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← Orationes sive Meditationes — Collection for Princess Adeliza of Normandy/Book 1 · Orationes sive Meditationes
Chapter 81Ansl.1.81

MEDITATIO V. Unde vivat anima, et unde vivat caro: et de gloria bonae animae, et de infelicitate malae animae, quando exeunt de corpore.

The Soul and Flesh in Mutual Life

The soul and flesh give life to each other, and the soul is urged to draw near to God and not receive grace in vain.

As long as the soul remains in the body, a person lives according to the flesh; and when the flesh leaves the soul, the person dies according to that same flesh. But just as the soul gives life to the flesh while it remains in the flesh, so too the flesh gives life to the soul while the flesh does works of righteousness. So in this way they seem to give life to each other mutually — both the soul to the flesh and the flesh to the soul — and thus the soul, with the flesh working alongside it, acquires for itself and the flesh together the life of eternal life.1 But the soul receives that life as soon as it is stripped of the flesh — the life that the flesh is destined to receive with the soul at the resurrection on the last day. Therefore, my soul, and you, flesh — rejoice in the living God! Draw near to God, your Creator; draw near and be enlightened. And from now on, do nothing you would be ashamed of, but always strive to act in ways that will let you rejoice forever.2 I urge you, I warn you: do not receive the grace of God in vain (2 Cor.✦ 6:1) — for although he now allows many things to be done by you that are deeply displeasing to him, you should not think he will always tolerate them.✦ He is, without question, a patient rewarder, a careful searcher of the heart and the kidneys.✦3

The Patient Father and the Just Judge

God now bears with us like a tender father, but if we do not amend, He will condemn us as the just judge.

He puts up with many things now, waiting for our correction, like the gentlest of fathers: but if we don't correct ourselves, He will condemn us, as the most just of judges; and He who is so tender toward us now that He calls us His brothers and friends will then, at the final reckoning, regard us as strangers unknown to Him through any good works, and count us as His enemies.456

Awake to Your Final End

The soul and flesh are urged to remember their end, examine their works, and guard against slipping into the pit of destruction.

My soul and my flesh — wake up at last, and always and everywhere keep thinking about your final end. Perhaps if you do this, you won't sin easily. If only you do as I warn you, you can be at peace — because when many who now laugh and rejoice miserably will be in sorrow, you will exult and rejoice with unspeakable joy.✦ Pay careful attention to your very works. If your works are right and pleasing to God, rejoice; if they're crooked and not acceptable to God, correct them quickly. Don't let your eyes grow drowsy; don't let your eyelids sleep. The pit of destruction stands open — and the person who doesn't guard themselves carefully now easily slips right into it. Sin and iniquity — foolish and vain — easily drive you there now; and once you've been plunged into it, you'll never rise again forever.

The Open Doors of Paradise and Destruction

Eternal destruction stands open for the wicked and paradise for the good, as good works lift the soul upward and evil works drag it down.

Just as for the wicked and for those who keep doing evil, eternal destruction stands open; so for the good and for those who persevere in good works, the entrance to paradise stands open — and once anyone has been received there, that person will remain forever and ever, rejoicing and glad. In this way, good works lift the good person upward into the heights, and evil works plunge the wicked person down into the depths below.

The Soul's Glorious Reception into Heaven

A pure soul departs, sees its good works, is received by angels and saints, and enters eternal rest and joy.

But now let us look carefully, if we can, at the order in which good works lead the soul of the one who lived well into heaven, and evil works drag the soul of the sinner into hell. A pure soul, as soon as it departs from the body, sees all its works; and because it sees that all are good, it rejoices with unspeakable joy. At once an angel receives her — the one who held her eyes so she would not see vanity; he embraces her — the one who stopped up her ears so she would not hear iniquity; he protects her — the one who guarded her mouth so she would not speak lies; he rejoices with her — the one who shielded her so she would not sin through the sense of smell or of touch. And so, joyful and glad, he surrounds her on every side, and places her before the throne of divine glory, where she may rejoice without end.7 Other angels come to meet her, and other saints who stand there in the presence of divine majesty; and they recognize her as their companion and friend through her good works, and they receive her joyfully in the arms of the most sincere love, and speaking to her in this way, they show her, as it were, the individual joys of all who dwell together there.8 Behold, our friend, behold, our companion, because you faithfully served God and labored courageously in doing his commandments — now at last rest from your labor, and from this moment and forevermore enjoy eternal joys with us.

The Sinner's Descent into Hell

Satan's angels seize the sinful soul, drag it to torments, and the soul, fully aware, cries out in unending despair.

