Treatises & Letters 15 part 2/2

So Elijah in his flight and solitude is fed, the ravens ministering to him and the birds bringing food to him; he is nourished in persecution. And—O the detestable cruelty of human malice!—wild beasts spare, birds feed, and men lie in wait and rage! After these things we pray also for our sins, saying: 'And forgive us our debts, as we also forgive our debtors.' After the supply of food, pardon of sin too is asked, that he who is fed by God may live in God, and that provision may be made not only for the present and temporal life, but for the eternal also, to which one may come if our sins be remitted—which sins the Lord calls debts, as in His Gospel He says: 'I forgave you all that debt, because you besought me.'

How necessarily, moreover, how providently and wholesomely are we admonished that we are sinners, who are compelled to entreat for our sins, so that, while indulgence is asked of God, the mind is reminded of its own conscience! Lest anyone please himself as though innocent, and by exalting himself perish the more, he is instructed and taught that he sins daily, in that he is bidden to pray daily for his sins. So finally John also admonishes in his epistle, saying: 'If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. But if we confess our sins, the Lord is faithful and just to forgive us our sins.'

In his epistle he embraced both points: that we ought both to entreat for our sins, and that we obtain pardon when we entreat. Therefore he called the Lord faithful in forgiving sins, keeping the faith of His promise; because He who taught us to pray for our debts and sins promised the Father's mercy and the pardon that should follow. He plainly joined and added a law, binding us by a fixed condition and engagement, that we should ask our debts to be forgiven us according as we ourselves also forgive our debtors—knowing that what we ask for our sins cannot be obtained, unless we ourselves do the like toward those who sin against us. Therefore He also says in another place:

'With what measure you have measured, with the same shall it be measured again to you.' And the servant who, after all his debt had been forgiven him by his lord, was unwilling himself to forgive his fellow-servant, is bound in prison; because he was unwilling to be indulgent to his fellow-servant, he lost what had been indulged to him by his Lord. These things Christ sets forth yet more strongly in His precepts, with the greater force of His censure: 'When you stand,' He says, 'in prayer, forgive if you have anything against anyone, that your Father also who is in heaven may forgive you your sins. But if you do not forgive, neither will your Father who is in heaven forgive you your sins.' No excuse remains to you in the day of judgment, when you shall be judged according to your own sentence, and shall yourself suffer whatever you have done.

For God has commanded that in His house we be peaceful and harmonious and of one mind; and such as He has made us by the second birth, such He wills us, born again, to continue, that we who are sons of God may abide in the peace of God, and that they who have one Spirit may have one mind and feeling. So neither does God receive the sacrifice of one who is at variance, and He bids him who returns from the altar first be reconciled to his brother, that so God too may be appeased by peaceful prayers. The greater sacrifice to God is our peace and brotherly concord, and a people united out of the unity of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. For neither in the sacrifices which Abel and Cain first offered did God look upon their gifts, but upon their hearts, so that he was pleasing in his gift who was pleasing in heart.

Abel, peaceable and just, while he sacrificed to God in innocence, taught others also, when they bring their gift to the altar, thus to come: with the fear of God, with a simple heart, with the law of justice, with the peace of concord. Deservedly, while in the sacrifice to God he was such a one, he himself afterward became a sacrifice to God, so that, first showing forth martyrdom, he inaugurated the Lord's passion by the glory of his blood—he who had both the justice of the Lord and peace. Such, in fine, are crowned by the Lord; such, in the day of judgment, shall be vindicated with the Lord.

But the discordant and the dissenting, and he who has not peace with the brethren, according as the blessed Apostle and the holy Scripture testifies, not even if he be slain for the Name shall be able to escape the crime of fraternal dissension; because, as it is written, 'He who hates his brother is a murderer,' nor does a murderer attain to the kingdom [of heaven], nor live with God. He cannot be with Christ who has chosen to be an imitator of Judas rather than of Christ. What a sin is that which cannot be washed away even by the baptism of blood! What a crime is that which cannot be expiated by martyrdom! This also the Lord necessarily admonishes, that in prayer we say: 'And suffer us not to be led into temptation.'

