XXXIV. De cupiditate.

XXXIV. De cupiditate.

The seventh image, as you see, signifies desire; after the stubbornness of the mind walks here, since with that same stubbornness, in the perverse minds of men, God is not sought, soon desire follows, which has no vision of God; but it goes everywhere, circling and running about, just like a wolf seeking whom it may devour, in restless unrest, preying on others, and hastening to acquire whatever it can in any way. This desire is like a woman, reaching up to her legs, but it so deeply entangles her legs and feet in the darkness that you can't see them because, in the softness of vanity, everything that desires is drawn toward that end, into which it plunges itself through the footsteps of all iniquity and infidelity, so that neither the end nor the traces of it can be discerned in the same infidelity. For greed leads people to adopt this softness of words, claiming that they seek to acquire things out of an urgent necessity, and that they do not waste what they have acquired on unnecessary needs; but they lead this same softness to the fulfillment of this wickedness, where no good can be seen, since they neither share with themselves nor with others. But when someone covers their head in a feminine way, it means that those who cling to this vice hide all their intentions through deception, allowing no one to know what they have in their hearts, since they lack any moderation in which a heavenly and earthly person should exist. And he is clothed in a white garment, for he shows that all his opinions and teachings are useful and beautiful through pretense, and because he can seize everything in various matters and in different possessions, he claims to gather himself together with good and necessary intention, as he also demonstrates in his earlier words. However, the contempt for this world is at odds with it, and it faithfully persuades us to flee from temporary and fleeting things and to long for eternal ones.