Verba doctrine Virginis gloriose ad filiam de spirituali et temporali sapiencia et, quam ipsarum quis debeat imitari et qualiter spiritualis sapiencia post paucos labores ducit hominem ad perpetuam consolacionem, temporalis vero ad eternam dampnacionem.
The Two Paths of Wisdom
A seeker is presented with two contrasting teachers, one offering a difficult path to lasting wisdom and the other a deceptive, easy path to fleeting worldly gain.
Mary said, "It's written: 'Whoever wants to be wise should learn wisdom from the wise.'" So, to give you an example, imagine someone who wants to learn wisdom and sees two teachers standing before him, to whom he says: I’d gladly learn wisdom, if I only knew where it would lead me, what good it would do me, and what its final end would be. One of the masters replied, "If you want to follow my wisdom, it will lead you to a very high mountain, but the path is hard with stones underfoot, and the climb is difficult and steep." If you labor in this wisdom, you'll have what is dark on the outside but radiant within. If you hold to it firmly, you'll get what you desire. But it revolves like a circle and will draw you to itself more and more, sweetly and ever more sweetly, until in its own time you are completely flooded with joy. The second master says: 'If you follow my wisdom, it will lead you into a flowering valley, pleasant with every fruit of the earth.' The path is soft underfoot, and it takes very little effort to head downhill. If you persist in that kind of wisdom, you'll have what looks brilliant on the outside, but the moment you try to enjoy it, it will slip away from you. You'll have something that doesn't last, but instead comes to an end immediately. Once you've finished reading the book, both the book and the reading itself amount to nothing, and you're left empty. Hearing this, he thought to himself, "I'm hearing two amazing things here." If I climb the mountain, my feet grow weak and my back is burdened. But if I gain what is obscure on the outside, what good is it to me? But if I labor for something that will have no end, when will there be any consolation? Another teacher promises things that look flashy on the outside but won't last, claiming that wisdom ends with reading books. What good is it to me, then, to have these things if they lack stability?
The Light of Spiritual Discernment
A guide appears to clarify the true nature of spiritual wisdom, explaining that the mountain of labor leads to the cloud of divine consolation.
As she was thinking this over, a man suddenly appeared between the two teachers and said: Even though the mountain is high and difficult to climb, there is a bright cloud above it, and you'll find refreshment there. But if the promise seems dark on the outside, it can certainly be broken open, and in this way you'll obtain the gold hidden within—which you'll be able to possess with joy for all eternity. These two masters represent a twofold wisdom: spiritual and worldly. Spiritual wisdom means surrendering your own will to God and yearning for heavenly things with all your desire and effort. It can't really be called wisdom unless your actions match your words. This wisdom leads to a blessed life. But this wisdom is stony to reach and steep to climb.1 In fact, it’s a difficult, rocky path to resist your own attachments. It's a steep climb to trample down the pleasures you're used to, and to stop loving the world's honors. Even though it's difficult, anyone who reflects on how short time is and that the world is coming to an end, and who keeps their heart firmly fixed on God, will see a cloud appear above the mountain—that is, the consolation of the Holy Spirit.✦ In the end, anyone who seeks no comforter but God will be worthy of consolation. For how could all of God's chosen ones have begun such difficult and bitter tasks, if the Spirit of God had not cooperated with the good will of man as with a good instrument? A good will brought this spirit to them, and the divine love they had for God invited it, because they labored with their will and their heart's desire until they became strong in their actions. Once the consolation of the Spirit was attained, they soon gained the gold of divine delight and love, by which they not only endured many hardships but even found joy in the suffering, keeping their eyes on the reward. To those who love the world, this delight seems dark because they love the darkness; but to those who love God, it is brighter than the sun and more radiant than gold. They break through the darkness of their vices and ascend the mountain of patience, contemplating the cloud of consolation—a consolation that doesn't end, but begins in the present life and revolves like a circle until it reaches perfection. Worldly wisdom, however, leads to the valley of this misery—a place that seems to bloom with an abundance of things, to be pleasant in its honors, and soft in its pleasures. This kind of wisdom won't last long, and it offers no greater benefit than what you've merely seen and heard.
A Mother's Call to Wisdom
The Virgin Mary exhorts her daughter to choose the wisdom of Christ, which leads to eternal life, rather than the deceptive path of the world.
Therefore, my daughter, seek wisdom from the Wise One—that is, from my Son. He himself is wisdom, from whom all wisdom comes; he is that very circle which never ends. I call out to you like a mother to her son: love wisdom, which is like gold held within—despised on the outside, but burning with charity inside, and on the outside, laborious and fruitful in its work. If you're troubled by the burden, the Spirit of God will be your comforter.✦ Keep moving forward and stay at it like someone making progress, until you get used to it. Don't turn back until you reach the summit of the mountain! There's nothing so difficult that it won't become easy through steady and reasonable persistence. There is nothing so noble at the start of an undertaking that it won't be obscured by an imperfect conclusion. So, draw near to spiritual wisdom. It will lead you to bodily labors, to a contempt for the world, to modest tribulation, and to everlasting consolation. The world's wisdom is deceptive and painful. It leads you to gather worldly things and seek present honor, but in the end, it leads to the greatest misery, unless you're careful to foresee and avoid it.
Read the original Latin
Maria loquebatur: "Scribitur, quod 'qui vult sapiens esse, addiscat sapienciam a sapiente'.
Unde per exemplum dico tibi, quasi esset unus, qui volens addiscere sapienciam vidit duos magistros ante se stare, ad quos ait:
'Libentissime addiscerem sapienciam, si scirem, quo me duceret, qualem haberet utilitatem et qualem finem.'