In which clause it is shown that the adversary can do nothing against us unless God has first permitted it, so that all our fear and devotion and observance may be turned toward God, since in temptations nothing is allowed to the evil one unless power be granted thence. The Scripture proves this, which says: 'Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came to Jerusalem, and besieged it; and the Lord gave it into his hand.' But power is given against us to the evil one according to our sins, as it is written: 'Who gave Jacob for a spoil, and Israel to those who plundered him? Was it not God, against whom they sinned, and were unwilling to walk in His ways, nor to hear His law? And He brought upon them the wrath of His indignation.'

And again, when Solomon sinned and departed from the Lord's precepts and ways, it is set down: 'And the Lord stirred up Satan against Solomon himself.' Power, moreover, is given against us in two ways: either for punishment when we transgress, or for glory when we are proved—as we see done in the case of Job, God making it manifest and saying: 'Behold, all that he has I give into your hands; but take heed that you touch not himself.' And the Lord in the Gospel says, at the time of His passion: 'You would have no power against me, unless it were given you from above.'

But when we pray that we may not come into temptation, we are admonished of our infirmity and weakness in thus praying, lest anyone insolently exalt himself, lest anyone proudly and arrogantly assume anything to himself, lest anyone account as his own the glory either of confession or of suffering—since the Lord Himself, teaching humility, said: 'Watch and pray, that you come not into temptation: the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak'—so that, while a humble and submissive confession goes before and the whole is given to God, whatever is suppliantly asked with fear and honor of God may be granted by His own loving-kindness. After all these, in the consummation of the prayer comes a clause concluding all our petitions and prayers in a collected brevity.

For at the last we put: 'But deliver us from evil,' comprehending all the adversities which the enemy contrives against us in this world—from which there can be a firm and faithful protection, if God deliver us, if He afford His help to those who entreat and implore it. And when we say 'Deliver us from evil,' there remains nothing further that ought to be asked beyond this, since when once we have asked God's protection against evil, that being obtained we stand secure and safe against all that the devil and the world work. For what fear is there from the age to him to whom God is protector in the age? What wonder is it, most beloved brethren, if such be the prayer which God taught, who by His teaching abridged all our prayer in a saving discourse?

This had already been foretold of old through the prophet Isaiah, when, full of the Holy Spirit, he spoke of the majesty and loving-kindness of God: 'Consummating and abridging the word in righteousness,' he says, 'for the Lord shall make an abridged word in all the earth.' For when the Word of God, our Lord Jesus Christ, had come to all, and gathering both learned and unlearned alike had set forth the precepts of salvation to every sex and age, He made a great compendium of His precepts, that the memory of the learners might not labor in the heavenly discipline, but might quickly learn what was necessary to a simple faith. So when He taught what eternal life is, He embraced the mystery of life with a great and divine brevity, saying:

'This is eternal life, that they may know You the only and true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.' Likewise, when He plucked out from the Law and the Prophets the first and greatest precepts, He said: 'Hear, O Israel: the Lord your God is one Lord; and you shall love the Lord your God with your whole heart, and with your whole soul, and with your whole strength. This is the first; and the second is like to it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two precepts hang the whole Law and the Prophets.' And again: 'Whatever good things you would that men should do to you, so do you also to them. For this is the Law and the Prophets.'

Not by words only, but also by deeds, has God taught us to pray, Himself praying frequently and beseeching, and by the witness of His own example showing what we ought to do, as it is written: 'And He withdrew into the wildernesses and prayed'; and again: 'He went out into a mountain to pray, and continued all night in the prayer of God.' But if He prayed who was without sin, how much more ought sinners to pray; and if He prayed throughout the whole night, watching continually with unbroken supplications, how much more ought we to keep watch by night in the frequenting of prayer! But the Lord prayed and besought not for Himself—for what should the innocent pray for Himself?—but for our offenses, as He Himself declares when He says to Peter:

'Behold, Satan has desired to harass you as wheat; but I have prayed for you, that your faith fail not.' And afterward He entreats the Father for all, saying: 'Yet I pray not for these alone, but for those also who shall believe in me through their word, that they all may be one, even as You, Father, are in me, and I in You, that they also may be one in us.' Great is the benignity and likewise the loving-kindness of God for our salvation, that, not content to have redeemed us with His blood, He yet besought more for us. See, moreover, what the desire of Him who besought was: that, as the Father and the Son are one, so we also may abide in that same unity.

