"1. Everything is possible for one who believes, still more for one who hopes, even more for one who loves, and most of all for one who practices and perseveres in these three virtues. All the baptized who are true believers have taken the first step along the way of perfection and will become perfect as long as they persevere in the practice of the following maxims."The first phrase, "Everything is possible to one who believes," comes from Mark 9:23, where Jesus tells his disciples that if they would simply believe, they could move mountains. He then kind of melds 1Corinthians 13:13 into this idea - "So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love." It seems he must have thought something like this.
"Paul says that love is the greatest of these three virtues, and it stands to reason that the second in the list is second greatest. So if all things are possible to the one who practices faith, than it must also be true of the one who practices these greater virtues..."First of all, Jesus is not saying in Mark 9:23, "If you have faith in the mountain, you can move it." Neither is Jesus saying, "If you have faith in yourself, you can move a mountain." Nor as many postmoderns would say, "If you have faith - in anything! OR IN NOTHING!" Jesus is obviously preaching faith in THE ONE TRUE GOD to perform the impossible. Thus, the one who completely trusts in the power of God, can with God, accomplish anything. If only we really believed that scripture!
Lawrence then ties this scripture with 1Cor. 13:13, with "faith" as the obvious pivot point. I'm not completely convinced that there is a clear logical connection between these two passages. I think that Lawrence's statement is true, only if you slightly modify the definition of "everything" for each of the individual virtues. I think that moving mountains is a thing which faith can accomplish, not so much love, or hope. Yet there are also things which only hope can accomplish, likewise love. I believe his emphasis is mostly on the fact that these three virtues are given the greatest preeminence in scripture, and thus we ought to strive to excel in these above all others. Perhaps he is trying to communicate that if the least of the three virtues can accomplish the moving of mountains, imagine what the greatest of the three could accomplish!
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The other thing that stood out to me was this: "All the baptized who are true believers..." Lawrence was Catholic, and it is interesting that he would acknowledge that some might be baptized who were not true believers. I think they just got the process backwards. We really shouldn't baptize people unless we are convinced that they are true believers.
That's paragraph one. The primary spiritual maxim herein contained:
Persevere in the practice of faith, of hope, and of love and all things will be possible for you, for God will smile upon you.
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