Capítulo 13. De otras dos peligrosas causas por las cuales suelen perder la castidad los que no las procuran evitar.
The Danger of Spiritual Presumption
The author warns against the pride that follows spiritual consolation, using the fall of King David as a cautionary example.
Among the wretched falls from chastity that have happened in the world, it is not right that the fall of the holy king and prophet David should be forgotten; for because it was so wretched, and the person so highly regarded, it gives such a sharp warning to anyone who hears of it that no one can help fearing their own weakness. Saint Basil says the cause of this fall was a bit of self-satisfaction David felt when he was once visited by the hand of God with a great abundance of consolation, leading him to dare to say: 'I said in my abundance, I will never be moved from this state.'1 But oh, how completely the opposite turned out for him! And how well he later understood what he had not understood at first: that in the day of the goods we have, we must remember the evils we can fall into! And that divine consolation should be received with the weight of humility, accompanied by holy fear of God, so that one does not experience what David himself then said: You turned your face from me, and I was thrown into turmoil.2
Idleness and the Loss of Chastity
Neglecting spiritual discipline and the 'battles of God' leaves the soul vulnerable to the loss of chastity.
Holy Scripture gives us another reason for his fall, noting that while the kings of Israel were out at war against the unfaithful, King David stayed home. As he was walking on his balcony, he looked at something that became the cause of adultery and murder—not just of one man, but of many. All of this could have been avoided if he had gone out to fight the battles of God, as other kings were accustomed to do, and as he himself had done in years past.✦✦ If you're strolling about when God's servants are recollected, and if you're idle when they're hard at good works, and if you let your eyes roam freely when they weep bitterly with theirs for themselves and for others, and if while they rise at night to pray you're sleeping and snoring, and for whatever whim takes you you drop the good practices you used to keep—practices that by their strength and warmth kept you on your feet—how do you expect to keep chastity when you're careless and unarmed to defend it, with so many enemies fighting against it who are strong, watchful, and armed?✦ Don't fool yourself: if you don't back up your desire to be chaste with the actions that defend it, your desire will come to nothing. You'll end up like David—for you're no more privileged than he was, nor stronger, nor holier.
Disobedience as the Root of Disorder
The rebellion of the flesh against reason is presented as a consequence of the soul's own disobedience toward God and superiors.
And to bring this matter of the causes by which this precious jewel of chastity is so often lost to a close, you should know that the reason God allowed the flesh to rise up against reason in our first parents—from whom we inherited this—was that they rose up against God by disobeying his commandment. He punished them in the very thing they sinned in; and it was this: that since they did not obey their superior, their inferior should not obey them.3 And so, the unbridled rebellion of the flesh—which is a slave and subject—against its superior, reason, is the punishment for reason's disobedience against God, its own superior. Therefore, take great care not to disobey your superiors, so that God doesn't allow your inferior—the flesh—to rise up against you, just as he allowed Hadad to rise up against King Solomon, his lord, to scourge and pursue you, and through your weakness, cast you down into the depths of mortal sin.✦4
The Call to Interior Vigilance
The reader is urged to seek divine light to examine the hidden corners of the heart to protect the gift of chastity.
And if these things already said, which you have read with the eyes of the body, you have also truly taken in with the interior of the heart, you will see how much reason there is for you to watch over yourself and over what is in you. And because you are not enough on your own to know yourselves, you must ask our Lord for light to search the most secret corners of your heart, so that there may not be anything in you—whether you know it or not—through which the jewel of chastity, which matters so much to you that it be well guarded under divine protection, might be put at risk of being lost by some secret judgment of God.5
Read the original Latin
Entre las miserables caídas de castidad que en el mundo ha habido, no es razón que se ponga en olvido la del Santo Rey y Profeta David; que por ser ella tan miserable, y la persona tan calificada, pone un escarmiento tan grande a quien la oye, que no hay quien deje de temer su propia flaqueza. La causa de aquesta caída dice San Basilio que fue un liviano complacimiento que David tomó en sí mismo, una vez que fue visitado de la mano de Dios con abundancia de mucha consolación, y se atrevió a decir: Yo dije en mi abundancia: No seré ya mudado de este estado para siempre. Mas ¡ oh cuan al revés le salió! ¡ y cómo después entendió lo que primero no entendía, que en el día de los bienes que tenemos, nos hemos de acordar de los males en que podemos caer! Y que se debe tomar la consolación divinal con peso de humildad, acompañada del santo temor de Dios, para que no pruebe lo que el mismo David luego dijo: Quitaste tu faz de mí, y fui hecho conturbado.
