Having explained the parabolic names which are found in the Gospel, it remains only to explain the names which are found in the Apostle in the First Epistle to the Corinthians, namely, the prize and the crown. Of the prize St. Paul speaks thus: They that run in the race, all run indeed, but one receiveth the prize. So run that you may obtain (1 Cor. 9). And that by the prize is signified heavenly beatitude, the same Apostle teaches in the Epistle to the Philippians when he says: Forgetting the things that are behind, and stretching forth myself to those that are before, I press towards the mark, to the prize of the supernal vocation of God in Christ Jesus (Phil. 3). Therefore the prize is in heaven, and to it God calls us through Jesus Christ. For although the prize which the princes of the world set forth is not so very great a thing, yet the heavenly prize cannot but be in every respect most splendid, whether you consider God, who sets it forth — a Prince of infinite power and magnificence, of whom the Prophet sings: Thy magnificence is elevated above the heavens (Ps. 8) — or those who run, who are His sons and the brothers of Christ; whom surely the King their Father would not invite to the race, if the prize were not a thing so great that it could worthily be sought even by the sons of God. What more concerns us is to see what it is to run for the prize, and by what art we may be able so to run as to obtain it. To run for the prize is nothing else than wholly keeping the commandments of the Lord our God. For that the race-course is the law of the Lord, David testifies when he says: Blessed are the undefiled in the way, who walk in the law of the Lord; and: I have run the way of Thy commandments, when Thou didst enlarge my heart (Ps. 118). Therefore they who run along the way of the commandments are running in the race-course toward the prize. Moreover, the art of so running that we may arrive and lay hold of the prize comprises three instructions. The first is this: that we should not depart from the race-course; for they who depart from the course will never arrive, because they run not toward the prize but into uncertainty. That he diligently avoided this, the Apostle testifies when he says: I therefore so run, not as at an uncertainty. What is it to run outside the course? Not to run along the way of the commandments, but to decline to the right hand or to the left. For example, the Law says: Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself (Lev. 19; Matt. 22). He who loves his neighbor as himself runs in the course, and runs toward the prize. He who loves his neighbor with such ardor that he does not fear to offend God for his neighbor's sake, and makes an idol for himself of a man, declines to the right hand and runs outside the course, and runs not toward the prize but into uncertainty; and the faster he runs — multiplying benefits upon that person whom he has set up as his idol — the more he goes astray and the farther he withdraws from the prize. But he who loves his neighbor less than is fitting, and when he sees him suffering need shuts up his bowels from him, as St. John says (1 John 3), declines to the left hand, and runs neither in the course nor toward the prize, even though he may otherwise seem to do many good works. One must therefore love his neighbor as himself, neither more nor less than himself; that is, he must so conduct himself toward his neighbor that he does to his neighbors what he wishes to be done to himself by his neighbors (Matt. 7). For so explains this commandment God our Master, who gave it (Luke 6). And what I have said of the love of neighbor, which is an affirmative commandment, we can say also of the negative commandments. For he who steals others' goods declines to the right hand of the commandment, Thou shalt not steal, and departs from the course; but he who does not steal others' goods, but pours out and wastes his own, declines to the left hand and likewise departs from the course. For the just man, who alone remains in the course, departs no less from the course if he steals others' goods than if he wastes his own; because the virtue of liberality, which belongs to justice, has two opposite extreme vices: avarice and prodigality. The sum is this: he who would remain in the course must be altogether free of mortal sin. The second instruction is that he who desires to lay hold of the prize should run swiftly and perseveringly. He runs swiftly who keeps the commandments with an ardent will, according to that of the Psalm: Blessed is the man that feareth the Lord; he shall delight exceedingly in His commandments (Ps. 111). And that saying of the Apostle: fervent in spirit, serving the Lord (Rom. 12). He runs perseveringly who never wearies nor ceases to run, knowing that it is written: He that shall persevere unto the end, he shall be saved (Matt. 10). And indeed these two things — to run swiftly, and not to grow weary nor interrupt one's course — seem almost contrary to each other, or at least exceedingly difficult. For he who runs swiftly is soon wearied and ceases to run; and he who does not wish to be wearied hastens slowly, and perseveres in the race with a measured step. Both are true; and therefore few attain the prize. For it is altogether necessary that he who desires to lay hold of the prize run both swiftly and perseveringly, because the time is short and the way long.
