CAPUT VIII. Quomodo, vel unde oriatur ordinatus timor
CAPUT VIII. Quomodo, vel unde oriatur ordinatus timor
It is written: The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. This is the first offspring of the virtues—without which you can't have the rest. Anyone who wants such a son should attend not only often but carefully to the evils he has done: on one side, the greatness of his own crime; on the other, the power of the Judge. From such consideration fear is born—that son, namely, who is rightly called Reuben, that is, 'son of vision.'1 In a way, a person is blind and scarcely sees at all if they don't fear to sin, don't foresee the evils to come, aren't ashamed of their own wickedness, and don't tremble at the divine power. But if they begin to see these things, they'll begin to fear as well—and the more perfectly they come to know them, the more intensely they'll fear. You see, I think, how justly he is called Reuben who is born from such a vision. Rightly, once he is born, his mother cries out: "God has seen my lowliness"—because then she truly begins both to see and to be seen; to know God and to be known by God; to see God through the gaze of fear, and to be seen by God through the regard of tender care.2
Read the original Latin
Scriptum est: Initium sapientiae timor Domini. Haec ergo est prima virtutum proles, sine qua caeteras habere non potes. Qui talem filium habere desiderat, mala quae fecit, non solum frequenter, sed et diligenter attendat; hinc magnitudinem sui sceleris, illinc potentiam judicantis. Ex tali consideratione timor nascitur, scilicet filius ille qui jure Ruben, hoc est filius visionis vocatur. Quodammodo etenim caecus est, et minime videt, qui peccare non timet, qui futura mala non praevidet, qui non erubescit pravitatem suam, qui non expavescit potestatem divinam. Sed, si incipiat ista videre, incipiet pariter et timere, et quanto perfectius cognoverit, tanto vehementius timebit. Vides, ut arbitror, quam juste Ruben vocetur, qui ex tali visione generatur. Recte, eo nato, mater ejus exclamat: Vidit Deus humilitatem meam, eo quod tunc veraciter incipiat videre, et videri; Deum cognoscere, et a Deo cognosci; videre Deum per intuitum formidinis, videri a Deo per respectum pietatis.
Notes
- 1 ↩Richard follows the traditional etymology of Reuben as 'son of seeing/vision' (filius visionis), tying ordered fear to the birth of spiritual sight.
- 2 ↩pietas here names God's fatherly compassion/loving regard (respectum pietatis), paired antithetically with the soul's gaze of fear (intuitum formidinis), not personal 'piety' as a human virtue.
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