De arca sapientiae.
The Mind as Ark of Wisdom
The rational soul, dwelling in thought beyond time, builds the ark of wisdom from upright, chaste thoughts that rise above carnal desire yet burn with divine love.
What we want to say about the ark of wisdom should therefore be distinguished from those things that were assigned above to the Church according to allegory, so that what was pointed out there in reality is here sought in thought. For things have a certain existence of their own in the human mind, where even those things that have already passed away in themselves, or are still future, can all subsist together. And in this the rational soul has, in a way, a likeness of its Creator: because just as in the divine mind the causes of all things have subsisted eternally, without mutability and without temporal distinction, so too in our mind past, present, and future things all subsist together through thought. If therefore through the study of meditation we begin diligently to inhabit our heart, we already, in a way, cease to be temporal, and as though made dead to the world, we live inwardly with God. Whatever fortune stirs up outside we then easily despise, if our desire is fixed where we are not subject to mutability. Where we neither leave behind past things nor await future things, where we neither desire the prosperity of this life nor fear its adversity. Let us therefore have upright thoughts, let us have useful and chaste thoughts, because from such material we will build our ark. These are the woods that float when cast into water and burn when placed in fire, because such thoughts are not dragged downward by the flow of carnal delights.
The Fire of Love and the Sealed Ark
The ark of the heart must be set ablaze by charity, caulked with gentleness and inward love, and then measured according to the ages of the world.
but the flame of love sets it ablaze. And don't be afraid of this fire on your rooftops. Woe to you if your dwelling hasn't caught fire from it.1 After that, you'll caulk your ark inside and out. Outside, so that you show gentleness; inside, so that you don't lose love. For you'll by no means be able to rest gently in the secret place of your conscience, unless you first learn to tolerate evil people outwardly through gentleness, and inwardly not to hate them through love.2 Bitumen has a hot nature, and it's born from lightning-struck earth; and love is brought to life in a soul struck by the fear of divine judgment. Next let's look at the dimensions of the ark, and how it can be made in us; as we said above, the three hundred cubits stand for the present age.
The Dimensions of the Spiritual Ark
The ark's length, width, and height symbolize meditation on salvation history, imitation of the Church, and knowledge of Scripture, within divinely set boundaries.
So if you were to lead your thought from the very beginning of the world right up to its end, and in passing consider what great wonders God has worked — or is yet to work — for the sake of his chosen ones, you would measure out a length of three hundred cubits within your heart. If in your thinking you run through the Church, and having contemplated the life of the faithful you set it before yourself as an example, you stretch your heart out to a width of fifty cubits. But if you have grasped the knowledge of the divine page — the page contained in thirty books — you raise your heart to a height of thirty cubits. This is the ark you must build. These are the boundaries set by your ancestors — boundaries you are not permitted to cross — which the Most High established according to the number of the sons of Israel, when he separated the sons of Adam and divided the nations. This is the land you must dwell in and be nourished by its riches. So rest within these walls, remain under this roof, abide in this house — for outside the storm and tempest rage — wherever you go out, you will suffer shipwreck. If through your own wisdom you proudly try to pry into divine secrets that God has chosen not to reveal to us through his Scripture, you go beyond the height of thirty cubits.
Beyond the Boundaries of Faith
To doubt the Church's endurance or to dwell on the empty love of the world is to transgress the sacred limits of the ark.
If you don't believe the Church will last to the end of the age — that at some point it will be abandoned by God's help — then you've crossed the boundary of the hundred cubits in length. If you love to think often about the lovers of this world and about their empty way of life, you've gone beyond the measure of the fifty cubits.
