For you know how that afterward, when he would have inherited the blessing, he was rejected: for he found no place of repentance, though he sought it carefully with tears.
All Commentaries on Hebrews 12:17 Go To Hebrews 12
Thomas Aquinas
AD 1274
683. – Having indicated how we should behave toward enduring evils of chastisement, the Apostle now shows how we should act to avoid the evils of guilt. In regard to this he does two things: first, he gives his admonition; secondly, the reasons (v. 18). In regard to the first he warns men who sin; secondly, those not yet sinning (v. 14). But there are two kinds of sin: omission and transgression: first, therefore, he warns against sins of omission; secondly, against sins of transgression (v. 18).
684. – A sin of omission occurs in two ways: one, when a person fails to do good; another, by failing to endure evil and adversity. In regard to the first he says, Therefore, i.e., because chastisement yields the most peaceable fruit, then to obtain this fruit, lift your drooping hands. For since the hand is the organ of the organs, it is said to droop, when it stops performing good works; therefore, it must be lifted up by a right intention to do things pleasing to God: ‘Let us lift up our hearts with our hands to God’ (Lam 3:41); ‘The lifting up of my hands as an evening sacrifice’ (Ps. 140:2); ‘The slothful hand has wrought poverty; but the hand of the industrious riches’ (Pr. 10:4); ‘The hand of the valiant shall bear rule, but that which is slothful shall be under tribute’ (Pr. 12:24). As a sign of this, when Moses lifted up his hands, Israel conquered; but when he let them fall, Amalek overcame them (Ex. 17:11). In regard to the other sin of omission he says, strengthen your weak knees. The entire weight of the body is held up by the knees. Therefore, those who have not the courage to endure adversity bravely have weak knees. Therefore, this weakness must be put aside: ‘You have strengthened the weary hands; your words have confirmed them that were staggering, and you have strengthened the trembling knees’ (Jb. 4:3); ‘Strengthen the feeble hands and confirm the weak knees’ (Is. 35:3). Therefore, lift up the hand and knees and do not give in to idleness or hesitate because of weakness.
685. – Then (v. 13) he rebukes the sin of transgression. Now that sin is a kind of obliqueness and curvature. For that is straight whose middle does not point to a direction different from the extremes, i.e., whose action does not depart from its proper intention and end. But there are three kinds of obliqueness: namely in the affections, in action and in understanding. From sinful affection follows obliqueness in the understanding and depravity in loving. Therefore, in regard to the first, which is the root of the others he says, make straight paths for your feet, i.e., correct affections. For as the feet carry the body, so the affections carry the mind. Therefore, straight feet are proper affections: ‘Their feet were straight feet’ (Ez. 1:7). Therefore, make straight the affections, by which the whole body is carried spiritually. ‘Make straight in the wilderness the paths of our Lord’ (Is. 40:3) i.e., as far as in you lies, devote yourself to this. In regard to the second, he says, so that what is lame as to outward action. For just as the tibia is said to be lame, when it does not follow the rule of the locomotive power, so an action is lame when it turns to the right in prosperity or to the left in adversity, and does not follow the rule of divine law: ‘This is the way: walk in it and do not go aside to the right or left’ (Is. 30:21). Or he limps who along with the Gospel observes the ceremonial laws of the Old Testament. In regard to obliqueness of the understanding he says, may not be put out of joint. For an intellectual error follows an evil action: ‘They err that do evil’ (Pr. 14:22); ‘These things they thought and were deceived; for their own malice blinded them’ (Wis. 2:21). Therefore, a person who would avoid those two deviations must have his feet and his affects right; hence, he says, but rather be healed. For just as bodily health consists in the proper balance of the humors, so spiritual health in the proper arrangement of the affections: ‘Heal me, O Lord, and I shall be healed’ (Jer. 17:14).
686. – Then (v. 14) he advises those who do not sin to avoid sin. In regard to this he does two things: first, he prefaces certain remedies for helping to avoid all sins; secondly, he advises them to avoid all sins (v. 15b).
