VISIO QUARTA, cap. LXXXVI
The Soul as the Invisible Worker Within
The soul, called the working spirit, governs the body invisibly and completes all works together with it, just as God sustains the earth unseen.
The back and sides of the person represent the flatness of the earth; but the soul — which is called the working spirit — accomplishes holy works and shining virtues together with the person, through which God is praised by the angelic spirits; and it stands, invisible, within the body it governs entirely, just as God, who created the whole earth, is invisible to the person. And just as a person works powerfully with the back and side, so too the soul completes all its works together with the body.
Earth's Roughness and the Weight of Sin
The thighs and seat represent the hard lower earth that holds the softer part together, while the soul's powers can overturn the body toward grave sins or lesser sins of thought alone, stirred by the devil's suggestion of bodily pleasure.
In the thighs and in the place of sitting, the hills and roughness of the aforementioned hard and impenetrable earth are shown, because just as the thighs cling to the loins and belly and carry the person, and just as the place of sitting holds the person in place, so too this lower and impenetrable part of the earth exists joined to its upper, tender and soft part, and holds it by its own strength like a clamp so it doesn't break apart. For just as a person manages the whole earth with his skills, and now deeper, now more shallowly turns it over with a plow, so the soul passes through and overturns the body with its powers and virtues according to the body's appetites, and with the very same soul's greatest strength a person completes grave and deadly sins, but lesser ones — which come about through thoughts without a deed — are completed in the soul alone. For the devil, because of the hatred he bears toward his Lord, suggests pleasure to the person, from which — whenever the person grows angry — a smoke rises up into his body, because a person would never grow angry if he were free of bodily pleasure.
The Soul's Life-Giving Restlessness and Angelic Wonder
The immortal soul works within the body like wind over the earth and a rushing stream, and angels marvel at the person clothed in holy works, while the soul's powers hold the whole person together as the rough earth carries the soft.
But the soul, which is immortal life and at whose departure the body dies, completes all works according to the body's desires, just as the wind passes over the whole earth and makes it sprout; and the soul itself, working within the body, is like a rushing stream of water that never stops flowing. All the angels marvel over the person who is clothed in holy works as if in a most beautiful garment, because such a person will also have fellowship with them in praising God; and the soul sustains all that person's works, just as the thighs and the seat sustain the whole person. And just as rough, jagged earth carries the soft part of the earth and its rivers, so the soul's powers hold the whole person together, clinging to serve just as the thighs cling to the loins and belly.
The Soul Adorned in Virtue and the Witness of Scripture
The soul works through the person's deeds, surrounding them with virtues like berries and pearls, which leads to John's testimony about the beauty of Christ's bride — the holy soul — and David's praise of humanity's excellence.
The soul itself, with its own powers, is at work in a person's deeds: just as the lower part of the earth sustains the person above, so the soul compels that person to rejoice in what is good and grieve over what is evil, and it surrounds that person with good works and varied virtues like berries and pearls. This is why John says: The words of the holy apostle John in his own Apocalypse about the beauty of Christ's bride—that is, the holy soul contemplating and describing her—and David in a psalm proclaiming the excellence of humanity.✦✦
Read the original Latin
Dorsum autem et latera hominis planitiem terrae demonstrant; anima vero, quae operans spiritus nominatur, sancta opera et claras virtutes, per quas Deus ab angelicis spiritibus laudatur, cum homine operatur; ipsaque corpori, quod per omnia regit, invisibilis existit, quemadmodum Deus, qui totam terram creavit, homini invisibilis est. Et sicut homo cum dorso et latere potenter operatur, sic etiam anima cum corpore omnia opera sua perficit. In femoribus quoque et in loco sessionis colles et asperitas praefatae durae et impenetrabilis terrae ostenduntur, quoniam ut femora lumbis et ventri adhaerent, et hominem portant, et ut locus sessionis hominem retinet, sic etiam haec inferior et impenetrabilis pars terrae, superiori tenerae et molli parti ejus conjuncta existit, illamque fortitudine sua quasi chalybs retinet ne dissolvatur. Sicut enim homo totam terram artibus suis regit, eamque aratro aliquando profundius, aliquando levius evertit, sic anima viribus et virtutibus corpus secundum gustum carnis pertransit et evertit, et cum fortissimis viribus ejusdem animae homo gravia et criminalia peccata perficit, sed leviora, quae per cogitationes sine opere fiunt, aliis animae tantum perficiuntur. Diabolus namque propter odium quod ad Dominum suum habet, delectationem homini suggerit, ex qua fumus quoties homo irascitur in corpore ejus ascendit, quia homo nunquam irasceretur si delectatione carnis careret. Anima vero quae immortalis vita est, in cujus discessu corpus emoritur, omnia opera secundum desideria corporis perficit, quemadmodum aerius ventus totam terram perficit, quemadmodum aerius ventus totam terram germinare facit, ipsaque in corpore operando, sicut torrens aqua fluendo, nunquam cessat. Omnes quippe angeli super hominem illum qui sanctis operibus velut elegantissima veste induitur, mirantur, quoniam societatem cum illis Deum laudando etiam habebit; omniaque opera ejus anima sustinet, sicut femora et locus sessionis totum hominem sustentant. Et sicut aspera et acuta terra mollem partem terrae atque flumina portat, sic vires animae totum hominem continent, quae ei, quemadmodum femora cum lumbis ventri, serviendo adhaerent.
Ipsa etiam cum viribus suis opera hominis, quemadmodum posterior pars ipsum sustinet, et eum in bono gaudere et in malo contristari cogit, bonisque operibus et variis virtutibus velut baccis et margaritis eum circumdat. Unde et Joannes dicit:
Verba sancti Joannis apostoli in Apocalypsi sua decorem sponsae Christi, id est animae sanctae, contemplantis et describentis, et David in Psalmo excellentiam hominis praedicentis.
Scripture echoes
- ↩Rev.21.2 — And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.
- ↩Ps.8.5-Ps.8.6 — What is man that you remember him, and the son of Adam that you visit him? Ps.8.6 — You have made him a little lower than God, and crowned him with glory and honor.
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