Commentaria in Numeros
“Blessed is the man whose help is from thee; in his heart he hath disposed to ascend.” On these words St. Jerome writes thus: “He hath disposed ascents in his heart, whosoever, a saint, is daily stretched forward to what is before, and forgets the things that are behind. For this reason there are also in the psalter fifteen gradual psalms, and the first is: When I was in trouble I cried to the Lord. And in the second: I have lifted up my eyes to the mountains, from whence help shall come to me. And in the third: I rejoiced at the things that were said to me; and he ever goes forward, and advances, and ascends to higher things. Which is what he says: He hath disposed ascents in his heart. Happy is he who daily advances, who considers not what he did yesterday, but what he may do today that he may advance. The saint places ascents in his heart, the sinner descents. As he who is a saint advances daily, so he who is a sinner daily decreases.” Wherefore Solomon in his Proverbs thus describes the just man: “But the path of the just, as a shining light, goeth forwards and increaseth even to perfect day.” The cause of this is first, that all are bound to aspire to the perfection of the Christian life, and therefore to progress in it daily. For this is the edict of Christ, Matthew v, 48: “Be you therefore perfect, as also your heavenly Father is perfect.” And chapter xxii, 37: “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart, etc., and thy neighbour as thyself.” Whence St. Augustine, book I On Christian Doctrine, chapter xxii: “Then,” he says, “is a man best when his whole life tends to the unchangeable life, and he cleaves to it with his whole affection.” The second, that so long as we spend our time in this life, we are in a school: therefore, as genuine disciples of Christ, we ought daily to advance in it. Whence St. Bernard, epistle 141: “So, I beseech you,” he says, “so do, most beloved. For a disciple who advances is the glory of his master. Whoever advances not in the school of Christ is unworthy of His mastership.”
The third cause is that “true virtue,” as the same Saint says in his epistle to Abbot Guarinus, epistle 243, “knows no end, and is not shut in by time. Whence that saying: Charity never falleth away, 1 Corinthians xiii, 8. And the same: The patience of the poor shall not perish for ever, Psalm ix, 19. And: The fear of the Lord is holy, enduring for ever and ever, Psalm xviii, 10. The just man never thinks he has apprehended, Philippians iii, 13; he never says: It is enough, but ever hungers and thirsts after justice; so that if he lived for ever, he would for ever, as far as in him lies, strive to be more just, for ever endeavour with all his strength to advance from good to better. For not for a year or for a time, like a hireling, but for ever he binds himself to the divine service. Hear finally the voice of the just man: I will never forget thy justifications, for by them thou hast given me life, Psalm cxviii, 93. And again: I have inclined my heart to do thy justifications for ever, Psalm cxviii, 112; not, therefore, for a time. Therefore his justice abides not for some time, but for ever and ever. The eternal hunger, then, of the just man deserves an eternal refreshment. And though he be consummated in a short space according to time, yet he is judged to have fulfilled many times, Wisdom iv, 13, by the perpetuity of his virtue.”
The same then proves it from the contrary, when he says: “How, finally, shall the shortness of time prejudice the perpetual devotion of the good, when it does not suffice to excuse the obstinate malice of the reprobate? For on this account doubtless the evil of an inflexible and obstinate mind is punished eternally, though it be perpetrated temporally, because what was short in time or in deed is known to be long in the obstinate will;
so that if he never died, he would never cease to will to sin: nay he would wish to live for ever that he might for ever sin. Therefore of the other also, by the contrary, it can likewise be said: Being consummated in a short space, he fulfilled many times, which deservedly receives the place of many, nay of all times, who at no time willed to change his intention.” Thus far Bernard.