687. – In regard to the first it should be noted that there are various ends of human actions: for some are ordained to another, as justice ordains a man to his neighbor; and the end is peace; hence, Is (32:17): ‘Peace will be the work of justice.’ Others are ordained to the one acting, as fasting, and the end is purity. For we fast for the sake of cleanness and purity. In regard to the first, he says, Strive for peace, i.e., do not only have it, but seek how to have it with all men: ‘If it be possible, as much as in you lies, have peace with all men’ (Rom. 12:18); ‘Seek after peace and pursue it’ (Ps. 33:15). In regard to the second he says, and for the holiness: ‘Let us wash ourselves from all defilement of the flesh and of the spirit’ (2 Cor. 7:1).
688. – He shows that those remedies are necessary by indicating the two injuries we incur without them: first, the loss of glory in the future and of grace in the present. In regard to the first he says, without which no man shall see God, in which happiness consists: ‘This is eternal life: That they may know you, the one true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent’ (Jn. 17:50). As if to say: Without peace toward our neighbor, and cleanness and purity in regard to ourselves, we cannot be happy: ‘Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God’ (Mt. 5:9). But the inheritance of the beatific vision is owed only to sons: ‘Nothing defiled shall enter into it’ (Rev. 21:27); ‘Lord, who shall dwell in your tabernacle? He that enters without stain’ (Ps. 14:1); ‘Who shall ascend into the mountain of the Lord? The innocent in hands and the clean of heart’ (Ps. 23:3). In regard to the second loss, namely, of God’s grace in the present he says, see to it that no one fail to obtain the grace of God. For grace is lost by discord and uncleanness: ‘He is not a God of dissension, but of peace’ (1 Cor. 4:33); ‘His place was made in peace’ (Ps. 75:3); ‘Your eyes are too pure to behold evil; and you cannot look on iniquity’ (Hab. 1:13); ‘The Holy Spirit of discipline will flee from the deceitful… He shall not abide when iniquity comes in’ (Wis. 1:5). But the Apostle is speaking figuratively. For grace is not obtained by merit; otherwise, grace would not be grace. Yet a man must do what he can. But God in His most generous will gives it to all who prepare themselves: ‘Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If any man open to me, I will come in to him’ (Rev. 3:20); ‘He will that all men be saved’ (1 Tim. 2:4). Therefore, God’s grace is not wanting to any one, but it communicates itself to all, as far as it is concerned, just as the sun is not wanting to the eyes of the blind. He says, therefore: see that no on fail to obtain the grace of God.
689. – But on the other hand: if grace is not given because of works, but only by the fact that a person places no obstacle, it seems to follow that the possession of grace depends solely on free will and not on God’s choice. This is Pelagius’s error. I answer that the very fact that a person places no obstacle is due to grace. Hence, if anyone places an obstacle and his heart is moved to remove it , this is due to the gift of God’s grace calling by His mercy: ‘But when it pleased him who separated me from my mother’s womb and called me by his grace’ (Gal. 1:15). But this gift of grace is not sanctifying grace. Therefore, the fact that a person removes that obstacle is owing to God’s mercy; if it is not removed, it is owing to God’s justice. But he does not say, ‘lest you fail,’ but lest anyone fail, because everyone should be solicitous for his neighbor: ‘He gave everyone commandment concerning his neighbor’ (Sir. 17:12).
690. – Then (v. 15b) he comes specifically to advising the avoidance of sins contrary to each of the aforesaid medicines: first, he advises them to avoid sins contrary to peace; secondly, contrary to holiness (v. 16).
