Qualiter Dyabolus apparuit sponse in eleuacione corporis Christi loquens et per raciones probans ei, quod illud, quod eleuabatur, non esset corpus Christi. Cui angelus Domini statim apparuit confortans eam et dicens: "Noli credere" et cetera; et qualiter Christus apparens cogit Dyabolum, ut diceret veritatem coram filia et cetera; et qualiter corpus Christi sumitur sic a malis sicut a bonis et de remedio oportuno in temptacionibus de corpore Christi.
The Devil's Deception
A demonic figure attempts to shake the bride's faith in the Eucharist, but she is warned by an angel to reject his lies.
During the elevation of the Body of Christ, a truly hideous figure appeared to the bride and said, "Do you really believe, you fool, that this little scrap of bread is God?" It would have been consumed long ago, even if it had been a mountain of mountains. No wise person among the Jews, to whom God gave wisdom, believes this; and no one should believe that God would deign to be touched and loved by a most unclean priest who has the heart of a dog. And to prove what I’m saying: this priest is mine, and whenever I want—and it’s only a moment away—I’ll take him to myself. Then a good angel appeared immediately and said, "Daughter, don't answer a fool according to his folly!" For the one who appeared to you is the father of lies. But be ready, because our Bridegroom is already near."
The Lord's Defense of the Sacrament
Jesus confronts the demon, using the examples of the bronze serpent and Moses' staff to illustrate divine power and obedience.
Then the Spouse, Jesus, came and said to the devil, "Why are you troubling my daughter and bride?" I call her daughter because I created her, and I call her bride because I redeemed her and joined her to myself by my love." The demon answered, "I speak because I've been permitted to, and so that she might grow cold in your service." The Lord said, "She experienced this tonight when you pressed down on her eyes and her other limbs; you would have done even more if you had been allowed. But every time she resists your promptings, her crown will be doubled." But you, Devil, since you claimed that I have long been eaten and that I would have been a mountain, tell me—while my daughter, who is a physical being, listens—Scripture says that when the people were dying, a bronze serpent was raised up, and by looking at it, everyone struck by the serpents was healed. Did that healing power come from the strength of the bronze, the shape of the serpent, the goodness of Moses, or some hidden divine power? The demon replied: "This healing power came from nothing other than the proper and sole virtue of God, and the faith of the people who believed and obeyed—who trusted so firmly in God that they believed God, who made all things out of nothing, could also bring into being everything that did not exist before." God said again, "Tell me, demon, when the staff turned into a snake, did it happen because Moses commanded it, or because God ordered it?" Was it because Moses was holy, or because the word of God said it would be so?" The demon replied to him, "What was Moses but a weak man in himself, yet righteous through God?" At His word, which God commanded and brought forth, the staff truly became a serpent, with God commanding it and Moses acting only as an obedient servant." Before God’s command and word, the rod was just a rod; but when God truly commanded it, the rod became a serpent, so much so that even Moses was afraid.
The Reality of the Eucharist
Christ explains the transformation of the bread into His Body and the spiritual state of those who receive it.
Then the Lord said to the bride who was seeing these things: "It's the same even now on the altar." For before the words of the Sacrament, the bread placed on the altar is bread; but once the word 'This is my Body' is spoken— The bread becomes the Body of Christ, which both the good and the wicked receive and handle—one person just as a thousand do—in the same truth, though not with the same effect; for the good receive it unto life, but the wicked unto their own judgment. As for the demon's claim that God is defiled by the impurity of the one offering, that is absolutely false. Just as it wouldn't harm a master if a leper served him his keys, or if a sick person offered him a potent herbal remedy, the power of these things remains the same regardless of who offers them. God isn't made evil by the malice of a wicked minister, nor is He made better by a good one, because He is always unchanging and always the same. As for what the devil said—that God would die sooner—he knows this from the subtlety of his own nature and from external causes, yet he won't be able to take Him away unless I allow it. Even so, this priest belongs to himself unless he corrects his ways, and there are three reasons for this. That is why the same demon said he had rotting limbs and a dog’s heart, for he is truly foul and feverish. This is because he has an outward warmth but an inward coldness, an intolerable thirst, weak limbs, a distaste for the Bread, and an abhorrence of all sweetness. He grows warm toward the world, yet grows cold toward God; he thirsts for the pleasures of the flesh while disdaining the beauty of the virtues; he is insipid toward the commandments of God, yet fervent for all things that belong to the flesh. It’s no wonder, then, that my Body tastes like nothing to them but bread baked in an oven, because they don’t think; they have no taste for spiritual work, only for what is carnal. Therefore, once the Agnus Dei is said and my Body is taken into their own body, the power of the Father departs from them, the most sweet presence of the Son withdraws, and as the sacred vestments are laid aside, the kindness of the Holy Spirit—who is the bond of union—recedes; only the form and the memory of bread remain for them.
