Whence the same Apostle elsewhere says: For no man ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it (Eph. 5:29): since indeed it is to be nourished and cherished not unto vices, not unto luxury, but unto its due service: so that renewed nature may keep its order, and the lower may not perversely and basely prevail over the higher, nor the higher succumb to the lower, and, with vices overcoming the mind, there be servitude where there ought to be dominion. Chapter VI.—Let the people of God therefore recognize that they are a new creature in Christ, and let them vigilantly understand both by whom they have been taken up and whom they have taken up. Let the things that have been made new not return to their unstable oldness; and let him not abandon his work who has put his hand to the plow (Luke 9:62);
but let him attend to what he sows, not look back at what he has left. Let no one fall back into that from which he has risen, but even if, on account of bodily weakness, he still lies in certain languors, let him instantly desire to be healed and lifted up. For this is the way of salvation, and the imitation of the resurrection begun in Christ: that, since in the slippery condition of this life various falls and slips are not lacking, the steps of those who walk may be transferred from things fluid to things solid; because, as it is written, by the Lord are the steps of a man directed, and He shall will his way. When the just man shall fall, he shall not be bruised, for the Lord puts under His hand (Ps. 36:23-24).
This meditation, dearly beloved, is to be retained not for the paschal solemnity alone, but for the sanctification of the whole of life, and to this end the present exercise ought to be directed: that the things which have delighted the minds of the faithful by the experience of a brief observance may pass into habit, may remain undefiled, and, if any fault should creep in, may be wiped away by swift repentance. And because the cure of old diseases is difficult and slow, let the remedies be applied so much the more swiftly, the more recent the wounds are:
so that, always rising again whole from all offenses, we may deserve to attain to that incorruptible resurrection of the flesh which is to be glorified, in Christ Jesus our Lord, who lives and reigns with the Father and the Holy Spirit unto the ages of ages. Amen.