De affectu naturali
The Affection of the Flesh
Natural affection toward one's own flesh is divinely commended through scriptural testimony, and neglect of one's household is condemned as a denial of faith.
There is, moreover, a natural affection that everyone has toward their own flesh: a mother toward her son, a person toward a member of their own household and offspring. No one has ever hated their own flesh (Eph. 5); and: A mother cannot forget her own child, so as not to have mercy on the son of her own womb (Isa.1 49); and: Anyone who does not care for their own household, especially those of their own family, has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever (1 Tim. 5).
Holy Ones Moved by Nature
Even the most holy were not free from natural affection, as shown by the patriarchs' anxious concern to be buried among their fathers.
The first of these affections does not escape even the most holy men, who — moved by that same feeling with which no one has ever hated their own flesh — are said to have been so anxious about burial that they bound their descendants by oaths, so that when they died they would be laid to rest not in a foreign tomb but in the graves of their fathers (Gen.2 47).
Solomon and the True Mother
Solomon's judgment between the two mothers reveals natural affection, as the true mother's love surrenders rather than see her child destroyed.
In the second case, the most wise Solomon — when two prostitutes were disputing in his presence over a surviving boy (for the other child had been crushed by his mother) — believed the matter needed to be investigated.✦3 Finally, when the sword had been brought and royal authority had judged the division of the boy, natural affection revealed the mother and yielded to affection, because she had not yielded to wickedness; and she who had labored lest the mother be disappointed of her own pledge, began to labor so that he might be handed over to another.✦ 'Please,' she said, 'give the child to her alive — don't kill him.' On the other hand, the woman who had hardened herself toward others' suffering, devoid of compassion — 'Let him be neither mine nor yours,' she said, 'but let him be divided.' 3
Joseph, David, and the Tears of Paternal Love
Joseph's weeping over his repentant brothers and David's plea for Absalom show that natural affection endures even against betrayal and injury.
Moreover, in the heart of most holy Joseph, the third, fratricidal injury also prevailed, who, since he branded his fratricidal brothers with the managerial severity of investigation as a charge, seeing them not moderately distressed and tormented with sacred enough penitence over his brother's betrayal — yielding to affection, as Scripture says, he turned himself aside for a little while and wept. 43 This affection the savagery of a parricidal son did not even wipe away from the tender heart of patriarch David: when he was being sought for death by him, sending those who would oppose his madness, forgetting the injury, mindful of nature so that he might know his father, dissembling to know the persecutor — 'Save the boy Absalom for me,' he said. 18
Christ's Compassion and Paul's Longing
Christ wept over Jerusalem and Paul desired to be cut off for Israel, showing that natural affection reaches its fullest expression in divine and apostolic compassion.
The Savior himself, pouring a wonderful compassion into his own heart, looked upon the city that had been his own metropolis according to the flesh, and from which his ancestors according to the flesh had come to him; moved by natural affection, he wept a flood of tears over the destruction that was coming upon it.✦ Paul was an imitator of this compassion; pricked, I believe, by a natural feeling of affection, he once desired to be cut off from Christ for the sake of his brothers according to the flesh (Rom.✦ ix).
Read the original Latin
Est praeterea affectus naturalis cuilibet ad carnem suam, matri ad filium, homini ad domesticum seminis sui. Nemo enim carnem suam odio habuit (Ephes. v); et : Non potest mater oblivisci infantis sui, ut non misereatur filio uteri sui (Isa. xlix); et : Qui suorum maxime domesticorum curam non habet, fidem negavit et est infideli deterior (I Tim. v). Primus horum etiam viros sanctissimos non effugit, qui eo affectu, quo nemo carnem suam odio habuit, de sepultura solliciti, narrantur sacramentis posteros obligasse, ne in alieno, sed in sepulcris patrum mortui conderentur (Gen. xlvii). Secundum sapientissimus Salomon, cum pro superstite puero (nam alterum mater oppresserat), meretrices feminae in ejus praesentia disceptarent, credidit explorandum.
Denique allato ense, cum divisionem pueri regia sublimitas judicasset, matrem affectus prodidit naturalis, et cessit affectui, quae non cesserat improbitati : et quae laboraverat ne mater proprio pignore frustraretur, laborare coepit ut alteri traderetur. Obsecro, ait, date huic infantem vivum et non occidatur. Econtra, quae ad aliena viscera expers pietatis obduruit, nec mihi, nec tibi sit, sed dividatur (III Reg. iii). Porro tertius in pectore sanctissimi Joseph, etiam fratricidali praeponderavit injuriae, qui cum fratribus fratricidis dispensatoria severitate explorationis crimen inureret, cernens eos non mediocriter fatigari, ac secra satis poenitentia de fratris proditione torqueri ; cedens affectui, ut Scriptura ait, avertit se parumper, et flevit (Gen. xliii). Hunc affectum a piis visceribus Patriarchae David nec filii parricidalis abrasit immanitas : a quo cum quaereretur ad mortem, mittens qui ejus obviarent insaniae, oblitus injuriae, memor naturae, ut sciret patrem, dissimulans nosse persecutorem : Servate, inquit, mihi puerum Absalon (II Reg. xviii).
