Caput VI
The Fall and Its Heavy Yoke
Through Adam's disobedience, all humanity fell under a heavy yoke of suffering, losing the dominion and rational clarity once granted, now reduced to learning wisdom even from the ant.
For after that first parent stood in opposition to his Creator through disobedience, he bowed himself under this heavy yoke along with all his offspring, so that what was said is truly the case: "Man's life on earth is a trial" (Job 7:1).✦ By refusing to submit to God's commands, he cast himself down under his own necessities — he whom free servitude had exalted so greatly that, if he had been subject to the One, he would have possessed all things as subject to himself. But by lifting up the neck of his heart, captive freedom cast him down so that he now suffers many things even from the smallest creatures — and, what is more wretched still, from himself. Moreover, that great honor by which he was enriched above all other corporeal creatures — namely, the keenness of his rational mind — has been so dulled in him that, although he ought to have presided over every visible creature, he is now commanded to learn how to live from the example of an ant. "Go," it says, "to the ant, you sluggard" (Prov.✦ 6:6).✦
The Restless Mind Seeking Rest
The human mind, having lost God who alone could satisfy it, is now tossed by restless desires and finds no rest until it returns to its Creator.
But the mind, which through its fleeting changeability lost the one God who alone could satisfy it, is now tossed about by various desires and, driven by its restless craving for pleasure, searches here and there for something in which it might finally rest. But since it was created to seek God alone, after it withdrew from him it has found nothing that can satisfy it — until it returns to him.
Disordered Desire and the Need for Divine Instruction
The soul, pulled by shifting desires and worn by ignorance, chases empty pleasures; God provides teachers to restrain vice, yet few truly form children for justice rather than for the world.
And so the soul is now pulled in different directions by shifting desires; since it can't be satisfied by the substance of things themselves, it tries to fill itself instead with the sheer variety of things. Worn down by weariness, our very nature is led from one thought to another: it craves what it once found distasteful, and it grows sick of what it once craved. And this, no matter where it settles, makes one thing clear — that its dependence lies elsewhere. The first punishment of this condition is, as Augustine says, a terrifying depth of ignorance, which gives birth to a tangled web of love for wicked and empty things. Through these we chase after hollow pleasures, excess, and countless other such things — and from these grow gnawing anxieties, inner turmoil, grief, fear, and all the rest, which spring up in children so vigorously that if they're left to do as they please, they'll hardly ever arrive at anything good. Against these disordered desires, God provides the instruction of teachers, so that wrong craving is held in check and the desire for good is, at least to some degree, encouraged. If only, in keeping with that word of Daniel, even one teacher could now be found who would instruct everyone in justice.✦ Indeed, they choose to train their children for this world rather than for the Apostle's standard — whereas Job, though a pagan, sanctified even his grown children so thoroughly that they didn't sin in their hearts either.✦
Read the original Latin
Nam postquam ille primus parens Conditori per inobedientiam contrarius exstitit, ad hoc grave jugum cum omni sua stirpe sese incurvavit, ut veraciter dictum sit quod tentatio est vita hominis super terram (Job VII, 1). Divinis enim jussionibus subesse nolens, sub suis se necessitatibus prostravit: quem ita exaltaverat libera servitus, ut si uni subjectus esset, cuncta sibi subdita possideret. Sed cervicem cordis erigendo sic eum dejecit captiva libertas, ut etiam a vermiculis, et, quod magis est miserum, a seipso multa patiatur. Porro ille magnus honor, quo inter caeteras corporeas creaturas ditatus est, rationalis videlicet acuitas in eo sic hebetata est, ut cum omni creaturae visibili praeesse debuerit, nunc exemplo formicae vivere jubeatur. Vade, inquit, ad formicam, o piger (Prov. VI, 6). Mens autem quae fluxa mutabilitate unum, qui ei sufficere poterat, Deum scilicet amisit, nunc per diversa desideria variatur, et huc illucque avida delectatione quaerit, in quo pausetur. Sed quoniam ad solum Deum appetendum creata est, postquam ab illo recessit, nihil invenit, quod ei sufficiat, donec ad ipsum redeat.
Unde nunc per diversos affectus variatur, ut cum rerum qualitate satiari non potest, saltem varietate ipsarum rerum expleatur. Victa taedio ipsa natura a cogitatione in cogitationem ducitur; quod fastidiebat appetit, et quod appetebat fastidit, quae dum quolibet posita, profecto docet quod aliunde pendet. Cujus prima damnatio est, ut Augustinus dicit, horrenda profunditas ignorantiae, quae gignit malarum vanarumque rerum multiplices amores, per quos appetuntur vana gaudia, et luxuria et innumera hujusmodi: ex quibus succrescunt mordaces curae, perturbationes, moerores, formidines, et caetera talia quae in ipsis infantibus ita pullulant, ut si dimittantur facere quod volunt, vix unquam ad aliquid boni perveniant. Contra quos eruditio magistrorum divinitus procuratur, ut prava cupiditas infrenetur, et boni appetitus utcunque suadeantur. Si tamen aliquis magistrorum, juxta illud Danielis inveniri jam possit, qui ad justitiam erudiat omnes. Etenim huic saeculo magis contra Apostolum eligentes informant; cum Job licet gentilis ita filios etiam adultos sanctificabat, ut nec in corde quidem peccarent.
Scripture echoes
- ↩Job.7.1 — Does not a human have a hard service on earth, and are not his days like the days of a hired worker?
- ↩Prov.6.6 — Go to the ant, you lazy one; observe her ways and become wise.
- ↩Prov.6.6 — Go to the ant, you lazy one; observe her ways and become wise.
- ↩Dan.12.3 — And those who are wise will shine like the brightness of the sky, and those who lead many to righteousness, like the stars forever and ever.
- ↩Job.1.5 — When the days of the feast had run their course, Job would send and sanctify them. He would rise early in the morning and offer burnt offerings according to the number of them all. For Job said, "Perhaps my children have sinned and cursed God in their hearts." Thus Job did continually.
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