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← De Arca Noe Morali et Mystica (On the Moral and Mystical Ark of Noah)/Book 4 · De Arca Noe Morali — Liber 4
Chapter 4ArcaN.4.4

Quare in abdito, et obscure locutus sit Deus.

God Speaks in Secret

God has always spoken rarely, obscurely, and in hidden places, calling individuals apart to reveal himself.

This is what God has done from the beginning: he spoke with few, rarely, obscurely, and in a hidden place. Let us search the Scriptures, and we shall find that God has scarcely ever spoken in a crowd; but whenever he wanted to reveal himself to people, it was not to nations and peoples, but either to individuals or to very few, separated from the common throng of humanity, or through the silences of night, or in the fields, or in the wilderness and on the mountains, that he revealed himself. So he spoke with Noah, with Abraham, with Isaac, with Jacob, with Moses, with Samuel, with David, and with all the prophets. And finally, appearing in the flesh, even though he spoke openly to the world, he nevertheless led his disciples apart onto a mountain, so that he might reveal his glory to them.✦ To them he also says elsewhere, 'To you it has been given to know the mystery of the kingdom of God, but to the rest in parables'; and again, 'What I tell you in the dark, speak in the light, and what you hear whispered in your ear, proclaim from the housetops.'✦✦ But he did not give the law to that ancient people in Egypt, nor anywhere else, until he had led them out into the wilderness apart. Nor did he give it openly to everyone there, but Moses alone went up the mountain to receive the law.✦ So what is it that God always speaks in secret, except that he is calling us to what is secret?

The Inner Ear Restored

Because humanity lost the inner ear for hearing God, he calls us outwardly, stirring and increasing love by both speaking and withdrawing.

And why does he speak to only a few, except to gather us in? Consider these two things I have said: he gathers us and calls us to what is hidden. The first man, before he sinned, had no need for God to speak to him from outside, since he had an inner ear of the heart by which he could hear God's voice spiritually; but after he opened his outward ear to the serpent's persuasion, he closed the inner ear to God's voice. Because, then, humanity lost the inner hearing by which to hear God speaking, God calls us back to himself, crying out from outside. But when he speaks, always as if wanting to hide himself, he withdraws, so that he might both stir the human mind by what he says about himself, and draw it to himself by the very way he flees into hiding. For he provokes our desire so as to increase it, because by speaking he stirs up love of himself within us, and by fleeing he sets us ablaze to follow him. For the human heart is such that if it cannot obtain what it loves, it burns all the more with its own desire. So in the Song of Songs the Bridegroom comes: he stands behind the wall, peers through the windows and lattice, so as to be half-hidden and not hidden.✦

The Bridegroom Comes and Flees

The Bridegroom approaches, withdraws, and slips away, inflaming the soul's pursuit by the very pattern of his hiding.

He sends his hand through the opening, touches the Bride, and calls her with a lowered voice, a hushed tone: Come, my beloved, my dove.✦ See, winter has passed, the rain is gone and has cleared away.✦ Flowers have appeared in our land; the voice of the turtledove has been heard in our land.✦ When she hears the Bridegroom is near, she rises at once, hurries, unlatches her door, and as if about to receive him, prepares her arms to embrace him; she can barely hold back, barely bear it, barely wait.✦ Her soul melts, her heart burns, her whole being exults, rejoices, leaps for joy, delights, rushes out to meet the one who is coming.✦ But he, when he is thought to be within reach, turns aside, and suddenly, as if slipping away from the very arms that held him, flees.✦ What is this? While she does not seek him, he seeks; while he is not called, he comes; but while he is sought, he turns away, and while he is called, he flees.✦

Love That Comes and Flees

God loves and therefore comes, yet flees because our love is still fixed on this exile rather than on our true homeland.

If he does not love, why does he come? Or if he loves, why does he flee? He loves, and so he comes, but because this one does not love, he flees. What is this thing I have said — that he does not love? In this world, in this age, in this land, in this homeland, in this exile. But he calls us to his own land, because such a love does not consider this homeland fitting — the immunity of love would be the region's gain. Joyful love seeks a pleasant place, and so he commends his own land to us, and so he praises his own homeland, and so he says: Flowers have appeared in our land; the flowering vines have given their fragrance; the voice of the turtledove has been heard in our land. So that we may desire such a region, and long for such a homeland, and follow him.

The Messenger Passing Through

God offers himself to kindle love, flees when pursued to make us follow, and as a faithful messenger calls us to share in his homeland.

