11. There are three virtues that induce people to
crush their passions: the fear of hell’s tortures, the desire to receive the
Kingdom of Heaven and the love of virtues. It is written in Proverbs hat the
fear of God leads away from sin: "The fear of the Lord is to hate
evil" (8:13). It is also said that hope restrains from the lure of
temptations: "No one who has trust in Him shall perish." It is
said that there is no fear in love and that it "never fails"
(John 4:18 and 1 Cor. 13:8). That is why on matters of salvation, the Apostle
concentrates on the acquisition of these three virtues, saying: "And
now abide faith, hope, love, these three" (1 Cor. 13:13). Faith, in
arousing our fear of the coming judgment and suffering, diverts us from
passions; hope, in wrenching our mind away from this passing world, stimulates
us to despise all carnal pleasures; and love, by inflaming our love for Christ
and desire to succeed in virtues, urges us to completely detest everything that
stands contrary to them. Although these three virtues stimulate restraint from
everything that is not permissible, their levels of worthiness differ between
them. The first two are natural to people who strive toward success and have
not yet embraced goodness fully; the third belongs exclusively to God and has
been transferred from Him to humans, who restored within themselves His
likeness and image. Because only God does good — not from fear or desire to
reward, but solely from the love of goodness. He generously releases His gifts
on the worthy, as well as the unworthy. Being eternally perfect and by nature
unalterable goodness, He cannot be grieved by insults nor annoyed by people’s
iniquities. (Blessed John Cassian)
11. Differentiate clearly in matters and deeds,
and know that there is no real goodness apart from virtue, emanating from the
fear of God and love toward Him, and that there is no real evil — apart from
sin and withdrawing away from God. Now let us examine this carefully: did it
ever happen that God (Himself or through somebody else) inflicted something bad
on any of His Saints? Without a doubt, you will not find this anywhere. Because
it has never happened that somebody could force another to sin when that person
is against it and resists. If it did happen that the person was forced to sin,
it is because he had an inclination toward that sin, a lack of resolution in
his heart and a corrupted will. Thus, for example, when the devil wanted to
plunge the righteous Job into sin, he directed all the snares of his hatred,
depriving him of all his wealth, killing all his children and covering him with
sores from head to toe. Nevertheless, in no way could he stain Job with sin,
because in "all these misfortunes ," Job was resolute and did not
utter an inane word against God. (Blessed John Cassian)
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