stroy?”[1] Does not this question seem a strange one to you? The poor man wanted his hand cured, and Our Lord speaks of curing the soul? What connection is there between a withered hand and a human soul? St. Augustine gives a beautiful explanation of this. The hands, he says, are to the soul what the hand of a clock is to its interior works; the latter shows outwardly how much the clock has struck inwardly; if the hand remains still, the clock too is still inwardly, and gives forth no sound. Withered, idle hands are a sure sign of a bad and corrupt soul. Show me an idle man who has nothing to do, no serious occupation, and I can assure you that he will do much evil. If you hear of all sorts of dissolute actions, you will find on examination that they have been learned in the school of idleness; adultery and all kinds of impurity are children of an idle life, and are generally committed by those who forget the duties and occupations of their state. Thus far St. Augustine.
From reson and by divers similes. And indeed, if we consider the matter aright, we shall see it cannot be otherwise. Natural philosophers tell us that the human understanding in our working moments can never be idle, but must be always thinking of something. So too the heart and will of man can never be without some inclination; they must always have some object to love or hate, to desire or detest. Suppose now that a man or woman, a boy or girl is idly walking, standing, or sitting, with no proper occupation; no study or reflection for the mind, no work for the body: what then goes on in the understanding? for it must have something to think of. Under the circumstances the only thoughts that occupy it are vain, useless, dangerous, or sinful; and from such thoughts can come nothing but vain, useless, dangerous, or sinful affections, inclinations, and desires of the heart. The human heart and mind are like the millstones that turn as long as the water drives the wheel; if the miller puts in wheat, they grind that; if oats, they grind oats; if he puts nothing in* they grind each other and make fire and flames. No matter how fertile a field is, says St. Chrysostom, if it is not tilled, and is allowed to lie idle, it can produce nothing but thistles and weeds of all sorts. “In the same way, when the soul has nothing to do,” no useful or necessary occupation, “it gives itself up to evil actions.” St. Lawrence Justinian employs another simile: Stagnant water that has no movement or outlet becomes foul and miry, and brings
- ↑ Licet sabbatis benefacere, an male? Animam salvam facere, an perdere?—Mark iii. 4.
