We must then be on guard against any base desire, because death is stationed near the gateway of pleasure. For this reason Scripture warns us, Pursue not your lusts (Sir. 18:30).
Accordingly, if the eyes of the Lord are watching the good and the wicked (Prov. 15:3), if at all times the Lord looks down from heaven on the sons of men to see whether any understand and seek God (Ps. 14:2); and if every day the angels assigned to us report our deeds to the Lord day and night, then, brothers/sisters, we must be vigilant every hour or, as the Prophet says in the psalm, God may observe us falling at some time into evil and so made worthless (Ps. 13[14]:3). After sparing us for a while because hs is a loving father who waits for us to improve, he may tell us later, This you did, and I said nothing (Ps. 49[50]:21).
Ok, I have to admit that when I read this the first forty times I couldn't make heads or tails out of some dark ages mish mash theology about angels telling on us at all times. And where he gets the death is stationed near the doors of pleasure, I have no idea.
Lucky for us that I cheated, otherwise the above paragraph would be all there is for today's reflection. What I did was go to see what S. Joan Chittister OSB, had to say on the subject. Basically, that God asks for all of us. It reminds me of the Frank Sinatra song "All of me, why don't you just take all of me," because a commitment to God is a commitment to the life that God calls us to live.
We know God doesn't want us running about getting into orgies, or using people for any reason, sexual or otherwise. We must never put anything above God. And I think that is what Benedict is trying to say here. We must remember that Benedict lived in the Dark Ages, and that there were many superstitious believes, not to mention outright heresies going on at the time, and that what is now Italy was basically nothing but a war zone, he was trying to tell us simply to forget all this feasting and orgies and raping, and messing around, and get it straight -- God is all in all.
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