Vigils Reading

WE OUGHT TO LIVE AS HE LIVED

From a homily by Isaac of Stella 6

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Those born of God are pronounced divine in the words, “Gods you are, I myself have declared it.” Man is born of man, yet mortal man may, through what belongs essentially to his nature, shun the devil and his works lest he be there forever, and go over wholly to God, with whom alone “it shall be well with him.” In other words, man must shun the devil and what is the devil’s; man must return to himself and be content with his limitations; man’s destiny is to ascend to God and grow divinely rich.

The devil’s children are, indeed, all of them blind. “Their malice has so darkened their minds” that even when prosperous they regard themselves as paupers. They simply cannot see how readily their bodily needs are satisfied. They are deaf also, deaf to God’s voice, even when it promises that “those who fear him never go wanting.” They are deaf and therefore they keep toiling for what is useless! It is for you, dear friends, to keep your eyes on your heaven-sent Teacher. He not only became man for man’s salvation, he became man for man’s instruction. He would strip man of the devil’s livery and clothe him with divineness.

We ought to live as he lived, he whose birth, whose life, whose death were those of one truly poor. The worth of our confidence, after all, depends on whether our life in this world is like his, on whether we behave as he behaved and so make good our claim to be dwelling in him. The spirit of Fear made him so lowly that, though he was God, he subjected himself to men. “He lived in subjection to them,” the text says. He was so meek, owing to the spirit of Piety, as to be undisturbed amid the wrongs he suffered. He had good reason to refer most specially to these two virtues of his in the words, “Learn from me; I am meek and humble of heart.” Thanks to the spirit of knowledge he was so compassionate and largehearted that “when he caught sight of the city,” the city that would have none of him, “he wept over it.” His enemies were unable to disturb his meekness, but for a friend of his he lovingly distressed himself, he sighed deeply and wept over him.

The spirit of Fortitude gave him such love for justice that for its sake, though it cost him his life, he spoke out, he made no exceptions, he pronounced woe after woe on Scribe and Pharisee, and on Lawyer as well. Full of the mercy that comes the spirit of Counsel, he did not spare himself, “but gave his life as a ransom for the lives of many,” gave proof of love than which there is no greater. The spirit of Understanding bestowed on him a heart so clean that his holy soul, more clearly than any other creature, perceived him to whom it was joined, God. Such peace is his, through the spirit of Wisdom, that in his person all are established in peace with God. He is the only begotten Son by his very nature; his spiritual union with God makes him “the first-born among many brethren.”

Let this man, my brethren, be “your one teacher, Christ,” this man who is, for your sake, “a scroll written on the inside of the page and on the outside.” Read of this man by reading him, learn from him by learning him. Copy from this pattern the pattern both on the inside and on the outside of yourselves, in your interior and in your behavior. Your lives should teach others to live as he lived. That is why we are told, “Glorify and carry God about in your bodies.” May he himself make us this very gift