Vigils Reading

DISCIPLINE IS A CROSS

By Baldwin of Ford4

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A person who is tempted by the flesh, and who yields to this temptation,

however, is someone who feels his passions and gives them his full consent. The

more carnal he is, the more provision he makes for the flesh in gratifying its

desires. He does not give his consent to the spirit against the flesh but allies

himself with the flesh, whose desires are opposed to the spirit.

Such a person loves wine and good things, ease and security and plenty.

[He loves] to be clothed in purple and fine linen and to feast sumptuously every

day. Nor does he refuse his eyes whatever they desire. He allays all his desires

impulsively and willingly, and whatever does not serve the delights of flesh he

regards as vain. He reckons that the best thing for him is to enjoy good things in

his lifetime, and he gains nothing more than this by all the toil at which he toils

under the sun. The end that carnal man will come to is shown in the gospel

parable of the rich man and the poor man, where it says, “The rich man died and

was buried in hell.” And of Babylon it is written, “As she exalted herself and lived

in her delights, so give her a like measure of torment and sorrow!”

It is better for us, then, to deliver such a man to death for the destruction

of the flesh than to be drawn with him into the pit of destruction. Our flesh,

therefore, should be mortified and crucified, so that the body of sin may be

destroyed. Such is in accord with the voice of the prophet speaking to the Lord:

‘Pierce my flesh with your fear’.

Because it is said to carnal man, ‘You have hated discipline, If we can find

no better cross on which to crucify carnal man than the austerity of regular

discipline, for the discipline which he hates is a torment to him. Regular

discipline is a cross, and the two pieces of wood from which it is built symbolize

the laws of abstinence and continence. Abstinence tempers gluttony, and the

law of continence restrains excess in all the senses of mind and body: and it is

precisely these things which are characteristic of the carnal man.’