Verba sponse ad Christum magnificam misericordiam, quam Christus cum ea fecerat, manifestancia et verba Christi ad sponsam eandem misericordiam dulciter in sponsa confirmancia; et qualiter ipsam elegit in vas implendum vino et per ipsam Dei seruitoribus propinando; et de grata interrogacione et humili sponse ad Christum.
The Sweetness of Divine Words
The bride expresses profound gratitude and wonder at the spiritual sweetness and consolation she experiences when receiving the words of Christ.
Honor be to Almighty God for all that has been created; praise be to Him for all His virtues; may honor and service be rendered to Him for all His love. I, an unworthy person who from my youth have sinned much against You, my God, give thanks to You, my sweetest God, and especially for this: that no one is so sinful that You would deny them Your mercy, provided they ask for it from You with love, true humility, and a resolve to amend their life. O, dearest God, most beloved of all! It’s a wonder to everyone who hears what you’ve done for me. For when it pleases you, you lull my body to sleep—not with physical slumber, however, but with spiritual rest. You rouse my soul then, as if from sleep, to see and hear and perceive things spiritually. O Lord God, how sweet the words from your mouth are! It truly seems to me, whenever I hear the words of your Spirit, that my soul swallows them up with a sense of ineffable sweetness, like the most delicious food, which seems to fall into the heart of my body with great joy and ineffable consolation. It seems a wonderful thing, however, that while I listen to your words, I become both things at once: satisfied and famished. I’m satisfied because at that moment I desire nothing else but those words; yet I’m famished because my hunger for them is always growing. Blessed, therefore, are You, my God, Jesus Christ. Give me, therefore, Lord, Your help, so that I may be able to accomplish throughout all the days of my life what is pleasing to You.
The Vessel of Divine Grace
Christ explains his sovereignty over creation and his choice to use the bride as a vessel to pour out his life-giving words to others.
Christ answered, "I am without beginning and without end; all things were created by my power and ordered by my wisdom." Everything is also governed by my judgment, and nothing is impossible for me, and truly all my works are arranged with love. A heart that refuses to love me or fear me is far too hard, since I am both the provider for all people and their judge. They do the will of the devil, who is my officer and the betrayer of those very people. He has, in fact, offered such a deadly poison to the world that any soul who tastes it with delight cannot live; instead, it dies and falls into hell, into miseries, even though it is destined to live forever. This poison is sin, which, though it may taste sweet to many, in the end turns horribly bitter. This is most certainly poison from the hand of the Devil, drunk with delight at every hour; and who has ever heard of such things, or of a greater wonder? For life is offered to people, yet they choose death and embrace it willingly. But I, who am powerful over all things, have compassion for their misery and great distress. For I have acted like a rich and generous king who, in sending precious wine to his familiar servants, would say: 'Serve this wine to many more than just yourselves, for it is deeply healing!' It restores health to the sick, comfort to the sorrowful, and a courageous heart to those who are well. Wine, too, isn't sent without a vessel. This is truly how I have acted in this kingdom. I have indeed sent my words to my servants—words compared to the finest wine—and they will pass them on to others, because they are life-giving.1 By 'vessel,' though, I mean you, since you listen to my words. You’ve done both: you’ve listened to my words and you’ve spoken them, because you are my own vessel, which I’ll fill whenever I wish, and from which I’ll pour out whatever pleases me. And so my Spirit will show you where you must go and what you should say. Don't fear anyone but me; go joyfully wherever I want you to go, and speak fearlessly whatever I command you, since nothing can resist me and I want to remain with you.
The Humble Inquiry
The bride humbly questions why Christ would choose someone as unworthy as herself for such a high calling.
