Hastening to this place, dearly beloved, we came together not for rest, not for security, but for battle and contest. We advanced hither for combat, and we came together to wage wars with the vices. For our vices are our enemies, concerning which Scripture pronounces, saying: 'Beware lest thou ever make a covenant with them' (Deut. 7). Needful for us, brethren, is ever-watchful care and unwearied vigilance, because this conflict is without end; this enemy, without peace, can be conquered, but cannot be received into friendship. And therefore this battle which we have undertaken is wide enough and perilous enough, because it is waged within the man, and is not ended except with the man himself.
Therefore we have betaken ourselves to these tranquil retreats and spiritual camps, that daily we may contend against our passions in tireless encounter; that daily we may subject our own wills as handmaids to our elders; that we may cut away the wickednesses of the heart, or sheathe (blunt) the swords of the tongue, so that we may not only not inflict injuries on one another, but not even feel them inflicted by others. For these things belong especially to our profession: to seek in this life nothing of consolation, to covet nothing of honour, to flee the solaces of present things, to prepare the soul for the promised things of eternal recompense.
to rejoice in subjection and abjection, to seek the pursuit of poverty, and to root out of our hearts not only possessions but even the very wills to have. For to have nothing is sometimes a matter of necessity; but to covet nothing is a matter of virtue. This too you ought to know: that those who have resolved to lead their life among you are either with great fruit or with great peril, whether diligent or negligent. Whence happy is that soul which, when it conducts itself well in the congregation, is the joy of many; and very many are either edified or enlightened by it. For its goods, while they are shared with many, are increased. To this also looks the sentence of that most wise man, which says:
'My son, if thou be wise, thou shalt be so for thyself and for thy neighbours.' And so if anyone placed in the congregation patiently offers himself to humility, as much good as he imparts of himself to his neighbours, so much of others' gain does he turn back upon himself. But if, on the contrary, through disobedience or pride he shall seek (what is worse)—as is more easily found—to draw others to the evil example of his own iniquity, then for as many as he has destroyed, he incurs the peril of damnation; for as many as he has been a detriment to, he has contracted losses; and the sin which once departed from him has flowed back manifoldly upon him.
Wherefore, just as he is greatly to be admired and praised whose good course is the advancement of many, so he is deservedly to be lamented whose evil life is the ruin of many. Therefore, most beloved brethren, let us, placed in the midst, be zealous to do those things which pertain to edification: lest our life (vices) harm the virtues of others; lest our lukewarmness weaken the fervour of others; and lest our anger violate the patience of others; lest our pride deprave the humility of others; lest our infirmity corrupt the soundness of others; lest our foulness contaminate the beauty of others; lest we extinguish the burning lamps of others, if we cannot enkindle our own.
And indeed those foolish virgins, however foolish they were, desired not so much to extinguish the lamps of others as to enkindle their own (Matt. 25). And therefore, after the likeness of these, if to anyone of us there is lacking the most rich grace of humility, or the fire of faith, or the flame of fervour, or the oil of charity, or the light of discretion, let him come to those whom he shall have perceived to abound the more, and let him transfuse his neighbour's grace into himself, not by taking it away, but by imitating; and let him invade the good things of another's possession, not only without loss, but even with gain, to the possessor. Never does whatever another gains from you fail you. For never does a lamp feel the loss of its own light when very many are kindled from it, nor does the multitude of those beholding diminish the light of the sun.
To as many as have looked to it, it imparts its gifts, and yet it itself remains whole. Blessed by God is that soul whose humility confounds another's pride, whose patience extinguishes a neighbour's wrath, whose obedience silently rebukes another's sloth, whose fervour rouses the inertia of another's lukewarmness. He who, by the grace of consolation and edification, enlightens the eye of a neighbour's heart clouded by anger, is better than that one who, when a brother is a little saddened by someone, does not so much raise him up with the solace of an outstretched hand, but, as he totters like a leaning wall, helps him toward ruin by the thrust of evil words;
and one wholesomely reproved for the sake of discipline, he so incites by sinister counsels that he dashes him down; he so arms him that he destroys him. And so, brethren, let him to whom his own evils do not suffice act in such a way that he does not incur the judgment even of another's perdition. We are certain, dearly beloved, that unless we take heed, unless we daily prune and cut back our passions, we are made far worse than we were while we lived in the world: so that our last state becomes worse than the first (Luke 11). And indeed, dearly beloved, so long as we belonged to the world and served in those pursuits and businesses at which we now blush, then the adversary did not oppose us—nay, he even consented:
because concerning our wretched and lost life he found nothing in which to exercise his envy. Our works delighted him; our crimes and sins sufficed him of themselves. For who would take up war against his own soldier? who would wish to assault his own subject? But above all unhappiness was the life of him whom the enemy did not deign to harm. But now, after we have renounced his pleasures, he sees his own worshippers returned to the former service of their Author; he sees in us, as it were, his idols changed into temples of God; and gnashing and roaring like a lion, the ever-watchful ambusher explores every approach for doing harm. Concerning which lion the Apostle testifies:
'Be watchful, therefore, because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, goeth about seeking whom he may devour' (1 Pet. 5). Blessed therefore are those whom this lion judges worthy to be sought out and pursued—by the very footprints of their virtues and the fragrance of their merits. For only the good are sought by him, because the evil offer themselves unbidden. After the former he runs violently; upon the latter he stumbles even carelessly. Blessed therefore are those whom this lion is compelled by envy to seek, and by his malice is not permitted to find. Terribly indeed it sounds in our ears when we hear: 'As a roaring lion.' But because it is said, 'The chosen are his food,' what he seeks is of election; what he roars is of desperation. As we read in another place:
'He shall gnash with his teeth and pine away' (Ps. 111 [112]); so in this place the divine word speaks, that consolation may be joined to terror. That he gnashes is of one tormented; but that he pines away is of one conquered. And amid these things, how great are those things which have been prepared by God for man, since even the malice of the enemy betrays it! These things therefore, dearly beloved, pondering and sweating in this contest, let us remember that we are both disciples and sons of our glorious and illustrious Father. Let each of us seize what we can of the goods of so great a Parent who has left no will: let this one take up from His inheritance the wholly-silken breastplate of faith (the corslet of faith), the precious variety of deeds; let that one seize the talent of meekness and simplicity.
let that one claim for himself the ornament of the breast, the necklace of benevolence and wisdom; let this one seize the pearl of compunction and the treasure of chastity. For although that most wealthy friend of God carried away with Him whole whatever He had, yet He has left us all of it too, if we are willing. So then let us act, following those good things of His, that He who is believed to be raised again unto eternal glory at the end of the ages, may now rise again to the Church through merits revived in His sons. With the help of our Lord Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns unto ages of ages. Amen.