Christus recipit ad misericordiam precibus matris sue quendam episcopum nudum bonis operibus sed nouiter conuersum ad contricionem et bonum et sanctum propositum vite. Et induit eum misericordia et diuina dulcedine, informando eum, qualiter humiliter viuat sine cupiditate et qualiter delinquentes subditos cum misericordia et iusticia corrigat.
The Return of the Prodigal Prelate
Christ describes the three-fold interior conversion of a wayward prelate who returns to Him in humility, nakedness, and contrition.
The Son speaks: "That prelate for whom you, my bride, are asking me, has now returned to me in three ways: first, like a man stripped bare; second, like one holding a sword in his hand; and third, like one reaching out his hand to ask for mercy." Because of my mother’s prayers, I’m now turning toward him and will meet him just as a mother meets a son who was lost and has been found. And although my apostles offered me their prayers for him, they still found little grace for him, because after he took on the dignity of my Church, he was against me and did not stand up for her as a good prelate should. Now, however, I will clothe him so he isn't naked. What is his nakedness, if not his few good works? These good works should have clothed his soul with virtues, yet it appears naked in my sight, even though it seemed clothed to him. I will give him help now, because of the prayers of my mother and my saints, so that he may be covered and clothed, since he came to me naked. Yet he comes naked when he thinks like this to himself: 'I have nothing good of my own; I can do nothing good without God, and I am worthy of no good thing.' 'For if I knew how I could please God and what is pleasing to Him, I would gladly do it, even if I had to die.' Through such a thought, he comes to me stripped bare. So I will go out to meet him and clothe him. He also held a sword in his hands as he considered the severity of my judgment, saying to himself: 'God's judgment is unbearable and impossible to escape, so I willingly accept everything that God wills for me.' And I'm ready to align my will with His, because I have no good works of my own. “Let it be done according to His will, not mine!” This thought and this resolve took the sword of my severity away from him and brought him mercy. He reached out his hand a third time, thinking to himself, 'I know that I have sinned beyond measure and am worthy of judgment.' Yet, trusting in your goodness, Lord God, I hope for help. For you didn't reject Paul the persecutor, nor did you despise Magdalene the sinner. Therefore, Lord, I turn to you, so that you may act toward me according to your great kindness and mercy. Because of this thought and this desire, I will reach out to him with the hand of my mercy and increase his sense of my sweetness, provided he courageously carries out these three things that I am about to tell him.
The Stewardship of Mercy and Justice
Christ instructs the prelate on the practical application of humility, detachment, and the balanced exercise of mercy and justice in his pastoral duties.
First, he must strip away all pride and showiness from himself and embrace true humility. Second, he should remove all greed from himself, so that he holds the temporal things granted to him as if he were a good steward who must give an account to his master. Third, he should be diligent not to overlook his own sin or the sin of those under his care, but to correct them with both justice and mercy, keeping in mind my own works: for out of mercy I gathered tax collectors and sinners, while out of justice I rejected the proud. Isn't it written that when someone came to me and said, 'Master, I will follow you wherever you go,' I answered him, 'No, because foxes have dens'? And why did I reject him, if not because I saw his heart and his will? Because he wanted to have glory and support without labor, and for that reason, he was justly turned away by me. He should do the same. For whenever an offender comes to him, humbling himself and showing a proper willingness to make amends, and asks for mercy, he is then bound to show that person mercy. But if you find someone who remains set on sinning and refuses to turn back, you should discipline them with moderate and careful lashes, or fine them. He must be careful, however, not to carry out that discipline out of greed, but out of love and justice. He should use that money in ways that allow him to give a good account of it to God, specifically by ensuring the money was taken from the offender with justice and mercy, and then spent wisely on divine purposes. If, however, someone who has been punished once with a fine still refuses to come to their senses, then strip them of their position and higher rank, so that they might remain in confusion like a donkey that, while carrying a golden saddle, is thought to be of great importance, but once it's taken away, is dismissed as a mindless animal just as it was before. I, the Creator of all things, do the same. For I first discipline a person through temporary hardship, through illness, and through things contrary to their own will; and if they then refuse to repent, I withdraw my mercy from them and leave them to the punishment prepared for them by justice.1
Read the original Latin
Filius loquitur: "Ille prelatus, pro quo tu, sponsa, rogas me, iam reuersus est ad me tripliciter: primo sicut homo nudus, secundo sicut habens in manu gladium, tercio sicut extendens manum et petens veniam.
Ideo propter preces matris mee ego eciam iam conuerto me ad ipsum et occurram ei quasi mater adepto filio perdito.
