This Old Earth

With the exhortation, “Think of what is above, not of what is on earth” (Colossians 3, 1), St. Paul seems to set us against our own earthly nature.  A Cistercian monk named Helinand of Froidmont (d. 1237), in a Christmas sermon, considers what “earth” really means as regards the spiritual life:

“What, then, is this ‘earth’?  We read in the Scriptures of two kinds of “earth”.  There is the cursed earth that is lifeless and sterile, and the blessed earth, which is fruitful and rich.  Of the first it is written, ‘Cursed be the land in your work’ (Genesis 3, 17); of the second it is written, “O Lord, you have blessed your land” (Psalm 88, 2).  The first kind is three-fold, for one we fear because it is cursed; another we tread upon; and the other we bear.  The first is hell, which the Prophet calls the ‘furthest land’ (Ezekiel 26, 20), because there is none beyond it.  This ‘earth’ is truly cursed, full of sin, torment, guilt, and torture.  There, all sins are unforgiveable, all punishments unending, the tears there inconsolable, the stench intolerable, the screaming implacable, the burning fire inextinguishable, and every worm is immortal.  This is the land of the dead, and whatever is in it is contrary to life.  The second earth is the common one that we tread.  It is cursed by the deed of Adam, and all its fruit is naturally cursed, just as the Truth himself attested in the parable of the sower, when he said: ‘The seed that fell among the thorns is those who heard [the Word of God] and, going forth, were choked by the pleasures of this world, and did not bear fruit’ (Luke 8, 14).  This earth consists of all the rich lands bearing fruit, such as grain, wine, oil, gold, silver, precious stones, and things of this kind.  Now, if these earthly goods are ‘thorns’, how wicked these are!  And how are they not thorns, these things that fight fiercely in their coming, more fiercely in their abiding, and most fiercely in their leaving, for they are acquired with much care and many labors, they are guarded with fear, and lost with sorrow.  The third ‘earth’, the one that we bear, is our flesh, which was cursed in the beginning, with the words: ‘Cursed be the earth in your work’ (Genesis 3, 17).  This curse is on not only the earth on which we walk, but also on the ‘earth’ we bear.  This is to be understood allegorically. God says: ‘Cursed be the earth in your work’, that is, cursed be the earth in which and from which you shall work, either be seeking food for life in it, or by seeking an heir for your death.  Now, the ‘earth’ in which Adam should seek an heir is the flesh of his wife, and the flesh with which he should seek it is his own flesh.”