IIII. Responsum Fortitudinu.

IIII. Responsum Fortitudinu.

I heard a voice coming from the dark, turbulent cloud saying to this image: 'You are dust and ashes, and your miserable works are like the decay of a body; from the very beginning of your physical form, you were poisonous, just as your useless actions still are.' You are no better than the worms that, working in their burrows, pull themselves toward what they feed on, nor the birds that gather their nests and seek food in distress to nourish their bodies. What good is it in this life if something vital lives without concern? Nothing. This life is indeed far removed from that desirable life which remains in Paradise, where the eyes of the living never grow weary in bliss. But you, miserable one, desiring to have what no one will give you, are without the wisdom of God and rejected without the mercy of God, since you want to receive that which you cannot grasp in your sluggish laziness without effort. But I serve the strength of the lion, namely, the humanity of the Savior, in the royal chamber, and I long for all the good things of God, and I desire everywhere, just as he who spreads his cloak wide. Therefore, all kinds of languages and all nations of people who wish to persist in good call out to me and desire to have me, but they consider you to be useless. And I saw a third image, whose head was like the head of a lizard, and whose remaining body was likened to that of a serpent. And before them appeared a cloud that was black, turbulent, and misty, mixed with a dense white cloud.