De laude et efficacia caritatis, et de renunciando seculo et uie pentitencie arripienda

De laude et efficacia caritatis, et de renunciando seculo et uie pentitencie arripienda

Love is the queen of virtues, the most beautiful star, and it adorns the soul by doing all these things within it; indeed, it wounds, makes languid, intoxicates, melts, decorates, delights, and inflames, whose ordered actions and lovely disposition are. However, a mortal man should consider that through the path of wealth and the pleasures of the flesh, he will never reach the heavenly kingdom, since it is written about Christ, "It was necessary for Christ to suffer and so enter into his glory."^✦ If we are members of our head, Jesus Christ, then we will certainly follow Him; and if we love Christ, we must walk as He walked. If we are not members of His body, then we are separated from the Head. But if we separate ourselves from Him, we should be very afraid, because then we join ourselves to the devil, and when the general judgment takes place, Christ will say, 'I do not know you.' He himself entered heaven through the narrow gate and the hard path: how can we, who are miserable and sinful, desire to become rich from the poor, to indulge in the temptations and allurements of this world, to seek after all vanity and the softness of the flesh and its pleasures, and yet hope to reign with Christ in the life to come? Christ, though He was rich, became poor for our sake; and we, though we are poor, desire nothing so much as to be or to appear wealthy. Though Christ was the God of all, He became the servant of all; and we, though we are unworthy and useless servants, still wish to dominate everyone? He, being the great God, became a humble man; and we, though we are the lowest and most exiled of men, in our pride elevate ourselves as if we were gods. He himself lived among people to lift us up to heavenly things, yet we desire earthly things throughout our entire lives. Therefore, it is clear that we do not love Him, because we do not align our will with His will, nor do we strive to fulfill what we ask for every day, saying, 'Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.'^✦ It's pointless for such people to claim they'll inherit the kingdom with the chosen ones, because they aren't partakers of Christ's redemption; they disregard the blood through which we were redeemed and willingly submit themselves to wicked and impure actions, serving the devil.