For if they fall, the one will lift up his fellow: but woe to him that is alone when he falls; for he has not another to help him up.
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Ambrose of Milan
AD 397
Fittingly does Ecclesiastes say, “For if one falls, he raises up his companion.” He himself is not raised up, for Christ was not raised up by another’s help and power, but he himself raised himself. Indeed, he said, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up. This he said of the temple of his body.” It is well that he who did not fall should not be raised by another, for one who is raised by another has fallen, and one who falls needs help to be raised up. Additional words also teach this when Scripture says, “Woe to him that is alone: for when he falls, he has none to lift him up. And if two lie together, they shall warm one another.” We have died with Christ, and we live together with him. Christ died with us to warm us, and he said, “I have come to cast fire upon the earth.” Letter , To His Clergy.
In the solitary life, what is at hand becomes useless to us and what is wanting cannot be provided, since God the Creator decreed that we should require the help of one another, as it is written, so that we might associate with one another. Again, apart from this consideration, the doctrine of the charity of Christ does not permit the individual to be concerned solely with his own private interests. “Charity,” says the apostle, “seeks not her own.” But a life passed in solitude is concerned only with the private service of individual needs. This is openly opposed to the law of love, which the apostle fulfilled, who sought not what was profitable to himself but to many that they might be saved. Furthermore, a person living in solitary retirement will not readily discern his own defects, since he has no one to admonish and correct him with mildness and compassion. In fact, admonition even from an enemy often produces in a prudent person the desire for amendment. But the cure of sin is wr...
Fall into sickness, poverty, or sin. The saints have withdrawn people from the dangers of the world into monasteries, where they may fight together against the devil.
Since the majority of persons who intend to lead a life of virginity are still young and immature, they must concern themselves with this before all: the finding of a good guide and teacher on this path, lest, on account of their ignorance, they enter upon trackless places and wander away from the straight road. For, as Ecclesiastes says, “Two are better than one.” The one is easily overcome by the enemy lying in ambush on the divine road, and truly, “woe to the solitary man, for if he should fall he has no one to lift him up.” In the past, certain people have made an auspicious beginning in their desire for this life, but, although they have attained perfection in their intention, they have been tripped up because of their vanity. They deceived themselves, through some craziness, into thinking that that was fair toward which their own thought inclined. Among these, there are those called “the slothful” in the Book of Wisdom, who strew their path with thorns, who consider harmful to th...
“And he began to send them forth two by two.” He sent them two by two that no one of them, being abandoned and alone, might fall into a denial, like Peter, or flee, like John. Human frailty quickly falls if it proudly relies on itself, despises companions and is unwilling to have a colleague. As Scripture says, “Woe to him that is alone, for when he falls, he has none to lift him up.” The same Scripture testifies how much one is strengthened by another’s aid, when it states, “A brother that is helped by his brother is like a strong city.”
Do not follow the wolf instead of the shepherd, or enter into a flock that is diseased. Do not be alone by yourself, lest you be seen carried off by the wolf who destroys souls or succumb to one disease after the other and so die spiritually, or, as you succumb, you attain to that woe. He who gives himself in the hand of a good teacher will have no such worries but will live without anxiety and be saved in Christ Jesus our Lord, to whom be glory forever. Amen.
