Caput 14
The Mystery of Suffering
The Judge explains that the suffering of animals and the pain of birth are consequences of the disorder introduced into creation by human sin.
Then the religious man mentioned earlier appeared in his place and said, "O Judge, I ask you: Why do animals suffer hardships, since they won't have eternal life and don't use reason?" And why are all things born in pain, when there is no sin in the birth of all things? Also, why does an infant bear the sin of its father, when it doesn't know how to sin?1 Also, why does it happen more often that things aren't foreseen? Why does the wicked person die a good death, just like the righteous, while the righteous person sometimes dies a bad death, just like the wicked? The Judge replied: "Friend, even though your inquiry doesn't come from charity, I'll answer you for the sake of the charity of others." You're asking why animals suffer from infirmities. This is because everything in them, just like everything else, is disordered. For I am the creator of all natures, and I gave each one its own temperament and the order in which it should move and live. But after man—for whose sake all things were made—turned against his Lover, that is, against me, his God, all other things began to take on his disorder, and everything that should have held him in reverence began to oppose and resist him.2 Because of the flaw of this disorder, many painful and adverse things happen to animals just as they do to man. Animals also suffer at times because of their own natural intemperance, sometimes to soften their wildness and purify their nature, and sometimes because of human sin; so that when the creatures a person loves are struck down and taken away, that person might consider how much punishment they themselves deserve, given that they possess the greater gift of reason. For if it weren't for the sins of humanity, the animals that are under human care wouldn't suffer so uniquely. Yet they don't suffer without great justice, either. For it will be for them either to bring a quicker end to their life, or to lessen the labor of their misery and the wearing down of their strong nature, or it happens because of the changing of the seasons, or it comes from the labor resulting from human neglect. Therefore, let a person fear me, their God, above all others, and let them be all the more gentle toward my creatures and animals, for whom they ought to have mercy because of me, their Creator. This is why I, God, commanded the Sabbath for man: because I care for every creature I have made. Again, why is everything born into pain? I answer: when humanity turned away from the most beautiful delight, it immediately fell into a life of labor. Since disorder began in man and through man, it is my justice that even for other creatures, which exist for the sake of man, there should be some bitterness to temper their pleasure and sustain their nourishment.
The Call to True Rest
Humanity is born into labor and pain to encourage a longing for eternal rest, necessitating a humble and loving response toward the Creator.
So, a person is born into pain and moves through life in labor, so that they might strive to hasten toward true rest. Yet they die naked and poor, so that they might curb their disordered impulses and fear the judgment to come. Animals also give birth in pain for this reason: so that bitterness might temper their excess, and they might share in the labor and pain of humanity. Therefore, the more noble a human being is compared to animals, the more fervently they should love Me, the Lord their God and Creator.
Inheritance and Divine Justice
The Judge clarifies that while children are born into a fallen state, each individual is ultimately responsible for their own sins, though parental influence remains significant.
Again, regarding why a child bears the sins of a parent, I answer: Can anything that comes from an unclean source ever be clean? And so, when the first man lost that beauty of innocence through disobedience, he was cast out from the paradise of joy and became wrapped in impurity. Therefore, no one was found capable of recovering this innocence on their own. Therefore, I, the merciful God, coming in the flesh, instituted baptism, by which a child is freed from corrupt impurity and from sin. Because of this, a son won't bear the sin of his father; instead, each person will die and be punished for his own sin.✦ Still, it often happens that children imitate the sins of their parents. This is why the sins of fathers are sometimes punished in their children—not because the fathers' sins will go unpunished in them, even if the penalty for those sins is delayed for a time, but because everyone will die and be punished for their own sin. Sometimes, as it is written, the sins of the fathers are visited upon the fourth generation, because it is my divine justice that when children fail to seek to appease my anger—neither for themselves nor for their fathers—they are punished along with the fathers whom they have followed in opposing me.
The Unsearchable Counsel of God
God explains that unforeseen events and trials are permitted to humble the human heart and prevent reliance on worldly wisdom.
As to why things that aren't foreseen happen so often, I answer: It is written that a person will be punished by the very things through which they sin. And who could ever understand the counsel of God? Because many seek me, but not according to knowledge—rather, they seek me for the sake of the world—and because some fear more than they should, others are too presumptuous, and others take pride in their own plans, I, God, who work the salvation of all, sometimes cause that very thing to happen which a person fears most. Sometimes what you love more than is right is taken away, and sometimes what you look forward to and desire with too much anxiety is kept at a distance, so that you might always fear, love, and acknowledge me, your God, above all else.
The Meaning of Death
The Judge clarifies that the manner of death does not determine one's eternal state, as God uses both good and bad deaths to reward, test, or purify the soul.
