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The Forty-Fifth Chapter
ALL MEN ARE NOT TO BE BELIEVED, FOR IT IS EASY TO ERR IN SPEECH
THE DISCIPLE
GRANT me help in my needs, O Lord, for the aid of man is useless. How often have
I failed to find faithfulness in places where I thought I possessed it! And how
many times I have found it where I least expected it! Vain, therefore, is hope
in men, but the salvation of the just is in You, O God. Blessed be Your name, O
Lord my God, in everything that befalls us.
We are weak and unstable, quickly deceived and changed. Who is the man that is
able to guard himself with such caution and care as not sometimes to fall into
deception or perplexity? He who confides in You, O Lord, and seeks You with a
simple heart does not fall so easily. And if some trouble should come upon him,
no matter how entangled in it he may be, he will be more quickly delivered and
comforted by You. For You will not forsake him who trusts in You to the very
end.
Rare is the friend who remains faithful through all his friend's distress. But
You, Lord, and You alone, are entirely faithful in all things; other than You,
there is none so faithful.
Oh, how wise is that holy soul[38] who said: "My mind is firmly settled and
founded in Christ." If that were true of me, human fear would not so easily
cause me anxiety, nor would the darts of words disturb. But who can foresee all
things and provide against all evils? And if things foreseen have often hurt,
can those which are unlooked for do otherwise than wound us gravely? Why,
indeed, have I not provided better for my wretched self? Why, too, have I so
easily kept faith in others? We are but men, however, nothing more than weak
men, although we are thought by many to be, and are called, angels.
In whom shall I put my faith, Lord? In whom but You? You are the truth which
does not deceive and cannot be deceived. Every man, on the other hand, is a
liar, weak, unstable, and likely to err, especially in words, so that one ought
not to be too quick to believe even that which seems, on the face of it, to
sound true. How wise was Your warning to beware of men; that a man's enemies are
those of his own household; that we should not believe if anyone says: "Behold
he is here, or behold he is there."
I have been taught to my own cost, and I hope it has given me greater caution,
not greater folly. "Beware," they say, "beware and keep to yourself what I tell
you!" Then while I keep silent, believing that the matter is secret, he who asks
me to be silent cannot remain silent himself, but immediately betrays both me
and himself, and goes his way. From tales of this kind and from such careless
men protect me, O Lord, lest I fall into their hands and into their ways. Put in
my mouth words that are true and steadfast and keep far from me the crafty
tongue, because what I am not willing to suffer I ought by all means to shun.
Oh, how good and how peaceful it is to be silent about others, not to believe
without discrimination all that is said, not easily to report it further, to
reveal oneself to few, always to seek You as the discerner of hearts, and not to
be blown away by every wind of words, but to wish that all things, within and
beyond us, be done according to the pleasure of Thy will.
How conducive it is for the keeping of heavenly grace to fly the gaze of men,
not to seek abroad things which seem to cause admiration, but to follow with
utmost diligence those which give fervor and amendment of life! How many have
been harmed by having their virtue known and praised too hastily! And how truly
profitable it has been when grace remained hidden during this frail life, which
is all temptation and warfare!
