[There is a kind of calling] that proceeds from need, when we are compelled at least involuntarily to hast to the God whom we had distained to follow in the time of prosperity, after we have enjoyed the wealth and pleasures of this world but then are unexpectedly subjected to trials which threaten us with the dangers of death or strike us with the loss and confiscation of our property or fill us with compunction over the death of our loved ones. We frequency find this calling from need in Scripture...
Nevertheless we find that [from this kind of calling,] which seems inferior and lukewarm, there have been people who are perfect and fervent in spirit, similar to those who have made an excellent beginning in the Lord's service...
Everything, therefore, has to do with the end. From its perspective, whoever has been consecrated by the beginnings of even the best conversion can find himself in an inferior position because of negligence, and whoever has been drawn by necessity...can become perfect through fear of God and diligence.
[There are three renunciations] each one of us ought to pursue with all our zeal. The first is that by which in bodily fashion we despise all the wealth and resources of the world. The second is that by which we reject the erstwhile behavior, vices and affections of soul and body. The third is that by which we call our mind away from everything that is present and visible and contemplate only what is to come and desire those things that are invisible.
We read that the Lord commanded Abraham to do these three things all at once when he said to him,
Leave your country and your kinsfolk and your father's house.First he spoke of 'your country" —namely, of the former way of life and behavior and vices that have been related to us from our birth by a connection as it were of a certain affinity or consanguinity; thirdly, of 'your father's house —namely, of every vestige of this world which the eyes gaze upon....The three books of Solomon refer to these three renunciations, for Proverbs is related to the first renunciation...Ecclesiastes, wherein all that is accomplished under the sun is declared vain, is related to the second renunciation. The Canticle of Canticles, in which the mind transcends everything that is visible and is already joined to the Word of God by the contemplation of heavenly things, is related to the third.
Therefore, it will not be of much value for us to have embraced the first renunciation with a very devout faith if we do not seize upon the second with the same zeal and the same fervor. When we have attained this, we shall also be able to reach the third...
Therefore, if we desire to achieve true perfection we ought to strive so that...we may also in our heart abandon all these things and not turn back again in our desires to what we have left behind, like those who were led out by Moses. Although, to be sure, they did not return in the body, nevertheless they are said to have turned back to Egypt in their heart, for they abandoned the God who had led them out with such powerful signs and they venerated the idols of Egypt that they had once distained...We would be censured along with those who dwelled in the desert and who desired the disgusting food of vice and filthiness after having eaten the heavenly manna, and would seem to complain like them...for everyone who has first renounced this world and then returns to his former pursuits and his erstwhile desires proclaims that in deed and in intention he is the same as they were, and he says" It was well with me in Egypt.
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The Apostle declares in regard to the bodily renunciation that we have been talking about:
If I gave all my goods to feed the poor and handed my body over to be burned, but did not have love, it would profit me nothing...Yet, consider carefully the fact that he did not simply say: If I give my property. He seems to have spoken of one who is not yet fulfilling the gospel commandment and who, like those who are lukewarm, has kept something back for himself. Instead he says:
If I gave all my property as food for the poor—that is, even if I completely renounced earthly riches. To this renunciation he added something greater:And had handed over my body to be burned, and did not have love, I would have been nothing.It is as if he had said in other words: Suppose I gave all my property as food for the poor according to that gospel commandment...making such a renunciation of these things I kept nothing at all for myself, and suppose to this distribution I added martyrdom in the form of burning my flesh, such that I handed over my body for Christ's sake, yet, if I am impatient or angry or envious or proud or inflamed by other's insults, or seek what is my own or think what is evil or do not bear patiently and willingly all the things that could be inflicted upon me, the renunciation and the burning up of the outer man will be of no value to me interiorly if I am still involved in my former vices. ...[and] I distained the mere substance of this world (which is defined as neither good, bad, nor indifferent), I was unconcerned about getting rid of the harmful characteristics of a vicious heart and about attaining to the Lord's love, which is patient, kind, not envious, not puffed up, not easily angered, does not act falsely does not seek what is its own, thinks no evil, bears all things, endures all things, and lastly never permits that one who pursues it to fall because of sin's deceitfulness.We should make every effort, then, so that our inner man too may reject and dispose of all the wealth of the vices that he has accumulated in his former way of life. These are our own, always clinging to body and soul, and unless they have been rejected and are cut off while we are still in this body they will remain with us after our death...just as the virtues —and love itself, which is their source —that have been pursued in this world make one who loves them beautiful...so also the vices bring to their eternal dwelling the mind which has somehow been clouded and infected by their dark shades...
These, then, are our own riches, which always stay with the soul and which neither king nor enemy can either bestow or remove. These are our own riches, which not even death itself will be able to separate from our soul...