A Hard Heart

Solum est cor durum, quod semetipsum non exhorret, quia nec sentit. Quid me interrogas? Interroga Pharaonem. Nemo duri cordis salutem unquam adeptus est, nisi quem forte miserans Deus, abstulit ab eo, juxta prophetam, cor lapideum, et dedit cor carneum. Quid ergo cor durum? Ipsum est quod nec compunctione scinditur, nec pietate mollitur, nec movetur precibus: minis non cedit, flagellis duratur. Ingratum ad beneficia est, ad consilia infidum, ad judicia saevum, inverecundum ad turpia, impavidum ad pericula, inhumanum ad humana, temerarium in divina, praeteritorum obliviscens, praesentia negligens, futura non providens. Ipsum est cui praeteritorum, praeter solas injurias, nihil omnino non praeterit; praesentium nihil non perit; futurorum nulla, nisi forte ad ulciscendum, prospectio seu praeparatio est. Et ut brevi cuncta horribilis mali mala complectar, ipsum est quod nec Deum timet, nec hominem reveretur. Sanctus Bernadus Calaraevallensis, De Consideratione

The only hard heart is the one that is not horrified that it does not feel. Why question me? Ask Pharaoh. No one with a hard heart attained salvation unless perhaps that one whom God pitied, and for a stone heart, according to the Prophet, gave a heart of flesh. What therefore is a hard heart? It is one that is not split by compunction, nor softened by piety, nor moved by prayers. It does not yield to threats and scourging hardens it all the more. It is ungrateful for benefits, faithless in counsel, cruel in judgement, shameless in immorality, fearless in risk, inhuman to humanity and reckless in the matters of heaven. Forgetful of the past it neglects the present and is ever improvident. Of the past it holds onto nothing apart from its injuries, the present it destroys, and it has no future unless perhaps for the prospect of or the preparation for revenge. To embrace briefly all that this horrible evil is: it is neither in awe of God nor has respect for man. Saint Bernard of Clairvaux, On Consideration