Burning And Shining

Ignem, inquit Dominus, veni mittere in terram, et quid volo nisi ut ardeat? Vult Dominus ut ardeamus igne charitatis, et simus ardendo seraphim. Seraphim enim interpretatur ardenita; ille lucifer lucere tantum voluit, non ardere. Si lucendo arsisset, non fuisset frigidus: nec in regione frigida sibi cathedream erexisset. Adhuc plerique sunt, qui aliquid de malitia angeli depositi contraxerunt, appetentes lucere potius quam ardere. Lucet siquidem et non ardet, qui obtentu simulatae religionis aura famae popularis attollitur. Iste in modum lunae, cum fervorem non habeat, lumen suum aliunde mundicat. Ideoque testimonio Sapientis: Stultus ut luna mutatur, sapiens autem permanet sol. Vita siquidem praesens ardoris est, non fulgoris; hinc accendi et foveri debet ignis, sicut in Levitico legitur, in altario cordis. Ibi vero fulgebunt justi sicut sol in conspectu Patris sui. Melius est hic ardere quam lucere; lucebat Lucifer et cecidit, ardebat serpahim et stetit, quia charitas nunquam excidit. Petrus Blenensis, Sermo XXXIX, De Sancto Michaele et Custodia Angelorum Source: Migne PL 207.680a-b

The Lord says, 'I have come to place fire on the earth, and what do I wish but that it burn?' 1 The Lord wishes that we burn with the fire of charity and that we be like flaming Seraphim. For the Seraphim are translated as the burning ones, but that Lucifer wished only to shine, not burn. If he had burnt he would not have been cold in his shining, nor would he have erected a seat for himself in the frozen region. 2 Yet there are very many who take something from the wickedness of this fallen angel, desiring to shine rather than burn. Which is to say that he shines and does not burn who is lifted up by the breath of popular fame, acquiring a similitude of religion. This is like the way of the moon, which has no heat and receives its light from elsewhere. Thus Wisdom gives witness: 'The fool changes like the moon, but the wise man endures like the sun.' 3 At any rate the present life is for burning not shining, for here the fire should blaze up and give heat, as it says in Leviticus, on the altar of the heart, 4 but there the righteous shall shine like the sun in the sight of the Father. 5 Better it is to burn here than to shine. Lucifer shone and fell, the Seraphim burnt and stood fast, because love never ends. 6 Peter of Blois, from Sermon 39, On Saint Michael And The Guardian Angels 1 Lk 12.49 2 Isaiah 14.13 3 Sirach 27.12 4 Levit 6.12-13 5 Mt 13.43 6 1 Cor 13.8