But when the soul of a sinner is forced to depart from the body, the angels of Satan seize her at once, binding her tightly with fiery chains and driving her from every side toward the torments of hell, where Satan himself lies sunk in the depths below. There is weeping and gnashing of teeth; there is fire, a snare, a stormy spirit — part of the cup of sins. Then Satan himself, seizing her and spitting into her a fire full of stench, orders his ministers to torment her from every side, and once she is tormented, to cast her into those very torments, where she will be tormented endlessly among them, and in those very pains die an unfailing death. Then the wretched soul, tormented in those very punishments and hemmed in on all sides by those infernal furies, at last comes back to herself, seeing all the evils she unhappily committed, and cries out miserably: 'Alas, wretched, wretched me!' Why did I ever come into this life, wretched one, who am tormented on all sides by so many kinds of torment? Worms, worms, who gnaw at me so cruelly — spare me, I beg you; spare wretched me, suffering so many and such monstrous other torments. Alas, wretched, wretched! I long to die, and yet dying I cannot die.

Late Repentance and Just Retribution

The damned soul receives back the fruits of its sins through the senses, and its late repentance brings no relief.

Now, wretched, I receive back whatever I sinned through sight, through taste, through hearing, through smell, through touch. Yet it doesn't help the unhappy soul grieving so wretchedly, repenting so late, crying out so unhappily — because now such great sorrow afflicts it. But what she earned while she lived — now, in the very pains of hell, the wretched sinner receives.

The Great Choice: Good or Evil?

The reader is urged to discern that doing good and receiving good is the only wise choice, and that the Creator Himself is the supreme good.

Look at my soul and my flesh: pay careful attention, and those of you who are paying attention, judge what is true, and discern what is better, what more worth pursuing. Doing good and receiving good things? Or doing evil and receiving evil? Unless you think it's foolish, you'll answer nothing except this: to do good and to have what is good. So do good, so that you may be able to have that good from which every good comes — namely, the good of all that is good, which cannot be anything other than good. Our Creator has given us many good things and has placed many things in our power; but no good is so precious, so worth seeking by every wise person, as that good which no evil can approach. This good is our Creator himself, who is never anything but good. If, by his grace bestowing it, you will be able to possess that good, you will have every other good in it.

Vanity of Worldly Glory

To have all goods without God is to chase wind and find only vanity.

But if you have other goods yet do not have him alone, you're laboring for nothing — foolishly chasing wind — and in the end you will find not truth, but vanity.✦✦9

Remember Your Departure and Find Christ

Present glory is like a wind-filled bladder; keeping the last things in mind guards against sin and leads to Christ, the truth.

Now, as you can see if you think carefully, present glory is like a bladder filled with wind; while it's held in your hands puffed up like that, it looks beautiful and bright, but if even the tiniest puncture happens to pierce it, what's left in your hands isn't brightness — it's emptiness and wind.10 So pay attention. As I warned you at the beginning of this meditation, always keep your last things in mind. If you think this way and always live in fear of your departure, you won't easily fall into sin. And living this way to the very end, once this temporal joy — which while you feared it was flying around your eyes like wind — has passed away, you will find not vanity but truth, which is Christ. May he who created you lead you to that truth.1112 Amen.

Read the original Latin

Dum anima manet in corpore, vivit homo secundum carnem: qua carnem deserente, moritur secundum eamdem carnem. Sed, sicut anima vitam carni tribuit, dum ipsa manet in carne, sic ipsa caro vitam tribuit animae, dum ipsa caro facit opera justitiae. Ergo hoc modo sibi invicem videntur tribuere, et anima carni, et caro animae; et sic anima cum carne operante, acquirunt sibi invicem vitam perpetuae vitae. Sed illam vitam mox percipit anima exuta carne, quam caro cum anima perceptura est in resurrectione in novissimo die. Ergo, anima mea, et caro, exsultate in Deum vivum, accedite ad Deum Creatorem vestrum, accedite et illuminamini, et jam amplius non faciatis unde erubescatis; sed semper agere studete, unde in perpetuum gaudeatis. Hortor vos, moneo vos, ne in vacuum gratiam Dei modo recipiatis (II Cor. VI, 1), qui etsi modo multa patitur fieri a vobis quae multum displiceant illi; non semper eum ita pati putetis. Est enim sine dubio patiens redditor, et diligens cordis et renum scrutator.

Patitur modo multa, exspectans nostram correctionem, velut mansuetissimus: sed si modo nos non corrigimus, damnabit nos, sicut justissimus: et qui modo tam dulcis est nobis, ut nos suos fratres vocet et amicos, tunc in extrema discussione ignoratos, et non sibi per bona opera notos, veluti inimicos suos reputabit nos.

