Day And Night, Men And Beasts

De die ista, dilectissimi,quae mane tertia, sexta, nona, undecima, et vespera, in evangelica parabola distinguitur ad laborem laborisque mercedem, quod heri diximus, nequaquam hodie permutamus, videlicet conversionem ad Deum sensu et affectu diem accipi, sicut aversionem noctem, qua nemo potest operari. Sunt enim in hominibus sensus et appetitus, secundum quos animalia dicuntur, nec a bestiis ulla per hos eminentia secernuntur: quibus tamen si supponitur ratio, ut utrique principetur, existent quidem simul sensu et affectu animalia, ac mente rationali, mortalitateque poenali, homines necessario post peccatum, ac pro peccato morituri: qui ante peccatum, et sine peccato poterant non mori. In quibus ergo sensus vel affectus rationem nondum sequitur, sed reluctatur, et ut, proh pudor, in nonnullis obtingit, ipsa contra ipsam ratione abutitur: hi nimirum, quamlibet astuti, callidi, sensati, gratiosi, placidive, nondum homines sunt: aut si ob rationem dicendi homines asseruntur, utique quia capite deorsum gradiuntur, non tam homines quam de hominibus monstra esse convincuntur. Os, inquit poeta, homini sublime dedit.  In talibus, dilectissimi, aliquando reluctatur quidem, sed tamen superatur, ac trahitur captiva, quae sola est ratio. Vae enim soli, quia si ceciderit, non est qui sublevet eum. Aliquando vero sponte enervis, effracta, et evirata sequitur, succumbuit, a omni spurcitiae libenter se contradit. Primi ergo mali, secundi pessimi: utrique noctis et tenbrarum filii, sed alii noctem suam amant, alii diem desiderant, alii nihil habentes hominis, alii parum, alii soluti, alii vincti. Utrique in tenebris sunt, in tenebris ambulant, bestiis silvae, id est carnalibus passionibus, ac saecularibus desideriis: et catulis leonum, id est spiritualibus nequitiis in coelestibus nocturna praeda effecti, sicut scriptum est: Posuisti tenebras, et facta est nox, in ipsa pertransibunt omnes bestiae silvae, catuli leonum, etc. Dum igitur ad seipsum advertitur homo, sive ad suum sensum, sive ad viluntatem, sive etiam ad rationem, licet eo usque profecerit, ut jumentum exuens, hominem induat: utique nec noctem evadit, nec in diem vadit. Ad meipsum, ait Videns, contrubata est anima mea: propterae memor coepit esse Dei tanquam diei. Deus enim totus lux est, et in eo solo tenebrae non sunt ulla. Nam sancti angeli etsi in ipso mane inveniant, in se tamen vespere offendunt: quibus verpere sui, et mane Dei, perficitur dies unus, seu primus. In se ergo solus Deus diem invenit: qui dum menti rationali praeveniente gratia illucere incipit, ei mane facit; et inter tenbras ac lcuem dividit. Est itaque spiritualis diei antelucanam mane gratia, quae rationem praevenit, et a se ad Deum convertit; ac de tenebris ignorantiae, vel ut dictum est, impotentiae, seu etiam malitiae, in die sapientiae, virtutis ac justitiae, id est Christi Domini, inducit. Isaac, Cisterciensis Abbas, Sermo XVII, In Septuagesima II Source: Migne PL 194.1745b-1746a

Concerning that day which the parable divides into the morning, and the third hour and the sixth hour and the ninth hour and the eleventh hour and the evening, for labour and the reward of labour, 1 which we spoke of yesterday, we shall not dismiss today, that is, turning to God with the mind and with the heart will still be understood as the day and turning away as the night 'in which no one is able to work.' 2 Men possess sense and appetite, according to which they are said to be animals, and by which they cannot be distinguished from beasts, but if reason is added so that it rules both, with animal senses and appetite existing at the same time with the rational mind, then with the penalty of death men perish after sin and because of sin, who before sin and without sin did not die. 3 In those, then, who possess sense and appetite, yet who do not follow reason but rather fight against it, as, alas, happens in many, reason is used against itself. These sort, however clever they are, however learned, however sensible, however charming or gentle, are not human, or if by a habit of speech they are called men, yet because they walk with their heads thrust down, so they are convicted of being men who are monsters among men. 'Man was given a face for the heights,' as a poet says. 4 In such folk, dearest brothers, forsaken reason is dragged off to captivity, for though they may sometimes struggle yet they are overthrown. 'Alas for the man who is alone, because if he falls there is no one to lift him up.' 5 Then sometimes reason is so enervated, daunted, and unmanned, that of its own accord it follows, succumbs to, and happily gives itself to any sort of vileness. The former sort are wicked, the latter worse, and both are children of the night and of the darkness. The latter love the night and the former desire the day. The latter have nothing human about them, the former retain a little. The former wear loose bonds, the latter are utterly conquered. But both are in darkness, and 'in darkness they walk,' 6 beasts of the wood, that is, they walk in the carnal passions and in worldly desires, and are made the prey of the whelps of the lion, that is, of 'the wicked spirits of the heavens.' 7 As it is written, 'You have placed the darkness and night falls, in which pass all the beasts of the wood, the whelps of lions.' 8 When, therefore, a man turns to himself, or even to reason, so that he might improve himself by stripping off the animal and putting on the man, he neither escapes the night nor does he come to the light of the day. 'My soul has troubled me,' he says looking about himself, and because of this he begins to think of God as of the day. 'For God is all light and there is no darkness at all in Him.' 9 For even if the holy angels find the morning in Him, yet in themselves they stumble in the evening, which evening of theirs and the morning of God make one day, the first day. 10 Therefore God alone has the day in Himself, and when He begins to shine grace into rational minds, He creates the morning and separates the light from the darkness. 11 Thus grace is the dawn of the spiritual day, which not only precedes reason but turns it from itself to God and leads it from the darkness of ignorance or, as has been said, of impenitence, and even of wickedness, into the daylight of wisdom, and virtue, and righteousness, that is, into the day of Christ our Lord. Isaac of Stella, from Sermon 17, The Second Sermon for Septuagesima 1 Mt 20.1-16 2 Jn 9.4 3 Rom 8.10 4 Ovid Meta 1.84 5 Eccl 4.10 6 Ps 81.5 7 Ephes 6.12 8 Ps 103.20-21 9 Ps 41.7, 1 Jn 1.5 10 Gen 1.5 11 Gen 1.4