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

Question For A Fat Man

Τί δαψιλέστρεον πιαίνεις σοι τὰς σάρκας σου, τροφὴν σκωλήκων ἐσομένας ὅσον οὔπω; Ἅγιος Νειλος, Βιβλιον Πρῶτον, Ἐπιστολὴ ΡΠΕ' Μαριανῳ Ὑποδιακονῳ Source: Migne PG 79 153

Why are you so abundantly fat in your flesh, when in no time at all it will be food for worms? Saint Nilus of Sinai, Book 1, Letter 185, To Marianus the Subdeacon

Discipline and the Animals

Dicunt aliquanti disciplinam satis duris legibus constitutam. Loquatur ista satis miseri, quos ad omne facinus ille diabolus auctor mortis invitat, quorum mentes insatiabilis gula possidet, super quos regnat ebrietas, quos turpis luxuria captivos tenet, et a quibus numquam superbia ingrata discedit. Illis autem quibus est studium honeste fidem servare continentiae, humilitati pietatique servire, dulce disciplinae onus est et leve jugum Domini, quod non gravat nisi aut perditos aut perituros. Erubesco dicere in confusionem humanae negligentiae, quare apud aliquentos parvum proficiat disciplina, cum videamus pastorale magisterium etiam apud muta animalia non perire. Doceat nos esse servare ordinem disciplinae tam dociles equorum animi, cum in gyrum ducti flexuosis gressibus membra componunt, et sub unius habenae retinaculo ita laxari se consentiunt, ut et currendi et standi modus sub quadam legum dispositione servetur. Ita quos natura numero dividit, studio disciplinae conjungit. Videte quam fortia boum corpora plaustro subjaceant: quae in tantum imperio animum parant, ut jumentia naturaliter levi jugo colla supponant. Ita disciplinae constitionibus serviunt, etiam quae in feritate nascuntur. Unde miror aliquoties hominem cui inest sapientia et intellectus prudentiae, passim praecepta disciplinae negligere, cum videamus mutum animal vitia cavere, jussis obtemperare, imperio deservire, atque ita ad omnem obedientiam animum aptare, ut cum opus fuerit armatis legionibus occurrat, et hostilibus se telis jusum objiciat. Audite in hoc loco prophetam dicentem: 'Cognovit bos possessorem suum, et asinus praesepe domini sui: Israel autem me non cognovit.' Vereor dicere, ne nostram negligentiam pulset ista sententia: non autem cognoscit Dominum, qui conditionis suae non cognoscit officum. Sanctus Valerianus Cemeliensis, Homily I

Some say that any discipline is enough to make laws burdensome. Let it be enough to say to such wretches that the devil, that author of death, beckons them to every crime whom gluttony possesses the mind, over whom drunkenness reigns, whom rank luxury holds captive and from whom graceless pride is never absent. It is for those of faith to attend to the noble study of continence, to serve in humility and piety. Sweet is the weight of discipline and light the yoke of the Lord and it is no burden unless on those damned or to be damned. I blush to speak about the confusion of human negligence, why discipline is of little benefit to so many, when we see that its directive teaching is not absent in dumb animals. Let that teach us to serve the order of discipline. The docile souls of horses when led in a circle adapt their limbs to the winding steps and controlled by one reign they consent to be allowed to be free in such a way that it is under a certain control of law that they run and halt for a time. This is how nature takes creatures diverse in number and unites them through obedience in discipline. See how the strong bodies of oxen are hitched to a wagon. They prepare their spirits for control such that though naturally wild they submit their necks to a light yoke. This is the way in which even beasts, born wild, submit to the controls of discipline. Thus I am often amazed at the behaviour of man. He is endowed with wisdom and prudence yet at a whim he lightly rejects the precepts of discipline. How different the conduct we see in beasts. They avoid vices, obey commands, submit to control and shape their spirits to perfect obedience, so that when needs must they will rush against armed legions and on order they will throw themselves at the spears of the enemy. Here listen to the Prophet saying, 'The ox knows his owner, and the ass his master's crib, yet Israel has not known me.'1 I fear to speak on lest the passage overwhelm our negligence. He who does not know the Lord does not know the office of his nature.  Saint Valerian of Cimelium, from the First Homily 1 Isaiah 1.3

Fish And Men

Τροφὴ δὲ ἰχθύσιν ἄλλοις ἄλλη κατὰ γένος διωρισμένη. Οἱ μὲν γὰρ ἰλύϊ τρέφονται, οἱ δὲ τοίς φυκίοις· ἄλλοι ταίς βοτάναις ταίς ἐντρεφομέναις τᾥ ὔδατι ἀρκοῦνται. Ἀλληλοφάγοι δὲ τῶν ἰχθύων οἱ πλείστοι, καὶ ὁ μικρότερος παρ’ ἐκείνοις βρῶμά ἐστι τοῦ μείζονος. Κάν ποτε συμβῇ τὸν τοῦ ἐλάττονος κρατήσαντα ἑτέρου γενέσθαι θήραμα, ὑπὸ τὴν μίαν ἄγονται γαστέρα τοῦ τελευταίου. Τί οὖν ἡμείς οἱ ἄνθρωποι ἄλλο τι ποιοῦμεν ἐν τῇ καταδυναστείᾳ τῶν ὑποδεεστέρων; τί διαφέρει τοῦ τελευταίου ἰχθύος ὁ τῇ λαιμάργῳ φιλοπλουτίᾳ τοϊς ἀπληρώτοις τῆς πλεονεξίας αὐτοῦ κόλποις ἐναποκρύπτων τοὺς ἀσθενεὶς; Ἐκείνος εἶχε τὰ τοῦ πένητος σὺ τοῦτον λαβὼν μέρος ἐποιήσω τῆς περιουσίας σεαυτοῦ. Ἀδίκων ἀδικώτερος ἀνεφάνης, καὶ πλεονεκτικώτερος πλεονέκτου. Ὅρα μὴ τὸ αὐτό σε πέρας τῶν ἰχθύων ἐκδέξηται, ἄγκιστρόν τοι, ἢ κύρτος, ἢ δίκτυον. Πάντως γὰρ καὶ ἡμείς πολλὰ τῶν ἀδίκων διεξελθόντες, τὴν τελευταίαν τιμωρίαν οὐκ ἀποδρασόμεθα. Ἅγιος Βασιλειος Καισαρείας, Εις Την ῾Εξαημερον, Ὁμιλὶα Z' Source: Migne PG 29.152c-153a

The food of fish differs according to species. Some feed on sediment; others on sea weed; others prefer the herbs that grow in water. But most of them devour each other, and the smaller is food for the larger. And when one which has possessed itself of a fish weaker than itself becomes a prey to another, the conqueror and the conquered are both swallowed up in the one belly of the last. And we men, do we act otherwise when we oppress inferiors? What difference between the last fish and he who, driven by love of wealth, devours the weak in the folds of his overreaching avarice? That man took the goods of the poor; you caught him and made him a part of your abundance. More unrighteous than the unrighteous you show yourself, and more greedy than the greedy. Look to the end lest you be exhibited as a fish, by hook, by trap, or by net. For surely we too, having accomplished many deeds of the wicked, shall not escape a final punishment. Saint Basil of Caesarea, Hexameron, from Homily 7