112. To Hugh The Hermit.
268 The Letters of St. Anselm
112. TO HUGH THE HERMIT.
At the request of the hermit Hugh, even though he considers Hugh himself much better qualified, Anselm describes briefly the life of love and unity in the king dom of heaven. Love for God and one's neighbor unimpeded by love for anybody or anything else will win this gift from God. The life of a monk is the surest path to this goal. Anselm refers Hugh to his Proslogion for written advice on this matter.
TO HIS LORD AND DEAREST FRIEND HUGH, THE HERMIT': BROTHER
ANSELM, STYLED ABBOT OF BEC, WISHING HIM TO BE EXCLUDED
FROM THE EVIL AND INCLUDED WITH THE GOOD.
RECENTLY TWO LAYMEN CAME to me saying they had been sent by your love, to gather from my exhortation some thing with which to fire their love for the heavenly homeland. Through them, they told me, you also asked to receive something short written by me, with the help of which you could inspire the minds of the secular people who come to you to despise this world and love the eter nal kingdom.
This you can carry out far better by yourself because you draw more freely on the sweetness of celestial life. What
I contemplate as from far away, you discern by savoring; and what I, with a hungry mind, mutter with my lips, you gulp down to your heart's content. What I conceive about the rectitude of a holy life you achieve in your deeds; and what I can merely talk about, you savor by putting into prac tice. Therefore, just as a well fed man can belch more agree ably than someone fasting, so your exhortation induces more sweetly what you try to argue. But since I cannot re fuse your will in anything, although what you ask of me you would find much better in the breadth of Holy Scrip ture, yet I shall say something at your request, lest you ac cuse me of belitthng it. Therefore, I consider that an illiterate person, incapable of grasping higher ideas, could be en couraged towards the desire for eternal beatitudes in the following way:
The Letters of St. Anselm
Dearest brother, God proclaims that he has the kingdom of heaven up for sale. For the kingdom of heaven is such that neither the eye of mortal man can see, nor his ear hear, nor his heart imagine its blessedness and glory.2 So that you may be able to imagine it [I say this]: if anyone deserves to reign there, whatever he wills shall be done in heaven and on earth; whatever he does not will shall be done neither in heaven nor on earth. For so great shall be the love between God and those who shall be there, and be tween themselves, that they shall all love each other as they love themselves but all shall love God more than themselves. And because of this, no one there shall will any thing but what God wills; and what one wills, all shall will; and what one or all will, this shall God himself will.
Wherefore, whatever anyone individually wills, shall come about for himself and for all the others, for the whole of creation, and for God himself. And thus they shall each be perfect kings, because what they will individually, shall come about; and all of them shall at the same time be one king with God and, as it were, one person, because they shall all will one thing, and what they will shall come about.
From heaven God proclaims that he has such merchandise for sale.
If anyone asks the price, this is the answer: He who wills to give a kingdom in heaven has no need of earthly pay ment, nor can anyone give God anything he does not al ready have, for all that is is his. Yet God does not give so great a gift for nothing, for he does not give it to anyone who does not love. No one gives what he holds dear away to someone to whom it is not dear. Since God does not need your gift, therefore, he is not bound to give such a gift to someone who scorns loving it: he asks for nothing but love; without it he is not bound to give. Give love, therefore, and receive the kingdom; love and possess.
Moreover, since reigning in heaven is nothing but being so welded in love into one will with God and all holy angels and men, that all at the same time experience one power:
The Letters of St. Anselm love God more than yourself and you will already begin to hold what you want to have there in perfection. Be of one heart with God and men—as long as they are not op posed to God—and you shall already begin to reign with God and all the saints. According to how well you are of one heart with God and men in their will, so God and all the saints will be of one heart with you in your will. If, there fore, you will to be king in heaven, love God and men as you should and you will deserve to be what you choose.
But you shall not be able to possess this perfect love un til you have emptied your heart of all other love. Indeed with the human heart and this love it is as with the vessel and the oil. The more water, or any other similar liquid, the vessel holds, the less oil it can contain; so, too, to the extent the heart is occupied by any other love, in the same measure it excludes this one. Here is another comparison: as a stench is the opposite of a scent, and darkness of light, so all other love is to this love. Just as opposites cannot ex ist together at the same time, therefore, so this love cannot reside within a single heart along with any other love. So it is that those who fill their hearts with love of God and their neighbor will nothing but what God wills or another person wills—as long as this is not contrary to God.
From this it follows that they press on eagerly by prayers, conversations, and meditations on heavenly things, because it is pleasant for them to desire God and to speak and hear and meditate about him whom they love so much. From this it follows that they rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep,3 mourn with those who mourn and give to the needy: because they love others as much as them selves. From this it follows that they despise riches, power and pleasure and being honored and praised. For someone who loves these things often does something contrary to God and his neighbor. For on these two commandments depend all the law and the prophets.4 Therefore, anyone who wishes to possess perfectly this love with which the kingdom of heaven is purchased should love contempt,