Anima mea et caro mea, jam tandem evigiletis, semper et ubique cogitantes de novissimis vestris. Forsitan si hoc facitis, non facile peccabitis. Si modo, sicut moneo, facitis, securae sitis; quia cum multi dolebunt, qui modo misere rident et gaudent, vos laetitia inenarrabili exsultabitis et gaudebitis. In ipsis operibus vestris diligenter intendite. Si recta sunt et Deo placita, gaudete; si prava et Deo non accepta, citius corrigite. Non dormitent oculi vestri, non dormiant palpebrae vestrae. Aperta est fovea perditionis: facile illuc labitur, qui modo caute se non custodit. Peccatum et iniquitas, stultum et vanum, facile modo illuc impellunt; in quo semel immersi jam non resurgunt in perpetuum.

Sicut pravis et mala semper facientibus, apertus est aeternus interitus; sic bonis, et in bonis operibus perseverantibus, apertus est paradisi introitus, in quo quis semel susceptus semper et in perpetuum manebit gaudens et laetus. Hoc modo et bona opera bonum elevant sursum in excelsum: et mala opera malum demergunt in profundum deorsum.

Sed jam nunc diligenter videamus, si possumus, quo ordine bona opera animam illius qui bene vixit ducant in coelum, et mala opera animam peccatoris trahant in infernum. Anima pura, mox ut discedit a corpore, videt omnia opera sua; et quia omnia bona videt, gaudet inenarrabili laetitia. Mox accipit eam angelus, et qui oculos ejus tenuit ne videret vanitatem; amplectitur eam, qui obturavit aures ejus ne audiret iniquitatem; protegit eam, qui custodivit os ejus, ne loqueretur mendacium; aggaudet ei, qui eam protexit ne peccaret in sensu olfaciendi sive tangendi; et sic eam ex omni parte laetus et hilaris circumdat, et ante thronum claritatis divinae, ubi sine fine gaudeat, locat. Occurrunt ei alii angeli, et alii sancti, qui ibi assistunt ante conspectum divinae majestatis; et quam sociam sibi per bona opera et amicam noscunt, in brachiis sincerissimae charitatis gaudenter excipiunt; taliterque affantes, quasi singula gaudia omnium ibi cohabitantium ei ostendunt. Ecce, amica nostra, ecce, socia nostra, quia fideliter Deo servisti, ejusque praecepta faciendo viriliter laborasti, jam tandem a labore quiesce, et aeternis gaudiis amodo et usque in sempiternum nobiscum fruere.

At, contra, anima peccatoris cum cogitur de corpore exire, mox excipiunt eam angeli Satanae, quam igneis catenis fortiter constringentes, fortiusque ex omni parte propellentes ad tormenta inferni rapiunt, ubi ipse Satanas mersus in profundum jacet deorsum. Ibi est fletus, et stridor dentium; ibi ignis, laqueus, spiritus procellarum pars calicis peccatorum. Tunc ipse Satanas rapiens eam ad se, exspuensque in eam ignem plenum putore, jubet a suis ministris eam ex omni parte arctari, et sic arctatam in ipsis tormentis projici, ubi sine fine cum illis tormentetur, et sine fine in ipsis doloribus indeficiens moriatur. Tunc infelix anima in ipsis poenis tormentata, ipsis furiis infernalibus undique coangustata, tandem ad se reducta, cernens omnia mala quae fecit, infeliciter proclamat: Heu misera, misera! cur unquam in vitam veni, misera, quae tantis tormentorum generibus undique excrucior misera? Vermes, vermes, qui tam crudeliter me corroditis, parcite, quaeso; parcite mihi miserae, tot et tam immania alia tormenta patienti. Heu misera, misera! et mori cupio, et tamen moriens mori nequeo.

Nunc misera recipio quidquid peccavi per visum, per gustum, per auditum, per odoratum, per tactum. Non tamen valet infelici animae tam misere dolenti, tam sero poenitenti, tam infeliciter proclamanti, quod tunc tanta tristitia se afficit. Sed quod, dum in vita fuit, promeruit, nunc in ipsis doloribus inferni, misera et peccatrix recipit.