Then the bride spoke: "I," she said, "having heard this voice, answered with tears: 'O my Lord God, I, who am like the smallest gnat in your power, ask that you grant me permission to answer you.'" A voice answered, "I knew your response before you even thought of it." Even so, I grant you permission to speak." Then the bride said: "I answered: Why do you, O King of all glory, the source of all wisdom, the worker of all virtues, and Virtue itself, want to choose me for such a task—I who have wasted my body in sins, who in terms of wisdom am like a donkey, and who am deficient in the practice of virtue?" Do not be angry with me, sweetest God, Jesus Christ, because I have questioned you like this. It's no wonder that you can do whatever you wish; but I am completely amazed at myself, because I have offended you in so many ways and have done so little to change.
The King's Currency
Christ uses the analogy of a king melting down coins to explain his sovereign right to shape and use the hearts of his servants for his glory.
A voice also answered, saying, "I'm answering you by way of a comparison." If various coins were presented to a rich and powerful king, which the king would later have melted down and fashioned into whatever he pleased, For instance, if a king were to use gold coins to make crowns and rings, silver coins to make bowls and drinking vessels, and copper coins to make pots and pans—all for his own convenience and honor—you wouldn't be surprised that he would do such a thing. So you shouldn't be surprised that I gladly accept the hearts of my friends when they offer them to me, and that I do with them whatever I please. And although some may have a greater sense of things and others a lesser one, still, as long as they offer their hearts to me, I use some for one purpose and others for another, but all of them for my glory and honor, since the heart of a righteous person is currency that pleases me above all else. And so, I can arrange what is mine however I want. Since you are mine, you shouldn't be surprised by what I choose to do with you; instead, be constant and steady in enduring, and willing to do whatever I command you. For in every place, I have the power to give you everything you need.
Read the original Latin
"Honor sit omnipotenti Deo pro omnibus que creata sunt; laus sit ei pro omnibus suis virtutibus; decus et seruicium reddatur ei pro omni caritate sua.
Ego indigna persona, que a iuuentute mea multa contra te Deum meum deliqueram, regracior tibi, dulcissime Deus meus, et propter hoc maxime, quod nullus ita criminosus est, quod ei misericordiam tuam deneges, qui cum caritate et vera humilitate misericordiam a te postulat cum proposito emendandi.
O, carissime Deus et omnium dilectissime! Mirabile omnibus audientibus est illud, quod tu fecisti mecum. Nam quando placet tibi, tunc sopis corpus meum, non tamen cum sopore corporali sed quiete spirituali.
Animam autem meam tunc quasi a sompno excitas ad videndum et audiendum atque senciendum spiritualiter. O, Domine Deus, o, quam dulcia sunt oris tui verba!
Videtur vere michi, quociens verba Spiritus tui audio, quod anima mea in se illa degluciat cum quodam sentimento ineffabilis dulcedinis sicut suauissimum cibum, qui cadere videtur in cor corporis mei cum magno gaudio et ineffabili consolacione.
Mirabile tamen hoc esse videtur, quod dum verba tua audio tunc utrumque efficior scilicet saciata et famelica. Propter hoc autem saciata, quia nichil tunc aliud michi libet nisi illa; propter hoc vero famelica, quia semper augetur appetitus meus ad illa.
Benedictus igitur sis tu, Deus meus Ihesu Christe. Da ergo michi, Domine, auxilium tuum, ut omnibus diebus vite mee que tibi placita sunt perficere valeam!"
Christus autem respondit dicens: "Ego sum sine principio et sine fine, et omnia creata sunt ex potencia mea et ordinata ex mea sapiencia. Omnia eciam reguntur ex meo iudicio nichilque michi impossibile est, et vere omnia opera mea cum caritate disposita sunt.
Et ideo nimis durum est cor illud, quod non vult diligere me nec timere, cum sim utrumque scilicet omnium hominum nutritor et iudex. Dyaboli autem, qui lictor meus est et ipsorum hominum proditor, voluntatem faciunt.
Ipse denique tam pestiferum virus in mundo propinauit, quod viuere non potest anima illud delectabiliter pregustans sed mortua in infernum cadit in miseriis tamen eternaliter victura. Hoc autem virus peccatum est, quod licet multis dulciter sapit, in fine tamen horribiliter amarescet.