"Again, you ask why a wicked person sometimes dies a good death, just as a righteous one does. My answer is this: wicked people sometimes possess certain good things and perform certain works of justice, for which they must be rewarded in this life." Likewise, the righteous also sometimes do certain evil things, for which they must be chastised or tested in this life.3 Because everything in this present life is uncertain and everything is reserved for the future, and because there is one entrance for everyone, there should also be one exit for everyone; for it isn't the exit that makes a person blessed, but the life they lived. Still, the fact that the wicked meet the same end as the righteous comes from my divine justice, because they chose that end for themselves. For the devil, foreseeing the end of his friends, sometimes announces the time of their death to them to stir up their presumption, vain glory, and deception—just as is found in those books called Apocryphal—so that after death they might be praised as if they were righteous. On the other hand, a painful death sometimes comes to the righteous for their greater merit, so that those who were always diligent in virtue throughout their lives might fly freely to heaven through a despised death, and so that no remnants might be found needing to be cleansed; for it is written that a lion killed a disobedient prophet, yet did not eat the corpse, but guarded it. As for the lion killing the body, what else does that signify but my divine permission, so that the prophet's disobedience might be punished?✦ The fact that the lion didn't eat the body was a sign of the prophet's good works, so that, having been purified in this life, he might be found righteous in the next.
The Fear of the Lord
The chapter concludes with a warning against pridefully scrutinizing divine judgments, urging instead a humble acceptance of God's incomprehensible wisdom.
Therefore, everyone should be afraid to pick apart my judgments, because just as I am incomprehensible in my power and strength, so am I terrible in my counsels and my judgments. For some, wanting to grasp me by their own wisdom, have fallen away from their hope.
Read the original Latin
Item apparuit religiosus qui supra in gradu suo dicens: "O iudex, quero a te: Cur animalia paciuntur incommoda, cum non habebunt eternam vitam nec vtuntur racione?"
"Item cur nascuntur omnia cum dolore, cum in omnium natiuitate non sit peccatum?"
"Item cur infans portat peccatum patris, cum non nouit peccare?"
"Item cur hoc contingit frequencius, quod non preuidetur?"
"Item cur moritur malus bona morte sicut iustus et iustus quandoque mala morte sicut iniustus?"
Respondit iudex: "Amice, licet inquisicio tua non sit ex caritate, tamen respondeo tibi ad aliorum caritatem. Queris, cur animalia paciuntur infirmitates.
Hoc ideo est, quia in eis sicut in ceteris omnia sunt inordinata. Nam ego sum omnium naturarum conditor et dedi vnicuique nature temperamentum suum et ordinem, in quo vnumquodque moueretur et viueret.
Verum postquam homo, propter quem omnia facta sunt, dilectori suo, idest michi Deo suo, se opposuit, ceperunt et omnia alia inordinacionem suam suscipere et omnia, quecumque ei reuereri deberent, ceperunt se ei opponere et aduersari.
Propterea ex huius inordinacionis vicio sicut homini sic et animalibus plurima contingunt molesta et aduersa.
Ceterum animalia eciam quandoque paciuntur propter intemperanciam nature sue, quandoque propter mitigacionem feritatis sue et purgacionem ipsius nature, quandoque propter peccata hominum, vt, cum illa plagantur et subtrahuntur, que diligit homo, attendat ipse homo, quanta pena dignus sit, qui maiori vtitur racione.
Etenim nisi exigerent peccata hominum, non ita singulariter animalia, que ad manum hominis sunt, affligerentur. Sed nec ipsa sine magna iusticia paciuntur.
Nam aut erit eis ad celeriorem vite finem aut ad minorem miserie laborem et nature fortis consumpcionem aut propter mutacionem temporum aut ex incuria hominis labore proueniente.
Timeat ergo homo pre ceteris me Deum suum et tanto micior sit circa creaturas meas et animalia, quibus et propter me, earum creatorem, misereri debet.
Ideo enim ego Deus precepi homini de sabbato, quia cura est michi de omnia creatura mea."
"Item, cur omnia nascuntur cum dolore, respondeo: Homo, quando contempsit delectacionem pulcherrimam, statim incurrit vitam laboriosam.
Et quia inordinacio cepit in homine et per hominem, iusticia mea est, vt eciam aliis creaturis, que sunt propter hominem, aliqua amaritudo sit propter temperamentum delectamenti sui et fomentum nutrimenti sui.
Ergo nascitur homo cum dolore et progreditur cum labore, vt ad quietem veram festinare studeat. Moritur vero nudus et pauper, vt refrenet inordinatum motum suum et timeat futuram discussionem.
