De tribus lignis vitae.
The Three Trees of Life
The text introduces three trees of life: the material tree of Eden, Christ as the tree of life in the Church, and the wisdom of God in the heavenly paradise.
Likewise, there are three trees of life. The first is that material tree which the Lord God brought forth from the ground in the beginning, when he planted paradise in its midst. Its fruit, man was not to touch after sin, and so he was cast out of paradise. The second is the Lord Jesus Christ, who, in the form of the humanity he assumed, is planted in the midst of his Church as the tree of life in the midst of paradise, and whoever has deserved to eat from its fruit worthily will live forever. The third is the tree of life planted in that invisible paradise, that is, the wisdom of God, whose fruit is the food of the blessed angels.
One Tree, Three Dispensations
The second and third trees are one, and through them man was created, cast out, and called back — the tree of life belongs only in paradise.
The second and the third are one tree of life. But by the third, man was created; from the first, man was cast out; through the second, man is called back. Therefore, the tree of life is only in paradise; it cannot be found outside it. There is its place; there it fixes its roots; there it spreads its branches and bears fruit in its season.
The Waters That Sustain the Tree
The tree of life is planted by the unfailing spring of paradise, and the three trees are compared as three books, three words, and three woods in a hierarchy of goods.
And I believe that because of the flowing waters of life, it was planted by the spring that rises in the middle of paradise and waters the whole garden — and so its root can never dry up, its branches can never wither, and its leaves can never fall, but it stays green forever. So you have three books, three words, and three woods. If you compare them with each other one by one, you'll see how the lowest is nothing compared to the middle — and yet the middle, compared to the highest, cannot itself be called the highest, since the lowest has been compared to the middle.
Read the original Latin
Item sunt tria ligna vitae. Primum est arbor illa materialis, quam produxit Dominus Deus de humo in principio, cum plantaret paradisum in medio ejus. Cujus fructum ne post peccatum tangeret homo, ejectus est a paradiso. Secundum est Dominus Jesus Christus, qui secundum formam assumptae humanitatis in medio Ecclesiae suae, quasi lignum vitae in medio paradisi plantatus est, de cujus fructu quisquis digne manducare meruerit, vivet in aeternum. Tertium est lignum vitae, quod plantatum est in illo invisibili paradiso, id est sapientia Dei, cujus fructus cibus est beatorum angelorum. Secundum et tertium unum est lignum vitae. Sed ad tertium creatus fuit homo, a primo ejectus est homo, per secundum revocatur homo. Igitur lignum vitae non est nisi in paradiso, extra inveniri non potest, ibi est locus ejus, ibi figit radices, ibi ramos expandit, et profert fructum in tempore suo.
Et credo, propter decursus aquarum viventium, quia plantatum est propter fontem, qui oritur in medio paradisi, et irrigat universum paradisum, et ideo nec siccari radix ejus, nec rami arescere, nec folia defluere possunt, sed permanet virens in perpetuum. Habes igitur tres libros, tria verba, et tria ligna, quae si in singulis sibi invicem comparare volueris, videbis quam sit nihil imum comparatum cum medio, nec tamen id esse potest medium comparatum, cum summo, quod imum est comparatum cum medio.
De Arca Noe Morali et Mystica (On the Moral and Mystical Ark of Noah) companion
Keep the ark under construction
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