VERSE 27. 'He shall look upon men, and shall say: I have sinned.' 15. Whoever looks upon the examples of the holy Fathers understands himself a sinner, which is the beginning of righteousness. He would not know himself a sinner, if he had not righteousness. For no one detects his own strength, save when he has begun to be upright. For he who is altogether perverse cannot even see this which he is. But he who understands himself a sinner has already in some part begun to be just, and accuses, from that in which he is just, that which he had done not just. By which self-accusation he begins to cleave to God, while, uttering a right judgment against himself, he condemns in himself that which he perceives to displease Him. Having received his righteousness, therefore, this man says: 'I have sinned.'
And it is to be noted that first is premised: 'He looks upon men'; and then afterwards is subjoined: 'And he shall say, I have sinned.' For therefore do some not know that they have sinned, because they do not attend to men. For if they considered men, they would more quickly acknowledge how far, by sinning, they had fallen below men. And although Holy Scripture is sometimes wont to put 'men' for those wise in human wisdom, as the Apostle says: 'For whereas there is among you envying and strife, are ye not carnal?' (1 Corinthians 3:3) and a little after subjoins, saying: 'Are ye not men?' — yet sometimes it calls those 'men' whom reason distinguishes from beasts, that is, those whom it shows not to be worn away by the bestial motion of passions. To whom the Lord says through the prophet:
'But you, my flocks, the flocks of my pasture, are men' (Ezekiel 34:31), because assuredly the Lord feeds those whom the pleasure of the flesh does not send away after the manner of beasts of burden. But on the contrary, those who succumb to carnal affection are no longer named men, but beasts of burden, as of certain men dying in their sin it is said through the prophet: 'The beasts have rotted in their dung' (Joel 1:17). For the beasts to rot in their dung is for carnal men to end their life in the stench of luxury. For they are declared to be not men but beasts of burden, of whom it is said through the prophet: 'Everyone neighed after his neighbour's wife' (Jeremiah 5:8). And of whom another prophet says: 'Whose flesh is as the flesh of asses;
and their issue is like the issue of horses' (Ezekiel 23:20). Whence also it is said through David: 'Man, when he was in honour, understood not; he is compared to the senseless beasts of burden, and is made like unto them' (Psalm 49:12). Since, therefore, those are called men who are supported by the reason of righteousness, and those are named irrational beasts of burden who serve carnal delight, rightly is it said of this penitent: 'He shall look upon men, and shall say: I have sinned.' As if it were said: He beholds the examples of holy men, and weighing himself by comparison with them, detects himself to be iniquitous. For he who desires most fully to understand what manner of man he is, such men indeed...
He ought to behold what he himself is not, so that from the beauty of the good he may measure how deformed he himself is, having forsaken the good. For it is from those in whom good things are present most fully that he rightly weighs what is lacking in himself, and in their beauty he perceives his own foulness, which in himself he can indeed endure but cannot feel. For he who wishes to judge concerning darkness ought to behold the light, so that in it he may see what he is to reckon about the darkness through which he is hindered from seeing. For if a sinner beholds himself while the life of the just is unknown to him, he in no way comprehends himself to be a sinner. For he cannot see himself, because, being ignorant of the splendor of the light, when he beholds himself, what else does he attend to but darkness?
Therefore we ought to behold the life of the just, so that we may keenly discern our own. Their appearance, as it were, is set before us as a form to be imitated. The just are books, from which we shall be judged. The life of the good is a living lesson; whence not without reason are these same just called books in Holy Scripture, as it is written: 「The books were opened, and another book was opened, which is the book of life; and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books」 (Rev. 20:12). For the book of life is the very vision of the coming Judge. In it, as it were, every commandment is written, because whoever shall behold Him, straightway, with conscience as witness, understands whatever he has not done.