There he loves us, there he longs for us to enjoy his love, there he asks to be embraced by us, there he does not flee from those who follow him, but waits for those who come to him. So he offers himself even while he is not being sought, so that he may kindle us to love of him. When he is sought he flees, so that he may make us run after him. For unless he first showed himself to us, no one would love him. And unless he fled when sought, no one would want to follow him. The flowers, he says, have appeared in our land — not in my land, but in our land — so that he might share it with us.✦ As if he were saying: I am here for you as a faithful messenger; I have seen what I bear witness to, I have heard what I speak. Do not be afraid, do not lose heart, do not hesitate.✦

No Lasting City Here

We are pilgrims in foreign soil; Christ has come only to lead us out, and every delay in following him is a serious loss.

Follow where I call you, because you come from the very place I am coming from — you have no lasting city here.✦ Whatever place you inhabit is foreign soil. You have come here from elsewhere: if you remembered your homeland, you certainly would not love this life of wandering. And so I have come here myself, to lead you out from this place — not to stay here with you. And so from a hidden place I cry out to you, because I want to be made known here — only to pass through, not to remain. So from far off I call you, because I am hurrying toward my return. It is enough for me to have come this far, so that I might be heard. I would consider it a loss to suffer if I were to keep going along what road remains.

Hidden Truth, Revealed in Parables

God speaks in parables and riddles so that mystical truth is both searched out by the faithful and concealed from unbelievers.

Every delay is a serious matter. Flowers have appeared in our land.✦✦ Learn how greatly you ought to hasten, as you see me fleeing before you. I would not have come, unless I had wanted to draw you after me. This is the reason God always speaks in secret. Just as in the law, and the prophets, and in the Gospel, he has spoken through parables and riddles.✦✦ For it is fitting that the secret meaning of mystical truths be hidden beneath figures of speech, because they would quickly become cheap if they lay open to everyone without distinction.1 In this way, then, truth both exercises the faithful through their searching, and remains hidden so that it will not be found by unbelievers.✦

Faith Seeks, Unbelief Falls Away

The same hidden word inflames desire in the faithful and blinds those who neglect or despise it, and now the text turns to why God speaks so rarely and to so few.

When something is found only with difficulty, it inflames those who seek it with an even greater desire; but when it cannot be found at all, it blinds them. From the same source, therefore, both the faithful grow and the unfaithful fall away — because the faithful, by listening humbly and faithfully inquiring into the words of God, arrive at a recognition of the truth; the unfaithful, however, whether through neglect, contempt, or a twisted understanding, never reach the truth. We have already said why God speaks obscurely and in hidden ways; it remains now to say why he speaks with few people and rarely.

Read the original Latin

Hoc est quod ab initio cum paucis, raro, obscure et in abscondito locutus est Deus. Scrutemur Scripturas, et inveniemus vix unquam Deum in multitudine locutum, sed quotiescunque hominibus innotescere voluit, non gentibus et populis, sed vel singulis, vel admodum paucis, et a communi frequentia hominum segregatis, vel per nocturna silentia, vel in campis, vel in solitudinibus et montibus se manifestavit. Sic locutus est cum Noe, cum Abraham, cum Isaac, cum Jacob, cum Moyse, cum Samuel, cum David et cum omnibus prophetis. Denique in carne apparens, quamvis manifeste locutus sit mundo, tamen discipulos, ut illis gloriam suam manifestaret, seorsum in montem duxit. Quibus et alibi dicit: Vobis datum est nosse mysterium regni Dei, caeteris autem in parabolis, et rursum: Quod dico vobis in tenebris, dicite in luce, et quod in aure auditis, praedicate super tecta. Sed nec illi antiquo populo legem dedit in Aegypto, nec alibi, donec eum eduxisset in solitudinem seorsum. Neque ibi palam omnibus, sed Moyses solus ascendit in montem, ut legem acciperet. Quid est ergo quod semper in secreto loquitur Deus, nisi quod nos ad secretum vocat?

et quid quod cum paucis, nisi ut nos colligat? Considerate haec duo quae dixi, colligit et ad secretum vocat. Primus homo antequam peccaret non opus habuit, ut ei extrinsecus loqueretur Deus, qui aurem cordis intrinsecus habuit, qua vocem Dei spiritualiter audire posset, sed postquam foris aurem ad suasionem serpentis aperuit, aurem intus ad vocem Dei clausit. Quia ergo homo auditum intus perdidit, quo Deum loquentem audiat, revocans nos Deus ad se foris clamat. Sed cum loquitur, semper quasi occultari volens se subtrahit, ut mentem humanam et per hoc quod loquitur de se admoneat, et per hoc quod se occultando fugit ad se trahat. Irritat enim desiderium nostrum ut augeat, quia et loquendo amorem sui in nobis excitat, et fugiendo ut se sequamur inflammat. Tale est enim cor hominis, ut si quod diligit adipisci non valeat, amplius desiderio suo inardescat. Sic in Canticis canticorum Sponsus venit: Stat post parietem, prospicit per fenestras, et cancellos, ut quasi lateat et non lateat.

