Verba Christi ad sponsam optimum exemplum de medico et rege ponentia, et qualiter Christus per talem medicum designatur, et quomodo frequenter saluantur damnandi secundum homines et damnantur saluandi secundum homines vel mundum.
The Parable of the Physician and the King
Christ presents a parable about a physician who discerns the true spiritual condition of two prisoners, contrasting inner reality with outward appearances.
The Son of God speaks to his bride, saying: "A doctor came into a distant and unknown land, where a king wasn't ruling but was being ruled, because he had the heart of a rabbit." And so, sitting on his throne, he looked like a crowned donkey. His people, however, were given over to feasting, and having forgotten all honesty and fairness, they hated anyone who offered them counsel about future goods. When the physician presented himself to the king and claimed to be from the land of pleasure, asserting that he had come to understand the infirmities of men, the king, amazed at the man and his speech, replied: I have two men in prison who are to be beheaded tomorrow, and one of them can barely breathe. The other one is actually more robust and healthier now than when he first entered the prison. Go in to them, then, and look at their faces to see which one of them is in better condition.' When the doctor had gone in and looked at them, he said to the king, "The man you call robust is as good as dead and won't be able to live." But there is good hope for the other one. The king asked him, "How do you know this?" And the doctor said, "Because the other is filled with harmful humors and wind, he cannot be cured." The other, however, is empty and can easily be healed by the mildness of the air." Then the king said, "I'll call together my nobles and wise men, so that when they see your wisdom and skill, you'll appear glorious in their eyes." The physician answered him, "Don't do that." You know your people are envious of glory; they attack anyone they can't defeat with their actions, and they tear them down with their words. But wait, and I will show you my wisdom in private, for I have been taught and instructed to keep most of my wisdom in secret, and only a little in the open. I don't seek glory in your darkness, since I glory in the light of my own homeland. But the time for healing isn't here yet—not until the south wind blows and the sun appears at midday. The king replied to him, 'How could these things happen in my land?' The sun rarely rises there, because we are outside the temperate zones and the north wind always dominates us. But what good is your wisdom to me, and this long delay in healing? I see that you have plenty of words. The physician replied: 'It's the mark of a wise person not to be impulsive; but so that I don't appear suspicious or ungrateful to you, put these two men under my authority, and I will lead them to the borders of your kingdom where the air is more favorable, and then you'll see how much deeds and how much words will truly count.' The king replied, "We are occupied with higher and more useful things." Why are you distracting us? What good is your teaching to us? We take delight in the goods we can see and possess right now, but we don't aspire to uncertain future ones. “Still, take those people in, as you ask, and if you show something in them that is magnificent and worthy of admiration, we will praise you and see to it that you are praised as glorious.”
The Divine Interpretation of Souls
Christ reveals that He is the physician, explaining the hidden fates of the two souls and the nature of divine justice and mercy.
Once those people were taken in by the physician and moved to a more temperate climate, one passed away, while the other was revived by the mildness of the air. I am the physician who, wanting to heal humanity, sent my words into the world through you. Although I've seen the infirmities of many, I've shown you two in whom you could marvel at both my justice and my mercy. For I showed you one whom the devil possessed secretly, but who was to be punished eternally. Yet people saw his works and praised them as if they were righteous. I showed you another whom the devil dominated openly, but whom I said would be healed in his own time—though not in the public way you expected. For it was divine justice that, just as the evil spirit had gradually begun to dominate him, the same justice dictated that he should gradually depart—just as he did depart—until the soul was released from the flesh and the devil arrived with it at the judgment. The Judge said to him, "You have purged her and sifted her like wheat." Now, however, it's my place to crown her with a double crown for her confession. Step back, then, from her whom you've been purifying for so long. And he said to the soul: 'Come, O happy soul, and with your spiritual senses behold my glory and my joy.'
The Verdict of Faith and Vanity
Christ addresses the soul regarding the necessity of true faith and the vanity of worldly appearances in the face of eternal judgment.
To another soul, He said: 'Because true faith was not in you, and yet you boasted and were praised as if you were faithful, and because the perfect works of the just were not found in you, for that reason the reward of the faithful will not be yours.' You, too, asked in your life why I chose to die for you and to be humbled for you alone. So I answer you now: the faith of the holy Church is true, and it's what draws souls upward. My passion and my blood are what bring them into heaven. Therefore, your lack of faith and your vain love will drag you down to nothing, and you will be nothing in the face of eternal spiritual realities. As for why the devil didn't leave that man while everyone was watching, I answer: this world is like a wretched shack compared to the tabernacle where God dwells, and the people who provoke God. Therefore, just as he entered little by little, so he will leave.
Read the original Latin
Filius Dei loquitur ad sponsam dicens: "Medicus venit in regionem longinquam et ignotam, in qua rex non regebat sed regebatur, quia cor habebat leporinum. Et ideo sedens in throno quasi coronatus asinus apparebat.
