Losing The Way

Hoc igitur dico, et testificor in Domino, ut jam non ambuletis, sicut et gentes ambulant in vanitate sensus sui, tenebris obscuratum intellectum, alienati a vita Dei per ignorantiam, quæ est in illis, propter cæcitatem cordis ipsorum, qui desperantes, semetipsos tradiderunt impudicitiae, in operationem immunditiae omnis in avaritiam. Hoc, ergo, ait, dico vobis, O Ephesii, ut quia occursuri estis in mensuram aetatis plenitudinis Christi, non ambuletis sicut ambulant gentes, quae idolis servientes, et sensu et mente abutuntur in prava. Quae cum ideo acceperint animam et intellectum, ut cognoscerent Deum, abalienati sunt a via ejus, quam aliam absque Christo non novimus, et in sui cordis ambulant caecitate. Atque utinam peccasse sufficeret, et vel sero agerent poenitudinem, damnarentque vitia in quibus juigiter inhiarunt, esset remedium resipiscere post erroem. Nunc vero desperantes, se, et in ritum irrationabilium bestiarum, coeno voraginique mergentes, tradiderunt impudicitiae atque luxuriae, operantes quidquid corpus voluit, mens desideravit, libido suggessit. Et cum nihil omnino praetermiserint quod immundum sit, hoc totum fecere in avaritia, dum numquam luxuriando satiantur, nec eorum terminum habet voluptas. Aut certe ultra concessam viri ad feminam conjunctionem, ad majora conscendunt, masculi in masculos turpitudinem operantes, et mercedem erroris sui in semetipsis recipientes. Vanitas sensus, et mentis obscuritas, bifariam dividitur, in saeculi hujus negotia, et in sapientiam saecularem: quando aut in his quae mundi hujus sunt, et cito transeunt, detinemur, aut non profutura cognoscimus. Nonne vobis videtur in vanitate sensus et obscuritate mentis ingredi, qui deibus ac noctibus in dialectica arte torquetur: qui physicus perscrutator oculos trans coelum levat, et ultra profundum terrarum et abyssi quoddam inane demergit, qui iambum struit, qui tantam metrorum silvam in suo studiosus corde distinguit et congerit: et, ut altream partem transeam, qui divitias per fas et nefas quaerit: qui adulatur regibus, haereditates captat alienas, et opes congregat, quas in momento cui sit relicturus, ignorat? Quod autem ait, qui desperantes semetipsos, id est, ἀπηλγηκότες ἑαυτοὺς, multo aliud in Graeco significat quam in Latino: desperantes quippe ἀπηλγηκότες nominantur; ἀπηλγηκότες autem hi sunt, qui postquam peccaverint, non dolent: qui nequaquam sentientes ruinam suam, feruntur in pronum, et tamquam bestiae ferrum videntes, in mortem ruunt. Pone mihi duos in uno vitio deprehensos: alterum qui intelligat, plangatque quod fecit: alterum qui delectetur in scelere, et non solum non doleat, verum etiam glorietur, et putet se quamdam turpitudinum palmam et victoriam consecutum: nonne tibi videtur ille dolere, et hic penitus non dolere? Expriamus, si possimus, verbum de verbo, et dicamus ἀπηλγηκότες, indolentes, sive indolorios. Nam et quidam philosophorum ἀναλγησίαν, id est, indoloriam praedicavit. Hi qui naturas varias introducunt, sciant propterea gentes in vanitate sensus obscuratis mentibus ambulare: quia ignorantiae se et caecitati dederint. Nemo enim imperitus appellatur et caecus, nisi is qui cognoscere potest et videre. Nec dicimus caecum esse lapidem, et brutum animal ignorare: quia non ab eo quaeritur, nec ejus naturae est, ut cognoscat et videat. Sin autem in natura gentium fuit, ut Dei vitam intelligerent et viderent: non choicorum et spiritualium natura varia, sed voluntas. Dixeramus supra operationem immunditiae omnis in avaritia, non ad avaritiam, ut sonat simpliciter, pertinere; sed ad libidinem atque luxuriam. Debemus hunc sensum alterius loci testimonio comprobare. In prima ad Thessalonicenses Epistola scribitur: Haec est enim voluntas Dei, sanctificatio vestra, ut abstineatio vos a fornicatione: it sciat unusquisque vestrum summ vas possidere in sanctificatione et honore: non in libidine desiderii, sicut et gentes, quae non noverunt Deum: ut ne quis supergrediatur, et circumscribat in negotio fratrem suum: quoniam vindex est Dominus de his omnibus: sicut et praediximus vobis, et testificati sumus. Non enim vocavit nos Deus in immunditia, sed in sanctificatione. Diligenter observa, quia ad castitatem nos provocans, et volens uxoribus tantum esse contentos, dixerit: Ne quis supergrediatur, et circumscribat in negotio fratrem suum, id est, ne suam conjugem derelinquens, alterius polluere quaerat uxorem. Ubi nos habemus, et circumscribat in negotio fratrem suum, in Graeco legitur, καὶ πλεονεκτεῖν ἐν τῷ πράγματι τὸν ἀδελφὸν αὐτοῦ. Πλεονεξία autem avaritia nuncupatur, quam nos possumus, vim verbi transferentes, sic in praesenti loco exprimere: ut ne quis supergrediatur, et avarus fraudet in negotio fratrem suum. Quae enim consequentia est, vel in illo capitulo quod nunc ad exemplum vocavimus, vel in hoc quod principaliter ad Ephesios conamur exponere, inter impudicitiam et immunditiam, castitatem quoque et affectum conjugalem, extraordinarie repente avaritiam nominari? Non vobis molestum sit, si diu in obscurioribus immoremur: causati enim in principio sumus, inter omnes Pauli Epistolas, hanc vel maxime et verbis, et sensibus involutam. Sanctus Hieronymus, In Epistolam Pauli ad Ephesios, Liber II, Cap IV Source: Migne PL 26.504a-505d

