Prologus
Marveling at the Restless Heart
A brotherly conference turns to wonder at the human heart's instability, prompting the author to write down fresh insights for the community's edification.
Once when I was sitting among the brothers, and they were asking questions while I answered, many things had been brought forward; at last the conversation was drawn to this: that we all began to marvel together, and to sigh, at the instability and restlessness especially of the human heart; and they pressed with real eagerness to be shown what cause stirs up so many fluctuations of thought in a person's heart, and then urgently demanded to be taught whether and by what skill, or by the practice of any kind of effort, one could confront so great an evil. As far as I was able, with God inspiring me, I wanted to satisfy the brothers on both counts, and I untied the knot of each question by drawing on the supports of both authority and reason. In this conversation, however, I knew that certain things had especially pleased the brothers, and those I especially wanted to put into writing — not only because I judged them worth writing down, but because I realized that certain things, being in a way previously unheard, were all the more welcome.
Grace, Gift, and the Work of Restoration
The author promises to explain the cause of inner instability and the path to lasting peace, insisting that this restoration is God's gracious gift, which we must recognize in order to be grateful.
First, then, it must be shown from so great a shifting arises in the human heart, and next, how the human mind may be brought back to lasting peace, and how it can be kept stable in that same peace. And though I have no doubt that this is the proper work of divine grace, and that it is possessed not so much by human effort as by the gift of God and the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, yet I know that God wills to work with us, and so He freely bestows the gifts of His loving kindness, in order that He may often withdraw them even from the ungrateful. Besides, it is also useful for this reason to recognize the greatness of our weakness and the way of restoration: because a person who does not know how much grace has been given to him does not understand how much thanks he owes the Giver.
Created for Contemplation, Cast Out by Sin
The first human being was made to stand in unbroken contemplation of the Creator, but through sin he lost that true good and became a wanderer and fugitive on earth.
The first human being, then, was created for this: that if he had not sinned, he would always stand in the presence of his Creator through contemplation, so that by always seeing Him he would always love Him, and by always loving Him would always cling to Him; and by always clinging to Him, who is immortal, he would possess eternal life in Him without end. This, then, was the one true good of the human person: namely, the full and perfect knowledge of his Creator — full, that is, according to the fullness he had received when created, not according to the fullness he was to receive after completing his obedience. But he was cast out from the Lord's presence, because, struck with the blindness of ignorance on account of sin, he came out from the inner light of that contemplation; and the more he inclined his mind toward earthly desires, the more he began to forget the sweetness of heavenly things — whose taste he had already lost. And so he became a wanderer and a fugitive on the earth.
The Divided Heart and Its Remedy
The fallen heart wanders in disordered desire and is divided by earthly cravings, never finding rest until it clings to God; thus the disease is the love of the world, and the remedy is the love of God.
Wandering, that is, through disordered desire, a fugitive through a sinful conscience. To this the voice of conscience is also aptly joined. Whoever finds me will kill me.✦ Because whatever temptation assails a mind deserted by divine help, it overthrows. So the human heart, which before offered itself steadfast and fixed to divine love, and in loving the One remained one, after it began to flow away through earthly desires, is divided, as it were, into as many parts as the things it craves. And so it happens that a mind which does not know how to love the true good can never be stable, because, not finding the end of its desire in the things it embraces, while it always stretches itself out in desire pursuing what it cannot attain, it never rests. Hence, then, there is born motion without stability, labor without rest, a race without reaching the goal, so that our heart is always restless until it begins to cling to that One, where it may rejoice that its desire lacks nothing, and may trust that the things it loves will always endure. See, we have shown the disease: a heart that wavers, a heart that is unstable, a heart that is restless. And the cause of the disease—namely the love of the world—and the remedy for the disease—the love of God—to which a fourth element is necessarily added: the attaining of the remedy, that is, how we may be able to reach the love of God, without which knowing the other things will profit us little or nothing.
