Prologus 4

Of the Same Author: The Long Rules. Prologue. Since by the grace of God we have come together in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, having set before ourselves one and the same purpose of life according to piety; and you are clearly eager to learn something pertaining to salvation, while I am obliged to proclaim the ordinances of God, remembering night and day the Apostle who says, "For three years, night and day, I did not cease with tears to admonish each one"; and the present time is most suitable for us, and this place provides quiet and complete leisure from external disturbances, let us pray together, so that we may in due time give the ration to our fellow servants; and that you, having received the word as good soil, may return the fruit in righteousness perfect and manifold, as it is written. I therefore exhort you, through the love of our Lord Jesus Christ, who gave himself for our sins, let us at last take up the care of our souls; let us grieve over the vanity of our past life; let us strive for the future, for the glory of God, and of his Christ, and of the worshipful and Holy Spirit.

Let us not remain in this indolence and slackness, always putting off the present through laziness and deferring the beginning of our works to tomorrow and the future, and then, being overtaken by the one who demands our souls, unprepared in good works, be cast out from the joy of the bridal chamber, and weep vainly and uselessly, lamenting the time of life badly let slip, when nothing more is possible for those who repent. "Now is the acceptable time," says the Apostle, "now is the day of salvation." This age is for repentance, that age for retribution; this for endurance, that for consolation. Now God is the helper of those turning from the evil path; then He is the fearful and unerring examiner of human deeds, words, and thoughts. Now we enjoy His forbearance; then we shall know His just judgment, when we arise, some to eternal punishment, others to eternal life, and each receives according to his action. To what time do we defer the obedience of Christ, who has called us to His heavenly kingdom? Shall we not awake? Shall we not recall ourselves from the life of habit to the precision of the Gospel? Shall we not take before our eyes that fearful and manifest day of the Lord, on which the kingdom of heaven will receive those who, through their deeds, approach the right hand of the Lord, while those thrust to the left because of the lack of good works will be hidden by the gehenna of fire and eternal darkness? "There," it says, "will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

We say we desire the kingdom of heaven, but we do not care for the means by which it may be attained; and, undertaking no labor for the sake of a commandment of the Lord, we suppose in the vanity of our mind that we shall obtain the same honors as those who have resisted sin even unto death. Who, at the time of sowing, sitting at home or sleeping, when harvest comes, has filled his bosom with sheaves? Who has gathered a vineyard not planted and labored by him? The fruits belong to those whose labors they are; the honors and crowns belong to the victors. Who ever crowns one who has not even stripped for the contest against his opponent? For it is necessary not only to conquer, but also to contend lawfully, according to the Apostle; that is, to omit nothing, however small, of what has been prescribed, and to do each thing as we have been commanded. For blessed, he says, is that servant whom the Lord, when he comes, will find not doing things at random, but doing them in this way; and, If you offer correctly but do not divide correctly, you have erred. But we, having thought that we have performed one of the commandments (for I would not say that we have performed it; for all are connected with each other according to the sound intention of the word, so that in the dissolution of one the rest are necessarily dissolved together), do not await wrath for what we have omitted, but await honors for what we have supposedly accomplished. He who, of the ten talents of a deposit, has withheld one or two, but has paid back the rest, is not recognized as grateful for the repayment of the majority, but is convicted as unjust and grasping for the deprivation of the lesser.

But why do I speak of deprivation? When someone entrusted with one talent returns it whole and intact exactly as he received it, he is condemned for not having increased what was given. He who honored his father for ten years but later struck him just one blow is not honored as a benefactor but condemned as a parricide. "Go forth," says the Lord, "and teach all nations, instructing them not to observe some things while neglecting others, but to keep all that I have commanded you." And the Apostle accordingly writes: "Give no occasion for blame in anything, so that the ministry may not be reproached, but in everything present yourselves as servants of God." For if all the commandments were not necessary for us with a view to the goal of salvation, they would not have been written, nor would it have been prescribed that all must necessarily be kept. What benefit are my other achievements to me, if I am to be liable to Gehenna for calling my brother a fool? For what advantage is freedom from many things to one who is held in slavery by a single thing? For he who commits sin, it is said, is a slave of sin. And what profit is there in freedom from many passions for one whose body is being destroyed by a single passion? "Therefore," someone says, "will the multitudes of Christians who do not keep all the commandments have no benefit from keeping some?" To this it is good to recall the blessed Peter, who after so many achievements and such beatitudes, heard on one single occasion: "If I do not wash you, you have no part with me." I pass over saying that this very thing was not an indication of negligence or contempt, but was a sign of honor and reverence.

And yet, someone might say, it is written: "Everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved"; so that the mere invocation of the name of the Lord suffices to save the one who calls upon it. But let this man also hear the Apostle saying: "How then will they call upon Him in whom they did not believe?" And if you believe, hear the Lord saying: "Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter into the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of my Father in heaven." Indeed, even he who works the will of the Lord, but not as God wills, nor doing this in a disposition of love toward God, has his zeal for the work fruitless, according to the voice of our Lord Jesus Christ Himself, who said: "They do it to be seen by men; truly I say to you, they forfeit their reward." Hence the Apostle Paul was taught to say: "Even if I give away all my possessions, and if I deliver my body to be burned, but have no love, I gain nothing." Altogether I perceive these three differences of disposition with regard to the indispensable necessity of obedience. For either, fearing punishments, we turn away from evil, and we are in a servile disposition; or, pursuing the gains from reward, we fulfill the commandments for the sake of our own benefit, and in this we resemble the

