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| Chapter V. Of the ways in which our soul is weighed down.
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Chapter V.
Of the ways in which our soul is weighed down.
But we should notice the ways
in which the Lord points out that the soul is weighed down: for He did
not mention adultery, or fornication, or murder, or blasphemy, or
rapine, which everybody knows to be deadly and
damnable, but surfeiting and drunkenness,
and the cares or anxieties of this world: which men of this world are
so far from avoiding or considering damnable that actually some who (I
am ashamed to say) call themselves monks entangle themselves in these
very occupations as if they were harmless or useful. And though these
three things, when literally given way to weigh down the soul, and
separate it from God, and bear it down to things earthly, yet it is
very easy to avoid them, especially for us who are separated by so
great a distance from all converse with this world, and who do not on
any occasion have anything to do with those visible cares and
drunkenness and surfeiting. But there is another surfeiting which is no
less dangerous, and a spiritual drunkenness which it is harder to
avoid, and a care and anxiety of this world, which often ensnares us
even after the perfect renunciation of all our goods, and abstinence
from wine and all feastings and even when we are living in
solitude—and of such the prophet says: “Awake, ye that are
drunk but not with wine;”1588
and
another: “Be astonished and wonder and stagger: be drunk and not
with wine: be moved, but not with drunkenness.”1589
And of this drunkenness the wine must
consequently be what the prophet calls “the fury of
dragons”: and from what root the wine comes you may hear:
“From the vineyard of Sodom,” he says, “is their
vine, and their branches from Gomorrha.” Would you also know
about the fruit of that vine and the seed of that branch? “Their
grape is a grape of gall, theirs is a cluster of
bitterness”1590
for unless we are
altogether cleansed from all faults and abstaining from the surfeit of
all passions, our heart will without drunkenness from wine and excess
of any feasting be weighed down by a drunkenness and surfeiting that is
still more dangerous. For that worldly cares can sometimes fall on us
who mix with no actions of this world, is clearly shown according to
the rule of the Elders, who have laid down that anything which goes
beyond the necessities of daily food, and the unavoidable needs of the
flesh, belongs to worldly cares and anxieties, as for example if, when
a job bringing in a penny would satisfy the needs of our body, we try
to extend it by a longer toil and work in order to get twopence or
threepence; and when a covering of two tunics would be enough for our
use both by night and day, we manage to become the owners of three or
four, or when a hut containing one or two cells would be sufficient, in
the pride of worldly ambition and greatness we build four or five
cells, and these splendidly decorated, and larger than our needs
required, thus showing the passion of worldly lusts whenever we
can.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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