Verba matris ad filiam sub figura mirabili de quodam episcopo, qualiter scilicet episcopus per papilionem vermem et humilitas et superbia episcopi per duas alas et tres species mala episcopi palliantes, per tres vermis colores, episcopi opera per spissitudinem coloris duplex voluntas per duo cornua papilionis et cupiditas per os, modica caritas per paruum corpus designantur et exponuntur.
The Vessel of the Soul
The Mother explains how she gradually unfolds divine truths to the soul, just as a master carefully separates mixed elements in a vessel.
The Mother speaks to the son’s bride, saying: "You are a vessel that the Possessor fills and the Master empties." Yet it’s one and the same person who fills and empties. For just as someone who poured wine, milk, and water into a vessel all at once would be called a master if he separated each of those things that had curdled together and restored them to their own nature, This is how I, as Mother and Teacher of all, have acted and continue to act toward you. For over a year and a month ago, many things were said to you, and they are all, in a sense, congealing within your soul; if they were poured out all at once, it would seem just as abominable, since their outcome would be unknown. That is why I am unfolding them little by little, just as I please.
The Butterfly Bishop
The bishop is likened to a butterfly whose colorful wings represent a deceptive mixture of humility and pride.
Do you remember that I sent you to a certain bishop, whom I called my servant? So, we now compare him to a butterfly—a worm with broad wings speckled in white, red, and blue. But when you touch it, its thick color stays on your fingers like ash. This worm has a small body but a large mouth, two horns on its forehead, and a hidden place in its belly through which the filth of its belly is discharged. The wings of this worm—that is, the bishop—are his humility and his pride. For he appears humble on the outside in his words and gestures, and humble in his clothes and his work, but inside there is pride, by which he is great in his own eyes, puffed up with honor, ambitious for the favor of others, and arrogant in preferring his own things to others and judging what belongs to them. With these two wings, he flies: through a humility that appears before people so he can please everyone and be on everyone's lips, and through a pride toward himself, by which he considers himself holier than many. The three colors of the wings are three ways of masking his faults. The red color signifies that he constantly talks about the Passion of Christ and the miracles of the saints so that he might be called holy, but these things are certainly far from his heart, because they mean nothing to him. The blue color signifies that, on the outside, he appears not to care about worldly things, but to be dead to the world and entirely heavenly, just as the blue color has the appearance of the sky. But certainly, this second color brings no more stability or fruit before God than the first. The white color shows that he is religious in his vestments and highly commendable in his conduct. But there is just as much sweetness and perfection in the third color as there is in the first two. For just as the butterfly's color is thick and clings to your hands, yet leaves behind nothing but a kind of ash, so his works appear admirable because he desires to be alone, but they are empty and fruitless for his own benefit because he does not seek or love what ought to be loved with sincerity.
The Double-Minded Will
The bishop's double-mindedness and desire for worldly comfort while claiming spiritual merit are exposed as empty vanity.
The two horns represent his double-minded will. For he wants to have a life in this world without any troubles, and yet after death he wants eternal life, so that he might not be cheated of great honor on earth, and might be crowned even more perfectly in heaven. This bishop is very much like a butterfly that thinks it's carrying heaven on one wing and earth on the other, yet if it could, it wouldn't support the slightest thing for the honor of God. This person thinks they're advancing the Church of God by their own words and example, as if the Church wouldn't grow just as well without them. They even imagine that worldly people are spiritually flourishing because of their own merits. And so, like a soldier who has already fought his battle, he thinks: 'Since I'm called devout and humble, why should I push myself toward a stricter life?' If I sin in certain pleasures without which I can't live pleasantly, my greater merits and works will excuse me. Since heaven can be gained even with a drink of cold water, why is it necessary to labor beyond measure?1
The Fruits of Greed and Impatience
The bishop's greed, hidden faults, and lack of true charity are revealed through the final characteristics of the butterfly.
The butterfly also has a wide mouth, but it has an even greater capacity for greed—so much so that if it could call for every fly except one, it would still crave and devour that last one alone. In the same way, if such a person could take a single coin from many people without being noticed and keep it hidden, they certainly would, yet their hunger for greed would never be satisfied. The butterfly also has a hidden exit for its filth. In the same way, he wickedly pours out his anger and impatience, exposing his hidden faults to others. Likewise, just as the butterfly has a tiny body, so he has tiny charity; for what he lacks in the magnitude of charity, he makes up for entirely in the breadth and reach of his wings."
The Illusion of Charity
The bride and the Mother discuss the nature of true charity, contrasting it with the false appearance of repentance shown by Judas.
The bride replied, "If someone has even a spark of charity, there's always hope for life and salvation." And the mother asked, "What kind of charity did Judas have when, in betraying the Lord, he said, 'I have sinned by betraying innocent blood'?" He certainly wanted to appear to have charity, but he didn't."
