Letters 148.3–148.25

For what sort of confession is it that so believes in God as to count his command as nothing? Or do we say from the heart, or truly, “Lord, Lord”, if we despise the precepts of him whom we confess as Lord? Hence he himself says in the gospel: “Why do you call me Lord, Lord, and do not do what I say?” And again: “This people honours me with their lips, but their heart is far from me.” And again he speaks through the prophet: “A son honours his father, and a servant will fear his master; and if I am a father, where is my honour? And if I am a master, where is my fear?” From this it appears that the Lord is neither honoured nor feared by those who do not do his precepts. Hence it is said more expressly to David, who had committed sin: “And you have counted God as nothing”; and the word of the Lord came to Eli: “Whoever honours me, I will honour him; but those who count me as nothing will be brought to nothing.”

And are we of secure and good mind, who by each and every sin dishonour God and provoke the most merciful Lord to anger, and by despising his commands most proudly go on to insult so great a majesty? For what can ever seem so proud, what so ungrateful, as to live against the will of him from whom you have received life itself, to despise the precepts of him who commands something precisely so that he may have grounds for rewarding? For God does not need our obedience; we need his command. His commandments are “more to be desired than gold and very precious stone, and sweeter than honey and the honeycomb, for in keeping them there is great reward.” And therefore he is angry with us, therefore that immensity, that goodness of God is the more offended, because we despise him even at the cost of so great a reward, and count as nothing not only his commands but also his promises. Hence we must often, rather always, turn over that saying of the Lord: “If you wish to come to life, keep the commandments.” For this is what the whole law urges on us, this the prophets, this the apostles teach; this both the voice and the blood of Christ demand of us, who died for all for this reason, that those who live might no longer live for themselves, but for him who died for them. To live for him is nothing else than to keep his precepts, which he commanded us to keep as a sure pledge of his love. “If you love me,” he says, “keep my commandments”; and: “He who has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me”; and again: “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our dwelling with him. He who does not love me does not keep my words.” True love has great force, and one who is perfectly loved claims for himself the whole will of the one who loves; nothing is more commanding than love. If we truly love Christ, if we remember that we have been redeemed by his blood, we ought to will nothing more, to do nothing at all, than what we know he wills.

There are two kinds of commandments, in which all righteousness is contained: one of prohibiting, the other of commanding. For as evil things are forbidden, so good things are enjoined. In the one, rest is commanded; in the other, effort; in the one the mind is restrained, in the other it is spurred on; in the one it is blameworthy to have done, in the other not to have done. Hence the prophet says: “Who is the man who desires life and longs to see good days? Keep your tongue from evil and your lips from speaking deceit. Turn from evil and do good”; and the blessed apostle: “Hating evil, clinging to good.” This twofold and different precept, then, of prohibiting and of commanding, is enjoined on all with equal right. No virgin, no widow, no married woman is free from this command. In any way of life, in any rank, it is an equal sin either to commit what is forbidden or not to do what is commanded. And do not let the error of those lead you astray who choose by their own judgment which of God's commandments they will especially despise, or which they will look down on as cheap and small, and do not fear that, according to the divine saying, by despising the least things they may little by little fall.

It belongs to the Stoics to remove the difference between sins, to claim that all offences are equal, and to make no distinction between a crime and a slip. We, however, although we believe that sins differ greatly, because we also read so, yet say that it is very useful as a safeguard to fear even the least sins as if they were the greatest. For the more we fear any offence, the more easily we abstain from it; and one who dreads even small things does not quickly advance to greater ones. And indeed I do not know whether we can call any sin light which is committed in contempt of God. He is most prudent who considers not so much what has been commanded as who commanded it, and thinks not of the size of the command but of the dignity of the one commanding.

