VISIO QUARTA, cap. LXVIII
The Fire of God's Anger and Purifying Judgment
God's wrathful fire descends upon the sinner who forgets Him, and that person's sins are examined and punished through a consuming fire that kindles further suffering.
Smoke descends in anger, and fire blazes up from the face, and coals are kindled by it.✦1 This is clear to the understanding: the person who by sinning is led into forgetfulness of God — upon this one the anger of God's vengeance ascends, and that person's sins are examined before God through fire, because just as extinguished coals are kindled by fire, so that person prepares punishments for burning up sins.✦2
Knowledge of Good and Evil Lifts the Soul to Hope
Through knowing good and evil, a person recognizes both the punishment owed to sin and the ascent of good works to God, and this knowledge warms faithful hope and strengthens fear and love of God.
For through the knowledge of good and evil, that person knows that for their own evil deeds they themselves are to be punished, and also that good works fly upward above the cherubim to the praise of God.✦3 This knowledge, then, warms the faithful hope that a person has toward God, and strengthens them toward the fear and love of God.4
Virtues, Tears, and the Body as Mirror of the Soul
The virtues draw forth the moisture of tears and preserve all good in a person just as the belly processes food, and all human works — good or evil — are brought forth through the rational soul's knowledge, sensuality, and wisdom, even as the air nourishes sprouting fruit.
Through these virtues the moisture of tears is drawn out; through these also all the good things to be perfected in a person are preserved, just as the belly preserves the reception of food through the heart, through the liver, and through the lung, even to its expulsion.5 All works too, whether good or evil, are brought forth through the rationality of the airy and rational soul with the greenness of knowledge, with the heat of sensuality, and with the moisture of wisdom to the recognition of people, just as also the aforementioned air produces the greenness, heat, and moisture of all sprouting fruits even to their ripeness.6
The Belly's Tenderness and the Fruit-Bearing Earth
The tenderness of the belly, fortified by ribs and bones, symbolizes the softness of the fruit-bearing earth interspersed with stones, and this bodily image also expresses the varied quality of human life, confirmed by a verse from Psalm 16.
How the tenderness of the belly, fortified by ribs and bones, represents the softness of the fruit-bearing earth interspersed with stones; and what is also expressed through these things in the varied quality of human life, once a verse from Psalm 16 is brought forward in testimony to the same effect.
Read the original Latin
Descendit fumus in ira ejus, et ignis a facie ejus exarsit, carbones succensi sunt ab eo . Quod sic intellectui patet: Homo qui peccando in oblivionem Dei ducitur, super hunc ira vindictae Dei ascendit, et peccata illius coram eo per ignem examinantur, quia sicut exstincti carbones per ignem succenduntur, sic ipse poenas ad comburendum peccata parat. Ipse enim per scientiam boni et mali pro malis factis suis se puniendum, et etiam bona opera in laude Dei volantia super cherubin ascendere cognoscit. Ista vero scientia fiducialem spem quam homo ad Deum habet ealefacit, eumque ad timorem et amorem Dei confortat. Per has namque virtutes humiditas lacrymarum educitur; per has etiam omnia bona in homine perficienda conservantur, quemadmodum venter per cor, per jecur, et per pulmonem receptionem ciborum usque ad egestionem servat. Omnia quoque opera, sive bona sive mala, per rationalitatem aeriae et rationalis animae cum viriditate scientiae, cum calore sensualitatis, et cum humiditate sapientiae ad agnitionem hominum proferuntur, sicut etiam praedictus aer viriditatem, calorem et humiditatem omnium germinantium fructuum usque ad maturitatem ipsorum producit.
Quod teneritudo ventris, costis et ossibus vallata, mollitiem terrae fructiferae et lapidibus interpositae designet; et quid etiam per haec in diversa qualitate humanae vitae exprimatur, adhibito in testimonium versu psalmi XVI ad idem congruente.
Scripture echoes
- ↩Ps.17.8 — Keep me as the apple of your eye; hide me in the shadow of your wings.
- ↩1Cor.3.13 — each one's work will become manifest, for the Day will disclose it, because it is revealed by fire, and the fire itself will test each one's work, what sort it is.
- ↩Exod.25.18-Exod.25.22 — And you shall make two cherubim of gold; of hammered work you shall make them, at the two ends of the mercy seat. Exod.25.19 — And make one cherub from one end and one cherub from the other end; from the mercy seat you shall make the cherubim on its two ends. Exod.25.20 — The cherubim shall have their wings spread upward, covering the mercy seat with their wings, and their faces shall be toward one another; toward the mercy seat shall the faces of the cherubim be. Exod.25.21 — You shall place the mercy seat on top of the ark, and into the ark you shall put the testimony that I will give you. Exod.25.22 — And I will meet with you there, and I will speak with you from above the mercy seat, from between the two cherubim that are upon the ark of the testimony, all that I will command you concerning the people of Israel.
Notes
- 1 ↩The source text appears to compress language from Psalm 17:8 (Vulgate). The pronouns 'ejus' are ambiguous; the translation renders the most plausible sense within the vision context.
- 2 ↩The image of sins being examined 'through fire' evokes purgatorial or refining fire; the Latin 'per ignem examinantur' is rendered literally to preserve the metaphor.
- 3 ↩The image of good works 'flying above the cherubim' draws on temple and merkabah imagery; 'super cherubin' is rendered literally.
- 4 ↩The verb 'ealefacit' is a rare form (possibly a hapax); rendered as 'warms' based on the likely sense of the compound.
- 5 ↩The analogy between bodily organs and spiritual virtues is rendered as literally as possible while remaining readable. The specific organ list (cor, jecur, pulmo) is preserved.
- 6 ↩The phrase 'rationalitatem aeriae et rationalis animae' is dense; 'aeriae' is rendered as 'airy' to preserve the elemental metaphor. The overall analogy between natural growth and the production of human works is rendered literally.
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