Caput XV
The Beastliness of Lust and the True Source of Health
Those who yield to lust are likened to beasts of burden, and true healing is found not in bodily indulgence but in hope in the Lord.
Isn't there a likeness to the beasts of burden in those who are driven by lust? Aren't the horse and the mule without understanding — those who hope, or rather pretend to hope, that sexual union might benefit the body's health? As the prophet says: Heal me, O Lord, and I shall be healed (Jer.✦ 17:14). Hoping in the Lord, I shall not be weakened (Ps.✦ 25:1). This is understood with regard to the health of the mind, though the health of the flesh is not thereby denied. And indeed, on the contrary, nothing weakens the flesh as lust does, whence Jerome says: The things that are near to men quickly grow old.1
Pagans, Prophets, and the Inversion of Christ's Command
Even pagan athletes guarded their chastity for earthly victory, yet Christians surrender their souls for the body's sake — a perverse idolatry of the flesh.
Those who were set apart among the pagans to run for a prize or to wrestle in the theater used to wrap lead plates around their groins, so that they wouldn't be weakened in their strength through a nocturnal emission and thus defiled. But as the prophet says, the love of fornication has stolen their heart — people who don't even understand through sacred Scripture what the pagans had learned through experience. For Christ commands that the body be given up for the salvation of the soul; these people, on the contrary, surrender the soul for the salvation of the body. Since this is in fact more harmful to the body itself. It's no wonder if the one who loves iniquity hates his own soul, or if the one whose god is his belly and who pursues greed — which is slavery to idols — seeks the safety of the flesh with contempt for God, like an idolater.✦✦
Vanity of Dress and the Spirit of Lust
Those who worship the flesh through extravagant and effeminate clothing, following ancient corruption and foreign fashions, declare themselves servants of lust under God's judgment.
They worship the flesh in a perverse order — the flesh, which profits them nothing — and neglect the spirit, which gives life. Truly they are empty and deceitful sons of men, a people of Gomorrah, as Isaiah says, worshippers of garments, since God through Ezekiel complains that in their pride they make use of its ornaments. They even clothe themselves in exotic garments, just as Josephus records that the Jews did before the destruction. For Hegesippus reports about these people that they then used women's clothing, shaved off their beards, and whitened their faces in the manner of prostitutes. These men, however, imitating an ancient custom and adopting certain newfangled styles in their dress, declare themselves to be inspired by the same spirit of lust — since God threatens that he will punish everyone who is clothed in a foreign garment.✦23
Read the original Latin
Annon in luxuriosis jumentorum similitudo est? Annon sic equus et mulus intellectu carent, qui sperant, vel potius sperare se fingunt, quod carnis concubitus ad sanitatem proficiat corporis? cum propheta dicat: Sana me, Domine, et sanabor (Jer. XVII, 14). Domino sperans non infirmabor (Psal. XXV, 1). Quod ita de sanitate mentis intelligitur, ut tamen de sanitate carnis non negetur. Et enim econtra nihil ita carnem debilitat ut luxuria, unde Hieronymus ait: Cito senescunt quae juxta viros sunt.
Qui destinati apud gentiles erant vel ad bravium currere vel in theatro luctari: ne polluti per somnium viribus enervarentur, plumbeas laminas circa inguines adhibebant. Sed istis, ut propheta ait, fornicationis amor abstulit cor; quippe qui nec hoc ipsum intelligunt per sacram Scripturam quod pagani noverant per experimentum. Christus namque jubet ut pro salute animae tradatur corpus, isti econtra pro salute corporis tradunt animam. Cum quidem hoc magis detrimentum sit ipsius corporis. Nec mirum si is, qui diligit iniquitatem, odit animam suam; aut si is, cujus deus venter est, et qui sequitur avaritiam, quae est idolorum servitus, salutem carnis cum Dei contemptu tanquam idololatra requirit. Qui perverso ordine colunt carnem, quae non prodest, quicunque et negligunt spiritum, qui vivificatur, revera vani et mendaces filii hominum, populus Gomorrhae, ut ait Isaias, cultores vestium; cum Deus per Ezechielem queratur, quod in superbia ornamentis ipsius utantur. Qui etiam, sicut Josephus Judaeos ante excidium fecisse commemorat, vestimentis exoticis induuntur. Nam de his Hegesippus refert, quia tunc femineis utebantur, et mutilabant sibi barbas, atque suas facies more meretricum dealbabant.
Hi vero priscum imitantes morem, et novellas quasdam species in habitu assumentes, eodem se spiritu libidinis afflatos esse docent; cum Deus comminetur quia visitabit super omnem qui indutus est veste peregrina.
Scripture echoes
- ↩Jer.17.14 — Heal me, O LORD, and I will be healed; save me, and I will be saved, for you are my praise.
- ↩Ps.25.1 — Of David. To you, O LORD, I lift up my soul.
- ↩Phil.3.19 — whose end is destruction, whose god is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame, who set their minds on earthly things.
- ↩Col.3.5 — Put to death, therefore, the parts of you that belong to the earth: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed, which is idolatry.
- ↩Zeph.1.8 — And it shall be on the day of the sacrifice of the LORD, that I will punish the officials and the sons of the king, and all who wear foreign clothing.
Notes
- 1 ↩The phrase 'quae juxta viros sunt' is ambiguous: it may refer to women or to worldly things near to men. Jerome's original context likely refers to women or worldly temptations that age quickly. The translation preserves the ambiguity of the Latin.
- 2 ↩visito rendered as 'punish' rather than 'visit' given the threatening context of comminetur; the Latin allows both senses.
- 3 ↩The closing clause echoes Zephaniah 1:8 (Vulgate: 'visitabo super omnes qui induti sunt veste peregrina'), where God threatens judgment on those wearing foreign garments. Status: candidate allusion pending Moses resolution.
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