Ecce anima mea et caro mea, diligenter intendite; intendentes autem verum judicium judicate; et quid sit melius, quid utilius sequendum discernite. Bene facere et bona recipere? an mala agere, et mala percipere? Nisi insanum sapiatis, nihil aliud respondebitis, nisi, bene facere et bonum habere. Ergo facite bonum, ut illud possitis habere bonum, a quo est omne bonum, scilicet omnis boni bonum, quod non potest esse nisi bonum. Multa bona Creator noster dedit nobis, multa in potestate nostra tradidit; sed nullum bonum est tam pretiosum, tam ab omni sapiente expetendum, quam illud bonum, ad quod non potest accedere ullum malum. Hoc bonum est ipse Creator noster, qui nunquam nisi bonus est. Quod bonum si, ejus gratia largiente, habere poteritis, omnia alia bona in illo habebitis.

Si vero alia bona habentes, illum solum non habetis; in vanum laboratis, ventumque stultissime sequentes, in extremis non veritatem, sed vanitatem invenietis.

Est autem, sicut videtis, si recte consideratis, praesens gloria, quasi vesica vento plena; quae dum sic plena tenetur in manibus, conspicitur speciosa et clara; cui si fortuito punctus permodicus imprimatur, non claritas, sed inanitas, et ventus remanet in manibus. Animadvertite ergo; et, sicut in principio hujus meditationis vos monui, de novissimis vestris semper cogitetis; quia sic cogitantes, semperque de exitu vestro metuentes non facile peccabitis, et sic usque in extremum viventes, finita temporali laetitia, quae dum sic timebatis, circa oculos vestros quasi ventus volabat, non vanitatem, sed veritatem, quae Christus est, invenietis, ad quam vos perducat qui vos creavit. Amen.

Scripture echoes

  1. ↩2Cor.6.1 — As God's fellow workers, we urge you not to receive God's grace in vain.
  2. ↩2Cor.6.1 — As God's fellow workers, we urge you not to receive God's grace in vain.
  3. ↩Jer.17.10;Ps.26.2 — I, the LORD, search the heart, test the kidneys, and give to each person according to their ways, according to the fruit of their deeds. Ps.26.2 — Examine me, O LORD, and test me; refine my kidneys and my heart.
  4. ↩Luke.6.25 — Woe to you who are full now, for you will hunger. Woe to you who laugh now, for you will mourn and weep.
  5. ↩Eccl.1.2 — Vanity of vanities, says the Preacher, vanity of vanities; all is vanity.
  6. ↩Hos.12.1;Eccl.1.14 — Ephraim surrounds me with lies, and the house of Israel with deceit; yet Judah still walks with God and is faithful to the Holy One. Eccl.1.14 — I have seen all the works that are done under the sun, and behold, all is vanity and a striving after wind.

Notes

  1. 1 ↩vitam perpetuae vitae: literally 'the life of perpetual life,' a pleonastic construction emphasizing the eternal quality of the life gained; rendered as 'the life of eternal life' to preserve the rhetorical weight.
  2. 2 ↩The direct address to both soul and flesh (anima mea...et caro) is unusual and reflects the meditation's theme of the soul-flesh partnership in pursuing eternal life.
  3. 3 ↩cordis et renum scrutator — 'searcher of the heart and kidneys' — is a biblical idiom (Jer 17:10, Ps 26:2) for God's thorough examination of the innermost person. 'Kidneys' here means the deepest affections and motives.
  4. 4 ↩discussione (extrema discussione): rendered 'final reckoning' to capture the sense of judgment/examination at the last day; could also mean 'final scrutiny.'
  5. 5 ↩mansuetissimus: rendered 'gentlest of fathers' to convey the tender, paternal quality; the Latin is a superlative adjective used substantively of God.
  6. 6 ↩ut (token 25): purpose clause rendered as 'that He calls' rather than 'so that He might call,' preserving the natural force of the subjunctive in context.
  7. 7 ↩obturavit (stopped up / sealed shut) rendered as 'stopped up' to preserve the physical metaphor of the guardian angel closing the senses against sin.
  8. 8 ↩affantes (speaking to / addressing) rendered as 'speaking to her' to capture the welcoming address of the blessed.
  9. 9 ↩The phrase 'in vanum laboratis' echoes Ecclesiastes's refrain on toil without God; 'ventum ... sequentes' intensifies the image of futile pursuit. 'Ille' refers back to the Creator as the supreme good established in the preceding section.
  10. 10 ↩Vesica (bladder/bubble) is a vivid image for the fragility and hollowness of worldly glory; the comparison is deliberately earthy and concrete.
  11. 11 ↩De novissimis vestris ('your last things') refers to death, judgment, and the afterlife — a standard devotional theme.
  12. 12 ↩Veritas rendered as 'truth' with the explicit identification 'which is Christ' preserves the Johannine resonance (John 14:6) without flattening the theological claim.

Orationes sive Meditationes — Collection for Princess Adeliza of Normandy companion

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