As you build a spiritual house, then, let its foundations be laid first, not on the lightness of sand but on the solidity of the rock of innocence, on which you can more easily raise the lofty summit of righteousness. For he has fulfilled the greatest part of justice who has harmed no one; and blessed is he who can say with holy Job: “I have harmed no man; I have lived justly with all.” Hence he spoke boldly and simply to the Lord: “Who is it that will be judged with me?”, that is, who can call for your judgment against me, so as to prove that he has been harmed by me? It belongs to the purest conscience to sing securely with the prophet: “I walked in the innocence of my heart in the midst of my house”; and the same says elsewhere: “God will not deprive of good things those who walk in innocence.” So let a Christian soul drive away from itself malice, hatred and envy, which are the greatest or the only seeds of harming, and let it guard innocence not only with hand or tongue but with the heart too, and fear to harm not only in deed but even in wish. For as far as the reckoning of sin is concerned, one who planned to harm has harmed. Many of our people define absolutely and without qualification that the innocent man is one who harms no one even in this, that he does not cease to do good. If that is true, then rejoice in the consciousness of innocence only if you do not cease to help when you can. But if these are divided and distinct from one another, and it is one thing not to harm, which you always can, and another to do good when you can, one thing not to do evil and another to work good, then let this occur to you again: that it is not enough for a Christian to fulfil one part of righteousness when both are commanded.

Nor should we look to the example of the multitude, which, following no discipline of conduct and keeping no order of life, is not so much led by reason as carried along by a kind of impulse. Nor are we to imitate those who lead a pagan life under a Christian name, and testify one thing by their profession and another by their conduct, and, as the apostle says, “profess that they know God, but deny him by their deeds.” For between a Christian and a pagan not only faith but also life ought to make the distinction, and show a different religion by different works. “Do not bear the yoke with unbelievers,” says the apostle. “For what partnership has righteousness with iniquity, or what fellowship has light with darkness? What agreement has Christ with Belial, or what part has a believer with an unbeliever? What accord has the temple of God with idols?”

Let there be, then, the greatest separation between us and them. Let error and truth be distinguished by a sure difference. Let those savour earthly things who have no heavenly promises; let those entangle themselves wholly in this brief life who know nothing of eternal things; let those not fear to sin who think sins go unpunished; let those be slaves to vices who do not hope for the future rewards of virtues. But we, who confess with the purest faith that every man must be made manifest before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each may receive what is due for what he did in the body, whether good or evil, ought to be far from vices. “For those who are Christ's have crucified their flesh with its vices and desires.” Nor let those who confess themselves disciples of the truth follow the erring crowd.

The Saviour certainly shows in the gospel two ways of conduct and paths of living leading in opposite directions. “How wide,” he says, “is the way that leads to death, and many there are who enter by it”; and again: “How narrow is the way that leads to life, and few there are who find it.” See how great the separation between these ways is, and how great the difference. The one leads to life, the other to death; the one is crowded and worn by many, the other is hardly found by a few. For the one, being through the habit of vices more downhill, as it were, and softer, and pleasant with certain flowers of pleasures, easily carries along with it the throng that travels it; while the other, gloomier and rougher with its unaccustomed path of virtues, is chosen only by those who care not so much for the delight of the journey as for the benefit of the lodging at its end. For excessive habit of vices has made the way of virtues rough and unpleasant for us; but if habit is transferred to the other side, it will find, as Scripture says, that the paths of righteousness are smooth. Let us therefore now reckon up our life and learn, with conscience as witness, by which way we chiefly walk. For all that we do, all that we say, belongs either to the broad or to the narrow way. If with few we find the narrow road and a certain fine path, we are heading for life; but if we accompany the way of the many, according to the Lord's saying we are going to death.

