De angusta porta et in orationem dominicam

Concerning living according to God, and on the saying, "The gate is narrow," and so forth; and an interpretation of the prayer, "Our Father." 1. The reading of every divinely inspired Scripture becomes, for those who attend, a knowledge of piety; but the venerable writing of the Gospels is a preeminence of loftier teachings, for the oracles contained in them are decrees of the Most High King. Therefore a terrible punishment is threatened to those who do not precisely keep what has been said by him. For if the transgressor of the laws of earthly rulers undergoes an inexorable punishment, how much more will the one who rejects the commandments of the heavenly Master be given over to unbearable torments? Since, then, the danger of inattention is great, let us attend with great precision to the hearing of the words from the Gospel that have just been read to us. And what are these? "The gate is narrow," he says, "and the road that leads to life is confined; and there are few who find it." And again: "The gate is wide, and the road that leads to destruction is spacious, and there are many who go through it." Hearing these words constantly, and seeing the zeal of men for vain things, I greatly marvel at the truth of what has been said. For all walk along the broad road, all gape at present things, and never take thought of the future; but they incessantly hasten toward bodily pleasures, while they allow their souls to waste away in hunger; and receiving countless wounds each day, they never have perception of the evils in which they are.

and for the sake of the body's sufferings, they go to those who treat them; and they send for these very persons to their homes, and provide fees as large as possible, and display much endurance, and submit to painful treatment, in order to purchase that one's health. But when the soul is in a bad state, they are utterly careless, and do not strive to obtain its desirable health, although they clearly know that the body is mortal and perishable, and resembles spring flowers; for like them it withers and is extinguished and given over to decay. But they know that the soul is honored with immortality, and has been made in the divine image, and has been entrusted with the reins of the living being. For what a charioteer is to a chariot, a helmsman to a ship, and a musician to an instrument, that the Creator ordained the soul to be for this earthly vessel. For it holds the reins, and moves the rudders, and strikes the strings, and when it does this well, it strikes up the perfectly harmonious melody of virtue; but when it either slackens the notes or stretches them beyond what is proper, it spoils both the art and the harmony. Therefore, the majority of men neglect this, and do not deem it worthy of even slight attention, but spend all the time of their lives on bodily cares. And some embrace the life of sailors, and struggle with waves and winds, carrying life and death with themselves, and holding their hopes of safety in a few planks.

Those who take on the sweat of farming, yoking oxen to the plow, tilling the earth, now sowing and reaping, now planting and harvesting, and all their time passes in such hardship. Those who engage in commerce, for its sake make journeys by land and sea, prefer foreign parts to their own home, and abandon fatherland, family, friends, and spouses with children, embracing a foreign land for the sake of small profits. And why need I enumerate all the arts which men have devised for the needs of the body, in which they spend their days and nights, procuring for themselves its care, while they overlook the soul, hungry and thirsty and squalid and filthy, and troubled by countless evils? And after many sweats and labors, they do not make the mortal body superior to death, and they subject the immortal soul, together with the mortal body, to immortal punishments. 2. For this reason, greatly lamenting the ignorance spread over the souls of men and the thickness of the mist lying upon them, I wished to find some high vantage point showing me all the races of men; I wished also to obtain a voice that would fill all the ends of the earth and suffice for all upon it, and to stand and cry out, and to shout that Davidic cry: "Sons of men, how long will you be heavy-hearted? Why do you love vanity and seek falsehood, preferring perishable things to heavenly ones?

How long will you close your eyes and stop your ears, and not hear the divine voice that cries out each day: "Ask, and it shall be given to you; seek, and you shall find; knock, and it shall be opened to you"? For everyone who asks receives, and everyone who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it shall be opened. But since some are disposed more imperfectly and are more inclined toward worldly things, indulging in flesh-loving thoughts, and do not make their requests as they ought, for this reason the common Master has set forth for us instruction in prayer, saying: "When you pray, do not babble, like the pagans; for they think that by their wordiness they will be heard." He calls babbling that chatter which is offered with many words but is devoid of all benefit. The Lord therefore hints, forbidding babbling, that those who pray should not ask for things that flow and perish: not for bodily beauty, which is withered by time, consumed by disease, and covered by death; for such is bodily beauty. It is a short-lived flower, appearing for a little while in the spring of youth, but soon destroyed by the old age of time. And if one wishes to examine its substance, then one will be able to despise it all the more. For it is nothing other than phlegm and blood and fluid and the juice of chewed food. From this are irrigated the eyes, cheeks, nose, eyebrows, lips, and the whole body; and if ever the irrigation of these things fails, then the comeliness of the face will certainly also fail.

