CAPUT IV. Quomodo per studium sapientiae animus latenter saepe inducitur ad exercitia justitiae
Leah in Rachel’s Chamber
The soul, while seeking contemplation in sacred reading, often unexpectedly meets compunction instead, which forces self-knowledge and repentance.
But those who've learned how often this happens—not so much by hearing as by experience—easily recognize how Leah is put in place while Rachel is still hoped for. It often happens that the mind, still poorly cleansed of the filth of its old way of life, and not yet fit for the contemplation of heavenly things—while it settles itself in Rachel's chamber, while it makes itself wholly ready for her embrace, while it thinks it already holds her—suddenly and unexpectedly finds itself in Leah's arms.1 For what do we call Sacred Scripture if not Rachel's chamber—where we have no doubt that divine wisdom lies hidden under a fitting veil of allegories? In such a chamber, Rachel is sought every time spiritual understanding is searched out in sacred reading. But as long as we still fall far short of penetrating the heights, we have not yet found the Rachel we have long desired and carefully sought. So we begin to groan and sigh—not only to lament our blindness, but to blush for it as well. So as we grieve and ask how we came to deserve this blindness, the evils we have done rise up to meet us. Indeed, divine reading itself—while we resist and try to make something else of it—frequently forces our foulness upon us and pierces our hearts with compunction as we consider it.2
Defining Leah and Rachel
The allegorical identification is clarified: compunction and groaning belong to Leah, while meditation and contemplation belong to Rachel, and their essential natures are distinguished.
So whenever, in sacred reading, we find compunction instead of contemplation, we can be sure that in Rachel's chamber we've found not Rachel herself, but Leah. For just as it's Rachel's role to meditate, contemplate, discern, and understand, so it's certainly Leah's role to weep, groan, grieve, and sigh. For Leah, as we've said, is affection set on fire by divine inspiration; Rachel is reason enlightened by divine revelation. Leah is affection shaping herself to the standard of justice; Rachel is reason lifting herself into the contemplation of heavenly wisdom.
Transition to the Handmaids
The author closes the discussion of Leah and Rachel and turns to consider their handmaids.
But enough about these for now. Now let's consider their handmaids.
Read the original Latin
Quemadmodum autem Lia supponitur, dum Rachel speratur, facile recognoscunt qui hoc quam saepe contingat non tam audiendo quam experiendo didicerunt. Saepe contingit ut animus antiquae conversationis sordibus minus mundatus, et ad coelestium contemplationem nondum idoneus, dum se in cubiculo Rachel collocat; dum se in ejus amplexus totum parat; dum illam jam sese tenere putat, subito et inopinate inter amplexus Liae se esse deprehendat. Quid enim Scripturam sacram, nisi Rachel cubiculum dicimus, in qua sapientiam divinam sub decenti allegoriarum velamine latitare non dubitamus? In tali cubiculo, Rachel toties quaeritur, quoties in lectione sacra spiritualis intelligentia indagatur. Sed quandiu adhuc ad sublimia penetranda minime sufficimus, diu cupitam, diligenter quaesitam Rachel nondum invenimus. Incipimus ergo gemere, suspirare, nostram caecitatem non solum plangere, sed et erubescere. Dolentibus ergo nobis et quaerentibus unde hanc caecitatem meruimus, occurrunt mala quae fecimus. Quinimo ipsa divina lectio nobis nolentibus, et aliud quiddam in ea molientibus, foeditatem nostram frequenter ingerit, et corda nostra in ejus consideratione compungit.
Quoties ergo in divina lectione, pro contemplatione, compunctionem reperimus, in cubiculo Rachel, non ipsam, sed Liam, nos invenisse non dubitemus. Nam sicut Rachelis est meditari, contemplari, discernere, intelligere; sic profecto pertinet ad Liam flere, gemere, dolere, suspirare. Nam Lia, ut dictum est, affectio est divina inspiratione inflammata; Rachel est ratio divina revelatione illuminata. Lia, affectio ad normam justitiae seipsam componens; Rachel, ratio se in coelestis sapientiae contemplationem attollens. Sed de his hactenus. Nunc de earum ancillis videamus.
Notes
- 1 ↩animus rendered as 'mind' (not soul), matching the work's title De praeparatione animi and Richard's reason/affection schema; conversationis as 'way of life' rather than modern 'conversation'.
- 2 ↩compungit rendered with protected term 'compunction' (grace-pierced sorrow), not generic guilt or shame.
Benjamin Minor (The Twelve Patriarchs / Preparation of the Mind for Contemplation) companion
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