The First Renunciation Is Not Enough

In leaving these visible goods of the world, then, we forsake not our own wealth but what is not ours, even though we boast of it as either gained by our own labor or inherited from our forefathers. For, as I said, nothing is our own except what we possess with our heart, what clings to our soul and therefore cannot be taken from us by anyone. But Christ speaks reproachfully of those visible riches to those who clutch them as if they were their own and refuse to share them with people in need: “If you have not been faithful in what is another’s, who will give you what is your own?” So it is plainly not only daily experience that teaches us these riches are not our own, but also this saying of our Lord, by the very name it gives them. [a]

But concerning visible and worthless riches Peter says to the Lord: “See, we have left everything and followed you. What then will we have?” And yet it is clear that they had left nothing but their miserable broken nets. Unless this word “everything” is understood of that renunciation of sins which is truly great and important, we will not find that the apostles had left anything of any value, or that the Lord had any reason to bestow on them the blessing of such great glory that they were allowed to hear from him: “In the regeneration, when the Son of Man sits on the throne of his glory, you also will sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.” If, then, those who have completely renounced their earthly and visible goods cannot for sufficient reason attain to the love of the apostles, nor climb readily and vigorously to that third stage of renunciation, which is still higher and belongs to only a few, what should those think of themselves who do not even make that first step, which is very easy, a thorough one? They keep their former sordid riches together with their old lack of faith, and imagine they can boast of the mere name of monks.

The first renunciation we spoke of, then, is of what is not our own, and so it is not enough by itself to make the one who renounces perfect, unless he goes on to the second, which is really and truly a renunciation of what belongs to us. And when we have made sure of this by driving out all our faults, we will climb to the heights of the third renunciation as well. By it we rise above not only everything that is done in this world or belongs especially to people, but even the whole universe around us, which is thought so glorious, and with heart and soul we look down on it as subject to vanity and destined soon to pass away. For we look, as the apostle says, “not at the things that are seen, but at those that are not seen; for the things that are seen are temporary, but the things that are not seen are eternal.” This is so that we may be found worthy to hear that highest word which was spoken to Abraham: “And come into a land that I will show you.”

This clearly shows that unless a person has made those three earlier renunciations with all earnestness of mind, he cannot reach this fourth one. It is granted as a reward and privilege to the one whose renunciation is perfect, so that he may be found worthy to enter the land of promise, which no longer bears for him the thorns and thistles of sins. Once all the passions have been driven out, that land is gained by purity of heart even while still in the body. No good deeds and no human efforts can gain it; the Lord himself promises to show it, saying, “And come into the land that I will show you.” This clearly proves that the beginning of our salvation comes from the call of the Lord, who says, “Go out from your country,” and that the completion of perfection and purity is his gift in the same way, as he says, “And come into the land that I will show you.” That is: not one you yourself can know or discover by your own efforts, but one that I will show, not only to someone who does not know it, but even to someone who is not looking for it. From this we clearly gather that, just as we hurry onto the way of salvation because we are stirred up by the inspiration of the Lord, so too it is under the guidance of his direction and enlightenment that we reach the perfection of the highest blessedness.