HOW THE WILL CONTROLS THE POWERS OF THE SOUL IN DIFFERENT WAYS
The father is the head of the family. He directs his wife, children and servants by his rules and commandments which they are bound to obey, though they are capable of disobeying. If he has bondsmen or slaves, he rules them by force which they have no power to resist. He controls his horses, oxen and mules by skill, by putting bridles, using his spurs, enclosing them, by tying them up and loosening them.
The will, indeed, controls the power of external movement absolutely like that of a bondsman or slave. Obedience is unfailing unless something from outside prevents it. We open and close our mouths, we move our tongue, our hands, our legs, our eyes and all the parts of our body which have the power of this movement without resistance at our pleasure and according to our will.
We cannot so easily control our senses, the power of nutrition, growth and reproduction. We have to make use of effort and skill. If we call a slave, he comes. If we tell him to stop, he stops. But we cannot expect such obedience from a sparrow-hawk or a falcon. If we wish to make it come back, we must show it the lure; to quieten it, we must hood it. We say to a servant: turn to the left or to the right and he does it. But to make a horse do so, we have to use the bridle.
We should not order, Theotimus, our eyes not to see, our ears not to hear, our hands not to touch, our stomach not to digest, our bodies not to grow or not to reproduce. For all these powers have no understanding and so they are unable to obey. No one can add a cubit to his height (Mt 6:27). Rachel wanted to conceive but could not. We often eat without being nourished or gaining growth. He who wishes to master these faculties must use skill. A physician treating an infant in the cradle does not command something to it. But sometimes he orders the nurse to do such and such a thing. Sometimes he commands her to eat such and such a food, to take a special medicine so that its qualities are spread in the milk, and the milk in the body of the little child., Thus the will of the physician realizes its aim in this little patient who is not able even to think of it.
We must not issue rules of abstinence, moderation and discipline to the stomach or throat. Instead we must order moderation to the hands to provide food and drink in the required quantity. We must take away from or give to each faculty its proper objects, things suitable to it, and nourishments which strengthen it only in the measure reason dictates it. If we do not want our eyes to see then we should turn them away or cover them with their natural cover and thus shut them. By such means, we will bring them to the point of obedience which the will desires. Such is also the teaching of Our Lord, Theotimus: There are eunuchs who are such for the kingdom of God (Mt 19:12). It means that they are not eunuchs due to natural impotency but through the effort which their will makes use of to keep themselves in holy continence. It is foolishness to order a horse not to become fat, not to grow, not to kick: if you wish all these, then put him in a stall; we should not command him, but stop giving him oats in order to tame him.
Yes, the will also has power over the understanding and memory. For among the many things that the intelligence can understand and which the memory can remember, the will decides those matters to which these faculties should apply themselves or from which they should turn away. It is true that the will cannot govern them or set them in order as it does with hands, feet and tongue. The reason is that these are sensitive faculties, and especially the imagination. They do not obey the will with a prompt and unfailing obedience. The memory and the intelligence need these sensitive powers in order to function. However, the will moves them, uses them and applies them as it pleases, even though not so firmly and consistently. For the unsteady and fickle imagination turns them away many times and drives them elsewhere so that the Apostle St. Paul exclaims: I do not do the good I want, but the evil that I hate (Rom 7:15). Similarly we are often forced to complain about what we think, not the good that we love but the evil that we hate.