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Chapter 30SpCar.1.30

Quod hi, qui de Dominici oneris gravitate queruntur, mundi potius onere comprimuntur.

The World's Heavier Yoke

Those who complain of Christ's yoke are shown to be secretly crushed beneath the far heavier burden of worldly desire, hypocrisy, and greed.

So those who complain about the harshness of this yoke may not have fully cast off the heaviest yoke of worldly desire — or having cast it off, they have taken it up again with even greater confusion. Outwardly they profess to prefer the yoke of the Lord, yet inwardly they load their shoulders with the burdens of worldly affairs, substituting the labors and pains to which they devote themselves and charging them against the weight of the Lord's burden. And so they disdain the Lord's commandments — which, as John says, are not burdensome (1 John).✦123 Like dogs returning to their own vomit, under the appearance of those who practice abstinence they cultivate the belly; under the garment of penitents they aspire to worldly glories and honors; under the sacred robe of the continent they are stained with the filth of the flesh; under the lamb's fleece they carry a wolfish mind, burning with insatiable greed — house to house, field to field they join together, they spare no widows, they pity no orphans, they claim the patrimonies of the poor for themselves. For these things they are prone to lawsuits and contentions, ready for judgments; for these things they are tormented by continual cares, inflamed by hatreds, anxious and scattered in their thoughts — because the yoke is not the Lord's but the world's, and it is harsh, and the burden of the world is heavy.✦✦✦4567

The Sweetness of Christ's Burden

In contrast to the world's crushing weight, the Lord's yoke is declared sweet and His burden light.

Furthermore, the yoke of the Lord is sweet, and the burden of the Lord is light.✦8

Read the original Latin

Proinde qui de jugi hujus asperitate causantur, forte gravissimum mundialis concupiscentiae jugum, aut non plene abjecerunt, aut abjectum cum majori confusione resumpserunt; ac a foris jugum Dominicum praeferentes, sed ab intus humeros saecularium negotiorum sarcinae supponentes, labores et dolores, quibus semetipsos addicunt, gravitati Dominici oneris imputant; sicque praecepta Domini, quae sicut dicit Joannes, gravia non sunt, fastidientes (1 Joan. v), et ut canes proprium vomitum repascentes, sub habitu abstinentium, ventrem colunt: sub tunica poenitentium, ad mundiales glorias et honores anhelant; sub sacro amictu continentium, carnis sordibus maculantur; sub agnino vellere, lupinum gerentes animum, ac inexplebili avaritia aestuantes, domum ad domum, agrum agro copulant, viduis non parcunt, orphanis non miserentur, patrimonia sibi pauperum vendicant, pro his ad lites et contentiones proni, ad judicia parati, pro his continuis curis eviscerantur, inflammantur odiis, anxii cogitationibus dissipantur; quia jugum non Domini, sed mundi asperum est, et onus mundi grave est. Porro jugum Domini suave est, et onus Domini leve est.

Scripture echoes

  1. ↩1John.5.3 — For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments, and his commandments are not burdensome.
  2. ↩Prov.26.11;2Pet.2.22 — As a dog returns to its vomit, so a fool repeats his folly. 2Pet.2.22 — It has happened to them according to the true proverb: 'A dog returns to its own vomit,' and 'A sow, after washing herself, returns to wallowing in the mud.'
  3. ↩Matt.7.15 — Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves.
  4. ↩Isa.5.8 — Woe to those who join house to house, who add field to field, until there is no more room, and you are made to dwell alone in the midst of the land.
  5. ↩Matt.11.30 — For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.

Notes

  1. 1 ↩Proinde rendered as 'So' to capture the inferential force linking this chapter to the previous one.
  2. 2 ↩gravitati Dominici oneris imputant: literally 'impute to the weightiness of the Lord's burden' — the sense is that they blame the Lord's yoke for the weight they have actually loaded onto themselves.
  3. 3 ↩Reference to 1 John 5:3 ('His commandments are not burdensome') cited but not yet resolved against Moses.
  4. 4 ↩The opening simile ('like dogs returning to their own vomit') echoes Proverbs 26:11 and 2 Peter 2:22. Status pending Moses resolution.
  5. 5 ↩The image of wolves in sheep's clothing (sub agnino vellere...lupinum animum) echoes Matthew 7:15. Status pending Moses resolution.
  6. 6 ↩'House to house, field to field' may echo Isaiah 5:8 (Woe to those who join house to house). Status pending Moses resolution.
  7. 7 ↩quia rendered as 'because' to mark the causal clause that grounds the entire indictment.
  8. 8 ↩Direct echo of Matthew 11:30 ('For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light'). Status pending Moses resolution.

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