Faith Amidst Temptation
The Lord encourages the bride to stand firm in faith, reminding her that His presence remains constant despite human ingratitude and the limitations of reason.
Still, you shouldn't think that he or anyone else, no matter how wicked, exists apart from God; rather, God withdraws by not pouring in greater consolation, yet He remains by tolerating him and defending him from the Devil. Regarding the devil's claim that none of the wise among the Jews would believe this, I answer: those Jews are in the same state as people who have lost their right eyes. That is why they limp on both spiritual feet, and because of this, they are foolish and will remain so until the end. So it's no wonder that the Devil blinds and hardens their hearts, and urges upon them shameful things and whatever is contrary to the faith. Therefore, whenever a thought like that about the Body of Christ enters your mind, take it to your spiritual friends and stand firm in the faith. You should know without a doubt that this Body—which I took from the Virgin’s flesh, which was crucified, and which reigns in heaven—is the very same one that is on the altar, and this is what both the good and the wicked receive. Just as I appeared to the disciples on the road to Emmaus in a different form—even though I was truly God and truly man, the same one who came to the disciples through locked doors—so too do I show myself to priests under a different form, so that faith may have its merit and the ingratitude of men may be revealed. It's no wonder: I am the same now who showed the power of my divinity through signs and terrible wonders, and yet, even then, people said, 'Let us make gods who will go before us.' I also showed my true humanity to the Jews, and they crucified it. I am the same, present daily on the altar, and it is said: 'This food is a source of nausea and temptation for us.' What greater ingratitude could there be than to try to grasp God through human reason, or to dare to judge His hidden judgments and the mysteries that He holds in His own hand? I want to show the unlearned and the humble, through an invisible effect and a visible form, what the visible form of bread is without bread and without substance; what the substance is in its own form; what the division is in a form without substance; and why I endure such indignities and such deformities in my Body, so that the humble may be exalted and the proud confounded.
Read the original Latin
Apparuit sponse in eleuacione corporis Christi quidam teterrimus et ait: "Numquid credis tu, fatua, quod hec tortella panis Deus est? Diu denique consumptus esset, eciam si mons moncium fuisset.
Nullus quippe sapientum Iudeorum, quibus a Deo data est sapiencia, hoc credit, sed nec aliquis credat, quod Deus ab immundissimo sacerdote, qui cor habet caninum, tangi dignatur et amari. Et ut probes quod dico, iste sacerdos meus est, quem cum voluero -- et iam in puncto est -- auferam ad me ipsum."
Tunc statim bonus angelus apparens dixit: "O, filia, non respondeas stulto iuxta stulticiam suam! Ipse enim, qui apparuit tibi, pater est mendacii. Sed esto parata, quia sponsus noster iam est prope."
Qui Sponsus Ihesus veniens ait ad Dyabolum: "Cur," inquit, "conturbas filiam meam et sponsam? Ideo dico filiam, quia creaui eam, ideo sponsam, quia redemi eam et caritate mea copulaui eam michi." Respondit demon: "Ideo loquor, quia permissus sum et ut ipsa refrigesceret in seruicio tuo."
Et Dominus: "Hoc," inquit, "nocte ista experta est, quando et oculos et reliqua membra compressisti, et maiora fecisses, si fuisses admissus, sed quociens ipsa resistit immissionibus tuis, tociens ei duplicabitur corona.
Verumptamen tu, Dyabole, quia dixisti me diu fuisse comestum, eciam fuissem mons, dicito michi audiente filia mea, que corporalis est: Scriptura dicit, quod periente populo erigebatur serpens eneus, quo viso omnis percussus a serpentibus sanabatur;
utrum ista virtus sanatiua erat ex eris fortitudine aut specie serpentis aut de Moysi bonitate seu virtute occulta diuina?"
Respondit demon: "Hec virtus sanacionis a nullo erat nisi propria et sola virtute Dei et fide populi credentis et obedientis, qui sic firmiter credidit Deo, quod Deus, qui de nichilo fecit omnia, eciam omnia posset facere, que non erant prius."
Iterum dixit Deus: "Dicito, demon, quando virga facta est serpens, utrum factum est precipiente Moyse an iubente Deo? Aut quia Moyses sanctus fuit an quia verbum Dei sic dixit?"