The books are also said to be opened, because then the life of the just is beheld, in which the heavenly commandments are seen impressed by their deeds. 「And the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books,」 because in the displayed life of the just, as in the unrolling of books, they read the good which they themselves were unwilling to do, and are condemned by comparison with those who did it. Therefore, lest each one then, seeing them, weep over what he has not done, let him now attend in them to what he may imitate. This indeed the elect do not cease to do; for they consider the life of their betters, and change the conduct of a baser manner of living. And 「the lilies among which we ought to feed.」 Whence by the voice of the Bridegroom it is said to holy Church in the Song of Songs:
「Your two breasts are like two young roes that are twins, which feed among the lilies, until the day break and the shadows retire」 (Cant. 4:5). For what are the two breasts but the twofold people coming from Judea and the Gentiles, which in the body of holy Church, through the intent of wisdom, is fixed deep in the secret of the heart? Of this people, those who are elect are for this reason compared to the fawns of the roes, because through humility they indeed understand themselves to be little ones and sinners, yet, as they run through charity, if any obstacles from the hindrance of temporal things meet them, they pass over, and by the given leaps of contemplation ascend to things on high. And that they may do these things, they behold the examples of the saints who went before. Whence also they are said to feed among the lilies.
For what is declared by the lilies but the life of those who truly say: 「We are the good odor of Christ unto God」 (2 Cor. 2:15)? Therefore the elect, that they may prevail to attain the heights, are satisfied by beholding the fragrant and shining life of the just. Now indeed they thirst to see the Lord; now they burn with the ardors of charity to be satisfied by His contemplation. But because, placed in this life, they are not yet able, they are meanwhile fed by the examples of the Fathers who went before. Whence also there the time of that feeding among the lilies is fittingly defined, when it is said: 「Until the day break and the shadows retire.」 For so long do we need to be refreshed by the examples of the just, until, at the breaking of the eternal day, we pass beyond the shadows of the present mortality. For when—
the shadow of this temporality, when this mortality is done away, shall have retired, then, because we discern the inner light of that very day, we no longer at all seek to be kindled to His love through the examples of others. But now, because we cannot yet gaze upon Him, it is above all necessary that we be incited by beholding the actions of those who followed Him perfectly. Let us therefore behold how beautiful is the swiftness of those who follow, and let us see how base is the sluggishness of the slothful. For straightway, as we look upon the deeds of those who act well, we judge ourselves, with an inward confusion avenging us: at once shame shakes the mind, at once guilt, justly raging, condemns; and vehemently displeases even this, that perhaps something still basely pleases us.
The just man is a temple of God, at whose sight we are confounded over our iniquities. Whence it is well said through Ezekiel: 「Son of man, show the temple to the house of Israel, that they may be confounded at their iniquities, and let them measure the building, and be ashamed of all that they have done」 (Ezek. 43:10-11). For the temple of God is shown to the sons of Israel unto their confusion, when the soul of each just man, whom God inhabits by His inspiration, is shown to sinners—with how great a sanctity it shines—unto their confusion, so that in it they may see the good which they neglect, and in themselves be ashamed of the evil which they work. But to measure the building is subtly to weigh the life of the just.
But while he measures the building, it is necessary that we be ashamed of all that we have done, because the more subtly we discuss by weighing the life of the good, the more severely we reprove in ourselves all things wickedly done. And it is well said to the prophet that he show the temple. For because the sinner dissembles to consider the rectitude of the just, let him at least recognize this from the voice of the preacher. For to show the temple to sinners is to narrate the works of the upright to those who are unwilling of their own accord to consider them. Therefore those who, as we have said, desire to be led to the heights, it is always necessary that they intend upon the advances of their betters, so that they may judge their own faults the more strictly, the more highly they see in others what they may admire.
The just themselves profit from the consideration of other saints. But why do we say these things about sinners, when we see even the very workers of righteousness advanced by so great a dispensation (1 Cor. 12:8-11)? For one receives the gift of knowledge, and yet does not attain to the virtue of wondrous abstinence. Another is girded with great virtue of abstinence, yet is not enlarged in the highest contemplation of knowledge. Another through the spirit of prophecy is able to foreknow all things to come, yet through the grace of healing is not able to relieve the evils of present affliction. Another through the grace of healing relieves the evils of present affliction, yet, because he has not the spirit of prophecy, knows not what is to follow.
