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← Liber Divinorum Operum (Book of Divine Works)/Book 2 · Liber Divinorum Operum — Pars 2
Chapter 44LDO.2.44

VISIO QUINTA, cap. XLIV

The Earth Brings Forth Living Virtues

God's command that the earth bring forth living creatures is read as the Church's calling to bear every virtue, with each state of life ordered by grace.

God also said: "Let the earth bring forth living creatures in their kinds—beasts of burden, and creeping things, and wild animals of the earth, each according to its own species."✦ And so it was done.✦ This is to be understood as follows: the earth—that is, my Church—is to bring forth all living virtues, which through the teaching of the apostles are to be established in every kind of virtue.✦ Those who are married, then, and live under the yoke of the law, should live rightly; and likewise those who, in abstaining from bodily desires, creep along—let them discipline their bodies in vigils, in fasts, and in prayer.1 But those who offer all their possessions to God should also lay down their very lives for him, letting go of everything unlawful in their conduct, so as to please God their Savior through obedience to his commandments, which have been established for them.✦ And just as the wild animals of the earth do not overstep the nature appointed for them according to their kinds, so too they should keep the rule of life set before them according to their own capacities; and in this way, abstinence from worldly things will prove complete in these virtues. "And God made the wild animals according to their kinds, and the beasts of burden, and every creeping thing of the earth in its kind."✦ Through the grace of God in the Holy Spirit, all those great virtues of spiritual teachings, and all these orderings of worldly matters, and all these strengths of those who practice abstinence, have been brought to completion in the Catholic faith.2

Let Us Make Man in Our Image

The divine resolve to make man in God's image is unfolded as the formation of rational, obedient persons who build up the Church through virtue.

And God saw that it was good, and he said: Let us make man in our image and likeness, and let him rule over the fish of the sea, the birds of the sky, and the beasts, and over every creature and everything that creeps on the earth.✦ And in the same way God saw that all these virtues were good, and he said within himself: "Let us now make man in our image and likeness, for the building up of the Church."✦ "How?" "Let us make him for the instruction of the Church, so that she herself may be raised up with man for his full edification, and so that he himself, adorned in his own form with rationality — that is, according to our image — and with knowledge and wisdom — that is, according to our likeness — may be formed in such a way that he himself, together with the divine work and with righteous human works, may build up the Church, so that the law may be given to her in my Son, who is born from my heart, and who is also kindled in the Holy Spirit."✦ And let man, in the Church, with his knowledge applied to earthly matters and with the observances of the Gospel that God gave, and with the virtues that fly toward the good, exercise authority; and let him also lay down his substance and his soul with subjection to the commandments of God, and with all the other virtues of heaven, for the sake of God, and in abstinence from carnal things let him mortify his body, so that man himself may bring these virtues to completion. Let these virtues themselves, in the observance of all God's commandments, also bring man himself to perfection, just as by ascending from virtue to virtue he can never be filled to satiety; and let him always be restless in this, so that he may turn away from evil and do good.✦

Male and Female in the Image of God

The creation of man and woman and the blessing to increase are interpreted as the Church adorned with virtues through the Incarnation and the Spirit's prompting.

"And God created man in his own image; in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them, and God blessed them and said: Increase and multiply, fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and every living creature that moves upon the earth."✦ "God created man in the Church for the knowledge of his divinity, so that in his soul he might bring forth the heavenly virtues with the soul's deep longings, with which the Church is adorned as with the jewels of virtues." "He also created him in the image of God, which is the Son, so that surrounded by burning love, he might be perfected in all good things in chastity by the higher virtues, and so that the Church of God might be perfected with the works of God." "So then God created the peoples so that the virile, who are the masculine person, might possess the heavenly virtues, and so that they might also overcome in the fear of God, in the anguish of soul, in the worldly life under the care of raising children, what is the feminine person, and so that the Church might be built up with it." "And in these purposes just named, God blessed them with the full blessing of the holy Incarnation, namely in this: that the Son of God was clothed in humanity, and therefore all kinds of virtues in spiritual things and in worldly things that advance for the love of God ought to flow down strongly, because God is both God and man, from whom all fresh life springs up." "And by the prompting of the Holy Spirit he spoke, so that the peoples in the Church, growing in abundant righteous desires, might advance in each walk of life according to the fear of God, and might multiply in these things, so that they might bear fruit in their pursuits, and so that the virtues, ever renewing themselves within them, might not dry up; and in this way they would fill that land, namely the Church, and subject it to Christ and have dominion in it, so as to follow the Gospel, and with the soaring and living virtues that withdraw from earthly things and stand firm in the good, would lift themselves up toward heavenly things."

