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| Chapter XXII. The answer on the way to keep control over abstinence.
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Chapter XXII.
The answer on the way to keep control over
abstinence.
Theonas: If we weigh everything
that we do, by a reasonable judgment of the mind, and on the purity of
our heart always consult not the opinions of other people but our own
conscience, that interval for refreshment is sure not to interfere with
our proper strictness, if only, as was said, our pure mind impartially
considers the right limits of indulgence and abstinence, and fairly
checks excess in either, and with real discrimination discerns whether
the weight of the delicacies is a burden upon our spirits, or whether
too much austerity in abstaining weighs down the other side, i.e., that
of the body, and either depresses or raises that side which it sees to
be raised or weighed down. For our Lord would have nothing done to His
honour and glory without being tempered by judgment, for “the
honour of a
king loveth
judgment,”2194
and therefore
Solomon, the wisest of men, urges us not to let our judgment incline to
either side, saying: “Honour God with thy righteous labours and
offer to Him of the fruits of thy righteousness.”2195
For we have residing in our conscience an
uncorrupt and true judge who sometimes, when all are wrong, is the only
person not deceived as to the state of our purity. And so with all care
and pains we should preserve a constant purpose in our circumspect
heart for fear lest if the judgment of our discretion goes wrong, we
may be fired with the desire for an ill-considered abstinence, or
allured by the wish for an excessive relaxation, and so weigh the
substance of our strength in the tongue of an unfair balance; but we
should place in one of the scales our purity of soul, and in the other
our bodily strength, and weigh them both in the true judgment of
conscience, so that we may not perversely incline the scale of fairness
to either side, either to undue strictness or to excessive relaxation,
from the preponderating desire for one or the other, and so have this
said to us by reason of excessive strictness or relaxation: “If
thou offerest rightly, but dost not divide rightly, hast thou not
sinned?”2196
For those
offerings of fasts, which we thoughtlessly extort by violently tearing
our bowels, and fancy that we rightly offer to the Lord, these He
execrates who “loves mercy and judgment” saying: “I
the Lord love judgment, but I hate robbery in a burnt
offering.”2197
| 2197 Ps.
xxxii. (xxxiii.) 5; Is. lxi. 8. | Those also who
take the main part of their offerings, i.e., their offices and actions,
to benefit the flesh for their own use, but leave the remains of them
and a tiny portion for the Lord, these the Divine Word thus condemns as
fraudulent workmen: “Cursed is he that doeth the work of the Lord
fraudulently.”2198
It is not then
without reason that the Lord reproves him who thus deceives himself by
unfair considerations, saying: “But vain are the children of men:
the children of men are liars upon the balances that they may
deceive.”2199
And therefore
the blessed Apostle warns us to keep hold of the reins of discretion
and not to be attracted by excess and swerve to either side, saying:
“Your reasonable service.”2200
And the giver of the law similarly forbids the same thing, saying:
“Let the balance be just and the weights equal, the bushel just
and the sextarius equal,”2201
and Solomon
also gives a like opinion on this matter: “Great and small
weights and double measures are both unclean before the Lord, and one
who uses them shall be hindered in his contrivances.”2202
Further not only in the way in which we
have said, but also in this must we strive not to have unfair weights
in our hearts, nor double measures in the storehouse of our conscience,
i.e., not to overwhelm those, to whom we are to preach the word of the
Lord, with precepts that are too strict and heavier than we ourselves
can bear, while we take for granted that for ourselves those things
which have to do with the rule of strictness are to be softened by a
freer allowance of relaxation. For when we do this, what is it but to
weigh and measure the goods and fruits of the Lord’s commands in
a double weight and measure? For if we dispense them in one way to
ourselves and in another to our brethren, we are rightly blamed by the
Lord because we have unfair balances and double measures, in accordance
with the saying of Solomon which tells us that “A double weight
is an abomination to the Lord, and a deceitful balance is not good in
His sight.”2203
In this way also
we plainly incur the guilt of using a deceitful weight and a double
measure, if out of the desire for the praise of men, we make a show
before the brethren of greater strictness than what we practice in
private in our own cells, trying to appear more abstinent and holier in
the sight of men than in the sight of God, an evil which we should not
only avoid but actually loathe. But meanwhile as we have wandered some
way from the question before us, let us return to the point from which
we started.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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