Bad Advertisement?
Are you a Christian?
Online Store:Visit Our Store
| Chapter V. How no one can be continually intent upon that highest good.
PREVIOUS SECTION - NEXT SECTION - HELP 
Chapter V.
How no one can be continually intent upon that highest
good.
For who, when “delivering
the poor from the hand of them that are too strong for him,
and the needy and the poor
from them that strip him,” who when “breaking the jaws of
the wicked and snatching their prey from between their
teeth,”2248
| 2248 Ps.
xxxiv. (xxxv.) 10; Job xxix. 17. | can with a
calm mind regard the glory of the Divine Majesty during the actual work
of intervention? Who when ministering support to the poor, or when
receiving with benevolent kindness the crowds that come to him, can at
the very moment when he is with anxious mind perplexed for the wants of
his brethren, contemplate the vastness of the bliss on high, and while
he is shaken by the troubles and cares of the present life look forward
to the state of the world to come with an heart raised above the stains
of earth? Whence the blessed David when laying down that this alone is
good for man, longs to cling constantly to God, and says: “It is
good for me to cling to God, and to put my hope in the
Lord.”2249
And
Ecclesiastes also declares that this cannot be done without fault by
any of the saints, and says: “For there is not a righteous man
upon earth, that doeth good and sinneth not.”2250
For who, even if he be the chief of all
righteous and holy men, can we ever think could, while bound in the
chains of this life, so acquire this chief good, as never to cease from
divine contemplation, or be thought to be drawn away by earthly
thoughts even for a short time from Him Who alone is good? Who ever
takes no care for food, none for clothing or other carnal things, or
when anxious about receiving the brethren, or change of place, or
building his cell, has never desired the aid of man’s assistance,
nor when harassed by scarcity and want has incurred this sentence of
reproof from the Lord: “Be not anxious for your life what ye
shall eat, nor for your body what ye shall put on”?2251
Further we confidently assert that even
the Apostle Paul himself who surpassed in the number of his sufferings
the toils of all the saints, could not possibly fulfil this, as he
himself testifies to the disciples in the Acts of the Apostles:
“Ye yourselves know that these hands have ministered to my needs,
and to the needs of those who were with me,” or when in writing
in the Thessalonians he testifies that he “worked in labour and
weariness night and day.”2252
And
although for this there were great rewards for his merits prepared, yet
his mind, however holy and sublime it might be, could not help being
sometimes drawn away from that heavenly contemplation by its attention
to earthly labours. Further, when he saw himself enriched with such
practical fruits, and on the other hand considered in his heart the
good of meditation, and weighed as it were in one scale the profit of
all these labours and in the other the delights of divine
contemplation, when for a long time he had corrected the balance in his
breast, while the vast rewards for his labours delighted him on one
side, and on the other the desire for unity with and the inseparable
companionship of Christ inclined him to depart this life, at last in
his perplexity he cries out and says: “What I shall choose I know
not. For I am in a strait betwixt two, having a desire to depart and to
be with Christ, for it were much better: but to abide in the flesh is
more necessary for your sakes.”2253
Though then in many ways he preferred
this excellent good to all the fruits of his preaching, yet he submits
himself in consideration of love, without which none can gain the Lord;
and for their sakes, whom hitherto he had soothed with milk as
nourishment from the breasts of the gospel, does not refuse to be
parted from Christ, which is bad for himself though useful for others.
For he is driven to choose this the rather by that excessive goodness
of his whereby for the salvation of his brethren he is ready, were it
possible, to incur even the last evil of an Anathema. “For I
could wish,” he says, “that I myself were Anathema from
Christ for my brethren’s sake, who are my kinsmen according to
the flesh, who are Israelites,”2254
i.e., I could wish to be subject not only to temporal, but even to
perpetual punishment, if only all men, were it possible, might enjoy
the fellowship of Christ: for I am sure that the salvation of all would
be better for Christ and for me than my own. That then the Apostle
might perfectly gain this chief good, i.e., to enjoy the vision of God
and to be joined continually to Christ, he was ready to be parted from
this body, which as it is feeble and hindered by the many requirements
of its frailties cannot help separating from union with Christ: for it
is impossible for the mind, that is harassed by such frequent cares,
and hampered by such various and tiresome troubles, always to enjoy the
Divine vision. For what aim of the saints can be so persistent, what
purpose can be so high that that crafty plotter does not sometimes
destroy it? Who has frequented the recesses of the desert and shunned
intercourse with all men in such a way that he never trips by
unnecessary thoughts, and by looking on things or being occupied in
earthly actions falls away from that contemplation of God, which truly
alone is good? Who ever could preserve such fervour of spirit
as not sometimes to pass by
roving thoughts from his attention to prayer, and fall away suddenly
from heavenly to earthly things? Which of us (to pass over other times
of wandering) even at the very moment when he raises his soul in prayer
to God on high, does not fall into a sort of stupor, and even against
his will offend by that very thing from which he hoped for pardon of
his sins? Who, I ask, is so alert and vigilant as never, while he is
singing a Psalm to God, to allow his mind to wander from the meaning of
Scripture? Who is so intimate with and closely joined to God, as to
congratulate himself on having carried out for a single day that rule
of the Apostle’s, whereby he bids us pray without
ceasing?2255
And though all
these things may seem to some, who are involved in grosser sins, to be
trivial and altogether foreign to sin, yet to those who know the value
of perfection a quantity even of very small matters becomes most
serious.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
|
