By many and countless laws of discipline, dearly beloved, as you have heard the Evangelist say, our Christ established the manner of living; in diverse ways he showed the way of salvation to a people reborn: and he willed nothing to be hidden that might either save or destroy the soul, lest a thing purchased at so great a price, deceived by the fault of ignorance, should serve diabolical superstitions. But—what is worse—medicine profits little to the dying: and therefore the way of salvation is difficult, because the exit of death is always easier, as Scripture says: 'How wide and spacious is the way that leads to death, and many there are who enter by it! How strait and narrow the way that leads to life, and few there are who find it!' (Matt. 7:13-14).
Perhaps some marvel why the Evangelist says the way of death is wide and easy, when the road of life is straitened at every approach. But to whom was the descent to lower places ever difficult, where a man is dragged by his own burden, and overcome, is borne by the weight of his own bundle? Many are the things that hinder the way of prosperous salvation. In this place the injury of death especially pursues those over whom vanity and cruelty hold dominion.
Besides, there rush together to the prejudice of life dissensions, rivalries, quarrels, brawls, sacrileges, adulteries, murders, fraternal hatreds, parricidal counsels, perjuries armed with falsehoods—which not only hinder him who ascends, but also plunge him into the depths of hell. When, then, can it come to pass that that man easily reaches the higher regions, whom so many vices hinder? 'Strait and narrow is the way that leads to life.' This, dearly beloved, is that way by which the just proceed, and the holy and unspotted walk; by which those journey who, endowed with humility, integrity, and holiness, unwearied follow after our Christ.
The approach to this way, then, must both be chosen by us and fortified, because just as it is steep, so also it is passable: it offers itself easy to those who will, if neither vanity hinder nor the deceitful ornament of this world stand in the way. It is fitting that he be free and stripped of all impediments who undertakes the climb of a steep mountain. But just as we see the steps totter under an unjust load, so the soul lies subject to many falls if it be taken up with iniquitous deeds. Whence the body must be unburdened, hindered as it is by worldly desires, lest, as we strive toward steep and lofty things, either the peril of death threaten, or the despair of labor grow.
What wise man, then, would drive his beast, hindered by a load, along a narrow path, one side of which the mass of a lofty mountain presses, while a sheer crag stands on the other? Where, if rashness prevail, one must either turn back or perish. Like also is the case of that man who has entered the way of religion. It is needful, therefore, that he always cut away whatever seems either dishonorable or base, who desires his soul to reach the heavenly glory. Not without cause does the Lord say: 'Leave your goods, and follow me' (Matt. 19:21). These goods, dearly beloved, are our evils, nourished by earthly deeds: which while some serve too attentively, they have lost the heavenly.
If, therefore, you wish that the heavenly gate lie open to you, all things must be removed, and whatever has been used to the ruin of life, negligently and unfittingly, must be assigned to penitence. But it is difficult that there be for you an entrance to reach those things which the Lord has prepared for those who believe in him, unless you unburden a breast laden with vices, and restrain all the faults of injustice by the authority of religious discipline. In vain do you think to hold the paths of the steep road and the rough way, if you are hindered by the error of the soul. Set before your eyes, if it seems good, two men striving toward the heights; of whom one goes weighed down with a heavy burden, the other advances leaning only on a light staff; and you will see which reaches the top more easily.
Look first at him who is weighed down by his burden; and you will see that man's steps hurrying backward as they hang, and so advancing with bent knee that he seems to be going back. Now like one descending, now like one falling, he is thus flung with his whole body to the opposite side of the hanging path at every single moment, so that the very necessity of walking has almost more of despair than of labor. Turn now your eyes to him upon whose neck no weight hangs; and you see how freely he advances, how easily it is for him to go over steep places with unburdened soles, and to cling with hanging steps in rugged spots. Now with light course the tall man is lifted up, now he is borne over diverse ground with the whole alacrity of spirit;
so as to show that the difficulty of places does not hinder unencumbered bodies, nor are journeys, however steep, laborious to anyone, if the mind be unburdened of the unjust weights that occupy it. Alike, dearly beloved, is the case both of those whom iniquitous deeds burden, and of those whom, stripped of their old fault, the tears of penitence commend. He therefore ought to lay down burdensome things who wishes to come secure to the judgment: and to despise earthly things, who has a mind to possess the heavenly. Truly, dearly beloved, that we may the more easily surmount the straits of that steep road, the zeal of a sincere mind must be applied: and there must be removed whatever either lawsuits or unhappy speech breeds, or whatever the tongue, armed as it were with poison, has stirred to the reproach of another's house by injury.
