Cursed is the
ground because of you! In toil you shall
eat its yield all the days of your life. Thorns and thistles it
shall bear for you, and you shall eat the grass of the field. By the sweat of your brow you shall eat bread,
until you return to the ground, from which you were taken; for you are dust, and
to dust you shall return.[1]
Mostly, when we read of thorns in
Scripture, it is not in a good sense, e.g. the godless are all like thorns.[2] Nonetheless, because they are part of God’s
creation, there must be a good in them also.
Thorns were created before the Fall; however, they would have easily
been kept under control. After the Fall,
they grow with surprising exuberantly, and the necessaries of life can be
procured only with much labor.[3] Thorns guarded the good from harm prior to
the Fall. Afterwards, thorns “guarded”
evil against the penetration of good.
The reverse occurred. God telling
Adam, “You may freely eat of every tree of the garden; but of the tree of the
knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it
you shall die,”[4] was
the “thorn” to guard Adam and that which was under his dominion from evil. Sin does not come about by striving after what
is evil but by the desertion of that which is better. Therefore, it is the deed itself that is
evil, not the nature which the sinner uses amiss—his humanity--for it is evil
to use amiss that which is good.[5] Adam, in his disobedience, deserted that
which is better, that which is good. He
deserted Life, which absence causes Death.
He misused the purpose of the will and intellect which he had been given. Of its own, good cannot come of misuse or the
desertion of what is better.
Thorn bushes are found throughout
Palestine. They are an annoyance to farmers, who try to keep their fields clear
of such weeds.[6] They “guard” against crops growing in the
area. Therefore, they had to be removed
in order for there to be agriculture. On
the other hand, vineyards and gardens were surrounded by hedges of thorns (Isa.
5:5).[7] This is for good. It was to protect the vineyards and gardens.
On the one hand, we can--from
carelessness on our part, when through our own faults, coldness has come upon
us, and we have behaved carelessly and hastily, and owing to slothful idleness
have fed on bad thoughts--make the ground of our hearts bring forth thorns and thistles
and consequently make us sterile and powerless as regards all spiritual fruit
and meditation;[8] or,
on the other, we can allow the outside thorns to teach us. Succoth—which means “booths,”—was the first
encampment of the Israelites after leaving Ramesses (Ex. 12:37). Also, Succoth--a city on the east of Jordan—was
a city in which Gideon visited the rulers of the city with severe punishment, beating
them with thorns and thistles, in order to teach the men of the city (Judg.
8:13–16). At this place were erected the
foundries for casting the metal-work for the temple (1 Kings 7:46).[9] In this case, thorns—although painful—were utilized
for good.
We, perhaps, daily meet with
domestic persecutions and contradictions and look upon them as obstacles to our
progress in the way of perfection, as thorns in our road. They may, indeed, be called thorns; but they
produce and guard the sweetest and most beautiful flowers of virtue. It is owing to our sloth, cowardice, and
impatience--it is our fault--if they are hindrances of what they are designed
by God to advance and perfect in our souls.[10]
St. Basil teaches us that all who are attached to the rose--as might be
expected in the case of lovers of the beautiful--are not displeased at the
thorns from out of which the flower grows. He states, “I have even heard it
said about roses--by someone, perhaps in jest, or it may be even in earnest,
that nature has furnished the bloom with those delicate thorns, like stings of
love to lovers, to excite those who pluck them to [a more intense] longing by
these ingeniously adapted pricks.[11]
“What sort of garland, however, I
pray you, did He who is the Head of the man and the glory of the woman, Christ
Jesus, the Husband of the Church, submit to in behalf of both sexes? Of thorns,
I think, and thistles—a figure of the sins which the soil of the flesh brought
forth for us, but which the power of the cross removed, blunting, in its
endurance by the head of our Lord, death’s every sting. Yes, and besides the figure, there is [abusive
language], and dishonor, and infamy, and the ferocity involved in the cruel
things which then disfigured and lacerated the temples of the Lord, that you
may now be crowned with laurel, and myrtle, and olive, and any famous branch,
and which is of more use, with hundred-leaved roses too, culled from the garden
of Midas, and with both kinds of lily, and with violets of all sorts, perhaps
also with gems and gold, so as even to rival that crown of Christ which He
afterwards obtained. For it was after
the gall [that] He tasted the honeycomb (a very striking collocation of Matt.
