The Bound Soul

Et tu, fili hominis, ecce data sunt super te vincula, et ligabunt te in eis, et non egredieris in medio eorum. Cum enim praedicator quisque ad conscientiam domus suae reducitur, super eo vincula dantur, et ligatur in eis, quia quanto plus se in cogitatione discusserit, tanto amplius agnoscit justi anima quantis mortalitatis suae infirmitatibus sit ligata. Nisi enim se ligatum conspiceret Paulus, minime dixisset: Desiderium habens dissolvi, et cum Christo esse. Hinc per Psalmistam dicitur: Ut audiret gemitum vinculatorum, et solvat filios interemptorum. Et rursus: Intret in conspectu tuo gemitus compeditorum. Saepe autem cum jam anima ad Redemptoris sui speciem contemplandam exire desiderat, cum coelestibus gaudiis interesse suspirat, ipsa mortalitatis suae vincula conspicit et gemit, quibus adhuc in praesenti mundo ligata retinetur. Hinc est enim quod subtile omnipotentis Dei judicium intuens Jeremias, ait: Circumaedificavit adversum me ut non egrediar, aggravavit compedem meam. Habemus enim compedes, ipsam infirmitatem atque corruptionem mortalitatis nostrae; sed cum tribulatio nobis et gemitus additur, ipsae nostrae compedes aggravantur. Sanctus Gregorius Magnus, In Ezechielem Prophetam, Liber Primus, Homilia XII Source: Migne PL 76.923c-d

And you, son of man, see that chains have been placed on you and you shall be bound in them and you shall not go out into the midst of them... 1 When a preacher returns to the house of his conscience, chains are placed upon him, and he is bound in them, because the more he examines himself in thought, so the much more the soul of the righteous man recognises how much it is bound up in the infirmities of his own mortality. For unless Paul had looked upon himself as bound he would have hardly said, 'I have a desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ.' 2 Hence it is said by the Psalmist, 'That He might hear the groans of those in chains and free the sons of those ruined.' And again, 'Let the groans of those who are shackled enter into your sight.' 3 Often when the soul desires to depart to the contemplation of the face of its Redeemer and sigh amidst heavenly joys, it looks on the chains of its mortality and groans that it is yet detained by them in the present world. Hence Jeremiah looking on the sublime judgement of almighty God said, 'He has surrounded me with a wall and I may not go out, He has made my shackles heavier.' 4 For we do have shackles, the infirmity and corruption of our mortality, but when tribulation and groans are added our shackles are made heavier. Saint Gregory the Great, On the Prophet Ezekiel, Book 1, from Homily 12 1 Ezek 3.14 2 Phil 1.23 3 Ps 101.21, Ps 78.11 4 Lam 3.7