The small and great are there; and the servant is free from his master.
Read Chapter 3
Gregory The Dialogist
AD 604
Those who are endued with might in the love of their Maker are those who are strengthened in the love of God as the object of their desire. Yet they become in the same degree powerless in their own strength. The more strongly they long for the things of eternity, the more they are disenchanted with earthly objects. The failure of their self-assertive strength is wholesome. Hence the psalmist, wearied by the strength of his love, said, “My soul has fainted in your salvation.” For his soul did faint while making way in God’s salvation, in that he panted with desire for the light of eternity, broken of all confidence in the flesh. Hence he says again, “My soul longs, yes, even faints for the courts of the Lord.” Now when he said “longs,” he added correctly, “and faints,” since that longing for the divine Being is small indeed if not similarly followed by a fainting in one’s self. For it is fitting that one who is inflamed to seek the courts of eternity should be weakened in his love of hi...
70. Forasmuch as there is to us in this life a difference in works, doubtless there will be in the future life a difference in degrees of dignity, that whereas here one surpasses another in desert, there one may excel another in reward. Hence Truth says in the Gospel, In My Father's house are many mansions. [John 14, 2] But in those ‘many mansions,’ the very diversity of rewards will be in some measure in harmony. For an influence so mighty joins us together in that peace, that what any has failed to receive in himself, he rejoices to have received in another. And thus they that did not equally labour in the vineyard, equally obtain all of them a penny. And indeed with the Father are ‘many mansions,’ and yet the unequal labourers receive the same penny, in that the blessedness of joy will be one and the same to all, yet not one and the same sublimity of life to all. He had seen the small and great in this light, who said in the voice of the Head; Thine eyes did see My substance,...
