XXII. De aqua et virtulibus

XXII. De aqua et virtulibus

But water also shows man how to abandon his vices and strive for virtues in its many powers. The Holy Spirit surpasses all unworthiness through water, and also perfects His gifts through water. For just as heat sends forth a prophecy that dissolves the coagulation of sins, so too does wisdom extinguish their delight like air, so that a person may thrive in the moisture of justice and may always flow toward spiritual things like a flood of truth. He also makes it possible to run swiftly in the legal precepts, where He extinguishes the falsehood of chastity and the falsehood of the human core, and where, through the taste of abstinence, He crushes excessive sins; thus, by the freshness of deep sighs, He pours the moisture of compunction into the hard hearts of men, so that they, drenched in the nourishment of virtues, may seize the contempt of the world and cast off all its filth from themselves. And in this way, like birds, He makes the faithful ascend from virtue to virtue; and like fish, He nourishes them with the food of life through the abstinence of sins, while He also pours over them, like beasts, His warmth, so that they may live strictly in a foreign life for the love of the heavenly kingdom. But it takes away the foam of delight and the habit of vices from those crawling in the footsteps of humility, and it keeps them in all virtues, consolidating them in the sustenance of perfection, so that they propose the direction of God in all things. xxiir. The earth shows that it offers its powers to God and leaves behind all the pomp of this world within itself. The earth shows that a person should offer their earthly desires to God and leave behind all the pomp of this world within themselves. A faithful person shows themselves to be cold, like in summer, when they consider themselves very humble; and like in winter, they announce warmth when they deny themselves worldly desires in the fervor of virtue. But he also nourishes himself with the freshness of heavenly virtues when he turns the incentives of his own desires into dryness, where he also brings forth the seeds of good works, through which he attains the fruit of holiness. For God created man so that he might conquer earthly things through heavenly means, and also so that God might overcome the cunning of the Devil in man, in such a way that man would be a banner of the Divine. For God first created a clear angel to reveal the mysteries of the Divine; but he, in his own estimation, exalted himself against God, and ceased from the praise of God, and thus he vanished from his glory. But God made man so that what was below could be surpassed by what was above. In man, God perfected all His works. Just as the earth supports animals, so too does a person endure many temptations in the flesh; and when he turns away from worldly things, he acts like an animal that flees from a human; and when he moves toward the spiritual life. In this way, a person carries everything in their flesh, as they overcome all earthly things within themselves; from this, the banner of heavenly harmony is called a heavenly victory, where the Devil is troubled by the cares of the world. Thus, the works of the Holy Spirit demonstrate the powers of the elements within a person.