Psalms 101:9

9. “Mine enemies revile me all day, and they that praised me are sworn together against me” ( ver. 8 ). With their mouth they praised, in their heart they were laying snares for me. Hear their praise: “Master, we know that Thou art true, and teachest the way of God in truth, neither carest Thou for any man. Is it lawful to give tribute unto Cæsar, or not?” And whence this evil repute, except because I came to make sinners my members, that by repentance they may be in my body? Thence is all the calumny, thence the persecution. “Why eateth your Master with publicans and sinners? They that be whole need not a physician, but they that be sick.” Would that ye were aware of your sickness, that ye might seek a physician; ye would not slay Him, and through your infatuated pride perish in a false health.

3. “They have spoken against me with false tongues” ( ver. 2 ): then chiefly when they praised him as a “good Master” with insidious adulation. Whence it is elsewhere said: “and they that praised me, are sworn together against me.” Next, because they burst into cries, “Crucify Him, crucify Him;” he hath added, “They compassed me about also with words of hatred.” They who with a treacherous tongue spoke words seemingly of love, and not of hatred, “against me,” since they did this insidiously; afterwards “compassed me about with words” not of false and deceitful love, but of open “hatred, and fought against me without a cause.” For as the pious love Christ for nought, so do the wicked hate Him for nought; for as truth is earnestly sought by the best men on its own account, without any advantage, external to itself, in view, so is wickedness sought by the worst men. …

And so God, the Creator and Healer of all, knowing that pride is the cause and fountain head of evils, has been careful to heal opposites with opposites, that those things which were ruined by pride might be restored by humility. For the one says, “I will ascend into heaven;” the other, “My soul was brought low even to the ground.” The one says, “And I will be like the most High;” the other, “Though He was in the form of God, yet He emptied Himself and took the form of a servant, and humbled Himself and became obedient unto death.” The one says, “I will exalt my throne above the stars of God;” the other, “Learn of me, for I am meek and lowly of heart.” The one says, “I know not the Lord and will not let Israel go;” the other, “If I say that I know Him not, I shall be a liar like unto you: but I know Him, and keep His commandments.” The one says, “My rivers are mine and I made them:” the …

Out of this number of the perfect, and, if I may use the expression, this most fruitful root of saints, were produced afterwards the flowers and fruits of the anchorites as well. And of this order we have heard that the originators were those whom we mentioned just now; viz., Saint Paul and Antony, men who frequented the recesses of the desert, not as some from faintheartedness, and the evil of impatience, but from a desire for loftier heights of perfection and divine contemplation, although the former of them is said to have found his way to the desert by reason of necessity, while during the time of persecution he was avoiding the plots of his neighbours. …

John : I should absolutely maintain that one and the same man could not attain perfection in both lives unless I was hindered by the example of some few. And since it is no small matter to find a man who is perfect in either of them, it is clear how much harder and I had almost said impossible it is for a man to be thoroughly efficient in both. And if this has ever happened, it cannot come under any general rule. For a general rule must be based not on exceptional instances, i.e., on the experience of a very few, but on what is within the power of the many or rather of all. But what is attained to here and there by but one or two, and is beyond the capacity of ordinary goodness, must be kept out of general rules as something permitted outside the condition and nature of human weakness, and should be brought forward as a miracle rather than as an example. …