Anyone who tries to act high-handedly annoys God,^[1] says Scripture. For bombast is a spiritual vice. Scripture tells us to repent from it as from the other vices by turning from disharmony and by linking ourselves to a change for the better through the three instruments of mouth, heart and hands.

But consider if perhaps all people participate in him insofar as he is Word. This is why the apostle teaches us that he is sought within the seekers by those who choose to find him. He says, Do not say in your heart, ‘Who shall ascend into heaven?’ that is, to bring Christ down; or, ‘Who shall descend into the deep?’ that is, to bring Christ up again from the dead. But what does the Scripture say? The Word is near you, even in your mouth, and in your heart.^[1] This is as though Christ and the Word which is sought are the same.

But what does Scripture say? The Word is very near you, in your mouth and in your heart. And to these the Savior also kindly points out the matters pertaining to the kingdom of God, that they may not seek it outside themselves or say, Behold here or behold there.^[1] For he says to them, The kingdom of God is within you.^[2]

The kingdom of God, according to the word of our Lord and Savior, comes not with observation; and neither shall they say: Behold here, or behold there—but the kingdom of God is within us^[1] (for the Word is very nigh unto us, in our mouth and in our heart). So it is clear that he who prays for the coming of the kingdom of God rightly prays that the kingdom of God might be established and bear fruit and be perfected in himself.

There is a certain balance constructed in the interior of each of us by our Creator, on which it is possible to judge the nature of things. I have set before you life and death, good and evil, two natures contrary to each other. Balance them against each other in your own tribunal.

Let us ponder the nature of life and of death. Life is the enjoyment of the gift of breath, death the deprivation of it. Further, this gift of breath is considered by most people as a good. And so life is this, the enjoyment of goods, but death is the divestiture of them. And Scripture says, Behold, I have set before your face life and death, good and evil, for it calls life good and death evil and attributes to each its proper deserts.

As he himself said . . . Behold before you are fire and water, death and life. Choose life, that you may live. Everything we mentioned above, that is, good and evil, is contained in these two. For heaven and hell, Christ and the devil, height and depth are proposed to us in them. Through his grace God has put it into the power of each one to choose and to stretch out his hand to whatever he wishes.

Behold, man, you have before you water and fire, life and death, good and evil, heaven and hell, the legitimate king and a cruel tyrant, the false sweetness of the world and the true blessedness of paradise. Power is given to you through the grace of Christ: Stretch forth your hand to whichever you choose. Choose life, that you may live; leave the broad way on the left which drags you to death and cling to the narrow path on the right which happily leads you to life. Do not allow the wideness of that road on the left to keep you or give you pleasure.

For since, as it is written, man is confronted equally with life and death and stretches out his hand toward what he wants, it is necessary that whatever a man grasps with his hands in time he must possess forever in eternity. What here he cleaves to in affection, he must in the future cleave to forever, with his will and mind wholly fixed upon it.