VISIO DECIMA, cap. VIII
The Son's Lament to the Father
The Son speaks to the Father of creation's decline from original flourishing and pleads the weariness of his body and the mockery endured by his members.
And so the Son speaks to the Father, saying: "In the beginning all creatures were green with life; in the middle flowers flourished; afterward greenness declined.✦ And the warrior saw this and said: "This age I know. But the golden number is not yet full. You, therefore, look upon the fatherly mirror. In my body I endure weariness; even my little ones fail. Now remember that the fullness brought about at the first should not have withered away. And at that time you had this within you: that your eye would never give way until you saw my body full of gems. For it wears me out that all my members go over to mockery.
The Three Ages of the World Interpreted
The vision is expounded as a threefold pattern of history: antediluvian abundance, the flowering of grace at the Incarnation and Pentecost, and the present decline into weakness and self-will.
Father, look: I'm showing you my wounds. So now, all people, kneel before your Father, so that he may stretch out his hand to you. The meaning of this statement should be understood in this way: In the beginning — that is, before the flood — the earth was so fertile that it produced its fruit without any human labor, and at that time people, though lacking both discipline for daily life and true devotion to God, gave themselves over entirely to earthly things and their own pleasures.1 But after the flood, as it were in the middle period — that is, the time between the flood and the coming of the Son of God into the world — flowers bloomed with new sap and with every kind of seed, in a different way than they had before, because the earth was then baked by the moisture of the waters and the heat of the sun. And just as the flowers of fruit then multiplied more than before and rose upward, so too human knowledge grew in wisdom, kindled by the Holy Spirit, up to the new star that pointed to the King of kings; and so the wisdom of the Holy Spirit's fire burned, through which the Word of God was made flesh in the womb of the Virgin — the very thing the star had foreshadowed — in which the Holy Spirit revealed to the nations what he had accomplished in the Virgin's womb; and the radiance of the Holy Spirit's flame is the voice of the Word that created all things.✦✦2 For the Holy Spirit made the Virgin's womb fruitful and came upon the disciples of the Son of God in tongues of fire, and after those same fiery tongues he worked many miracles through those disciples and their followers.✦ And so this same time, rising from strength to strength, has been called the time of vigor, and thus it endured for many years in powerful healing.✦3 Afterward, the vigor declined from its strength and was turned into a woman's weakness, setting aside all justice and subjecting itself to the foolishness of human behavior, because in these days each person does whatever pleases himself.4
The Church Despoiled in the Last Days
The present age is portrayed as a time of desolation for the Church, ravaged by corrupt shepherds, diabolical craft, divine chastisements, and the moral collapse of all ordering.
And so among them the Church is desolate, like a widow who lacks the comfort of her husband's care, like a straight shepherd's rod that is missing, against which people might bow. But perverse hired men, for the sake of love of money, cast my little ones down into the valleys and keep them from rising to the hills and mountains; they strip away from them nobility, inheritance, estates, and wealth; and they do this as ravening wolves do, who lurking along the tracks of the sheep seize and tear the sheep they catch and drive away those they cannot tear apart; and by deceitful trickery they devour my little ones through powerful judges and unjust tyrants. Therefore these days are a prison of diabolical craft, because long I endured my people to be mocked through the tyranny of enemies, since the reins were loosened for them so that they might afflict people with various punishments, just as also in the Old Testament I rebuked those rebelling against me rather often. I also allowed certain airy spirits, with great terror, to frighten some people in those very days, and so I struck them and afflicted them with very many strokes of punishment and with great weakness and frailty of body, because they do not cease from their restless ways. They also store up envy and hatred in their bosom, counting others' losses as gain for themselves, and stripping from them the cloak of honor and profit, and bringing upon them all wickedness and bloodshed. But also by means of the creation, which I made for the good of humankind, they are often judged, so that through fire and through water they are choked, and through wind and air the fruits of the earth are taken away from them, and the sun and the moon appear to them unfavorably, because they do not complete their courses as they were set by God, but exceed them. Therefore also the earth is sometimes shaken, like a chariot that is broken apart by some impact. In this manner these days will complete their course — days that, through the foul ways of people, will shed blood, destroy every upright ordering of the Church, and taint golden justice with the bronze and lead of wickedness, and poise every human will in a diversity of vice.
Justice Will Rise Again
Before the end, the justice entrusted to the apostles with the ring of betrothal will rise again, though its garments appear defiled and torn.
But before the end of these days — that is, of womanly weakness — the justice that the Son of God entrusted to his disciples with the ring of betrothal, when he sent them out over all the earth, will rise again, and it will show its garments, which it had received from the apostles, defiled by the iniquity of the peoples and torn.✦✦5
The Apostolic Garment of Glory
A mystical account of how the apostles received justice from the Lord, adorned it with diverse graces, and how Paul was exalted by revelations yet weighed down by weakness.
