Wherein is described how the desires weaken the soul in
virtue and make it lukewarm.
THE fifth way in which the desires harm the soul is by making
it lukewarm and weak, so that it has no strength to follow after
virtue and to persevere therein. For as the strength of the
desire, when it is set upon various aims, is less than if it were
set wholly on one thing alone, and as, the more are the aims
whereon it is set, the less of it there is for each of them, for
this cause philosophers say that virtue in union is stronger than
if it be dispersed. Wherefore it is clear that, if the desire of
the will be dispersed among other things than virtue, it must be
weaker as regards virtue. And thus the soul whose will is set upon
various trifles is like water, which, having a place below wherein
to empty itself, never rises; and such a soul has no profit. For
this cause the patriarch Jacob compared his son Ruben to water
poured out, because in a certain sin he had given rein to his
desires. And he said: +Thou art poured out like water; grow thou
not.'[170] As though he had said: Since thou art poured out like
water as to the desires, thou shalt not grow in virtue. And thus,
as hot water, when uncovered, readily loses heat, and as aromatic
spices, when they are unwrapped, gradually lose the fragrance and
strength of their perfume, even so the soul that is not
recollected in one single desire for God loses heat and vigour in
its virtue. This was well understood by David, when he said,
speaking with God: I will keep my strength for Thee.[171] That is,
concentrating the strength of my desires upon Thee alone.
2. And the desires weaken the virtue of the soul, because
they are to it like the shoots that grow about a tree, and take
away its virtue so that it cannot bring forth so much fruit. And
of such souls as these says the Lord: Voe proegnantibus, et
nutrientibus in illis diebus.[172] That is: Woe to them that in
those days are with child and to them that give suck. This being
with child and giving suck is understood with respect to the
desires; which, if they be not pruned, will ever be taking more
virtue from the soul, and will grow to the harm of the soul, like
the shoots upon the tree. Wherefore Our Lord counsels us, saying:
Have your loins girt about[173] -- the loins signifying here the
desires. And indeed, they are also like leeches, which are ever
sucking the blood from the veins, for thus the Preacher terms them
when he says: The leeches are the daughters -- that is, the
desires -- saying ever: Daca, daca.[174]
3. From this it is clear that the desires bring no good to
the soul but rather take from it that which it has; and, if it
mortify them not, they will not cease till they have wrought in it
that which the children of the viper are said to work in their
mother; who, as they are growing within her womb, consume her and
kill her, and they themselves remain alive at her cost. Just so
the desires that are not mortified grow to such a point that they
kill the soul with respect to God because it has not first killed
them. And they alone live in it. Wherefore the Preacher says:
Aufer a me Domine ventris concupiscentias.[175]
4. And, even though they reach not this point, it is very
piteous to consider how the desires that live in this poor soul
treat it, how unhappy it is with regard to itself, how dry with
respect to its neighbours, and how weary and slothful with respect
to the things of God. For there is no evil humour that makes it as
wearisome and difficult for a sick man to walk, or gives him a
distaste for eating comparable to the weariness and distaste for
following virtue which is given to a soul by desire for creatures.
And thus the reason why many souls have no diligence and eagerness
to gain virtue is, as a rule, that they have desires and
affections which are not pure and are not fixed upon God.[176]
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