In searching the Church fathers, I
came across this: “What [is] the use
of man, having been originally made in God’s image? For it had been better for him to have been
made simply like a brute animal than, once made rational, for him to live the
life of the brutes.”[1] This
caused my thoughts to turn to the culture today, wherein there is more and more
dislike of authority. Many want to do
whatever they desire without consequence, without care for others. In essence, they desire to live as brute
animals. Science teaches evolution. If it turns out to be true, in my mind
humanity would be reverting back to their nature. Why should I even consider something like
this? What is the import of it? The significance of it is to make ourselves
aware of where it is that we are headed.
Of course, we can deny it and, therefor, as a consequence, do nothing to
deter the trend. When I speak of this “reversion,”
it is not to say there will be an exactness of mankind reverting to the nature
of animals but that there is a trending towards that resemblance.
God did not create mankind as he did
the rest of creation. He created first
by word alone. He then arranged things,
causing them to come to fruition by his word.
“God brings an orderly universe out of primordial chaos merely by
uttering a word.”[2] God said for the waters to be gathered; they
were gathered. God said for the earth to
put forth vegetation; it did. God called
for the waters to bring forth swarms of living creatures; they did. God called for the earth to bring forth
living creatures; it did.[3] However, when it came to man, “God formed man
of dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life.”[4] He did not command the earth to bring forth
mankind; he formed mankind and breathed life into him. The waters brought forth living things, as
did the earth, but God formed mankind and breathed his life into him.
When mankind rebelled by the
disobedience of Adam, he became “diseased” and began dying. When Jesus began healing, the healings refer
to different disorders in soul. For
instance, the paralytics symbolize the palsied in soul; the blind, those who
are blind in respect of things seen by the soul alone; and the deaf, those who
are deaf in regard to the reception of the word of salvation.[5] This not only encompasses our relationship
with God but also our relationship with one another.
In the Transfiguration, we see the
highest end of mankind. This is what we
are to be aspiring for. If we are not
progressing towards that end, then what end are we progressing towards? Do we just desire to remain as we are, taking
everything as it comes, wanting to live as a jellyfish? The problem with that: Jellyfish only has a
lifespan of a few hours to a few months.[6] With the Son of God becoming man, living the
life that was purposed for mankind and dying for us, with his ascension mankind
as a species is also ascending. Some are
being “pruned” off because they “hinder” this ascension. It is for this reason that we do not live for
ourselves but for the sake of the Body, the Church.
We are either living, aspiring for
the elevation of mankind, or we are progressing towards an ulterior end. It is not sufficient to “think” or “believe”
we are progressing towards that glorious end; there must be an actual
progression. We are not the ultimate
judge of this; hence, we must constantly be going to the One who can make it
happen and will make it happen. We
cannot rely upon ourselves and our notions.
This is because we have to major illnesses when it comes to spiritual
matters: tepidity and laziness. Although
we work to alleviate these illnesses, we can always do better. We cannot treat ourselves; we must go to the
Physician.
After seeing the Transfiguration,
the three apostles were led back down the mountain, back to “reality,” where it
needs be of prayer and fasting because we are a “faithless and perverse
generation.”[7] Coming down the mountain, they are confronted
with the scene of the father and his epileptic son.
Now, someone might think that this
does not apply to the Baptized, saying the Baptized cannot be possessed by
demons. Instead, we should be thinking
of ways that it does apply to
us. Above, it was mentioned how
paralysis, blindness, and deafness symbolized diseases of the soul. Origen tells us: “On the same principle, it
will be necessary that the matters regarding the epileptic should be
investigated. Now, this affection
attacks the sufferers at considerable intervals, during which he who suffers
from it seems in no way to differ from the man in good health, at the season
when the epilepsy is not working on him. Similar disorders you may find in certain
souls which are often supposed to be healthy in point of temperance and the
other virtues; then, sometimes, as if they were seized with a kind of epilepsy
arising from their passions, they fall down from the position in which they
seemed to stand and are drawn away by the deceit of this world and other lusts.
Perhaps, therefore, you would not err if
you said that such persons, so to speak, are epileptic spiritually, having been
cast down by ‘the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places,’ and
are often ill at the time when the passions attack their soul; at one time
falling into the fire of burnings, when, according to what is said in Hosea,
they become adulterers, like a pan heated for the cooking from the burning
flame; and, at another time, into the water, when the king of all the dragons
in the waters casts them down from the sphere where they appeared to breath
freely so that they come into the depths of the waves of the sea of human life.”[8] In this way, we see this applying to each of
us, the times we fall because of temptations and desires. It is then that we are resembling the nature
of brute animals.
