and lead everyone who is in the
good of charity according to the state of his love and wisdom; by the
"door" the Lord is meant, as verse 9 makes plain:

I am the door; if a man enters by Me, he will be saved (Jn 10:9).

It is clear from this that for one to be saved the Lord Himself is to be
approached; one who does so is a "shepherd of the sheep" and one who does
not is a "thief"' and a "robber" (so the first verse of the chapter).

231. Profanation of what is holy is predicated of those who know truths
of faith and goods of charity from the Word and also acknowledge them in
some measure, not of those who do not know them, nor of those who
impiously reject them altogether. Therefore what now follows is said of
the former, not of the latter; by the former many kinds of profanation,
lighter and graver, are committed, but they may be summed up in the seven
following.

A first kind of profanation on their part is making jokes from the Word
or about the Word, or of and about the divine things of the church. Some
do this from a bad habit, picking names or expressions from the Word and
mingling them with unseemly and sometimes filthy speech. This cannot be
done without some contempt being added for the Word. Yet the Word in each
and all things is divine and holy; every expression in it stores in its
bosom something divine and by means of it gives communication with
heaven. This kind of profanation is lighter or more grave according to
one's acknowledgment of the sacredness of the Word and to the
unseemliness of the comment into which it is brought by those who jest
about it.

[2] A second kind of profanation by those under discussion is that while
they understand and acknowledge divine truths, they live contrary to
them. Those who only understand profane more lightly, and those who also
acknowledge profane more seriously; for the understanding only teaches
quite as a preacher does, but does not of itself unite with the will, but
acknowledgment does, for one cannot acknowledge anything without the
consent of the will. Still this union with the will varies and the
profanation is according to the measure of it in living contrary to
acknowledged truths. Thus if one acknowledges that revenge and hatred,
adultery and fornication, fraud and deceit, blasphemy and lying are sins
against God and yet commits them, he is therefore in the more grievous of
this kind of profanation. For the Lord says:

The servant who knows his lord's