Towards Christ

    'Not that I have already obtained this, or already have been made perfect, but I press on hoping that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has laid hold of me. Brethren, I do not consider that I have laid hold of it already. But one thing I do: forgetting what is behind me, I strain forward to what is before, I press on toward the goal, to the prize of God's heavenly call in Christ Jesus. Let us then, as many as are perfect, be of this mind; and if in any point you are minded otherwise, this also God will reveal to you,' as the Apostle Paul writes in his letter to the Philippians (3:12-15) as quoted by Saint Jerome in his letter Against the Pelagians. Jerome goes on to say, 'And [St. Paul] asserts that he always forgets what is behind him, and strains forward to what is before him, thereby teaching us that we are to disregard the past and regard the future, so that what we thought today was perfect, in straining forward to what is better and what is before him, the morrow will prove imperfect.' Just as a truly great musician, after giving his greatest performance, will presently find fault with his work; not only here or there, but in the very fundamentals of his approach, and the next day will start afresh, never concerning himself with the praise or opinions of the masses, or the example of his contemporaries, but only pursuing the inspiration of his Muse: which is, for us, the Holy Spirit, active everywhere, every day, and in all things.

'For if that which is done away with is glorious, much more will that be glorious which abides.'
II Corinthians 3:11


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