Mittit manum suam per foramen, tangit Sponsam et sono depresso, voce tenui vocat eam, et dicit: Veni, amica mea, columba mea. Ecce hiems transiit, imber abiit, et recessit. Flores apparuerunt in terra nostra; vox turturis audita est in terra nostra. Illa ut audit Sponsum adesse surgit mox, festinat, aperit pessulum ostii sui, et quasi venientem exceptura brachia ad amplectendum parat; vix tolerat, vix sustinet, vix exspectat. Liquescit anima ejus, ardet cor ejus, fervent praecordia ejus, exsultat, gaudet, tripudiat, jucundatur, ruit obviam venienti. Sed ille, cum jam teneri putatur, declinat, et subito quasi de mediis elapsus amplexibus fugit. Quid est hoc? Dum non quaeritur quaerit, dum non vocatur venit, dum autem quaeritur declinat, et dum vocatur fugit.

Si non diligit, quare venit? aut si diligit, quare fugit? Diligit autem, et ideo venit, sed quia hic non diligit, ideo fugit. Quid est hoc, quod dixi, hic non diligit? In hoc mundo, in hoc saeculo, in hac terra, in hac patria, in hoc exsilio. Sed vocat nos ad terram suam, quia non decet talis amor patriam istam, immunitio amoris esset utilitas regionis. Jucundus amor amoenum quaerit locum, ideo commendat nobis terram suam, ideo laudat patriam suam, ideo dicit: Flores apparuerunt in terra nostra; vineae florentes odorem dederunt; vox turturis audita est in terra nostra. Ut concupiscamus talem regionem, ut desideremus talem patriam, et sequamur eum.

Ibi nos amat, ibi amore nostro frui desiderat, ibi amplecti a nobis postulat, ibi sequentes se non fugit, sed venientes ad se exspectat. Offert ergo se dum non quaeritur, ut nos ad amorem sui accendat. Dum quaeritur fugit, ut nos post se currere faciat. Nisi enim prius ipse se nobis ostenderet, nemo eum diligeret. Et nisi dum quaeritur fugeret, nemo eum sequi vellet. Flores, inquit, apparuerunt in terra nostra, non in terra mea, sed in terra nostra, ut eam communicaret nobiscum. Quasi diceret fidelis vobis adsum nuntius, vidi quod testor, audivi quod loquor. Nolite timere, nolite diffidere, nolite haesitare.

Sequimini quo voco, quia inde estis unde venio, non habetis hic manentem civitatem. Peregrinum est quod incolitis. Aliunde huc venistis, si patriae vestrae memores essetis, utique peregrinationem non diligeritis. Propterea et ego huc veni, ut hinc vos educerem, non ut vobiscum hic permanerem. Et ideo de abscondito ad vos clamo, quia innotescere hic tantum, non permanere volo. Ideo de longinquo vos voco, quia ad reditum festino. Sufficit me tantum processisse, ut audiri possim. Damnum me pati existimarem, si quod superest viae pergerem.

Gravis est omnis mora. Flores apparuerunt in terra nostra. Discite quantum vos festinare debetis dum me fugientem cernitis. Non venissem, nisi vos post me trahere vellem. Haec est causa, quare Deus in abscondito semper loquatur. Sicut in lege, et prophetis, et in Evangelio per parabolas, et aenigmata locutus est. Dignum est enim, ut sub figuris verborum abscondantur secreta mysticorum intellectum, quia cito vilescerent si passim omnibus paterent. Ita enim veritas et per inquisitionem fideles exercet, et ne ab infidelibus inveniatur, occulta permanet.

Istos, dum difficile invenitur, majori desiderio inflammat; illos, dum omnino inveniri non potest, excaecat. Ex eodem ergo et fideles proficiunt et infideles cadunt, quia et illi humiliter audiendo, et fideliter inquirendo verba Dei ad agnitionem veritatis perveniunt; isti autem vel negligendo, vel contemnendo, vel prave intelligendo nunquam ad veritatem pertingunt. Jam diximus quare obscure, et in abscondito loquatur Deus; nunc restat dicere, quare cum paucis, et raro loquatur.

