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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," 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." 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." 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"? 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." 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." 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," 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? 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.
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