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The third evil that the desires cause in the soul is
that they blind and darken it. Even as vapours darken
the air and allow not the bright sun to shine; or as
a mirror that is clouded over cannot receive within
itself a clear image; or as water defiled by mud
reflects not the visage of one that looks therein;
even so the soul that is clouded by the desires is
darkened in the understanding and allows neither[140]
the sun of natural reason nor that of the
supernatural Wisdom of God to shine upon it and
illumine it clearly. And thus David, speaking to this
purpose, says: Comprehenderunt me iniquitates meoe,
et non potui, ut viderem.[141] Which signifies: Mine
iniquities have taken hold upon me, and I could have
no power to see.
2. And, at this same time, when the soul is
darkened in the understanding, it is benumbed also in
the will, and the memory becomes dull and disordered
in its due operation. For, as these faculties in
their operations depend upon the understanding, it is
clear that, when the understanding is impeded, they
will become disordered and troubled. And thus David
says: Anima mea turbata est valde.[142] That is: My
soul is sorely troubled. Which is as much as to say,
'disordered in its faculties.'
For, as we say, the understanding has no more
capacity for receiving enlightenment from the wisdom
of God than has the air, when it is dark, for
receiving enlightenment from the sun; neither has the
will any power to embrace God within itself in pure
love, even as the mirror that is clouded with vapour
has no power to reflect clearly within itself any
visage,[143] and even less power has the memory which
is clouded by the darkness of desire to take clearly
upon itself the form of the image of God, just as the
muddled water cannot show forth clearly the visage of
one that looks at himself therein.
3. Desire blinds and darkens the soul; for desire,
as such, is blind, since of itself it has no
understanding in itself, the reason being to it
always, as it were, a child leading a blind man. And
hence it comes to pass that, whensoever the soul is
guided by its desire, it becomes blind; for this is
as if one that sees were guided by one that sees not,
which is, as it were, for both to be blind. And that
which follows from this is that which Our Lord says
through Saint Matthew: Si coecus coeco ducatum
proestet, ambo in foveam cadunt.[144] 'If the blind
lead the blind, both fall into the pit.' Of little
use are its eyes to a moth, since desire for the
beauty of the light dazzles it and leads it into the
flame.[145]
And even so we may say that one who feeds upon
desire is like a fish that is dazzled, upon which the
light acts rather as darkness, preventing it from
seeing the snares which the fishermen are preparing
for it. This is very well expressed by David himself,
where he says of such persons: Supercecidit ignis, et
non viderunt solem.[146] Which signifies: There came
upon them the fire, which burns with its heat and
dazzles with its light. And it is this that desire
does to the soul, enkindling its concupiscence and
dazzling its understanding so that it cannot see its
light.
For the cause of its being thus dazzled is that
when another light of a different kind is set before
the eye, the visual faculty is attracted by that
which is interposed so that it sees not the other;
and, as the desire is set so near to the soul as to
be within the soul itself, the soul meets this first
light and is attracted by it; and thus it is unable
to see the light of clear understanding, neither will
see it until the dazzling power of desire is taken
away from it.
4. For this reason one must greatly lament the
ignorance of certain men, who burden themselves with
extraordinary penances and with many other voluntary
practices, and think that this practice or that will
suffice to bring them to the union of Divine Wisdom;
but such will not be the case if they endeavour not
diligently to mortify their desires. If they were
careful to bestow half of that labour on this, they
would profit more in a month than they profit by all
the other practices in many years.
For, just as it is necessary to till the earth if
it is to bear fruit, and unless it be tilled it bears
naught but weeds, just so is mortification of the
desires necessary if the soul is to profit. Without
this mortification, I make bold to say, the soul no
more achieves progress on the road to perfection and
to the knowledge of God of itself, however many
efforts it may make, than the seed grows when it is
cast upon untilled ground.
Wherefore the darkness and rudeness of the soul
will not be taken from it until the desires be
quenched. For these desires are like cataracts, or
like motes in the eye, which obstruct the sight until
they be taken away.
5. And thus David, realizing how blind are these
souls, and how completely impeded from beholding the
light of truth, and how wroth is God with them,
speaks to them, saying: Priusquam intelligerent
spinae vestrae rhamnum: sicut viventes, sic in ira
absorber eos.[147] And this is as though He had said:
Before your thorns (that is, your desires) harden and
grow, changing from tender thorns into a thick hedge
and shutting out the sight of God even as oft-times
the living find their thread of life broken in the
midst of its course, even so will God swallow them up
in His wrath.
For the desires that are living in the soul, so
that it cannot understand Him,[148] will be swallowed
up by God by means of chastisement and correction,
either in this life or in the next, and this will
come to pass through purgation. And He says that He
will swallow them up in wrath, because that which is
suffered in the mortification of the desires is
punishment for the ruin which they have wrought in
the soul.
6. Oh, if men but knew how great is the blessing
of Divine light whereof they are deprived by this
blindness which proceeds from their affections and
desires, and into what great hurts and evils these
make them to fall day after day, for so long as they
mortify them not!
For a man must not rely upon a clear
understanding, or upon gifts that he has received
from God, and think that he may indulge his affection
or desire, and will not be blinded and darkened, and
fall gradually into a worse estate. For who would
have said that a man so perfect in wisdom and the
gifts of God as was Solomon would have been reduced
to such blindness and torpor of the will as to make
altars to so many idols and to worship them himself,
when he was old?[149]
Yet no more was needed to bring him to this than
the affection which he had for women and his neglect
to deny the desires and delights of his heart. For he
himself says concerning himself, in Ecclesiastes,
that he denied not his heart that which it demanded
of him.[150] And this man was capable of being so
completely led away by his desires that, although it
is true that at the beginning he was cautious,
nevertheless, because he denied them not, they
gradually blinded and darkened his understanding, so
that in the end they succeeded in quenching that
great light of wisdom which God had given him, and
therefore in his old age he foresook God.
7. And if unmortified desires could do so much in
this man who knew so well the distance that lies
between good and evil, what will they not be capable
of accomplishing by working upon our ignorance? For
we, as God said to the prophet Jonas concerning the
Ninivites, cannot discern between[151] our right hand
and our left.[152] At every step we hold evil to be
good, and good, evil, and this arises from our own
nature.
What, then, will come to pass if to our natural
darkness is added the hindrance of desire?[153]
Naught but that which Isaias describes thus:
Palpavimus, sicut coeci parietem, et quasi absque
oculis attreetavimus: impegimus meridie, quasi in
tenebris.[154] The prophet is speaking with those who
love to follow these their desires. It is as if he
had said: We have groped for the wall as though we
were blind, and we have been groping as though we had
no eyes, and our blindness has attained to such a
point that we have stumbled at midday as though it
were in the darkness.
For he that is blinded by desire has this
property, that, when he is set in the midst of truth
and of that which is good for him, he can no more see
them than if he were in darkness. |