Read the original Latin
Mater loquitur ad sponsam filij dicens: "Tu es vas, quod possessor implet et magister euacuat. Attamen unus et idem est, qui implet et vacuat. Nam sicut, qui infunderet vasi simul vinum et lac et aquam, diceretur magister, si unumquodque istorum insimul coagulatorum separaret et reduceret in naturam propriam,
sic ego mater et magistra omnium feci et facio tibi. Nam ante annum et mensem dicta sunt tibi plura negocia et omnia quasi coagulantur in anima tua, que, si statim effunderentur, similiter videretur abhominabile, cum ignoraretur eorum finis. Ideo paulatim distinguo ea sicut michi placet.
Numquid recolis, quod misi te ad quendam episcopum, quem vocaui seruum meum? Ideo nunc similamus eum papilioni vermi, qui habet alas latas colore albo rubeo et blaueo respersas. Cum vero tangitur color eius spissus remanet in digitis tamquam cinis.
Hic vermis modicum habet corpus sed grossum os, duo cornua in fronte et occultum locum in ventre, per quem immunda ventris emittuntur. Ale vero huius vermis, idest episcopi, sunt humilitas eius et superbia.
Nam humilis apparet extra in verbis et gestibus, humilis in vestibus et operatione, sed intus est superbia, qua magnus est in conspectu sui, tumidus de honore, ambiciosus de fauore hominum et arrogans alijs sua preferendo et aliena iudicando.
Hijs igitur duabus alis volat per humilitatem apparentem coram hominibus, ut singulis placeat et in ore sit omnium, per superbiam vero sibiipsi, qua se existimat multis sanctiorem. Tres vero colores alarum sunt tres species palliantes mala eius.
Nam color rubeus significat, quod continue de passione Christi disputat et miraculis sanctorum, ut vocetur sanctus, sed certe longe sunt a corde ipsius, quia minime sapiunt sibi.
Color vero blaueus significat, quod exterius videtur non curare de temporalibus sed mortuus esse mundo et totus celestis, sicut blaueum speciem habet celi. Sed certe color iste secundus non maiorem coram Deo stabilitatem et fructum affert quam ille primus.
Color vero albus indicat ipsum in vestibus religiosum, in moribus superlaudabilem. Sed tanta dulcedo et perfectio est in colore tercio, qualis in duobus primis.
Sicut enim color papilionis spissus est et adheret manibus vel tamen relinquens manibus nisi quasi cinerem, sic opera sua videntur admiranda, quia desiderat esse solus, sed ad utilitatem propriam vacua et infructuosa sunt, quia non sincere querit nec diligit diligendum. Cornua vero duo duplex est voluntas eius.
Nam desiderat habere vitam sine incommodis in hoc mundo, post mortem vero vitam eternam, ut et honore magno non fraudetur in terris et in celestibus perfectius coronetur. Iste episcopus simillimus est eciam papilioni, qui cogitat portare celum in cornu uno et terram in altero, qui tamen si posset, non sustentaret minimum quid ad honorem Dei.
Sic iste ecclesie Dei se credit et cogitat proficere verbo suo et exemplo tamquam si sine illo non ita cresceret. Terrenosque homines per merita sua germinare spiritualiter suspicatur.
Et ideo tamquam miles, qui certauerat, cogitat: 'Cum', inquiens, 'vocor deuotus et humilis, ad quid extendam ad artiora vitam meam? Si pecco in quibusdam delectabilibus sine quibus non delectabiliter viuo, maiora merita et opera mea me excusabunt.
Cum enim celum per haustum eciam aque frigide obtineri poterit, quid necesse est ultra mensuram laborare?'
Papilio quoque habet latum os sed maiorem habet latitudinem cupiditatis in tantum, quod si omnes muscas vocaret preter unam, adhuc illam solam concupisceret et deuoraret. Sic iste, si unum denarium obtinere posset cum multis tali modo, quod non notaretur et esset occultum, reciperet quidem, sed numquam fames cupiditatis extingueretur.
Papilio quoque habet occultum exitum immundicie sue. Sic ipse improbe effundit iram suam et impatientiam, ut et latentia sua alijs ostendantur. Item sicut papilio modicum habet corpus, sic iste modicam caritatem, quia, quod deficit sibi in magnitudine caritatis, totum suppletur in alarum latitudine et extensione."
Respondit sponsa: "Si aliquam scintillam caritatis habet semper spes est vite et salutis." Et mater: "Qualem caritatem habuit Iudas cum tradendo Dominum dixit: 'Peccaui prodendo sanguinem iustum'? Voluit quippe videri habere caritatem sed non habebat."
Notes
- 1 ↩The Latin 'celum' (heaven) is used here in the sense of the kingdom of heaven or salvation, echoing the promise of a reward for even a small act of charity (cf. Matthew 10:42).
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