The Fall And Labour

Nolumus vos, charissimi, conversationis vestrae formulam et vitae auctoritatem prorsus ignorare. Multi namque alienae vitae curiosi, et suae mortis securi, simpliciores quos reperiunt, inanibus quaestiunculis fatigant, et serpentina voca ad primam parentem assumpta. Quare, inquiunt, praeceptunt est vobis sic laborare, sic abstinere, sic hominibus obedire, sic ab hominibus silere, sic seorsum conventicula cogere, sic communem vitam hominum spernere? O! aut otiosa, aut maliciosa curiositas! Quare, inquit, diabolus ad Evam, praecepit vobis Deus, ne comderetis ex ligno scientiae boni et mali? Simplicem mulierculae sensum astuta malignitas tali cavillatione pertusum irrepsit; et eum nesciret tenera simplicitas divinae jussionis rationem reddere, non valuit callidae persuasionis allegationem refellere. Ideo, dilectissimi, sicut beatus ait apostolus Petrus, paratos vos cupimus, et edoctos omni poscenti vos rationem reddere, de ea quae in vobis est conversatione et obedientia. Olim vero, nisi vobis excidit, de re ista verbum vobis fecimus, sed quia in hoc apostolorum natali, unique fratrum numerus solito copiosior affluxit, repetere nobis haud erit pigrum, quod vobis credimus necessarium. Itaque quod manibus laborantes terram operamur, forma est protoparentis Adae, non quidem in paradiso peccantis, sed extra poenitentis, In paradisi namque otio, et rerum omnium opulentia, oborta est culpa, quae Dominum irritavit. Extra paradisum suscepta est poena, quae servum juste mulctavit. Melior igitur poena in exsilio, quam culpa in paradiso. Ideo ergo quia peccatores et filii peccatoris secundum carnem ad huc sumus, in carne sententiam damnatae carnis non respuimus: et sudore vultus nostri pane nostro vescimur. Ne autem totus labour hominis sit in ore ejus, manibus nostris operosius laboramus, ut sit, unde tribuamus necessitatem patienti. Isaac, Cisterciensis Abbas, Sermo L, In Natali Apostolorum Petri et Pauli II Source: Migne PL 194.1858b-1859a

We do not wish, bothers, that you be utterly ignorant of the reason and authority for the conduct of your life. For many are curious about different lives, and yet unconcerned about their own deaths, and the more simple whom they question are worn down by vacuous little questions, even by that serpentine voice that seized our first parent. Why, they say, do they command you to work so and abstain and obey men and be silent among men and force you to your gatherings, so that you spurn the common life of men? O, how worthless, how wicked is curiosity. The devil said to Eve: Why does God command you this, that you do not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil? 1 By the piercing of such an astute cavil wickedness crept into the simple sense of the woman and her tender simplicity did not how to return a reason for the Divine decree, being unable to repulse the questioning of clever persuasion. Therefore, beloved, as the blessed Apostle Peter said, we desire you to be prepared and educated to return reason to all who ask of you concerning your way of life and obedience. 2 Once before, however, lest we lose you, we have spoken about this, but because of this feast day of the Apostles, for which reason a greater number of the brothers have gathered together, we must repeat to you what shall seem almost needless. That with labouring hands we work the earth is in the manner of our forefather Adam, certainly not in sin in paradise, but outside penitent. For in paradise is rest, and a richness of all things, and fault springing up there angers the Lord. Outside paradise punishment is taken up which rightly roughly treats the servant. Better therefore is punishment in exile than fault in paradise. And because we are sinners and sons of sinners according to the flesh, in the flesh we may not spurn here the sentence of damnation of the flesh, and so in the sweat of our face we eat our bread. Lest all the labour of a man be in his mouth, with our labouring hands we work, that it might be that from this we acquire the necessity of patience. Isaac of Stella, from Sermon 50, On the Feast of Peter and Paul 1 Gen 3.1 2 1 Pet 3.15