VISIO QUARTA, cap. LXXII
The Soul as Living Air
The life-giving air within the earthly space makes the earth fruitful, yet a cold wind later inclines its fruits toward barrenness.
Now the space mentioned above contains air within itself, and this air, by pouring its own powers into the earth, makes it fruitful; and once its fruits have reached ripeness, a cold, cutting wind inclines them toward barrenness.
The Soul Made in God's Image
The Creator formed the soul in his own likeness, and it will work until the last day, when the fully spiritual person will gaze perfectly upon God and all spirits.
So the Creator of all things, who established the earth for labor, formed the soul according to himself — the soul through which a person carries out all their works. This soul, which is God's own handiwork, will continue to work right up to the last day, just as the holy Godhead exists invisibly; but after the last day, when the human being has become wholly spiritual, the soul will gaze perfectly upon the holy Godhead and upon all spirits and souls.
The Soul Clothed in Its Works
The soul moves the whole person to live and works alongside them, clothing itself in their deeds as a garment — gleaming with gold when the works are good, or stained with filth when they are wicked.
This same fruitful power is the soul, which by setting the whole person in motion enables them to live with it; and just as a person is clothed and dressed in woven cloth, so the soul, performing all the works that are done together with the person, puts them on like a garment — whether those works are good or evil — just as the body in which it dwells is covered by it. Good works, when they have departed from the body, appear in the soul like a garment gleaming in the radiance of purest gold, adorned with every ornament; but wicked works stink in it like a garment polluted with every kind of filth.
The Seasons of the Soul's Fruitfulness
The soul pours its powers into the earth like air, producing the fruits of good works through life's seasons, and though old age withers them, true faith preserves them for eternal blessedness.
The soul itself also works in the likeness of air alongside the person: it pours its powers into the earth, making it fruitful and bringing its fruit to completion, and like winter's cold that parries the whole earth, yet keeps the warmth needed for the earth's fruitfulness stored within itself. For through the soul's powers — childhood, youth, young adulthood, and old age — the fruits of good works are produced and brought to completion, and though a failing old age withers them like drought, still in true faith they will be preserved for the rewards of eternal blessedness after a person's end.
The Soul's Struggle and Its Limits
Just as earth would dry up if it bore fruit without restraint, the soul would fail if it served every fleshly desire, and because of its changefulness and the flesh's struggle, it cannot perfectly attain in this life the vision of God lost in paradise.
Because just as the earth, if it were to grow green twice a year and bear fruit everywhere, would dry up and turn to dust, so the soul too would fail in its work if it were to serve all its desires and the pleasures of the flesh without restraint; and because — like the earth bearing fruit unevenly — placed now in progress, now in decline by reason of its own changefulness and the struggle of the flesh, it can neither hold fast to the faith commended in the Gospel nor perfectly attain, in this life, the vision of God lost in paradise.
Read the original Latin
Praedicta autem mundi capacitas aerem in se habet, qui viribus suis viriditatem terrae immittens, eam fructiferam facit, fructusque ipsos cum ad maturitatem pervenerint ventosa frigiditate ad ariditatem inclinat; sed quamvis terram frigiditate hac exterius arefaciat, ipsa tamen ex hoc interius pinguescit quatenus in aestate germinare possit. Proinde Creator omnium, qui terram ad operandum firmavit, animam, per quam homo omnia opera sua operatur, secundum se ipsum constituit, quae homini, qui ipsius Dei opus est, et usque ad novissimum diem operabitur, sicut sancta Divinitas invisibilis existit; sed post novissimum diem, cum homo totus spiritalis effectus fuerit, sanctam Divinitatem et omnes spiritus et animas perfecte intuebitur. Eadem vero anima fructifera vis est, quae totum hominem movendo secum vivere facit; et sicut homo panno ex filis texto induitur et vestitur, sic ipsa omnia opera quae cum homine operatur, ut vestem induens, cum illis, sive bona sive mala sint, sicut corpore in quo habitat obtegitur. Bona quidem opera, cum de corpore abcesserit, sicut vestimentum in fulgore purissimi auri quod omni ornamento decoratum est in ipsa apparent; sed prava opera ut vestimentum omni immunditia pollutum in ipsa fetent. Ipsa etiam in similitudine aeris cum homine operatur, qui vires suas terrae immittit, per quas fructifera est et fructus suos perficit, et qui frigiditate hiemis totam terram arefacit; quae tamen ad fructuositatem terrae calorem in se conservat, quoniam per vires animae pueritia, adolescentia, juventus et senectus, fructus bonorum operum operantur et perficiunt, quae decrepita aetas per defectum quasi arefacit, sed tamen in vera fide ad praemia aeternae beatitudinis post finem hominis conservabuntur.
Quia sicut terra, si bis in anno viresceret et passim gigneret, arescendo in pulverem verteretur, sic et anima in opere suo deficeret, si omnibus desisideriis suis et voluptatibus carnis immoderate deserviret; et quod instar terrae inaequaliter fructificantis, ex mutabilitate sui et conflictu carnis nunc in profectu, nunc in defectu posita, nec fidem in Evangelio commendatam, nec visionem Dei in paradiso perditam in hac vita perfecte obtinere valeat.
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