Christus loquens sponse dicit ei, quod ipsa debet diligere eum sicut seruus bonus dominum suum, sicut filius bonus patrem et sicut uxor fidelis maritum suum, que nunquam ab eo debet separari; et exponit omnia spiritualiter et utiliter.
The Threefold Bond of Love
Christ describes his relationship with the soul using the metaphors of master, father, and husband, calling for reciprocal devotion.
The Son says: "I love you just as a good master loves his servant, as a father loves his son, and as a husband loves his wife." For the Master says to the servant: 'I'll give you clothing, proper food, and moderate labor.' The father says to the son, "Everything I have is yours." The husband says to the wife, "My rest is your rest, and my consolation is your consolation." What, then, will these three answer for such great love? A servant, if he's good, will certainly say to his master: 'Because I am of a servile condition, I will serve you rather than anyone else.' A good son will say to his father, "Because I have every good thing from you, I don't want to be separated from you." A wife, however, will say to her husband, "Because I am sustained by your labor, and I have warmth from your heart and sweetness in your words, I would rather die than be separated from you." Yet I am God, that very man. The soul, however, is my bride, who ought to find comfort in my rest and be refreshed by the food of my divinity; it is her duty to endure any torment rather than be separated from me, because without me she has neither comfort nor honor.
The Interior Household of the Soul
The soul is likened to a household that must possess virtues, discernment, and disciplined carnal affection to be complete.
But two things are necessary for a marriage: first, the resources to support the couple; and second, a child to inherit their estate, while a servant is there to do the work—just as we read of Abraham, who was troubled because he had no son. The soul has the goods of sustenance when it is full of virtues. It also has a son when it possesses the reason of discernment—that is, the ability to distinguish virtues from vices—and when it discerns according to God. It also has a servant—that is, carnal affection—which doesn't live according to the cravings of the flesh, but rather as is fitting for the body and in a way that helps the soul reach perfection.
The Call to Faithful Service
Christ reiterates his love and warns against the body's tendency to abandon divine service for the anxieties of the world.
Therefore, I love you as a husband loves his wife, because my rest is your rest. It’s your place, then, to endure every trial more willingly than to provoke me to anger. I also love you as a master loves a servant, whom I have commanded to have moderate necessities and measured labor. But this servant—that is, the body—is so senseless that it would rather serve the Devil than me. And the Devil never gives it any rest from the anxieties of the world.
Read the original Latin
Filius loquitur: "Ego diligo te sicut dominus bonus seruum suum et sicut pater filium et sicut vir uxorem. Dominus enim dicit seruo: 'Dabo tibi vestes, victum congruum et laborem moderatum.'
Ad filium autem dicit pater: 'Omnia mea tua sunt.' Vxori vero dicit vir: 'Requies mea requies tua et consolacio mea consolacio tua est.'
Quid igitur isti tres respondebunt pro tanta dileccione? Vtique seruus, si bonus est, dicturus est domino: 'Quia seruilis sum condicionis, magis tibi seruiam quam alteri.'
Filius vero dicturus est patri: 'Quia omne bonum habeo a te, ideo a te separari nolo.' Vxor autem dicet marito: 'Quia de labore tuo sustentor, calorem de pectore tuo habeo et dulcedinem in verbis, ideo magis mori volo quam a te separari.'
Ego autem Deus sum vir iste. Anima vero est sponsa mea, que consolari debet in requie mea, refici cibo deitatis mee, ad quam pertinet omnia tormenta magis sustinere quam se a me separare, quia sine me nec habet consolacionem nec honorem.
Sed ad coniugium duo pertinent: primo bona, unde sustententur coniuges, secundo filius, qui recipiat eorum hereditatem, seruus vero sit ad obsequium faciendum, sicut legitur de Abraam, qui ex eo, quod non habebat filium, turbabatur.
Itaque anima tunc habet bona sustentacionis, quando virtutibus plena est. Habet eciam filium, quando habet racionem discrecionis, scilicet discernendi virtutes a viciis, et quando discernit secundum Deum.
Habet et seruum, id est carnalem affectum, qui non viuit secundum concupiscenciam carnis sed prout expedit corpori et secundum quod anima perficiatur.
Igitur diligo te sicut vir uxorem, quia requies mea requies tua. Ideo tuum est omnem tribulacionem magis libenter sustinere quam me ad iram prouocare.
Diligo quoque te sicut dominus seruum, cui precepi habere necessaria moderata et laborem temperatum. Sed hic seruus, id est corpus ita insensatum est, quod magis velit seruire Dyabolo quam michi. Qui Dyabolus nunquam dat ei requiem a sollicitudinibus mundi."
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