Consolatio aeterna non est speranda cum praesenti. Dulcedo Dei demulcet amaritudinem mundi.
The Exclusive Choice of Consolations
The soul recognizes that God alone offers eternal consolation and that no one can be consoled in both this age and the next.
These are your great blessings, Lord God, sanctifier of your saints, with which you are about to fill the need of your hungry children; because you have become the hope of the desperate, the consolation of the desolate: you are the crown of hope, adorned with glory, prepared for those who conquer; you are the eternal satisfaction of the hungry, to be given to those who hunger; you are the everlasting consolation, who give yourself only to those who despise the consolation of this world in exchange for your consolation. For those who are consoled here are held unworthy of your consolation. But those who are tormented here are consoled by you: and those who share in sufferings also share in consolations.✦✦ For no one can be consoled in both ages, nor can anyone rejoice here and in the age to come; but it is necessary that one lose the other — whoever has chosen to possess one must forfeit the other.✦
Refusing All Consolation but God's
The soul resolves to refuse all earthly consolation in order to be worthy of God's eternal comfort.
When I consider these things, Lord my consoler, I refuse to let my soul be consoled, so that it may be held worthy of your eternal consolations: because it is just that whoever chooses to be consoled more in some other thing than in you should lose you.
The Sweetness That Transfigures Suffering
God's inestimable sweetness made bitter things sweet for Stephen, Lawrence, and the Apostles, who rejoiced in persecution.
And I beseech you, highest Truth, through yourself — do not allow me to be consoled in any vain consolation other than in you; but I ask that all things become bitter to me, so that you alone may appear sweet to my soul, who are inestimable sweetness, through which all bitter things are sweetened; for your sweetness sweetened the stones of the torrent for Stephen (Acts✦ 7:58): your sweetness made the gridiron sweet for Lawrence.✦ For your sweetness the Apostles went rejoicing from the sight of the council, because they were held worthy to suffer insult for the name of Jesus (Acts✦
Apostolic Witnesses to Divine Sweetness
Andrew, Peter, Bartholomew, and John each embraced death joyfully because they had tasted God's sweetness.
Andrew went to the cross without fear and rejoicing, because he was hastening toward your sweetness. This sweetness of yours so filled the very leaders of the apostles that for the cross itself one chose the gibbet, and the other did not fear to place his head beneath the striking sword. For this ransom Bartholomew gave his own skin; for this same sweetness to be tasted, John fearlessly drank the cup of poison.✦
Peter's Intoxication on the Mountain
Peter, tasting one drop of divine sweetness on Tabor, cried out that it was good to be there and needed nothing else.
When Peter had tasted this sweetness, forgetting all earthly things he cried out as if drunk, saying, 'Lord, it is good for us to be here; let us make three tabernacles here' (Matt.✦ Let us remain here, let us contemplate you, because we need nothing else. It is enough for us, Lord, to see you — it is enough, he says, to be satisfied by such great sweetness.
The Hidden Abundance and the Virgin's Feast
The soul marvels at the hidden abundance of divine sweetness and recalls a virgin saint who went to prison as joyfully as to a banquet.
For that man tasted one drop of sweetness, and scorned every other sweetness. What do you think he would have said if he had tasted that great abundance of the sweetness of your divinity, which you have hidden from those who love you? This ineffable sweetness of yours that virgin had also tasted, of whom we read that she went most joyfully and gloriously to prison, as if invited to a feast.
Taste and See: The Scriptural Invitation
The Psalmist's words declare that God's great sweetness is hidden from those who fear him and invite all to taste and see his goodness.
This sweetness, I believe, he too had tasted, who said, 'How great is the abundance of your sweetness, Lord, which you have hidden from those who fear you' (Ps. XXX, 20)! He who was urging them said, 'Taste and see, for the Lord is sweet' (Psal.✦
Daily Death and the Life to Come
The awaited blessedness is that God will give his own life to the soul, for which it serves as a soldier and is put to death daily.
Taste and see that the Lord is good (Ps. 33:9).✦ This is that blessedness, Lord our God, which we await — that you will give it to you for us; for which we continually serve as soldiers under you, Lord, for which we are put to death the whole day long, so that we may live in your life.✦
Read the original Latin
Haec sunt beneficia magna tua, Domine Deus, sanctificator sanctorum tuorum, quibus repleturus es inopiam esurientium filiorum tuorum; quoniam factus es spes desperatorum, consolatio desolatorum: tu corona spei, quae ornata est gloria, praeparata vincentibus; tu famelicorum satietas aeterna, danda esurientibus; tu consolatio sempiterna, qui solis illis te tribuis, qui consolationem hujus mundi pro tua consolatione contemnunt. Nam qui hic consolantur, indigni tua consolatione habentur. Sed qui hic cruciantur, a te consolantur: et qui participant passionibus, participant et consolationibus. Nemo enim potest in utroque saeculo consolari, nec potest quis hic et in futuro gaudere; sed unum necesse est ut perdat, qui alterum voluerit possidere. Haec ubi considero, Domine consolator meus, renuo consolari animam meam, ut digna habeatur tuis consolationibus aeternis: quia justum est ut amittat te, quicumque in aliquo alio magis consolari eligit quam in te. Et obsecro, summa Veritas, te per te, non permittas me in aliqua consolatione vana consolari quam in te; sed omnia mihi peto ut amarescant, ut tu solus dulcis appareas animae meae, qui es dulcedo inaestimabilis, per quam cuncta amara dulcorantur; tua enim dulcedo Stephano lapides torrentis dulcoravit (Act. VII, 58): tua dulcedo craticulam Laurentio dulcem fecit. Pro tua dulcedine ibant Apostoli gaudentes a conspectu concilii, quoniam digni habiti sunt pro nomine Jesu contumeliam pati (Id.