Do not seek wealth of money, which, like the waters of rivers, flows in and flows out, now leaping to this one, now to that one, fleeing those who hold it, not enduring to remain with those who love it, and having countless plotters, moths, robbers, sycophants, conflagrations, shipwrecks, attacks of wars, uprisings of the people, wickedness of servants, removals of documents, additions, and reductions, and all the other terrible things that spring up for lovers of money from love of wealth. Do not seek dominion of offices; for many painful things also grow alongside this: wasting anxieties, constant sleeplessness, plots from the envious, machinations from the haters, the glibness of orators who with their well-tongued speeches steal away the truth and produce great danger for those who judge. For there are, there are some babbling and vain talkers who ask these and such things from the God of all, and take no account of the truly good things. And the sick do not teach the physician the use of his drugs, but only submit to what he offers, even if the course of treatment is painful.

and the manner. And those who sail do not command the helmsman to hold the rudders and steer the vessel in such and such a way, but, sitting on the decks, they submit to his skill, not only when borne by favorable winds, but also when enduring the utmost danger. Yet to God alone, who precisely knows what is beneficial for us, those who are ill-disposed in their minds cannot bear to yield, but they ask for ruinous things as though they were beneficial, doing the same as a sick man who begs the physician to give him, not what cures the disease, but what nourishes the matter that is the mother of the disease. But the physician will not yield to the entreaty of the patient; even if he sees him weeping and lamenting, he follows the law of his art rather than being swayed by his tears, and we call this disobedience not inhumanity but philanthropy. For if he yields to the sick man and grants him what gives pleasure, he does the work of an enemy against him; but if he resists him and fights against his desire, he has shown mercy and philanthropy. So also the physician of our souls does not consent to give to those who ask what will be harmful to them. For neither do loving parents endure to reach out swords or burning coals to their very young children when they seek them; for they clearly know that such a gift is harmful to them.

Some who have fallen into the utmost irrationality ask not only for beauty of body, wealth, power, and all such things from the God of all, but also call down curses upon their enemies and beseech that some punishment be brought upon them; and they pray that the one whom they wish to be gentle and humane toward themselves should become savage and inhuman toward their enemies. Now the Master, forestalling these things, on the one hand enjoins that one should not babble, and on the other hand teaches what one ought to say in prayer, and in few words instructs in every virtue; for those words are not only a lesson in prayer but also a training in perfect living. 3. Let us then examine with great precision what these words are and what their meaning is, and let us observe them securely as divine laws. "Our Father, who art in the heavens." Oh, what excess of love for humanity! Oh, what surpassing honor! What speech will suffice for thanksgiving to him who pours forth such goods for us? Consider, beloved, the lowliness of your nature and mine; examine our origin: earth, dust, clay, brick, ash; for we were formed from earth, and after the end we dissolve back into earth. Having pondered these things, be amazed at the unfathomable wealth of God's great goodness toward us, that you have been commanded to call him Father—you, the earthly one, calling the heavenly one; the mortal, the immortal; the perishable, the imperishable; the temporal, the eternal; you, who were clay yesterday and the day before, calling the God who exists before the ages.