Another can now bestow many of his own goods upon the needy, yet cannot freely withstand those who act unjustly. Another boldly withstands for God's sake those who act unjustly, yet refuses to distribute all he has to the needy. Another, now restraining himself even from idle speech, overcomes the wantonness of the tongue, yet does not perfectly trample down the goads of anger rising up. Another now perfectly subdues rising anger, yet still relaxes his tongue into frivolity. What is this, that this one lacks that good in which another excels;
and that one, though he excels in many things, considers that a good abundantly present in others which he sighs to be lacking in himself—unless because a wondrous dispensation is wrought with us, so that through this which the one has and the other has not, the one may be shown better than the other, in order that each may profit the more ardently unto humility, the more he weighs himself inferior, on account of the good things he has not, to those who have them? And so it comes about that while the one beholds in the other, and this one in that, what he may admire, distinct goods both restrain from the loftiness of pride, and kindle unto the zeal of advancement. For with great solicitude we gird ourselves for the care of our own betterment, when we discern in others that virtue which we have not.
Whence the prophet Ezekiel, when he had described the flying living creatures, added: 「And I heard behind me a voice of a great commotion: Blessed be the glory of the Lord from His holy place, and the voice of the wings of the living creatures striking one against another」 (Ezek. 3:12-13). For what ought we to understand by the wings of the living creatures but the virtues of the saints? Who, while they despise earthly things, are lifted up by flying to heavenly things. Whence rightly also it is said through Isaiah: 「They that hope in the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall take wings as eagles」 (Isa. 40:31). The flying living creatures therefore strike one another in turn with their wings, because the minds of the saints, in that they seek things above, are aroused by the virtues of one another mutually considered.
For he strikes me with his wing who kindles me to what is better by the example of his own sanctity. And I strike a neighboring creature with my wing, if at any time I show to another a good work that he may imitate. This is confirmed by the example of the holy apostles Paul and Peter. But because we have said that the life of the saints is signified by these living creatures, let it please us in the very flight of the living creatures to lift up the eyes of the mind, and to weigh with subtle consideration with how great a striking of wings they arouse one another in turn.
For Paul, when by laboring more robustly in preaching he had surpassed the solicitude of the other saints, in order to press himself down from elation and to nourish his strength in the bosom of humility, not unmindful of his own former cruelty, contemplating the innocence of all the apostles, said: 「For I am the least of the apostles, who am not worthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the Church of God」 (1 Cor. 15:9). And yet the first of all those same apostles, as though forgetful of the primacy he had received, as if he himself understood something less, admires the wisdom in Paul, saying:
「Even as our most dear brother Paul, according to the wisdom given him, has written to you, as also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things, in which are certain things hard to be understood」 (2 Pet. 3:15-16). Behold, Paul admires innocence in the apostles; behold, the prince of the apostles admires wisdom in Paul. What is this, but that holy men, while by consideration of virtues they in turn prefer others to themselves, are like the flying living creatures who touch one another with the striking of wings, that they may arouse themselves the higher to flight, the more humbly each one sees in the other what he may admire?
From this therefore it is to be gathered with how great a solicitude we, who lie in the lowest things, ought to behold the life of our betters, if even those who are already sublime with such great sanctity, in order that through the step of humility they may profit to greater things, still seek in others what, imitating, they may admire. The reprobate are always turned to the examples of the worse. But these things the reprobate know not, because they always press the eyes of the mind upon the lowest things; who, even if they ever come into the way of the Lord, are turned not to the footsteps of their betters, but always to gazing at the examples of the worse. For they do not consider the life of those to whom, humbling themselves, they should subordinate themselves, but of those to whom, being proud, they may prefer themselves. For they look upon the worse, over whom they glory that they are better;
and therefore they cannot profit toward better things, because they reckon this to suffice for themselves, that they go before the worst. O wretched ones, they walk the way, and look backward. By hope indeed they put forth, as it were, a foot before them, but by the consideration of depraved men they cast their eyes behind them. They desire to appear upright, but to find themselves they take a crooked rule. For if they desired to know themselves as they are, they ought to have beheld not the examples of the worse, but of the better. Therefore they do not understand themselves to be sinners, because they attend not to men. For if they attended to men—how far, by sinning, they were distant from good men—they would find out.
Concerning this penitent, therefore, who for this reason considers the examples of the good—that it may be made known to himself how far he has departed from good—it is well said: