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| Chapter X. That none can become perfect merely through the first grade of renunciation.
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Chapter X.
That none can become perfect merely through the first
grade of renunciation.
In leaving then these
visible goods of the world we forsake not our own wealth, but that
which is not ours, although we boast of it as either gained by our own
exertions or inherited by us from our forefathers. For as I said
nothing is our own, save this only which we possess with our heart, and
which cleaves to our soul, and therefore cannot be taken away from us
by any one. But Christ speaks in terms of censure of those visible
riches, to those who clutch them as if they were their own, and refuse
to share them with those in want. “If ye have not been faithful
in what is another’s, who will give to you what is your
own?”1240
Plainly then it is
not only daily
experience which teaches us that these
riches are not our own, but this saying of our Lord also, by the very
title which it gives them. But concerning visible1241
| 1241 The
mss. vary between visibilibus
and invisibilibus. | and worthless riches Peter says to the
Lord: “Lo, we have left all and followed thee. What shall we have
therefore?”1242
when it is clear
that they had left nothing but their miserable broken nets. And unless
this expression “all” is understood to refer to that
renunciation of sins which is really great and important, we shall not
find that the Apostles had left anything of any value, or that the Lord
had any reason for bestowing on them the blessing of so great glory,
that they were allowed to hear from Him that “in the
regeneration, when the Son of Man shall sit on the throne of His glory,
ye also shall sit upon twelve thrones judging the twelve tribes of
Israel.”1243
If then those,
who have completely renounced their earthly and visible goods, cannot
for sufficient reason attain to Apostolic charity, nor climb with
readiness and vigour to that third stage of renunciation which is still
higher and belongs to but few, what should those think of themselves,
who do not even make that first step (which is very easy) a thorough
one, but keep together with their old want of faith, their former
sordid riches, and fancy that they can boast of the mere name of monks?
The first renunciation then of which we spoke is of what is not our
own, and therefore is not enough of itself to confer perfection on the
renunciant, unless he advances to the second, which is really and truly
a renunciation of what belongs to us. And when we have made sure of
this by the expulsion of all our faults, we shall mount to the heights
of the third renunciation also, whereby we rise above not merely all
those things which are done in this world or specially belong to men,
but even that whole universe around us which is esteemed so glorious,
and shall with heart and soul look down upon it as subject to vanity
and destined soon to pass away; as we look, as the Apostle says,
“not on those things which are seen, but on those which are not
seen: for the things that are seen, are temporal, and the things which
are not seen are eternal;”1244
that so we
may be found worthy to hear that highest utterance, which was spoken to
Abraham: “and come into a land which I will show
thee,”1245
which clearly
shows that unless a man has made those three former renunciations with
all earnestness of mind, he cannot attain to this fourth, which is
granted as a reward and privilege to one whose renunciation is perfect,
that he may be found worthy to enter the land of promise which no
longer bears for him the thorns and thistles of sins; which after all
the passions have been driven out is acquired by purity of heart even
in the body, and which no good deeds or exertions of man’s
efforts (can gain), but which the Lord Himself promises to show, saying
“And come into the land which I will show to thee:” which
clearly proves that the beginning of our salvation results from the
call of the Lord, Who says “Get thee out from thy country,”
and that the completion of perfection and purity is His gift in the
same way, as He says “And come into the land which I will show
thee,” i.e., not one you yourself can know or discover by your
own efforts, but one which I will show not only to one who is ignorant
of it, but even to one who is not looking for it. And from this we
clearly gather that as we hasten to the way of salvation through being
stirred up by the inspiration of the Lord, so too it is under the
guidance of His direction and illumination that we attain to the
perfection of the highest bliss.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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