The Devil's Subtlest Weapon: Schism

INGE THE LORD warns us in these words: c Ye are and since He bids us to be the salt of the earth, simple unto harmlessness, and yet to be prudent with our simplicity, what else, most beloved brethren, befits us than to have foresight and watching with an anxious heart alike to perceive the snares of the crafty enemy 2 and to beware lest we, who have put on Christ the wisdom of God the Father, seem to be less wise in guarding our salvation. For persecution alone is not to be feared, nor the advances which are made in open attack to overwhelm and cast down the servants of God. To be cautious is easier when the object of fear is manifest, and the soul is prepared for the contest beforehand, when the adversary declares himself. The enemy is more to be feared and guarded against when he creeps up secretly, when deceiving us under the appearance of peace he steals forward by hidden approaches, from which too he receives the name of serpent (creeper, crawler, stealer). This is always his cunning; this is his blind and dark deceit for circumventing men. Thus from the very beginning of the 1 Matt. 5.13. 2 St. Cyprian refers to the devil as adversarius, diabolus, even serpens* but never as Satan or daemon. 96 SAINT CYPRIAN world did he deceive and, flattering with lying words, mis- lead the inexperienced soul with its reckless incredulity. Thus Lord himself, as if he would creep up again and deceive, he approaches secretly. Yet he was understood and driven back and so cast down, because he was discovered and unmasked. trying to tempt the

In this an example has been given us to flee the the old way of walk in the footsteps of the conquering Christ, that we may not heedlessly be turned back again unto the snare of death, but that, on guard against the danger, we may receive and possess immortality. But how can we possess immortality, unless we keep those commandments of Christ by which death is overcome and man; to conquered, He Himself warning us in these words: If thou wilt enter into life, what I friends. keep the commandments/ and again: 'If you do you servant but command you, I These, finally, He calls strong and steadfast, these no longer call grounded upon a rock of firm foundation, these firmly established against aU the tempests and storms of the world with an unmoveable and unshaken firmness. 'He who hears my words,' He says, 'and does them, I shall liken him to man who built his house upon a rock. The rain descended and the floods came, the winds blew and beat upon that house, but it did not fall, for it was founded upon a rock. 53 Therefore, we ought to stand firm upon His words, and to learn and do whatever He taught and did. But how say that he believes in Christ who does not do what doesjtie a wise Matt. 19.17. 2 John 15,14,15. 3 Matt. 7.24,25. THE UNITY OF THE CHURCH Mm Christ ordered to do? Or, whence shall he attain the reward of faith, who does not keep the faith of the commandment? He will necessarily waver and wander, and caught up by the breath of error will be blown as the dust which the wind stirs up, nor will he make any advance in his walk toward salvation, who does not hold to the truth of the saving way.

But not only must we guard against things which are open and manifest but also against those which deceive with the subtlety of clever fraud. Now what is more clever, or what more subtle than that the enemy, detected and cast down by the coming of Christ, after light had come to the Gentiles, and the saving splendor had shone forth for the preservation of man, that the deaf might receive the hearing of spiritual grace, the blind open their eyes to the Lord, the weak grow strong with eternal health, the lame run to the church, the dumb supplicate with clear voices shrines and prayers, seeing the idols abandoned and his and temples deserted because of the great populace devise a new fraud, under the very title of Christian name to deceive 1 the incautious? He invented her- of believers, and schisms with which to overthrow the faith, to corthe rupt truth, to divide unity. Those whom he cannot hold esies in the blindness of the old way, he circumvents and deceives by the error of a new way. He snatches men from the Church itself, and, while they seem to themselves to have already approached the light and to have escaped the night of the Cyprian distinguishes between heresy and schism. Heresy is a voluntary choice of a false doctrine. Schism implies rather a split in the unity of the Church. Synonyms for the Latin schisma are scissura, discidium, discordia, and dissensio. SAINT CYPRIAN world, he again pours forth other shadows upon the unsusspecting, so that, although they do not stand with the Gospel of Christ and with the observation of Him and with the law, they call themselves Christians, and, although they walk in darkness, they think that they have light, while the adversary cajoles and deceives, who, as the Apostle says, transforms himself into an angel of light, and adorns his ministers as those of justice who offer night for day, death for salvation, despair under the offer of hope, perfidy under the pretext of faith, antichrist under the name of Christ, so that while they tell plausible lies, they frustrate the truth their subtlety. This happens, most beloved brethren, because there is no return to the source of truth, and the Head is not sought, and the doctrine of the heavenly Master by is not kept.