Et quamuis apostoli mei preces suas pro eo michi optulerunt, modicam tamen graciam pro eo habuerunt, quia postquam iste dignitatem suscepit ecclesie mee, contrarius michi fuit nec vt prelatus bonus pro ea se posuit.
Nunc autem vestiam eum, ne nudus sit. Quid est nuditas eius nisi pauca bona opera eius? Que quidem opera bona deberent vestire animam eius virtutibus, que nuda in conspectu meo apparet, quamuis sibi vestita videbatur.
Ego dabo ei auxilium nunc propter preces matris mee et sanctorum meorum, vt tegi et indui possit, quia nudus venit ad me. Tunc autem venit nudus, quando sic cogitat apud se:
'Ego nichil boni habeo a me, nichil boni possum sine Deo nec dignus sum alicuius boni. Si enim scirem, quomodo placare possem Deum et quid est placitum ei, eciam si mori deberem, libenter facerem.'
Per talem itaque cogitacionem venit ipse nudus ad me. Ideo ego occurram ei et vestiam eum.
Habuit eciam gladium in manibus, quando considerabat iudicii mei austeritatem dicens apud se: 'Iudicium Dei intollerabile est et impossibile fugere et ideo illa omnia, que vult Deus de me, ego libenter volo.
Et paratus sum ad voluntatem eius cum voluntate mea, quia nulla habeo bona opera. Fiat secundum voluntatem eius et non secundum meam!' Hec cogitacio et hec voluntas abstulit ab eo gladium seueritatis mee et attulit ad eum misericordiam.
Tercio porrexit manum tunc, quando considerabat sic apud se: 'Ego scio me vltra modum peccasse ac iudicio dignum. Attamen de bonitate tua, Domine Deus, confidens spero auxilium.
Non enim spreuisti Paulum persecutorem nec contempsisti Magdalenam peccatricem. Ideo, Domine, verto me ad te, vt facias michi secundum magnam pietatem et misericordiam tuam.'
Pro hac enim cogitacione et hoc desiderio porrigam ei manum misericordie mee et augmentabo ei dulcedinem meam, si tamen hec tria, que loquar, viriliter compleuerit.
Debet enim primo auferre a se omnem superbiam et ostentacionem et assumere veram humilitatem. Secundo auferat a se omnem cupiditatem, vt temporalia ista ei concessa habeat quasi homo dispensator bonus domino suo redditurus racionem.
Tercio sit sollicitus, vt peccatum suum et suorum subditorum non negligat sed cum iusticia et misericordia corrigat, considerando opera mea, qui ex misericordia collegi publicanos et meretrices, qui ex iusticia contempsi superbientes.
Numquid non scribitur, quod quodam veniente ad me et dicente: 'Magister, sequar te, quo vadis', respondi ei: 'Non, quia vulpes foueas habent'?
Et quare contempsi eum, nisi quia vidi cor eius et voluntatem? Quia voluit habere gloriam et sustentacionem sine labore et ideo ex iusticia fuit a me refutatus.
Sic faciat et ipse. Quicumque enim delinquens venerit ad eum humilians se et emendacionem congruam exhibens pecierit veniam, tunc ipse misericordiam illi facere tenetur.
Quem autem in voluntate peccandi manere deprehenderit nec resipiscere voluerit, castiget eum moderate et discrete flagellis aut multabit eum pecunia.
Caueat tamen, quod non faciat illam castigacionem propter cupiditatem sed propter caritatem et iusticiam.
Et illam pecuniam in tales vsus conuertat, quod bonam racionacionem Deo reddere valeat, videlicet quod secundum iusticiam misericorditer ab illo delinquente illa pecunia ablata sit et sapienter in vsus diuinos erogata.
Si autem ille castigatus semel pena pecunie noluerit adhuc resipiscere, tunc priuet eum beneficio et gradu alciori, vt sic ille confusus remaneat tamquam asinus, qui, cum portauerit auream sellam, magne reputacionis creditur, illa vero ablata vt animal insensatum dimittitur sicut prius.
Sic eciam ego, omnium conditor, facio. Ego enim primo castigo hominem per tribulacionem temporalem, per infirmitatem et voluntati sue contraria, et si tunc ipse resipiscere noluerit, tunc aufero ab eo misericordiam meam et dimitto eum in penam sibi ex iusticia preparatam."
Notes
- 1 ↩The Latin 'resipiscere' is rendered as 'repent' to capture the sense of coming to one's senses and turning back to God.
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