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| Chapter XXXIX. Of the way in which we shall mount towards perfection, whereby we may afterwards ascend from the fear of God up to love.
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Chapter XXXIX.
Of the way in which we shall mount towards perfection,
whereby we may afterwards ascend from the fear of God up to love.
“The
beginning” of our salvation and the safeguard of it is, as I
said, “the fear of the Lord.”810
For
through this those who are trained in the way of perfection can gain a
start in conversion as well as purification from vices and security in
virtue. And when this has gained an entrance into a man’s heart
it produces contempt of all things, and begets a forgetfulness of
kinsfolk and an horror of the world itself. But by the contempt for the
loss of all possessions humility is gained. And humility is attested by
these signs: First of all if a man has all his desires mortified;
secondly, if he conceals none of his actions or even of his thoughts
from his superior; thirdly, if he puts no trust in his own opinion, but
all in the judgment of his superior, and listens eagerly and willingly
to his directions; fourthly, if he maintains in everything obedience
and gentleness and constant patience; fifthly, if he not only hurts
nobody else, but also is not annoyed or vexed at wrongs done to
himself; sixthly, if he does nothing and ventures on nothing to which
he is not urged by the Common Rule or by the example of our elders;
seventhly, if he is contented with the lowest possible position, and
considers himself as a bad workman and unworthy in the case of
everything enjoined to him; eighthly, if he does not only outwardly
profess with his lips that he is inferior to all, but really believes
it in the inmost thoughts of his heart; ninthly, if he governs his
tongue, and is not over talkative; tenthly, if he is not easily moved
or too ready to laugh. For by such signs and the like is true humility
recognised. And when this has once been genuinely secured, then at once
it leads you on by a still higher step to love which knows no
fear;811
and through this you begin, without any
effort and as it were naturally, to keep up everything that you
formerly observed not without fear of punishment; no longer now from
regard of punishment or fear of it but from love of goodness itself,
and delight in virtue.812
| 812 With this chapter
there should be compared the Rule of S. Benedict c. vii., where a very
similar description is given of twelve grades “on the mystic
ladder [of humility] which Jacob saw,” evidently suggested by the
chapter before us. | E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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