On the Nativity 1 part 4/4

Let us have care for our fellows and our brethren more than for ourselves, if we are at all disciples of the Apostles, who were imitators of their Lord. For behold, they were all anxious for our benefit, and labored day and night, in summer and in winter, on sea and on land, by all ways and means, that we all might be brought to kinship with our Lord Christ, and that we might find the good things which are prepared in heaven for those who rightly believe and rightly live. They strove against all evils, and gave themselves up to death for us, because our life in Christ was dearer to them than their own life in this world. What do I say, in this world?

When one of them chose to be alienated from future good things for the sake of all his brethren, that they might become partakers of the good things of Christ; for he says: 'I could wish that I myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren and my kinsmen according to the flesh, who are the children of Israel.' If, then, the blessed Paul sought in prayer his own loss and almost his perdition for the common benefit, how are we not ashamed and abashed, and do we not fall into great fear and trembling, to call ourselves their disciples, when we do not imitate their life and their perfect wills? Let us therefore become like the Apostles, the teachers, in every respect, insofar as is possible, that with them we may be partakers of the heavenly good things.

For however much we meditate on their doctrine and confess their faith, if we do not have their morals, we shall not reach the place to which they themselves go; but we shall become like the blind upon whom the rays of the sun extend, yet they are not delighted in their brightness, because they lack the organs to receive their action. For truly the manifestation of right faith and the confirmation of perfect discipline is an honorable life; and without it, neither will our doctrine become credible to those who are outside the Church, nor will we, who are inside, be seen to be handing it on with a view to the religion of God. Let us therefore be zealous about our morals and about love toward one another; and let us beware lest we become a cause of evils to ourselves, and a stumbling-block to all who see us;

but let us prepare ourselves for good works, that we may become worthy to hear that word which says: 'Come, ye blessed of my Father, possess the kingdom which was prepared for you from the foundation of the world,' with all the righteous of Christ; to whom be praise, and His mercy upon us, unto the ages. Amen. Here ends the discourse on the Nativity, made by Mar Thomas the Doctor of Edessa. May his prayer be upon the sinner who wrote it. Amen.