Cui demon: "Quid," inquit, "erat Moyses nisi homo infirmus ex se sed iustus ex Deo? Ad cuius verbum, quod iussit et protulit Deus, facta est virga serpens Deo veraciter iubente et Moyse tanquam ministro obsequente.
Nam ante preceptum et verbum Dei virga erat virga; precipiente vero Deo veraciter virga facta est serpens, ita ut et Moyses formidaret."
Tunc Dominus ait ad sponsam ista videntem: "Sic est eciam nunc in altari. Ante enim verba sacramenti panis positus in altari panis est; dicto vero verbo 'Hoc est corpus Christi'
panis fit corpus Christi, quem sumunt et tractant ita boni sicut mali, ita unus sicut mille, eadem veritate sed non eodem effectu, quia bonus ad vitam, malus vero ad iudicium sui.
Quod vero demon dixit Deum fedari ex immundicia offerentis, hoc verissime falsum est. Sicut enim si seruus leprosus ministrat domino claues aut si infirmus offerret fortissimarum herbarum confecciones, nichil hoc obesset ei, cui ministraretur, cum eadem virtus est in eis per qualemcumque offerentur.
Sic Deus nec ex malicia ministri mali fit malus nec ex bono fit melior, quia semper immutabilis est et semper idem. Quod vero dixit deum eum cicius moriturum, hoc nouit ex nature sue subtilitate et ex causis exterioribus, attamen auferre eum non poterit nisi me permittente.
Verumptamen iste sacerdos suus est proprius, nisi se correxerit, et hoc propter tria. Ideo idem demon dixit eum habere membra fetencia et cor caninum, qui vere fetidus est et febricitans,
quia habet calorem exteriorem sed interiorem frigiditatem, sitim intolerabilem, languorem membrorum, panis fastidium et omnis suauitatis abhominacionem. Calescit enim ad mundum, frigescens est ad Deum, sitit voluptatem carnis fastidiens virtutum pulchritudinem, insipidus est ad mandata Dei feruens ad omnia, que sunt carnis.
Ideo non mirum, quia non sapit sibi corpus meum nisi sicut panis coctus in clibano, quia non cogitat; nec sapit ei spirituale opus sed carnale.
Ideo dicto Agnus Dei et sumpto corpore meo in corpus suum discedit ab eo Patris potencia, abscedit et Filii dulcissima presencia, depositis vero sacris vestibus recedit Spiritus sancti benignitas, qui est vinculum coniunccionis; sola autem forma et recordacio panis remanet ei.
Non tamen cogitare debes, quod ipse vel alius quantumcumque malus sine Deo sit, sed recedit Deus maiorem consolacionem non infundendo; permanet vero tolerando eum et a Dyabolo defendendo.
Quod vero Dyabolus dixit nullum sapientum Iudeorum hoc velle credere respondeo: Ipsi Iudei sunt ita dispositi, sicut qui dexteros oculos amiserunt. Ideo claudicant utroque pede spirituali, propter quod et insipientes sunt et erunt usque in finem.
Ergo non mirum, quod Dyabolus excecat et indurat corda eorum et suadet eis impudica et ea, que sunt contra fidem. Itaque quocienscumque aliqua cogitacio talis de corpore Christi occurrerit menti tue, refer ad spirituales amicos tuos et sta stabilis in fide, quia absque dubio scias, quod hoc corpus, quod de virginea carne sumpsi, quod crucifixum est et regnat in celo, hoc idem est in altari et hoc sumunt boni et mali.
Nam sicut ostendi me discipulis euntibus in Emaus in aliena forma, cum tamen essem verus Deus et verus homo ingrediens ad discipulos ianuis clausis, sic sub aliena forma ostendo me sacerdotibus, ut fides habeat meritum et hominum appareat ingratitudo.
Nec mirum: ego enim idem nunc sum, qui ostendi deitatis mee potenciam per signa et terribilia, et adhuc dixerunt tunc homines: 'Faciamus deos, qui nos precedant.' Ego eciam ostendi Iudeis veram humanitatem meam et crucifixerunt illam.
Ego idem quotidie in altari sum, et dicitur: 'Nausea et temptacio est nobis sub cibo isto.' Que ergo maior ingratitudo esse potest quam velle racione comprehendere Deum eiusque occulta iudicia et misteria, que in manu sua propria possidet, audere iudicare?
Ideo indoctis et humilibus ostendere volo inuisibili effectu et visibili forma, quid sit visibilis forma panis sine pane et sine substancia; quid vero substancia in sua forma; quid vero diuisio in forma sine substancia; aut cur tanta indigna et tanta deformia perfero in corpore meo, ut et humiles exaltentur superbique confundantur."
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