Just before the year 1300, Blessed Mechtilde was asked by a certain brother to put this question to our Lord in prayer: “Where are the souls of Samson, Solomon, Origen and Trajan?” He answered her: “That which My love has done with the soul of Samson, I wish to be unknown, that men may fear to avenge themselves further upon their enemies. What My mercy has done with the soul of Solomon, I wish to be hidden from men, so that they may the rather shun carnal sins. What My kindness has done with the soul of Origen, I wish to be hidden, so that no one, trusting in his own science, should dare be lifted up. And what My generosity has commanded concerning the soul of Trajan, I wish men not to know, that the Catholic faith may thereby be the more extolled: for although he was excellent in all virtues, he lacked Christian faith and baptism” (quoted by Cornelius a Lapide, Commentary on Ecclesiasticus, 47:22).
July 30, 2018 at 12:06 pm
Very wise and beautiful words.
I do get the impression with Origen that, while he wasn’t a very bad man, his intellectual curiosity got the best of him and made him too bold in proposing theories.
The comment on Trajan reminds me of the saying that the virtues of the pagans were “glittering vices”, i.e. they had the appearance of virtue/excellence, but because they were motivated more by pride than by true charity, they were tainted.
July 31, 2018 at 9:21 am
Origen died excommunicate is anathematised by five ecumenical councils, those who fail to anathematise him are anathematised by the fifth ecumenical council and he was accused by a pagan who knew him of simulating adherence to Christianity in order to use it as allegorical picture language for pagan philosophy. He denied the dogma of the Trinity so according to Dominus Iesus 7 he can’t have had faith.
July 31, 2018 at 11:40 am
Yes I don’t deny that he was a heretic, and I wouldn’t be surprised if he died in that state and was damned. My point was that he wasn’t necessarily a very bad man in other respects; it’s just that his intellectual pride/curiosity prevented him from receiving the faith simply with humility. It doesn’t surprise me that he was accused of exploiting Christianity to peddle his philosophy, but my impression of him is that he was sincere in his profession of being Christian (he thought himself as one), but he let his mind run away with him and use the scriptures merely as a platform for his own philosophical speculations – a lot like the modernist heretics.
August 1, 2018 at 12:44 pm
But, as St Thomas says, “the believer more firmly assents to the things that are of faith than to the first principles of reason”. It is impossible for a formal heretic to preserve the virtue of faith because he denies the authority of God revealing. Origen does this on system as he believes he may set aside the literal sense of scripture altogether. The subjective malice of a formal heretic is thus higher than that of any other sinner. As St Bede teaches “no mortal sins more greviously than do the heretics who deny Christ after they have known Him.”