inflicted upon them. But it was not in vain that you were taught to utter this cry, but so that, revering the name of the Father which your tongue pronounces, you might imitate his goodness, as it is said elsewhere: "Become like your Father in heaven, because he makes his sun rise on the wicked and the good, and rains on the just and the unjust." For one who has a bestial and inhuman disposition cannot call the philanthropic God "Father"; for he does not preserve the characteristics of goodness found in the heavenly Father, but has transformed himself into a bestial form and fallen from divine nobility, according to what was said by David: "A man who was in honor did not understand; he was compared to senseless beasts and became like them." For when someone prances like a bull, kicks like a donkey, bears a grudge like a camel, is gluttonous like a bear, snatches like a wolf, strikes like a scorpion, is treacherous like a fox, and neighs after women like a lustful horse, how can such a person utter the voice befitting a son and call God his own Father? What then must such a one be called? A beast? But beasts are subject to only one of these defects; this one has all

gathered within himself, has become more irrational than their irrationality. And what am I saying, a wild beast? Such a person is more dangerous than any wild beast. For those, although they are wild by nature, often become tame when they enjoy human skill; but this one, being a human, and having transformed their natural wildness into unnatural tameness, what defense will he have, when he leads his own natural gentleness into unnatural savagery, and makes the naturally wild tame, while making himself, who is naturally tame, wild? And he tames a lion and makes it gentle, while making his own temper more savage than a lion's? Yet there are two obstacles there: the beast lacks reason, and it is the most irascible of all; but nevertheless, through the wisdom given by God, even the bestial nature is overcome. And the one who conquers the nature of beasts loses, in his own case, along with nature, the good of his own free choice; and he makes a lion into a human, while allowing himself to become a lion from a human; and he bestows upon that beast what is beyond nature, while he does not procure for himself even what is according to nature. How, then, will such a person be able to call God Father? But the one who is gentle and philanthropic toward his neighbors, and does not defend himself against those who wrong him, but repays injustices with good deeds, is not condemned for calling God Father. Now pay attention to the precision of the discourse, how it legislates for us mutual affection, and unites all in a loving disposition.

For he did not command us to say, "My Father, who is in the heavens," but "Our Father, who is in the heavens," so that, having learned that we have a common Father, we might show brotherly goodwill toward one another. Then, teaching us to leave the earth and earthly things, and not to gape downward, but to take the wings of faith and fly through the air, and cross the ether and seek the one called Father, he commanded us to say: "Our Father, who is in the heavens"—not because God is only in the heavens, but so that he might prepare us, who are wallowing down on the earth, to lift our heads toward the heavens, and, having illuminated us with the beauty of heavenly goods, might transfer all our desire there. 4. Then he added a second phrase, saying: "Hallowed be your name." And let no one foolishly suppose that we are bestowing an addition of sanctity upon God by saying, "Hallowed be your name"; for he is holy, and all-holy, and the holiest of the holy. And the Seraphim offer him this hymnody, crying out with unceasing shouts, "Holy, holy, holy, Lord Sabaoth; heaven and earth are full of his glory." But just as those who offer acclamations to kings, calling them kings and emperors, do not bestow what they do not have, but praise what they do have, so too we, by saying "Hallowed be your name," do not offer to God a sanctity that does not exist, but we glorify the one that does exist; for "hallowed" is said instead of "glorified." Therefore, through this phrase we are taught to pursue a life of virtue, so that, seeing this, people may glorify our heavenly Father—which he also says elsewhere.

Let your light shine before people, so that they may see your good works and glorify your Father who is in the heavens. After this we were taught to say: Let your kingdom come. For, being tyrannized by the passions of the body and receiving countless assaults of temptations, we have need of the kingdom of God, so that sin may not reign in our mortal body to the point that we obey it in its desires, nor that we present our members as weapons of injustice to sin, but that we present weapons of justice to God and serve as soldiers under the king of the ages. We are taught, moreover, not to cling excessively to the present life, but to despise present things, to desire future things as enduring, to seek that heavenly and eternal kingdom, and not to be held fast by the pleasures here—not by beauty of bodies, not by abundance of money, not by plenty of possessions, not by costly stones, not by magnificent houses, not by governorships and military commands, not by purple robe and diadem, not by cookery and sauces and all manner of luxuries, nor by anything else that entices our senses—but, bidding farewell to all these, to reach unceasingly for the kingdom of God. Having thus taught us this virtue, he commanded us to say: Let your will be done, as in heaven and on earth. For, having instilled in us the love of future things and the desire for the heavenly kingdom, and having wounded us with that longing, he prepares us to say: Let your will be done, as in heaven and on earth.

