Not Everything Suits Everyone

Sometimes we see bad precedents drawn from good things. For if a man ventures to do the same thing as another, but not with the same mind and purpose, or not with equal goodness, he will at once fall into the snares of deception and death through the very things from which others gain the fruit of eternal life. That strong-armed boy, matched in combat with the warlike giant, would certainly have found this out if he had been clothed in Saul’s heavy armor, fit only for grown men. The armor with which a man of riper age would have laid low countless hosts of enemies would only have brought sure danger to the youth, had he not, with wise discernment, chosen the kind of weapons suited to his youth. He armed himself against his foul enemy, not with the breastplate and shield he saw others wearing, but with the weapons he was able to fight with. [a]

So it is right for each of us first to weigh carefully the measure of his strength, and then, within its limits, to choose whatever way of life he pleases. For though all are good, not all things can suit all men. We do not claim that because the anchorite’s life is good, it is therefore suited to everybody; many find it not only useless but even harmful. Nor, because we are right to take up the life of the coenobium and the devout and praiseworthy care of the brothers, do we therefore think that everybody ought to follow it. In the same way, the fruits of caring for strangers are very plentiful, yet not everybody can take it up without loss of patience. Further, the ways of life of your country and of this one must first be weighed against each other. Then men’s strength, judged from the constant evidence of their virtues or vices, must be weighed one by one in the opposite scales. For it may happen that what is hard or impossible for a man of one nation is somehow turned for others by ingrained habit into second nature. Just so, some nations, separated by a great difference of region, can bear tremendous cold or the heat of the sun without any covering for the body, which others who have no experience of that harsh sky could not possibly endure, however strong they may be.

So you too, who are trying here, with the utmost effort of mind and body, to overcome the nature of your own country in many respects, should consider carefully whether, in those regions which, report says, are frozen and bound by the cold of excessive unbelief, you could endure this nakedness, if I may call it that. For with us the long standing of our holy way of life has given us this firmness of purpose almost by nature. If we see that you are our equals in virtue and constancy, then you, likewise, need not shun living near your families and brothers.