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Chapter 19OdoC.1.19

Caput XVII

Cain's Pride as a Warning

Cain's refusal to obey God and his shameless pride in sin serve as a mirror for those who knowingly transgress and glory in their crimes.

God himself forbade him to kill his brother, but he scorned to listen.✦ He was asked afterward so that he might have an opportunity to repent, but he refused to confess.✦ Nor are those people unlike him in this, for they knowingly do whatever is forbidden, but despise what is commanded. You might see them, with shameless presumption, commit whatever vices they please and — what according to blessed Gregory is worse than any sin — even take pride in the crimes they have committed, as it is written: "They rejoice when they have done evil" (Prov.✦1 II, 14).✦ In these people, just as in Cain, pride grows through practice — so that they don't even think this vice is present in themselves, since they are so full of it. Was there not enormous pride in him, when, upon being questioned, he answered: "Am I my brother's keeper?"✦ (Gen.✦

The Inner Blindness of Pride

Pride grows in the soul like dimness in the eyes, progressively blinding the mind until it can no longer perceive its own vice, while the humble are blessed with reverent fear.

Genesis 4:9.)✦ And so pride is born in the mind, just as dimness is produced in the eyes. For the more widely the dimness spreads, the more violently it obscures sight. And so this pride, growing little by little, separates the eye of the mind from spiritual understanding, so that the soul, now captive, can both endure this pride and yet cannot see it in itself. Because once the soul has willingly fallen, it is never allowed to lie still where it first fell, but rushes headlong into ever more serious harm — the farther it departs from the humility of the Creator, the more deeply it plunges. And so such people are blinded by the just judgment of God, so that they have a heart hard and insensible toward his commands.✦ Hence the Psalmist: 'Your judgments are taken away from his face' (Ps.✦ 10:5).✦ 'Blind the heart of this people,' says Isaiah — whereas on the other hand, of the humble it is said: 'Blessed is the man who is always fearful' (Prov.✦✦

The Downward Spiral from Pride to Apostasy

Hardened by pride, sinners lose every virtue—innocence, truth, justice, continence, and faith—until diabolical deception leads them into perfidy and the complete demolition of their spiritual edifice.

(Romans 1:28).✦ Through this hardness, then, which they incur precisely because, though they knew God, they did not glorify him as God — by keeping his commandments — they are so destroyed that they lose innocence from the heart, truth from the mouth, justice from their work, continence from the flesh, and the practice of faith from the mind.✦ For God disdains being worshipped with pride. And so these men, sent away in their own uncleanness by the deserved judgment of pride, are permitted to be deceived by diabolical persuasions, so that they even slide into perfidy. These defects, gradually built up in them by the same wicked spirits, the Psalmist shows — speaking in the voice of those destroying Jerusalem — when he says: Empty it out, empty it out, down to the foundation (Psalm✦ 136:7).✦ For the foundation is faith, because upon it good works are built.✦ Therefore, that perverse spirits have emptied the bulwark of virtue right down to the foundation means that, with the work of living well overthrown, they have also dissipated the strength of faith from the hearts of men.

Total Defilement from Head to Foundation

Through Jeremiah's image, the proud are shown to be defiled from the lowest outward acts all the way up to the very crown of faith, the foundation of all virtue.

From this source comes Jeremiah: "They have defiled you," he says, "to the very crown of the head" (Jer. II, 6) — that is, from outward acts, as if from the lower members, all the way up to the height of faith, which is the foundation of all virtue, they have arrived by defiling.

Read the original Latin

Ille ab ipso Deo prohibitus est ne fratrem occideret, sed audire contempsit. Qui postea ut haberet poenitendi occasionem requisitus est, sed confiteri noluit. Nec enim in hoc ei dissimiles isti sunt, qui scienter prohibita quaeque faciunt, jussa vero contemnunt. Nam videas eos impudenti praesumptione quaelibet vitia committere, et, quod juxta beatum Gregorium omni peccato fit gravius, etiam de patratis sceleribus superbire, ut scriptum est: Laetantur cum male fecerunt (Proc. II, 14). » In his namque, sicut in Cain, superbia per usum crescit: ut ita hoc vitium in se nec saltem esse putent, cum eo pleni sint. An non ingens in illo superbia fuit, cum requisitus respondit: Nunquid custos fratris mei sum ego? (Gen.

