VISIO QUARTA, cap. LXXVI
The Navel of the Soul
The soul, like the navel of the body, is the center of a person's works and is called to sorrow and confession rather than self-congratulation.
And all the inner parts of the belly cling to the navel, just as the rest of the creatures look to the circuit of the earth, because the navel is the strength of the belly, just as the circuit of the earth is the receptacle of the other creatures. This signifies that the soul, which is the mediator of all a person's works, does not rejoice in itself in holy and good works, but by confessing in God, and in the sins by which it knows its vessel to be entangled, it is brought to sorrow by blushing. Through this sorrow, the same vessel—that is, the body—it afflicts as if with a goad, by which a person, compelled within himself, says: "Why does my soul sadden me so much for the sins in which I was born, and from which I cannot restrain myself, when I trust that I can amend them before my end?" In the same way, a person who comforts himself in his sins rejoices in them as if in the sound of feasters. Hence the soul, from whose nature that comfort does not proceed, is filled with sorrow, since it is life itself, proceeding from divine rationality, which moves the human being, who is every creature.
Humility Against the Pride of Holiness
God loves humility above all, and the soul must guard a person from the deadly elation of false holiness.
For God, who wove for himself the tunic of his humanity from the lowliest nature of a human being out of the virginal flesh of the Virgin Mary, loves humility deeply, by which he overcame the pride and malice of the devil. The soul, however, upholds a person in good and in evil like a pillar supporting a house, because when he has fled to God through the elation of holiness, he understands through that very elation that he has made himself odious to God and to people, and the soul itself, afflicting him in this way, does not allow him to have joy. For many perish through the elation of holiness, and a great many lose the rewards of their labors, so much so that at their end they can scarcely be saved, sighing to God.
Mercy for the Humble Sinner
God forgives those who repent without pride, while the soul defiled by fleshly pleasure must be cleansed by sighs of repentance.
But those who have sinned through negligence of holiness and through carnal desires without pride—God forgives them their many sins when they have sighed for them in repentance, and many from among these later become saints and a pillar of the heavenly Jerusalem.✦ For just as the navel is the strength of all the inner parts clinging to it, so all works, whether they are good or whether they are evil, look to the soul, because it exists as the strength of them all. The navel of the earth is also compared to the muddy, watery filth that marshes give off, because heat, cold, and moisture push the food and drink digested beneath it downward to the lower parts to be distributed; and in the same way the soul, overcome by the pleasures of the flesh and wrapped in foul works, must be cast down to the lower and punitive places, unless it is cleansed by the sighs of repentance.
Read the original Latin
Et umbilico omnia interiora ventris adhaerent, sicut et ad circuitum terrae reliquae creaturae respiciunt, quia umbilicus fortitudo ventris est, sicut et ambitus terrae receptaculum caeterarum creaturarum existit, hoc designat quod anima, quae mediatrix omnium operum hominis est, in sanctis et bonis operibus non in se, sed in Deo confitendo gaudet, et in peccatis quibus vas suum implicitum esse cognoscit erubescendo contristatur, per quam tristitiam idem vas, scilicet corpus, quasi stimulo affligit, per quod homo intra se coactus dicit: « Quare anima mea pro peccatis in quibus natus sum, et a quibus me continere non possum, me tantum contristat, cum ea ante finem meum emendare confidam? » Sic quoque homo in peccatis se consolando, in ipsis quasi in sono epulantium gaudet. Unde anima, de cujus natura consolatio ista non procedit, tristitia repletur, quoniam ipsa vita et de divina rationalitate procedens, quae hominem, qui omnis creatura est, movet. Deus enim, qui de vilissima natura hominis tunicam humanitatis suae ex virginea carne Mariae Virginis sibi texuit, humilitatem valde diligit, per quam superbiam et malignitatem diaboli superavit. Anima vero hominem in bono et malo ut columna domum sustentat, quia cum ipse per elationem sanctitatis in Deo fugerit, per eam se Deo et hominibus odibilem intelligit, et ipsa eum hoc modo affligendo gaudium habere non permittit. Multi enim per elationem sanctitatis pereunt, et plurimi praemia laborum suorum amittunt, ita ut in fine suo ad Deum suspirando vix salvari possint. Qui autem per negligentiam sanctitatis et per carnalia desideria sine superbia peccaverint, illis Deus plurima peccata, cum pro ipsis in poenitentia suspiraverint, ignoscit, multique ex his sancti et columna coelestis Jerusalem postea efficientur. Sicut enim umbilicus fortitudo omnium interiorum sibi adhaerentium est, sic omnia opera, sive bona sive mala sint, ad animam aspiciunt, quia ipsa fortitudo illorum omnium existit.
Quod umbilicus etiam terrae lutulentas et aquosas immunditias in paludibus emittenti comparetur, eo quod calor, frigus et humiditas cibum et potum sub eo discoctum ad inferiora digerendum urgeant; et quod similiter anima voluptatibus carnis superata et in sordidis involuta operibus ad inferiora et poenalia loca, nisi suspiriis poenitentiae purgetur, devolvenda sit.
Scripture echoes
- ↩Rev.3.12 — The one who conquers I will make a pillar in the temple of my God, and he will never go out again. And I will write on him the name of my God and the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem which comes down out of heaven from my God, and my own new name.
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