If, then, we are possessed by hatred and envy, if we give way to desire and greed, if we prefer present advantages to future ones, we walk along the broad way; for in these things we have the multitude as our companion and are crowded by wide ranks of those like us. If we wish to satisfy the lust of anger, to avenge an injury, if we curse one who curses us and are hostile in mind to our enemy, we are likewise carried along with the majority. If we either flatter or gladly listen to a flatterer, if we (do not) bestow favour honestly and fear more to offend men's minds than to speak insincerely, we are again on the way of the many. We have as many companions as there are strangers to the truth. But on the contrary, if we are strangers to all these vices, if we present a pure and free mind and, having trampled on every desire, strive to be rich only in virtues, we are pressing along the narrow way. For this way of life belongs to few, and it is very rare and difficult to find suitable companions for the journey. Indeed, many pretend to go this way and by various byways of error return to the way of the multitude. So much is it to be feared that those whom we believe we have as guides on this right road we may have as companions in error.

If, then, examples are found which lead us by this way to life and keep to the straight path of the gospel, they are to be followed; but if they are lacking, or thought to be lacking, the pattern of the apostles is set before all. The vessel of election cries out and, as though calling us to this narrow road, says: “Be imitators of me, as I also am of Christ.” Certainly (and this is greater than all) the example of the Lord himself shines out, who says in the gospel: “Come to me, all you who labour and are burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble of heart.” If it is dangerous to imitate those about whom you doubt whether they should be imitated, it is certainly safest to imitate him and to follow the footsteps of him who said: “I am the way, the truth and the life.” For imitation that follows the truth never goes astray. Hence holy John too: “He who says,” he says, “that he abides in Christ ought himself to walk as he walked.” Blessed Peter says: “Christ suffered for us, leaving you an example, that you should follow in his steps; who committed no sin, nor was deceit found in his mouth; who, when he was reviled, did not revile; when he suffered, did not threaten, but gave himself up to the one who judged him unjustly; who himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, so that, dead to sins, we might live to righteousness.”

Let every excuse for error cease; let the foul comforts of sinning be taken away. We achieve nothing at all when we defend ourselves by the example of the multitude and, often counting up other people's vices to console ourselves, say that we lack people to follow. We are sent to the example of him whom we all confess must be imitated. And therefore let it be your chief care to know the divine law, through which you may seem to see the examples of the saints as if present, and to learn from its counsel what is to be done and what avoided. For the greatest help to righteousness is to fill the mind with the divine words and always to meditate in the heart on what you desire to carry out in deed. To a people still untrained, and to men unaccustomed to obedience, the Lord commanded through Moses that as a sign of remembrance, by which the Lord's precepts might be recalled, they should have fringes on the edges of their garments and mark them with scarlet of a blue colour, so that even when their eyes happened to look here or there, the memory of the heavenly commandments might arise. Because of these fringes the Pharisees are reproved by the Lord, since by a perverse use they began to have them not to remind them of God's precepts but to show themselves off, so that they might be judged holy by the people for the greater diligence of their observance.

But you, who keep not the letter of the precepts but the spirit, must cultivate spiritually the memory of the divine commandments; you must not so much recall God's precepts frequently as think of them always. Let the divine Scriptures, then, be always in your hands and constantly turned over in your mind. And do not think it enough to hold God's commandments in memory and forget them in your deeds, but learn them in order to do whatever you have learned must be done. “For not the hearers of the law are righteous before God, but the doers of the law will be justified.” The field of the divine law stretches wide and immense; blooming with various testimonies of truth as with heavenly flowers, it feeds and refreshes the reader's mind with wonderful delight. To know all of it and always turn it over is a great benefit for preserving righteousness; but as a kind of short reminder, as a compendium, you should choose that saying of the gospel and write it on your heart, which is spoken by the Lord's mouth as a summary of all righteousness: “Whatever you wish that men should do to you, do also to them.” Expressing the force of this precept, he adds: “For this is the law and the prophets.” For the kinds and parts of righteousness are infinite, so that it is very hard not only to follow them with the pen but even to grasp them in thought; all of them this one short saying includes, and by the secret judgment of the mind it either acquits or condemns the hidden conscience of men.