Hunc in se Salvator ipse mirabili compassione transfundens, videns civitatem, quae ei secundum carnem metropolis fuit, ex qua illi patres secundum carnem, naturali pietate commotus, cum infusione lacrymarum futurum ei deploravit excidium. Cujus imitator Paulus naturali, ut reor, compunctus affectu, optabat aliquando anathema esse a Christo pro fratribus suis secundum carnem (Rom. ix).
Scripture echoes
- ↩1Kgs.3.16-1Kgs.3.28 — Then two prostitutes came to the king and stood before him. 1Kgs.3.17 — Then one woman said, "My lord, this woman and I live in the same house, and I gave birth while she was in the house." 1Kgs.3.18 — And on the third day after I gave birth, this woman also gave birth. We were together; there was no stranger with us in the house, only the two of us in the house. 1Kgs.3.19 — And this woman's son died during the night, because she lay on him. 1Kgs.3.20 — And she rose in the middle of the night and took my son from beside me — your maidservant was sleeping — and laid him in her bosom, and her dead son she laid in my bosom. 1Kgs.3.21 — When I rose in the morning to nurse my child, he was dead. But when I examined him closely in the morning, behold, it was not the son I had borne. 1Kgs.3.22 — Then the other woman said, 'No! My son is the living one, and your son is the dead one.' But this one said, 'No! Your son is the dead one, and my son is the living one.' So they argued before the king. 1Kgs.3.23 — Then the king said, "This one says, 'This is my son, the living one, and your son is dead,' while that one says, 'No! Your son is dead, and my son is the living one.'" 1Kgs.3.24 — And the king said, "Bring me a sword." And they brought the sword before the king. 1Kgs.3.25 — Then the king said, 'Cut the living child in two, and give half to one and half to the other.' 1Kgs.3.26 — Then the woman whose son was the living one said to the king, for her compassion had been stirred for her son, and she said, "Please, my lord, give her the living child, and by no means put him to death." But the other said, "It shall be neither mine nor yours; divide it." 1Kgs.3.27 — And the king answered and said, "Give her the living child, and do not put it to death — she is its mother." 1Kgs.3.28 — And all Israel heard the judgment that the king had rendered, and they stood in awe of the king, for they saw that the wisdom of God was within him to do justice.
- ↩1Kgs.3.16-1Kgs.3.28 — Then two prostitutes came to the king and stood before him. 1Kgs.3.17 — Then one woman said, "My lord, this woman and I live in the same house, and I gave birth while she was in the house." 1Kgs.3.18 — And on the third day after I gave birth, this woman also gave birth. We were together; there was no stranger with us in the house, only the two of us in the house. 1Kgs.3.19 — And this woman's son died during the night, because she lay on him. 1Kgs.3.20 — And she rose in the middle of the night and took my son from beside me — your maidservant was sleeping — and laid him in her bosom, and her dead son she laid in my bosom. 1Kgs.3.21 — When I rose in the morning to nurse my child, he was dead. But when I examined him closely in the morning, behold, it was not the son I had borne. 1Kgs.3.22 — Then the other woman said, 'No! My son is the living one, and your son is the dead one.' But this one said, 'No! Your son is the dead one, and my son is the living one.' So they argued before the king. 1Kgs.3.23 — Then the king said, "This one says, 'This is my son, the living one, and your son is dead,' while that one says, 'No! Your son is dead, and my son is the living one.'" 1Kgs.3.24 — And the king said, "Bring me a sword." And they brought the sword before the king. 1Kgs.3.25 — Then the king said, 'Cut the living child in two, and give half to one and half to the other.' 1Kgs.3.26 — Then the woman whose son was the living one said to the king, for her compassion had been stirred for her son, and she said, "Please, my lord, give her the living child, and by no means put him to death." But the other said, "It shall be neither mine nor yours; divide it." 1Kgs.3.27 — And the king answered and said, "Give her the living child, and do not put it to death — she is its mother." 1Kgs.3.28 — And all Israel heard the judgment that the king had rendered, and they stood in awe of the king, for they saw that the wisdom of God was within him to do justice.
- ↩Luke.19.41 — And as he drew near, when he saw the city, he wept over it,
- ↩Rom.9.3 — For I could wish that I myself were accursed, separated from Christ, for the sake of my brothers, my kinsmen according to the flesh.
Notes
- 1 ↩The Latin ut + subjunctive (misereatur) is rendered 'so as not to' to capture the result/purpose force; the context favors a result reading — the natural affection is so strong that she cannot fail to show mercy.
- 2 ↩The Latin ne...sed construction is rendered 'not...but' to preserve the adversative contrast between burial in a foreign place versus the ancestral tomb.
- 3 ↩The Latin cum is rendered temporally ('when') rather than causally, as the narrative context favors a temporal reading. The gerundive explorandum is rendered 'needed to be investigated' to capture the impersonal obligation.
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