In the world, yet not of it
From a homily on the Gospels by Saint Gregory the Great,
pope
I would like to urge you to forsake everything, but that I
do not presume to do. Yet, if you cannot
give up everything of this world, at least keep what belongs to the world in
such a way that you yourself are not kept prisoner by the world.
Whatever you possess must not possess you;
whatever you own must be under the power of your soul; for if your soul is
overpowered by the love of this world’s goods, it will be totally at the mercy
of its possessions.
In other words,
we make use of temporal things,
but our
hearts are set on what is eternal.
Temporal goods help us on our way, but our desire must be for those
eternal realities which are our goal.
We
should give no more than a side glance
at all that happens in the world,
but
the eyes of our soul
are to be focused right ahead;
for our whole attention
must
be fixed on those realities
which constitute our goal.
Whatever is vicious must be utterly eradicated, wrenched
away not merely from being put into act but even from being so much as thought
of.
No carnal pleasure, no worldly
curiosity,
no surge of ambition must keep us
from the Lord’s Supper.
But further, our minds should merely skirt
even the good deeds we perform in this life; in this way, the physical things
which give us pleasure will serve our bodily needs without hindering the soul’s
progress.
You see, my brothers, I dare
not say to you, give up everything. Yet,
if you will, you can give everything up even while keeping it, provided you
handle the temporal things in such a way that your whole mind is directed
toward what is eternal.
A man can use the
world
as if he were not using it,
if he makes all
external needs
minister to
the support of his life
without allowing them to dominate his soul.
They remain external to him and under his
control, serving him without halting the soul’s drive to higher things. For such men, everything in this world is
there for their use, not to be desired.
Nothing should interfere
with your soul’s longing;
no created pleasure
in the world
should ensnare you.
If the object of love is what is good, then the soul should take
its delight in the higher good, the things of heaven. If the object of fear is what is evil, then
we should keep before ourselves the things that are eternally evil.
In this way, if the soul sees that we should
have a greater love and a greater fear about what concerns the next life, it
will never cling to this life.
To help us achieve all this we have the help of the mediator
between God and man. Through Him we
shall obtain all this the more quickly, the more we burn with a great love for Him, who lives and reigns with the Father and the Holy Spirit, for ever and
ever. Amen.
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