Verba sponsi ad sponsam in figura optima de quodam mago, per quem diabolus mirabiliter designatur et exponitur.
The Parable of the Magician and the Gold
The Bridegroom presents a parable about a man who trades his gold for a deceptive treasure that turns out to be a vile frog.
Jesus, the Bridegroom, spoke to His bride, using the example of a magician to illustrate a point: "A certain magician had some excellent, shining gold." A simple and gentle man came to him, wanting to buy that gold. The magician told him, "You won't have this gold unless you give me better gold, and in a greater quantity." The man replied, "I want that gold of yours so much that I'll give you whatever you want for it before I go without it." After giving the magician better gold of greater value, he received the shining gold from him and placed it in a chest, thinking he would make a ring out of it for his finger. A short time later, the magician came to that simple man and said, "This gold you bought and put in your chest isn't gold, as you think, but a vile frog that has been nourished in my breast and fed on my food." And to prove to you that this is true, open the chest, and you'll see that the frog will leap onto my breast, from which it has been nourished." When he wanted to open it and see for himself, a frog appeared in the chest, its lid hanging on four hinges as if ready to fall off at any moment. Then, once the chest was open, the frog saw the magician and leaped onto his chest. Seeing this, the servants and friends of that simple man said to him, "Sir, that fine gold is inside the frog, and if you wanted to, you could easily get it." He asked, "How? How could I do that?" They replied, "If someone were to take a very sharp, heated lance and drive it into the toad's back—specifically into that part of the back where there's a hollow—then you could get the gold more quickly." But if a hollow couldn't be found in it, then the lance would need to be driven into it with great force and all your might, and that way you could have what you bought."
The Allegory of the Redeemed Soul
Jesus interprets the parable, identifying the magician as the devil and the soul as the gold that has been corrupted by sin.
Who is this magician if not the devil, who persuades people with pleasures and honors that are nothing but vanity? For he promises that false things are true, and makes true things appear false. He possesses that precious gold—the soul—which I made more precious than all the stars and planets through the power of my divinity; which I created immortal, stable, and more delightful to me than all other things; and for which I have prepared an eternal rest and dwelling place with me. I bought this soul back from the power of the devil with better gold and at a higher price, when I gave my own flesh for it—flesh free from all sin—and endured a passion so bitter that not one of my limbs was left without a wound. Once the soul was redeemed, I placed it in the body as if in a jewel box, until I could bring it to the dignity of my own divinity. But now, the soul of a person redeemed in this way has become like a most foul and vile frog, leaping about through pride and dwelling in the mud through lust, and it has stolen from me my gold—that is, all my justice. And so the devil can rightly say to me: 'The gold you bought isn't gold, but a frog nurtured in the breast of my own delight.' Separate the body from the soul, therefore, and you'll see that it will immediately fly to the breast of my delight, where it has been nurtured.' I reply: 'Because the toad is hideous to look at, horrible to hear, and poisonous to touch, it brings me no good and no pleasure; but it belongs to you, for it was nurtured in your own heart, and by right it is yours.' Therefore, once the door is opened—that is, once the soul is separated from the body—it will immediately fly to you, to remain with you forever.' Such is the soul of the one I'm speaking to you about. That soul is like a wretched toad, filled with every kind of filth and lust, and nourished in the devil's own heart. I am now drawing near to its shrine—that is, its body—as death approaches; it hangs on four hinges that are about to give way, because its body rests on four things: strength, beauty, wisdom, and sight, all of which are already beginning to fail it. And when their soul is separated from the body, it will immediately fly to the devil, on whose milk it has been nourished, because it has forgotten my love—the love through which I took upon myself the punishment it had earned. It doesn't repay my love with love, but instead steals my justice from me, because it ought to serve me—the one who redeemed it—more than it serves another. Instead, it takes more delight in the devil.
The Call to Compunction and Mercy
Despite the soul's corruption, the Bridegroom offers hope through compunction and calls the bride to maintain her purity in response to His sacrifice.
The sound of their prayer is like a frog's croak to me; their appearance is an abomination in my sight. Their ears will never hear my joy, and their poisoned touch will never feel my divinity. Nevertheless, because I am merciful, if someone were to reach out to that soul—even though it's unclean—and consider whether there were any compunction or good will in it, and were to pierce its mind with a sharp and burning lance (that is, the fear of my strict judgment), it would still find my grace if it were willing to consent. But if there were no compunction or love in him, and someone were still to prick him with sharp correction and harsh rebuke, there would still be hope for him; because as long as the soul lives in the body, my mercy is open to everyone. See, then, that I died for love, and no one returns that love to me, but instead takes away my justice; for it would be just that people live all the better for the great labor with which they were redeemed. But now, the more bitterly I have redeemed them, the worse they want to live; and the more I have shown them that sin is an abomination, the more confidently they want to sin. So look and consider that I am not angry without cause, because they turn my grace into anger against themselves. For I redeemed them from sin, and yet they are now entangling themselves in sin all the more. Therefore, my bride, give back to me what you are bound to give—that is, keep your soul pure for me, because I died for it for this very reason: that you might keep it pure for me.
Read the original Latin
Sponsus Iesus loquebatur ad sponsam suam in figura ponens quoddam exemplum rane, dicens: "Quidam magus habebat optimum aurum splendidum. Ad quem veniens unus simplex et mitis homo voluit emere aurum illud. Cui ait magus: 'Non habebis hoc aurum, nisi melius aurum et maioris quantitatis dederis michi.'