This, therefore, I say, and I bear witness in the Lord, that you do not walk as the Gentiles walk in the vanity of their minds, having their understand veiled in darkness, being estranged from the life of God by ignorance, which is theirs according to the blindess of their hearts, who despairing give themselves to shamelessness in the work of every uncleanliness in avarice. 1 This, therefore, I say to you, O Ephesians, he says, because you have been advanced according to the measure of the span of the fullness of Christ, do not walk like the Gentiles walk, who serve idols, and who in their senses and minds are bound to depravity. They who receiving their souls and understanding, that they might know God, have been estranged from His way, which other way without Christ we do not know, and walk in the blindness of their own hearts. O, that having sinned they were able, however late, to do penance, and condemn the vices under which yoke they groaned, and be restored to reason after error. Now however despairing, in the way of irrational beasts, they drown themselves in mires of feasts, giving themselves over to shamelessness and luxury, doing whatever pleases the body, the mind desires, lust counsels. And when they neglect nothing at all which may be foul, they do all in greed, luxury not sating them, nor do their pleasures have an end. And indeed beyond what is allowed a man they couple with women, and to graver things embark, men acting shamelessly with men, and they receive the reward of error in themselves. 2 Vain are the senses, and benighted the mind, which in two parts is divided, in the business of this world, and in worldly wisdom, when either they are detained in the things of this world which swiftly pass away, or they know things which do not profit. For does it not seem to you that he enters into the vanity of the senses and a benighted mind, who is tormented day and night by the study of dialectics, who studies nature by sweeping uplifted eyes across the heavens, and then plunging wildly down beyond the depths of earth and the abyss, who toils over verses, studiously distinguishing and storing up in his heart such a forest of measurements, and, to pass on to another part, who seeks wealth by fair or foul means, who esteems powerful men, who seizes on the inheritances of others, and heaps up riches which he is ignorant that in a moment he shall lose? When he says: 'despairing in themselves,' in Greek this is, 'apelgekotes heautous,' which signifies something more in Greek than the Latin 'despairing' which is given for 'apelgekotes,' for 'apelgekotes' they are who after they have sinned do not grieve, who have no sense at all of their ruin, who rush forward in their fall, and as beasts seeing the blade, charge onto their deaths. Give to me two emboiled in one vice: one who understands and laments what he has done, and another who delights in his evil and not only does he not grieve but in truth he glories in it, and let one think who gains first place in baseness and who obtains victory; does it seem to you the one who grieves or the one who does not sorrow at all? Let us express it, if we capable, word for word, and let us say, 'apelgekotes' is a state of being griefless or those griefless. For even the 'analgesian' of the philosophers means griefless. And they who introduce different natures of men, 3 let them know that the Gentiles walk in the vanity of the senses and the benightedness of the mind because they have given themseves to ignorance and blindness. No one is called ignorant and blind unless he is able to know and see. For we do not say a stone is a blind and a dumb animal ignorant, because that is not demanded which is not in its nature, that is, to know and to see. If, however, it was in the nature of the Gentiles to know and to see the life of God, there is no difference of a 'material' and a 'spiritual' nature, but it is a matter of the will. We have spoken before of every work of uncleanliness in avarice, not for the sake of avarice, does it mean, but for lust and luxury. We should compare this meaning with a passage given in another place. In the first letter to the Thessalonians it is written: 'This is the will of God, your sanctification, that you abstain from fornication, that each one of you know that you possess a vessel for sanctification and honour, not for the lust of desires, as the Gentiles who do not know God, so that you do not transgress and delude your brother in his affairs, because the Lord will have vengeance for all these things, as we have told you and given witness. For God did not call us to uncleanliness but to sanctification.' 4 Carefully observe, because he calls us to chastity, and wishes us to be content only with our wives, that he has said: 'Do not transgress and delude your brother in his affairs,' that is, that abandoning his own marriage, he seeks to defile another woman. Where we have, 'and you delude your brother in his affairs'; the Greek reads: 'And make your brother greedy in affairs'. And greed is named for avarice, which we are able, if we translate the force of the word, in the present place to express it: 'lest you transgress and draw your brother into greed in his affairs.' For what is the reason, either in that passage which now we have given as an example, or in this passage of Ephesians which we are presently trying to explain, that between shamelessness and uncleanliness, and also chastity and loving marriage, suddenly avarice is especially named? May it not trouble you if we are delayed in such obscure matters; in the beginning we have given the excuse that among all the letters of Paul, this one, especially in words and meanings, is most elaborate. 3 Saint Jerome, Commentary On The Epistle of Saint Paul to the Ephesians, Book 2, Chap 4 1 Ephes 4.17-19 2 Rom 1.27 3 A Gnostic idea, that there were' material' or 'animal' men incapable of salvation and spiritual men 4 1 Thes 4.3-7