Proverbial Piety
Published
in The Compass, November 1, 2009, vol. 4, issue 13 This feature of the Compass offers some brief reflections
on the spiritual life, taking as it’s parting point, each time, some verse in
the scriptures, especially from the book of Proverbs. The translations are my
own, from the Greek Septuagint; you may find some differences with the English Bible
you use at home, and this is the reason why.
Thoughtful and Lawless Sons
10:5 A thoughtful son is brought safely through burning
heat,
but a
lawless son becomes a ruinous wind in harvest time.
I
wish to
consider this verse in two parts, as there is much to say about it. For
today we'll consider the two types of sons, and next month, we'll look
at the concept of "harvest" and the different harvests one may reap in
the spiritual life.
Two sons
are contrasted, as the Lord Himself contrasted two sons in Luke 15.
Thoughtfulness is contrasted with lawlessness. He who breaks the law lives in
spiritual chaos and is the sinner. He who acts by the supreme law of reason,
particularly reason enlightened by faith, is the one who is holy. Yet there is
one whose reason was in perfect, indeed hypostatic, union with the Divine
Reason, that is, the thought of the Father. The Father’s thought is perfectly
One, and it is the Word, and nothing else but the Word. The Father made all
things through this Word. When St. Paul says that the Son “upholds all things
by the Word of his Power,” the Word of the Son is not any different one than
the Word of the Father, and it was through this one Word that the Trinity made
all that is, and loved and loves all that is, each thing in the proper way.
Therefore the first interpretation which the first part of this verse receives is that of the Son. It is written, “Son though he was, he learned obedience from what he suffered, and when he was made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation from what he suffered” (Heb 5:8-9). Being the Eternal Word, he is always perfect; but what was perfected was his Messianic mission. By his sacrifice on the cross, he sinned not, but also purged sin. By his gift of grace, he purified the perverse will of the sinner; by shedding his blood, he washed away the stain of sin; by becoming a victim, he satisfied for the punishment due to man; and by redemption, he freed man from slavery. He Himself passed through the burning heat of purgation safely, and then brought upon sinful man a safety which no sinner ever deserved; Jesus Christ did this, because of his love for poor sinners.
A second interpretation contrasts one type of man from another, that is, the man who is not hypostatically united to the Word. There are those who serve God and become saints; and there are those who serve the devil, and become sinners.
Regarding the first type of man, two things should be considered from this verse. The first regards the effects of suffering in his own life. The holy man comes through suffering as did Jesus, for he is united to him by grace. Suffering sanctifies him; the fourfold effects of Christ’s salvation, just mentioned, are applied to him by his sufferings in union with the Lord and by the power of the sacraments: the stain of his sins are washed away, he makes satisfaction, he pays a miniscule fraction of just punishment for his own sins, but also for the sins of others, and he is freed from the slavery to sin.
The second regards the fact that he does not “go safely,” as if he actively advances by his own works, but rather “he is brought safely,” and here the verb is passive. God himself is the one who brings the holy man safely through the purgations which will sanctify him; and if man by his pride thinks he can make this type of spiritual progress by his own works, he is very mistaken. Yet, against the Protestants, his own works are necessary for the effect of God’s grace; but they serve not as the immediate cause of his holiness, but as a different type of cause, a material and not efficient cause, a cause which disposes and not which produces. And it is on this point where those Protestants who hold sola fide fail as regards right reason, for they do not discern properly the different types of causes; and, having the noble intention perhaps of attributing all sanctification and goodness to God, they err in discerning the role of man’s freedom in his own salvation, a role very clearly spelled out in every corner of Sacred Scripture and in every chapter of Sacred Tradition.
Now, the lawless son is not “brought” anywhere, but rather “becomes.” Not subject to law, he is his own law; since his conduct is not governed by reason, that is, it is governed by the will. Yet if it is the will which is the subject of free action, and law requires two, the governor and the governed, the lawless man is one and not two, for the will cannot be a law unto itself. Law is of the intellect, not of the will. The sinner is therefore a god unto himself, a self-idolater, and a wind of unpredictable direction.
The
scripture calls him a “wind,” because it is a force, but an unseen one; for sin
in his life is an unseen force, and he brings this unseen force with him
wherever he goes. The sin of one, indeed, inflicts evil upon every living man.
This wind is not the gentle breeze of the Spirit perceived by the prophet
Elijah (cf. 1 Kings 19:12). This rather was the wind of the seas of life, full
of destruction and fear (cf. Mt 14:9), and the winds which rip down one’s house
(cf. Mt 7:26). This is a wind which is ruinous and causes destruction, for sin
never produces any good except an apparent good; and for this reason every sin
is essentially lie.
Next month, we’ll consider the term “harvest,” so important in the scriptures and full of manifold meanings and symbols.