Otra causa de su caída nos da a entender la Escritura divina, diciendo: Que al tiempo que los reyes de Israel solían ir a las guerras contra los infieles, se quedó el rey David en su casa; y andándose paseando en un corredor, miró lo que le fue causa de adulterio y homicidio, y no de uno, más de muchos hombres; todo lo cual se evitara si él fuera a pelear las peleas de Dios, según otros reyes lo acostumbraban, y él mismo lo había hecho otros años.
Si vos os estáis paseando cuando están recogidos los siervos de Dios, y si estáis ociosa cuando ellos trabajan en buenas obras, y si derramáis vuestros ojos con soltura cuando ellos con los suyos lloran por sí y por los otros amargamente, y si al tiempo que ellos se levantan de noche a orar vos os estáis durmiendo y roncando, y perdéis, por lo que se os antoja, los buenos ejercicios que solíades tener, que con su fuerza y calor os tenían en pie, ¿cómo pensáis guardar la castidad estando descuidada y sin armas para la defender, y teniendo tantos enemigos que pelean contra ella, fuertes, cuidadosos y armados? No os engañéis, que si a vuestro deseo de ser casta no acompañan obras con que defendáis vuestra castidad, vuestro deseo saldrá en vano, y acaeceros ha a vos lo que a David, pues ni sois más privilegiada que él ni más fuerte ni santa.
Y para dar conclusión a esta materia de las causas por que se suele perder aquesta preciosa joya de la castidad, debéis saber que la causa por que Dios permitió que la carne se levantase contra la razón en nuestros primeros padres—que de allí lo heredamos nosotros—fue porque ellos se levantaron contra Dios, desobedeciendo su mandamiento. Castigóles en lo que pecaron; y fue, que pues ellos no obedecieron a su superior, no les obedeciese a ellos su inferior. Y así el desenfrenamiento de la carne, esclava y súbdita, contra su superior, que es la razón, castigo es de inobediencia de la razón contra Dios, su superior. Y, por tanto, guardaos mucho de desobedecer a vuestros superiores, porque no permita Dios que vuestro inferior, que es la carne, se levante contra vos, como permitió que Adad se levantase contra el rey Salomón, su señor, y os azote y persiga, y por vuestra flaqueza os derribe en lo profundo del pecado mortal.
Y si estas cosas ya dichas, que con los ojos del cuerpo habéis leído, las habéis bien sentido con lo interior del corazón, veréis cuánta razón hay para que miréis por vos y qué hay en vos. Y porque vos no bastáis a conoceros, debéis pedir lumbre a nuestro Señor para escudriñar los más secretos rincones de vuestro corazón, porque no haya en vos algo—que sepáis o que no sepáis—por lo cual se ponga a riesgo de perder por algún secreto juicio de Dios la joya de la castidad, que tanto os importa que esté bien guardada con el amparo divino.