It cannot be reckoned how greatly the vices of an undisciplined tongue hinder the way of life: which, while by too much speaking it exercises the instrument of its own mouth, has stirred up hatreds against itself even from idle words. For the Lord says that an account must be rendered even of idle words (Matt. 12:36). See, therefore, what shall befall him whom the charge of a principal fault assails, when it is not without peril to the soul to carry to the judgment even any light things whatsoever. 'Strait and narrow is the way that leads to life.' Whoever, then, is wise, let him first cast from himself the impediments of the world, and fortify his way with the zeal of discipline; let him remove, penitence intervening, whatever seems imposed through negligence;
nor let him think he must carry with him whatever worldly glory has imposed: for although these things are of themselves heavy, yet they become heavier by the difficulty of the journey. Perhaps to some in this age too pampered the necessity of the strait and steep road breeds despair. And truly reason has this, that a raw spirit dreads all that is rough and difficult. But what shall we do, that no gate of virtues lies open to delicate soldiers? What fruit of labor would there be, if you ran over level ground? Or when would you rejoice to have come to the appointed place, if you arrived without injury to the body? Who ever, being idle, set up trophies? Or who, when the legions of enemies stood round about on every side, came to victory by sleeping?
The crown of virtues that does not descend from labor has little praise. It can indeed have the palm, but it has not glory. When was it that a husbandman filled his barns while idle? Or who ever received the fruit of his field at the lawful time, unless he first worked the raw earth with furrow multiplied? This, however, is the account of great virtues, that the more a man labors, the more reward he acquires. Yet let us see what sort that way of death is which the Evangelist calls wide and spacious, and full of waves: which, although it be crammed with deaths, yet never ceases to receive the guilty. For it is of this nature, that it swiftly invites the perishing to itself: and it offers itself easy to those whom discipline has forsaken.
In the comparison of the level and the narrow road, nothing is more perilous to the traveler than spacious ways: because one runs without discipline, where the reins of the horses are loosed; and so it comes to pass that the gate of death receives many, since where one proceeds more freely, one arrives more easily. Hear the Lord saying: 'Take up your cross, and follow me' (Matt. 16:24). The man does not dread the easy approach of that steep road. Why should labor confound him to whom another stretches out his hand? Whoever, then, is guided along the steep way by another at his side, is exhorted to the necessity of the undertaking by the labor of the journey being divided. And therefore it can come to pass that he undoubtedly reaches the promised rewards of the kingdom, who hastens to the heights with the Lord accompanying him.
But we must first lay down, dearly beloved, as we said above, whatever the unhappy error of the age has imposed on human bodies: lest perhaps, the mass of sins being cast in our way, it either not allow us to reach those times of reward, or, if we reach them, not permit us to enter the gates of the heavenly kingdom. But you say, 'We cannot arrive': it is proven by sure trials; for we often see many depart, with the door as witness, without saluting the father of the household; whom yet wickedness, or malice, or perfidy, or luxury, or pride has made hateful. Let each of you contemplate the offense of diabolical presumption; and you will understand how greatly pride weighs down a man striving toward the heights;
or in what state he is placed over whom the spirit of arrogance holds dominion. Hear the Lord speaking of this: 'God gives grace to the humble, but resists the proud' (James 4:6). But no less is the necessity of this journey hindered by the vice of cupidity: which, while it wishes to rejoice in an excessive mass of money, does not permit the rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven, as the Lord says: 'Amen I say to you, it is hard for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of heaven' (Matt. 19:23). Hence drunkenness, conscious of the evils of luxury, lays no small burden upon human bodies: which, while it serves shameless acts, has shut out the unhappy man from the fellowship of the heavenly kingdom. Cruelty too, joined with impiety, besieges the secret of the narrow way:
which, while by bloody laws it institutes death, has closed the way of heavenly glory, as the Apostle says: 'Neither thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor railers, nor extortioners shall possess the kingdom of God' (1 Cor. 6:10). For these things, then, which we have named, we must fight with the zeal of discipline, that we may reach the place of life. Rather must there be applied to our journey piety, mercy, humility, integrity, chastity, sobriety, peace, faith, charity. But you shall not first reach the place of the promised inheritance, unless, under this pursuit of life, you first put off the body laden with vices.