A mystical account of how the apostles received from the Lord the justice to be preached throughout the world, and how, according to the diversity of their natural temperaments and according to the distribution of graces poured into them from heaven, they adorned it with a manifold garment of glory; and concerning the excellence of the teaching of Paul the apostle, and why he was raised up by the sublimity of revelations and weighed down by the weight of weakness.✦
Read the original Latin
Unde et Filius ad Patrem loquitur dicens: « In principio omnes creaturae viruerunt, in medio flores floruerunt, postea viriditas descendit. » Et istud vir praeliator vidit et dixit: « Hoc tempus scio. Sed aureus numerus nondum est plenus. Tu ergo paternum speculum aspice. In corpore meo fatigationem sustineo; parvuli etiam mei deficiunt. Nunc memor esto quod plenitudo quae in primo facta est arescere non debuit. Et tunc in te habuisti, quod oculus tuus nunquam cederet, usque dum corpus meum videres plenum gemmarum. Nam me fatigat, quod omnia membra mea in irrisionem vadunt.
Pater, vide: vulnera mea tibi ostendo. Ergo nunc, omnes homines, genua vestra ad Patrem vestrum flectite, ut vobis manum suam porrigat. » Hujus sententiae intellectus hoc modo accipiendus est: In principio, scilicet ante diluvium, tanta fuit terrae viriditas, ut illa fructus suos absque labore hominum produceret, et tunc etiam homines nec disciplinam ad saeculum, nec devotionem ad Deum perfecte habentes, terrenis tantum et voluptatibus suis insudabant. Post diluvium autem, velut in medio temporis, scilicet quod medium inter diluvium et Filium Dei in mundum venientem fuit, flores cum novo succo et cum omni germine in alia vice quam prius fecissent floruerunt, quoniam terra humiditate aquarum et aestu solis tunc cocta fuit. Et sicut flores fructuum tunc plus quam prius multiplicati ascendebant, ita etiam scientia hominum in sapientia per Spiritum sanctum accensa proficiebat usque ad novam stellam, quae Regem regum ostendebat; itaque sapientia de igne Spiritus sancti ardebat, per quem Verbum Dei in utero Virginis incarnatum est, quod etiam praedicta stella demonstrabat, in qua Spiritus sanctus hoc opus gentibus manifestavit, quod in utero Virginis perfecerat; claritasque flammae Spiritus sancti sonus Verbi est, quod omnia creavit. Nam Spiritus sanctus uterum Virginis fecundavit, atque in igneis linguis super discipulos Filii Dei venit, et post easdem igneas linguas cum eisdem discipulis et cum ipsorum sequacibus multa miracula operatus est. Quapropter et idem tempus de virtute in virtutem ascendens tempus virile dictum est, et sic per plurimos annos in forti curatione perduravit. Postmodum viriditas a fortitudine sua descendit, et in muliebrem debilitatem versa est, omnem justitiam postponens, et stultitiae morum hominum subjiciens, quia in diebus istis quisque hominum quod sibi placet facit.
Unde et in eis Ecclesia desolata est, quemadmodum vidua quae solatio sollicitudinis viri sui caret; quemadmodum rectum baculum magistrationis non habet, super quem homines se inclinent. Sed perversi mercenarii propter avaritiam pecuniae parvulos meos in valles prosternunt, eosque ad colles et ad montes ascendere prohibent; ipsisque nobilitatem, haereditatem, praedia et divitias abstrahunt; et hoc ut lupi rapaces faciunt, qui vestigiis ovium insidiantes, oves quas rapiunt laniant, et quas laniare non possunt fugant; atque dolosa deceptione parvulos meos per majores judices, et per iniquos tyrannos devorant. Quapropter dies isti diabolicae artis carcer sunt, quia diu sustinui populum meum per tyrannidem inimicorum derideri, quoniam ipsis funes dimissi sunt, quatenus diversis poenis homines affligant, velut etiam in Veteri Testamento mihi rebelles saepius castigavi. Ego etiam quosdam aerios spiritus multa tempestate aliquos homines in his eisdem diebus terrere permisi, et sic eos percussi, ipsosque plurimis plagis poenarum et plurima imbecillitate ac infirmate corporis afflixi, quoniam ab inquietis moribus suis non cessant. Invidiam quoque et odjum in sinum suum collocant, damna aliorum in semetipsis computantes, atque pallium honestatis et utilitatis eis auferentes, et omnem nequitiam et sanguinis effusionem super illos inducentes. Sed et per creaturam, quam ad utilitatem hominis feci, multoties judicantur, ita ut per ignem et per aquam suffocentur, et per ventum et aerem fructus terrae ipsis auferatur, et sol et luna ipsis inconvenienter ostendantur, quia cursus suos ut a Deo constituti sunt non peragunt, sed eos excedunt. Unde etiam terra aliquando movetur, velut currus qui aliquo impulsu dissolvitur. Hoc modo dies isti cursum suum qui squalidis moribus hominum complebunt, sanguinem effundendo, omnemque honestam constitutionem Ecclesiae destruendo, atque auream justitiam cum aere et plumbo iniquitatis contaminando, et omnem voluntatem hominum in diversitate nequitiae librando.