Scripture echoes
- ↩2Sam.11.1-2Sam.11.17 — And it came to pass at the turn of the year, at the time when kings go out to battle, that David sent Joab and his servants with him and all Israel, and they ravaged the sons of Ammon and besieged Rabbah. But David remained in Jerusalem. 2Sam.11.2 — And it came to pass at evening time that David rose from his bed and walked on the roof of the king's house, and he saw a woman bathing on the roof, and the woman was very beautiful in appearance. 2Sam.11.3 — David sent and inquired about the woman, and said, "Is this not Bathsheba, daughter of Eliam, wife of Uriah the Hittite?" 2Sam.11.4 — David sent messengers and took her. She came to him, and he lay with her, while she was purifying herself from her uncleanness. Then she returned to her house. 2Sam.11.5 — And the woman conceived, and she sent and told David, and said, "I am pregnant." 2Sam.11.6 — Then David sent to Joab, 'Send me Uriah the Hittite.' And Joab sent Uriah to David. 2Sam.11.7 — When Uriah came to him, David asked about the welfare of Joab, the welfare of the people, and the welfare of the war. 2Sam.11.8 — David said to Uriah, "Go down to your house and wash your feet." So Uriah went out from the king's house, and a gift from the king went out after him. 2Sam.11.9 — But Uriah slept at the entrance of the king's house with all his master's servants, and he did not go down to his own house. 2Sam.11.10 — They reported to David, saying, "Uriah did not go down to his house." And David said to Uriah, "Have you not come from a journey? Why did you not go down to your house?" 2Sam.11.11 — And Uriah said to David, "The ark, and Israel, and Judah are dwelling in booths, and my lord Joab and the servants of my lord are encamped in the open field; and shall I go to my house to eat and to drink and to lie with my wife? By your life and the life of your soul, I will not do this thing." 2Sam.11.12 — Then David said to Uriah, "Stay here today also, and tomorrow I will send you away." So Uriah remained in Jerusalem that day and the next. 2Sam.11.13 — But when David called him, he ate and drank before him, and David made him drunk. In the evening he went out to lie on his bed with his lord's servants, but he did not go down to his own house. 2Sam.11.14 — In the morning, David wrote a letter to Joab and sent it by the hand of Uriah. 2Sam.11.15 — And he wrote in the letter, saying, Set Uriah in the forefront of the fiercest battle, and draw back from behind him, so that he will be struck down and die. 2Sam.11.16 — And it came about, when Joab was besieging the city, that he put Uriah in the place where he knew there were valiant men. 2Sam.11.17 — And the men of the city went out and fought against Joab, and some of the people among the servants of David fell; and Uriah the Hittite also died.
- ↩1Sam.18.17 — Then Saul said to David, "Here is my elder daughter Merab. I will give her to you as a wife, but you must be a man of valor for me and fight the battles of the LORD." But Saul said to himself, "Let not my hand be against him; let the hand of the Philistines be against him."
- ↩Ps.119.62 — At midnight I will rise to give thanks to you, because of your righteous judgments.
- ↩1Kgs.11.14 — And the LORD raised up an adversary against Solomon: Hadad the Edomite, of the royal seed, who was in Edom.
Notes
- 1 ↩"liviano complacimiento" rendered as "light self-satisfaction": the sense is a careless, self-pleasing complacency in spiritual consolation, not mere pleasure.
- 2 ↩"con peso de humildad" rendered as "with the weight of humility": "peso" can mean weight, measure, or gravity; the sense is sober, measured reception of consolation under humility.
- 3 ↩Superior/inferior map the hierarchy: God over reason (or the person), and reason over the flesh. The punishment matches the crime by inversion of obedience.
- 4 ↩Spanish Adad is Hadad the Edomite (1 Kings 11:14), whom the Lord raised up as an adversary against Solomon; rendered as Hadad for the familiar English biblical form.
- 5 ↩«secreto juicio de Dios» rendered as «secret judgment of God» (hidden divine judgment), not merely a private opinion or assessment.
Audi Filia (Hear, O Daughter) companion
Rule yourself daily, not just on retreat
Chosen Portion turns the mirror into a daily practice — a short reading and examining question each morning before you lead anyone.
Chosen Portion makes the mirror daily: the ruler-formation questions this collection preserves become a two-minute morning examination in the app.
- A daily formation reading drawn from centuries of counsel to those in authority
- One pointed examination question a day — two minutes, before the meetings start
- Track your practice over weeks and watch the examined life become a habit