CAPUT LV. Qua maxime consideratione debeamus intentionis depravationem castigare
The Three Days of Circumcision
The allegorical meaning of the third day of circumcision is explained as three kinds of knowledge: of external, internal, and divine things.
It's also worth carefully noting how so few could bring about such a great slaughter. But of course a carefully chosen chance of timing helped them, when the bitterness of pain had overcome those who had been circumcised and were to be killed by them.✦ They chose the third day after circumcision—the day when, as Scripture testifies, the pain is usually at its worst.✦ But what are these days, or why are they said to be only three? If by night we rightly understand ignorance, then by day we understand knowledge. So, the first day is knowledge of things outside us; the second day is knowledge of things within us; and the third day is knowledge of things above us. Outside us are bodily things; within us are spiritual things; above us are divine things.
Three Considerations for a Pure Intention
For those who practice self-discipline without pure intention, three considerations—outward hardship, inward loss, and divine judgment—bring severe pain and correction.
Therefore, for those who circumcise themselves but don't do it for God's sake, the first consideration ought to be—or rather, usually is—when they carefully notice the harshness they have endured outwardly.1 The second consideration should be what they gained inwardly through so many bodily torments—or rather how much they truly lost inwardly through the blot of a wrong intention.2 The third consideration will be what repayment they ought to expect from God, whom they do not doubt they have not so much pleased as provoked by the service of a pretended obedience.3 So on the first day of the first consideration, the cut-off freedom of a cherished habit returns to memory, and without a doubt pain arises—pain that is certainly heavy, because what was held with love is not left behind without pain. On the second day of the second consideration, the mind finds that through the body's losses it has come to losses of the mind, and pain arises that is certainly more just, and perhaps heavier as well. On the third day of the third consideration, it discovers that it has endured heavy things by its own judgment, but must expect still heavier ones from the divine judgment.4 This is that third day on which, as Scripture testifies, the pain is usually most severe. For how great a pain, do you think, pierces through the mind when it carefully considers the evil it has endured, the evil it has committed, the evil it has deserved—the evil it has endured outwardly in the torment of the body, the evil it has contracted inwardly in the guilt of crime, the evil it has merited from God in the sight of the Creator. Indeed, whoever among those uselessly circumcised has been able to reach this day has suffered not only heavily, but most heavily.5
Read the original Latin
Opere pretium est illud etiam diligenter attendere quonam modo tam pauci tantam potuerunt stragem efficere. Sed nimirum adjuvit eos electa opportunitas temporis, quando ipsos circumcisos, et ab ipsis occidendos oppresserat acerbitas doloris. Ad hoc electus est circumcisionis dies ille tertius, in quo teste Scriptura, dolor solet esse gravissimus. Sed qui sunt isti dies, vel cur tantum dicuntur esse tres? Si per noctem ignorantia, recte per diem intelligitur notitia. Primus itaque dies est cognitio eorum quae sunt extra nos, secundus dies, cognitio eorum quae sunt intra nos; dies tertius, cognitio eorum quae sunt supra nos. Extra nos corporalia, intra nos spiritualia, supra nos divina. Eorum itaque qui se circumcidunt, verumtamen non propter Deum hoc faciunt, prima consideratio esse debet, vel potius esse solet, cum diligenter attendunt quid asperitatis extrinsecus pertulerunt.
Secunda consideratio esse debet quid intus acquisierunt per tot cruciatus corporis, imo quantum intus veraciter perdiderunt per naevum sinistrae intentionis. Tertia consideratio erit quid retributionis de Deo exspectare debeant, quem simulatae servitutis obsequio non tam placasse quam exasperasse non dubitant. Primo itaque die considerationis primae recurrit ad memoriam amputata licentia amatae consuetudinis, et absque dubio dolor efficitur, dolor utique gravis; quia non relinquitur sine dolore quod possidebatur cum amore. Secundo die considerationis secundae invenit se animus per detrimenta corporis pervenisse ad damna mentis, et fit utique dolor quanto justior, tanto fortassis et gravior. Tertio die considerationis tertiae deprehendit se gravia pertulisse de sententia propria, sed graviora exspectare debere de sententia divina. Hic est ille dies tertius in quo, testante Scriptura, dolor solet esse gravissimus. Quantus enim putas dolor mentem transverberat cum diligenter considerat malum quod pertulit, malum quod commisit, malum quod promeruit, malum quod pertulit exterius in cruciatu corporis, malum quod contraxit intrinsecus in reatu criminis, malum quod promeruit divinitus in conspectu Creatoris. Profecto non solum graviter, sed etiam gravissime doluit quisquis inutiliter circumcisorum ad hanc diem pervenire potuit.
Scripture echoes
- ↩Gen.34.25 — And it came about on the third day, when they were in pain, that two of Jacob's sons, Simeon and Levi, Dinah's brothers, each took his sword and came upon the city unawares, and killed every male.
- ↩Gen.34.25 — And it came about on the third day, when they were in pain, that two of Jacob's sons, Simeon and Levi, Dinah's brothers, each took his sword and came upon the city unawares, and killed every male.
Notes
- 1 ↩Here 'circumcise themselves' continues the chapter's allegory (from Genesis 34 / Simeon and Levi): exterior self-discipline or cutting off habit without a right intention toward God.
- 2 ↩naevus = blot/blemish/stain; sinistra intentio = a leftward, crooked, or malformed intention (here: an intention not directed toward God).
- 3 ↩retributio can mean reward or requital; here the context of exasperasse points toward a grim reckoning rather than a favorable reward.
- 4 ↩sententia can mean judgment, sentence, or deliberate decision; the contrast is between self-imposed hardship and God's verdict.
- 5 ↩Refers back to those who practice outward 'circumcision' (ascetical cutting-off) without doing it for God; inutiliter = to no spiritual purpose.
Benjamin Minor (The Twelve Patriarchs / Preparation of the Mind for Contemplation) companion
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