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Chapter 20OdoC.2.20

Caput XIX

The Gait That Reveals the Heart

A disordered walk betrays an undisciplined interior, for just as the mouth speaks from the heart's abundance, so the body's movements reveal the soul's true condition.

A composed way of walking, however, is greatly at odds both with religious life and with propriety. For just as the mouth, according to the word of the Lord, speaks out of the abundance of the heart, so the movements of the outer person are shaped by the quality of the inner one.✦1 For this reason it is written: 'The clothing of the body, the laughter of the teeth, and the gait of a person declare concerning him' (Sir.2 19:27).

God's Judgment on Proud Bearing

The Lord, through Isaiah, pronounces devastating judgment on the daughters of Zion whose haughty walk, lifted heads, and measured steps display a pride that invites divine humiliation.

To nature, surely, nothing false is pleasing; but how greatly it displeases the Author of that same nature, He Himself bears witness, saying through the Prophet: 'Because the daughters of Zion have been lifted up, and have walked with head held high, and with the glances of their eyes, and went with nods of their eyes, and clapped, and walked, and with their own feet walked with measured step, the Lord will make bald the crown of the daughters of Zion, and the Lord will lay bare their hair' (Isa.✦34 3:16–17), and so on up to that point: 'And in place of sweet fragrance there will be stench, and in place of a belt a rope, and in place of curled hair, baldness, and in place of a sash, sackcloth' (Isa.✦5 3:24).

The Saint Who Corrected Disorderly Feet

Saint Ambrose forced two clerics who walked disorderly to march backwards in procession, and one of them later fell publicly and was stripped of his rank.

Saint Ambrose, in his book On Duties, speaks of two clerics who walked in a disorderly way: at the time of the procession he made them walk backwards, because he could not bear to see the bad habit in them that he was unable to correct. One of them afterwards — as Ambrose himself reports — fell publicly and was cast down from his rank.6

Reading Julian's Soul in His Body

Gregory of Nazianzus discerned Julian the apostate's corrupt character through his unstable gait, stiff neck, darting eyes, and arrogant bearing, prophesying from his body the evil he would bring upon the Roman republic.

Gregory of Nazianzus too, in his second book against the pagans, writes about Julian the apostate in this way: "Once, he says, I came to know this same Julian's character more clearly, while I was getting a better sense of him from Athens." I have reflected on this person, and not without purpose. A prophet is someone distinguished precisely by the fact that he looks carefully. So there was in him an instability of character, an exaggerated walk, a stiff neck, restless shoulders, eyes darting this way and that, impatient feet, nostrils breathing contempt, unrestrained laughter, and a kind of simmering arrogance. But why do I run through every detail? I saw this man before his deeds, and I said: "O what an evil the Roman republic nourishes!"

Read the original Latin

Compositus vero incessus cum a religione, tum etiam ab honestate multum abhorret. Sicut enim os juxta vocem Domini ex cordis abundantia loquitur, sic exterioris hominis motus ex qualitate Interioris formantur. Hinc enim scriptum est: Amictus corporis, et risus dentium, et incessus hominis, enuntiant de eo (Eccli. XIX, 27). Naturae quippe nil fucatum placet, sed potius quantum Auctori ejusdem naturae displiceat, ipse testatur, dicens per Prophetam: Pro eo quod elevatae sunt filiae Sion, et erecto ambulaverunt collo, et nutibus oculorum ibant, et plaudebant, et ambulabant, et pedibus suis composito gradu incedebant, decalvabit Dominus verticem filiarum Sion, et Dominus crinem earum nudabit (Isa. III, 16, 17), et caetera usque illud: Et erit pro suavi odore fetor, et pro zona funiculus, et pro crispante crine calvitium, et pro fascia pectorali cilicium (Isa. III, 24). Sanctus Ambrosius in libro Officiorum dicit de duobus clericis qui inordinate incedebant, quod tempore processionis retro se faciebat eos incedere, quia videlicet usum malum quem corrigere in eis non poterat, videre non patiebatur: quorum unus postea sicut ipse refert publice lapsus, atque de suo gradu dejectus est.

Gregorius quoque Nazianzenus in secundo contra paganos libro ita de Juliano apostata refert: Mihi, inquit, olim ejusdem Juliani mores comperti sunt, dum hunc ab Athenis clarius agnovissem. Consideravi enim virum, et non frustra. Vates enim egregius est qui bene considerat. Erat igitur in eo inconstantia morum, incessus uberior, cervix inflexibilis, humeri jactabiles, oculi huc illucque discurrentes, pedes impatientes, nares spirantes contemptum, risus incontinens, et quasi subbulliens. Sed quid per universa discurro? Hunc ante opera vidi, et dixi: O quale malum nutrit respublica Romanorum?

Scripture echoes

  1. ↩Matt.12.34;Luke.6.45 — Offspring of vipers! How can you speak good things, being evil? For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. Luke.6.45 — The good person brings out good from the good treasure of the heart, and the evil person brings out evil from the evil treasure. For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.
  2. ↩Isa.3.16-Isa.3.17 — And the LORD said, Because the daughters of Zion are haughty and walk with outstretched necks and wanton eyes, walking and mincing as they go, and making a tinkling with their feet, Isa.3.17 — And the Lord will strike the scalps of the daughters of Zion with sores, and Yahweh will lay bare their private parts.
  3. ↩Isa.3.18-Isa.3.24 — In that day the Lord will take away the finery of the anklets, the headbands, and the crescents— Isa.3.19 — the pendants, the charms, and the veils Isa.3.20 — the headdresses, the ankle chains, the sashes, the amulets, and the charms Isa.3.21 — the rings and the nose-rings, Isa.3.22 — the robes, the capes, the cloaks, and the purses Isa.3.23 — and the mirrors, and the linen garments, and the turbans, and the veils, Isa.3.24 — And instead of perfume there will be rot, and instead of a sash a rope, and instead of braided hair baldness, and instead of a fine robe a sackcloth wrapping — for beauty will be ashes.

Notes

  1. 1 ↩Alludes to the dominical saying about the mouth speaking from the abundance of the heart (cf. Matt 12:34 / Luke 6:45).
  2. 2 ↩Quotation from Sirach (Ecclesiasticus), deuterocanonical.
  3. 3 ↩Extended quotation from Isaiah 3:16–17 (Vulgate numbering).
  4. 4 ↩Auctori rendered 'Author of nature' for God as Creator.
  5. 5 ↩Continuation of Isaiah 3, extending the quotation through v. 24.
  6. 6 ↩Officiorum = Ambrose's De Officiis (On Duties).

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