Ante finem autem dierum horum, muliebris scilicet debilitatis, justitia, quam Filius Dei cum annulo desponsationis discipulis suis in omnem terram eos mittendo commiserat, surget, vestesque suas, quas ab apostolis susceperat, per iniquitatem populorum contaminatas et scissas demonstrabit.
Mystica descriptio quomodo apostoli justitiam, quam a Domino per mundum praedicandum susceperant, et secundum diversitatem naturalium morum suorum, et secundum distributionem gratiarum coelitus sibi infusarum multiplici vestitu gloriae decoraverunt; et de excellentia doctrinae Pauli apostoli, et quare sublimitate revelationum elevatus et pondere infirmitatis depressus sit.
Scripture echoes
- ↩Gen.1.1;John.1.1 — In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. John.1.1 — In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
- ↩Matt.2.1-Matt.2.12 — Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, magi from the east arrived in Jerusalem, Matt.2.2 — Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? For we saw his star in the east, and we have come to worship him. Matt.2.3 — But when King Herod heard this, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him. Matt.2.4 — And having gathered all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he inquired of them where the Christ is born. Matt.2.5 — But they said to him, "In Bethlehem of Judea, for thus it has been written through the prophet: Matt.2.6 — And you, Bethlehem, land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; for from you shall come a ruler who will shepherd my people Israel. Matt.2.7 — Then Herod secretly called the magi and carefully ascertained from them the time the star had appeared. Matt.2.8 — And he sent them to Bethlehem and said, "Go and search carefully for the child, and when you have found him, report to me so that I too may come and worship him." Matt.2.9 — After they had heard the king, they went on their way. And behold, the star that they had seen in the east went before them until it came to rest over the place where the child was. Matt.2.10 — Seeing the star, they rejoiced with exceedingly great joy. Matt.2.11 — And entering the house, they saw the child with Mary his mother, and falling down they worshiped him, and opening their treasures they offered him gifts: gold and frankincense and myrrh. Matt.2.12 — And having been warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they withdrew to their own country by another road.
- ↩John.1.14;Luke.1.35 — And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory, glory as of the only-begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth. 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."
- ↩Acts.2.1-Acts.2.4 — 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.
- ↩Ps.84.7 — Those who pass through the Valley of Baca make it a place of springs; the early rain also covers it with blessings.
- ↩Matt.28.19 — Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
- ↩Eph.5.25-Eph.5.27 — Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave himself up for her. Eph.5.26 — in order that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, Eph.5.27 — so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, so that she might be holy and blameless.
- ↩2Cor.12.7-2Cor.12.10 — And because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, so that I would not be exalted beyond measure, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan, to harass me, so that I would not be exalted beyond measure. 2Cor.12.8 — Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it would depart from me. 2Cor.12.9 — And he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness." So most gladly I will rather boast in my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me. 2Cor.12.10 — Therefore I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions and distresses, for the sake of Christ; for whenever I am weak, then I am strong.
Notes
- 1 ↩The Latin 'disciplinam ad saeculum' is rendered 'discipline for daily life' to capture practical ordering; 'devotionem ad Deum' keeps the protected lexeme 'devotion'.
- 2 ↩The final clause equates the radiance of the Spirit's flame with the voice of the Word; the chain of images (star, Spirit, Word, Incarnation) is compressed and rendered as faithfully as possible.
- 3 ↩The phrase 'tempus virile' (time of vigor/manhood) is rendered 'time of vigor'; 'forti curatione' is rendered 'powerful healing,' capturing both spiritual and physical restoration.
- 4 ↩The image of vigor declining into 'a woman's weakness' (mulier debilitas) is rendered plainly; the metaphor likely conveys frailty and moral collapse rather than a statement about women.
- 5 ↩The ring of betrothal (annulus desponsationis) evokes the mystical marriage between Christ and the Church; the justice entrusted to the disciples at their sending is figured as the bride's dowry or pledge.
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