IV, 9.) Sic quippe in mente superbia, sicut in oculis caligo generatur. Nam quo latius caligo se dilatat, eo vehementius visum obscurat. Ita et haec paulisper crescens, mentis oculum a spiritali intellectu dividit, ut captivus animus hanc et pati possit, et in se videre non possit. Quia vero anima semel voluntarie lapsa nunquam illic jacere permittitur quo primitus cadit, sed ad graviora detrimenta tanto profundius proruit, quanto longius a Conditoris humilitate discedit: idcirco tales justo Dei judicio obcaecantur, ut ad ejus praecepta durum et insensibile cor habeant. Unde Psalmista: Auferuntur judicia tua a facie ejus (Psal. X, 5). Excaeca, inquit Isaias, cor populi hujus, quo contra de humilibus dicitur: Beatus vir qui semper est pavidus (Prov.

XXVIII, 14). Per hanc itaque duritiam quam idcirco incurrunt, quia cognoscentes Deum, non sicut Deum glorificaverunt, mandata ejus observando, ita destruuntur, ut amittant a corde innocentiam, ab ore veritatem, ab opere justitiam, a carne continentiam, ab intellectu fidei religionem. Deus enim dedignatur cum superbia coli. Unde et hi in suis immunditiis merito superbiae dimissi diabolicis suasionibus ita falli permittuntur, ut etiam ad perfidiam dilabantur. Hos defectus ab eisdem malignis spiritibus sensim perstructos, Psalmista, demonstrans ex voce destruentium Hierusalem, ait: Exinanite, exinanite usque ad fundamentum (Psal. CXXXVI, 7). Fundamentum enim est fides, quia super hanc bona opera construuntur. Perversos ergo spiritus virtutis munimen usque ad fundamentum exinanisse est, everso bene vivendi opere, etiam a cordibus hominum robur fidei dissipasse.

Hinc Jeremias: Constupraverunt te, inquit, usque ad verticem (Jer. II, 6), hoc est ab exterioribus actibus, quasi ab inferioribus membris, usque ad celsitudinem fidei, quae est totius virtutis fundamentum, polluendo pervenerunt.

Scripture echoes

  1. ↩Gen.4.8-Gen.4.9 — And Cain said to Abel his brother, 'Let us go out to the field.' And when they were in the field, Cain rose up against Abel his brother and killed him. Gen.4.9 — Then the LORD said to Cain, "Where is Abel your brother?" And he said, "I do not know. Am I my brother's keeper?"
  2. ↩Gen.4.9-Gen.4.10 — Then the LORD said to Cain, "Where is Abel your brother?" And he said, "I do not know. Am I my brother's keeper?" Gen.4.10 — And he said, "What have you done? The voice of your brother's blood is crying out to me from the ground."
  3. ↩Prov.2.14 — those who rejoice to do evil, who exult in the perverseness of evil
  4. ↩Prov.2.14 — those who rejoice to do evil, who exult in the perverseness of evil
  5. ↩Gen.4.9 — Then the LORD said to Cain, "Where is Abel your brother?" And he said, "I do not know. Am I my brother's keeper?"
  6. ↩Gen.4.9 — Then the LORD said to Cain, "Where is Abel your brother?" And he said, "I do not know. Am I my brother's keeper?"
  7. ↩Gen.4.9 — Then the LORD said to Cain, "Where is Abel your brother?" And he said, "I do not know. Am I my brother's keeper?"
  8. ↩Isa.6.10 — And Make the heart of this people dull; make their ears heavy and shut their eyes, lest they see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their heart, and turn and be healed.
  9. ↩Ps.10.5 — His ways prosper at all times; your judgments are far beyond him; all his adversaries he snorts at.
  10. ↩Ps.10.5 — His ways prosper at all times; your judgments are far beyond him; all his adversaries he snorts at.
  11. ↩Isa.6.10 — And Make the heart of this people dull; make their ears heavy and shut their eyes, lest they see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their heart, and turn and be healed.
  12. ↩Prov.28.14 — Blessed is the one who fears always, but the one who hardens his heart will fall into calamity.
  13. ↩Rom.1.28 — And just as they did not see fit to keep God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a disapproved mind, to do what is not fitting.
  14. ↩Rom.1.28 — And just as they did not see fit to keep God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a disapproved mind, to do what is not fitting.
  15. ↩Ps.137.7 — Remember, O LORD, against the Edomites the day of Jerusalem, how they said, 'Raze it, raze it, down to its foundations.'
  16. ↩Ps.137.7 — Remember, O LORD, against the Edomites the day of Jerusalem, how they said, 'Raze it, raze it, down to its foundations.'
  17. ↩1Cor.3.11 — For no one can lay another foundation besides the one that is already laid, which is Jesus Christ.

Notes

  1. 1 ↩The quotation is attributed to 'Proc.' (Proverbs) in the source. The Vulgate text of Prov. 2:14 reads 'qui laetantur cum malefecerunt' — a close match. The parenthetical citation is left open as the sentence continues in the next section.

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