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AND when Christ in His own Person called and addressed Paul, although
He might have opened out to him at once the way of perfection, yet He chose
rather to direct him to Ananias and commanded him to learn the way of truth
from him, saying: "Arise and go into the city and there it shall be told
thee what thou oughtest to do." So He sends him to an older man, and
thinks good to have him instructed by his teaching rather than His own,
lest what might have been rightly done in the case of Paul might set a bad
example of self-sufficiency, if each one were to persuade himself that he
also ought in like manner to be trained by the government and teaching of
God alone rather than by the instruction of the Elders. And this self-
sufficiency the apostle himself teaches, not only by his letters but by his
acts and deeds, ought to be shunned with all possible care, as he says that
he went up to Jerusalem solely for this reason; viz., to communicate in a
private and informal conference with his co-apostles and those who were
before him that Gospel which he preached to the Gentiles, the grace of the
Holy Spirit accompanying him with powerful signs and wonders: as he says
"And I communicated with them the Gospel which I preach among the Gentiles
lest perhaps I had run or should run in vain." Who then is so self-
sufficient and blind as to dare to trust in his own judgment and discretion
when the chosen vessel confesses that he had need of conference with his
fellow apostles. Whence we clearly see that the Lord does not Himself show
the way of perfection to anyone who having the opportunity of learning
depises the teaching and training of the Elders, paying no heed to that
saying which ought most carefully to be observed: "Ask thy father and he
will show it to thee: thine Elders and they will tell thee. "
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