Caput 29. De altitudine judiciorum Dei.
The Depth of God's Judgments
The soul trembles before God's unfathomable judgments, acknowledging that no one can boast or know their own standing before Him.
How great are your judgments, Lord God, righteous and mighty Judge, who judges what is right and what is unfathomable and deep. When I consider them, all my bones tremble, because no one living on earth can feel secure. Therefore may we serve you faithfully and purely, in fear, all the days of our lives, and rejoice before you with trembling, so that our service is never without fear or our joy without trembling, and so that the one putting on his armor does not boast like the one taking it off. No human being should boast before you; instead, let everyone fear and tremble before your presence, since no one knows whether he is worthy of love or hatred. Everything remains uncertain, held for the future.
Witnesses of Reversal
The soul recounts examples of dramatic reversals—the proud fallen, the humble raised, the living dead, and the dead alive—all because of pride.
For we have seen many people, Lord, and have heard about many from our fathers—something I cannot recall without great trembling or confess without deep fear—who first climbed as high as heaven and made their nest among the stars, but later fell into the depths, their souls growing numb in evil. We have seen stars fall from heaven under the violent blow of the dragon’s sweeping tail, and we have seen those who lay in the dust of the earth rise wonderfully, Lord, as your hand lifted them. We have seen the living die and the dead rise from death. And we have seen those who once walked among the children of God, in the midst of the fiery stones, dissolve like mud and come to nothing. We have seen light grow dark and light emerge from darkness, because tax collectors and prostitutes go ahead of the kingdom’s own citizens into the kingdom of heaven, while the children of the kingdom are cast into the outer darkness. And why did all this happen, if not because they climbed that mountain—the mountain the angel first climbed, only to descend from it as the devil?
The Dignity of the Predestined
God's predestined ones are called, sanctified, and made into a holy temple where He delights to dwell, revealing the great dignity of human nature.
But those whom you predestined, you also called, sanctified, and cleansed, so that they might become a worthy dwelling for your majesty. With them and within them you take holy and pure delight; you rejoice in them and renew their youth, dwelling with them and among them so that they themselves may be your holy temple. This is a powerful testimony to the great dignity of our human nature.
Read the original Latin
Magna sunt haec judicia tua, Domine Deus, judex juste et fortis, qui judicas aequitatem et inscrutabilia et profunda: quae cum considero, contremiscunt omnia ossa mea, quoniam non securatur homo vivens super terram: ut serviamus tibi pie et caste cunctis diebus vitae nostrae in timore, et exsultemus tibi cum tremore; ut non sit servitium sine timore, neque gaudium sine tremore, et non glorietur accinctus aeque ut discinctus (III Reg. XX, 11), neque glorietur ante te omnis caro, sed pavescat et contremiscat a facie tua, cum ignoret homo utrum amore an odio dignus sit; sed in futurum omnia reservantur incerta. Vidimus enim multos, Domine, et audivimus a patribus nostris (quod utique sine magno tremore non recolo, sine multo timore non confiteor), ascendisse primitus quidem usque ad coelos, et inter sidera nidum suum collocasse; postmodum autem cecidisse usque ad abyssos, et animas eorum in malis obstupuisse. Vidimus stellas de coelo cecidisse ab impetu ferientis caudae draconis, et eos qui jacebant in pulvere terrae, a facie sublevantis manus tuae, Domine, mirabiliter ascendisse. Vidimus vivos morientes, et mortuos a morte surgentes; et eos qui inter filios Dei ambulabant, in medio lapidum ignitorum quasi lutum ad nihilum defluxisse. Vidimus lucem obtenebrasse, et de tenebris lucem processisse, quia publicani et meretrices praecedunt incolas in regno coelorum; filii autem regni ejicientur in tenebras exteriores. Quare autem ista omnia, nisi quia in montem illum ascenderunt, in quem primus ascendit angelus, et descendit diabolus? Quos autem praedestinasti, ipsos et vocasti, et sanctificasti, et mundasti, ut dignum habitaculum sint tuae majestatis; cum quibus et in quibus sunt tibi deliciae sanctae et mundae, in quibus tu delectaris, et laetificas juventutem eorum, habitans cum eis in medio eorum, ut ipsi templum sanctum tuum sint, quod magnae dignitatis commendatio est humanitatis nostrae.
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