Keeping Watch

Sed sciendum nobis est quia saepe, dum aliis rebus intendimus, fit ut alias negligamus; et ubi negligimus, ibi procul dubio oculum non habemus. Nam Pharisaeus ille qui ascenderat in templum orare, testante Evangelio, quid dixit agnovimus. Ait enim: Deus, gratias ago tibi. Recte autem gratias Deo agebat, a quo acceperat bona quae fecerat. Qui etiam subjungit: Quia non sum sicut caeteri hominum, raptores, injusti, adulteri, velut etiam hic Publicanus; jejuno bis in Sabbato, decimas do omnium quae possideo. Ecce ad exhibendam abstinentiam, ad impendendam misericordiam, ad referendas Deo gratias oculum Pharisaeus habuerat, sed ad humilitatis custodiam oculum non habebat. Et quid prodest quod contra hostium insidias pene tota civitas caute custoditur, si unum foramen apertum relinquitur, unde ab hostibus intretur? Quid ergo prodest custodia quae pene ubique circumponitur, quando inimicis tota civitas per neglectum loci unius aperitur? Pharisaeus autem qui jejunium exhibuit, decimas dedit, Deo gratias retulit, quasi pene per circuitum in suae civitatis custodia vigilavit. Sed quia unum in se foramen superbiae non attendit, ibi hostem pertulit, ubi per negligentiam oculum clausit. Quia ergo sanctorum mentes undique se circumspicientes invigilant, atque in omni suo opere pavoris et sollicitudinis oculum circumducunt, ne aut prava agant, aut recta quae praecepta sunt non agant, aut bonis actibus expletis, in suis cogitationibus intumescant, et tanto gravius offendant quanto justi videntur foris et occultius peccant, recte dicitur: Totum corpus eorum plenum oculis in circuitu. Sanctus Gregorius Magnus, In Ezechielem Prophetam, Liber Primus, Homilia VII

But it should be known to us that often while we intend one thing we neglect another, and where we neglect there we do not have our eye. For that Pharisee who ascended to the temple to pray, we know what he said by Gospel's witness. He said, 'God, I give thanks to you.'  1 Rightly indeed did he give thanks to God from whom he received the goods he did. Then he said 'I am not like other men, thieves, unjust, adulterers, like even this tax collector, twice I fast on the Sabbath, I give tenth of all I possess.' Behold, an exhibition of abstinence and a presentation of mercy, to which the Pharisee had an eye to give thanks to God, but he did not attend to the guarding of humility. How does it benefit to carefully guard a city against all the assaults of the enemy, if one door overlooked is left open, through which the enemy may enter? How does it benefit to place a guard almost everywhere when all the city is open to the enemy because of one place neglected? The Pharisee displayed his fasting, he gave his tenth, he returned thanks to God, he watched almost the whole circuit of the city. But because there was one opening of pride to which he did not attend, there the enemy came in, there where the eye was closed by negligence. Therefore the minds of the saints keep watch everywhere, and in every work of theirs fear and care keeps the eye watchful, lest they act wickedly, or they do not act in accordance with right laws, or having done good deeds they become puffed up with their own thoughts, and so much more gravely they offend who seem righteous and are blind to their sins. Well it is said, 'Their bodies, all around, were full of eyes.' 2 Saint Gregory the Great, On the Prophet Ezekiel, Book 1, Homily 7 1 Lk 18.11 2 Ezek 1.18