Verba Domini nostri Iesu Christi ad filiam, in sponsam iam sibi assumptam, de vere fidei articulis et que sunt ornamenta et signa et voluntas, que sponsa respectu sponsi debeat habere.
The Divine Bridegroom
Christ reveals His divine nature and His choice of the soul as His bride.
I am the creator of heaven and earth, of the sea, and of everything in them. I am one with the Father and the Holy Spirit—not like the gods of stone or gold spoken of in the past, nor many, as people once thought, but one God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. I am three in persons, one in substance, creating all things and created by none, remaining immutable and omnipotent, without beginning and without end. I am the one born of a virgin, not losing my divinity but joining it to humanity, so that in one person I might be the true Son of God and son of the virgin. I am the one who hung on the cross, died, and was buried, while my divinity remained unharmed. For although I died according to the humanity and flesh that I, the only Son, assumed, I was still alive in my divinity—the same divinity in which I was one God with the Father and the Holy Spirit. I am the same one who rose from the dead and ascended into heaven, and I am the same one who speaks to you even now through my Spirit. I have chosen you and taken you as my bride so that I may show you my secrets, because that is what I desire.
The Covenant of the Bride
The Lord explains the rights of ownership over the soul and the requirements for purity and remembrance.
You've also become mine by a certain right, since at your husband's death you placed your will into my hands; and even after he had passed, you thought and prayed about how you could live in poverty for my sake, and you wanted to leave everything behind for me. And so, by right, you've become mine. And it was fitting that I should provide for you out of such great love. Therefore, I take you to myself as my bride and as my own special delight—the kind of delight it's fitting for God to have with a chaste soul. It's the bride's responsibility, then, to be ready whenever the Bridegroom wants to hold the wedding, so that she may be properly adorned and clean. You are truly clean if your thoughts are always on your sins—how I cleansed you from Adam's sin in baptism, and how many times I have supported and sustained you when you fell back into sin. The bride must also carry the signs of her bridegroom in her heart; this means she must pay attention to the benefits and works I have done for you—namely, how nobly I created you by giving you body and soul, how nobly I enriched you by giving you health and worldly goods, and how tenderly I brought you back when I died for you and restored your inheritance, if you are willing to have it.
The Will of the Beloved
Christ defines His will as exclusive love and promises Himself as the ultimate reward.
A bride must also do the will of her bridegroom. And what is my will, if not that you should choose to love me above all things, and want nothing else but me? I created all things for humanity and placed all things under them, yet they love everything except me, and hate nothing but me. I bought back for them the inheritance they had lost, yet they have become so alienated and turned away from reason that they prefer this fleeting honor—which is nothing but sea foam, rising like a mountain for a moment and then quickly sinking into nothingness—over the eternal honor in which there is everlasting good.1 But you, my bride, if you desire nothing but me, and if you count everything as nothing for my sake—not just children and parents, but even honors and riches—I'll give you a reward that is most precious and most sweet. I won't give you gold or silver, but myself as your bridegroom and your reward, for I am the King of glory.
Justice and Mercy
The Lord balances the necessity of penance with the comfort of His mercy, inviting the soul to share in His labor.
But if you're ashamed to be poor and looked down upon, consider that your God goes before you—the One whom His servants and friends left behind on earth, because He didn't seek out earthly friends, but heavenly ones. And if you fear and dread the weight of labor and weakness, consider how heavy it is to burn in fire! What would you deserve if you had offended an earthly lord just as you have offended me? Even though I love you with all my heart, I won't act against justice in even the smallest point; rather, just as you have sinned in all your members, so you must also make satisfaction in all of them. Because of your good will and your resolve to change, however, I turn justice into mercy, remitting more severe punishments in exchange for a little amendment. So, willingly embrace a little labor, so that once you are cleansed, you may arrive at your great reward all the sooner! It's fitting that a bride should share in her bridegroom's labors, so that she may rest with him all the more confidently.
