The Sea Within

Quis conclusit ostiis mare? Quid est mare, nisi cor nostrum furore turbidum, rixis amarum, elatione superbiae tumidum, fraude malitiae obscurum? Quod mare quantum saeviat, attendit quisquis, in se occultas cogitationum tentationes intelligit. Ecce enim iam perversa relinquimus, iam desideriis rectis inhaeremus, iam prava opera foris abscindimus; sed tamen latenter intus ea cum qua huc venimus vitae veteris procella fatigamur, quam nisi respectu iudicii et aeterni pavore tormenti immensi timoris claustra constringerent, cuncta in nobis penitus superaedificati operis fundamenta corruissent. Si enim quod per suggestionem saevit intrinsecus, per deliberationem foras erumperet, vitae nostrae fabrica funditus eversa iacuisset. In iniquitate namque concepti, et in delicto editi, per insitae corruptionis molestias pugnam nobiscum huc deferimus, quam cum labore vincamus. Unde et recte de hoc mari dicitur: Quando erumpebat, quasi de vulva procedens. Vulva enim pravae cogitationis adolescentia est. De qua per Moysen Dominus dicit: Sensus enim et cogitatio humani cordis prona est in malum ab adolescentia sua. Corruptionis namque malum, quod unusquisque nostrum ab ortu desideriorum carnalium sumpsit, in provectu aetatis exercet; et nisi hoc citius divinae formidinis manus reprimat, omne conditae naturae bonum repente culpa in profundum vorat. Nemo igitur sibi cogitationum suarum victoriam tribuat, cum Veritas dicat: Quis conclusit ostiis mare, quando erumpebat, quasi de vulva procedens? Quia nisi ab ipso cogitationis primordio cordis fluctus gratia divina retineret, tentationum procellis mare saeviens terram procul dubio humanae mentis obruisset, ut salsis fluctibus perfusa aresceret, id est perniciosis carnis voluptatibus delectata deperiret. Solus ergo Dominus ostiis mare concludit, qui pravis motibus cordis claustra inspiratae formidinis obiicit. Quia vero ea quae cernimus sequi prohibemur, quia a corporearum rerum delectatione retundimur, libet etiam ad invisibilia oculos mentis attollere, atque haec ipsa quae sequi praecipimur videre. Sed quid agimus? Infirmis illa obtutibus necdum patent. Ecce ad eorum amorem vocamur, sed tamen a visione restringimur, quia et si quando aliquid furtim parumque aspicimus, sub incerto nimis adhuc visu caligamus. Sanctus Gregorius Magnus, Moralia, sive Expositio in Job, Liber XXVIII, Caput XIX Source: Migne PL 76.474b-475a

Who shut up the sea with doors? 1 What is this sea, except our heart, troubled by fury, bitter with strife, bloated with the elation of pride, darkened by the deceit of evil? Anyone may observe how mightily this sea rages, who understands the hidden temptations of thoughts in himself. For behold, we are now abandoning our perversities, we are now cleaving to correct desires, we are now cutting off our exterior wicked works, but we are yet secretly wearied within by the storms of our old life with which we have lived so far, and unless the barriers of endless fear were curbing it with care for judgment and fear of eternal torment, all the foundations of the work which has been raised up in us would have utterly fallen into ruin. If that which rages within by suggestion were to burst out in resolution, the whole fabric of our life would be utterly overthrown. For being conceived in iniquity and in sin brought forth, 2 we bring with us here a struggle with the strife of innate corruptions, which we must conquer with toil. Whence it is rightly said of this sea, 'When it was breaking forth, as if coming out from the womb.' 1 Youth is the womb of depraved thought, concerning which the Lord says, 'The mind and thought of the human heart is inclined to evil from its youth.' 3 For the evil of corruption which each one of us takes up from the springing up of carnal desires, exerts itself with the advance of age, and unless the hand of Divine disapproval quickly restrains it, sin swiftly swallows down into the depths all the good of created nature. No one, therefore, should attribute victory over his thoughts to himself, since the Truth says, 'Who shut up the sea with doors, when it was breaking forth, as if coming out from the womb?' 1 For unless from the beginning of our thoughts Divine grace had restrained the waves of our heart, the sea raging with the storms of temptations would doubtless have overwhelmed the land of the human mind, so that, washed by the salt waves, it would have become barren, that is, it would have perished amid the delights of the ruinous pleasures of the flesh. Therefore the Lord alone shuts up the sea with doors, He who sets in opposition to the evil motions of our hearts the barriers of inspired fear. And because we are prohibited from following those things which we see, because we are turned from the enjoyment of bodily things, so it is possible for us to raise the eyes of our mind even to invisible things, and see those very things we are commanded to follow. But what do we do? Such things are not yet open to our feeble sight. Behold we are called to love them, and yet we are restrained from the sight of them, because even if sometime we see them by stealth and partially, we are yet in the darkness of our most uncertain sight. Saint Gregory the Great, Moralia, or Commentary on Job, Book 28, Chapter 19 1 Job 38.8 2 Ps 50.7 3 Gen 8.21