Verba laudis Matris et Filii adinuicem, presente sponsa, et qualiter nunc Christus ab hominibus inhonestus, turpissimus et vilissimus reputatur et dicitur, et de eterna talium dampnacione.
The Mother's Praise and the Son's Response
Mary offers a prayer of praise to her Son, who responds by affirming his special love for her and her unique place in his heart.
Mary spoke to her Son, saying, "Blessed are You, who have no beginning and no end!" You possessed a body most honorable and most decent. You were a man most vigorous and most virtuous. You were the most worthy creature." The Son replied: "The words that come from your mouth are sweet to me, and they delight the depths of my heart like the most refreshing drink." You are sweeter to me than any other creature. For just as many different faces may be seen in a mirror, yet none pleases more than one's own, so I, though I love my saints, still love you with a special love, because I was born of your flesh. You are like myrrh, whose fragrance rises to the Godhead and has drawn it into your body. This same fragrance drew your body and soul into the Godhead, where you now are, both body and soul. You are blessed, for the angels rejoice in your beauty, and all who call upon you with a sincere heart are set free by your power. In your light, all demons tremble and dare not stand before your radiance, because they always want to be in the darkness. You gave me a threefold praise: first, you said that I have a most honorable body; second, that I am a most valiant man; and third, that I am the most worthy of all creatures.
The World's Contempt for the Savior
Christ laments how the world rejects his humanity, mocks his teachings, and treats him with less value than common animals.
But only those who have a body and soul contradict these three things. For they say that I have an unseemly body, that I am a most wretched man, and a most worthless creature. What could be more shameful than provoking others to sin? That is how they claim my body draws them into sin. They insist, in fact, that sin isn't as ugly as people say, nor does it displease God all that much. "Nothing would exist," they say, "unless God willed it, and nothing is created without Him." Why, then, shouldn't we use what has been made to suit our own desires? "The frailty of our nature demands this, and that is how everyone before us has lived, and how they live now." This is how people speak to me now. Because I discouraged sin and showed how serious it is, they call my humanity—in which I, the true God, appeared among men—dishonorable, as if I had encouraged uselessness and dishonor.1 In fact, they call nothing honorable except sin and what pleases their own will. They even say that I am a most vile man. For what could be more shameful than that? When someone speaks the truth, his mouth is pelted with stones and he is struck in the face; furthermore, he hears the insult of those who say, 'If he were a real man, he would defend himself.' That is what they do to me. I speak to them through teachers and the holy Scriptures, yet they say that I am lying. They strike my face with stones and fists whenever they commit adultery, murder, or lies, and they say, 'If he were a real man, if he were the all-powerful God, he would avenge such a transgression.' Yet I endure them through my patience, and every day I hear them saying that punishment isn't eternal or bitter as it's said to be, and they judge my words to be a lie. Third, they consider me the most worthless creature. For what is more despised in a house than a dog or a cat, for which someone would gladly trade me if they could? But people consider me worse than a dog. They would refuse to accept me if it meant losing a dog, and they’d sooner cast me aside and renounce me than lose a piece of hide. Yet what trivial thing, when it crosses the mind, isn't thought of and desired more fervently than I am? For if they valued me more than any other creature, they would love me more than anything else. There is nothing so small that they don't love it more than me. They grieve over everything except me. They grieve over their own losses and those of their friends. They grieve over the injury of a single word. They grieve that they offend other people who are more important than themselves, but they don't grieve that they offend me, the Creator of all. Who is so cast aside that, if they asked, they wouldn't be heard, or if they gave, they wouldn't be repaid? Yet I am the most cast aside and the most despised in their eyes, because they don't think me worthy of any good, even though I am the one who gave them every good thing.
The Promise of Judgment and the Call to Perseverance
Christ declares that he will vindicate his honor through judgment and exhorts his bride to remain steadfast in his service.
Therefore, my mother, because you have tasted more of my wisdom and nothing but truth has ever proceeded from your mouth, so nothing but truth proceeds from mine. I will vindicate myself in the sight of all the saints before the one who said that I have a most indecent body, and I will prove that I truly have a most honorable body, free from all deformity and sin; and he will be brought to everlasting shame, which everyone will see. As for the one who called my words a lie and said he didn't know whether I am God or not, I will prove that I am truly God, and he will melt away into hell like mud. As for the third, who judged me to be the most worthless of all, I will judge him to eternal damnation, so that he may never see my glory and my joy. Then he said to the bride, "Stand firm in my service!" You have come as if into a wall, where, once enclosed, you won't be able to escape or to dig a foundation. So, suffer a little tribulation willingly, and you will feel eternal rest in my arms! You know the Father's will; you hear the Son's words and feel my Spirit. You find delight and comfort in the words of my Mother and my saints. So, stand firm! Otherwise, you'll face my justice, which will force you to do what I'm now kindly urging you to do.
Read the original Latin
Maria loquebatur ad filium suum dicens: "Benedictus sis tu, qui es sine principio et sine fine! Tu habuisti corpus honestissimum et decentissimum. Tu fuisti vir strenuissimus et virtuosissimus. Tu fuisti dignissima creatura."
