Persevering is More Important than Beginning
Jerome said:
‘Christians will not be asked how they began but rather how they finished. St Paul began badly but finished well. Judas’s beginning was praiseworthy but his end was despicable.
‘Many start the climb but few reach the summit.’
Gregory said:
‘The value of good work depends on perseverance.
‘You live a good life in vain if you do not continue it until you die.’
Isidore said:
‘Our behaviour is only acceptable to God if we have the strength of purpose to complete any work we have undertaken.
‘Virtue is not a matter of starting well but of carrying on to the very end.
‘The reward is not promised to the one who begins, but rather to the one who perseveres.’
Defensor Grammaticus
Book of Sparkling Sayings, 22 (SC77, pp.318ff.)
Hunger for Righteousness
Many say that righteousness consists in always giving to each what is right, what each deserves. I believe, however, taking account of the depth of the divine dispensation, that the word ‘righteousness’ ought to include something more.
‘Blessed are they that hunger … after righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.’ [Matt. 5:6]
When certain things are offered us as food, all of different sorts and very desirable, we need a great deal of patience to discover what is good nourishment and what is harmful. There is a danger that we will want to eat something that may lead to illness or death. Well then, only the person who is hungry for God’s righteousness finds what everyone ought to be looking for.
In this passage, the Word says that righteousness is offered to all those who are hungry for it. It is clear that the word ‘righteousness’ means the sum total of the virtues. It means that the person is blessed who possesses prudence, courage, moderation, temperance, self-control, who is hungry, in short, for all included in the definition of virtue.
I insist on ‘all’. It is not possible for one particular virtue to be isolated from the others and to remain a perfect virtue. For this reason, people in whom we do not find what we reckon as good, undoubtedly have in them the opposite of good. So it is absurd to speak of righteousness as applied to a person who is unwise, foolhardy, uncontrolled or dissolute in some way.
Righteousness includes all the virtues and none is left out.
Gregory of Nyssa
On the Beatitudes, 4 (PG44, r232ff.)
~ Thomas Spidlik, Drinking from the Hidden Fountain, A Patristic Breviary: Ancient Wisdom for Today’s World
