619 chapter 13: the ministers of the mystical temple you get accustomed to hard, coarse bread, or that you sprinkle it with ashes (what, however, some of the saints did in a most holy manner), that it may have no taste. Nor do I want your honey to be mixed with gall; your heart, I say, should not be free from bitterness,117 unless God urges you to do this and helps you; but I do boldly advise you this: do not take delight in these gifts, but rather bless and love Him who gives you food and drink at the right time, not that you live to eat, but that you eat to live; not that you enjoy, but that you use the gifts of God, remembering however the abstinence and fasting of Christ, remembering the gall and vinegar that was given to His Majesty to drink, when He was thirsting on the Cross for your sake. And yet, indeed do not do this alone, but also remove from others, when you can, the opportunity of sinning with their taste. This servant performs his duty badly, when he eats and drinks continually, when he drinks heavily and guzzles day and night. Finally, smell might seem to some to be the least necessary minister for our Temple, if we did not know that its proper task is to prevent worthless smells. In these deplorable times118 I doubt whether this minister keeps watch at his post before the gates of our Temple; indeed I believe that [absorbed in sound sleep] he is badly snoring.119 For we are so given to perfumes that we steep even our clothes with them, and not just the entire head, kerchiefs and sleeves. Alas! What sort of men are we, who expose our noses to nothing except what has a pleasant smell? Christians, I beg you, 117 In order to understand this text properly it is necessary to note that the words: “your heart, I say, should not be free from bitterness” (The heart, I say, shall not deny itself bitterness) are an interpolation which interrupts the flow of the narrative. Both Jarra and Sawa failed to notice this, and accordingly gave an erroneous translation of these words. 118 Here the word “times” signifies “a time when things are getting worse” (in the moral sense: “Oh times! Oh morals!”). As a result, “in these times” could be rendered as “in these sad times.” Vincent Ferrer used the word in this sense in the title of his book: A Summary of the Theological Course Including All the Controversies Which Used to be Considered in the Schools at This Time, Valenza 1720. 119 This proposition has not always been properly understood. Here we express it according to the Polish translation given in the critical edition of TDM.
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