Respondit alter magistrorum: 'Si meam sapienciam sequi volueris, ducet te in altissimum montem, sed in via duricia lapidum est sub pedibus, difficultas et preruptum est in ascensu.
Si laboraueris in ista sapiencia, habebis, quod exterius est tenebrosum sed intus fulgidum. Si tenueris eam firmiter, habebis, quod vis.
Sed quasi circulus circumuoluitur et attrahet te sibi magis ac magis, dulciter ac dulcius, donec leticia ab omni parte tempore suo perfundaris.'
Secundus magister ait: 'Si sapienciam meam secutus fueris, ducet te in vallem floridam et ex omni terre fructu amenam.
Mollicia est in via sub pedibus et in descensu modicus labor.
Si perstiteris in ista sapiencia, habebis, quod extra est fulgidum, sed cum frui eo volueris, fugiet a te. Habebis eciam, quod non durat sed statim finitur.
Et cum liber perlectus fuerit, simul et liber et lectura annichilatur et vacuus relinqueris.'
Quibus auditis cogitabat ille secum: 'Audio hic duo mirabilia.
Si ascendero in montem, debilitantur pedes et grauatur dorsum. Si vero optinuero, quod extra est obscurum, quid michi prodest?
Si autem laborauero in eo, quod nullum habebit finem, quando tunc erit consolacio?
Alter quoque magister promittit, quod fulgidum est extra sed non mansurum, sapienciam cum lectura finituram. Que ergo michi in istis utilitas, si carent stabilitate?'
Cumque si cogitabat in animo, affuit ex improuiso quidam homo inter duos magistros et ait:
'Licet mons altus est et difficilis est in ascensu, tamen supra montem nubes est lucida, et qua habebis refrigerium.
Si autem, quod promittitur, exterius est tenebrosum, frangi quidem potest, et sic optinebis aurum, quod intus latet, quod cum leticia eternaliter poteris possidere.'
Duo isti magistri duplex est sapiencia, spiritualis videlicet et carnalis. Spiritualis est voluntatem propriam Deo relinquere et toto desiderio et opere in celestia suspirare.
Non enim veraciter sapiencia dici potest, nisi cum verbis concordat opus.
Hec sapiencia ducit ad vitam beatam. Sed ista sapiencia est petrosa in perueniendo et prerupta in ascendendo. Durum quippe est et petrosum videtur affeccionibus suis resistere.
Preruptum est consueta delectabilia calcare, mundi honorem non amare.
Quamuis autem sic difficile est, attamen quicumque cogitat secum, quia tempus breue est et mundus finiturus, animumque constanter firmauerit ad Deum, huic supra montem apparebit nubes, idest consolacio Spiritus sancti.
Eius denique erit dignus consolacione, qui non alium consolatorem querit nisi Deum. Quomodo enim incepissent tam ardua et amara omnes electi Dei, nisi bone voluntati hominis tamquam instrumento bono cooperatus fuisset spiritus Dei?
Hunc autem spiritum adduxit eis voluntas bona, inuitauit diuina caritas, quam habebant ad Deum, quia laborabant voluntate et affectu, donec opere fiebant fortes.
Adepta vero consolacione spiritus, optinebatur et mox aurum diuine delectacionis et caritatis, qua non solum paciebantur multa contraria sed in paciendo considerata retribucione delectabantur.
Hec delectacio videtur mundi amatoribus tenebrosa, quia diligunt tenebras; Dei vero amatoribus lucidior est sole et fulgencior auro, quia frangunt tenebras viciorum et ascendunt in montem paciencie, contemplantes nubem consolacionis, que non finitur sed incipit in presenti et quasi circulus circumuoluitur, donec venerit ad perfeccionem.
Mundi vero sapiencia ducit ad vallem huius miserie, que florida videtur in habundancia rerum, amena in honoribus, mollis in voluptate.
Ista sapiencia cicius finietur nec aliquid plus utilitatis habet nisi quod solummodo videbat et audiebat.
Ergo, filia mea, inquire sapienciam a sapiente, idest a filio meo! Ipse quippe est sapiencia, a quo est omnis sapiencia; circulus ille ipse est, qui numquam terminatur.
Ego clamo ad te quasi mater ad filium: dilige sapienciam, que intus est quasi aurum, extra contemptibilis, intus feruens caritate, extra laboriosa et opere fructuosa!
Et si turbaris ex onere, spiritus Dei erit consolator tuus.
Accede et conare tamquam homo progrediens, donec assuescit! Non retrocedas, donec venias ad montis summitatem!
Nichil enim tam difficile est, quod in continuacione stabili et racionabili non erit facile.
Nichil tam honestum in principio aggressionis, quod ex imperfeccione consumacionis non obfuscetur.
Ergo accede ad spiritualem sapienciam! Hec ducet te ad labores corporis, ad mundi contemptum, ad modicam tribulacionem et perpetuam consolacionem.
Mundi vero sapiencia fallax est et pungitiua. Hec ducet te ad temporalium congregacionem et ad presentem honorem, sed in fine ad maximam infelicitatem, nisi sollicite preuideatur et caueatur."
Scripture echoes
- ↩Exod.24.15-Exod.24.16 — Then Moses went up to the mountain, and the cloud covered the mountain. Exod.24.16 — The glory of the LORD settled on Mount Sinai, and the cloud covered it for six days. On the seventh day he called to Moses from within the cloud.
- ↩John.14.16 — And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, to be with you forever.
Notes
- 1 ↩The Latin 'petrosa' (stony/rocky) and 'prerupta' (steep/craggy) describe the difficulty of the path of spiritual wisdom.
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