But human audacity, looking not to what is beneficial and fitting but only to what is possible, began to do the opposite. Thus, turning the hands to the opposite use, it made them murder; it turned hearing toward disobedience and the other members toward adultery instead of lawful procreation; the tongue from good speech toward blasphemies, insults, and perjury; the hands again toward stealing and striking fellow human beings; the sense of smell toward various sensual fragrances; the feet toward swiftness in shedding blood; and the belly toward drunkenness and insatiable gluttony. All these things are evil and sin of the soul.
There is no cause of these things except the turning away from what is better. Suppose a charioteer mounts his horses in a stadium and disregards the goal toward which he ought to drive. Turning away from it, he simply drives the horse as he can—that is, as he chooses. Often he charges into those he meets, and often he drives down cliffs, letting the speed of the horses carry him wherever he directs himself. He thinks that by running in this way he has not missed the goal, because he looks only at the running and does not see that he has gone outside the goal.
In the same way, the soul turns away from the road toward God and drives the members of the body beyond what is fitting—or rather, it is itself driven along with them by itself. It sins and fashions evil for itself, not seeing that it has wandered from the road and gone outside the goal of truth. Looking toward that goal, the Christ-bearing man, blessed Paul, said: “I press on toward the goal, for the prize of the upward calling of Jesus Christ.” Thus the holy man, keeping his eyes on the good, never did evil.
But human audacity, looking not to what is beneficial and fitting but only to what is possible, began to do the opposite. Thus, turning the hands to the opposite use, it made them murder; it turned hearing toward disobedience and the other members toward adultery instead of lawful procreation; the tongue from good speech toward blasphemies, insults, and perjury; the hands again toward stealing and striking fellow human beings; the sense of smell toward various sensual fragrances; the feet toward swiftness in shedding blood; and the belly toward drunkenness and insatiable gluttony.
All these things are evil and sin of the soul.
There is no cause of these things except the turning away from what is better. Suppose a charioteer mounts his horses in a stadium and disregards the goal toward which he ought to drive. Turning away from it, he simply drives the horse as he can—that is, as he chooses. Often he charges into those he meets, and often he drives down cliffs, letting the speed of the horses carry him wherever he directs himself. He thinks that by running in this way he has not missed the goal, because he looks only at the running and does not see that he has gone outside the goal.
In the same way, the soul turns away from the road toward God and drives the members of the body beyond what is fitting—or rather, it is itself driven along with them by itself. It sins and fashions evil for itself, not seeing that it has wandered from the road and gone outside the goal of truth. Looking toward that goal, the Christ-bearing man, blessed Paul, said: “I press on toward the goal, for the prize of the upward calling of Jesus Christ.” Thus the holy man, keeping his eyes on the good, never did evil.