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Chapter 39LDO.2.39

VISIO QUINTA, cap. XXXIX

The Waters Bring Forth: Celibates and Widows in the Church

The Genesis command to let waters bring forth living creatures is read as a call to the Church to raise up celibates and widows who, through self-discipline and detachment from earthly desires, pursue heavenly things under Christ.

"God said: Let the waters bring forth creeping things with living souls, and birds above the earth under the firmament of heaven."✦ "Here is what to consider: God, through the preaching of his disciples, has now said to the Church: Let us, through self-discipline, bring forth more refined precepts, which, by living faithfully in Christ with vigils, fasting, and prayer, should not cling to earthly things, and which, under the firmament of heaven — which is Christ — as celibates and widows in the Church, should desire and pursue the higher things with the loftier wings of virtue."1 "And God created the great sea creatures and every living and moving soul that the waters brought forth in their kinds, and every bird according to its kind."✦ "He shows, namely, his only-begotten Son in the flesh, from whom the Gospel came forth, in which it is said: 'Everyone who has left home or brothers, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands for my name's sake, will receive a hundredfold and will possess eternal life.'" "Here is what to consider: every believer who has left home — that is, their own will — or brothers, that is, carnal desires, or sisters, that is, the taste of sin, or father, that is, the pleasure of the flesh, or mother, that is, the embrace of vices, or wife, that is, greed, or children, that is, plunder and theft, or lands, that is, pride for the glory of my name — looking to me as the Son of God and the Savior of humanity, will receive a hundredfold in the peace of their soul, in bodily rest, because they have cast away all the anxiety of the world and have followed me."2 And so all these things will come to them in their service. For first, the home must be left behind — that is, one's own will, in which a person rests as they please, like someone who stays quietly in their own house; then brothers, that is, carnal desires, which are joined to one's own will; and afterward sisters, that is, the taste of sin, which everywhere follows carnal desires; next, the father, by which the pleasure of the flesh is signified, which takes great delight in carnal desires; and after that, the mother, that is, the embrace of vices, which wraps itself around the pleasure of the flesh in every way; and then the wife, that is, greed, which imitates the embrace of vices, so that it is never satisfied by them, just as when a man has married a wife, he slides into greedy pursuits.3 And afterward, children — that is, plunder and theft, which follow greed, just as a person strives to gather wealth for their children; and finally, lands — that is, pride, which tries to defend plunder and theft, because once a person has unjustly acquired things and gotten away with them, they begin to boast through arrogance.

The Hundredfold Reward and the Angelic Life

Those who renounce all for God receive the hundredfold and eternal life, as Abraham and Mary exemplify; the new law, born of Christ's virginal conception, teaches the spiritual birth that leads to an angelic way of life, and the apostles, moved by the Holy Spirit, produce virtues that rise like a cloud above earthly things.

But when any faithful person has cast all these things away from themselves and receives better things superabundantly, as was said before, they will also possess eternal life in unfailing blessedness, because for God's sake they have temporarily neglected themselves and have aspired to heavenly things. For whoever leaves behind themselves, their family, and their children for God's sake, as Abraham did, will receive a hundredfold reward for everything they see with their eyes and attend to with their heart — just as it is also said of Mary, 'Her many sins are forgiven, because she loved much' — since she too, letting go of herself entirely from head to foot, was rewarded for each thing by her merit.✦✦✦ Therefore, when this person is adorned with all the labors mentioned above — just as a craftsman adorns his work with elegant decoration — they will at last pass over to heavenly joys. The old law did not know this, because the humanity of the Savior had not yet touched it, but the new law faithfully gathered it into itself. For the Son of God, who was begotten from his mother in the fire of the Holy Spirit, from whom human birth was entirely taken away and withdrawn, taught the right birth of the spiritual life — so that a person would restrain and sanctify themselves, and thus living would have an angelic way of life — because that same Son of God freed the human person by his humanity and led them back to heavenly joys. God also created the whole life of virtues, which remain in the living minds of those who raise themselves from the earth, and who are mobile in this respect: that they always turn themselves from evil to good and advance from virtue to virtue. And the apostles — those same waters over whom the Holy Spirit came — produced these virtues when they went before the people by their good examples and also showed a heavenly way of life, which, like a cloud, flies across all earthly things, passing through them according to its ability, in the category of virtues — just as my Son says in the Gospel.✦

Many Dwelling-Places and Twofold Sons

The Gospel promise of many dwelling-places in the Father's house is connected to the twofold kind of sons in the Church—spiritual and secular.

Likewise, the Gospel words about the many dwelling-places in my Father's house, and about the twofold kind of sons in the Church — spiritual and secular.✦

