No sinner can escape future judgment without experiencing in this life either voluntary hardships or afflictions he has not chosen. There are said to be five reasons why God allows us to be assailed by demons. The first is so that, by attacking and counter-attacking, we should learn to discriminate between virtue and vice. The second is so that having acquired virtue through conflict and toil, we should keep it secure and immutable. The third is so that, when making progress in virtue, we should not become haughty but learn humility. The fourth is that having gained some experience of evil, we should "hate it with perfect hatred." The fifth and most important is so that, having achieved dispassion we should forget neither our own weakness nor the power of Him who has helped us. (Maximos the Confessor)

Maximos and I agree on a great deal, but we disagree as to purpose.

He perceives a common need to achieve dispassion and virtue. We are fallen. If we are to be redeemed we must seek, welcome, and receive God's cleansing discipline.

I perceive we are to be partners with God in healing a fractured creation. We may very well need to begin with our fractured self.

Healing comes through binding up, nurturing, and giving right purpose to a divided and distracted creation.

Maximos tends to see us as horribly corrupt. I am more inclined to see us as terribly confused.