V, 41); ibat Andraeas securus ad crucem et gaudens, quoniam ad tuam dulcedinem properabat; haec tua dulcedo ipsos Apostolorum principes sic replevit, ut pro ipsa crucis patibulum unus eligeret, alter quoque caput ferienti gladio supponere non timeret; pro hac emenda Bartholomaeus propriam pellem dedit; pro hac quoque gustanda veneni poculum intrepidus Joannes potavit. Hanc ut gustavit Petrus, omnium inferiorum oblitus clamavit quasi ebrius, dicens, Domine, bonum est nos hic esse, faciamus hic tria tabernacula (Matth. XVII, 4): hic moremur, te contemplemur, quia nullo alio indigemus; sufficit nobis, Domine, videre te, sufficit, inquit, tanta dulcedine satiari. Unam enim stillam dulcedinis iste gustavit, et omnem aliam fastidivit dulcedinem; quid putas dixisset, si magnam illam multitudinem dulcedinis divinitatis tuae gustasset, quam abscondisti diligentibus te? Hanc tuam dulcedinem ineffabilem et illa gustaverat virgo, de qua legimus, quod laetissime et glorianter ibat ad carcerem, et quasi ad epulas invitata. Hanc, ut reor, et ipse gustaverat, qui dicebat, Quam magna multitudo dulcedinis tuae, Domine, quam abscondisti timentibus te (Psal. XXX, 20)! quique monebat, Gustate et videte, quoniam suavis est Dominus (Psal.
XXXIII, 9). Haec est illa beatitudo, Domine Deus noster, quam exspectamus daturum te nobis; pro qua tibi, Domine, continue militamus, pro qua mortificamur tota die, ut in tua vita vivamus.
Scripture echoes
- ↩Rom.12.15 — Rejoice with those who rejoice; weep with those who weep.
- ↩2Cor.1.5-2Cor.1.7 — For just as the sufferings of Christ overflow to us, so also through Christ our comfort overflows. 2Cor.1.6 — And whether we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation; or whether we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which is at work in the endurance of the same sufferings that we also suffer. And our hope for you is firm. 2Cor.1.7 — And our hope for you is sure, because we know that as you share in our sufferings, so also you share in our comfort.
- ↩Matt.6.24 — No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.
- ↩Acts.7.54-Acts.7.60 — When they heard these things, they were cut to the heart and gnashed their teeth at him. Acts.7.55 — But he, being full of the Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. Acts.7.56 — And he said, 'Look, I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.' Acts.7.57 — But they cried out with a loud voice, held their ears shut, and rushed together against him. Acts.7.58 — And they cast him out of the city and stoned him. And the witnesses laid aside their garments at the feet of a young man named Saul. Acts.7.59 — And they were stoning Stephen, who was calling upon the name of the Lord, saying, "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit." Acts.7.60 — Then he knelt down and cried out with a loud voice, 'Lord, do not hold this sin against them.' And having said this, he fell asleep.
- ↩Acts.7.58 — And they cast him out of the city and stoned him. And the witnesses laid aside their garments at the feet of a young man named Saul.
- ↩Acts.5.41 — So they went away from the presence of the council, rejoicing that they had been counted worthy to suffer dishonor for the Name.
- ↩Acts.7.58 — And they cast him out of the city and stoned him. And the witnesses laid aside their garments at the feet of a young man named Saul.
- ↩Matt.17.4 — But Peter answered and said to Jesus, "Lord, it is good for us to be here. If you wish, I will make three shelters here—one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah."
- ↩Ps.33.9;Ps.35.8 — For he spoke, and it came to be; he commanded, and it stood firm. Ps.35.8 — Let ruin come upon him unawares, and let the net he has hidden catch him; let him fall into that very ruin.
- ↩Ps.33.9;Ps.35.9 — For he spoke, and it came to be; he commanded, and it stood firm. Ps.35.9 — Then my soul will rejoice in the LORD; it will exult in his salvation.
- ↩1Cor.15.31 — I face death every day—I swear it, brothers, by the boasting I have in you in Christ Jesus our Lord.
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