So that from this too it may be understood how greatly he sins who tears apart unity and peace, since the Lord prayed for this very thing, wishing of course that His people should live, knowing that discord does not come to the kingdom of God. But when we stand at prayer, most beloved brethren, we ought to watch and to apply ourselves to our prayers with the whole heart. Let every carnal and worldly thought withdraw, nor let the mind dwell upon anything other than that alone which it prays for. For this reason also the priest, before the prayer, with a preface set forth beforehand, prepares the minds of the brethren by saying: 'Lift up your hearts,' so that, while the people respond, 'We have them lifted up unto the Lord,' they may be admonished that they ought to think of nothing other than the Lord.

Let the breast be closed against the adversary and lie open to God alone, nor let it permit the enemy of God to draw near in the time of prayer. For he frequently creeps in and penetrates, and by subtle deceit calls our prayers away from God, so that we have one thing in the heart and another on the lips, whereas with sincere intention it is not the sound of the voice but the mind and the inner sense that ought to pray to the Lord. But what sloth is it to be carried off and seized by foolish and profane thoughts when you are praying to the Lord, as though there were anything you ought rather to think of than that you are speaking with God? How do you ask to be heard by God, when you yourself do not hear yourself? Do you wish the Lord to be mindful of you when you ask, while you yourself are not mindful of yourself?

This is to take no precaution at all against the enemy; this is, when you pray to God, to offend the majesty of God by negligence in prayer; this is to be awake with the eyes and asleep in the heart, whereas a Christian ought, even when he sleeps with the eyes, to be awake in heart, as it is written, speaking in the person of the Church in the Song of Songs: 'I sleep, and my heart waketh.' Wherefore the Apostle anxiously and carefully admonishes, saying: 'Continue in prayer, watching therein,' teaching and showing, of course, that those can obtain from God what they ask whom God sees to be watchful in prayer. But let those who pray come to God not with unfruitful nor with empty prayers. A petition is ineffectual when it is a barren prayer that entreats God.

For since every tree that bears no fruit is cut down and cast into the fire, surely also speech that bears no fruit cannot win the favour of God, since it is fruitful in no work. And therefore the divine Scripture instructs us, saying: 'Prayer is good with fasting and almsgiving.' For He who on the day of judgment is to render a reward for works and for alms, is today also a kindly hearer to one who comes to prayer together with good works. So at last Cornelius the centurion, when he prayed, deserved to be heard. He was one who gave many alms among the people and always prayed to God. To him, as he prayed about the ninth hour, an angel stood by, bearing witness to his work and saying: 'Cornelius, thy prayers and thine alms are ascended for a memorial before God.'

Quickly do those prayers ascend to God which the merits of our work place before God. So also the angel Raphael stood by Tobias, who prayed always and always wrought good works, saying: 'It is honourable to reveal and to confess the works of God. For when thou didst pray, thou and Sara, I offered the memorial of your prayer in the sight of the brightness of God; and when thou didst bury the dead in simplicity, and because thou didst not delay to rise up and to leave thy dinner, but didst go and bury the dead, I was sent to try thee; and again God sent me to heal thee and Sara thy daughter-in-law. For I am Raphael, one of the seven righteous angels who stand and converse before the brightness of God.'

Through Isaiah also the Lord admonishes and teaches, attesting like things: 'Loose,' He says, 'every knot of injustice, undo the bonds of oppressive dealings; let the bruised go in rest, and break in pieces every unjust contract; break thy bread to the hungry, and bring the needy and homeless into thy house; if thou seest one naked, clothe him, and despise not those of the household of thy own seed. Then shall thy light break forth in due season, and thy garments shall quickly arise, and justice shall go before thee, and the brightness of God shall encompass thee. Then shalt thou cry out, and God shall hear thee; while thou art yet speaking, He shall say, Behold, I am here.'

