Love's Union

Debent etiam cavere ne dyabolus dissipet fraternam unionem ut sint terribles hostibus, Canticum v: Terribilis ut castrorum acies ordinata. Super quod Gregorius libro i. Super ezechielem omelia viii: Castrorum tunc est acies hostibus horribilis, quando ita constipata et condensata fuerit, ut in nullo interrupta videatur. Nam si ita disponitur quod lacus vacuus dimittatur, profecto hostibus terribilis non est. Sed nos contra malignos spiritus acies ponimus, ideo semper per caritatem uniti, et nunquam per discordiam interrupti esse debemus, quia si quelibet in nobis bona fuerint, caritas si defuerit per malum discordie locus aperitur in acie unde ad feriendos nos valeat hostis intrare, unde ut vehementius commendaretur societatis humane unitas, vinculoque concordie scilicet non solum nature similitudine verum cognationis affectu omnes necterentur, voluit Deus ut ex uno homine diffunderetur genus humanum, ait Augustinus xii. De civitate dei capitulo xii. Caritas multos animos unum et multa corda unum facit, ait Augustinus super iohanem omelia viii. Mutuo ergo fideles debent sibi compati in malis sicut membra unius corporis i Corinthios xii: Si patitur unum membrum compatiuntur et cetera. Et similiter se iuvare mutuo, prout exemplificiat ibidem, et subsidia indigentibus ministrare, in Iohanis iii: Qui habuit substantiam huius mundi, et videat fratrem summ necesse habere, et clauserit viscera ab eo quo, caritas Dei in eo. Et se mutuo supportare sicut lapides in edificio prime Petri secundo. Ipsi quoque tanquam lapides vivi coedificamini. Lapis enim in edificio alium supportat, ait Gregorius super Ezechielem libero ii. omelia i. Sic et fideles facere debent, ut ait ibidem Ezechielem iii, supportantes invicem in caritate. Johannes Gallensis, Communiloquium sive Summa Collationum, Quinta Distinctio, Captitulum Tercium, Secunde Partis Source: here

Men should beware lest the devil disrupt fraternal union, and so let them be fearful to enemies. In the Song of Songs, chapter five: 'Fearsome like an army ordered for battle.' 1 Concerning which Gregory says in his first book on Ezekiel, in the eighth homily, 'So this array of the army is fearful to the enemy when it is close set and dense and it seems not to be penetrable at all. For if it is arranged so that some gap is allowed, it is not terrible to the enemy. But we having spirits ordered for battle against wicked things are thus always united by love, and never should we allow disharmony to interrupt this, because if there are good things between us and then love declines by the evil of discord, a place is opened in the order so that the enemy is able to enter in and strike us,' 2 whence the unity of human society should be commended most vehemently and the bond of harmony join together in affection, and not only because of the likeness of nature of related folk, because God wished that the human race spread forth from one man, as Augustine says in the twelfth book of his City Of God. And 'Love makes many souls and many hearts one,' he says in his eighth Homily on John. Therefore the faithful should suffer for one another amid evils as members of one body. In the First Letter to the Corinthians chapter twelve: 'If one member suffers the rest also suffer.' 3 And likewise they should help one another, as it is exhorted in the same place, and provide assistance to those in need. In the first letter of John, chapter three: 'He who has the substance of the world and sees his brother in need and closes his heart to him, how is God's love in him?' 4 And they should support one another like stones in building, as in one Peter, chapter two: 'Like living stones built up.' 5 For one stone in a building supports the other, as Gregory says in his first homily in the second book on Ezekiel. So even the faithful should do, as he says in the same place on Ezekiel chapter three. 'Supporting one another in love.' 6 John of Wales, The Communiloquium, Fifth Distinction, Third Chapter, of the Second Part 1 Song 6.10 2 Greg Ezek 1.8.5 3 1 Cor 12.26 4 1 Jn 3.17 5 1 Pet 2.5 6 Ephes 4.2