VISIO SECUNDA, cap. XIV
Shining Without Grumbling
Believers are called to live blamelessly and without complaint so they shine as lights in a crooked world.
Do everything without grumbling or hesitation, so that you may be without complaint, blameless and simple children of God, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom you shine like lights in the world, holding fast to the word of life.✦
The Crossroads of Choice
A person stands at a spiritual crossroads, choosing either the light of salvation or the path of evil toward judgment.
This is how clearly it stands before the understanding: a person is as though at a crossroads, so that if they seek their salvation from God in the light, they will receive it; but if they choose evil, they will follow the devil to punishment. And so a person should carry their human nature and all their works without grumbling—that is, without the humps of sin—and without hesitation, that is, carrying perfect faith, so that when they love good and hate evil, they do not doubt that they will be set free in the future judgment and separated from the lost, who turn away from good by embracing evil.
Children of God in Simplicity
Those who do good without harm or stubborn complaint become simple, blameless children of God before a perverse world.
And those who do these things, harming no one, without the outcry of a stubborn complaint, will be children of God in the simplicity of good works, and without any deceit of deception, blameless before the judgment of those who boast that they are strong in wicked and perverse acts.
Luminaries of True Faith
Those who shine in perfect faith become world-illuminating luminaries, reflecting Christ's own sinless shining among humanity.
Among these, those who shine in the perfection of true faith are like the luminaries that illuminate the world in their appointed office, as the Creator of all things ordained; since by their teaching, which looks to life, they turn very many to God, so that the Son of God also shone without sin in the midst of all in the world.✦✦
The Two Luminaries Within
God placed the sun and moon in the firmament as signs of the knowledge of good and evil at work within every person.
For God also placed two luminaries—namely the sun and the moon—in the firmament, which signify the knowledge of good and evil in a person; for just as the firmament is confirmed by the sun and the moon, so also a person is engaged by the knowledge of good and evil, now here, now there.✦✦
Good Knowledge and Evil Knowledge
Good knowledge presses down evil without desiring it, while evil knowledge waxes and wanes in rebellion, knowing God yet opposing him like the devil.
But just as the sun completes its course without diminishing its circle, so good knowledge makes its way without desiring evil, but rather by pressing down evil knowledge, rebuking it, and reproving it, since there is no profit in it, and calling it hellish when it has fulfilled its own desires. And just as the moon wanes and waxes, so evil knowledge despises good knowledge, calling it foolish and practically nothing. Yet it knows it, just as the devil knew God, even though he set himself against him.✦
The Figure in the Wheel
A new vision arises: a human figure appears in the center of a wheel with limbs outstretched toward a shining circle of air.
Concerning the image of a human figure appearing in the middle of the aforementioned wheel — with its head and feet and hands outstretched, touching a circle of strong, white, and shining air — what does this image itself, and such a posture of it, signify?
Read the original Latin
« Omnia autem facite sine murmurationibus et haesitationibus, ut sitis sine querela, et simplices filii Dei sine reprehensione, in medio nationis pravae et perversae, inter quas lucetis sicut luminaria in mundo verbum vitae continentes . » Quod sic intellectui patet: Homo quasi in bivio est, ita ut si in luce salutem a Deo quaesierit, illam recipiet; si autem malum elegerit, diabolum ad poenam sequetur, et ideo homo humanam naturam ac omnia opera sua sine murmurationibus, id est sine gibbis peccatorum, ac sine haesitationibus, scilicet fidem perfectam habens portet, ita ut non dubitet cum bonum amat et malum odit, in futuro judicio liberari, et a perditis separari, qui a bono malum amplectendo declinant. Et qui haec faciunt, nullum laedentes, sine clamore contumacis querimoniae erunt, in simplicitate quoque bonorum operum filii Dei existentes, et absque omni dolo deceptionis irreprehensibiles coram aestimatione illorum manentes qui in pravis et perversis actibus se fortes esse gloriantur. Inter quos in perfectione verae fidei sic lucent, quemadmodum luminaria, quae in officio suo secundum quod Creator omnium disposuit, mundum illuminant, cum ipsi doctrina sua quae ad vitam respicit, quam plurimos ad Deum convertunt, ut etiam Filius Dei sine peccato omnibus in mundo lucebat. Nam et Deus duo luminaria videlicet solem et lunam in firmamentum posuit, quae scientiam boni et mali in homine designant, quia sicut firmamentum sole et luna confirmatur, ita et homo scientia boni et mali hac et illac versatur. Sed et ut sol cursum suum perficit, circulum suum non minuens, ita et bona scientia cursum suum facit, malum non desiderando, sed malam scientiam deprimendo et increpando, eamque corripiendo, quoniam nulla utilitas in ipsa est, et eam gehennalem vocando, cum illa concupiscentias suas compleverit, et ut luna deficit et crescit, sic et mala scientia bonam despicit, ipsamque stultam et quasi nihilum esse dicit, sed tamen eam novit, quemadmodum diabolus Deum scivit, quamvis se illi opponeret.
De imagine in forma hominis in medio praedictae rotae apparentis vertice pedibus et manibus distentis, circulum fortis albi et lucidi aeris contingentis, et quid, et ipsa imago, et talis positio ejus designet.
Scripture echoes
- ↩Phil.2.14-Phil.2.16 — Do everything without grumbling and arguing, Phil.2.15 — so that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, among whom you shine like lights in the world, Phil.2.16 — holding fast to the word of life, so that I may have reason to boast on the day of Christ, because I did not run in vain or labor in vain.
- ↩John.1.4-John.1.5 — In him was life, and the life was the light of men. John.1.5 — And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.
- ↩Matt.5.14 — You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden.
- ↩Gen.1.14-Gen.1.18 — And God said, "Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night, and let them be for signs and for seasons and for days and years." Gen.1.15 — and let them be lights in the expanse of the heavens to give light upon the earth — and it was so. Gen.1.16 — And God made the two great lights—the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night—and the stars. Gen.1.17 — And God set them in the expanse of the heavens to give light upon the earth, Gen.1.18 — and to rule over the day and over the night, and to separate the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good.
- ↩Gen.2.17 — but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for on the day you eat from it you shall surely die.
- ↩Jas.2.19 — You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe—and shudder.
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