Animalia eciam ideo pariunt cum dolore, vt excessum temperet amaritudo et participes sint hominis in labore et dolore. Propterea homo, quanto nobilior est animalibus, tanto feruencius diligat me Dominum Deum, creatorem suum."
"Item, cur puer portat peccata patris, respondeo: Omne, quod de immundo procedit, numquid poterit esse mundum?
Itaque primus homo, quando illam pulchritudinem innocencie propter inobedienciam amisit, eiectus est a paradiso gaudii et inuolutus est in immundis. Ad hanc ergo innocenciam recuperandam nullus ex se ipso inuentus est sufficiens.
Ideo ego misericors Deus in carne veniens institui baptismum, quo puer liberatur a praua immundicia et a peccato. Et propter hoc filius non portabit peccatum patris sed vnusquisque in peccato suo morietur.
Verumptamen multociens contingit, quod filii imitantur peccata parentum. Ideo et quandoque puniuntur peccata patrum in filiis, non quia peccata patrum in ipsis impunita erunt, licet pene peccatorum transferantur ad tempus, sed vnusquisque in peccato suo morietur et punietur.
Quandoque eciam peccata patrum, sicut scriptum est, visitantur in quartam generacionem, quia diuina iusticia mea est, vt, cum filii nec pro se nec pro patribus studeant mitigare iram meam, puniantur cum patribus, quos contra me secuti sunt."
"Item, cur hoc, quod non preuidetur, prouenit frequencius, respondeo: Scriptum est, quod per ea, per que peccat homo, punietur. Et quis intelligere poterit consilium Dei?
Propterea, quia multi querunt me, sed non secundum scienciam sed propter mundum, alii plus iusto timent, alii nimis presumunt, alii in consilis suis superbiunt, ideo ego Deus, qui omnium operor salutem, facio quandoque illud prouenire, quod homo plus timet;
quandoque aufertur illud, quod plus iusto diligitur, quandoque, quod sollicicius preuidetur et desideratur, elongatur, vt homo pre omnibus semper me Deum suum timeat, diligat et agnoscat."
"Item, cur homo malus moritur bona morte sicut iustus, respondeo: Mali habent quandoque quedam bona et faciunt quedam iusticie opera, pro quibus in presenti remunerandi sunt.
Similiter et iusti aliquando faciunt quedam mala, pro quibus in presenti flagellandi sunt aut expectandi.
Ideo, quia in presenti omnia incerta sunt et omnia reseruantur in futurum et quia vnus est omnium introitus, ideo et vnus exitus omnium debet esse, quia non exitus sed vita beatum facit hominem.
Verumptamen quod malis aduenit exitus sicut iustis, hoc est ex diuina iusticia mea, quia illum exitum ipsi desiderabant.
Nam dyabolus, preuidens suorum amicorum exitus, prenunciat eis quandoque mortis tempora ad presumpcionem eorum et vanam gloriam et decepcionem, sicut in illis libris, qui Apocrifi intitulantur, inuenitur, vt post mortem quasi iusti laudentur.
Et econtra iustis prouenit quandoque flebilis exitus ad eorum maius meritum, vt, qui semper in vita sua in virtutibus solliciti fuerunt, per mortem contemptibilem liberi euolarent ad celum, quatenus nec ipsa perismata mundanda inuenirentur, sicut enim scriptum est, quod leo occidit prophetam inobedientem et non comedit ex cadauere sed custodiuit illud.
Quod enim leo occidit corpus, quid aliud innuitur nisi permissio mea diuina, vt inobediencia prophete puniretur?
Quod vero leo non comedit de cadauere, ostensio bonorum operum prophete fuit, vt purgatus in presenti in futuro iustus inueniretur.
Propterea timeat vnusquisque discutere iudicia mea, quia sicut incomprehensibilis ego sum virtute et potencia, sic terribilis sum in consiliis et iudiciis meis. Me etenim volentes quidam comprehendere in sapiencia sua exciderunt a spe sua."
Scripture echoes
- ↩Ezek.18.20 — The soul that sins—it shall die. A son shall not bear the iniquity of the father, and a father shall not bear the iniquity of the son. The righteousness of the righteous shall be upon him, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon him.
- ↩1Kgs.13.24 — And when he had gone, a lion found him on the road and killed him. His corpse was thrown down on the road, and the donkey was standing beside it, and the lion was standing beside the carcass.
Notes
- 1 ↩The Latin 'peccatum patris' refers to the transmission of original sin, a standard theological point in the medieval tradition.
- 2 ↩The Latin 'dilectori suo' is rendered as 'his Lover' to capture the personal, covenantal relationship implied by the context of the Creator speaking to the soul.
- 3 ↩The term 'expectandi' here carries the sense of being held in waiting or under trial/testing, rather than merely 'expected'.
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