VISIO QUARTA, cap. XXXVI
The Body as a Mirror of Heavenly Order
The chin, heat, cold, bones, marrow, sun, and clouds in the human body reveal how the faithful mind is upheld by good works and how the earth's fruit is nurtured and preserved until the last day.
Just as everything in a person's head is held in place by the chin, so too all the things I've mentioned are upheld, each in its proper place, by the clouds — which means that the minds of the faithful should seize the firmness of good works in such a way that, persevering in good things, they reach heavenly realities. The heat and the cold, the bones and the marrow in a person signify that the soul, through fire, cooks the bones, and through the cold it draws into its own vessel, it coagulates the marrow; so too, through summer and winter the whole earth is tested, so that its fruit is curdled by the firmament's cold beneath the ground, and loosened by its warmth. The sun's heat and the moisture from the waters in the clouds blend and mingle together in such a way that through these things every fruit on earth is nurtured and made firm, because the sun's heat and the water's moisture, as if by cultivating it, cause the whole earth to bear fruit and bring it to completion, just as a potter brings his vessels to perfection; and the clouds are joined to one another with such strength that they are never scattered or separated before the last day by entering or exiting, or by spreading this way or that.
Fire and Cold Within the Soul
The soul is strengthened by the Holy Spirit's fire and weakened by sloth's cold, yet when strength and compunction mingle, good fruit is born and the soul is forever bound to God's love.
And the soul in a person is strengthened by the fire of the Holy Spirit for every good thing, and is weakened by the cold of sloth and negligence. Fire, then — that is, strength — and the compunction of a person's mind, blending together, bring forth good fruit in the person, and so strengthen and adorn the person in every usefulness that they can never be separated from the service and love of God.
Shattering Pleasure, Weaving Sighs
Sin's own distress constricts it like smoke stifling fire, and when fleshly pleasure is shattered, sighs for heaven are woven like honeycomb, governed by humility lest pride burn them dry.
For when a person encounters the distress and weariness of sins, through that very distress the sins in them are constricted, just as fire is suppressed by dense smoke, so that it doesn't burn with its full force. For when, through the soul's powers, the flesh's pleasure is shattered in a person's mind, sighs toward the heavenly homeland are at once woven in them, just as a honeycomb with honey is built up in its vessel by a bee, where the new and old works of that same person, mingled together, are governed alongside true humility, so that they don't dry up, burned by the heat of pride.
The Vessel of the Holy Spirit
By the fire of the Holy Spirit and the moisture of humility, radiant virtues are brought to completion in the vessel where wisdom dwells, gathering an unfading fragrance before God and the angels.
Through the fire of the Holy Spirit, then, and through the moisture of humility, fruitful virtues are brought to completion in the vessel of the Holy Spirit — the vessel in which wisdom builds itself a dwelling — so that the same person gathers to themselves the virtues that are most radiant before God and his angels, as if in the fragrance of all spices, where they never fade away.
The Mist of Original Sin Over the Senses
The devil's deception of Eve and the original sin poured out on all posterity is like a mist from harmful air that covers the earth, injures its fruits, and hinders the perception of daylight.
Likewise, when it comes to the usefulness of the senses in a person and of the stars in the world: the deceit of the devil by which he deceived Eve, and the original sin he poured out through her upon all posterity, is like a mist rising from harmful air that covers the earth and damages its fruits, so that the brightness of day cannot be perceived—it hinders sight.✦✦
Read the original Latin
Ut omnia quae in capite hominis sunt per mentum continentur, tali etiam modo cuncta praedicta in statutis locis suis per nubes sustentantur, quod designat ut mentes fidelium stabilitatem bonorum operum ita arripiant, ut in bonis perseverantes ad coelestia perveniant. Aestus etiam ossa et frigus medullam in homine significant, quoniam anima per ignem ossa coquit, et per frigus quod in vas suum trahit medullam coagulat; sic etiam per aestatem, et hiemem tota terra probatur, ita ut fructus ejus per frigus firmamenti sub terra coaguletur, et per calorem illius solvatur. Calor etenim solis et humor de aquis in nubibus ita se conjungunt et admiscent, ut per haec omnis fructus in terra regatur et firmetur, quia calor solis et humiditas aquarum totam terram quasi colendo ita fructificant et perficiunt, sicut tornator vasa sua ad perfectum perducit, tanta quoque firmitate in nubibus ad invicem copulantur, ut nequaquam ante novissimum diem intrando et exeundo, nec hac nec illac se spargendo dissipentur aut separentur. Et anima in homine per ignem sancti Spiritus ad quaelibet bona roboratur, atque per frigus torporis et negligentiae debilitatur. Ignis quippe fortitudinis et compunctio mentis hominis se in invicem admiscentes, bonum fructum in homine proferunt, hominemque in omni utilitate ita confortant et exornant, ut nequaquam a servitio et dilectione Dei separari possit. Nam cum homo molestiam et taedium peccatorum incurrerit, per eamdem molestiam peccata in ipso ita constringuntur velut per densum fumum ignis deprimitur, ne in viribus suis ardeat. Cum enim per vires animae, voluptas carnis in mente hominis dirumpitur, mox suspiria ad coelestem patriam in eo texuntur, quemadmodum per apem favus cum melle in vase ipsius aedificatur, ubi etiam nova et vetera ejusdem hominis opera simul admista, cum vera humilitate regantur, ne per calorem superbiae combusta arescant. Per ignem itaque Spiritus sancti, et per humiditatem humilitatis fructiferae virtutes in vase Spiritus sancti, in quo sapientia mansionem sibi aedificat, perficiuntur, ita ut idem homo virtutes quae serenissimae coram Deo et angelis ejus sunt, ad se colligat, quasi in odore omnium aromatum, ubi deinceps non deficiunt.
Item de utilitate sensuum in homine et siderum in mundo, et quod dolus diaboli, quo Evam decepit, et originale peccatum toti per eam posteritati transfudit, quasi nebula sit, quae de nocivo aere consurgens terram obtegendo et fructus laedit, et ne claritas diei cernatur visum praepedit.
Scripture echoes
- ↩Gen.2.6 — But a mist would rise from the earth and water the whole surface of the ground.
- ↩Gen.3.1-Gen.3.6 — Now the serpent was more crafty than any other animal that the LORD God had made. And he said to the woman, "Did God really say, 'You shall not eat from any tree of the garden'?" Gen.3.2 — And the woman said to the serpent, "From the fruit of the trees of the garden we may eat, Gen.3.3 — but of the fruit of the tree that is in the middle of the garden, God said, 'You shall not eat from it, and you shall not touch it, lest you die.' Gen.3.4 — But the serpent said to the woman, 'You will not certainly die.' Gen.3.5 — for God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil. Gen.3.6 — And the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and the tree was desirable to make one wise. She took of its fruit and ate, and she gave also to her husband with her, and he ate.
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