27:34 and Luke 24:42), and He was not greeted as King of Glory in heavenly
places till He had been condemned to the cross as King of the Jews, having
first been made by the Father for a time a little less than the angels, and so
crowned with glory and honor. If for
these things, you owe your own head to Him, repay it if you can, such as He
presented His for yours; or be not crowned with flowers at all, if you cannot
be with thorns, because you may not be with flowers.”[14]
Our fleshly desires are one type of “thorns”
which attempt to dissuade us from good virtues, trying to “protect” the
fallenness in us. This is our fallen
human nature. Another type of “thorn” is
other human beings. The Son of God,
Jesus, became Man; and, because he had no sin, he is the “victor” of humanity—albeit
with pain and suffering. In toil you shall eat its yield all the days
of your life, meaning that only by toil will we eat the fruit of eternal
life. Thorns and thistles it shall bear for you, and you shall eat the grass
of the field. By the sweat of your brow you
shall eat bread, until you return to the ground, from which you were taken; for
you are dust, and to dust you shall return.
Human nature, because of concupiscence, will bear thorns and thistles
for us; however, by perseverance, we shall eat the [wheat] of the field, the
Eucharist. By the sweat of our brow, we
shall eat Bread—the Eucharist, the Body of Christ—until we return to the
ground, from which we were taken. “There
is no one … who does not take the bread mentioned above with[out] the sweat of
his brow and anxious efforts of his heart.”[15] “For this law is spiritual which bids us [to]
eat in the sweat of our brow that ‘true bread which comes down from heaven.”[16]
“With a crown of thorns was He
crowned, to signify that He took the diadem of the kingdom, of the house of
David. With a crown of thorns was He
crowned, [He who was] the King of kings; but He took the diadem of the king of
those that shamed him.”[17] We must train ourselves—by the grace of God—to
do likewise. It is very difficult
because the natural tendency is to strike out on those who do harm to us. When we do, we show that we are just as they
are: thorns striking out to prevent the growth of goodness of taking place,
refusing to take the gall in order that we may eat of the honeycomb, preventing
others to enjoy the rose. Humanity (the
earth) shall bear for us thorns and thistles; but, if we persevere by the grace
of God, we shall eat of the Bread of Life.
“We are His chosen lilies. He dwells as a King in our midst—He lets us
share the honors of His Royalty—His Divine Blood bedews our petals—and His Thorns
as they wound us spread abroad the perfume of our love.”[18]
“[The] tree is a cross—and thus has
become an altar. The child bears the cross and the crown of thorns in his hands.
These are the signs of the love that transforms the tree into a cross and the
cross into the table of eternal life. The
true tree of life is not far from us, somewhere in a world that we have lost.
It has been established in our midst, not only as an image and sign, but in
reality. Jesus, who is himself the fruit of the tree of life, and life itself,
has become so small that our hands can enclose him. He makes himself dependent
upon us in order to make us free and to raise us up from our “sickness where we
fall down”. Let us not disappoint the trust he places in us. Let us place
ourselves in his hands, just as he has placed himself in our hands!”[19]
Our thoughts, desires, words, and
deeds may very well be thorns and thistles.
These are the thorns and thistles we must run away from, fight
against. From these, we can cannot bear good
fruit. The thorns from the outside,
these are the ones that allow the love of God to flourish. They prick; they are extremely painful;
nonetheless, they allow beauty to flourish.
The beauty of the thorn.
In conclusion, I want to share from
the Shepherd of Hermas:
And he said to me, “Do
you see this shepherd?” “I see him, sir,” I said. “This,” he answered, “is the
angel of luxury and deceit. He wears out
the souls of the servants of God and perverts them from the truth, deceiving
them with wicked desires, through which they will perish, for they forget the
commandments of the living God and walk in deceits and empty luxuries; and they
are ruined by the angel--some being brought to death, others to corruption.” I said to him, “Sir, I do not know the meaning
of these words, ‘to death, and to corruption’.” “Listen,” he said. “The sheep which you saw merry and leaping
about are those which have took themselves away from God forever and have
delivered themselves over to luxuries and deceits of this world. Among them, there is no return to life through
repentance because they have added to their other sins and blasphemed the name
of the Lord. Such men, therefore, are
appointed unto death. And the sheep
which you saw not leaping but feeding in one place are they who have delivered
themselves over to luxury and deceit but have committed no blasphemy against
the Lord. These have been perverted from
the truth. Among them there is the hope
of repentance by which it is possible to live. Corruption, then, has a hope of a kind of
renewal, but death has everlasting ruin.”