The Seed of the Word and the Food of the Law

The gift of seed-bearing plants becomes the Word sown in the Virgin and the Church, with Christ's suffering-food as the true nourishment for salvation.

"And God said: Look, I have given you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth, and every tree that has seed-bearing fruit; they will be yours for food, and to every creature of the earth, every bird of the sky, and everything that moves on the earth — everything in which there is a living soul — to have food to eat.'✦ And so it was done.✦ "God, in the whole ordering of the Church, said: See, I have now given and sent you right faith through my Son, whom you have seen born on the earth in the greenness of untilled soil — that is, in the womb of the Virgin — so that the untouched soil might put forth flowers.' But my Son brought the seed of the Word of God, so that it might be sown on the promised land — that is, the holy Church, by which the heavenly Jerusalem is built — and he also brought the law of the married, who have the spreading of their seed among the nations, showing how they ought to live according to the fear of my commandments, so that my law, given to you as food, might be one in the building up of the soul, just as the body is fed with food; feed on it, because my Son said: 'My food is to do the will of my Father.'✦ "This is how you should understand it: My food — I who am the Son of God — is this: that I subject myself bodily to suffering, through which, the devil defeated, I may bring back man to the paradise from which he had been driven out, according to the will of my Father, because my Father sent me into the world for this very purpose, to save it."✦ For I, sent by the Father, took on flesh in a mother's womb without male seed.✦ That food, then — the one in which I am equal to my Father without age, co-eternal with him — is better than the food by which I am fed for a time according to the flesh, where the heavenly Father willed me to be in this present age and to live among people, so that through my words they might return to salvation, when I draw them up with me to the things of heaven above.✦ For this is my work: when I redeemed man in my humanity, it was so that he too, redeemed, might work with me.✦

Feeding on the Law and the Sixth Day's Fullness

The faithful are nourished by God's law in appointed seasons, so that all virtues are brought to completion in the fullness of grace and the firm light of the sixth day.

So then, feed on my law, so that your souls don't fail, because I've established a time for food for you in the law of God; in it you'll find the pastures of life, and in all these things you won't fail, if you keep them, but you'll live forever. For people too who are subject to the living God's precepts through virtues, and who have become imitators of Christ in heavenly warfare—people who remove themselves from earthly things, long for justice with all devotion, and go up from virtue to virtue, moved toward the good, ascending in the land of promise—for them there are distinctions of foods and seasons of times, which have been established for them by teachers.✦ The people must also observe those seasons established by the law's institution, in which festivals are to be celebrated and fasts carried out. This distinction must also be maintained regarding foods themselves: they shouldn't be taken to excess, but taken only as the opportunity of necessity requires, and they should be carefully portioned out to each person according to the measure by which that person has been strengthened and instructed in the Holy Spirit.3 Let the Christian person who is the building of the Church hear this, so that they may rightly consent to their head. And this was done in this way, because the words of God and the virtues have become food for life in the Christian people, made so in the Church. "And God saw all the things that he had made"—that is, he approved all these proposals and precepts, and the appointed seasons of all the aforementioned virtues—"and they were very good," because they are accomplished in the fullness of the desirable grace of almighty God, so that nothing was lacking to them, with each virtue existing only as a good beforehand; but here all things were equally good, since all appeared equally, just as a feast is full when it is brought to perfection in all its courses.✦4 "And evening came, and morning came: the sixth day."✦ That shift away from instability — because the firmness of established precepts wasn't yet present in the Church — began to turn into the morning of all strong justice established by the law, just as the day is strengthened by the powers of the sun while the sun stands in its proper order, so that from this the sixth day would come into being, and so that, as if in a sixth light of strong faith, God's precepts would be fulfilled for the peoples according to his will and according to the teaching of his teachers in the Church.✦ And again, in another way?

A Spiritual Recapitulation of the Food Given

A closing summary restates how the Genesis food-text is to be understood spiritually in the Church through the word of God and Christ's testimony.

