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In order that what we have said may be the more
clearly and fully understood, it will be well to set
down here and state how these desires are the cause
of two serious evils in the soul: the one is that
they deprive it of the Spirit of God, and the other
is that the soul wherein they dwell is wearied,
tormented, darkened, defiled and weakened, according
to that which is said in Jeremias, Chapter II: Duo
mala fecit Populus meus: dereliquerunt fontem aquoe
vivoe, et foderunt sibi cisternas, dissipatas, quoe
continere non valent aquas. Which signifies: They
have forsaken Me, Who am the fountain of living
water, and they have hewed them out broken cisterns,
that can hold no water.[117]
Those two evils -- namely, the privative and the
positive -- may be caused by any disordered act of
the desire. And, speaking first of all, of the
privative, it is clear from the very fact that the
soul becomes affectioned to a thing which comes under
the head of creature, that the more the desire for
that thing fills the soul,[118] the less capacity has
the soul for God; inasmuch as two contraries,
according to the philosophers, cannot coexist in one
person; and further, since, as we said in the fourth
chapter, affection for God and affection for
creatures are contraries, there cannot be contained
within one will affection for creatures and affection
for God. For what has the creature to do with the
Creator? What has sensual to do with spiritual?
Visible with invisible? Temporal with eternal? Food
that is heavenly, spiritual and pure with food that
is of sense alone and is purely sensual? Christlike
poverty of spirit with attachment to aught soever?
2. Wherefore, as in natural generation no form can
be introduced unless the preceding, contrary form is
first expelled from the subject, which form, while
present, is an impediment to the other by reason of
the contrariety which the two have between each
other; even so, for as long as the soul is subjected
to the sensual spirit, the spirit which is pure and
spiritual cannot enter it. Wherefore our Saviour said
through Saint Matthew: Non est bonum sumere panem
filiorum, et mittere canibus.119 That is: It is not
meet to take the children's bread and to cast it to
the dogs. And elsewhere, too, he says through the
same Evangelist: Nolite sanctum dare canibus.120
Which signifies: Give not that which is holy to the
dogs.
In these passages Our Lord compares those who
renounce their creature-desires, and prepare
themselves to receive the Spirit of God in purity, to
the children of God; and those who would have their
desire feed upon the creatures, to dogs. For it is
given to children to eat with their father at table
and from his dish, which is to feed upon His Spirit,
and to dogs are given the crumbs which fall from the
table.
3. From this we are to learn that all created
things are crumbs that have fallen from the table of
God. Wherefore he that feeds ever upon[121] the
creatures is rightly called a dog, and therefore the
bread is taken from the children, because they desire
not to rise above feeding upon the crumbs, which are
created things, to the Uncreated Spirit of their
Father. Therefore, like dogs, they are ever
hungering, and justly so, because the crumbs serve to
whet their appetite rather than to satisfy their
hunger. And thus David says of them: Famem patientur
ut canes, et circuibunt civitatem. Si vero non
fuerint saturati, et murmurabunt.[122] Which
signifies: They shall suffer hunger like dogs and
shall go round about the city, and, if they find not
enough to fill them, they shall murmur.
For this is the nature of one that has desires,
that he is ever discontented and dissatisfied, like
one that suffers hunger; for what has the hunger
which all the creatures suffer to do with the
fullness which is caused by the Spirit of God?
Wherefore this fullness that is uncreated cannot
enter the soul, if there be not first cast out that
other created hunger which belongs to the desire of
the soul; for, as we have said two contraries cannot
dwell in one person, the which contraries in this
case are hunger and fullness.
4. From what has been said it will be seen how
much greater is the work of God[123] in the cleansing
and the purging of a soul from these contrarieties
than in the creating of that soul from nothing. For
thee contrarieties, these contrary desires and
affections, are more completely opposed to God and
offer Him greater resistance than does nothingness;
for nothingness resists not at all. And let this
suffice with respect to the first of the important
evils which are inflicted upon the soul by the
desires -- namely, resistance to the Spirit of God --
since much has been said of this above.