To every act, then, to every word, even to every thought, let this saying be applied, so that, like a mirror ready and always at hand, it may show you the quality of your will, and either convict you of an unjust deed or gladden you over a just one. For whenever you have such a mind toward another as you wish another to keep toward you, you hold to the way of equity; but whenever you are toward another such as you wish no one to be toward you, you have left the path of righteousness. See, this is the whole arduousness of the divine law, the whole difficulty; see, this is why we protest against the Lord as if his commands were hard, and say that we are burdened by the difficulty or impossibility of the commandments. And it is not enough that we do not do what is commanded; we also declare the one who commands unjust, complaining that the very author of equity has commanded not only hard and arduous things but even impossible ones. “Whatever you wish,” he says, “that men should do to you, do also to them.” He wishes love to be joined and knit together among us by mutual kindnesses, and all men to be bound to one another by reciprocal love, so that, each one offering to another what he would wish to be offered to himself by all, the whole of righteousness and this precept of God may be the common good of men. And (O the wonderful clemency of God! O the unspeakable kindness of God!) he promises us a reward if we love one another, that is, if we give one another what we each in turn need; and we, with a mind at once proud and ungrateful, resist the will of him whose very command is a kindness.

Never disparage anyone at all, nor wish to seem praiseworthy by finding fault with others; learn rather to adorn your own life than to carp at another's. And always remember the Scripture which says: “Do not love to disparage, lest you be rooted out.” Very few renounce this vice, and you will rarely find one who so wishes to show his own life blameless that he does not gladly blame another's. So great a desire for this evil has invaded men's minds that even those who have withdrawn far from other vices still fall into this one, as into the devil's last snare. But you must so flee this evil that not only do you not disparage, but you never believe another who disparages, nor give authority to the slanderer by your agreement and nourish his vice by nodding assent. “Do not agree,” says Scripture, “with those who disparage your neighbour, and do not take sin upon yourself on his account”; and elsewhere: “Hedge your ears with thorns and do not listen to a wicked tongue.” Hence blessed David too, enumerating the various kinds of innocence and righteousness, did not keep silent about this virtue, saying: “And he did not take up a reproach against his neighbours”; for this reason he not only opposes the disparager but even pursues him. For he says: “Whoever secretly disparaged his neighbour, him I pursued.” This is indeed a vice that should be extinguished first of all and wholly excluded by those who wish to order their lives in holiness. For nothing so disturbs the soul, nothing makes the mind so fickle and light, as readily believing everything and following the words of slanderers with rash assent of mind. From this frequent dissensions arise, from this unjust hatreds. This is what often makes enemies even of the closest friends, when a slanderous tongue sets at variance souls that are in harmony but credulous. On the other hand, it is great peace of mind and great seriousness of character not to listen rashly to anything bad about anyone. Blessed is he who has so armed himself against this vice that no one dares to disparage in his presence. If we had this carefulness, not to believe slanderers indiscriminately, all would now be afraid to disparage, lest by disparaging they make not so much others as themselves contemptible. But this evil is common, this vice rages in many, precisely because almost everyone listens to it gladly.

Flee also the fawning of flatterers and the harmful blandishments of deceit, as plagues of the soul. Nothing corrupts men's minds so easily, nothing strikes the soul with so sweet and soft a wound. Hence the wise man too says: “The words of flatterers are soft, but they strike the inner parts of the belly.” And the Lord speaks through the prophet: “My people, those who call you blessed lead you astray and confuse the paths of your feet.” In many this vice reigns especially at this time, and, what is most serious, it is taken for humility and goodwill. So it comes about that one who does not know how to flatter is now thought either envious or proud. And indeed it is a great and very subtle art to praise another while commending oneself, and to bind to oneself the mind of the one deceived by deceiving it, and (what is especially done by this vice) to sell feigned praises for a fixed price. But what great lightness of mind is this, what vanity, to abandon one's own conscience and follow another's opinion, and that a feigned and pretended one; to be swept away by the wind of false praise, to rejoice at being cheated, and to receive mockery as a kindness? You, then, if you truly desire to be praiseworthy, do not seek the praise of men, but prepare your conscience for him who will both bring to light the hidden things of darkness and make manifest the counsels of hearts; and then you will have praise from God.