The fourth cause is that he who is unwilling to advance, or thinks he has no need of further progress, begins to fail. “However long we may have lived here,” says St. Augustine on Psalm lxix, “however much we may have advanced here, let no one say: It is enough for me, I am just; he who says it has stopped on the way, he does not know how to arrive. Where he has said: It is enough, there he has stuck. Look at the Apostle, to whom it is not enough: Brethren, he says, I do not count myself to have apprehended. And again he says: If any man think that he knoweth any thing, he hath not yet known as he ought to know, 1 Corinthians viii, 2. But one thing I do: forgetting the things that are behind, and stretching forth myself to those that are before, I press towards the mark, to the prize of the supernal vocation. He runs, therefore, thou hast stuck; he says he is not yet perfect, and dost thou already glory of perfection? Let them be confounded who say to thee: Well done, well done.” And the Mellifluous Doctor (Bernard, epistle 344): “Not to advance is without doubt to fall back. Let no one therefore say: It is enough, so I wish to remain, it suffices me to be as yesterday and the day before. He who is such sits down on the way, halts on the ladder, on which the Patriarch saw no one not ascending, Genesis xxviii, 12. I say therefore: He that thinketh himself to stand, let him take heed lest he fall, 1 Corinthians x, 12. It is steep and narrow; and not here, but in the Father’s house are there many mansions, John xiv, 2.” The fifth cause is that there is nothing which rests in this world: “O monk,” says the same Abbot of Clairvaux, epistle 253, “dost thou not wish to advance? Dost thou then wish to fall back? By no means; what then? So, he says, I wish to live for myself, and to remain in what I have reached; I neither suffer myself to become worse nor desire to be better. Thou wishest, then, what cannot be. For what stands still in this world? And surely of man specially it has been said: He fleeth as a shadow, and never continueth in the same state,” Job xiv, 2. And again elsewhere, epistle 341: “Let the example even of worldly cupidity move us. For whom have we seen ambitious, ever content with the dignities obtained, and not panting after others? So also the eye of any curious man is not satisfied with seeing, nor is the ear filled with hearing. What of those who serve avarice, or are lovers of pleasures, or pursue the vain praises of men, do not their insatiable desires also reprove our negligence and lukewarmness? Let us surely be ashamed to be found less desirous of spiritual goods.”
Moreover, this advance we procure, first, by the grace of God, and by our strenuous cooperation with it. This grace is to be obtained by prayers, that we may assiduously pray with the Psalmist: “Set before me for a law the way of thy justifications, O Lord, and I will always seek after it.”
Secondly, by setting before ourselves the examples of Christ and the Saints. Whence St. Bernard, epistle 253: “He,” he says, “the author of man and of the world, as long as He was seen on earth and conversed with men, did He stand still? And indeed, as Scripture testifies, He went about doing good and healing all, Acts x, 38. He went about, therefore, not fruitlessly, and not remissly, not sluggishly, but with a good pace, but as it is written of Him: He hath rejoiced as a giant to run the way, Psalm xviii, 6. Now he does not overtake the runner who himself likewise does not run. And what profits it to follow Christ if one do not attain? Therefore Paul said: So run that you may obtain, 1 Corinthians ix, 24. There, Christian, fix the goal of thy course and progress, where Christ set His own. He became, he says, obedient unto death. However much, therefore, thou hast run, if thou hast not come even unto death, thou dost not obtain.”
Thirdly, by a serious and frequent examination of conscience. Whence St. Augustine, sermon 15 On the Words of the Apostle: “You say, what is it to walk? I say briefly, to advance, lest perhaps you do not understand, and walk more sluggishly. Advance, my brethren, examine yourselves without guile, without flattery, without caressing. For there is no one within with thee before whom thou mayest blush and boast. There is One for thee, but one who is pleased with humility; let Him approve thee. Prove also thyself. Always be displeased with thyself for what thou art, if thou wouldst come to what thou art not yet. For where thou hast pleased thyself, there thou hast remained. But if thou hast said: It is enough, thou hast perished: always add, always walk, always advance. Do not remain on the way, do not turn back, do not turn aside. He remains who advances not; he turns back who is rolled back to those things from which he had already departed; he turns aside who apostatizes. Better a lame man on the way than a runner off the way.”