CAPUT LXIX. Quam sit utile et item quam sit difficile discretioni perfecte obtemperare
Discretion, the Inner Eye
Joseph's dreams and his father's words reveal the high worth of discretion, which directs the soul's intention, moderates every virtue, and guards against presumption and neglect.
But how excellent this virtue is — Joseph's own dreams testify to it, and so do his father's words, where we read: 'Shall I and your mother and your brothers bow down to you on the earth?' Father, mother, and brothers bow to this Joseph, because either by their own free will or forced by necessity, they sometimes submit to discernment.1 Indeed, through discernment, that sun of the intellectual world—that interior eye of the heart, namely the mind's intention—is directed; through discernment, the subtlety of reason that rises from it is sharpened; through discernment, that whole fraternal kinship of the virtues is kept in measure; and any virtue that will not yield to its counsel, that does not submit itself to discernment, soon loses the name of virtue.2 He is the one who does not overlook his brothers' negligence; he is the one who rebukes their excesses. When he is present, they may not presume anything beyond their strength; when he is present, they may leave nothing undone through negligence. In his presence they may not turn aside either to the right or to the left, nor do anything sluggishly or rashly, nor presume anything before its time, nor put off anything past the right moment.
The Brothers' Harsh Judgment
Because Joseph's counsel is exacting, his own brothers—the soul's other affections—hate him and find his warnings unbearable.
From this comes the heavy and nearly irreconcilable discord between him and his brothers, about which Scripture is not silent when it openly declares that his brothers hated him and could not speak a peaceful word to him. For Joseph's warnings seem to them very hard, his rules harsh, his counsel unbearable.
The Hard Labor of Right Order
No human effort is more difficult than keeping exact measure, due order, and the right limit in every action and affection.
For what is harder, what’s more difficult, than never to neglect anything that needs doing, and in everything you do, never to upset due measure, never to scramble the proper order, never to go past the right limit? Believe me, there’s nothing the mind wrings from itself with more difficulty than keeping due measure in every one of its affections.
Hypocrisy Exposed and Corrected
Under applauding crowds the affections may swell into presumption, and when the mind's intention is corrupted they fall into the hateful vice of hypocrisy—which discretion, like Joseph, exposes before the Father, and then patiently corrects without forcing consent.
For often Joseph’s brothers, while they’re attempting something great and people on every side are cheering them on with “Well done! Well done!”, tend to stretch their efforts not only toward what is useless, but even toward what is impossible.✦ Indeed, the soul’s affection is often unbridled by flattery of this kind and driven into the immoderate boldness of presumption—or rather, many times, once the mind’s intention is corrupted, it is led and cast down all the way into the crime of hypocrisy. This is that worst of crimes, more abominable than the rest because it is, above all others, hateful to God—the crime for which Joseph accuses his brothers before their father, as Scripture itself clearly declares when it says: Joseph accused his brothers before their father of a most wicked crime.✦ The vice God uniquely detests is more rightly understood as nothing other than hypocrisy. For as Augustine attests, feigned equity is not equity, but double iniquity.3 This vice is exposed through Joseph when the lurking evil is caught by discretion and rebuked. This vice then corrupts the sons; this vice the father then corrects when, touching the affection, it strikes more harshly and holds longer—yet still doesn't bend the mind all the way to consent.
Read the original Latin
Quanta autem hujus virtutis sit excellentia testantur ipsa Joseph somnia, testantur patris ejus verba, ubi legitur: Nunquid ego, et mater tua, et fratres tui adorabimus te super terram? Hunc Joseph et pater, et mater, et fratres adorant, quia aut spontanea voluntate, aut coacti necessitate quandoque discretioni obtemperant. Per discretionem siquidem sol ille mundi intellectualis interior ille oculus cordis intentio videlicet mentis dirigitur, per discretionem de qua oritur subtilitas rationis acuitur, per discretionem illa tota virtutum fraterna germanitas modificatur, et virtutum quaelibet quae ejus consilio non acquiescit, quae se discretioni, non subdit, citius virtutis nomen amittit. Ipse est qui fratrum suorum negligentias non negligit, ipse est qui eorum excessus arguit. Ipso praesente, non licet eis quidquam ultra vires praesumere; ipso praesente, nihil per negligentiam praetermittere. In ejus praesentia non eis licet sive ad dexteram sive ad sinistram declinare, nil segniter, nil praecipitanter agere, nil ante tempus praesumere, nil ultra temporis opportunitatem differre. Hinc illa inter ipsum et fratres discordia gravis, et ita pene implacabilis, de qua Scriptura non tacet, cum manifeste pronuntiet, qui oderant eum fratres sui, nec poterant ei quidquam pacifice loqui. Monita enim Joseph videntur eis valde gravia, dura instituta, consilia importabilia.
Quid enim durius, quid difficilius, quam nil faciendum negligere, et in omni suo facto nunquam modum perturbare, nunquam ordine confundere, nunquam mensuram excedere? Crede mihi, nihil a se animus difficilius extorquet, quam ut in omni affectione sua modum servet. Saepe etenim fratres Joseph magnum aliquid molientes dum eis undique acclamatur: Euge, euge, solent non solum ad inutilia, verum etiam ad impossibilia conatus sui manus extendere. Frequenter siquidem animi affectus ex hujusmodi adulantium acclamatione, ad immoderatam praesumptionum audaciam effrenatur, imo etiam multoties mentis intentione depravata usque ad hypocrisis crimen deducitur atque dejicitur. Hoc est illud crimen pessimum et prae caeteris abominandum quia Deo prae omnibus odiosum, de quo Joseph fratres suos apud patrem suum accusat, sicut Scriptura ipsa manifeste declarat, cum dicit: Accusavit Joseph fratres suos apud patrem crimine pessimo. Vitium quod Deus singulariter detestatur, nullum aliud quam hypocrisis rectius intelligitur. Augustino namque attestante, simulata aequitas non est aequitas, sed duplex iniquitas. Hoc vitium per Joseph detegitur, quando insidians malum per discretionem deprehenditur, et arguitur.
Hoc vitium tunc filios corrumpit, hoc vitium tunc pater corrigit, quando affectum tangens durius pulsat, diutius occupat, verumtamen animum usque ad consensum non inclinat.
Scripture echoes
- ↩Ps.35.21 — And they opened wide their mouth against me; they said, "Aha, Aha! Our eyes have seen it.
- ↩Gen.37.2 — These are the generations of Jacob. Joseph, being seventeen years old, was shepherding the flock with his brothers; and he was a youth with the sons of Bilhah and the sons of Zilpah, his father's wives. And Joseph brought a bad report about them to their father.
Notes
- 1 ↩In Richard's allegory Joseph is discretio (discernment); pater, mater, and fratres figure reason, affection, and the virtues that yield to it.
- 2 ↩Source punctuation "quae se discretioni, non subdit" is almost certainly "quae se discretioni non subdit"; rendered as non-submission to discernment.
- 3 ↩aequitas here is moral uprightness/equity rather than legal fairness alone; rendered 'equity' to keep the Augustinian antithesis with iniquitas.
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