What We Should Admire in the Saints

So we ought never to admire those who strive after these things, merely for these powers. We should rather look to see whether they are perfect in driving out all sins and in amending their ways. For this is granted to each man, not because of someone else’s faith or for a variety of reasons, but because of his own earnestness, by the working of God’s grace. For this is the practical knowledge which the apostle calls by another name, love. By the apostle’s authority it is ranked above all tongues of men and of angels, above the full assurance of faith that can even move mountains, above all knowledge and prophecy, above giving away all one’s goods, and finally above the glory of martyrdom itself. He had listed every kind of gift and said: “To one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom, to another the word of knowledge, to another faith, to another the gift of healing, to another the working of miracles,” and so on. Then, when he was about to speak about love, notice how in a few words he put it before all the gifts: “And yet,” he says, “I show you a still more excellent way.” [a]

This shows clearly that the height of perfection and blessedness does not lie in doing those wonderful works, but in the purity of love. And not without good reason: for all those things are going to pass away and be destroyed, but love will last forever. So we have never found that our fathers sought after those works and signs. No, rather, when they did have them by the grace of the Holy Spirit, they would never use them, unless perhaps extreme and unavoidable need drove them to it.