VISIO QUARTA, cap. LXIX
The Soul's Innocence and the Body's Sin
The belly symbolizes the earth, and the soul, though it works sin with the body, does not taste sin by its nature, like an infant or Adam before the fall.
And the belly, which is supported by the ribs and other bones that have no marrow, represents the soft, fruitful earth that lies among stones. By this example the soul has no taste for sin in its own nature, even though it works sin together with the body, and sets it on fire toward the deeds that the taste of its flesh demands, just as the air of a wind that stirs the whole earth to sprout. For the soul holds the body in all its activity, just as the soft, fruitful earth is strengthened by the layering of stones; and as a tender infant speaks about sins it has not yet tasted, and like Adam before his transgression knew sin without having tasted it, so the soul in the body that sins does not by its nature taste sin.
Reward, Shame, and the Lion of Sin
Holy souls receive glory and praise, but sinful souls face shame and punishment, fleeing like prey from a lion, and every work will receive its due recompense.
But the soul that performs holy and good works is glorious before God in the heavenly kingdom because of the merit of its works; yet for souls that commit great evil, severe punishment awaits through God's judgment. A person too is blessed and praised for their good works before God and other people, and so their soul rejoices; but a person who is tangled in slippery sins is led to great shame before God and others. So it is that a person, sweating with shame, flees from others because of their sins; and when they recognize themselves as guilty in these things, they mourn that they are stripped and dead to every honor of blessedness, saying: "They have seized me like a lion ready for prey, and like a young lion lurking in hiding." This is plain to understand: when a person sins, they are stripped of every blessedness on account of their sins, since by their own will all holiness is torn away from them, just as a lion seizes what it wants to devour; and because of the wretched shame of their sins, like a young lion in hiding, the person, ashamed of their sins, conceals themselves from others so that their deeds won't be known. In the same way, every human work will receive either a reward in glory or a punishment in God's judgment.
The Soul's Dependence on Grace
The holy soul vows praise to God, acknowledging that without God's grace it can do nothing of itself.
But the soul that rejoices in holiness says to God: "O most high God, I render all my vows to you in praise, because without you I can do nothing on my own, except insofar as you kindle it in me through the grace of the Holy Spirit." »
Satisfied Through Penance and Good Works
As hunger is driven away by fullness, the soul that completes its penance is satisfied by God's justice in holy works.
Just as flowers fall away when the fruit arrives, so hunger is driven out by fullness — and in the same way, once the soul has completed its penance for the sins in which it was, as it were, wasting away with hunger, it is satisfied by God's justice through the practice of holy works.
Read the original Latin
Et venter, qui costis et aliis ossibus quae succum medullae non habent, sustentatur, mollem fructiferamque terram, quae lapidibus interposita est designat. Hoc exemplo anima gustum peccata in natura sua non habet, quamvis peccata cum corpore operetur, et illud ad opera quae gustus carnis suae postulat, in similitudine aeri venti qui totam terram ad germinandum movet, accendat. Ipsa enim corpus in omni opere suo continet, ut mollis fructifera terra interpositione lapidum firmatur; et sicut tener infans de peccatis quae nondum gustavit loquitur, et velut Adam ante praevaricationem peccatum scivit, et non gustavit, sic ipsa in corpore quod peccat peccatum non naturaliter gustat. Anima vero quae sancta et bona opera operatur, pro meritis operum suorum coram Deo in coelesti regno gloriosa est; sed animae quae mala opera perpetrat magnae poenae per judicium Dei adsunt. Beatus etiam homo de bonis operibus suis coram Deo et hominibus laudatur, quapropter anima ipsius gaudet; sed homo qui lubricis peccatis involvitur, coram Deo et hominibus in magnam confusionem ducitur. Unde ipse cum sudore pudoris homines propter peccata sua fugiens, cum se in his culpabilem cognoverit, omni honore beatitudinis se mortuum et despoliatum plangit dicens: « Susceperunt me sicut leo paratus ad praedam, et sicut catulus leonis habitans in abditis . » Quod sic intellectui patet: Homo cum peccaverit omni beatitudine propter peccata sua denudatur, quando per propriam voluntatem ipsius omnis sanctitas ab eo rapitur, sicut leo quod devorare vult rapit; et propter miserabilem confusionem peccatorum suorum, sicut catulus leonis in abditis, sic ipse de peccatis suis erubescens, hominibus absconditur, ne opera ejus cognoscantur. Sic quoque omne opus hominis aut praemium in gloria, aut poenam in judicio Dei consequetur.
Sed anima quae in sanctitate gaudet ad Deum dicit: « O altissime Deus, omnia vota mea tibi ad laudem reddo, quia sine te per me nihil possum, nisi quantum per gratiam Spiritus sancti in me accendis. »
Quia sicut succedente fructu flores excutiuntur, ita et esuries subveniente saturitate depellatur, et quod eodem modo anima peracta poenitentia de peccatis in quibus quasi fame tabescebat, justitia Dei in exsecutione sanctorum operum saturetur.
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