The Earthly Nature of Sin and the Call to the Heavenly

And the Lord said to Abram: 'Go out from your land and from your kindred and from your father's house into the land which I will show you; and I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you, and I will magnify your name, and you shall be blessed, and I will bless those blessing you, and those cursing you I will curse; and all the families of the earth shall be blessed in you' (Gen 12:1-3).

Not as a total exclusion does God command Abraham to depart from his land and his kindred, but seeing in him something worthy to be remaining arranged under his guardianship, which was the faith in him; for the one having faith in God was not bound to remain with the foolish, since his father was an idolater. For often the company of the evil harms the diligent, and especially when they are fresh. Because of this also the Savior preaches: 'If anyone wants to come after me and does not hate his father and his brothers and sisters and also his wife and children, he cannot be my disciple' (Luke 14:26).

It was not hatred of the kin being worked by this that the Lord said, but if something of these things became an obstacle toward virtue, it is to be hated for the sake of virtue, which the disciples, having done, said: 'Behold, we have left all and have followed you' (Matt 19:27).

This therefore also now is commanded to the patriarch, God promising to show him a land so that he may live there, to make him into a great nation, and to bless him and to magnify his name and to show him blessed, so that those blessing him find blessing from him, and those cursing him receive a curse from him. And in addition to these, it is promised to him that all the families of the earth shall be blessed in him, which are not all human, as we are entering from the lifting up, beginning from those above. For the devil is the father of every sinner according to the...

It has been said: 'Everyone who does sin is of the devil' (1 John 3:8). For just as he who does the will of God becomes his offspring—for he says, 'Everyone who does righteousness is born of God' (1 John 3:7)—so 'the one doing sin is of the devil' (1 John 3:8) and of his father. And there is also a kinship through the composition of this father.

Therefore, God exhorts him to explain this, calling it earth, for it is nothing heavenly but all earthly in the opposing devil, so that, casting off the image of the swine, he might take up the image of the heavenly. Such a thing is brought forth in a psalm regarding the Church from among the Gentiles, saying: 'Hear, O daughter, and see, and incline your ear, and forget your people and your father's house, for the king of your beauty has desired you, and he is your Lord' (Psalm 45:10).

For already, having existed, the word, with a prophetic eye, was awakening the daughter to move away from idolatry, exhorting her to hear and to see, having a pure heart both to hear and to see the Word of God; and for this purpose also to incline the ear, so that from these she might forget 'your people' (Psalm 45:10) of the household 'and your father' (Psalm 45:10) so as to renounce him, adding also the reason, which we also agreed exists in the patriarch: the beauty of the soul; for nothing beautifies the soul like virtue. It is therefore necessary to forget all earthly things, which are divided into the things previously mentioned.

And he says to the earnest one that he has come to an earth which, if God shows it to him, is not visible, even though he followed this also for the sake of a symbol, but is invisible; 'for hope that is seen is not hope' (Romans 8:24). And what is it that he will do 'into a great nation' (Acts 15:5) after taking it according to the spoken word? For it is clear that this also existed according to history. And it is great in reality to become a nation when one is adorned by virtues. It is evident that, progressing more...