On the variety of food granted to humans and beasts of burden in Genesis, and how it is now to be understood spiritually in the Church according to the distribution or receiving of spiritual nourishment, which is the word of God; and how the added testimony of Christ, who says, "My food is that I may do the will of my Father," is to be taken — and also what is written, "And there was evening and morning, the sixth day."✦✦

Read the original Latin

« Dixit quoque Deus: Producat terra animam viventem in genere suo, jumenta et reptilia et bestias terrae secundum species suas. Et factum est ita . » Hoc considerandum sic est: Terra, scilicet Ecclesia mea, omnes viventes virtutes producat, quas per doctrinam apostolorum in omnibus generibus virtutum constitui. Conjugati namque, qui sub jugo legis sunt, recte vivant; illi etiam qui in abstinentia carnalium desideriorum reptant, corpora sua in vigiliis, in jejuniis et in orationibus macerent. Qui autem omnem substantiam suam Deo offerunt, etiam animas suas pro ipso ponant, omnia illicita in operibus suis sic dimittentes, ut Deo Salvatori per subjectionem praeceptorum ejus, quae eis constituta sunt, placeant. Et sicut bestiae terrae naturam secundum species suas sibi constitutam non transeunt, ita etiam ipsi constitutam sibi formam secundum vires suas observent; et sic in virtutibus istis abstinentia saecularium rerum perfecta erit. « Et fecit Deus bestias juxta species suas et jumenta et omne reptile terrae in genere suo . » De gratia Dei in Spiritu sancto omnes illae magnae virtutes spiritalium institutionum, et omnes istae ordinationes saecularium, atque omnes hae vires abstinentium in catholica fide factae sunt.

« Et vidit Deus quod esset bonum et ait: Faciamus hominem ad imaginem et similitudinem nostram et praesit piscibus maris, et volatilibus coeli et bestiis, universaeque creaturae, omnique reptili quod movetur in terra . » Et similiter vidit Deus omnes virtutes istas bonas esse, et ait in semetipso: « Nunc faciamus hominem ad imaginem et similitudinem nostram, ad aedificationem Ecclesiae. » Quomodo? Faciamus eum ad instructionem Ecclesiae, ut ipsa cum homine ad omnem aedificationem ejus erigatur, et ut ipse in forma sua ornatus in rationalitate, id est ad imaginem nostram, et in scientia ac in sapientia, id est ad similitudinem nostram formetur, ita ut ipse cum divino opere et humanis justis operibus Ecclesiam aedificet, ut ei lex in Filio meo detur, qui de corde meo natus est, quae etiam in Spiritu sancto accenditur. Et homo in Ecclesia cum scientia sua terrenis rebus cum observationibus Evangelii quod Deus dedit, et cum virtutibus ad bonum volantibus praesit; ipse etiam substantiam et animam suam cum subjectione praeceptorum Dei, et cum omnibus caeteris virtutibus coelorum pro Deo ponat, atque in abstinentia carnalium corpus suum maceret, ita ut ipse homo virtutes istas perficiat. Ipsae quoque virtutes in observatione omnium praeceptorum Dei hominem ipsum perficiant, sicut de virtute in virtutem ascendendo, ipsis nunquam saturari possit; et semper in hoc mobilis sit, ut a malo recedat, et bonum faciat.

« Et creavit Deus hominem ad imaginem suam, ad imaginem Dei creavit illum, masculum et feminam creavit eos, benedixitque illis Deus et ait: Crescite et multiplicamini et replete terram et subjicite eam, et dominamini piscibus maris et volatilibus coeli, et universis animantibus quae moventur super terram. » Deus hominem in Ecclesia ad agnitionem divinitatis suae creavit, ut in anima sua coelestes virtutes operari cum suspiriis animae possit, cum quibus Ecclesia gemmis virtutum ornata est. Creavit eum etiam ad imaginem Dei, quae Filius est, ut cum ardenti amore circumdatus sit, omnia bona in castitate eum excellentioribus virtutibus perficiendo, et ut Ecclesia Dei cum operibus Dei perficiatur. Sic ergo Deus populos creavit, ut viriles, quae masculina persona sunt, in coelestibus virtutibus haberent, et ut etiam in timore Dei, in angustia animae, in saeculari vita sub nascentium cura filiorum vincerent, quae feminea persona est, ut et Ecclesia cum ea aedificaretur. Et in his praedictis causis Deus ea cum plena benedictione sanctae Incarnationis benedixit; in hoc scilicet quod Filius Dei humanitate indutus est, atque ideo omnia genera virtutum in spiritalibus, et in saecularibus quae propter amorem Dei proficiunt, fortiter stillare debuerunt, quia Deus, Deus et homo est, de quo omnis viriditas pullulat. Et in admonitione Spiritus sancti ait, ut populi in Ecclesia in affluentibus justis desideriis crescentes, in unaquaque vita secundum timorem Dei procederent, et in his multiplicarentur, ut in studiis suis fructuosi essent, et virtutes in se ipsis semper innovando, non arescerent; et sic, replerent illam terram, scilicet Ecclesiam, et subjicerent eam Christo et dominarentur in ea, ita ut Evangelium sequerentur, et cum volantibus atque viventibus virtutibus, quae se a terrenis rebus removent, et in bono stabiles sunt, se ad coelestia erigerent.