Hoc certissime venenum de manu Dyaboli bibitur cum delectacione omni hora, et quis talia audiuit unquam aut maius mirum? Prebetur enim hominibus vita, et ipsi mortem eligunt et voluntarie amplectuntur.
Ego autem, qui sum potens super omnia, compacior eorum miserie et angustie magne. Ego enim feci sicut rex diues et caritatiuus, qui mittens familiaribus seruitoribus suis preciosum vinum diceret ita: 'Propinate vinum pluribus quam vobis solis, quoniam valde salubre est!
Hoc enim egris sanitatem reddit, mestis consolacionem et sanis hominibus cor virile. Vinum eciam non mittitur sine vase.'
Vere sic ego feci in hoc regno. Ego quidem seruitoribus meis misi verba mea, que vino optimo comparantur, et ipsi aliis ea dabunt, quoniam salubria sunt.
Per vas autem te intelligo, que verba mea audis. Nam tu utrumque fecisti, quia verba audisti et protulisti, quia tu es vas meum proprium, quod implebo, dum voluero, et ex eo, quod michi placuerit, exhaurio.
Et ideo Spiritus meus monstrabit tibi, quo pergere debeas et quid loquaris. Et neminem timeas nisi me sed gaudenter, quocumque voluero, debes pergere et intrepida dicere, quod tibi mandauero, quoniam michi nichil potest resistere et ego tecum volo manere."
Deinde loquebatur sponsa: "Ego," inquit, "que audiui hanc vocem cum lacrimis respondi sic: O, mi domine Deus, ego, que sum quasi minima culex in potestate tua, rogo, ut des michi licenciam respondere tibi."
Vox respondit dicens: "Ego responsionem tuam prius noui, quam tu eam cogitasti. Verumptamen do tibi loquendi licenciam."
Tunc inquit sponsa: "Ego respondi: Quare tu, o, omnis glorie rex et omnis sapiencie infusor atque omnium virtutum operator et ipsa virtus, ad tale officium me vis assumere, que corpus in peccatis consumpseram, que quo ad sapienciam sum similis asino et ad virtutum operacionem defectuosa?
Noli michi, dulcissime Deus Ihesu Christe, propter hoc irasci, quod sic te interrogaui. Nichil enim mirandum est de te, quoniam facere potes quidquid volueris; de me autem totaliter miror, quoniam in multis te offendi et parum emendaui."
Vox quoque respondit dicens: "Ego per similitudinem tibi respondeo. Si regi diuiti et potenti diuerse monete presentarentur, quas postea rex conflari faceret et quidquid sibi placeret ex eis fabricari,
utputa coronas et anulos de moneta aurea, scutellas et vasa bibitoria de moneta argentea, lebetes et sartagines de moneta cuprea, hiis quoque rex uteretur ad suum commodum et honorem, unde, cum non mirareris, quod ipse sic faceret,
ideo non magis tibi mirandum sit, quod ego amicorum meorum corda per ipsos michi presentata libens accipio de eis, quod michi placet, faciendo.
Et quamuis aliqui maiorem sensum habeant, aliqui autem minorem, tamen dum ipsi corda sua michi presentant, tunc aliquibus utor ad unum, aliquibus ad aliud, omnibus autem ad meam gloriam et honorem, quoniam cor iusti est moneta michi summe placens.
Et ideo ea que mea sunt ordinare possum, sicut volo. Et cum tu mea sis, mirari non habes de hiis que tecum facere voluero, sed constans et stabilis esto ad sustinendum et voluntaria ad faciendum, quidquid tibi precepero. In omnibus enim locis sum potens omnia tibi dare necessaria."
Notes
- 1 ↩The term 'salubria' (health-giving/life-giving) is rendered here to reflect the restorative, medicinal quality of the words mentioned in the previous section.
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