VISIO QUARTA, cap. XLV
The Face Lifted Toward Heaven
The chin, throat, and neck are likened to clouds that bend with rain or reveal the gladness of the sky, mediating fruitfulness and stability to creation.
Now the chin, which hangs down like a curved bow and lifts up a person's face, and the throat, which receives all the strength of nourishment and sends it down in measured ways to the stomach, and the neck, which supports the whole head with its strength — these represent the variety of clouds, some of which, heavy with rain, bend downward a little, while in clear skies they reveal, as it were, the gladness of things above. Some clouds, touching the earth with the power of the air, temper it in such a way that it brings forth an abundance of fruit for the good of the rest of creation; and others, like a pillar, hold together all the turning of the sky by bearing it.
Faith's Two Eyes and the Royal Throne
With the soul's two eyes of reason a person discerns good and evil, orders life honorably, and through true faith directs every thought toward Christ the true Solomon.
For a person, stretching confident hope through the soul toward God, with the two eyes of reason — that is, the knowledge of good and evil — comes to know the heavenly homeland and the punishments of hell, because with the face, which is lifted by the chin, they see any visible thing, and through the intellect they consider what sort of thing it really is. For just as a person discerns things through the soul, so too they order them so that they are done honorably before God and other people; and just as the throat carefully passes on to the stomach, for strength, the food it receives, so that the person, strengthened in this way by true and pure faith, may worthily look toward the royal throne of the true Solomon, who is Christ. For faith scatters every thought that rises up in a person from sin, while the thoughts that come from faith itself, proceeding in simple truth, it directs through the soul's deep longings toward the true King.
The Strong Neck of Virtue and the Fate of Unbelief
Virtue sustains all good works like a neck bearing up the head and a pillar holding the sky, while unbelievers who abandon faith are cast into hell's punishments.
That strong and true virtue also sustains the other virtues, as the neck sustains the head; and just as clouds bear up the turning of the sky like a pillar, so it preserves, through good perseverance, all the good and holy works that build the heavenly Jerusalem in people. But unbelievers who, having set faith aside, do all their works badly through unbelief, are unworthy before God: just as digested food is sent out with a stench, so they are consigned to the punishments of hell — and not without reason.
The Soul Adorned Within
The hairs of the head, nourished by dew and rain, signify the inner cultivation of innocence, chastity, and humility by which the soul shines before God.
What is meant by the hairs that adorn the head fittingly on the outside — the drops of dew or rain by which the earth, made fruitful, is clothed with the beauty of grasses or fruits — and, within, the cultivation of innocence and chastity and humility, by which the soul shines before God — is made known here.
Read the original Latin
Per mentum autem, quod quasi arcus incurvatum dependet, et faciem hominis elevat, et per guttur quod omnem fortitudinem refectionis recipit, et ventri temperate immittit, et per collum quod etiam totum caput fortitudine sua sustentat, diversitas nubium designatur, quarum quaedam pluviis gravatae aliquantulum se deorsum inclinant, in serenitate vero velut hilaritatem superiorum demonstrant. Quaedam etiam cum virtute aeris terram tangentes, illam hoc modo contemperant, ut plenitudinem fructuum ad utilitatem reliquarum creaturarum proferat; quaedam etiam, quemadmodum columna, omnem volubilitatem firmamenti ferendo conglutinant. Homo namque fiducialem spem per animam ad Deum extendens, cum duobus oculis rationalitatis, scilicet scientia boni et mali, coelestem patriam et poenas inferni cognoscit, quia facie sua, quae per mentum elevatur, quamlibet rem visibilem conspicit, et qualis illa sit per intellectum considerat. Sicut enim homo per animam quaeque discernit, ita ea disponit, ut coram Deo et hominibus honeste fiant; sicut etiam guttur cibum quem recipit ventri pro confortatione temperate transmittit, quatenus homine per veram et puram fidem hoc modo confortato, ipsa ad regalem sedem veri Salomonis, qui Christus est, digne valeat aspicere. Fides enim cogitationes omnes quae ex peccato in homine surgunt dissipat, cogitationes autem quae ex ipsa in simplici veritate procedunt, per suspiria animae ad verum regem dirigit. Ipsa quoque fortis et vera virtus caeteras virtutes, ut collum caput, sustentat, et velut nubes volubilitatem firmamenti in modum columnae sustinent, sic omnia bona et sancta opera, quae coelestem Jerusalem aedificant, per bonam perseverantiam in hominibus conservat. Infideles autem qui, fide postposita, omnia opera sua per infidelitatem male operantur, coram Deo indigni, sicut cibus digestus cum fetore emittitur, sic poenis infernalibus, nec immerito, deputantur.
Quod per crines, qui caput decenter ornant exterius, roris vel pluviarum guttae, quibus terra fecundata graminum vel fructuum decore vestitur, et interius innocentiae et castitatis et humilitatis cultus, quo ante Deum fulget anima, demonstrentur.
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