« Dixitque Deus: Ecce dedi vobis omnem herbam afferentem semen super terram, et universa ligna quae habent in semetipsis sementem generis sui, ut sint vobis in escam et cunctis animantibus terrae, omnique volucri coeli, et universis quae moventur in terra, et in quibus est anima vivens, ut habeant ad vescendum. Et factum est ita . » Deus in omni constitutione Ecclesiae dixit: Ecce jam dedi et misi vobis rectam fidem per Filium meum, quem vos in viriditate inaratae terrae, id est in utero Virginis, super terram natum vidistis, ut intacta terra flores germinat. Filius autem meus semen Verbi Dei attulit, ut super promissam terram, scilicet sanctam Ecclesiam, qua coelestis Jerusalem construitur, seminaretur, attulitque legem conjugatorum, qui propagationem seminis sui in nationibus habent, quomodo secundum timorem praeceptorum meorum vivere debeant, ita ut data lex mea vobis in cibum sit, unum in constructione animae, sicut corpus cum cibis pascitur, pascimini, quia Filius meus dixit: « Meus cibus est ut faciam voluntatem Patris mei . » Hoc considerandum sic est: Meus cibus qui Filius Dei sum, ille est, ut passioni me corporaliter subjiciam, per quam hominem ad paradisum unde ejectus fuerat, devicto diabolo, secundum voluntatem Patris mei reducam, quia Pater meus ad hoc me misit in mundum, ut salvum faciam illum. Nam ego a Patre missus, in maternis visceribus carnem sine virili humiditate suscepi. Cibus ergo ille in quo Patri meo absque aetate aequalis sum, melior cibo illo est, quo ad horam secundum carnem pascor, ubi coelestis Pater me ad tempus in saeculo isto esse, et cum hominibus conversari voluit, quatenus per verba mea in salvationem redeant, cum eos mecum ad coelestia sursum retraxero. Sic enim opus meum est, cum in humanitate mea hominem redemi, ut et illo se undum me operetur.

Vos ergo cum lege mea pascamini, ut animae vestrae non deficiant, quia vobis tempus escarum in lege Dei constitui, in qua pascua vitae invenietis, in quibus omnibus non deficietis, si ea servaveritis, sed in aeternum vivetis. Hominibus quoque per virtutes praeceptis Dei vivi subditis et in coelesti militia imitatoribus Christi effectis, qui a terrenis rebus se removentes, omni devotione ad justitiam anhelant, et de virtute in virtutem quae ad bonum mobiles sunt, in terra repromissionis ascendunt, et illis sint ciborum differentiae, et tempora temporum, quae eis a magistris constituta sunt. tempora etiam illa populus ex institutione legis observare debet, in quibus festivitates celebrandae sunt et jejunia peragenda. De ipsis quoque cibis ista distinctio tenenda est, ut non ad superfluitatem, sed sicut opportunitas necessitatis exegerit assumantur, et unicuique secundum mensuram illam qua ipse in Spiritu sancto confortatus et instructus est, lecte dispensentur. Istud Christianus homo, qui aedificatio Ecclesiae est, audiat, ut capiti suo recte consentiat. Et hoc ita factum est, quia verba Dei et virtutes in Christiano populo cibus vitae in Ecclesia factae sunt. « Viditque Deus cuncta quae fecerat, » hoc est approbavit omnia haec proposita et praecepta, et data tempora omnium praedictarum virtutum; « et erant valde bona, » quia in plenitudine exoptabilis gratiae omnipotentis Dei peracta sunt, ita ut eis nihil deesset, unaquaque virtute solum bonum prius existente; sed hic pariter omnia bona erant, cum omnia pariter apparerent, ut convivium plenum est cum in omnibus justitiis suis perficitur. « Et factum est vespere et mane dies sextus.

» Illa mutatio instabilitatis quod in Ecclesia nondum firmitas constitutorum praeceptorum erat, coepit se declinare pro mane fortis justitiae omnis constitutae legis, quemadmodum dies cum viribus solis confortatur, dum sol in ordine suo stat, ut hinc fieret dies sextus, et ut quasi in sexta luce fortis fidei, populis praecepta Dei secundum voluntatem ejus, et secundum doctrinam magistrorum suorum in Ecclesia adimpleret. Et iterum alio modo?

