Avoiding Snares

Multi enim laquei quacumque progredimur. Laquei in corpore, laquei in Lege, laquei in pinnis templorum, in crepidinibus pariteum tenduntur a diabolo. Laquei in philosophis, laquei in cupiditatibus; oculus enim meretricis laqueus est peccatoris: laqueus in pecunia, laqueus in religione, laqueus in studio castitatis. Exiguis enim momentis mens inclinatur humana, et huc atque illuc per versutias suadentis frequenter impellitur. Videt aliquem diabolus religiosum virum, Deo venerabiliter deferentem, et quod sacrosanctum est aestimantem, nullius capacem injuriae; in ipsa eum religione supplantat, ut faciat non credere quod Dei Filius vere hanc nostram susceperit carnem, hoc nostrum corpus, hanc nostrorum membrorum fragilitatem; cum utique passio corporis fuerit, divinitas exsors injuriae manserit. Ita de religione fit culpa; omnis enim qui negat Jesum Christum in carne venisse, de Deo non est. Videt integrum et illibatae castimoniae virum, suadet ut nuptias damnet; quo ejiciatur ab ecclesia, et studio castitatis a casto corpore separetur. Audivit alius quia Unus Deus ... ex quo omnia, adorat, atque veneratur. Insidiatur ei diabolus, claudit aures ne audiat, quia Unus Deus per quem omnia: ita nimia pietate impium esse compellit; ut dum Patrem a Filio separat, Patrem Filiumque confundat, et personam unam putet esse, non potestatem. Itaque dum mensuram fidei nescit, perfidiae incurrit aerumnam. Quomodo igitur hos laqueos evitabimus; ut possimus et nos dicere: Anima nostra sicut passer erepta est de laqueo venantium: laqueus contritus est, et nos liberati sumus? Non dicit: Ego contrivi laquem: non ausus est hoc dicere,  David sed: Adjutorium nostrum in nomine Domini; ut ostenderet unde laqueus solveretur. Sanctus Ambrosius Mediolanensis, Evangelii secundum Lucam, Liber IV

Many are the snares which we pass through. Snares of the body, of the Law, of the parapet of the temple, of the foundation of the walls, set by the devil. Snares in philosophy, snares in desires, for the eye of the harlot is a trap for the sinner, a snare in money, a snare in piety, a snare in zeal for chastity. For every moment the mind of man shifts, and from one thing to another by cunning persuasion he is often driven. Sometimes the devil sees the religious man, one who thinks respectfully of God, one who judges Him to be inviolable and having no capacity for injury, and in his faith he trips him, that he makes him doubt that the Son of God truly took up our flesh, our body, our fragile members, and undergoing the passions of the body the Divine part remained uninjured. So from faith he makes fault, for everyone who denies that Jesus Christ came in the flesh is not of God. 1 Then he sees the upright and immovable man of chastity and he persuades him to condemn marriage, by which he is cast out of the Church and by zeal for chastity he is separated from the chaste body. Another hears that there is one God from whom are all things, and he adores and venerates, and the devil laying in wait blocks his ears lest he then hear that there is one God through whom is all things, 2 and thus by excessive piety to impiety he is driven, for separating the Father from the Son, the Father and the Son he confuses, and he thinks there is but one person, not power. Thus while he does not grasp the measure of faith, he runs into the wretchedness of treachery. How then shall we avoid these snares, that we can say, 'Our soul like a sparrow was seized from the trap of the hunter; He broke the trap and freed us?  3 He does not say, 'I broke the trap,' he does not dare say this, but David says, 'Our help is in the name of the Lord,' 4 that he show how the trap may be destroyed. Saint Ambrose, On The Gospel of Luke, Book 7  1 2 Jn 7  2 1 Cor 8.6  3 Ps 123.7  4 Ps 123.8