VISIO SEPTIMA, cap. XIII
The Cloud of God's Ascent
God rides upon the clouds of faithful desire and the words of teachers, reigning in hearts without stain.
You who make a cloud your chariot, who walk on the wings of the wind. This statement should be understood in the following way: Lord God, you are the one who makes the just and upright desires of the faithful into your ascent, so that you may reign in their hearts, and who also guide your ways over the words and writings of the teachers, where you raise them up high, because you walk without stain, sensing no wrongdoing in yourself.
The Virgin's Pure Garment
Christ ascended through the Virgin's untouched flesh, entering her like dew and coming forth without corruption, as Eve was from Adam.
Therefore the clouds of your ascent are those which you made as a ladder for yourself when, through your garment, O Son of God, you ascended through them — that garment which you took from the one and most pure Virgin, whose enclosure no one ever opened or touched — because like dew upon the earth you entered into her, rooted not in the stock of man but in divinity, just as a ray of the sun warms the earth so that it may bring forth its fruit. From her also I came forth into her without all corruption and pain, as if in sleep, just as Eve was taken from the sleeping man, whom the same man looked upon without wound and with joy, and so also the one Virgin embraced her Son in her bosom with joy. And Eve was created not from seed but from the man's flesh, because God created her in the same power by which he also sent his Son into the Virgin, and neither to Eve as virgin and mother, nor to Mary as mother and virgin, were any others ever found similar afterward.
God's Dwelling in the Human Form
God clothed himself in human form, concealing his divinity within it, so that the human being became his dwelling place.
In this way God clothed himself in human form and concealed his divinity within it, which is visible to the angels in heaven, because it is his dwelling place. Whence also the human being, whom he had formed in height and breadth and depth, is his dwelling place.
Fulfillment and the Apostles' Mission
Christ's earthly life fulfilled all prophecy, and after his ascension he sent the Spirit to strengthen the twelve apostles, who illuminated and transformed the world.
Because everything the Son of God did and endured in the flesh fulfilled what had been foretold about him before the Law and under the Law — whether through typical deeds that signified him or through mystical words that predicted him — and because after his ascension, like the twelve winds or the twelve signs of the sky, sending the Spirit he strengthened the twelve apostles, and through their preaching, illuminating the world, he transformed everything for the better.✦✦✦✦12
Read the original Latin
« Qui ponis nubem ascensum tuum, qui ambulas super pennas ventorum. » Hujus sententiae intellectus hoc modo accipiendus est: Domine Deus, tu es ille qui facis justa et recta desideria fidelium esse ascensum tuum, ita ut regnes in cordibus illorum, et qui etiam itinera tua dirigis super verba et scripta doctorum, ubi illos excellis, quia sine macula incedis, nullum delictum in te sentiens. Quapropter et nubes ascensus tui sunt, quas velut scalam tibi fecisti, cum per indumentum tuum, o Fili Dei, eas ascendisti, quod de unica et integerrima Virgine, cujus claustrum nullus unquam aperuit, nec tetigit, assumpsisti, quia velut ros in terram, ita in eam intrasti, nec de radice viri, sed de divinitate radicatus es, quemadmodum radius solis terram confovet, ut germen suum proferat. Ex ipsa quoque sicut in ipsam absque omni corruptione et dolore, quasi in somno existi, sicut etiam Eva a dormiente viro sumpta est, quam idem vir sine vulnere cum gaudio inspexit, et ita etiam unica Virgo Filium suum in sinu suo cum gaudio amplexa est. Et Eva non ex semine, sed ex carne viri creata est, quoniam Deus illam in eadem vi creavit, qua et Filium suum in Virginem misit, nec Evae virgini et matri, nec Mariae matri et virgini aliae postmodum similes inventae sunt. Hoc modo Deus forma hominis se induit, deitatemque suam cum illa obtexit, quae angelis in coelo visibilis est, quod habitaculum ejus existit. Unde etiam et homo, quem in altitudine et latitudine ac in profunditate formaverat habitaculum ejus est.
Quia Filius Dei in his quae per carnem gessit vel pertulit, universa quae et ante legem et in lege de ipso vel typicis factis significata, vel mysticis verbis praenuntiata sunt, compleverit; et quod post ascensionem suam instar duodecim ventorum seu duodecim signorum coeli, misso Spiritu duodecim apostolos roborans, et per praedicationem eorum mundum illustrans omnia in melius convertit.
Scripture echoes
- ↩Ps.103.3 — who forgives all your iniquities, who heals all your diseases
- ↩Luke.6.13;Matt.10.1-Matt.10.4 — And when day came, he called his disciples to him, and from among them he chose twelve, whom he also named apostles: Matt.10.1 — And having called his twelve disciples, he gave them authority over unclean spirits, so as to cast them out, and to heal every disease and every sickness. Matt.10.2 — Now the names of the twelve apostles are these: first, Simon, who is called Peter, and Andrew his brother; and James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother; Matt.10.3 — Philip and Bartholomew; Thomas and Matthew the tax collector; James son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus. Matt.10.4 — Simon the Zealot, and Judas Iscariot, the one who also betrayed him.
- ↩Acts.2.1-Acts.2.4;John.15.26 — And when the day of Pentecost had fully come, they were all together in one place. Acts.2.2 — And suddenly there came from heaven a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. Acts.2.3 — And there appeared to them tongues as of fire, distributed, and it sat upon each one of them. Acts.2.4 — And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and began to speak in other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance. John.15.26 — When the Advocate comes, whom I will send to you from the Father—the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father—he will testify about me.
- ↩Rom.3.21;Gal.3.24 — But now, apart from the law, the righteousness of God has been revealed, attested by the Law and the Prophets." Removes the heavier "being attested" without losing the participial sense. Gal.3.24 — So the law became our guardian until Christ came, in order that we might be justified by faith.
Notes
- 1 ↩The repeated vel coordinates parallel pairs (typical deeds / mystical words; twelve winds / twelve signs of heaven), rendered with 'whether... or' and 'or' to preserve the disjunctive structure without over-specifying.
- 2 ↩Typicis factis / mysticis verbis: the two modes of Old Testament prefiguration — deeds as types and words as prophecies — are kept distinct in translation to preserve the exegetical framework.
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