Again, I went forward a
little way, and he showed me a tall shepherd, somewhat savage in his
appearance, clothed in a white goatskin, and having a wallet on his shoulders,
and a very hard staff with branches and a large whip. And he had a very sour look, so that I was
afraid of him, so forbidding was his aspect. This shepherd, accordingly, was receiving the
sheep from the young shepherd, those, viz., that were rioting and luxuriating
but not leaping; and he cast them into a precipitous place, full of thistles
and thorns, so that it was impossible to extricate the sheep from the thorns
and thistles; but they were completely entangled amongst them. These, accordingly, thus entangled, pastured
amongst the thorns and thistles and were exceedingly miserable, being beaten by
him; and he drove them hither and thither and gave them no rest; and,
altogether, these sheep were in a wretched plight.
Seeing them, therefore,
so beaten and so badly used, I was grieved for them, because they were so
tormented and had no rest at all. And I
said to the Shepherd who talked with me, “Sir, who is this shepherd who is so
pitiless and severe and so completely devoid of compassion for these sheep?” “This,” he replied, “is the angel of
punishment; and he belongs to the just angels and is appointed to punish. He accordingly takes those who wander away
from God and who have walked in the desires and deceits of this world and
chastises them as they deserve with terrible and diverse punishments.” “I would know, sir,” I said, “Of what nature
are these diverse tortures and punishments?” “Hear,” he said, “the various tortures and
punishments. The tortures are such as occur during life. For some are punished with losses, others with
want, others with sicknesses of various kinds, and others with all kinds of
disorder and confusion. Others are
insulted by unworthy persons, and exposed to suffering in many other ways, for
many--becoming unstable in their plans--try many things, and none of them at
all succeed, and they say they are not prosperous in their undertakings; and it
does not occur to their minds that they have done evil deeds, but they blame
the Lord. When, therefore,
they have been afflicted with all kinds of affliction, then are they delivered
unto me for good training, and they are made strong in the faith of the Lord;
and, for the rest of the days of their life, they are subject to the Lord with
pure hearts, and are successful in all their undertakings, obtaining from the
Lord everything they ask; and then they glorify the Lord that they were
delivered to me and no longer suffer any evil.”[20]
The beauty of thorns.
[1] New American Bible,
Revised Edition., (Washington, DC: The United States Conference of Catholic
Bishops, 2011), Ge 3:17–19.
[2] The Holy Bible: New
Revised Standard Version, Catholic Edition, (Washington, DC:
National Council of Churches of Christ, 1993), 2 Sa 23:6.
[3]
George Leo Haydock, Haydock’s Catholic
Bible Commentary, (New York: Edward Dunigan and Brother, 1859),
Ge 3:18.
[4] The Holy Bible: New
Revised Standard Version, Catholic Edition, (Washington, DC:
National Council of Churches of Christ, 1993), Ge 2:16–17.
[5]
Augustine of Hippo, St. Augustin: The
Writings against the Manichaeans and against the Donatists, 1887, 4, 359.
[6]
Scott Hahn, Ed., Catholic Bible
Dictionary, 2009, 909.
[7] M.
G. Easton, Easton’s Bible
dictionary, 1893.
[8] John
Cassian, Sulpitius Severus, Vincent of
Lérins, John Cassian, 1894, 11, 331.
[9] M.
G. Easton, Easton’s Bible
dictionary, 1893.
[10]
Alban Butler, The Lives of the
Fathers, Martyrs and Other Principal Saints, (New York: P. J.
Kenedy, 1903), 2:134.
[11]
Basil of Caesarea, St. Basil: Letters and
Select Works, 1895, 8, 323.
[12]
John R. Donahue and Daniel J. Harrington, The Gospel of Mark,
ed. Daniel J. Harrington, Sacra Pagina Series, (Collegeville, MN: The
Liturgical Press, 2002), 2:435.
[13]
Christina Bosserman, The Lexham Bible
Dictionary, 2016.
[14]
Tertullian, Latin Christianity: Its
Founder, Tertullian, 1885, 3, 102.
[15]
John Cassian, Sulpitius Severus, Vincent
of Lérins, John Cassian, 1894, 11, 525–526.
[16]
John Cassian, Sulpitius Severus, Vincent
of Lérins, John Cassian, 1894, 11, 526.
[17]
Ephrem the Syrian, Gregory the Great
(Part II), Ephraim Syrus, Aphrahat, 1898, 13, 211.
[18]
Saint Thérèse of Lisieux and T. N. Taylor, The Story of a Soul,
(London: Burns and Oates, 1912), 269.
[19]
Benedict XVI, The Blessing of
Christmas, (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2007), 59–60.
[20]
Alexander Roberts, James Donaldson, and A. Cleveland Coxe, Eds., Fathers of the Second Century: Hermas,
Tatian, Athenagoras, Theophilus, and Clement of Alexandria (Entire), 1885,
2, 36–37.
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