Losing Souls

Qui invenit animan suam perdet illum, et qui perdiderit animam suam propter me, inveniet illam.  Nihil igitur magis habet homo quid agat, quam ut animam suam pro Christo et proximo impendat; non solum ut carnem, in passionem pro ipso tadat; verum etiam ut animam quae magis est quam caro, amittere impraesentarium gaudeat. Haec namque est ipsa crux, quam ferre jubet usque in finem, ut salvus fiat. Porro anima quam invenit carnalis quisque, praesens vita est, quam invenisse bene dicitur, quia scire aliam non curavit. Hanc solam sibi sufficere credit, hanc accepisse et invenisse gaudet; quam mavult juxta arbitrii sui libertatem abuti, quam pro Christo crucifigi. Et notandum quod anima diversis dicitur modis; sed nil inferius in ea est quam vita, qua vivitur solummodo cum bestiis. Et ideo qui hanc partem noluerit amittere pro Christo, qua vivitur cum pecoribus, perdet illam, qua perfrui potuit in Christo cum angelis. Perdere autem eam dicit in futuro, cum jam non suo arbitrio perfuetur, sed cruciatibus aeternis male damnabitur. Qui vero perdiderit illam, et crucem suam portaverit, inveniet eam vitam, quae angelica est, et praemia sempiterna. Porro quidam aliter dixere, ut qui invenit animam suam et vult suam salvare, perdat eam, ac si imperativo modo legendum sit, ut crucifigat eam. Et ipse invenit eam, qui in hoc mundo perdiderit, dum detrimento brevis vitae fenus? immortalitatis acquisierit. Sanctus Paschasius Radbertus Corbeiensis, Expositio In Evangelium Matthaei, Liber VI Source: Migne PL 120.433c-d

'He who finds his soul destroys it, and he who loses it for me, finds it. ' 1  Therefore nothing greater may a man do than expend his own soul for Christ and his neighbour, not only in some suffering of the flesh giving it up, but indeed because the soul is greater than the flesh, let him rejoice to withdraw it from present things. For this is that cross which He commands us to carry until the end, that we might be saved. 2 Moreover the soul that a man finds in the flesh is the present life, which he says he has found well because he does not know not to care for another. He trusts that this soul alone suffices for him, and he rejoices that he has received and found it, which he prefers to employ according to the freedom of his own judgement, than to crucify it for Christ. So let it be noted that the soul is spoken of in diverse ways, but nothing is inferior than that life which is lived at the level of beasts. And therefore, he who is unwilling to give up this part for Christ lives with the beasts, and he ruins that which is able to delight with the angels. For He speaks of the ruin of it in the future, when it shall not have joy in His judgement, but in eternal torment shall be damned for evil. He however, who loses it, and has born his cross, he discovers that life which is angelic and the eternal reward. Yet certainly, this may have been spoken in another way, that he who finds his soul and wishes to save it, loses it, and, if in an imperative manner this must be read, so let him crucify it. And he then finds it, who in this world has lost it, by the loss of this brief life acquiring immortality. Saint Paschasius Radbertus, Commentary On The Gospel of Saint Matthew, Book 6 1 Mt 10.39 2 Mt 10.38