1. They who have removed themselves from the cares of this
world should watch over their own heart with all carefulness, so that they
may not at any time deprive it of the thought of God, or defile the remembrance
of His wonders with the images of earthly vanities. Rather, let the hallowed
thought of God, impressed like a seal upon the soul, through the pure and
continuous remembrance of Him, be ever borne about with us. For it is in
this way that the love of God will come to us, urging us on to the daily
task of keeping the Lord’s commandments, and preserved in turn by them
from failing or going astray. He who is strongly possessed by an ardent
desire to follow Christ, is no longer able to turn his mind to anything
related to this life, not even to the love of parents and kindred, should
this be in any way opposed to the precepts of the Lord. That this is so,
we know from the words: If any man come to me, and hate not his father
and mother, he cannot be my disciple (Lk. xiv. 26).
And this the holy Disciples of the Lord also teach us; James and John,
who with one mind left their father Zebedeus, and even the boat on which
their whole livelihood depended. And Matthew also, leaving his booth, followed
our Lord; and not only did he leave the profits of his calling, he also
thought nothing of the dangers that threatened both him and his family,
from the civil powers, for leaving without notice the task given him by
the public authorities. To Paul also the whole world was crucified, and
he to the world (Gal. vi. 14). For when the love of God fills the soul
it makes nothing of every kind of contest; and even should all men shoot
their darts at it because of Him it loves, they would delight rather than
torment it. For if we have a natural affection and gratitude towards those
who have been good to us, and will suffer any hardship to repay them the
good they have done us, what words can fittingly describe the gifts of
God? So great is their number, we cannot count them; so great, so wondrous
that even for one of them we should never cease to give thanks to our Benefactor.
But He is so good, so kind, that He seeks nothing in return, content
that we love Him for what He has given us. And at the thought of all His
goodness, if I may reveal my own mind to you, I am full of dread and of
fearful anxiety, lest through failing in watchfulness of soul, or because
of absorption in vain things, I may fall away from the love of God and
become a reproach to Christ. For in reproach to the Lord the devil will
pride himself on our contempt for God, on our indifference. And he who
neither created us nor suffered for us, will yet hold us up as partners
in his own disobedience, in his own neglect to obey the commandments of
God. Such an insult, offered to the Lord, and that we should give cause
to the enemy of Christ to mock Him Who died for us and rose again, is to
me more grievous than the pains of hell.
2. For we must love the Lord God with all the power to love that is
in us. And we must also love our neighbour; and we must love even our enemies,
that we may be perfect; imitating the kindness of our Father Who is in
heaven, Who maketh his sun to rise upon the good, and bad (Mt. v. 45).
And it is an evil thing to waste the power of love on other things. And
if the good of charity is limited to the name of charity, it is a ridiculous
thing to pick one here and one there, and give a share of charity to these
only and exclude endless others from the favour of our common love. But
if the friendship we make with evil men, who accept it, should lead to
evil under the pretext of friendship, we should then consider with whom
we have joined ourselves. For if the Beloved Son of God is hated, what
wonder if we too are hated by those in whom hate is supreme?
No building can stand if its joinings collapse; neither can the church
grow and increase if it is not bound together by the bonds of peace and
love. Nothing is so in accord with our nature as to live in peace with
one another, to need one another, to love our kind. And we need each one
of us the help of one another more than one hand needs the other. When
I consider these bodily members of ours, that no one of them suffices of
itself, how can I regard myself as sufficient for my own life? One foot
cannot move in safety, unless supported by the other; nor will one eye
see a thing well, without the company of the other, and applied with it
to the thing we see. And we hear more accurately when the sound comes through
the passages of both ears, and the grip of the hand is stronger when the
fingers are joined together. In short, nothing done by nature, nothing
that is done of our own free will is done outside the concord of those
members which are of the same kind. Even our prayer is weaker than when
we pray in common. Consider the natural common affection of the night-birds
(bats), how they cling together like a garland, and do not regard a life
that is single and solitary as more to be esteemed than a life united by
peace and love. Nothing separates us from each other, unless we wish it
ourselves. For we have one Lord, one faith, the same hope. If you think
of yourselves as the head, the head cannot say to the feet: I have no need
of you (I Cor. xii. 21). Or if you think of yourselves in another relationship,
you cannot say to us who have been placed with you in the same body: We
have no need of you. For one hand needs the other, and one foot steadies
the other, the eyes see more clearly and distinctly through seeing together.
Do not let a thought such as this take hold of you: ‘We are apart from
the common miseries, and so what need have we to mingle with others?’ For
the Lord Who separated the islands from the continent by the sea has joined
the island dwellers with those of the continent by charity. What divides
the flatterer from the friend is principally this: the flatterer speaks
only to please, the friend will not pass over in silence what is displeasing.
Do you know what you should do for your neighbour? That which you wish
others would do to you. Do you know what evil is? It is that which you
do not choose to suffer from another. Since you heard from God the words:
By this shall all men know that you are my disciples, if you have love
one for another (Jn. xiii. 35), and since the Lord, about to complete
the work of His Incarnation, left as a parting gift His peace to His Disciples;
by saying: Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you (Jn.
xiv. 27), I cannot say that, without love towards others, and without,
as far as in me lies, peace towards all men, I am worthy to be called a
disciple of Christ.
3. And so our charity should be the same to all men and common
to all; as a man naturally will have a care for each of his members, desiring
that all his body shall be equally healthy; since pain in one member afflicts
the whole body. For he who loves one member of his company more than another
reveals by this the imperfection of his own charity. Likewise, two things
are unprofitable in company or in a family: Unseemly quarrelling and particular
affections. For enmities arise from strife, and envy and suspicion because
of particular friendships. For wherever there is a deprivation of equality,
you have a cause and a beginning, among those deprived, of envy and hate.
And just as the good God has bestowed His light equally on all, and makes
His sun to rise on good and bad alike (Mt. v. 45), so those who imitate
God, pour out on all alike the warm rays of their charity. For where charity
fails and disappears, beyond any doubt hate will take its place. And if
as John says, God is love (I Jn. iv. 16), it then must follow that
the devil is hate. He therefore who has charity within him, has God within
him; so he who cherishes hate within him, cherishes the devil within him.
And because this is the nature of charity, we must show the same charity
and equal charity to all men; and show likewise to all men the honour and
respect that is due to each. And just as in our bodies the pain in one
single member affects the whole body, and this too though some members
are more important than others (for we are not equally injured by a hurt
to the toes as by one to the eyes: though the pain be the same in both),
in the same way we should show equal love and sympathy to all alike with
whom we live together; while nevertheless showing, as is befitting, greater
esteem to those who are the more deserving of it. And also among those
joined to one another by the bond of a common spiritual life, let there
be no greater affection between them because of bodily kinship; not even
if one is the full brother of the other, or the son, or the daughter. For
whoever in this follows the impulse of nature, such a person is not yet
perfectly withdrawn from the natural affections, but rather is still ruled
by the flesh. To God be glory for all ages and ages. Amen.