The father saying “I brought him to
your disciples and they were unable to cure him” is an implicit accusation of
the apostles, for the inability to cure is sometimes referred not to the weakness
of those doing the curing but to the faith of those who are to be cured. This
is what the Lord says: “Let it be done to you according to your faith.”[9] Likewise, when one accuses the Church, he is
actually showing his lack of faith. Whenever
we do not receive, it is not a question of the inability of the giver, but the
fault lies with those who are praying.[10] Let us therefor cry out as the father did: “I
believe; help my unbelief!”[11]
Mankind’s nature is much higher than
that of an animal. He was created to
aspire towards godliness, loving and worshipping the God who created him. I have heard that, in Australia, it would be
lesser punishment to do harm to a human being than to a koala bear. Our Lord teaches us that humanity is higher
than the animal when he healed the woman with an infirmity for 18 years on the
Sabbath (Lk 13:10-17). Archbishop John
MacEvilly tells us: “[Jesus] shows that the cure of the woman was not a
servile, but a Divine work, most worthy of the Sabbath, as it tended to glorify
God, the Lord of the Sabbath. Every word
is emphatic, and shows the indignity of preferring a brute beast to a human
being. The antithesis is most marked, between
‘the daughter of Abraham’ and ‘an ox or ass;’ the loosing of spiritual
bonds in a human being, and the corporal
loosing of a brute animal; the length of time this woman had been suffering, ‘eighteen years,’ and the few hours the
brute animal had been bound; the loosing of the animal required time and labor;
that of the woman was performed in an instant; the woman was restored to
perfect health and sanctity, the beast was only watered for the time (A.
Lapide). ‘Loosed from this bond,’ so
grievous and afflicting.”[12]
Let us not have the desires and
instincts of an animal. Christ died for
us, not animals. Let no man then become
chaff. Let no one be tossed to and fro
nor lie exposed to wicked desires, blown about by them easily every way. If we continue to be wheat, though temptation
be brought on us, we will suffer nothing dreadful. On the threshing room floor, the wheat is not
cut into pieces; but, if we fall away into the weakness of chaff, we will
suffer incurable ills now, in this world, being smitten of all men here and, in
the next, where we will undergo the eternal punishment. Chaff is for the brute animal.[13] We must be wheat.
It is so easy to live according to
our whims and wishes. It is “natural”
for us. We cannot overcome them of our
own strength. Sometimes it seems as
though Satan is dangling a string and we are the cat trying to catch it. This is what the epileptic is showing us. We do not have the strength of our own to
resist. We believe; Lord, help our
unbelief. We can only overcome by prayer
and fasting and the Sacraments Christ has given us through the Church. We do not overcome immediately; however,
Christ does give us the strength to take baby steps, one step at a time. Let us control our desires and passions and
stop letting them control us. Christ
conquered this on the cross; all we have to do is aspire to ascend and take one
step at a time, one day at a time. It is
then that we stop reverting to the nature of a brute animal.
[1]
Athanasius of Alexandria, St. Athanasius:
Select Works and Letters, 1892, 4, 43.
[2] New American Bible,
Revised Edition., (Washington, DC: The United States Conference of Catholic
Bishops, 2011).
[3]
Catholic Biblical Association (Great Britain), The Holy Bible:
Revised Standard Version, Catholic Edition, (New York: National
Council of Churches of Christ in the USA, 1994), Ge 1:9–25.
[4] Ibid.,
Ge 2:7.
[5]
Origen, The Gospel of Peter, the
Diatessaron of Tatian, the Apocalypse of Peter, the Visio Pauli, the
Apocalypses of the Virgil and Sedrach, the Testament of Abraham, the Acts of
Xanthippe and Polyxena, the Narrative of Zosimus, the Apology of Aristides, the
Epistles of Clement (Complete Text), Origen’s Commentary on John, Books I-X,
and Commentary on Matthew, Books I, II, and X-XIV, 1897, 9, 477.
[6] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jellyfish#Lifespan
[7] New American Bible,
Revised Edition., (Washington, DC: The United States Conference of Catholic
Bishops, 2011), Mt 17:17.
[8]
Origen, The Gospel of Peter, the
Diatessaron of Tatian, the Apocalypse of Peter, the Visio Pauli, the
Apocalypses of the Virgil and Sedrach, the Testament of Abraham, the Acts of
Xanthippe and Polyxena, the Narrative of Zosimus, the Apology of Aristides, the
Epistles of Clement (Complete Text), Origen’s Commentary on John, Books I-X,
and Commentary on Matthew, Books I, II, and X-XIV, 1897, 9, 477.
[9]
Jerome, Commentary on
Matthew, ed. Thomas P. Halton, The Fathers of the Church,
(Washington, DC: The Catholic University of America Press, 2008), 117:202.
[10]
Jerome, Commentary on
Matthew, ed. Thomas P. Halton, The Fathers of the Church,
(Washington, DC: The Catholic University of America Press, 2008), 117:203.
[11]
Catholic Biblical Association (Great Britain), The Holy Bible:
Revised Standard Version, Catholic Edition, (New York: National
Council of Churches of Christ in the USA, 1994), Mk 9:24.
[12]
John MacEvilly, An Exposition of
the Gospel of St. Luke, (Dublin: Gill & Son, 1887), 148–149.
[13]
John Chrysostom, Saint Chrysostom:
Homilies on the Gospel of Saint Matthew, 1888, 10, 72.
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