In today’s reading, Clement reminds us that the instinct to preserve life — even in the smallest creature — reflects divine design. Everything God made strives to endure because it was created for goodness. Augustine’s Letter 26 takes that same truth inward: he pleads with his friend Licentius to shake off the false freedoms of worldly ambition and submit to the easy yoke of Christ. Aquinas explains that even fear has its rightful place — for God Himself has planted in every being a natural dread of destruction, a reflection of His will that life should not perish. To fear rightly, then, is to love rightly — for only what is loved can be lost (John 3:16).
Readings: Clement of Alexandria, The Instructor, Book 1, Chapter 5 (Conclusion) Augustine, Letter 26 (to Licentius) Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica, Part 1–2, Question 41, Article 2
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