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| Chapter XVI. How, after the fashion of the Olympic games, a monk should not attempt spiritual conflicts unless he has won battles over the flesh.
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Chapter XVI.
How, after the fashion of the Olympic games, a monk
should not attempt spiritual conflicts unless he has won battles over
the flesh.
And so when the desires
of the belly and of the palate have been by these considerations
overcome, and when we have been declared, as in the Olympic contests,
neither slaves of the flesh nor infamous through the brand of sin, we
shall be adjudged to be worthy of the contest in higher struggles as
well, and, leaving behind lessons of this kind, may be believed capable
of entering the lists against spiritual wickednesses, against which
only victors and those who are allowed to contend in a spiritual
conflict are deemed worthy to struggle. For this is so to speak a most
solid foundation of all the conflicts, viz.: that in the first instance
the impulses of carnal desires should be destroyed. For no one can
lawfully strive unless his own flesh has been overcome. And one who
does not strive lawfully certainly cannot take a share in the contest,
nor win a crown of glory and the grace of victory. But if we have been
overcome in this battle, having been proved as it were slaves of carnal
lusts, and thus displaying the tokens neither of freedom nor of
strength, we shall be straightway repulsed from the conflicts with
spiritual hosts, as unworthy and as slaves, with every mark of
confusion. For “every one that doeth sin is the servant of
sin.”840
And this will be
addressed to us by the blessed Apostle, together with those among whom
fornication is named. “Temptation does not overtake you, except
such as is human.”841
For if we do not
seek for strength of mind842
| 842 Mentis robore
non quœsito.—Petschenig. Gazæus omits the negative
and reads conquisito. | we shall not
deserve to make trial of severer contest against wickedness on high, if
we have been unable to subdue our weak flesh which resists the spirit.
And some not understanding this testimony of the Apostle, have read the
subjunctive instead of the indicative mood, i.e., “Let no
temptation overcome you, except such as is human.”843
| 843 S. Jerome’s
version, which was certainly know to Cassian (cf. Conferences XXIII.
viii.) has “Temptatio vos non apprehendat nisi humana.” | But it is clear that it is rather said
by him with the meaning not of a wish but of a declaration or
rebuke.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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