Read the original Latin
Cum sederem aliquando in conventu fratrum, et illis interrogantibus, meque respondente, multa in medium prolata fuissent, ad hoc tandem deducta sunt verba, ut de humani potissimum cordis instabilitate et inquietudine admirari omnes simul, et suspirare inciperemus; cumque magno quidem desiderio exposcerent, demonstrari sibi quae causa in corde hominis tantas cogitationum fluctuationes ageret, ac deinde si qua arte, sive laboris cujuslibet exercitatione huic tanto malo obviam iri posset, summopere doceri flagitarent; nos quantum Deo inspirante valuimus, in utroque charitati fratrum satisfacere volentes, utriusque quaestionis nodum ductis tam ex auctoritate quam ex ratione firmamentis solvimus. In collatione autem, quia quaedam specialiter placuisse fratribus scio, ea potissimum stylo commendare volui, non tantum ideo quod ea digna scribi existimem, sed quia quaedam ibi prius inaudita quodammodo magis grata esse cognovi. Primo igitur demonstrandum est, unde tanta in corde hominis vicissitudo oriatur, ac deinceps quomodo ad pacem stabilem mens humana reduci, qualiterque in eadem stabilitate sua conservari possit insinuandum. Et licet hoc proprium divinae gratiae opus esse non dubitem, et non tam humana industria, quam divino munere, et sancti Spiritus inspiratione possideri; scio tamen quod cooperari nobis vult Deus, et sic gratis pietatis suae dona praestat, ut ingratis ea etiam, quae praestiterit saepe subtrahat. Praeterea etiam idcirco non inutile est, et infirmitatis nostrae magnitudinem, et reparationis modum agnoscere, quia qui quanta sibi gratia collata sit nescit, quantas largitori grates debeat non intelligit. Primus itaque homo ad hoc conditus fuit, ut si non peccasset, per contemplationis praesentiam vultui Creatoris sui semper assisteret, ut eum semper videndo, semper amaret, semper amando, semper ei adhaereret, semper ei adhaerendo, qui immortalis est, etiam in ipso vitam sine termino possideret. Hoc ergo erat unum et verum bonum hominis, plena videlicet et perfecta cognitio sui conditoris, plena scilicet secundum illam plenitudinem, quam creatus acceperat, non secundum illam quam post peractam obedientiam accepturus erat. Sed projectus est a facie Domini quoniam propter peccatum caecitate ignorantiae percussus ab intima contemplationis illius luce foras venit, eoque profundius ad desideria terrena mentem inclinavit, quo magis supernorum dulcedinem (quorum jam gustum perdiderat) oblivisci coepit; sicque factus est vagus, et profugus super terram.
Vagus videlicet per inordinatam concupiscentiam profugus per peccatricem conscientiam. Cujus voce etiam illud apte subjungitur. Quisquis enim invenerit me, occidet me. Quia mentem divino desertam auxilio quaecunque tentatio impetierit, subvertit. Cor ergo hominis, quod prius divino amori affixum stabile praestitit, et unum amando unum permansit, postquam per desideria terrena difluere coepit; quasi in tot divisum est, quod ea sunt quae concupiscit. Sicque fit, ut mens quae verum bonum amare nescit, nunquam valeat esse stabilis, quia desiderii sui finem in his quae amplectitur non inveniens, dum semper se desiderio extendit sequens quod consequi non valet, nunquam requiescit; hinc igitur nascitur motus sine stabilitate, labor sine requie, cursus sine perventione, ita ut semper sit inquietum cor nostrum, donec illi adhaerere coeperit; ubi et desiderio suo nihil deesse gaudeat, et ea quae diligit semper mansura confidat. Ecce ostendimus morbum cor fluctuans, cor instabile, cor inquietum. Et causam morbi, amorem videlicet mundi, et remedium morbi amorem Dei, quibus necessario quartum adjungitur, adeptio remedii, scilicet qualiter possimus pertingere ad amorem Dei, sine quo caetera agnovisse aut parum, aut nihil proderit.
Scripture echoes
- ↩Gen.3.15 — I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.
De Arca Noe Morali et Mystica (On the Moral and Mystical Ark of Noah) companion
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