De diversitate victualium homini et jumentis in Genesi concessorum, qualiter modo spiritualiter in ecclesia secundum distributionem vel perceptionem spiritualis alimoniae, quod est verbum Dei, teneatur; et quomodo appositum Christi testimonium dicentis: « Meus cibus est ut faciam voluntatem Patris mei; sed et hoc quod scriptum est: « Et factum est vespere et mane dies sextus, » accipiendum sit.

Scripture echoes

  1. ↩Gen.1.24 — And God said, "Let the earth bring forth living creatures according to their kinds: livestock, creeping things, and wild animals of the earth, each according to its kind." And it was so.
  2. ↩Gen.1.24 — And God said, "Let the earth bring forth living creatures according to their kinds: livestock, creeping things, and wild animals of the earth, each according to its kind." And it was so.
  3. ↩Gen.1.24 — And God said, "Let the earth bring forth living creatures according to their kinds: livestock, creeping things, and wild animals of the earth, each according to its kind." And it was so.
  4. ↩Rom.12.1 — Therefore I urge you, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your reasonable worship.
  5. ↩Gen.1.25 — And God made the living creatures of the earth according to their kinds, and the livestock according to their kinds, and everything that creeps on the ground according to its kind. And God saw that it was good.
  6. ↩Gen.1.26 — Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, according to our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth."
  7. ↩Gen.1.26 — Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, according to our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth."
  8. ↩Ps.2.7 — I will tell of the decree. The LORD said to me, "You are my Son; today I have begotten you.
  9. ↩Ps.83.8 — Gebal and Ammon and Amalek, Philistia with the inhabitants of Tyre
  10. ↩Gen.1.27-Gen.1.28 — So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. Gen.1.28 — And God blessed them, and God said to them, 'Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves upon the earth.'
  11. ↩Gen.1.29-Gen.1.30 — And God said, "See, I have given you every seed-bearing plant that is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree that has seed-bearing fruit; they shall be yours for food." Gen.1.30 — And to every living creature of the earth, and to every bird of the heavens, and to everything that creeps on the earth in which there is a living soul—every green plant for food. And it was so.
  12. ↩Gen.1.31 — And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.
  13. ↩John.6.38 — For I have come down from heaven not to do my own will, but to do the will of him who sent me.
  14. ↩John.6.38;John.3.17 — For I have come down from heaven not to do my own will, but to do the will of him who sent me. John.3.17 — For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.
  15. ↩Luke.1.34-Luke.1.35;Isa.7.14 — But Mary said to the angel, "How will this be, since I have not known a man?" Luke.1.35 — And the angel answered her, "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore also the one to be born will be called Son of God." Isa.7.14 — Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: Look, the young woman will conceive and bear a son, and she will call his name Immanuel.
  16. ↩John.1.1-John.1.2;John.17.5 — In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. John.1.2 — He was in the beginning with God. John.17.5 — And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory I had with you before the world existed.
  17. ↩John.6.38 — For I have come down from heaven not to do my own will, but to do the will of him who sent me.
  18. ↩Ps.84.8 — They go from strength to strength; each one appears before God in Zion.
  19. ↩Gen.1.31 — And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.
  20. ↩Gen.1.31 — And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.
  21. ↩Gen.1.31 — And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.
  22. ↩John.4.34;John.6.35 — Jesus said to them, "My food is to do the will of the one who sent me and to finish his work. John.6.35 — Jesus said to them, "I am the bread of life. The one who comes to me will not hunger, and the one who believes in me will never thirst."
  23. ↩Gen.1.31 — And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.

Notes

  1. 1 ↩'Reptant' (creep/crawl) is rendered literally to preserve the allegorical link to the 'creeping things' of Genesis, though the image is unusual in English.
  2. 2 ↩'Ordinationes saecularium' is rendered as 'orderings of worldly matters' to preserve the sense of structured arrangements within secular life, distinct from spiritual institutions.
  3. 3 ↩The adverb 'lecte' is rare; rendered as 'carefully' to fit the context of prudent spiritual dispensation, though 'selectively' or 'with discernment' is also plausible.
  4. 4 ↩The phrase 'unaquaque virtute solum bonum prius existente' is syntactically dense; rendered to convey that individual virtues existed as goods beforehand, but here they are gathered into an equal, collective goodness.

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