St Peter of Damascus | As Solomon says, ‘We walk among many snares’ (Ecclus. 9:13)

As Solomon says, ‘We walk among many snares’ (Ecclus. 9:13); and St John Chrysostom has written about them, explaining what they are with great precision and wisdom.

The Lord Himself, wishing to purge us of all worldly care, exhorts us not to bother about what we eat or wear, but to have only a single concern: how to be saved ‘as a roe from the snare and as a bird from the net’ (Prov. 6:5. LXX), in this way gaining the quick-sightedness of the roe and the soaring flight of the bird. It is truly remarkable that these things are said by King Solomon; and his father, too, said the same. Both of them lived, in virtue and wisdom with great attentiveness and many ascetic struggles.

Yet, after being granted so many gifts of grace and even the manifestation of God, they were overcome, alas, by sin: the first lamented both murder and adultery, while the second committed many terrible acts (cf. 2 Sam. chs. 11-12; 1 Kgs. ch. 11). As St John Klimakos and Philimon the Ascetic put it, does this not fill anyone of understanding with fear and terror? In our weakness, how can we not shudder and try to escape from the distractions of this life, we who are nothing and who are as insensate as brutes? Wretched as I am, would that I had been true to my nature, as animals are; for the dog is better than I.

St Peter of Damascus