Read the original Latin

« Dixit Deus: Producant aquae reptile animae viventis, et volatile super terram sub firmamento coeli . » Hoc considerandum sic est: Deus per praedicationem discipulorum suorum Ecclesiae dixit: Nunc subtiliora praecepta per abstinentiam producamus, quae cum vigiliis, et jejuniis, ac orationibus in Christo fideliter vivendo terrenis rebus non adhaereant, et quae sub firmamento coeli, quod Christus est, cum altioribus pennis virtutum quasi virgines et viduae in Ecclesia volent et coelestia sequantur. « Creavitque Deus cete grandia, et omnem animam viventem atque motabilem, quam produxerant aquae in species suas, et omne volatile secundum genus suum . » Ostendit scilicet unicum Filium suum in carne in quo ortum est Evangelium, in quo dicitur: « Omnis qui reliquerit domum vel fratres, aut sorores, aut patrem, aut matrem, aut uxorem, aut filios, aut agros propter nomen meum, centuplum accipiet, et vitam aeternam possidebit . » Hoc considerandum sic est: Omnis fidelis qui reliquerit domum, id est propriam voluntatem, vel fratres, scilicet carnales concupiscentias, aut sorores, id est gustum peccatorum, aut patrem, videlicet delectationem carnis, aut matrem, id est amplexionem vitiorum, aut uxorem, scilicet avaritiam, aut filios, videlicet rapinam et furtum, aut agros, id est superbiam pro gloria nominis mei, ita me inspiciens qui Filius Dei et Salvator hominum sum, centies tantum in quiete mentis suae corporaliter accipiet, quia omnem sollicitudinem saeculi a se projecit, et me subsecutus est. Unde ei et omnia haec in ministerio occurrent. Nam primitus relinquenda est domus, videlicet propria voluntas, in qua homo pro libitu suo requiescit, velut ille qui in domo sua in quiete manet; deinde fratres, id est carnales concupiscentiae, quae propriae voluntati conjunguntur; et postea sorores, scilicet gustus peccatorum qui carnales concupiscentias ubique subsequitur; dehinc autem pater, per quem delectatio carnis notatur, quae in carnalibus concupiscentiis valde delectatur; et post haec mater, id est amplexio vitiorum, quae delectationem carnis per omnia amplectitur; et deinde uxor, videlicet avaritia, quae amplexionem vitiorum imitatur, ita ut illis non saturetur, sicut et vir cum uxorem duxerit, in avaros quaestus labitur. Et postmodum filii, id est rapina et furtum quae avaritiam subsequuntur, quemadmodum homo filiis suis divitias congregare nititur; et tandem agri, scilicet superbia, quae rapinam et furtum defendere conatur, quoniam cum homo injuste acquisita impune sibi attraxerit, superbire per jactantiam incipit.

Sed cum quilibet fidelis ista omnia a se abjecerit, et meliora superabundanter recipit, ut praedictum est; vitam quoque aeternam in beatitudine indeficientem possidebit, eo quod se ipsum pro Deo temporaliter neglexerit, et ad coelestia anhelaverit. Iste enim qui seipsum et genus suum et natos suos propter Deum relinquit, quemadmodum Abraham fecit, pro unoquoque quod oculis videt et corde attendit, praemium centupli accipiet, velut etiam de Maria dicitur: « Dimissa sunt ei peccata multa, quoniam dilexit multum , » quia et illa a vertice usque ad plantam pedis se totam dimittens, de singulis mercede remunerata est. Quapropter et iste cum omnibus supradictis laboribus decorabitur, ut etiam faber opus suum cum eleganti decore exornat, et ad coelestia gaudia tandem transibit. Haec vetus lex nesciebat, quoniam humanitas Salvatoris illa nondum tetigerat, sed nova haec in se fideliter colligebat. Filius namque Dei, qui in igne Spiritus sancti a matre genitus est cui et humana genitura omnino ablata et abstracta est, rectam genituram spiritalis vitae docuit, ita ut homo se ipsum constringat et sanctificet, et sic vivendo angelicam conversationem habeat, quia idem Filius Dei humanitate sua hominem liberavit, et ad superna gaudia reduxit. Deus etiam omnem vitam virtutum creavit, quae in viventibus mentibus hominum qui se de terra elevant, manent, et qui etiam in hoc mobiles sunt quod de malo ad bonum se semper convertunt, et de virtute in virtutem proficiunt. Et has virtutes illae aquae super quas Spiritus sanctus venit, iidem apostoli produxerunt, cum in bonis exemplis populum praeibant, et etiam coelestem conversationem ostenderunt, quae quasi nubes volat, omnia terrena secundum possibilitatem suam in genere virtutum transiens, sicut Filius meus in Evangelio dicit:

Item verba Evangelii de multis mansionibus quae in domo Patris sunt, et de duplici genere filiorum Ecclesiae, spiritalium scilicet et saecularium.

Scripture echoes

  1. ↩Gen.1.20 — And God said, "Let the waters swarm with swarms of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the expanse of the heavens."
  2. ↩Gen.1.21 — And God created the great sea creatures and every living thing that moves, with which the waters swarmed, according to their kinds, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good.
  3. ↩Luke.7.47 — Therefore I tell you, her many sins are forgiven, as her great love shows. But the one who is forgiven little loves little.
  4. ↩Gen.12.1-Gen.12.3 — Now the LORD said to Abram, "Go from your land and from your kindred and from your father's house to the land that I will show you. Gen.12.2 — And I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you, and I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. Gen.12.3 — And I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.
  5. ↩Matt.19.29 — And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or fields for my name's sake will receive a hundredfold and will inherit eternal life.
  6. ↩Gen.1.20 — And God said, "Let the waters swarm with swarms of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the expanse of the heavens."
  7. ↩John.14.2 — In my Father's house there are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you? I go to prepare a place for you.

Notes

  1. 1 ↩The Latin 'subtiliora praecepta' is rendered 'more refined precepts' to capture the sense of a higher, more demanding teaching; 'virgines et viduae' is rendered with the functional sense of consecrated celibacy rather than a literal biological category.
  2. 2 ↩The passage is an allegorical expansion of the Matthean saying: each family relationship and worldly thing is given a spiritual interpretation (e.g., 'wife' = greed, 'children' = plunder and theft). The rendering preserves this typological sense rather than the literal family meaning.
  3. 3 ↩The allegorical chain maps each family member to a vice: home = self-will, brothers = carnal desires, sisters = taste of sin, father = pleasure of the flesh, mother = embrace of vices, wife = greed. The logic is cumulative and associative rather than strictly systematic.

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