Read the original Latin
Quod dicere volumus de arca sapientiae ita distinguendum est ab iis quae secundum allegoriam superius assignata sunt Ecclesiae, ut quod ibi demonstratum est in re, hoc hic quaeratur in cogitatione. Habent enim quoddam esse suum res in mente hominis, ubi illa etiam, quae in seipsis vel jam praeterierunt, vel adhuc futura sunt, simul subsistere possunt. Et in hoc quodammodo rationalis anima similitudinem sui Creatoris habet, quia sicut in mente divina omnium rerum causae aeternaliter sine mutabilitate, et distinctione temporali substiterunt, ita etiam in mente nostra praeterita, praesentia, et futura per cogitationem simul subsistunt. Si ergo per studium meditationis assidue cor nostrum inhabitare coeperimus, jam quodammodo temporales esse desistimus, et quasi mortui mundo facti intus cum Deo vivimus. Tunc quidquid fortuna extra molitur facile contemnimus, si ibi fixum est desiderium nostrum, ubi mutabilitati non subjacemus. Ubi nec praeterita relinquamus, nec exspectemus futura, ubi nec cupiamus hujus vitae prospera, nec timeamus adversa. Habeamus ergo rectas, habeamus utiles et castas cogitationes, quia de tali materia fabricabimus arcam nostram. Ista sunt ligna, quae in aquam missa natant, in igne posita ardent, quia tales cogitationes fluxus carnalium delectationum deorsum non premit.
sed flamma charitatis incendit. Nec timeas hunc ignem in tectis tuis. Vae tibi si non arserit ex eo tabernaculum tuum. Postea bituminabis arcam tuam intus et extra. Extra ut mansuetudinem exhibeas, intus ut charitatem non amittas. Nullatenus enim in secreto conscientiae tuae suaviter pausare poteris, nisi prius malos, et extra per mansuetudinem tolerare, et intus didiceris per charitatem non odisse. Bitumen calidae naturae est, et nascitur de terra fulminata, et charitas procreatur in anima timore divini judicii percussa. Deinceps videamus de mensura arcae, qualiter fieri possit in nobis diximus supra trecentos cabitos praesens saeculum designare.
Si ergo tu cogitationem tuam duxeris ab exordio mundi usque ad finem, et pertransiens consideraveris quae, et quanta Deus mirabilia propter electos suos operatus sit, vel adhuc operaturus, trecentorum cubitorum longitudinem in corde tuo metieris. Si cogitatione percurris Ecclesiam, et vitam fidelium contemplatus eam tibi ad exemplum proponis, et in latitudinem quinquaginta cubitorum cor extendis. Si vero divinae paginae, quae triginta libris continetur, scientiam adeptus fueris, in altitudinem triginta cubitorum cor tuum erigis. Haec est arca, quam aedificare debes. Isti sunt termini patrum tuorum, quos tibi transgredi non licet, quos Altissimus constituit juxta numerum filiorum Israel, quando separabat filios Adam, et gentes dividebat. Haec est terra, quam inhabitare debes, et pasci in divitiis ejus. Requiesce ergo intra hos parietes, sub hoc tecto mane, habita in domo hac, procella et tempestas foris saevit, quacunque prodieris naufragium patieris. Si superbe per sapientiam tuam divina secreta rimari conaris, quae nobis Deus per scripturam suam aperire noluit, altitudinem triginta cubitorum transcendis.
Si usque in finem saeculi non credis Ecclesiam duraturam, sed aliquando Dei destituendam auxilio, tunc centum cubitorum longitudinem transis. Si frequenter de amatoribus hujus mundi, et de vana conversatione illorum cogitare delectaris quinquaginta cubitorum mensuram transgrederis.
Notes
- 1 ↩arserit is morphologically ambiguous (perfect subjunctive or future perfect indicative); translated as a present-perfect condition to fit the context of a present spiritual state.
- 2 ↩didiceris is morphologically ambiguous (perfect subjunctive or future perfect indicative); translated as present-tense 'learn' to fit the conditional logic of the sentence.
De Arca Noe Morali et Mystica (On the Moral and Mystical Ark of Noah) companion
Keep the ark under construction
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