Ad quem ille: 'Ego', inquit, 'in tantum desidero istud aurum tuum habere, quod ego, antequam caream, dabo tibi, sicut vis.' Et dato illi mago auro meliori et maioris quantitatis, recepit ab eo aurum splendidum et posuit in scrinio, cogitans facere sibi inde anulum super digitum suum.
Modico autem interiecto tempore venit magus ad hominem illum simplicem dicens: 'Aurum hoc, quod emisti et posuisti in scrinio tuo, non est aurum, ut putas, sed vilissima rana, que nutrita est in pectore meo et alita cibo meo. Et ut hec probes esse vera, aperi scrinium, et videbis, quod rana insiliet in pectus meum, de quo nutrita est.'
Cumque ille aperire vellet et experiri, apparuit rana in scrinio, cuius operculum pendebat super quatuor cardines, quasi cicius casuros. Tunc aperto ostio scrinii rana, viso mago, insiliit in pectus eius. Quod videntes serui et amici illius hominis simplicis dixerunt ad eum: 'Domine', inquiunt, 'aurum illud optimum iacet in rana, et si velles, faciliter posses optinere aurum.'
Et ille: 'Quomodo', inquit, 'quomodo hoc possem?' Qui dixerunt: 'Si quis reciperet acutissimam et feruentem lanceam et eam infigeret dorso rane, et ex ea parte dorsi, ubi concauum aliquid esset, tunc cicius posset optinere aurum. Si autem concauum in ea inueniri non posset, tunc deberet lancea nimis valenter et toto conamine infigi in eam, et sic habere posses, quod emisti.'
Quis est iste magus nisi diabolus, qui suadet hominibus delectaciones et honores, que non sunt nisi vana. Nam falsa promittit esse vera et vera facit videri falsa. Ipse enim possidet aurum illud preciosum, idest animam, quam preciosiorem omnibus stellis et planetis per potenciam deitatis mee feci, quam immortalem et stabilem et delectabiliorem michi ceteris creaui, et preparaui ei mecum eternam requiem et habitacionem.
Hanc ego de potestate diaboli meliori auro et maioris precii emi, quando pro ea dedi carnem meam, immunem ab omni peccato, et sustinui tam amaram passionem, quod nullum membrum meum esset sine vulnere. Redempta autem anima, posui eam in corpore tamquam in scrinio, donec eam in dignitate deitatis mee collocarem.
Nunc autem anima hominis sic redempta facta est velut turpissima et vilissima rana, saltans per superbiam et commorans in ceno per luxuriam, et abstulit michi aurum, idest omnem iusticiam meam. Et ideo diabolus bene potest dicere michi: 'Aurum, quod emisti, non est aurum, sed rana, nutrita in pectore delectacionis mee. Separa ergo corpus ab anima, et videbis, quod statim volabit ad pectus mee delectacionis, ubi nutrita est.'
Cui ego respondeo: 'Quia rana horrida est visu, horribilis voce et venenosa in tactu nec aliquid michi boni nec delectacionis confert, sed tibi, in cuius pectore nutrita est, tua propria sit, quia tua de iure est. Ideo aperto ostio, idest separata anima a corpore, statim volabit ad te, tecum sine fine mansura.'
Talis enim est anima illius, de quo tibi loquor. Nam ipsa est velut rana pessima, plena omni immundicia et voluptate, nutrita in pectore diaboli. Ad cuius scrinium, idest corpus, nunc per appropinquacionem mortis appropinquo, quod pendet in quatuor cardinibus casuris, quia corpus eius ex quatuor subsistit, scilicet fortitudine, pulchritutine, sapiencia et visu, que omnia iam nunc incipiunt sibi deficere.
Cumque anima eius separabitur a corpore, statim volabit ad diabolum, de cuius lacte nutrita est, quia oblita est dileccionis mee, qua supplicium eius, quod meruerat, pro ea suscepi. Nam michi non rependit dileccionem pro dileccione mea sed insuper aufert michi iusticiam meam, quia michi magis deberet seruire, qui redemi eam, quam alteri. Sed ipsa magis delectatur in diabolo.
Vox oracionis eius est michi sicut vox rane, visus eius in conspectu meo abhominabilis, auditus eius numquam audiet gaudium meum nec tactus eius venenatus senciet deitatem meam. Verumptamen quia misericors sum, et anima eius, licet immunda sit, si adhuc attrectaret aliquis et consideraret, si aliqua contricio esset in ea et voluntas bona, et infigeret menti eius lanceam acutissimam et feruentem, idest timorem districti iudicii mei, adhuc inueniret graciam meam, si vellet consentire.
Quod si nulla esset in eo contricio nec caritas, si quis tamen pungeret eum mordaci correpcione et reprehensione dura, adhuc esset in eo spes, quia, quamdiu anima cum corpore viuit, misericordia mea omnibus aperta est. Vide ergo, quia pro caritate mortuus sum et michi nullus rependit caritatem sed aufert michi iusticiam meam, quia iustum esset, ut homines eo melius viuerent, quo maiori labore redempti sunt.
Sed nunc eo deterius viuere volunt, quo eos amarius redemi, eo fiducialius peccare volunt, quo magis eis peccatum abhominabile ostendi. Ideo vide et considera, quia non sine causa irascor, quia graciam meam conuertunt sibi in iram. Redemi enim eos a peccato, et ipsi se magis nunc implicant peccato.
Tu ergo, sponsa mea, redde michi, que teneris, idest animam tuam mundam michi conserua, quia pro ea mortuus sum hac de causa, ut eam michi mundam seruares."
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