so that the mere invocation of the name of the Lord suffices to save the one who calls upon it. But let this man also consider the following: either he acts for wages, or for the sake of the good itself and the love for the one who gave us the law, rejoicing that we have been deemed worthy to serve such a glorious and good God, and that we are in the disposition of sons. Therefore, neither does the one who fulfills the commandments out of fear, always dreading the penalty for negligence, perform some of the things commanded to him and overlook others; but he will consider the punishment for every transgression equally fearful for himself. And for this reason, the one who trembles at everything out of reverence is blessed; but he stands firm in the truth, being able to say: I kept the Lord before me always, because he is at my right hand, so that I might not be shaken, choosing to neglect none of the necessary things; and, Blessed is the man who fears the Lord. Why? Because he will greatly desire his commandments. Therefore, it is not characteristic of those who fear to pass over any of the things commanded, or to do them carelessly; but neither will the hireling choose to transgress any of the things prescribed. For how will he receive the wage for the work of the vineyard, if he has not fulfilled all the agreed terms? For if he omits even one of the necessary things, he has rendered himself useless to the owner.

Who then will still pay a penalty for harm to the one who did the wrong? The third was service according to love. What son, then, having as his aim the pleasing of his father, while delighting him in greater matters, would choose to grieve him over the smallest things? Much more, remembering the Apostle, who said, "And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed." Those, therefore, who transgress most of the commandments, in what category do they wish to be placed? Neither serving God as a Father, nor obeying Him as one who promises great things, nor serving Him as a Master. For if I am a Father, He says, where is my glory? And if I am a Lord, where is my fear? For he who fears the Lord will strongly desire to follow His commandments; but through transgression of the law, it is said, you dishonor God. How then, having preferred a life of pleasure to a life according to commandment, do we suppose for ourselves the blessedness of life, equality of citizenship with the saints, and the joys among angels in the presence of Christ? Such fantasies are truly of a childish mind. How shall I be with Job, who did not receive even the slightest affliction with thanksgiving? How with David, who was not disposed with patience toward the enemy?

How with Daniel is the one who has not sought God with constant self-control and diligent prayer? How with each of the saints is the one who has not walked in their footsteps? What judge of contests is so undiscerning as to deem worthy of equal crowns the victor and the one who has contended in nothing? What general ever called to the share of the spoils, equally with the victors, those who were not even present at the battle? God is good, but also just. And it is the part of the just to give recompense according to worth, as it is written: "Be gracious, Lord, to the good and to those upright in heart. But those who turn aside to crooked ways, the Lord will lead away with those who work iniquity." He is merciful, but also a judge. For it says, "The Lord loves mercy and judgment." Therefore it says, "I will sing mercy and judgment to you, Lord." We have learned upon whom mercy is bestowed: "Blessed," it says, "are the merciful, for they themselves will be shown mercy." Do you see how discerningly he uses mercy? Neither judging without mercy, nor showing mercy without judgment. For the Lord is merciful and just. Let us not, then, know God only partially, nor take his philanthropy as an occasion for indolence. For this reason there are thunders, for this reason there are lightnings, that his goodness may not be despised. He who makes the sun rise also condemns to blindness. He who gives the rain also rains down fire. Those are from his kindness, these from his severity; either through those let us love him, or through these let us fear him, so that it may not be said also to us: "Either of the wealth of his kindness, and of his forbearance, and of his patience...

You despise, not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance? But according to your hardness and unrepentant heart, you store up for yourself wrath on the day of wrath. Since, then, it is neither possible to be saved without doing the works commanded by God, nor is it without danger to overlook any of the things that have been prescribed (for it is a terrible thing for us to set ourselves up as judges of the lawgiver, approving some of the laws and dismissing others), come then, O champions of piety, those of you who have honored the quiet and untroubled life as an aid to the preservation of the evangelical teachings, let us set forth a common concern and deliberation, so that none of the things that have been enjoined may escape us. For if the man of God must be perfect (as it is written, and as the argument has shown in what precedes), it is absolutely necessary to be purified through every commandment to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, since also according to the divine law, even if the maimed thing is clean, it is not acceptable as a sacrifice to God. Therefore, let each one who considers himself deficient in any respect propose this for common examination. For it would be easier, in the diligent investigation of the majority, for what is hidden to be discovered, with God, of course, according to the promise of our Lord Jesus Christ, granting us the discovery of what is sought through the teaching and reminder of the Holy Spirit. Just as, then, necessity lies upon me, and woe is me if I do not proclaim the gospel, so also for you there is an equal struggle if you are negligent in the examination, or if you are disposed slackly and languidly both toward the preservation of what has been handed down and toward its fulfillment through works.

For the Lord says: "The word that I spoke, that will judge him on the last day." And: "A slave who did not know the will of his master, but did things worthy of stripes, will be beaten a few times; but one who knew and did not do, nor prepared himself for his master's will, will be beaten many times." Let us therefore pray that the management of my discourse be blameless, and that your instruction be fruitful. Since we know that the words of the inspired Scripture will stand face to face with us at the tribunal of Christ ("For I will convict you," it says, "and set your sins before your face"), let us thus attend soberly to what is said, and hasten earnestly to bring the divine teachings into practice, because we do not know on what day or hour our Lord comes.