![\"ambrogio\"](\"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/ambrogio.jpg\")
Saint Ambrose tells us that we have to humble ourselves before God, confessing that wickedness comes not from without but from within ourselves. He is, in effect, repeating the teaching of Our Lord: “There is nothing from without a man that entering into him, can defile him. But the things which come from a man, those are they that defile a man” (Mark 7:15).<\/p>\n
At the same time, Saint Ambrose gives hope to the feeble and infirm, alluding to the words of Our Lord to Saint Paul, “My grace is sufficient for thee; for power is made perfect in infirmity” (2 Corinthians 12:9).<\/p>\n
From the Treatise on the Six Days of Creation by St Ambrose, Bishop & Doctor<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n
If evil is not something that has no principle from which it springs, as is the case of the uncreated Being; and if it is not something that God has made, where does it come from?\u00a0 For no wise person will deny the existence of evil in this world.\u00a0 We are all familiar with the evil of death.\u00a0 But from what we have said it is evident that evil is not a living substance.\u00a0 It is a perversion of mind and spirit, swerving from the way of true virtue, which frequently overtakes the unwary. We see also that the greater danger does not come from outside us.\u00a0 It comes from our very selves.\u00a0 The enemy is within us.\u00a0 Within us is the progenitor of our error; within us, I say, dwells our adversary.\u00a0 Hence, we must examine our aims, explore the habits of our minds, be watchful over our thoughts and over the desires of our heart<\/strong>.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
You yourself are the cause of your own wickedness.\u00a0 You yourself are the commander of your shameful acts, and the instigator of your crimes.<\/strong>\u00a0 Why blame another agent as an excuse for your own faults?\u00a0 Oh! that you would not incite yourself, that you would not rush heedlessly on, that you would not entangle yourself in immoderate endeavours, or in indignation and passionate desires, for these hold you captive as in nets.\u00a0 Most certainly it belongs to us, and we are able to moderate our endeavours, to restrain our anger, to curb our desires.\u00a0 But we can also yield to wantonness, foster evil passions, inflame our anger or give ear to those who incite to anger, become puffed up with pride, or give into fits of anger instead of humbly lowering ourselves and lovingly practicing gentleness.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Hence, why should we accuse \u201cnature\u201d?\u00a0 There are impediments in nature; there is old age and infirmity.\u00a0 But both have also advantages; old age brings more friendly manners, gives more useful counsels, inspires more readiness to accept death, and helps curb evil passions more easily.\u00a0 The weakness of the body too has as counterpart the sobriety of mind.\u00a0 Hence, the Apostle says: \u201cWhen I am powerless, it is then that I am strong.\u201d\u00a0 Accordingly, he gloried in his infirmities, and not in his powers.\u00a0 And there came to him the luminous and salutary answer that \u201cin weakness power is made perfect.\u201d<\/strong>\u00a0 Let us therefore not seek for causes outside ourselves nor blame others for them.\u00a0 Let us acknowledge our guilt.\u00a0 For we must willingly attribute to ourselves, not to others, whatever evil we can avoid doing when we so choose.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Saint Ambrose tells us that we have to humble ourselves before God, confessing that wickedness comes not from without but from within ourselves. He is, in effect, repeating the teaching of Our Lord: “There is nothing from without a man that entering into him, can defile him. But the things which come from a man, <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[178],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8367","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-florilegium-patristicum"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paVypq-2aX","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8367"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8367"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8367\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8373,"href":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8367\/revisions\/8373"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8367"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8367"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8367"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}