CAPUT XXXVI. Quomodo, vel quo ordine oriatur verum gaudium

The Hidden Sweetness of True Joy

With enemies subdued and citizens at peace, the soul can experience the peace of God and the hidden sweetness reserved for those who love Him, which is the interior joy that Leah bore as her fifth son, Issachar.

So with the enemies put to flight and the citizens at peace, nothing now stands in the way, as I see it, of our city experiencing that peace of God which surpasses all understanding—or how great is the abundance of sweetness God has hidden for those who love him. “He has hidden it,” the psalm says.¹ What wonder is it, then, if any lover of the world doesn’t know the sweetness God has hidden for those who love him? Because those who place their hope in false and deceptive goods cannot find what the true goods are; that is why they say, “Who will show us good things?” For it is hidden manna, utterly unknown except to those who taste it. Because this kind of sweetness belongs to the heart, not the flesh; and so no carnal person can know it: “You have given,” he says, “gladness in my heart” (same place).² Bodily delights, like the body itself, can be seen with the bodily eye; the delights of the heart, like the heart itself, the eyes of the flesh cannot see. So how can anyone know spiritual delights, except the one who does not shrink from entering his own heart and dwelling there?³ And so it is also said to him: Enter into the joy of your Lord. So this interior joy—that inward sweetness, which belongs only to spiritual people—is the fifth son born to Leah. For joy, as we have already said above, is one of the principal affections. But when this joy is rightly ordered, it can rightly be numbered among the sons of Jacob and Leah. We truly have ordered and true joy, then, when we rejoice over true and interior goods. The Apostle wanted to stir up in us a desire for such offspring when he said: Rejoice in the Lord always; again I say, rejoice. And the Prophet: Be glad in the Lord and rejoice, you righteous, and exult, all you upright in heart. For such offspring Leah gladly scorned the mandrakes, so that she might have such a son.⁴

The Path to Joy: Gad, Asher, and the Reward

True joy requires the prior birth of Gad (abstinence) and Asher (patience) to uproot false delight and empty turmoil, after which Issachar, meaning 'reward,' is born as the firstfruits and pledge of interior joy.

For the mind that delights in human praise doesn't deserve to experience what interior joy is. And rightly, after the birth of Gad and Asher, Leah bore such a son; because, except through abstinence and patience, the human mind doesn't reach true joy. So anyone who wants to rejoice in the truth must shut out not only false delight, but also empty turmoil. For whoever still delights in the lowest things is certainly unworthy of interior gladness; and whoever is shaken by empty fear can't fully enjoy spiritual sweetness. Truth condemned false joy when he said: "Woe to you who laugh now." He was rooting out empty turmoil when he warned his hearers, saying: "Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul." Of these, we overcome the one by abstaining, and we trample the other by enduring.⁵ And so through Gad, false delight is uprooted; through Asher, empty turmoil. These are Gad and Asher, who shut out false joy and bring in true joy. Now, as I see it, there will no longer be any question why a son like this is called Issachar—since Issachar means "reward."⁶ For what else are we seeking through so many and such great labors? What else, I say, do we wait for with such steadfast patience than true joy? Of this reward we so often receive, as it were, firstfruits and something like a pledge, whenever we enter that interior joy of our Lord and taste it even in part.⁷

Read the original Latin

Hostibus itaque fugatis, civibusque pacificatis, nil jam obstat, ut arbitror, quin illa nostra civitas experiatur quae sit illa Dei pax quae exsuperat omnem sensum; vel quam sit magna multitudo dulcedinis, quam abscondit Deus diligentibus se. Abscondit, inquit. Quid ergo mirum, eam si quilibet mundi amator nescit, quam Deus diligentibus se abscondit? Qui enim in bonis falsis et deceptoriis spem figunt, quae sint vera bona invenire non possunt; unde est quod dicunt: Quis ostendit nobis bona. Est enim manna absconditum, et nisi gustantibus, omnino incognitum. Est namque hujusmodi dulcedo, cordis, non carnis; unde nec eam noscere potest quilibet carnalis: Dedisti, inquit, laetitiam in corde meo (ibid). Corporales deliciae, sicut et ipsum corpus, corporeo oculo videri possunt; delicias cordis, sicut nec ipsum cor, oculi carnis videre nequeunt. Qua ergo ratione spirituales delicias cognoscat, nisi qui ad cor suum intrare, et intus habitare non dissimulat?

Unde et ei dicitur: Intra in gaudium Domini tui. Hoc itaque internum gaudium, spiritualibus solis; illa dulcedo, quae intus sentitur, est ille filius Liae, qui ei quinto loco nascitur. Est enim gaudium, ut superius jam diximus, unus de principalibus affectibus. Hic autem cum ordinatus est, recte inter filios Jacob et Liae annumerari potest. Ordinatum autem et verum gaudium veraciter tunc habemus, quando de veris et internis bonis gaudemus. Ad talis prolis desiderium Apostolus nos animare voluit, cum dixit: Gaudete in Domino semper, iterum dico, gaudete. Et Propheta: Laetamini in Domino, et exsultate, justi, et gloriamini, omnes recti corde. Pro tali prole Lia mandragoras libenter contempsit, ut talem filium habere possit.

Mens etenim, quae in laude hominum delectatur, quod sit internum gaudium experiri non meretur. Recte autem post nativitatem Gad et Aser, Lia talem filium genuit; quia, nisi per abstinentiam et patientiam, mens humana ad verum gaudium non pertingit. Oportet ergo non solum falsam delectationem, sed etiam vanam perturbationem excludere eum qui vult de veritate gaudere. Qui enim adhuc in infimis delectatur, interna utique jucunditate indignus est; et qui vano timore perturbatur, spirituali dulcedine non potest perfrui. Falsam laetitiam Veritas damnabat, cum dicebat: Vae vobis qui nunc ridetis. Vanam perturbationem exstirpabat, cum auditores suos admonebat, dicens: Nolite timere eos qui occidunt corpus, animam autem non possunt occidere. Horum autem unum abstinendo superamus, alterum patiendo calcamus. Itaque per Gad exstirpatur falsa delectatio, per Aser vero vana perturbatio.

Isti sunt Gad et Aser, qui excludunt gaudium falsum, et introducunt gaudium verum. Jam, ut aestimo, nulla erit deinceps quaestio, cur hic talis filius Issachar dicatur, si quidem Isachar merces interpretatur. Quid enim aliud tot tantisque laboribus quaerimus? quid, inquam, aliud quam verum gaudium, tam perseveranti longanimitate exspectamus? Hujus mercedis toties quasi quasdam primitias, et velut arrham quamdam accipimus, quoties ad illud Domini nostri gaudium internum intramus, et ex parte aliqua gustamus.

Notes

1 ↩Inquit continues the preceding scriptural phrase abscondit; the subject is the biblical speaker, not Richard in his own voice alone.
2 ↩Source apparatus (ibid.) points back to the same psalm already in play (Ps 4); final Moses resolution deferred.
3 ↩non dissimulat + infinitive rendered as does not shrink from; also possible is does not neglect to, with little difference in force.
4 ↩In Richard's allegory, Leah's free contempt of the mandrakes figures the soul's willingness to forgo lower consolations in order to bear true interior joy.
5 ↩"Unum...alterum" points back to false delight and empty turmoil (s3–s6): abstinence conquers false delight; patience tramples empty fear/turmoil.
6 ↩Source alternates Issachar/Isachar; rendered uniformly as Issachar. merces = reward/wages, the traditional etymology of the name.
7 ↩arrha is the earnest/pledge (cf. arrabon): a partial present token of the full reward still to come, not the reward itself.

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