595 chapter 6: the victim of the mystical temple only admitting them, but also fulfilling them, he should truly be considered dead to himself but alive for God. But let us come to that type of mortification of the will by which one voluntarily submits oneself to the will, command, desire, and direction of another, deeming that this is the most acceptable sacrifice to God. And in truth this can in no way be denied, what the Divine Spirit Himself expressly asserted in Holy Scripture, when He intimated to Saul through Samuel: “Obedience is better than a sacrifice.”63 Certainly, as Gregory the Great observes, “By means of a sacrifice somebody else’s flesh is slain, but by obedience one’s own will is slain.”64 The heavenly Teacher Himself recommended such mortification to us, not only in words but especially by his example. For He said that His food is the fulfillment of the Father’s will,65 and in the garden of Olives beginning His very fervent and long prayer, three times [it was] repeated, [that] He desired wholly to follow and accomplish the will of His eternal Father by drinking the most bitter cup of the Passion.66 Therefore, I do not think that souls stirred up by such an excellent example need the stimulus of words. If one is not persuaded by the life and teaching of Christ to pursue virtue and holiness, who would persuade him? And so I advise here this one thing alone: it is a most splendid thing, most pleasing to God, and advantageous to man, to follow another’s will rather than one’s own in all things where no evil is apparent, and one who conforms oneself to another’s will can never be tricked by an evil spirit as long as he recognizes that this will is not occupied by the very same spirit, which would happen if sin or error were enjoined, or imposed or advised. 63 Cf. 1 Sam 15:22 64 Gregory the Great, Moral Lessons in Job, (Ch. 42), Bk. 35: PL 76, 765 (nn. 1155-1156) and CChrL 143 B, 1792 (Bk. 35, n. 28). It should be noted that this same argument is discussed in his “explanations on Book I of Kings,” VI, 30-32 (Ch. 15, 22: “Does God want holocausts and sacrifices and not prefer that the voice of the Lord should be obeyed? For obedience is better than sacrifices, and to listen is better than to offer the fat of rams”): CChrL 144, 566-568. 65 Cf. Jn 4:34 “My food is to do the will of him that sent me.” 66 Cf. Mt 26:39-44.
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MjI2Mw==