Expositio super orationem Dominicam

But deliver us from evil.

By evil we mean in this place the misery of the present life. But note that freedom is threefold. For there is freedom from necessity, freedom from sin, freedom from misery. The first is that by which free choice is always free, since indeed it lies in the will, which cannot be compelled. Free choice is the faculty of reason and will by which the good is chosen, with grace assisting, or evil is chosen, with grace withdrawing.

And it is called free with respect to the will, which can be bent to either side. It is called choice, however, with respect to reason, whose faculty, or the will's, is to discern between good and evil. And sometimes, having the discernment of good and evil, it chooses what is evil, sometimes what is good. But it does not choose what is good except with the help of grace. Evil, however, it chooses of itself.

Whence Augustine says: The will in us is always free, but it is not always good. For either it is free from justice, when it serves sin, and then it is evil; or it is free from sin, when it serves justice, and then it is good. The second freedom is that by which we are made servants of justice. Whence the Apostle says: having been freed from sin, you have been made servants of justice¹. The third is that of which it is said: and the creature itself shall be delivered from the servitude of corruption, coming into the freedom, etc.². Free choice had these three before sin and in the first state. But through the sin of Adam the natural goods in man were corrupted, and the gratuitous goods, that is, faith, hope, charity, were taken away.

For this is that man who was wounded by robbers and stripped. Wounded indeed in his natural goods, of which he was not deprived, otherwise no repair could be made. Stripped, however, of the gratuitous goods which had been added to the natural ones through grace. These are the best gifts and the perfect gifts, of which some are corrupted, that is, the natural ones, such as talent, memory, understanding; others are withdrawn, that is, the gratuitous ones, although the natural ones too are from grace, for they belong to the general grace of God.

The freedom of choice, then, was corrupted by sin and lost in part. Whence Augustine says that man lost free choice, not because after sin he did not have it, but because he lost the freedom of choice, not indeed all of it, but the freedom from misery and sin. For just as it could not then be compelled, so neither can it now. Therefore the will is rightly judged before God, which is always free from necessity and can never be compelled.

This freedom of choice is in all, both in the good and in the evil. The first freedom of choice was that in which man was able to sin and not to sin. The last will be that in which he will be able not to sin and will not be able to sin. The middle, however, is that in which he is able and not able not to sin: before the repair, even mortally; after the repair, at least venially.

And it must be known that the state of human nature is fourfold, and that Christ received something from each of them. The first state was before sin, the second after sin and before grace, the third under grace, the fourth in glory. From the first he received immunity from sin. Whence Augustine says on that passage, he who comes from above is above all³: Christ, he says, comes from above, that is, from the height of human nature before sin.

From the second he took human nature without fault, of which nevertheless he took on the punishment and all the other defects of the human body. From the third, however, he received the fullness of grace. From the fourth, the inability to sin and the perfect contemplation of God. Christ, therefore, had in himself the goods of the homeland and the evils of the way. Or otherwise: Deliver us from evil, that is, from the world.

But note that the world is spoken of in many ways in sacred Scripture. For there is called the sensible world and the intelligible world. The sensible world is called this structure built from the four elements. The intelligible world is called the empyrean heaven. To understand, then, what is meant by the sensible world or the intelligible world, let us look at the disposition of created things. Observe that in an egg the arrangement is fourfold. The yolk, or the middle part (which is the same thing), is placed as it were at the center in the middle. The white surrounds it. Then a certain fine membrane is placed. And last of all, the shell.

According to this pattern, then, the opinion of the theologians teaches the disposition of this sensible world. For the earth is placed in the middle, as it were the center. The water itself, as it were the white, surrounds the middle part. For in the beginning water was spread over the face of the earth. Whence it says: and darkness was over the face of the deep⁴. Air holds the third place, fire the fourth. Above the fire, however, are the frozen waters, which are the firmament, as the theologian says⁵. Or, as some say, God placed those waters above the firmament to temper the brightness of the planets, since they are of a hot and moist nature.

But perhaps heat abounds there more than moisture, and by continuous motion heat is increased and accumulated. Lest, then, they should be dried up and fail through excessive heat, God placed waters above the firmament to temper their heat. Whence Saturn is naturally cold and moist, because it is nearer to the firmament. In the highest place, however, is the empyrean heaven, that is, fiery, so called not from heat but from splendor, in which, namely, absolute and perfect tranquility and beatitude flourish. For there is no clashing of winds there.

In that region, then, are the souls of the saints and the angels, and Christ in the flesh, and the blessed Virgin. That region, then, is called the world on account of its cleanness. The sublunary region is also called the world, according to that saying: the prince of this world shall be cast out⁶. Man too is called a world, whom the Greek calls microcosm, that is, a lesser world, because he represents in himself the image of the whole world. Whence he is called by the Lord every creature⁷, by a certain likeness.

For just as this sensible world is formed from the four elements, so likewise man consists of four humors. Moreover, just as this sensible world has a twofold motion, namely the rational motion in the firmament and the wandering motion in the planets, so likewise there is a twofold motion in man: namely the motion of reason, which is compared to the motion of the firmament, and the motion of sensuality, which is likened to the motion of the planets.

The world is also called the archetype of divine wisdom, as it were the principal figure. For archos means prince, typus figure. And rightly the principal figure. For just as this world contains the forms of all things, both animate and inanimate, so likewise God through his wisdom had all the ideas in his mind before things came forth into bodies. The world is also called the love of this world, from which we ask to be delivered.

And note that love is manifold: worldly love, carnal love, rational love, spiritual love. The first is that by which the world is loved, and the things that are in the world. The second is that by which carnal people love one another carnally. The third is that by which wives and children are loved. This love is good, but it is not unto life. The fourth is in the saints and religious men, who love God for his own sake and their neighbor for God's sake, without which the labor of those in the cloister is empty and vain.

Otherwise: deliver us from evil, that is, from the love of riches. For the rich man, when he has gain in his coffer, keeps loss in his conscience. For no one can serve two masters, namely God and mammon⁸. For it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven⁹.

Note. Easier here signifies less in the positive degree of its contrary, that is, it is less difficult because it is less impossible. For God can make it so that a camel passes through the eye of a needle, with nothing hindering; but to place a covetous rich man in glory, if he can by power, he cannot by justice, but he can justify him and thus save him. Do not marvel at the degree of comparison, for it is more impossible for a horse to be turned into a stone than into a donkey, to which it is naturally better suited than to a stone. Otherwise: deliver us from evil, that is, from the tinder of sin. This tinder, remaining in us, works the desires of the flesh, against which the faithful fight.

And note: although this sin is not imputed to the regenerate, yet whatever offspring is born is bound by original sin, although it is contracted from parents made clean, just as the foreskin is removed by circumcision, yet it remains in the one whom the circumcised have begotten. Just as also the chaff, which is separated by diligence, remains in the fruit which is born from the purged wheat, so the sin which is cleansed in the parents through baptism remains in the children whom they have begotten.

This tinder, however, is diminished daily in those who make progress and practice continence, until it is destroyed, or perhaps entirely extinguished, unless it revives through unlawful consent. From which may our king, our leader, our forerunner, Jesus Christ our Lord, deliver us, who is God above all things, blessed forever¹⁰. Amen.