Let your mind, then, be attentive and watchful and always armed against sins; your speech moderate and sparing in all things, such as shows the necessity of speaking rather than the wish. Let modesty adorn your prudence, and, what has always been foremost in women, let chastity surpass all the virtues in you. Consider long beforehand what is to be said, and while still silent take care that you may not regret anything you have said. Let thought weigh your words, and let the balance of the mind dispense the office of the tongue. Hence Scripture says: “Melt down your silver and gold, and make a balance for your words and a right bridle for your mouth, and take heed lest perhaps you slip with your tongue.” Never let a curse come out of your mouth, since, to crown your kindness, you are commanded even to bless those who curse you: “Be merciful,” it says, “humble, not returning evil for evil nor curse for curse, but on the contrary blessing.”

Let your tongue be wholly ignorant of lying and swearing, and let there be such love of truth in you that you consider whatever you say to be sworn. Of this the Saviour says to his disciples: “But I say to you, do not swear at all”; and a little later: “But let your speech be: yes, yes; no, no; whatever is more than these is from evil.” In every act, then, and every word let a quiet and peaceful mind be preserved, and let the presence of God always meet your thought. Let your mind be humble and gentle, and upright only against vices; let pride never lift it up, nor greed bend it, nor anger hurl it headlong. For nothing ought to be quieter, nothing purer, nothing more beautiful than the mind that is to be prepared as a dwelling for God, who delights not in temples gleaming with gold nor in altars studded with gems, but in a soul adorned with virtues. That is why the hearts of the saints are also called the temple of God, as the apostle affirms, who says: “If anyone violates the temple of God, God will destroy him. For the temple of God is holy, and that is what you are.”

Hold nothing more excellent and nothing more lovable than humility; for this is the chief preserver and, as it were, guardian of all the virtues. Nothing makes us so pleasing both to men and to God as being great in merit of life and lowest in humility. For this reason Scripture says: “The greater you are, the more humble yourself, and you will find favour before God”; and God speaks through the prophet: “On whom else shall I rest but on the humble and quiet one, who trembles at my words?” But follow that humility which is not displayed and feigned by bodily gesture or broken tone of voice, but which is expressed by the pure affection of the heart. For it is one thing to have a virtue and another to have the likeness of a virtue; one thing to follow the shadow of things and another the truth. Much uglier is that pride which hides under certain signs of humility. For somehow vices are more shameful when they are hidden under the appearance of virtues.

Never put yourself before anyone because of the nobility of your family, nor think those of lower birth and humbler station inferior to you. Our religion knows no persons; it looks not at men's conditions but at their souls, and pronounces slave or noble by their character. The only freedom with God is not to be a slave to sins; the highest nobility with him is to be distinguished by virtues. What is nobler in God's sight among men than Peter? What among women more illustrious than blessed Mary, who is described as the betrothed of a carpenter? Yet to the one, a fisherman and poor, the keys of the heavenly kingdom are entrusted by Christ; the other, the betrothed of a carpenter, was found worthy to be the mother of him by whom those very keys were given. For God chose the ignoble and contemptible things of this world, so that he might more easily lead the powerful and noble to humility. For besides, it is in vain that anyone applauds himself for the nobility of his family, since all who have been redeemed by the one blood of Christ are of equal honour and of the same worth before God; nor does it matter in what condition anyone was born, since we are all equally reborn in Christ. For even if we forget that we were all begotten from one, we ought at least always to remember that we are all regenerated through one.

