Persevering in the Care of Our Thoughts

But we will find out by our own experience that we can and ought to cling to the Lord, if our wills are put to death and the desires of this world are cut off. And we will be taught it by the authority of those who, speaking with the Lord, say in full confidence: “My soul has clung close to you”; and, “I have clung to your testimonies, O Lord”; and, “It is good for me to cling fast to God”; and, “Whoever clings to the Lord is one spirit.” So we must not be worn out by these wanderings of the mind and slacken our fervor. For “whoever tills his ground will be filled with bread, but whoever follows idleness will be filled with poverty.” Nor should we be drawn away from our close attention to this watchfulness by a dangerous despair. For “in everyone who is anxious there is abundance, for the one who is pleasant and free from grief will be in want”; and again, “A man in grief labors for himself, and forcibly brings about his own destruction.” Again, “the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and the violent take it by force.” For no virtue is gained without effort, and no one can reach the stability of mind he desires without great sorrow of heart, for “man is born to trouble.” And to be able to reach “the perfect man, the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ,” he must always be on the watch with still greater attention, and toil with unceasing care. But no one will ever reach the fullness of this measure except the one who has thought about it beforehand, has been trained for it now, and has had some foretaste of it while still in this world. Marked out as a most precious member of Christ, he has held in the flesh a pledge of that “joint” by which he can be united to Christ’s body. He desires one thing alone and thirsts for one thing only, always bending not only his acts but even his thoughts toward one thing alone: that he may even now keep, as a pledge, what is said of the blessed life of the saints hereafter, that “God may be” to him “all in all.” [a]