He promises that He will be present, and says that He will hear and protect those who, loosing the knots of injustice from the heart and doing acts of charity toward the household of God according to His precepts, while they hear what God commands to be done, themselves also deserve to be heard by God. The blessed Apostle Paul, when in the distress of tribulation he was helped by the brethren, said that the works which are done are sacrifices to God. 'I am filled,' he says, 'having received from Epaphroditus the things that were sent from you, an odour of sweetness, a sacrifice accepted and pleasing to God.' For when one who has mercy on the poor lends to God, and he who gives to the least gives to God, he spiritually sacrifices to God odours of sweetness.

In the celebrating of prayers, however, we find that Daniel together with the three young men, strong in faith and victorious in captivity, observed the third, sixth, and ninth hours, evidently as a sacrament of the Trinity which was to be manifested in the last times. For the first hour, advancing to the third, displays the completed number of the Trinity; likewise the fourth, proceeding to the sixth, declares another Trinity; and when from the seventh the ninth is completed, the perfect Trinity is reckoned through the sets of three hours. These intervals of the hours the worshippers of God, marking them out spiritually long ago, served at fixed and appointed times for prayer. And it was afterward made manifest that these were of old sacraments, in that the righteous prayed thus before.

For upon the disciples at the third hour the Holy Spirit descended, who fulfilled the grace of the Lord's promise. Likewise Peter at the sixth hour, going up to the upper part of the house, was instructed by a sign and equally by the voice of God admonishing him, that he should admit all to the grace of salvation, whereas before he doubted concerning the cleansing of the Gentiles. And the Lord, crucified at the sixth hour, washed away our sins with His blood at the ninth, and, that He might redeem and quicken us, then by His passion perfected His victory. But for us, most beloved brethren, besides the hours observed of old, the times and the sacraments of prayer have now increased. For we must pray also in the morning, that the resurrection of the Lord may be celebrated by morning prayer. This the Holy Spirit of old designated in the psalms, saying:

'My King and my God, for unto Thee will I pray; O Lord, in the morning Thou shalt hear my voice; in the morning I will stand before Thee, and will see Thee.' And again the Lord speaks through the prophet: 'In the early dawn they shall watch for Me, saying, Let us go and return unto the Lord our God.' Likewise, as the sun withdraws and the day comes to an end, we must of necessity pray again. For since Christ is the true sun and the true day, when the sun and the day of this world withdraw and we pray and ask that the light may come upon us anew, we entreat the coming of Christ, who will bestow the grace of eternal light. Moreover, the Holy Spirit in the psalms declares that Christ is called the day. 'The stone,' He says, 'which the builders rejected, the same is become the head of the corner.'

'This is the Lord's doing, and it is marvellous in our eyes. This is the day which the Lord hath made; let us rejoice and feast therein.' Likewise that He is called the sun, the prophet Malachi testifies, saying: 'But unto you that fear the name of the Lord shall the Sun of righteousness arise, and healing is in His wings.' But if in the holy Scriptures Christ is the true sun and the true day, no hour is excepted for Christians wherein God ought not frequently and always to be adored; so that we who are in Christ, that is, in the sun and in the true day, should press on throughout the whole day in prayers and pray; and when, by the law of the world running on in alternating turns, the returning night succeeds, there can be no harm from the nocturnal darkness to those who pray, since for the sons of light there is day even in the nights.

For when is he without light who has light in his heart? Or when has he no sun and no day for whom Christ is sun and day? Let us, then, who are always in Christ, that is, in the light, not cease from prayer even in the nights. Thus Anna the widow, without intermission entreating and always watching, persevered in winning the favour of God, as it is written in the Gospel: 'She departed not from the temple, serving with fastings and prayers night and day.' Let the Gentiles see to it, who are not yet enlightened, or the Jews, who, having forsaken the light, have remained in darkness; but we, most beloved brethren, who are always in the light of the Lord, who remember and hold fast what we have begun to be now that grace is received, let us count the night for day.

Let us believe that we always walk in the light; let us not be hindered by the darkness which we have escaped; let there be no loss of prayers in the nocturnal hours, no slothful and idle waste of prayers. Renewed and reborn spiritually through the indulgence of God, let us imitate what we are to be: destined to have in the kingdom day alone, without the intervention of night, let us so keep watch in the night as in the light; about to pray always and to give thanks to God, let us here also not cease to pray and to give thanks.