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| Chapter IV. An explanation of the three callings.
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Chapter IV.
An explanation of the three callings.
To make clear therefore
the main differences between these three kinds of calling, the first is
from God, the second comes through man, the third is from compulsion.
And a calling is from God whenever some inspiration has taken
possession of our heart, and even while we are asleep stirs in us at
desire for eternal life and salvation, and bids us follow God and
cleave to His commandments with life-giving contrition: as we read in
Holy Scripture that Abraham was called by the voice of the Lord from
his native country, and all his dear relations, and his father’s
house; when the Lord said “Get thee out from thy country and from
thy kinsfolk and from thy father’s house.”1201
And in this way we have heard that the
blessed Antony also was called,1202
| 1202 The story, to which
allusion is here made, is given in the Vita Antonii of Athanasius. We
are there told that six months after the death of his parents Antony,
then a young man of eighteen, chanced to enter a church just as the
gospel for the day was being read: and hearing the words, “If
thou wilt be perfect,” etc., he took them as addressed specially
to himself, and at once proceeded to act upon them, selling all that he
had except a small portion which he reserved for his sister’s
maintenance. Shortly after, he was struck by the words, “Take no
thought for the morrow,” which he heard in church, and acting
upon this, made away with the little property which was left, committed
his sister to the care of certain faithful virgins, and betook himself
to the ascetic life. | the occasion
of whose conversion was received from God alone. For on entering a
church he there heard in the Gospel the Lord saying: “Whoever
hateth not father and mother and children and wife and lands, yea and
his own soul also, cannot be my disciple;” and “if thou
wilt be perfect, go sell all that thou hast, and give to the poor, and
thou shalt have treasure in heaven, and come, follow
me:”1203
And with
heartfelt contrition he took this charge of the Lord as if specially
aimed at him, and at once gave up everything and followed Christ,
without any incitement thereto from the advice and teaching of men. The
second kind of calling is that which we said took place through man;
viz., when we are stirred up by the example of some of the saints, and
their advice, and thus inflamed with the desire of salvation: and by
this we never forget that by the grace of the Lord we ourselves were
summoned, as we were aroused by the advice and good example of the
above-mentioned saint, to give ourselves up to this aim and calling;
and in this way also we find in Holy Scripture that it was through
Moses that the children of Israel were delivered from the Egyptian
bondage. But the third kind of calling is that which comes from
compulsion, when we have been involved in the riches and pleasures of
this life, and temptations suddenly come upon us and either threaten us
with peril of death, or smite us with the loss and confiscation of our
goods, or strike us down with the death of those dear to us, and thus
at length even against our will we are driven to turn to God whom we
scorned to follow in the days of our wealth. And of this compulsory
call we often find instances in Scripture, when we read that on account
of their sins the children of Israel were given up by the Lord to their
enemies; and that on account of their tyranny and savage cruelty they
turned again, and cried to the Lord. And it says: “The Lord sent
them a Saviour, called Ehud, the son of Gera, the son of Jemini, who
used the left hand as well as the right:” and again we are told,
“they cried unto the Lord, who raised them up a Saviour and
delivered them, to wit, Othniel, the son of Kenaz, Caleb’s
younger brother.”1204
And it is of such
that the Psalm speaks: “When He slew them, then they sought Him:
and they returned and came to Him early in the morning: and they
remembered
that God
was their helper, and the most High God their redeemer.” And
again: “And they cried unto the Lord when they were troubled, and
He delivered them out of their distress.”1205
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