Caput 5
The Burden of Inquiry
A seeker brings difficult questions to the Judge regarding the existence of suffering, harmful creatures, and human injustice.
Then the religious man mentioned above appeared and said, "O Judge, why did you create worms that can do harm but no good?" And why did you create fierce beasts that even harm people? Also, why do you send sickness and pain into our bodies? And why do you allow the injustice of wicked judges, who afflict and scourge their subjects as if they were purchased slaves? Also, why is the human body troubled even at the point of death?
The Wisdom of Divine Order
The Judge explains that all creation serves a purpose, using the existence of worms and beasts to teach humanity humility and dependence on God.
The Judge replied, "My friend, I am God and Judge. I created heaven and earth and everything in them, but nothing without a purpose, nor without a spiritual likeness." For just as the souls of the saints are made like the holy angels, who exist in life and happiness, so the souls of the unjust are made like the demons, who exist in eternal death. So, because you asked why I created worms, I answer you that I created them to show the manifold power of my wisdom and goodness. For although they can do harm, they don't do so except by my permission and when sin demands it, so that a person who refuses to submit to their superior might groan to find themselves troubled even by the lowest of creatures, and so that a person might know that without me they are nothing, to whom even irrational things serve, and for whom all things stand ready at my command. "As for why I created fierce beasts, I answer: everything I created was not only good, but very good. They were created either for the benefit and testing of humanity, or for the benefit of other creatures, and so that people might serve Me, their God, with all the more humility, the more blessed they are above all others." However, wild beasts cause harm in temporal matters for two reasons: first, for correction and for the recognition of evils, so that through these scourges, wicked people may understand that they ought to obey Me, their superior. Secondly, they also harm the good, for the advancement of their virtues and for their purification. And because humanity, by sinning, rose up against Me, its God, everything subject to it has also risen up against it.
The Purpose of Suffering
The Judge clarifies that illness, unjust authority, and the pains of death serve as instruments for purification, correction, and the ultimate separation of good from evil.
As for why illness comes to the body, I answer that it happens for greater caution, and also because of the vice of incontinence and excess, so that a person may learn spiritual moderation and patience through the restraint of the flesh. As for why unjust judges are tolerated, it's for the purification of others and because of my patience, so that just as gold is purified by fire, souls are purified, instructed, and drawn back from doing what they shouldn't by the malice of the wicked.1 That is also why I patiently tolerate wicked people, so that the devil's weeds may be separated from the wheat of the good, and so that their greed may be filled by my hidden, divine justice. Also, as to why the body suffers pain in death: it is just that a person should be punished by the same things through which they sin; and because they sin through disordered pleasure, it is fitting that they be punished by bitterness and ordered penalty. For some, death begins here, destined to last forever in hell; for others, death ends in purgatory, and everlasting joy begins.
Read the original Latin
Item apparuit religiosus qui supra dicens: "O iudex, quare creasti vermes, qui nocere possunt et non prodesse?"
"Item cur creasti feroces bestias, que eciam nocent hominibus?"
"Item cur corporibus immittis infirmitates et dolores?"
"Item cur pateris iniquitatem iniquorum iudicum, qui subditos affligunt et flagellant quasi seruos empticios?"
"Item cur corpus hominis tribulatur eciam in puncto mortis?"
Respondit iudex: "Amice, ego Deus et iudex creaui celum et terram et omnia, que in eis sunt, sed nichil sine causa nec sine spiritualium similitudine.
Sicut enim anime sanctorum assimilantur angelis sanctis, qui sunt in vita et felicitate, sic anime iniustorum similantur demonibus, qui sunt in eterna morte.
Ergo, quia quesisti, cur creauerim vermes, respondeo tibi, quod ipsos creaui ad ostendendam multiplicem sapiencie et bonitatis mee potenciam.
Nam licet nocere possint, non tamen nocent nisi permissione mea et exigente peccato, vt homo, qui subdi superiori suo contempnit, eciam ab infimo se tribulari posse ingemiscat sciatque homo se sine me nichil esse, cui eciam irracionabilia seruiunt et omnia stant ad nutum meum."
"Item, cur bestias feroces creaui, respondeo: Omnia, que ego creaui, non solum erant bona sed eciam valde bona, et aut ad vtilitatem hominis et probacionem creata sunt aut ad vtilitatem ceterarum creaturarum et vt homo tanto humilius seruiat michi Deo suo, quo felicior est vniuersis.
Verumptamen bestie in temporalibus nocent duplici de causa: primo ad correpcionem et cognicionem malorum, vt ex flagellis intelligant se homines mali debere obedire michi superiori suo.
Secundo nocent eciam bonis ad profectum virtutum et purgacionem. Et quia homo peccando eleuauit se contra me Deum suum, ideo et omnia subiecta sibi contra eum sunt eleuata."
"Item, cur corpori aduenit infirmitas, respondeo, quod hoc accidit ad maiorem cautelam et eciam propter incontinencie et superfluitatis vicium, vt homo addiscat spiritualem moderanciam et pacienciam per carnis refrenacionem."
"Item, quare iniqui iudices tollerantur, hoc est ad aliorum purgacionem et propter meam pacienciam, vt, sicut aurum purgatur igne, sic ex prauorum malicia anime purgantur et erudiuntur et retrahuntur a non faciendis.
Ideo eciam pacienter tollero homines malos, vt spice dyaboli segregentur a frumento bonorum, vt cupiditas eorum impleatur ex occulta mea diuina iusticia."
"Item, cur corpus patitur penam in morte, iustum est, quod per illa, per que peccat homo, per similia puniatur, et quia peccat delectacione inordinata, dignum est, vt plectatur amaritudine et pena ordinata.
Ideo hic quibusdam incipit mors, in inferno duratura sine fine, aliis finitur mors in purgatorio et inchoatur leticia sempiterna."
Notes
- 1 ↩The Latin 'a non faciendis' literally means 'from things not to be done'; I have rendered this as 'from doing what they shouldn't' to capture the idiomatic sense of moral correction.
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