/lit/ - Literature

>>14931992
It is worse,” says St, John Chrysostom, “to become like, than to be born, a senseless beast; for, to be naturally without reason is tolerable.” The saint says, that to want reason by nature is not disgraceful; but, to be born with the gift of reason, and afterwards to live like a beast, obeying the lusts of the flesh, is degrading to man, and makes him worse than a senseless brute.

What would you say if you saw a man who would, of his own accord, live in a stable with horses, feed with them on hay and oats, and sleep, as they do, on dung? The man who submits to the tyranny of any passion, does what is far worse in the eyes of God.

5. It was thus the Gentiles lived, who, because the darkness of their understanding prevented them from discerning between good and evil, went wherever their sensual appetite led them. ”That you walk not,” says St. Paul, ”as also the Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their mind, having their understanding darkened.” (Ephes. iv. 17, 18.)

Hence they were abandoned to their vices to impurity and avarice, and blindly obeyed the commands of their passions. ”Who, despairing, have given themselves up to lasciviousness, unto the working of all uncleanness, unto covetousness.” (verse 19.) To this miserable state are reduced all Christians who, despising reason and God, follow the dictates of passion.

In punishment of their sins God abandons them, as he abandoned the Gentiles, to their own wicked desires. ”Wherefore God gave them up to the desires of their own heart.” (Rom. i. 24.) This is the greatest of all chastisements.