|
FINALLY Abbot Piamun after twenty-five years did not hesitate to
receive some grapes and wine offered to him by a certain brother, and at
once preferred, against his rule, to taste what was brought him rather than
to display his abstinence which was a secret from everybody. For if we
would also bear in mind what we remember that our Elders always did, who
used to conceal the marvels of their own good deeds, and their own acts,
which they were obliged to bring forward in Conference if or the
instruction of the juniors, under cover of other persons, what else can we
consider them but an open lie? And O that we too had anything worthy which
we could bring forward for stirring up the faith of the juniors! Certainly
we should have no scruples in following their fictions of that kind. For it
is better under the colour of a figure like that to tell a lie than for the
sake of maintaining that unreasonable truthfulness either hide in ill-
advised silence what might be edifying to the hearers, or run into the
display of an objectionable vanity by telling them truthfully in our own
character. And the teacher of the Gentiles clearly teaches us the same
lesson by his teaching, as he chose to bring forward the great revelations
made to him, trader the character of some one else, saying: "I know a man
in Christ, whether in the body or out of the body I cannot tell, God
knoweth, caught up even unto the third heaven: and I know such a man, that
he was caught up into paradise and heard unspeakable words, which it is not
lawful for man to utter."
|
|