Hugh of St. Victor: Why the human heart has this disease of instability and how it may be cured

 

Why the human heart has this disease of instability and how it may be cured

 

The author's reason for embarking on this work.

 

The thing we have to do is first to show whence such great mutability arises in the heart of man, and then to suggest the way in which the human mind can be brought to steady peace, and how it can be kept in that selfsame stability. And, though I doubt not that it is the property of divine grace to bring about this work, and that possession of such grace comes about not so much by man's activity as by the gift of God and the inbreathing of the Holy Spirit, nevertheless I know that God would have us work along with Him, and that He so offers the gifts of His loving kindness to the thankful that from the thankless He often takes away the very things that formerly He gave. Moreover, there is a further reason why it is not unprofitable for us to acknowledge both how great our weakness is and by what means it may be remedied; for a man who does not know how great a grace has been conferred on him does not under-stand how great is the gratitude which he owes to the Bestower.

 

The first man, then, was made in such a way that, if he had not sinned, the power of contemplation would have kept him always in his Maker's presence. By always seeing Him he would thus always have loved Him, by always loving Him he would always have cleaved to Him, and, by always cleaving to Him who is immortal, he too would have possessed in Him life without end. This was, therefore, the one, true good of man, to wit, the full and perfect knowledge of his Maker, full, you must understand, after that fullness which he received at his creation, not after that which he was to receive hereafter, when his obedience was fulfilled. But he was banished from the face of the Lord when, smitten with the blindness of ignorance through his sin, he came forth from the inward light of con- temptation. And the more he forgot the sweetness of supernatural things, for  which he had already lost the taste, the more did he bend his spirit down to earthly desires.

 

In this way he became “a wanderer and a fugitive upon the earth; ”a wanderer on account of disordered desire, and a fugitive because of guilty conscience, the voice whereof is fittingly suggested by those words, 'whosoever finds me shall slay me”. For every temptation that assails it overthrows the soul that is bereft of the divine assistance. Thus, once it had begun to lose its integrity through its earthly desires, the human heart, which had hitherto kept its stability in cleaving to divine love and remained one in the love of the One, was as it were divided into as many channels as there were objects that it craved, once it had begun to flow in different directions through earthly longings. And that is how it happens that the soul, not knowing how to love its true good, is never able to maintain its stability. Failing to find what it longs for in those things which it has, its desire is always reaching out in pursuit of the unattainable; and so it never has rest. Therefore, from movement without stability is born toil without rest, travel without arrival; so that our heart is always restless till such time as it begins to cleave to Him, in whom it may both rejoice that its desire lacks nothing, and be assured that what it loves will last eternally.

 

See, we have shown you these stages the disease itself, a wavering heart, unstable and restless; the cause of the disease which is clearly love of the world; and the remedy of the disease which is the love of God. And to these must be added a fourth, namely, the application of the remedy, that is, the way in which we may attain to the love of God. For without this it would be of little or no profit to know all the rest. The thing we have to do, therefore, is first to show whence such great mutability arises in the heart of man, and then to suggest the way in which the human mind can be brought to steady peace, and how it can be kept in that selfsame stability. And, though I doubt not that it is the property of divine grace to bring about this work, and that possession of such grace comes about not so much by man's activity as by the gift of God and the inbreathing of the Holy Spirit, nevertheless I know that God would have us work along with Him, and that He so offers the gifts of His lovingkindness to the thankful that from

the thankless He often takes away the very things that formerly He gave.

 

Moreover, there is a further reason why it is not unprofitable for us to acknowledge both how great our weakness is and by what means it may be remedied; for a man who does not know how great a grace has been conferred on him does not understand how great is the gratitude which he owes to the Bestower.

 

 

In this way he became “a wanderer and a fugitive upon the earth”; a wanderer on account of disordered desire, and a fugitive because of guilty conscience, the voice whereof is fittingly suggested by those words, 'whosoever findeth me shall slay me'. For every temptation that assails it overthrows the soul that is bereft of the divine assistance.