CAPUT XIII. Quomodo per invisibilium amorem mens instigetur ad invisibilium investigationem
Rachel's Barren Longing
The soul's reason (Rachel) burns with desire for spiritual fruitfulness, and without growth in wisdom it fails.
But what do you think is going on in Rachel's heart? With what waves of longing do you think she's tossed, when she sees her sister Leah rejoicing as a mother of sons, while she herself remains barren? Let's hear what she says, and understand what she grieves over. So what does she say to Jacob, her husband? "Give me children," she says, "or else I'll die."1 Without a doubt, if the pursuit of wisdom doesn't advance, it fails all the sooner.
The Birth of Judah and Ordered Love
When ordered love (Judah) is born, reason's desire to know is inflamed, for love directs the eye toward invisible goods.
But let's carefully ask what it could be that, once Judah is born, makes Rachel burn more fiercely than usual with love of offspring. We said earlier that just as loving belongs to Leah—that is, to the soul's affection—so knowing belongs to Rachel—that is, to reason. For from the former arises every ordered affection; from the latter, pure insight or understanding.2 But what else do we understand by Judah, if not ordered love—love of heavenly things, love of God, love of the highest good? So when Judah is born—that is, when desire for invisible goods rises and burns hot—Rachel begins to burn with love of offspring, because she begins to want to know. Where love is, there the eye is. We gladly look at the one we love deeply. No one doubts that anyone who has been able to love invisible things will immediately want to know them and see them through understanding; and the more Judah grows—that is, the affection of loving—the more fiercely in Rachel burns the desire to give birth, that is, the drive to know.3
Read the original Latin
Sed quid putas in corde Rachel agitur, quibus putas desideriorum aestibus agitatur, cum videat Liam sororem suam matrem filiorum laetantem, se autem sterilem permanentem? Audiamus quid dicat, et intelligamus quid doleat. Quid ergo dicit Jacob viro suo: Da mihi, inquit, liberos, alioquin moriar. Absque dubio studium sapientiae si non proficit, citius deficit. Sed quaeramus diligenter quidnam esse possit, quod, nato Juda, Rachel ad amorem prolis solito amplius inardescit. Diximus superius quia sicut ad Liam, id est animi affectionem, pertinet diligere; sic Rachelis, id est rationis, est cognoscere. Ex illa namque oritur quilibet affectus ordinatus, ex ista sensus seu intellectus purus. Sed quid aliud per Judam intelligimus, nisi amorem ordinatum, amorem coelestium, amorem Dei, amorem summi boni.
Nato itaque Juda, id est, bonorum invisibilium desiderio exsurgente atque fervente, incipit Rachel amore prolis aestuare, quia incipit velle cognoscere. Ubi amor, ibi oculus. Libenter aspicimus quem multum diligimus. Nulli dubium quia qui potuit invisibilia diligere, quin velit statim cognoscere, et per intelligentiam videre, et quanto plus crescit Judas (affectus videlicet diligendi), tanto amplius in Rachel fervet desiderium pariendi, hoc est studium cognoscendi.
Notes
- 1 ↩Latin 'dicit Jacob viro suo' takes indeclinable Jacob as dative: she speaks to Jacob her husband (subject implied from Rachel).
- 2 ↩'sensus seu intellectus purus' rendered as 'pure insight or understanding'; in this contemplative register sensus is cognitive perception, not bodily sense.
- 3 ↩Judas/Rachel continue the allegory: Judah = the affection of loving; Rachel's desire to give birth = the pursuit of knowing (studium cognoscendi).
Benjamin Minor (The Twelve Patriarchs / Preparation of the Mind for Contemplation) companion
A daily portion of stillness
Chosen Portion delivers one short contemplative reading and a guided moment of silence each day — the ascent, one step at a time.
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