Populus vero suus vacabat commessationibus et honestatis equitatisque oblitus omnes de futuris bonis consulentes odiebat. Cumque medicus se presentaret regi et de terra voluptatis se esse diceret causaque cognitionis infirmitatum hominum se affirmaret venisse, rex admiratus de homine et de loquela eius respondit:
'Ego habeo duos homines in carcere cras decollandos et alter eorum vix respirare potest. Alius vero robustior et corpulentior est nunc quam cum in carcerem ingressus est. Ingredere igitur ad eos et contemplare vultus eorum, quis eorum melioris complexionis sit.'
Cumque ingressus fuisset medicus et vidisset eos, dixit regi: 'Homo, quem robustum dicitis, simillimus mortuo est nec viuere poterit. De alio vero spes bona est.' Cui rex: 'Unde', inquit, 'nosti hec?'
Et medicus: 'Quia alius', inquit, 'impletus est humoribus et vento nociuo nec curari poterit. Alter vero exinanitus faciliter poterit sanari mediante lenitate aeris.' Et tunc ait rex: 'Conuocabo nobiliores meos et sapientes, ut visa sapientia et industria tua gloriosus appareas in oculis eorum.'
Cui respondit medicus: 'Nequaquam', inquit, 'hoc facito. Scis enim populum tuum inuidum esse glorie, et quem non poterit opere persequitur et deprauat verbo. Sed expecta et ostendam tibi soli in conclaui sapientiam meam, sic enim instructus sum et doctus, scilicet sapientiam meam plurimam habere in secreto et modicam in aperto.
Nec quero gloriam in tenebris tuis, cum in luce patrie mee glorior. Sed nec tempus sanitatis est adhuc, donec ventus australis afflauerit et sol in meridie apparebit.' Cui rex: 'Quomodo possent fieri ista in terra mea?
In ea enim sol rarissime oritur, quia extra climata sumus et ventus aquilonaris semper dominatur nobis. Sed quid michi sapientia tua prodest et tanta mora sanitatis? Video enim te satis verbis abundare.'
Respondit medicus: 'Sapientis est non esse subitum sed, ne tibi suspectus aut ingratus appaream, da michi istos duos homines in potestate et ducam eos ad fines regni tui, ubi aer est competentior et tunc videbis, quantum opera, quantumve valebunt verba.'
Cui rex: 'Altioribus, inquid, et utilioribus occupati sumus. Quid nos distrahis? Aut quid confert nobis magisterium tuum? In presentibus enim bonis delectamur, que videmus et possidemus, ad futura vero incerta non aspiramus.
Verumtamen suscipe homines illos, ut petis, et si ostenderis in eis aliquod magnificum et dignum admiratione, predicabimus te et predicari faciemus gloriosum.'
Susceptis igitur a medico hominibus illis et ad temperiem aeris deportatis alius transijt ad mortem; alius vero blandimento aeris refocillatus reuixit.
Medicus ille ego sum, qui mederi cupiens hominibus verba mea misi mundo per te. Quamuis autem infirmitates multorum vidi, duos tamen ostendi tibi, in quibus et iusticiam et misericordiam meam poteras admirari.
Unum enim ostendi tibi, quem diabolus possedit occulte sed eternaliter puniendum. Cuius vero opera hominibus videbantur et laudabantur tamquam iusta. Alterum vero ostendi, cui aperte dominabatur dyabolus sed sanandum dixi tempore suo, licet non hominibus aperte, ut tu credebas.
Nam fuit iusticia diuina ut sicut spiritus malignus paulatiue in eum dominari ceperat, sic eadem dictabat iusticia ut paulatim egrederetur, sicut et egressus est, donec anima carne soluta peruenit cum ea dyabolus ad iudicium. Cui dixit iudex: 'Tu purgasti eam et cribrasti quasi triticum.
Nunc autem pertinet ad me pro confessione sua duplici corona coronare eam. Recede igitur ab ea, quam tanto tempore purgasti.' Et ait ad animam: 'Veni, o felix anima, et vide sensibus spiritualibus gloriam meam et iocunditatem meam.'
Ad alteram vero animam dixit: 'Quia fides vera non fuit in te et tamen quasi fidelis gloriabaris et laudabaris, et quia opera iustorum perfecta non sunt inuenta in te, propterea merces illa fidelium non erit in te. Tu quoque in vita tua quesiuisti, cur volui mori pro te et humiliari pro te tantum.
Ideo respondeo tibi nunc, quod fides ecclesie sancte vera est, que sursum trahit animas. Et passio mea et sanguis meus introducit eas in celum. Ideo infidelitas tua et amor tuus vanus depriment te ad nichilum et nichil eris respectu spiritualium eternorum.
Quod vero dyabolus non egrediebatur videntibus cunctis de homine illo, respondeo: Mundus iste est quasi vile tugurium respectu tabernaculi, quod inhabitat Deus populusque Deum exasperans. Ideo paulatiue sicut ingrediebatur, ita egredietur."
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