5. Let us now speak of the second effect which
they cause in the soul. This is of many kinds,
because the desires weary the soul and torment and
darken it, and defile it and weaken it. Of these five
things we shall speak separately, in their turn.
6. With regard to the first, it is clear that the
desires weary and fatigue the soul; for they are like
restless and discontented children, who are ever
demanding this or that from their mother, and are
never contented. And even as one that digs because he
covets a treasure is wearied and fatigued, even so is
the soul weary and fatigued in order to attain that
which its desires demand of it; and although in the
end it may attain it, it is still weary, because it
is never satisfied; for, after all, the cisterns
which it is digging are broken, and cannot hold water
to satisfy thirst.
And thus, as Isaias says: Lassus adhuc sitit, et
anima ejus vacua est.[124] Which signifies: His
desire is empty. And the soul that has desires is
wearied and fatigued; for it is like a man that is
sick of a fever, who finds himself no better until
the fever leaves him, and whose thirst increases with
every moment. For, as is said in the Book of Job: Cum
satiatus fuerit, arctabitur, oestuabit, et omnis
dolor irruet super eum.[125] Which signifies: When he
has satisfied his desire, he will be the more
oppressed and straitened; the heat of desire hath
increased in his soul and thus every sorrow will fall
upon him.
The soul is wearied and fatigued by its desires,
because it is wounded and moved and disturbed by them
as is water by the winds; in just the same way they
disturb it, allowing it not to rest in any place or
in any thing soever. And of such a soul says Isaias:
Cor impii quasi mare fervens.[126] 'The heart of the
wicked man is like the sea when it rages.' And he is
a wicked man that conquers not his desires. The soul
that would fain satisfy its desires grows wearied and
fatigued; for it is like one that, being an hungered,
opens his mouth that he may sate himself with wind,
whereupon, instead of being satisfied, his craving
becomes greater, for the wind is no food for him.
To this purpose said Jeremias: In desiderio animoe
sum attraxit ventum amoris sui.[127] As though he
were to say: In the desire of his will he snuffed up
the wind of his affection. And he then tries to
describe the aridity wherein such a soul remains, and
warns it, saying: Prohibe pedem tuum a nuditate, et
guttur tuum a siti.[128] Which signifies: Keep thy
foot (that is, thy thought) from being bare and thy
throat from thirst (that is to say, thy will from the
indulgence of the desire which causes greater
dryness); and, even as the lover is wearied and
fatigued upon the day of his hopes, when his attempt
has proved to be vain, so the soul is wearied and
fatigued by all its desires and by indulgence in
them, since they all cause it greater emptiness and
hunger; for, as is often said, desire is like the
fire, which increases as wood is thrown upon it, and
which, when it has consumed the wood, must needs die.
7. And in this regard it is still worse with
desire; for the fire goes down when the wood is
consumed, but desire, though it increases when fuel
is added to it, decreases not correspondingly when
the fuel is consumed; on the contrary, instead of
going down, as does the fire when its fuel is
consumed, it grows weak through weariness, for its
hunger is increased and its food diminished. And of
this Isaias speaks, saying: Declinabit ad dexteram,
et esuriet: et comedet ad sinistram, et non
saturabitur.[129] This signifies: He shall turn to
the right hand, and shall be hungry; and he shall eat
on the left hand, and shall not be filled.
For they that mortify not their desires, when they
'turn,' justly see the fullness of the sweetness of
spirit of those who are at the right hand of God,
which fullness is not granted to themselves; and
justly, too, when they eat on the left hand,[130] by
which is meant the satisfaction of their desire with
some creature comfort, they are not filled, for,
leaving aside that which alone can satisfy, they feed
on that which causes them greater hunger.
It is clear, then, that the desires weary and
fatigue the soul. |