Caput XLI
The Habitual Blindness of Sin
Habitual sin has so dulled the human heart that even the learned and the holy can no longer rightly discern what sin truly is.
Because among all evils this one does the gravest harm: the worst practice of sinning has by now been so strengthened by habit itself that scarcely anyone can rightly distinguish what sin is. But just as Aaron did not resist the sons of Israel when they sought gods, so all people are either wicked themselves or yield to wickedness. Therefore Isaiah, weeping, says concerning God: 'Whom will he teach knowledge, and whom will he make to understand the message?'✦ Priest and prophet did not know — they were swallowed up by drunkenness, absorbed by wine; they did not know the One who sees, that is, the Lord, and they were ignorant of judgment (Isaiah).✦ 28, 7, 9), that is, to discern the weight of sin.
Complicity and Self-Deception in the Faithful
Rather than rebuking sin, the faithful applaud it, and like the mad, they feel no shame and even pride themselves on their folly.
Indeed, rather than rebuke the adulterers, as they should have — as it says there — the priests applauded them, and my people loved such things.✦ Therefore what usually happens to such people has happened to us, as John Chrysostom says: those who either suffer from madness or are captive in mind — when many shameful and dangerous things are said or done by them, they feel no shame and take no repentance; indeed, they even consider themselves magnificent and wiser than the sane and the wise. So it is with us as well: when we do everything that is contrary to spiritual health, we don't even recognize the very thing that is most insane in us.
The Neglected Wound of the Soul
We lavish care on the body when it is slightly ill, yet we ignore the daily destruction of our souls, because the disease is universal and no sound counselor remains.
But here's the thing: if even a small trace of illness strikes the body, we immediately call in the doctors, pour out our money, and carry out every measure of care that belongs to medical treatment — and we don't stop until the troubling symptoms are relieved, if it can be done at all. The soul, however, is wounded daily — torn apart bit by bit, burned, shared in — and perishes in every way, yet not even a small concern for it troubles us.1 But the reason is this: the disease has seized everyone alike, and it's as though, when it strikes many who are languishing together under one affliction, there's no one at hand who is sound.2 It's certain that negligence alike corrupts and consumes everything, since there's no one who either offers what is timely or forbids what is harmful. And so it happens to us: since no one is sound in heart, but we all languish from the health of mind — some from a greater plague, others from a lesser — there's truly no one who would care. Indeed, if someone were present who could somehow discern either the precepts of Christ or our transgressions, I don't know whether he would judge any others more contrary to his precepts than we ourselves.
Read the original Latin
Quod autem inter omnia mala gravius nocet, ita pessimus peccandi usus ipsa jam consuetudine roboratus est, ut pene nullus justo judicio peccatum discernere queat. Sed sicut Aaron filiis Israel deos quaerentibus non restitit, sic omnes aut iniqui sunt, aut iniquitati cedunt. Quapropter illacrymans Isaias de Deo dicit: Quem docebit scientiam, et quem intelligere faciet auditum? Sacerdos et propheta nescierunt, prae ebrietate absorpti sunt a vino, nescierunt videntem, id est Dominum, et ignoraverunt judicium (Isa. XXVIII, 7, 9), id est discernere pondus peccati. Quin potius adulteris, quos arguere debuerant, ut ibi dicitur, sacerdotes applaudebant, et populus meus dilexit talia. Contigit ergo nobis quod illis solet, sicut Joannes Chrysostomus dicit, qui vel phrenesin patiuntur, vel mente capti sunt, a quibus cum multa turpia et periculosa vel dicantur vel gerantur, nec pudoris tamen aliquid nec poenitudinis capiunt; quinimo et magnifici sibi ac sapientiores sanis videntur ac sapientibus. Ita ergo, et nos cum omnia quae sanitati contraria sunt geramus, nec hoc ipsum quidem quod est insanius nobis cognoscimus.
At enim si in corpore parum aliquid morbi pulsaverit, statim et medicos adhibemus, et pecuniam profundimus, et omni observantia curam, quae medicinae competit, gerimus, nec prius cessatur, quam quae molesta sunt mitigentur, si utcunque fieri potest. Anima vero cum quotidie vulneretur, cum per singula lanietur, uratur, participetur, et modis omnibus pereat, nec parva quidem pro ea cura nos sollicitat. Sed haec causa est quod omnis pariter morbus obtinuit, et tanquam si eveniat, multis sub uno languentibus praesto esse neminem sanum. Certum est quod omnis pariter corrumpat et absumat incuria, dum nemo est qui vel opportuna praebeat, vel importuna prohibeat. Ita et nobis accidit: dum enim nemo sanus est corde, sed omnes languemus a salute mentis, alii majore, alii minore peste, nemo utique est qui curet. Etenim si quis utcunque adesset, qui vel praecepta Christi, vel transgressiones nostras discerneret, nescio si ullos alios magis quam nos ipsos praeceptis ejus contrarios judicaret.
Scripture echoes
- ↩Isa.28.9 — Whom shall he teach knowledge, and whom shall he make understand the message? Those weaned from the milk, those drawn from the breast.
- ↩Isa.28.7-Isa.28.8 — And even these reel with wine and stagger with strong drink; priest and prophet reel with strong drink, they are swallowed up by wine, they stagger from strong drink, they reel in vision, they stumble in judgment. Isa.28.8 — For all tables are full of vomit and filthiness — there is no place left clean.
- ↩Hos.4.18 — Their ruler has turned aside; their drink has run out. They have played the harlot, they have played the harlot. They have loved—bring—shame upon their shields.
Notes
- 1 ↩participetur: sense uncertain; rendered as 'shared in' per candidate gloss, but the intended meaning may be 'takes part' or 'is made to participate'
- 2 ↩sub uno languentibus: 'under one' may refer to a single head, a shared condition, or a collective affliction; rendered as 'together under one affliction' to capture the communal sense
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