De gradibus humilitatis et superbiae
The Impious Presumption Against God
The sinner presumes upon God's patience, but God's omniscience, goodness, and power leave no room for escape or excuse.
This is where it leads, you impious one — this is what you're thinking: this is the iniquity you brood over in your bed, and you say, "Do you suppose the Creator would destroy his own work?" I know full well that no thought of mine, of whatever kind, is hidden from God — for he is God. Nor does such a thought of mine please him — because he is good. But even if he chose to act, I could not escape his hand — because he is powerful. Should I have no reason to fear him, then?1 For even though he is good, my evil cannot please him — how much less, then, his own? My own case, I would say, is wanting something against his will; but his own case — that would be avenging himself. So then: no crime, however great, can will its own punishment — neither does it will to, nor can it be stripped of his goodness.2
Self-Deception Before the All-Seeing God
The sinner deceives only himself, not God, and his ingratitude turns divine goodness into just cause for judgment.
You deceive yourself, wretch — you deceive yourself, not God. You deceive yourself, I say, and wickedness lies to itself, not to God. You act deceitfully, yes — but it is in his sight. So then, you deceive yourself, not God. And because from the great good he has shown you, you devise great evil against him, your wickedness is justly found out, and turned to hatred.
The Greatest Iniquity: Despising the Creator
The summit of iniquity is to despise the Creator who deserves love, trusting in His mercy while repaying His love with hatred.
What greater iniquity is there than this: that the Creator is despised by you, from whom He deserved to be loved all the more? What greater iniquity is there than this: when you do not doubt God's power — when you don't doubt that He who was able to create you is certainly able to destroy you — yet, trusting in His great sweetness, by which you hope that He is unwilling to take vengeance even when He can, you repay hatred for His love, and evil for our good?3
Read the original Latin
Hoc est enim, o impie, hoc est quod cogitas; haec est iniquitas, quam meditaris in cubili tuo, et dicis: "Putas Creator opus suum destruat"? Scio quidem quia non latet Deum qualiscumque cogitatio mea: Deus enim est. Nec placet ei talis cogitatio mea, quia bonus est. Sed nec si velit, ego effugiam manus eius, quia potens est. Numquid tamen mihi timendum est? Si enim cum bonus sit, non potest illi placere malum meum, quanto minus suum? Meum quippe dixerim contra eius voluntatem aliquid velle; suum autem, si vindicet sese. Tam ergo quodcumque scelus non valet velle ulcisci, quam nec vult, nec valet sua bonitate privari.
Fallis te, miser, fallis te, non Deum. Te, inquam, fallis, et mentitur iniquitas sibi, non Deo. Dolose quidem agis, sed in conspectu eius. Te ergo fallis, non Deum. Et quia de magno eius bono in te, tu magnum in eum excogitas malum, merito iniquitas tua invenitur ad odium.
Quae namque maior iniquitas, quam ut inde Creator a te contemnatur, unde plus amari merebatur? Quae maior iniquitas, quam cum de potentia Dei non dubites, quin te scilicet destruere possit, qui condere potuit, confisus tamen de multa eius dulcedine, qua speras eum nolle vindicare cum possit, mala pro nobis, odium retribuas pro dilectione?
Notes
- 1 ↩numquid tamen expects a negative answer — the speaker is pressing the rhetorical point that fear of God is indeed warranted
- 2 ↩The final clause (nec valet sua bonitate privari) is ambiguous: it may mean that the crime cannot deprive God of his goodness, or that the sinner cannot be deprived of God's goodness by the crime. The translation follows the more natural reading that the crime itself cannot rob God of his goodness.
- 3 ↩dulcedo rendered as 'sweetness' carries the sense of God's tender goodness/kindness; theologically loaded term in Kempis
De gradibus humilitatis et superbiae (On the Steps of Humility and Pride) companion
Humility is climbed one day at a time
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