De seminatione arboris sapientiae per timorem.
Fear as the Seed of Wisdom
Wisdom is sown in the soul through the fear of the Lord, which is its beginning, just as sprouts spring from seeds.
First, then, it was said there about wisdom that it is sown through fear. And indeed it is fitting that wisdom is sown through fear, because the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. And just as sprouts spring up from seeds, so wisdom is born from the fear of the Lord.
From Fear to Love
Fear of divine punishment drives the soul to seek God, and in finding him it discovers that love is born from fear and ultimately consumes it.
For love itself is wisdom, because through love we taste God, and by tasting we come to know him, as the Psalmist says: Taste and see that the Lord is sweet.✦ But the fear of the Lord itself leads us to love, because while it teaches us to fear danger, it makes us love protection. For when we consider the punishments of hell and the torments that await the damned, the mind is suddenly shaken with terror, and then, returning to itself and seeking a way of escape, it immediately longs for the one it recognizes can save it from the pressing danger. Once it finds him, it embraces him with the affection of love; then that horror, which was at first intolerable, is softened by love, and so love is indeed born from fear, but through love fear is consumed.✦
Poverty of Spirit Begun
Fear of the Lord makes a person poor in spirit, introducing a twofold poverty that the next section will unfold.
Furthermore, after the fear of the Lord comes to the heart it makes a person poor in spirit, but poverty of spirit is twofold.✦
Two Kinds of Riches, Two Kinds of Poverty
Bodily and spiritual riches are distinguished, and both the one who clings to temporal abundance and the one who boasts in personal strength are shut out of heaven's kingdom.
For there are both bodily riches in an abundance of temporal things, and spiritual riches in the possession of virtues. So each person is shown to be rich before God. But both the person who longs to have more than enough of these passing, perishable things, and the one who thinks highly of himself and boasts that he stands by his own strength — both are kept away from the kingdom of heaven.
Fear Silences Desire and Opens the Heart to Wisdom
The fear of the Lord quiets earthly clamor, prepares the heart for inner peace, and so begins the contemplation of heavenly wisdom through poverty of spirit.
But when the fear of the Lord comes to mind — setting before our thoughts the weight of the coming judgment and how strict a judge we are going to face — it quickly puts out every delight that earthly desire can offer, and, by usefully calling our weakness back to mind, shows us how humbly we ought to think of ourselves. Once the clamor of earthly desires has been quieted, the mind settles at once into an inner peace, and it is prepared by that very stillness so that it may become capable of heavenly wisdom. For wisdom is at home only in a peaceful heart — and so those in whom earthly desires still clamor have not yet learned what wisdom is. For just as blessed Job testifies — the Sea speaks of itself that it is not wisdom — because minds that carnal cares agitate do not grasp it; but the person who is diminished by activity finds it himself, because while the soul, withdrawn from external things, is gathered back to itself, it is raised up stronger to contemplate eternal things. So the fear of the Lord makes a person poor in spirit; poverty of spirit calms the heart; and the calm of the heart is the beginning of heavenly wisdom.
Read the original Latin
Primo igitur ibi de sapientia dictum est, quod per timorem seminatur. Et quidem pulchre per timorem seminatur sapientia, quia timor Domini principium est sapientiae. Et sicut de seminibus oriuntur germina, ita de timore Domini nascitur sapientia. Charitas enim ipsa est sapientia, quia per charitatem Deum gustamus, gustando autem cognoscimus sicut dicit Psalmista: Gustate, et videte quoniam suavis est Dominus. Timor autem Domini ipse ad nos charitatem adducit, quia dum docet timere periculum, facit amare praesidium. Consideratis enim poenis inferni et tormentis, quae damnatos exspectant, subito animus terrore concutitur, ac deinde ad se reversus, ac viam evadendi quaerens, statim illum ex desiderio requirit, per quem instans periculum evadere se posse agnoscit. Quem postquam invenit, ex affectu dilectionis amplectitur; tunc ille horror primum intolerabilis ex amore mitigatur, et sic de timore charitatis quidem nascitur, sed per charitatem timor consumitur. Praeterea timor Domini postquam venit ad cor facit pauperem spiritu, paupertas autem spiritus duplex est.
Nam sunt et corporales divitiae in affluentia rerum temporalium, et sunt spiritales divitiae in possessione virtutum. Uterque ergo apud Deum dives esse convincitur. Uterque a regno coelorum prohibetur, et ille videlicet, qui temporalibus his, et perituris bonis superfluo abundare concupiscit, et ille qui quasi magnum aliquid de se aestimans sua se virtute gloriatur stare. Sed timor Domini ad mentem veniens, dum pondus futuri examinis, et quam districtus venturus sit judex nobis in cogitatione anteponit, omnem mox terrenae concupiscentiae delectationem exstinguit, et nostram infirmitatem utiliter ad memoriam revocans, quam humilia de nobis sentire debeamus ostendit. Sopito deinde terrenorum desideriorum strepitu, continuo mens ad quietem internae pacis componitur, et ut capax esse possit coelestis sapientiae, ex ipsa sua tranquillitate praeparatur. Sapientia enim habitare nescit nisi in corde pacifico, et ideo illi, in quibus adhuc terrena desideria perstrepunt, quae sit sapientia non noverunt. Nam sicut beatus Job testatur - Mare loquitur secum non esse sapientiam, quia mentes, quas curae carnales exagitant, non comprehendunt eam, sed qui minoratur actu ipse invenit eam, quia dum animus ab exterioribus abstractus ad seipsum colligitur, robustior ad contemplanda aeterna sublevatur. Sic ergo timor Domini facit pauperem spiritu paupertas spiritus tranquillat cor, tranquillitas cordis inchoatio est sapientiae coelestis.
Scripture echoes
- ↩Ps.33.9 — For he spoke, and it came to be; he commanded, and it stood firm.
- ↩1John.4.18 — There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears has not been perfected in love.
- ↩Matt.5.3 — Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
De Arca Noe Morali et Mystica (On the Moral and Mystical Ark of Noah) companion
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