Chapter LXXIII
The Concise Sense Of The [Foregoing] Section Together With Explanations Of What Has Been Said
The concise sense of the foregoing section is to communicate to us that at every moment 1) of the four and twenty hours of the day, we are in want of repentance. The explanation of the denotation of repentance, in its real practical sense, is continual mournful supplication in contrite prayer, offered to God for the forgiveness of previous sins; and petition to be guarded against future ones 2). Therefore our Lord also has sustained our weakness by prayer: Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation 3). And: Pray, and do not faint 4). And: Watch ye therefore, and pray always 5). Ask, and it shall be given unto you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you; for every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened 6). And he corroborates His word strongly and exhortates us strongly by the parable of the friend who went to his friend in the middle of the night and asked him for bread.,Verily, I say unto you, though ho will not rise and give him, because he is friend, yet be-
I) Introduction 2) Cf. Book of the Dove, p. 6 and note 3 3) Matthew 26, 4I 4) Cf. Luke IS,! S) Luke 2I; 3 6 6) Matthew 7, 7 sq.
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cause of his importunity he will rise and give him as many as he needeth 1). And ye also: Pray and do not faint 2). Blessed is the unspeakable encouragement of the Giver, who exhorts us saying: Ask from me and I will give you gifts. 5 °3 And He will also provide you with all that is profitable, according to His knowledge. These words are full of encouragement and great confidence. And as our Lord knows that He does not take away liability of deviation before the cup of death [is drunk], and, this being so, that man is near to a change from excellency to deterioration, and nature susceptible of accidents - therefore He urges us to continual beseechings. For if there were in this world a place of security whereto a man could go and thenceforth his nature would be exempt from need and his service from fear - then He would not have exhorted us towards prayer nor would He have urged us diligently. In the world to be men will not offer prayers unto God, with beseechings concerning various things. For in that place of freedom our nature will no longer be susceptible of variation, nor bound by the fear of opposition, but perfect in every way. Therefore His care not only drives us unto prayer and watchfulness, but even scourges us with the whip of temptations, in view of the subtlety and incomprehensibility of those things which continually happen to us and superate the power of our knowledge, things among which we are found continually and involuntarily. And even although our mind be firm and willed to the good, yet often His care scourges us with temptations, as the blessed Paul says: Lest I should be exalted through the abundance of the revelations, there was given me a thorn 504 in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet me. For this thing I besought the Lord thrice that He might take from me temptation (namely that I might in freedom perform the work which He had ordered me). And He said unto me: My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness 3). Therefore 4), my Lord, if this is thy will, and our childish nature so much needs a master who rules and exhorts that even a man who is so fond of thy love as I am and so zea-
1) Luke II, 8 2) Luke 1 8 0 T 3) 2 Corinthians 1 2 1 7 sqq. 4) The following passage is put into the mouth of Paui.
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lous a follower of good that he does not see the world at all because of his drunkenness in thee, so that thou hast brought me so far as to see revelations and visions which a fl e shly tongue is not allowed to interpret, and to hear the sound of the service of the spiritual orders, so that I am deemed worthy of sight full of spiritual sanctities, that such a man as I with all this is not able to guard his own person, I who am a man perfect in Christ, - because there is still something which because of its subtleness resists the power of my knowledge -I that possess the mind of Christ - [if all this be so J then, my Lord, I rejoice at my illnesses, at troubles, reclusions, bonds, compulsions, on the part of nature or on the part of natural beings, or on the part of the fiend of nature.] Joyfully, therefore, I will bear my illnesses, namely my temptations, which the power of Christ brings upon me. If, with all these, I still require the rod of temptations in order sos to augment thy influence upon me and that I may be guarded by thy presence, I known that there is none whom thou lovest better than me. And because thou hast made me greater than many others and hast not given to any of my fellow Apostles what thou hast given to me - namely to know the glorifications of thy powers; and because thou hast called me an elect vessel and hast entrusted me with the guardianship of thy love; because of all these and that I know that the preaching of thy gospel has made excellent progress, while I am free from the bonds of temptations on account of all these things I know that thou wouldst have given men freedom, if this were profitable to me. But thou hast not wished that I should be without trouble and without care in this world; and thou werst not anxious to promote the preaching of thy gospel to the same degree as thou werst anxious that I should profit by my temptations, and my soul be kept healthy with thee. Therefore, o thou who art discriminating, if the gift of the temptations be so great that a man, even if he be as exalted and advanced in spiritual state as Paul's degree was, still requires fear and watchfulness and gathers profit by meeting temptations, who then can reach a place of security in the world of mortality full of robbers, and receive stability 1) (which
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was not given to the holy angels, lest they should become perfect before us), thus receiving before all people, - spiritual and bodily ones - such,a gift that, according to his wish, he should be without varying states at all, without a temptation even approaching to his deliberations? The order of this world, according to the conception of aiJ so6 holy writings, is this, that even if we received a thousand blows every day, our mind would not become humble and we would desist from the course in the arena; but that on account of one small cause, we gain the victory possibly and win our crown. This world is an arena and a running place. And this time is a time of struggle. And the time and the place of the struggle are not subject to a law. This means: the King does not set a terminus to his warriors, till the struggle is ended and all the world is gathered within the gate of the king of kings and it is examined there who has been constant in the war and has not been defeated, and who has taken to flight. How often will it happen that a man who was good for nothing and constantly beaten and thrown down because of his want of training, and who was always in a state of weakness, will snatch the banner from the hand of the valiant warriors and make his name famous above that of the doughty ones, the able and knowing battle-troops, and receive the crown and gifts which are honoured by all his fellows. Nobody, therefore, should give way to despondency. Only: he should not despise prayer, nor neglect to ask help from our Lord. And let us take this to heart, that, as long as we are in this world and dwelling in this body, even if we are lifted up unto the vault of heaven, it is not possible to be free from toil and injury and care. This is the sum of it all. Pardon me. What exceeds this is superfluous.
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