Vigils Reading

THE WOUNDEDNESS

OF ALL MORTALS

From a sermon by Isaac of Stella4

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“Jesus, when he saw how great was their number, went up to the

mountainside.” Today, dear friends, we see our heaven-sent Physician

unsealing the precious perfumes that he has brought with him from the bosom

of the Father; brought to heal the wounds of the man who, on his way down

from Jerusalem to Jericho, fell in with robbers. This unnamed man on his way

down represents Adam and all his descendants. It was only right that he should

fall in with robbers, he was but paying for the freely chosen folly of his journey.

Had he but chosen it, Adam could have remained in the happy state bestowed

on him at his creation, in that wealth of good things safe from all loss. He freely

fell because he chose to do so, and because he journeyed down, he fell into the

grip of the ruthless. He had to endure what he did not wish precisely because he

refused to stay where suffering could never have touched him.

These malicious robbers are not only the evil spirits, but also the many

passions of our bodies and spirit that wounded the Psalmist and made him

groan, “Oh, how often you have burdened me with bitter trouble.” Yes, he

suffers unwillingly although deservedly; the price (I beg to repeat) of his freely

deciding to descend was his meeting robbers and suffering at their hands. Never

would the Lord of mercy have allowed man to fall into such cruel hands had not

man by his own personal and conscious wickedness first deserted him to whom

he should have looked for strength. Man forsook God, man went his way down,

and because he went down, he was forsaken by him who did not go down.

Forsaken by God, man fell into the power of him to whom such power was

permitted, the devil. He showed no pity, but robbed, wounded, and left him

half-dead. He who is altogether dying left man half-dead, in other words half-

alive. And such is the life of mortal man: a living dying. The devil’s dying, on the

other hand, is completely deadly, leaving no room for recall to life. The angels’

living in its turn, is fully vital, having no tendency toward death.

Mortal man, then, is left half-dead — though alive, he tends inevitably

towards death, though dead, he is open to cure. “They wounded him,” the

Gospel tells us. We must look into this, see what these wounds are, even if our

situation teaches us what it means far better than any explanation. In addition

to the weaknesses and afflictions of the body, themselves “past all numbering”,

the wounds inflicted on and infecting mankind, in and from our first parent, are

of seven kinds, of many species, and beyond all counting. The infections that

stem from Original Sin and afflict us all are only seven, but they beget a

wayward, viper-like brood that caters to all sorts of sinful tendencies.