Beware lest, if you begin to fast and abstain, you think yourself already holy. For this virtue is a help, not the perfection of holiness. And you must take more care lest the fact that you despise lawful things give you a kind of security about unlawful ones. Whatever is offered to God beyond what righteousness requires ought not to hinder righteousness but to help it. What use is it to thin the body by abstinence if the mind swells with pride? What praise shall we deserve for the pallor of fasting if we are livid with envy? What virtue is there in not drinking wine and being drunk with anger and hatred? Then, I say, abstinence is excellent, then the chastening of the body is beautiful and splendid, when the mind is fasting from vices. Indeed, those who hold the virtue of abstinence in a commendable and knowing way afflict their flesh so as to break the pride of the soul, so that it may come down, as from a height of contempt and arrogance, to fulfil the will of God, which is perfected above all in humility. They withdraw the mind from varied desires for food so that they may occupy its whole strength in the desire for virtues. And now the flesh feels less the toil of fasts and abstinence when the soul hungers for righteousness. For the vessel of election too, when he chastises his body and brings it into subjection, lest, having preached to others, he himself be found reprobate, does this, not, as some ignorant people think, for chastity alone; for abstinence helps not only this but absolutely all virtues. Nor is it great, or the whole of the apostle's glory, not to commit sexual immorality; but he aims at this, that the mind may be trained by chastening the body, and the less it desires any pleasures, the more it may think about virtues; lest the teacher of perfection show something imperfect in himself, lest the imitator of Christ do anything outside the precept and will of Christ, or teach less by example than by word, and, having preached to others, be himself rejected and hear with the Pharisees: “For they say, and do not do.”

It is the apostle's precept and example that we should care not only for our conscience but also for our reputation. The teacher of the Gentiles does not teach this as something superfluous and fruitless; for he wishes that even men outside the faith should advance through the works of the faithful, so that the discipline of religion may commend religion itself. And therefore he commands us to shine like lights in the world in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, so that the unbelieving minds of those who err may, from the light of our actions, recognize the darkness of their own ignorance. Hence he himself says to the Romans: “Providing good things not only before God but also before men”; and elsewhere: “Give no offence to Jews and to Gentiles and to the church of God, just as I also please all in all things, not seeking what is useful for me, but for the many.” Blessed is he who has ordered his life so holily and so gravely that nothing bad can even be invented about him, while the greatness of his merit fights against the lust of slanderers, and no one dares to invent what he thinks no one will believe. But if that is difficult and too arduous to attain, let us at least apply this care to our life: that evil minds may not find an occasion for disparaging, that no spark may come from us by which bad reports may be kindled against us. Otherwise we are angry with our slanderers in vain, if we ourselves supply them with matter for slander. But if, while we diligently and carefully provide for all things honourably and put the fear of God before all our acts, they are nonetheless mad, let our conscience console us, which is safest, most secure, when it has not given even an occasion for thinking ill of it. For woe is pronounced through the prophet on those who call good evil, who call light darkness and call sweet bitter. To us, then, the Saviour's word will apply: “Blessed are you when men curse you, lying.” Let us only see to it that no one can speak ill of us without lying.

Take care of your household in such a way that you still give your soul some leisure. Choose a suitable place, somewhat removed from the noise of the household, to which you may withdraw as into a harbour from a great storm of cares, and calm the waves of thought stirred up outside by the tranquillity of solitude. Let there be there such zeal for divine reading, such frequent turns of prayer, such firm and concentrated thought on the things to come, that you easily make up for all the occupations of the rest of your time by this leisure. We do not say this in order to draw you away from your family; rather, we aim at this, that there you may learn and there meditate how you ought to show yourself to your family.

Rule and cherish your household in such a way that you wish to seem a mother rather than a mistress to your people, and win their respect by kindness rather than severity. Obedience received from love is always more faithful and more welcome than obedience received from fear. But above all, in a marriage that is honourable and undefiled, let the order of the apostolic rule be kept.