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| Chapter XVII. That the foundation and basis of the spiritual combat must be laid in the struggle against gluttony.
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Chapter XVII.
That the foundation and basis of the spiritual combat
must be laid in the struggle against gluttony.
Would you like to hear a
true athlete of Christ striving according to the rules and laws of the
conflict? “I,” said he, “so run, not as uncertainly;
I so fight, not as one that beateth the air: but I chastise my body and
bring it into subjection, lest by any means when I have preached to
others I myself should be a castaway.”844
You see how he made the chief part of the struggle depend upon himself,
that is upon his flesh, as if on a most sure foundation, and placed the
result of the battle simply in the chastisement of the flesh and the
subjection of his body. “I then so run not as uncertainly.”
He does not run uncertainly, because,845
| 845 Quia
(Petschenig): Qui (Gazæus). | looking to
the heavenly Jerusalem, he has a mark set, towards which his heart is
swiftly directed without swerving. He does not run uncertainly,
because, “forgetting those things which are behind, he reaches
forth to those that are before, pressing towards the mark for the prize
of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus,”846
whither he ever directs his mental gaze,
and hastening towards it with all speed847
| 847
Properatione, others Præparatione. |
of heart, proclaims with confidence, “I have fought a good fight,
I have finished
my
course, I have kept the faith.”848
And
because he knows he has run unweariedly “after the odour of the
ointment”849
of Christ with
ready devotion of heart, and has won the battle of the spiritual combat
by the chastisement of the flesh, he boldly concludes and says,
“Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness,
which the Lord, the righteous judge, will give to me in that
day.” And that he might open up to us also a like hope of reward,
if we desire to imitate him in the struggle of his course, he added:
“But not to me only, but to all also who love His
coming;”850
declaring that we
shall be sharers of his crown in the day of judgment, if we love the
coming of Christ—not that one only which will be manifest to men
even against their will; but also this one which daily comes to pass in
holy souls—and if we gain the victory in the fight by chastising
the body. And of this coming it is that the Lord speaks in the Gospel.
“I,” says He, “and my Father will come to him, and
will make our abode with him.”851
And again:
“Behold, I stand at the door and knock: if any man hear my voice
and open the gate, I will come in to him and will sup with him, and he
with me.”852
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