VISIO TERTIA, cap. XI
The Captive Daughter Called to Freedom
The Lord addresses the captive daughter of Zion, calling her to loose the bonds of her first captivity through penance.
"Loose the bonds of your neck, captive daughter of Zion, because these things says the Lord: You have been sold for nothing, and you will be redeemed without silver."✦ "This is clear to understanding in this way: through penance, crush the bond of your first captivity and transgression, you who were reckoned among the daughters of heavenly peace in paradise, because when that was lost, you were subdued by many evils." Therefore he who is the Lord of all says to you who are willingly wrapped in sins.
Redemption Without Price and the New Birth
The soul sold without price is redeemed through the virginal rebirth in Spirit and water, and whoever perseveres in this birth stands unmoved in Zion.
In such a way you have been sold without price, just as God promised pain to the first woman, who on account of her transgression of the divine commandment was deprived of paradise and lost the name that is daughter of Zion; but you will be redeemed without the silver of earthly desire, where in virginal nature our Redeemer rose again, and established us to be reborn through Spirit and water to life, and as if led us back to an hereditary place.✦✦✦ Whoever perseveres rightly in this birth will not be moved from the height of Zion.
Rising to God Through Prayer and Grace
The faithful soul is urged to cast off sin, breathe toward heaven, and persevere in petition so that divine grace may inspire holy works and turn the heart from deceit.
Let a faithful person therefore raise himself up to God, casting away his sins and leaving behind all evils, and in his desire let him breathe eagerly toward heavenly things, seeking from God the help of good works. If anyone perseveres steadfastly in this petition, just as the blind man sitting beside the road did, soon the grace of God looks toward him, and if she then sees him attending to the light and raising himself up from the darkness, she will be present in all things to him, inspiring in him those things that are just and holy.✦ For that person, turning away from evil, delights in good and holy works and tastes their sweetness, because he does not wish to withdraw from God, but turns himself away from serpentine deceit.✦
The Body's Humors and the Seat of Desire
The humors of the body flow from the navel and loins through the veins to the spleen, lung, and heart, signifying the physiological seat of wantonness.
What it signifies in a person is that the humors present in the body — sprinkling the navel, which stands as the head of the internal organs, and the loins, where wantonness resides — also sometimes touch the veins of the kidneys and flanks, and through these ascend even to the veins of the spleen, lung, and heart.1
Read the original Latin
« Solve vincla colli tui, captiva filia Sion, quia haec dicit Dominus: Gratis venundati estis, et sine argento redimemini . » Quod sic intellectui patet: Contere per poenitentiam vinculum primae captivitatis et transgressionis, o homo, qui inter filias supernae pacis in paradiso computatus eras, quoniam illo perdito, multis malis subjugatus es. Quapropter dicit ille, qui Dominus cunctorum est, vobis qui spontanee peccatis involuti estis. Tali modo absque pretio venundati estis, sicut Deus primae mulieri dolorem promisit, quae propter praevaricationem divini praecepti paradiso caruit, atque nomen quod est filia Sion amisit; sed sine argento terrenae cupiditatis redimemini, ubi in virginea natura Redemptor noster surrexit, et nos per Spiritum et aquam renasci ad vitam constituit, ac si in haereditarium locum nos reduxit. Qui autem in nativitate ista juste perseveraverit, a celsitudine Sion non movebitur. Fidelis igitur homo ad Deum se erigat, peccata sua abjiciendo, omniaque mala relinquendo, atque in desiderio suo ad coelestia anhelet, auxilium bonorum operum a Deo petens. Qui si in petitione hac stabilis perseveraverit, quemadmodum caecus sedens secus viam fecit, mox gratia Dei ad ipsum aspicit, et si tunc illa eum lumen attendentem, et a tenebris semetipsum erigentem viderit, in omnibus illi aderit, ea quae justa et sancta sunt ipsi inspirans. Iste namque a malo declinans, in bonis et sanctis operibus delectatur, et dulcedinem eorum gustat, quia a Deo recedere non vult, sed a serpentino dolo se avertit.
Quid designet in homine quod humores qui in eo sunt, umbilicum, qui caput viscerum existit, et lumbos, in quibus petulantia est, conspergentes, venas quoque renum, et iliorum interdum tangunt, et per has ad venas etiam splenis, pulmonis et cordis ascendunt.
Scripture echoes
- ↩Isa.52.3 — For thus says the LORD: You were sold for nothing, and you shall be redeemed not with silver.
- ↩Gen.3.16 — To the woman he said, "I will greatly multiply your pain and your conception; in pain you shall bring forth children, and your desire shall be for your husband, and he shall rule over you."
- ↩Gen.3.23-Gen.3.24 — So the LORD God sent him out from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he had been taken. Gen.3.24 — So he drove out the man, and he settled east of the Garden of Eden the cherubim, and the flaming sword that turns every way, to guard the way to the tree of life.
- ↩John.3.5 — Jesus answered, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.
- ↩Luke.18.35-Luke.18.43;Mark.10.46-Mark.10.52 — As he was approaching Jericho, a certain blind man was sitting by the roadside, begging. Luke.18.36 — But when he heard the crowd passing through, he inquired what this might be. Luke.18.37 — And they told him, "Jesus of Nazareth is passing by." Luke.18.38 — and he cried out, saying, 'Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me.' Luke.18.39 — And those who were in front were rebuking him so that he would be quiet, but he cried out all the more, "Son of David, have mercy on me." Luke.18.40 — And Jesus stopped, and commanded him to be brought to him. Luke.18.41 — What do you want me to do for you? And he said, Lord, that I may see again. Luke.18.42 — And Jesus said to him, "Receive your sight; your faith has saved you." Luke.18.43 — And immediately he received his sight and followed him, glorifying God; and all the people, seeing it, gave praise to God. Mark.10.46 — And they came to Jericho. And as he was going out from Jericho, with his disciples and a large crowd, Bartimaeus, a blind beggar, the son of Timaeus, was sitting beside the road. Mark.10.47 — And when he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to cry out and say, 'Son of David, Jesus, have mercy on me!' Mark.10.48 — And many were rebuking him, so that he would be silent. But he cried out all the more, 'Son of David, have mercy on me!' Mark.10.49 — And Jesus stopped and said, 'Call him.' And they called the blind man, saying to him, 'Take heart; rise, he is calling you.' Mark.10.50 — And throwing off his cloak, he sprang up and came to Jesus. Mark.10.51 — And Jesus said to him, "What do you want me to do for you?" And the blind man said to him, "Rabboni, that I may see again." Mark.10.52 — And Jesus said to him, "Go; your faith has made you well." And immediately he received his sight and followed him on the way.
- ↩Gen.3.1-Gen.3.5 — Now the serpent was more crafty than any other animal that the LORD God had made. And he said to the woman, "Did God really say, 'You shall not eat from any tree of the garden'?" Gen.3.2 — And the woman said to the serpent, "From the fruit of the trees of the garden we may eat, Gen.3.3 — but of the fruit of the tree that is in the middle of the garden, God said, 'You shall not eat from it, and you shall not touch it, lest you die.' Gen.3.4 — But the serpent said to the woman, 'You will not certainly die.' Gen.3.5 — for God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.
Notes
- 1 ↩The participial phrase 'conspergentes' is syntactically ambiguous: the humors are the most plausible subject performing the sprinkling/besprinkling action on the navel and loins, though the construction could conceivably imply a separate agent.
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