691. – He says, therefore, that no root of bitterness spring up and cause trouble. That is bitter which cannot be tasted without disgust. Therefore, a person’s conversation is said to be bitter when it cannot be without offending those with whom he lives. Against this it is said of wisdom: ‘Her conversation has no bitterness, nor her company any tediousness, but joy and gladness’ (Wis. 8:16). Therefore, one knows how to live in wisdom, when his conversation is not bitter. This happens when his words and deeds are not harsh. Hence he says, that no root of bitterness spring up and cause trouble, i.e., bitterness gradually begun and rooted in the heart, springing up to cause trouble [hinder peace] and consequently, grace and the vision of God: ‘Lest there should be among you a root bringing forth gall and bitterness’ (Deut 29:18): ‘Ephraim has provoked me to wrath with his bitterness’ (Hos 12:14). Or the root of bitterness is an evil thought of harmful pleasure, which springs up when by consent one accomplishes the deed. And by it many become defiled, because not only the one in whom it exists but others also are defiled by his example: ‘A little leaven corrupts the whole lump’ (1 Cor. 5:6).
692. – Then when he says, Lest there be any one immoral [fornicator] or profane, as Esau, he warns them to avoid sins contrary to holiness, to which are specifically opposed carnal sins, such as gluttony and lust, which are completed in carnal delight, by which the mind is defiled. Therefore, they defile the mind and the flesh. Hence he particularly warns them to avoid these, saying: each one looking diligently, not only in himself, but also lest he be a fornicator and sin against his neighbor: ‘Mutually guard each other’s purity’ (Augustine); ‘Fornication and all uncleanness or covetousness, let it not be so much as named among you, as becomes saints’ (Eph. 5:3); ‘Keep yourself from all fornication’ (Tob. 4:13). Secondly, he forbids gluttony, saying, or profane person. Here profane suggests something far from the fane, such as gluttons are, who make a god of their belly, as Esau. He uses Esau as an example because he sold his birthright because of gluttony. So, too, a glutton sells his eternal inheritance for a bit of food. But Esau was not only a glutton, he was also lustful, because he married two foreign wives against his parents’ will. The birthright had two portions and, before Aaron’s priesthood, included the priestly honor; hence in selling his birthright he was committing simony. Therefore, it seems that Jacob, too, who purchased it, committed simony. But this is not so, for Jacob understood through the Holy Spirit that it was owed to him according to what is stated in Malachi (1:2): ‘Jacob I loved, Esau I hated.’ Therefore, he did not buy it, but redeemed from an unjust possessor something that was owed to him. And this is what he says: Who, namely Esau, sold his birthright for a single meal.
693. – Then he shows the punishment which followed when he says, for you know that afterward, when he desired to inherit the blessing, he was rejected. For it says in Genesis (27:30) that after Isaac had blessed Jacob, Esau came and asked for a blessing, which he did not obtain, although his father did it unknowingly, because in that stupor which he experienced, he was in ecstasy and learned from the Holy Spirit that he was not to retract what he had done; hence, he said: ‘I have blessed him and he shall be blessed’ (Gen. 27:33). Therefore, Esau by the counsel of the Holy Spirit was rejected. This gives us to understand that no one should neglect to do well as long as he lives, no matter how rejected he may be in God’s foreknowledge; because after this life no one can obtain God’s inheritance, even though it be naturally desired.
694. – For he found no place to repent, though he sought it with tears. For as it is recorded in Genesis (27:34): ‘He roared out with a great cry, and being in great consternation, said: Bless me also, my father.’ But on the other hand it says in Ezekiel (18:21): ‘If the wicked do penance for all his sins, which he has committed, and keep all my commandments and do judgement and justice, living he shall live, and he shall not die.’ I answer that as long as one is living in this world, he can do true penance. But sometimes a person repents not from a love of justice, but from the fear of punishment or temporal harm. This is the way Esau repented, not because he had sold his birthright, but for the rejection. Consequently, his penance was not accepted, because it was not genuine. For this is the way the damned in hell repent, as it says in Wisdom (5:3): ‘Repenting,’ not because they had sinned, but because they have been excluded.
695. – Yet, according to a Gloss, the phrase, fornicator or profane person, has another meaning, namely, that fornicator is one who along with the faith observes the carnal ceremonies, as though a having concubine as well as a wife; but a profane person, i.e., far from the fane is, as it were, entirely unbelieving.
