Chapter XV. On Concord.

Chapter XV.

On Concord.

A. True concord toward God is to be united to the divine will in prosperities and adversities, and, as far as one can, to be conformed to the divine manners and examples of Jesus Christ. For D. John the bishop, that is, Chrysostom, says: "Nothing is more worthy than that a human being should be an imitator of his author and, according to the measure of his own capacity, an executor of the divine work ¹." The Lord asks this union for us at the penultimate instant of his life, saying: As you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be one in us ².

Likewise, true concord toward neighbors is to think the same thing with all, in all things, and to feel the same thing in those things that are toward God. As in the primitive Church: The multitude of believers had one heart and one soul ³, namely with respect to all things that look toward God. Likewise, to conform oneself to others in food, drink, sleep, in morals and works that are not against God, nor against one's profession, nor against perfection, so that we may gain more people. As the Apostle says of himself: I became weak to the weak, that I might gain the weak; I became all things to all, that I might make all saved ⁴.

B. This ought to induce us to love of true concord, that concord of brothers is very praiseworthy to God and very pleasing, as he himself said through Solomon: In three things my spirit has been pleased, which are approved before God and human beings: the concord of brothers, and love of neighbors, and a man and woman agreeing well with each other ⁵. For miserable and fragile human beings preserve on earth what the angels did not wish to preserve in heaven. The diligence of Jesus Christ ought to invite us to the same, for making concord between human beings and God, and among the Apostles, when there was a contention among them as to which of them seemed to be greater ⁶, and when the Apostles were indignant, namely about the brothers James and John, because they wished to sit at his right and left hand ⁷. In all these things Christ brought them into concord.

C. The proof of true concord toward God is the testimony of conscience that the human being is not entangled in grave sins, as the Apostle had when he said: I am conscious of nothing to myself ⁸. And Job: For my heart has not reproached me in my whole life ⁹. Likewise, fervent desire of advancing in every life, in all good things, according to the ordinance of God.

He has the proof of true concord toward neighbor who conducts himself toward all so holily that no one raises a complaint about him, nor is anyone able even to speak an evil word about him. The parents of John the Baptist had both proofs: They were both just before God, walking in all the commandments and justifications of the Lord, with respect to the first; without complaint ¹⁰, with respect to the second. Likewise Judith had the proof of both, about whom it is written: She was most renowned in all things, because she feared the Lord greatly, and there was no one who spoke an evil word about her ¹¹.

D. The proof of false concord between God and human beings is when someone does not solicitously examine his conscience. And thus through his erroneous conscience he believes that he pleases God, when he truly displeases him in all things.

Another proof of discord between God and a human being is when the divine ordinance concerning creatures, and the divine manners and examples, and the most holy works of Jesus Christ displease the human being. Hence it is written: "It displeases God when God displeases." He has the proof of false concord toward neighbor to whom the good works and holy manners of others displease in his heart, which nevertheless he sometimes commends with words. But he has the proof of discord who sets his own sense before others, and always strives or arranges to draw the sense of others after himself, and never proposes to unite his own sense to the sense of others.