Quod vita hominis dissoluti et tepidi est quasi pons artus et periculosus, de quo si non vertat se cito saltando in nauem vite, penitencie et virtutum, precipitabitur ab inimico demone in chaos profundum.
The Narrow Bridge of Life
The soul is warned that life is a precarious bridge between the abyss of fleshly indulgence and the ship of penitential grace.
"He is my deadliest enemy, because he mocks me in his sport." He fulfills every desire and craving of his own, as much as he can. He is like someone lying on a narrow bridge, with a vast abyss on his left side, where anyone who falls in will never rise again. On the right, however, is a ship; if he manages to jump into it with effort, he'll escape, and there is still hope for life. Their life is a miserable, brief bridge, yet they don't stand on it like someone fighting bravely, nor like a pilgrim moving forward and making progress every day; instead, they lie there like a sluggard, longing to drink the waters of pleasure. Two things, therefore, weigh upon him. For if he rises from the bridge, he will either fall into the abyss—that is, into the depths of hell—if he turns to the left, which means to the works of the flesh; Or, if you jump into the ship, you'll escape only with great effort; for while it's a difficult path to take on the rigor and discipline of the holy Church, you will nonetheless be saved through them. So turn yourself around quickly, before the enemy throws you off the bridge, because then you will cry out and not be heard, but will be punished forever.
The Envious Heart and Divine Judgment
A concrete example of envy and spiritual blindness illustrates the consequences of rejecting God's grace, leading to a final, fatal judgment.
Seeing the king had changed and realizing he wasn't listening to him as he usually did, this man, out of envy for Lady Bridget, waited until she passed through a narrow street and then poured water down on her from a window; she simply said to those standing by, "May God forgive her and not hold it against her in the world to come." Then Christ appeared to the lady during Mass and said, "The man who poured water on you from the window out of envy thirsts for blood, has shed blood, and desires the earth—but not me." They speak boldly against me, worshiping their own flesh instead of me, their God; they’ve shut me out from themselves and from their hearts. Let them take care, lest they die in their blood.1 After this, the man lived only a short time and died from a flow of blood streaming from his nose, just as she had predicted.
Read the original Latin
"Ille est meus capitalis inimicus, quia deridet me in ioco. Omnem voluntatem et cupiditatem suam implet, prout potest.
Ipse est sicut ille qui iacet in ponte arto, in cuius parte sinistra est chaos maximum, ubi qui descendet non consurget. In dextera vero est nauis, in qua si saltauerit laboriose euadet, attamen spes est vite.
Iste pons vita sua est lamentabilis et breuis, in qua non stat ut homo viriliter decertans nec sicut homo peregrinus, progrediens cotidie et proficiens in via, sed stat iacens ut accidiosus, desiderans bibere aquas voluptatis.
Duo itaque instant ei. Si enim surrexerit de ponte, aut veniet in abyssum, id est ad inferni profunda, si vertit se ad sinistram, id est ad opera carnis;
aut, si saltauerit in nauem, laboriose euadet, quia si assumpserit Ecclesie sancte rigorem et institucionem, laboriosum sibi est, attamen per hec saluabitur.
Ergo vertat se cicius, ne inimicus precipitet eum de ponte, quia tunc clamabit et non audietur sed in eternum punietur."
Hic videns regem immutatum nec se more solito apud eum audiri, inuidens domine Birgitte, cum pertransisset per quandam angustam plateam, effudit ab alto aquam de fenestra super eam, que dixit astantibus: "Parcat ei Deus et non reddat in seculo futuro."
Tunc Christus apparuit domine in missa dicens: "Ille homo, qui fudit super te aquam de fenestra ex inuidia, sanguinem sitit, sanguinem fudit, terram desiderat et non me.
Audacter loquitur contra me, carnem suam colit pro me Deo, me a se et corde suo exclusit; caueat sibi ne in sanguine moriatur."
Post hec homo ille modico tempore vixit et fluxu sanguinis fluente de naribus eius mortuus est sicut ipsa predixit.
Notes
- 1 ↩The Latin 'in sanguine moriatur' echoes the prophetic warning of Ezekiel 33:4-6 regarding the blood of the unrepentant remaining upon their own heads.
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