Fatherly Care for the Young
I do this, not moved to it by some unconsidered impulse, but to humor the delights of a beloved child.
Since the letter which you recently sent requested us to furnish you with some counsel concerning the perfect life, I thought it only proper to answer your request. Although there may be nothing useful for you in my words, perhaps this example of ready obedience will not be wholly unprofitable to you. For if we who have been appointed to the position of fathers over so many souls consider it proper here in our old age to accept a commission from youth, how much more suitable is it, inasmuch as we have taught you, a young man, to obey voluntarily, that the right action of ready obedience be confirmed in you.
Moses: Man of Prayer
Then the history tells the most marvellous thing about Moses. He did two distinctly separate things at once: By spoken word he encouraged the Israelites and exhorted them not to abandon high hopes, but inwardly, in his thoughts, he pleaded with God on behalf of those who cowered in fear and he was directed by counsel from above how to escape the danger. God himself, the history says, gave ear to his voiceless cry.
Allegory of the Journey of Faith
It is clear what the traveler’s equipment figuratively stands for: It commands us explicitly to recognize that our present life is transient. Already at birth we are driven by the very nature of things toward our departure, for which we must carefully prepare our hands, feet, and the rest. So that the thorns of this life (the thorns would be sins) may not hurt our naked and unprotected feet, let us cover them with shoes. The shoes are the self-controlled and austere life which breaks and crushes the points of the thorns and prevents sin from slipping inside unnoticed. The tunic flowing down over the feet and reaching to the soles would be a hindrance to anyone who would diligently finish the divine course. The tunic accordingly would be seen as the full enjoyment of the pursuits of this life, which the prudent reason, like a traveler’s belt, draws in as tightly as possible. The place around which the belt passes shows that it is to be understood as prudence. The staff for repelling animals is the message of hope, by which we support the weariness of the soul and ward off what threatens us.
Preparation for Eternal Life
The day before the Sabbath is named the Preparation for the Sabbath. This day would be the present life in which we prepare for ourselves the things of the life to come. In that life none of the things we engage in now are undertaken—neither agriculture, nor trade, nor military service, nor any of the other things pursued here. But living in complete rest from such works, we acquire the fruits of the seeds which we now sow in life, some incorruptible, if the seeds of life be good, and some deadly and destructive, if the cultivation of this life produce such in us. For he who sows in the field of the spirit, Scripture says, will get from it a harvest of eternal life, but he who sows in the field of self-indulgence will get a harvest of corruption out of it.
Allegory of the Rea Sea Crossing
Those who pass through the mystical water in baptism must put to death in the water the whole phalanx of evil—such as covetousness, unbridled desire, rapacious thinking, the passion of conceit and arrogance, wild impulse, wrath, anger, malice, envy, and all such things. Since the passions naturally pursue our nature, we must put to death in the water both the base movements of the mind and the acts which issue from them. Rather we should make a totally new beginning in life after these things, breaking the continuity with evil by a radical change for the better. … This is what we hear through the history, which says that in the same water the enemy and the friend are distinguished by death and life, the enemy being destroyed and the friend given life.
To the one who has left behind the Egyptian pleasures which he served before crossing the sea, life removed from these pleasures seems at first difficult and disagreeable. But if the wood be thrown into the water, that is, if one receives the mystery of the resurrection which had its beginning with the wood, then the virtuous life, being sweetened by the hope of things to come, becomes sweeter and more pleasant than all the sweetness that tickles the senses with pleasure.
The Word Meets All Needs
This bread, then, that does not come from the earth is the Word. He changes his power in diverse ways to suit those who eat. He knows not only to be bread but also to become milk and meat and greens and whatever else might be appropriate to and desired by the one who receives him. So teaches Paul the divine Apostle who spreads such a table as this for us—making his message strong meat for the more mature and greens for the weaker and milk for little children.