But if Christian men were willing to imitate those who run for a corruptible and paltry prize, they could easily run both swiftly and without intermission toward an incorruptible and very great prize. What, then, do those do who run for a corruptible and paltry prize? They lay aside burdens, they strip off their garments, and they run free and unencumbered. Let Christians, then, do this: let them lay aside the burdens of this world's cares, let them strip off the garments of carnal desires, or at least their attachment to earthly goods; and when they have done this, let them not glory in their own strength, but hope in the Lord; and then let them complain if, running swiftly, they grow weary in the course. This teaching is Isaiah's and Paul's, not mine. Isaiah in chapter 40 says thus: They that hope in the Lord shall run, and shall not be weary. But the Apostle says: This I say, brethren: the time is short; it remaineth that they who have wives be as though they had none; and they that weep, as though they wept not; and they that rejoice, as though they rejoiced not; and they that buy, as though they possessed not; and they that use this world, as though they used it not (1 Cor. 7). By these words the Apostle does not forbid Christians to have wives, or to mourn in adversity, or to rejoice in prosperity, or to love the things that are necessary, or to use the goods of this world; but he admonishes them to employ moderation in all these things, and to cling to them with so slight an affection as if those things did not belong to them.
Let St. Melania, a most noble Roman matron, serve as our example, of whom St. Jerome speaks thus in the Epitaph of Blesilla: "St. Melania, the true nobility among the Christians of our time, when the body of her husband had but lately fallen and was not yet buried, lost two sons at once. I am about to tell a thing incredible, yet, Christ being my witness, not false. Who would not have thought her, in a frenzy and with hair disheveled, about to hurl herself upon the holy altars? Not a drop of a tear flowed; she stood unmoved; and, prostrate at the feet of Christ, as though she held Him, she smiled: 'I shall serve You more freely, Lord,' she said, 'since You have freed me from so great a burden.'" So spoke Jerome, who by this example, as by a choice commentary, declared what it means that they who have wives, and children, and the other goods of this world, should be as though they had them not — so that, free and unencumbered, they may run toward the prize.
But we have a still greater example in Job, who on a single day lost all his sons and daughters and all his substance, and, covered with sores, lay upon a dunghill — he who a little before had been the happiest of all the men of the East; and yet, as though these things did not concern him, he uttered that saying most full of wisdom: Naked came I forth from my mother's womb, and naked shall I return thither: the Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away: as it hath pleased the Lord, so is it done: blessed be the name of the Lord (Job 1). Lastly, St. Peter with the rest of the Apostles — who first followed Christ as He ran toward the prize, to teach us what is required for running swiftly and perseveringly — says: Behold, we have left all things, and have followed Thee: what therefore shall we have? (Matt. 19) And the Lord, approving their purpose, answered, openly promising them the prize: Amen I say to you, that you who have followed Me, in the regeneration, when the Son of man shall sit on the seat of His majesty, you also shall sit upon twelve seats, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.
There remains the third lesson: that he who longs for the prize must be joined to Christ. For as the Apostle says: All indeed run, but one receiveth the prize (1 Cor. 9). Now that one is, beyond all doubt, Christ — who rejoiced as a giant to run His course (Ps. 18), and of whom it is said in St. John: No man hath ascended into heaven, but He that descended from heaven, the Son of man who is in heaven (John 3). But Christ did not ascend alone, but with all those who are one with Him — that is, who are living and true members of His body, of which He is the head. And so all who run labor in vain, even if they distribute all their goods to the poor (1 Cor. 13), and deliver up their body so that it burns, unless they be joined to Christ through faith and charity, and become one with Him — as He Himself says when He speaks thus: As Thou, Father, art in Me, and I in Thee, that they also may be one in Us.
But there is also another mode of union with Christ, which wondrously helps one to run swiftly and perseveringly toward the prize. This is the union of the inner eye with Christ Himself, inasmuch as He is the prize. For Christ as man ran toward the prize; and as God, He is Himself the prize. For He is the true God and life eternal, as St. John testifies (1 John 5); which He also signified when He said: I am the way, and the truth, and the life (John 14). For as the truth He guides us; as the way He leads us on to Himself; as the life He brings us through to Himself. Nothing, therefore, is more profitable for obtaining the prize than never to turn one's eyes from the prize itself, and to say with the Prophet: My eyes are ever toward the Lord (Ps. 24).
For he who keeps the eye of his heart united to the prize neither sees nor hears what bystanders say or do, whether they watch or mock; he cares nothing for the judgments of others, whether they praise or blame; and with the Prophet he says: I am become as a man that heareth not (Ps. 37); and with the Apostle: But to me it is a very small thing to be judged by you, or by man's day (1 Cor. 4). And moreover, the nearer he draws, the better he comes to know the greatness of the prize — a greatness which adds strength, and causes a man, however weary and worn, not to interrupt his course. Whoever, then, aspires to the heavenly prize, let him not depart from the racecourse of the Lord's commandments; let him run ardently and perseveringly, and, united to Christ through true faith and charity, let him never turn the eye of his heart from the prize itself.