Give us, he says, Master, to imitate the polity in heaven, so that what you yourself wish, we also may wish. Assist, therefore, the struggling will, which desires to do your works but is hindered by the weakness of the body; reach out a hand to those who are eager to run but are forced to limp. The soul is winged, but the flesh weighs it down; that one is swift toward the heavens, but this one is slow toward earthly things; but with your help present, even the utterly impossible will become possible. Let your will be done, therefore, as in heaven, so also on earth. 5. And since he made mention of the earth, and there is need for those born from it and dwelling upon it, and clothed in an earthborn body, of suitable nourishment, he necessarily added: Give us today our daily bread. He commanded us to ask for daily bread, not for luxury, but for nourishment, that which fills the deficiency of the body and prevents death from starvation; not for inflamed tables, nor for varieties of dishes, nor for the tricks of cooks, nor for the inventions of bakers, nor for fragrant wines, nor for all the other things that sweeten the throat, burden the belly, darken the mind, and cause the body to prance against the soul, and make the colt unmanageable for the charioteer. The word did not teach us to ask for these things, but for daily bread, that is, bread that passes into the substance of the body and is able to sustain it. And we were commanded to ask for this not for a great number of years, but only for what suffices us today: For do not be anxious about tomorrow, he says.

Why then does anyone worry about tomorrow, when he will not necessarily see tomorrow, but receives the labor and does not reap the fruit? Trust in God, who gives food to every flesh. He who gave you your body, breathed life into you, made you a rational being, and prepared all good things for you before your formation, how will he overlook you once you are formed, he who makes his sun rise upon the wicked and the good, and rains upon the just and the unjust? Therefore, trusting in him, ask only for daily food, and leave the care of tomorrow to him, as the blessed David also said: Cast your care upon the Lord, and he himself will nourish you. Thus, having taught extreme philosophy through these words, knowing that it is impossible for human beings, who are clothed in a mortal body, not to stumble, he taught them to say: And forgive us our debts, as we also forgive our debtors. Through this saying, he accomplishes three goods in his view: for those at the extremes of virtue, he teaches moderation of pride, and commands them not to be confident in their achievements, but to fear and tremble and remember their former sins; as the inspired Paul also does, saying after countless achievements: That Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the first; he did not say, I was, but, I am, showing that he held an unceasing memory of his deeds. For those at the extremes of virtue, then, he contrived security through humility by means of these words.

But those who have stumbled after the grace of holy baptism He does not allow to despair of their own salvation, but teaches them to ask from the physician of souls the remedies of forgiveness. In addition to this, the word also sets forth a lesson in philanthropy. For it wishes us to be gentle toward those who are liable, to bear no malice toward those who wrong us, and by granting them pardon to bestow pardon upon ourselves, and to offer in advance the measures of philanthropy. For we ask to receive as much as we provide to our neighbors, and we deem ourselves worthy of as much forgiveness as we grant to those who owe it. In addition to this, we have been commanded to say, "And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one." For many grievous things come to us from diabolical activity, and many also from men, either openly harassing or secretly plotting. And the body, at times rising up against the soul, works grievous harm; at other times, falling into all sorts of ailments, it brings us pains and distress. Since, then, many and various grievous things assail us from many sides, we have been taught by God to ask for deliverance from them. For when He comes to our aid, every storm is quenched, the surge is transformed into calm, and the evil one withdraws in shame, just as once, leaving men, he went against the swine, not even daring to do that without the one who commanded.

But he who has no authority over pigs, how will he be able to overpower men who are watchful and sober, and guarded by God, and who have him as their own king? For this reason, at the end of the prayer, he pointed out the kingdom, the power, and the glory of God, saying: "For yours is the kingdom, the power, and the glory, unto the ages. Amen." For these things, he says, I ask of you, because I know you are king of all, possessing eternal might, and able to do whatever you wish, and possessing glory that cannot be taken away. For all these things, let us give thanks to the one who has deemed us worthy of such great goods, because to him belongs all glory, honor, and might—to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, now and always, and unto the ages of ages. Amen.