Bad Advertisement?
Are you a Christian?
Online Store:Visit Our Store
| Chapter VII. By what steps we can ascend to the heights of love and what permanence there is in it.
PREVIOUS SECTION - NEXT SECTION - HELP 
Chapter VII.
By what steps we can ascend to the heights of love and
what permanence there is in it.
If then any one is aiming
at perfection, from that first stage of fear which we rightly termed
servile (of which it is said: “When ye have done all things say:
we are unprofitable servants,”1697
) he should
by advancing a step mount to the higher path of hope—which is
compared not to a slave but to a hireling, because it looks for the
payment of its recompense, and as if it were free from care concerning
absolution of its sins and fear of punishment, and conscious of its own
good works, though it seems to look for the promised reward, yet it
cannot attain to that love of a son who, trusting in his father’s
kindness and liberality, has no doubt that all that the father has is
his, to which also that prodigal who together with his father’s
substance had lost the very name of son, did not venture to aspire,
when he said: “I am no more worthy to be called thy son;”
for after those husks which the swine ate, satisfaction from which was
denied to him, i.e., the disgusting food of sin, as he “came to
himself,” and was overcome by a salutary fear, he already began
to loathe the uncleanness of the swine, and to dread the punishment of
gnawing hunger, and as if he had already been made a servant, desires
the condition of a hireling and thinks about the remuneration, and
says: “How many hired servants of my father have abundance of
bread, and I perish here with hunger. I will then return to my father
and will say unto him, ‘Father I have sinned against heaven and
before thee, and am no more worthy to be called thy son: make me as one
of thy hired servants.’”1698
But those
words of humble penitence his father who ran to meet him received with
greater affection than that with which they were spoken, and was not
content to allow him lesser things, but passing through the two stages
without delay restored him to his former dignity of sonship. We also
ought forthwith to hasten on that by means of the indissoluble grace of
love we may mount to that third stage of sonship, which believes that
all that the father has is its own, and so we may be counted worthy to
receive the image and likeness of our heavenly Father, and be able to
say after the likeness of the true son: “All that the Father hath
is mine.”1699
Which also the
blessed Apostle declares of us, saying: “All things are yours,
whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or
things present, or things to come; all are yours.”1700
And to this likeness the commands of our
Saviour also summon us: “Be ye,” says He, “perfect,
even as your Father in heaven is perfect.”1701
For in these persons sometimes the love of
goodness is found to be interrupted, when the vigour of the soul is
relaxed by some coldness or joy or delight, and so loses either the
fear of hell for the time, or the desire of future blessings. And there
is indeed in these a stage leading to some advance, which affects us so
that when from fear of punishment or from hope of reward we begin to
avoid sin we are enabled to pass on to the stage of love, for
“fear,” says one, “is not in love, but perfect love
casteth out fear: for fear hath torment, but he who fears is not
perfect in love. We therefore love because God first loved
us.”1702
We can then only
ascend to that true perfection when, as He first loved us for the grace
of nothing but our salvation, we also have loved Him for the sake of
nothing but His own love alone. Wherefore we must do our best to mount
with
perfect ardour of mind
from this fear to hope, from hope to the love of God, and the love of
the virtues themselves, that as we steadily pass on to the love of
goodness itself, we may, as far as it is possible for human nature,
keep firm hold of what is good.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
|
