Exclamación XI
The Reality of Eternal Loss
The soul contemplates the terrifying and irreversible nature of eternal punishment for those who lived only for worldly comfort.
O God, help me! O God, help me! What torment it is for me to consider what a soul will feel—a soul that has always been honored, loved, served, esteemed, and indulged in this life—when, the moment it dies, it finds itself lost forever and understands clearly that this will never end. It won't do any good there to refuse to think about the truths of faith, as it did here. It will see itself torn away from what it will feel it had not even begun to enjoy—and rightly so, because everything that ends with this life is no more than a breath—and surrounded by that hideous, merciless company with whom it must suffer forever. It will be plunged into that foul lake full of serpents, each one biting the wretched soul as fiercely as it can, in that miserable darkness where they will see nothing except what brings them torment and pain, with no light but the light of a dark flame! Oh, how far these words fall short of what it truly is!
The Blindness of the Heart
The author laments the spiritual blindness and deafness that prevents people from fearing eternal consequences while prioritizing bodily comfort.
O Lord! Who put so much mud over this soul’s eyes that it couldn’t see this until it found itself there? O Lord! Who stopped its ears so it wouldn’t hear how many times it had been told this—and told that these torments would last forever? O life that will never end! O torment without end! O torment without end! How can those who are afraid to sleep on a hard bed because they don’t want their bodies to suffer fail to fear you?
A Plea for Mercy and Light
The author prays for divine illumination for others, grounding the request in the merits and wounds of Christ.
O Lord, my God! I grieve for all the time I didn't understand this. And since you know, my God, how deeply it troubles me to see so many who refuse to understand it, let at least one—Lord, just one, I ask you now—receive light from you, for then that light would reach many others. Not for my sake, Lord, for I don't deserve it, but through the merits of your Son. Look upon his wounds, Lord; and since he forgave those who inflicted them, forgive us as well.
Read the original Latin
—¡Oh, válgame Dios! ¡Oh, válgame Dios! ¡Qué gran tormento es para mí, cuando considero qué sentirá un alma que siempre ha sido acá tenida y querida y servida y estimada y regalada, cuando, en acabando de morir, se vea ya perdida para siempre, y entienda claro que no ha de tener fin (que allí no le valdrá querer no pensar las cosas de la fe, como acá ha hecho), y se vea apartar de lo que le parecerá que aún no había comenzado a gozar (y con razón, porque todo lo que con la vida se acaba es un soplo), y rodeado de aquella compañía disforme y sin piedad, con quien siempre ha de padecer, metida en aquel lago hediondo lleno de serpientes, que la que más pudiere la dará mayor bocado; en aquella miserable oscuridad, adonde no verán sino lo que la dará tormento y pena, sin ver luz sino de una llama tenebrosa! ¡Oh, qué poco encarecido va para lo que es!
—¡Oh Señor! , ¿quién puso tanto lodo en los ojos de esta alma, que no haya visto esto hasta que se vea allí? ¡Oh Señor! , ¿quién ha tapado sus oídos para no oír las muchas veces que se le había dicho esto y la eternidad de estos tormentos? ¡Oh vida que no se acabará! ¡Oh tormento sin fin! , ¡oh tormento sin fin! ¿Cómo no os temen los que temen dormir en una cama dura por no dar pena a su cuerpo?
—¡Oh Señor, Dios mío! Lloro el tiempo que no lo entendí; y pues sabéis, mi Dios, lo que me fatiga ver los muy muchos que hay que no quieren entenderlo, siquiera uno, Señor, siquiera uno que ahora os pido alcance luz de Vos, que sería para tenerla muchos. No por mí, Señor, que no lo merezco, sino por los méritos de vuestro Hijo. Mirad sus llagas, Señor, y pues Él perdonó a los que se las hicieron, perdonadnos Vos a nosotros.
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