Vigils Reading

A reading from

ISAAC OF STELLA

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“Happy are the meek, they shall possess the earth.” The disease

of desire for gain closely accompanies the vice of pride. For the wisdom that is

not from above is earthly, sensual, of the devil, full of jealousy and contention. It

equates domination with happiness and buys a farm so that it can dominate

others and quarrel endlessly. This wisdom is truly of the devil, it is the firstborn

of him who sought to set his throne above the other stars. But the disciples,

leaving behind that disordered and disordering wisdom together with the

crowd, were privileged to hear the words: “Happy are the meek, they shall

possess the earth.”

He does not say this or that or any section of earth, however large, but

simply “the earth.” Did ever a man, for all his sweat and toil, his money and his

fists, gain more than a part of the earth? Even in this, few have succeeded and

many failed. And who has been able to keep possession of what he has won?

What profit is there in working hard and long to gain something that of

necessity must quickly be lost? Heaven is for the poor, the earth for the meek,

what is left for the contentious? What else do they want, in their desire of riches?

If heaven and earth do not suffice them, what then?… Earthly dominion is

but an illusion of power, dignity and happiness. Why be content with only a

part? Why covet so little and aim so low? The whole is promised and the way is

shown. By voluntary poverty we go and by meekness we move still more

speedily. The truly poor man has the happiness of heaven, the meek man the

happiness of earth.

What remains then for those restless with ambition except the misery of

hell? You who are wealthy and powerful, what will you do? Think carefully. You

have wealth on the one hand and meekness on the other and a thief is

approaching. If you defend your property, you will lose your meekness. If you

hold fast to meekness, you will be throwing away your money. I am caught on

either side, for at one and the same time the thief may take my money and the

devil my patience.

Indeed, would that money had never existed, for in these evil times it

cannot be possessed together with meekness, nor may it be carried on the road

by the disciples of Jesus. Perhaps that is why the Wisdom which is from above

and is pure and peaceable, instructed us to carry neither purse nor money on the

journey, to go to law with no one, to give even more than what is robbed, and not

to ask for the return of what has been taken; in short, to hold fast to meekness

which is the way to happiness. The Apostle praises this when he says: “You

gladly bear with fools, being wise yourselves. Why, you let others prey upon you,

take advantage of you!”

Lord Jesus, is there anyone today “who believes what we have heard?” Is

there anyone to whom your way is revealed in the way he lives? How very

narrow is your way and how few tread it! this was “your way through the mighty

sea” of this present world, but in our times “your footprints are unheeded.” the

Apostle [Paul] named your way “wisdom” but today it is called the greatest folly,

idleness, inertia. Alas, these footprints are read of everywhere, but how often

disregarde