Respondit filius: "Verba tua, que procedunt de ore tuo, sunt michi suauia et delectant intima cordis tamquam potus suauissimus. Tu es michi pre omni creatura suauissima. Sicut enim in speculo diuerse facies considerantur sed nulla magis placet quam propria, sic ego, licet sanctos meos diligam, te tamen precipua dileccione diligo, quia de carne tua generatus sum.
Tu es quasi mirra, cuius odor ascendit ad deitatem et deduxit eam in corpus tuum. Hic idem odor traxit corpus tuum et animam in deitatem, ubi nunc es cum corpore et anima.
Benedicta sis tu, quia ex pulchritudine tua gaudent angeli et ex virtute tua omnes, qui inuocant te sincero corde, liberantur. In luce tua omnes demones contremiscunt nec audent ad tuum fulgorem subsistere, quia semper volunt esse in tenebris.
Tu dedisti michi triplicem laudem, quia dixisti me habere honestissimum corpus, secundo virum strenuissimum, tercio dixisti me esse dignissimum creaturarum.
Sed hiis tribus contradicunt illi solummodo, qui habent corpus et animam. Dicunt enim me habere corpus inhonestum, virum esse abiectissimum, creaturam vilissimam.
Quid est inhonestius quam alios prouocare ad peccatum? Sic dicunt corpus meum trahere ad peccatum. Dicunt quippe peccatum non esse sic deforme, ut dicitur, nec tantum displicere Deo.
'Non enim', inquiunt, 'esset aliquid, nisi Deus vellet, nec aliquid est sine ipso creatum. Quare ergo non debemus uti hiis, que facta sunt, ad voluntatem nostram? Fragilitas nature hoc exigit et sic omnes ante nos vixerunt et viuunt.'
Sic nunc loquuntur michi homines. Humanitatem autem meam, in qua verus Deus inter homines apparui, quia dissuasi peccatum et ostendi, quam graue est, dicunt inhonestatem, quasi suaserim inutilitatem et inhonestatem. Nichil quippe dicunt honestum nisi peccatum et quod placet voluntati eorum.
Dicunt eciam me esse virum turpissimum. Quid enim est illo turpius? Qui cum loquitur veritatem, os eius contunditur lapidibus et in faciem ceditur, insuper et audit obprobrium dicencium: 'Si esset virilis, vindicaret se.' Sic faciunt michi.
Ego loquor eis per doctores et sanctam Scripturam, sed dicunt, quod loquor mendacium. Contundunt os meum lapidibus et pugno, quando faciunt adulterium, homicidium et mendacium, et dicunt: 'Si esset virilis, si esset Deus potentissimus, vindicaret transgressionem talem.'
Ego autem suffero per pacienciam meam et audio cotidie eos dicentes, quod pena non est eterna nec amara, sicut dicitur, et iudicantur verba mea mendacium esse.
Tercio iudicant me vilissimam creaturam. Quid enim abieccius in domo est quam canis et murilegus, pro quibus, qui commutare vellet, libenter reciperet equum?
Sed homo habet me deteriorem cane. Ad hoc enim, ut careret cane, nollet me recipere, et antequam careret pelle, pocius me abiceret et abiuraret. Que autem res tam modica, menti alludens, non feruencius quam ego cogitatur et concupiscitur? Si enim me plus quam aliam creaturam estimarent, plus me diligerent quam alia.
Ipsi nichil habent tam modicum, quod non diligant preter me. De omnibus dolent preter de me. Dolent dampna propria et amicorum. Dolent lesionem unius verbi. Dolent, quod offendunt alios homines se excellenciores, sed non dolent, quod offendunt me, omnium creatorem.
Quis homo est tam abiectus, quod, si peteret, non audiretur, si daret, non retribueretur ei aliquid? Ego autem sum abiectissimus et vilissimus in conspectu eorum, quia me nullius boni reputant dignum, qui omnia bona dedi eis.
Ergo, mater mea, quia tu plus de sapiencia mea gustasti et numquam de ore tuo nisi veritas processit, sic de ore meo numquam nisi veritas procedit. Ego excusabo me in conspectu omnium sanctorum coram primo, qui dixit me corpus habere indecentissimum, et probabo me habere veraciter corpus honestissimum sine deformitate et peccato, et ipse veniet in obprobrium sempiternum, quod omnes videbunt.
Ille autem, qui dicebat mea verba mendacium et nescire, utrum Deus sum an non, probabo me esse veraciter Deum, et ipse quasi lutum defluet in infernum.
Tercius autem, qui iudicauit me vilissimum, ego iudicabo eum ad eternam dampnacionem, ut numquam videat gloriam meam et gaudium meum."
Deinde ait ad sponsam: "Sta firmiter in seruicio meo! Tu venisti quasi in quendam murum, in quo clausa non poteris fugere nec fodere fundamentum. Suffer ergo voluntarie modicam tribulacionem, et sencies eternam requiem in brachio meo!
Tu nosti voluntatem Patris, tu audis verba Filii et sentis Spiritum meum. Tu habes delectacionem et consolacionem in allocucione matris mee et sanctorum meorum. Ergo sta firmiter! Alioquin sencies iusticiam meam, per quam cogeris facere, que nunc moneo beniuole."
Notes
- 1 ↩The Latin 'inhonestatem' is used here to describe how the world perceives Christ's rejection of sin; it carries the sense of something 'unbecoming' or 'shameful' by worldly standards.
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