VISIO DECIMA, cap. XIV
The Mirror of Divine Brightness
The seer addresses God as the fatherly mirror of divinity in which angels shine, pleading to be shown the wrongs suffered from those who disregard her.
So you — the fatherly mirror that is the brightness of divinity, in which the host of angels shines, just as shapes appear when they are shown in a mirror — since that same mirror always gleams back at the angels themselves, look and show me how many wrongs I suffer from those who disregard me.
Suffering in One's Own Members
The seer laments the perversity of her own members that kick against her in malice, leaving no rest in good works.
In my body — that is, in my members that kick against me out of malice when they ought to cling to me in uprightness — I endure the weariness of their perversity, because I find nowhere in them where I could rest through the freshness of good works.
The Vanity of False Holiness
The little ones who should walk in humility instead embrace pride and human glory, falling short of the endless heavenly praise that angels continually offer God.
My little ones too, who should walk in humility and throw away all the pomp of the world, fall short in what is nothing, because they embrace the vanity of pride, thinking themselves holy and carrying their deeds in praise of human glory. And because in this passing praise they fall short of heavenly praise, they pay no mind to the praise of angels, since angels frequently praise the holy divinity, always finding new praise in God, because they cannot bring it to an end.
Angelic Praise and the Mirror of Human Works
Angels praise without bodily labor while humans praise through bodily works, and in their praise of God angels gaze as if into a mirror upon good human deeds, since God wondrously united soul and body and ordained that divinity and humanity be glorified together.
For he himself is the brightest light, which will in no way be extinguished, so that the angelic host may shine from him, because an angel is praise without any bodily work; a human being, however, exists in praise along with bodily work, and the angels praise that person's deeds. For in the praises by which they praise God, they also approve good human works, and as if looking into a mirror of praise they gaze upon them, since God wondrously composed the human person from soul and body, and that person does not lack the brightness of angels when in their fellowship, because God also ordained that divinity and humanity might be gloriously praised in the one God.
The Devil's Mockery and the Soul-Body Union
The devil is mocked because, wanting to be God as an angel, he was surpassed by God's creation of the human person from clay as soul and body in one; yet the soul is often constrained by the body's enclosure and carried against its will by fleshly pleasure through the very veins in which it works.
From this, the devil is mocked: he, existing as an angel, wanted but God, as it were, deceived him when he created the human person from the clay of the earth, who is soul and body in one, and the human person exists neither as soul without body nor as body without soul; soul works with body, and body with soul. For the body is an enclosure in which the soul is shut up, and it often constrains the soul, so that the soul yields to the body and cannot hold it back from doing the work it seeks, because the soul is occupied with the body, and the flesh's pleasure is distasteful to it, yet against the soul's will it is often carried out through the very veins in which the soul works.
The Soul's Swift Desire for a Higher Life
When a person longs for a life contrary to fleshly desire, the soul seizes it with swift progress and brings it to completion, tasting that life within itself with whole desire.
But when someone longs for a life that isn't their own — one that goes against the desires of the flesh — the soul seizes it with swift progress and brings it to completion, because with its whole desire it tastes that life within itself.
The Corruption and Future Restoration of Virtue
Justice, moral integrity, and the dignity of the virtues, strengthened from the flood through the apostles, have now been corrupted by injustice, but will be reformed in people before the end after many tribulations.
Because justice, moral integrity, and the dignity of the virtues — strengthened by the prophets from the days of the flood until the coming of the Lord, and then shining for a long time in the Church through the apostles and teachers — have now been corrupted after those days that grow numb with injustice, they will again be reformed in people before the end, after many tribulations.✦1
Read the original Latin
Tu ergo paternum speculum, quod claritas divinitatis est, in qua exercitus angelorum fulget, quemadmodum formae illae quae in speculo ostenduntur, quia idem speculum ipsis angelis semper resplendet, aspice et ostende quantas injurias patior ab his qui me negligunt. In corpore meo, scilicet in membris meis quae contra me per malitiam calcitrant, cum mihi in rectitudine adhaerere deberent, fatigationem perversitatis sustineo, quoniam ubi in eis per viriditatem bonorum operum quiescere possim non invenio. Parvuli etiam mei qui in humilitate deberent incedere, et omnem pompam saeculi abjicere, in eo quod nihil est deficiunt, quia vanitatem superbiae amplectuntur sanctos se esse putantes, operaque sua in laudibus humanae gloriae portantes. Et quoniam in hac transitoria laude a coelesti laude deficiunt, laudem angelorum non attendunt, quia angeli sanctam divinitatem frequenter laudant, in Deo novam laudem semper invenientes, quoniam illum ad finem perducere non possunt. Ipse enim clarissimum lumen est, quod nullo modo exstinguetur, ita ut angelica turba ab ipso clarescat, quia angelus sine opere carnali laus est; homo autem cum opere carnali laus existit, ejusque opera angeli laudant. In laudibus enim quibus Deum laudant, sancta etiam opera hominum approbant, illaque quasi speculum laudis inspiciunt, quoniam Deus hominem mirifice ex anima et corpore composuit, nec claritate angelorum caret, cum in illorum societate sit, quia Deus etiam ordinavit ut divinitas et humanitas in uno Deo gloriose laudetur. Hinc autem diabolus illuditur, qui angelus existens Deus esse voluit; sed Deus illum quasi decepit, cum de limo terrae hominem creavit, qui anima et corpus in uno est, nec anima sine corpore, nec corpus sine anima homo existit; animaque cum corpore, et corpus cum anima operatur. Corpus namque clausura est, in qua anima clauditur, et animam multoties constringit, ita ut ipsa corpori cedat, nec illud cohibere valeat, quin opus suum quod quaerit faciat, quoniam cum illo occupata est, gustusque carnis ipsi displicet, qui tamen contra voluntatem ejus per venas saepius perficitur, in quibus ipsa operatur.
Sed cum homo alienam vitam desiderat, quae contra concupiscentiam carnis est, anima celeri itinere illam apprehendit et perficit, quia toto desiderio illam in semetipsa gustat.
Quod justitia et morum honestas et dignitas virtutum a diebus diluvii usque ad adventum Domini per prophetas roboratae, et deinde per apostolos et doctores in Ecclesia longo tempore refulgentes, sed modo depravatae post dies istos qui ex injustitia torpent, iterum ante finem post multas tribulationes in hominibus reformabuntur.
Scripture echoes
- ↩Matt.24.29-Matt.24.31 — But immediately after the tribulation of those days, the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will fall from the sky, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. Matt.24.30 — And then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. Matt.24.31 — And he will send out his angels with a great trumpet, and they will gather his chosen ones from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.
Notes
- 1 ↩roboratae and depravatae are substantive uses of perfect passive participles (roborare, depravare); rendered as 'strengthened' and 'corrupted' to preserve the parallel decline-and-restoration structure of the sentence.
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