Read the original Latin
"Ego sum creator celi et terre maris et omnium, que in eis sunt. Ego sum unus cum Patre et Spiritu sancto, non sicut dii lapidei vel aurei, ut olim dicebatur, nec plures, ut tunc putabatur, sed unus Deus, Pater et Filius et Spiritus sanctus, trinus in personis, unus in substancia, omnia creans et a nullo creatus, immutabilis et omnipotens manens sine principio et sine fine.
Ego sum, qui de virgine natus sum, non amittens deitatem sed eam associans humanitati, ut in una persona essem verus filius Dei et filius virginis. Ego sum, qui in cruce pependi et mortuus fui et sepultus, deitate illesa permanente. Quia licet ex humanitate et carne, quam ego solus Filius assumpsi, mortuus fui, tamen in deitate, in qua cum Patre et Spiritu sancto unus eram Deus, viuebam.
Ego idem ipse sum, qui surrexi a mortuis et ascendi in celum, qui et nunc cum spiritu meo loquor tecum. Ego elegi te et assumpsi te michi in sponsam, ut ostendam tibi secreta mea, quia michi sic placet.
Tu eciam quodam iure facta es mea, cum in morte mariti tui voluntatem tuam in manus meas assignasti, cum eciam eo defuncto cogitasti et rogasti, quomodo pauper pro me esse posses, et voluisti omnia pro me relinquere. Et ideo de iure facta es mea. Et oportuit me pro tanta caritate tibi prouidere. Propterea assumo te michi in sponsam et in meam propriam delectacionem, qualem Deum decet habere cum anima casta.
Ad sponsam ergo pertinet paratam esse, quando sponsus voluerit nupcias facere, ut sit ornata decenter et munda. Tunc bene mundaris, si cogitacio tua sit semper circa peccata tua, quomodo te in baptismo de peccato Ade mundaui, quociens in peccata lapsam te supportaui et sustinui.
Debet eciam sponsa habere signa sponsi sui in pectore, hoc est attendere beneficia et opera, que pro te feci, scilicet quam nobiliter te creaui, tibi dando corpus et animam, quam nobiliter te ditaui, dando sanitatem et temporalia, quam dulciter te reduxi, cum pro te mortuus fui et hereditatem tibi restitui, si volueris habere.
Sponsa debet eciam facere voluntatem sponsi. Que est voluntas mea, nisi quod velis diligere me super omnia, nichil velle aliud nisi me? Ego creaui omnia propter hominem et subieci ei omnia, sed ipse omnia diligit preter me et nichil nisi me odit. Ego ei iterum emi hereditatem suam, quam perdidit, sed sic alienatus est et auersus a racione, ut magis velit honorem istum transitorium, qui non est nisi spuma maris, ascendens quasi mons in momento et cicius in nichilum depressa, quam honorem eternum, in quo est perpetuum bonum.
Tu autem, sponsa mea, si nichil nisi me desideraueris, si omnia pro me contempseris, non solum filios et parentes, sed eciam honores et diuicias, ego dabo tibi stipendium preciosissimum et dulcissimum. Non aurum et argentum sed me ipsum dabo tibi in sponsum et premium, qui sum rex glorie.
Si autem erubescis esse pauper et despecta, considera, quia Deus tuus precedit te, quem serui et amici reliquerunt in terra, quia non amicos terrenos quesiui, sed celestes. Quod si vereris et times pondus laboris et infirmitatis, considera, quam graue est ardere in igne!
Quid merereris, si aliquem dominum temporalem sicut me offendisses? Ego enim, quamuis te toto corde diligam, tamen contra iusticiam nec in uno puncto facio, quominus, sicut in omnibus membris deliquisti, sic et in omnibus satisfacias.
Propter voluntatem tamen bonam et propositum emendandi iusticiam in misericordiam commuto, remittendo grauiora supplicia pro modica emendacione.
Ergo amplectere libenter modicum laborem, ut mundata cicius ad magnum premium peruenias! Decet enim sponsam cum sponso fatigari laboribus, ut eo fiducialius cum eo requiescat."
Notes
- 1 ↩The Latin 'spuma maris' (sea foam) is a vivid metaphor for the transience of worldly honor, contrasting with the 'perpetuum bonum' (everlasting good).
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