Scripture echoes

  1. ↩Matt.17.1-Matt.17.2 — And after six days Jesus takes Peter and James and John his brother and leads them up into a high mountain by themselves. Matt.17.2 — And he was transfigured before them, and his face shone like the sun, and his garments became white as the light.
  2. ↩Mark.4.11 — And he said to them, "To you has been given the mystery of the kingdom of God, but to those outside, all things come in parables."
  3. ↩Matt.10.27 — What I tell you in the darkness, speak in the light; and what you hear whispered in your ear, proclaim from the housetops.
  4. ↩Exod.24.2 — But Moses alone shall draw near to the LORD; the others shall not draw near, and the people shall not go up with him.
  5. ↩Song.2.9 — My beloved is like a gazelle or a young stag. Behold, he stands behind our wall, gazing through the windows, peering through the lattice.
  6. ↩Song.2.10 — My beloved answered and said to me, 'Arise, my darling, my beautiful one, and come away.'
  7. ↩Song.2.11-Song.2.12 — For behold, the winter is past, the rain is over and gone. Song.2.12 — The blossoms have appeared in the earth; the time of singing has come, and the voice of the turtledove is heard in our land.
  8. ↩Song.2.12-Song.2.13 — The blossoms have appeared in the earth; the time of singing has come, and the voice of the turtledove is heard in our land. Song.2.13 — The fig tree has ripened its early figs, and the vines in blossom give off their fragrance. Arise, my love, my beautiful one, and come away.
  9. ↩Song.2.9-Song.2.10;Rev.22.17 — My beloved is like a gazelle or a young stag. Behold, he stands behind our wall, gazing through the windows, peering through the lattice. Song.2.10 — My beloved answered and said to me, 'Arise, my darling, my beautiful one, and come away.' Rev.22.17 — And the Spirit and the bride say, "Come." And let the one who hears say, "Come." And let the one who is thirsty come. Let the one who desires take the water of life freely.
  10. ↩Song.5.6 — I opened to my beloved, but my beloved had turned away and gone. My soul went out when he spoke. I sought him, but I did not find him; I called him, but he did not answer me.
  11. ↩Song.5.6 — I opened to my beloved, but my beloved had turned away and gone. My soul went out when he spoke. I sought him, but I did not find him; I called him, but he did not answer me.
  12. ↩Song.3.1-Song.3.2 — On my bed, night after night, I sought the one my soul loves; I sought him, but I did not find him. Song.3.2 — I will rise now and go about the city, through the streets and through the squares; I will seek the one my soul loves. I sought him, but I did not find him.
  13. ↩Song.2.12 — The blossoms have appeared in the earth; the time of singing has come, and the voice of the turtledove is heard in our land.
  14. ↩Isa.41.10-Isa.41.13;Luke.12.32 — Do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you; indeed, I will help you; indeed, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand. Isa.41.11 — Behold, all who are enraged against you shall be put to shame and confounded; they shall be as nothing, and those who strive against you shall perish. Isa.41.12 — You will search for them, but will not find them — the men who opposed you will be as nothing, as less than nothing, the men who warred against you. Isa.41.13 — For I, the LORD your God, am the one who takes hold of your right hand, the one who says to you, 'Do not fear — I have helped you.' Luke.12.32 — Do not be afraid, little flock, for your Father has been pleased to give you the kingdom.
  15. ↩Heb.13.14 — For here we do not have a lasting city, but we are seeking the one that is coming.
  16. ↩Song.2.11-Song.2.12 — For behold, the winter is past, the rain is over and gone. Song.2.12 — The blossoms have appeared in the earth; the time of singing has come, and the voice of the turtledove is heard in our land.
  17. ↩Isa.27.6 — Those who come will take root — Jacob will blossom and flower, and they will fill the face of the world with fruit.
  18. ↩Matt.13.10-Matt.13.13;Mark.4.11-Mark.4.12 — And the disciples came and said to him, 'Why do you speak to them in parables?' Matt.13.11 — He answered them, 'To you it has been given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given.' Matt.13.12 — For whoever has, to him it will be given, and he will have an abundance; but whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from him. Matt.13.13 — This is why I speak to them in parables: because seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand. Mark.4.11 — And he said to them, "To you has been given the mystery of the kingdom of God, but to those outside, all things come in parables." Mark.4.12 — so that 'they may see and yet not perceive, and may hear and yet not understand, so that they may not turn and it be forgiven them.'
  19. ↩Ps.78.2 — I will open my mouth in a parable; I will pour forth riddles from of old.
  20. ↩Matt.13.10-Matt.13.13;Mark.4.11-Mark.4.12 — And the disciples came and said to him, 'Why do you speak to them in parables?' Matt.13.11 — He answered them, 'To you it has been given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given.' Matt.13.12 — For whoever has, to him it will be given, and he will have an abundance; but whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from him. Matt.13.13 — This is why I speak to them in parables: because seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand. Mark.4.11 — And he said to them, "To you has been given the mystery of the kingdom of God, but to those outside, all things come in parables." Mark.4.12 — so that 'they may see and yet not perceive, and may hear and yet not understand, so that they may not turn and it be forgiven them.'

Notes

  1. 1 ↩Intellectum as object of abscondantur: 'the understanding/mystical meaning' is what is hidden beneath the verbal figures.

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