Quod rationalis creatura nonnisi in beatitudinis adeptione quiescit, et quare cum beatitudinem optet, viam tamen qua eam obtineat, mira infelicitate relinquat.
The Soul's Unrest Apart from Beatitude
The rational soul is made for the highest good and finds no rest or satisfaction in anything less, yet humanity's blind perversity leads it to flee from the very path that leads to true happiness.
For this prerogative is yours, O rational soul, above all other living creatures: that rising above the senses of the flesh, you may press toward higher things, and never satisfy your desire until you arrive, with a blessed eagerness, at that which is the highest, that which is the best, that than which nothing is loftier or more excellent. Wherever you stop short of that, even if it's considered lofty, even if great, even if pleasant, you will without doubt remain wretched. Wretched, because in need. In need, because there remains something still to be sought, something still to be longed for, and finally beatitude itself — toward which a certain natural force drives the rational soul to pursue it. Therefore, since the conscience of each person bears witness that all people wish to be happy, and since this desire cannot be abolished in any way, it is clear that the rational creature can obtain the rest desired by all only in the attainment of beatitude. Accordingly, the blind perversity of wretched humanity is something to be deeply lamented: although a person may long intensely for happiness, he not only fails to do the things by which he might obtain what he desires, but with a more willing disposition he commits himself to the very things by which he heaps up misery for himself. In my judgment, he would never act this way unless, on the one hand, a false image of happiness were deceiving him, and on the other, the likeness of true misery were frightening him away. For who cannot see that poverty, grief, hunger, and thirst will be no small share of misery?✦
The Blessedness of Holy Poverty and Suffering
Through poverty, mourning, and hunger the soul is guarded from true misery and led toward eternal beatitude, as Christ's Beatitudes reveal the paradox that present hardship stores up everlasting consolation.
Yet it is through these very things that true misery is for the most part guarded against, and eternal beatitude is sought after. Blessed are the poor, Jesus says, for the kingdom of heaven is yours.✦ Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.✦ Blessed are those who hunger now, for they will be filled (Matt.✦ v). Poverty, then, is rewarded with eternal riches; grief is transformed by eternal joy; and for the one who hungers, eternal fullness is kept in store. For that all these things — riches, that is, joy, and fullness — are not lacking in beatitude, no one would doubt. But because a certain appearance of pleasure deceives each wicked person in whatever disposition of his own will, and false delight melts away in the satisfying of desires — the wretch not knowing how great is the consolation for the elect in their hardships, and the gladness in hope.✦✦
The Wounded Soul That Flees Its Own Healing
Like a sick person who dreads the surgeon's knife and chooses soothing poultices that worsen the disease, the soul recoils from the path of true healing, embraces false pleasure, and wanders without rest because it seeks its peace in what is lower rather than in God alone.
It's true that the soul recoils from the image of unhappiness that shows itself openly, but under the appearance of happiness it actually embraces real unhappiness — a false pleasure that doesn't escape real pain — and preferring misery, to which true happiness succeeds. It's just like someone who is sick and longs intensely for health, yet because of present suffering recoils from the surgeon's cut, dreads the cauterizing, and — enticed by a certain soothing quality — asks for oil-based poultices, even though the illness is such that it burns more fiercely from that very gentleness and doesn't soften without the pain of cutting or burning. So it is with wretched humanity: either deceived while thinking that happiness is real when it isn't, or enticed by the sweetness of present things, which is false — and so it gives itself over to misery and yet doesn't lose its desire for happiness, and thus, toiling in a wretched roundabout way, it never finds rest. For since for a rational soul only God is higher, the angel its equal, and everything else is judged lower — what madness is there in seeking rest so close at hand, when the higher has been abandoned, in the very things through which the soul itself grows better?
Read the original Latin
Tibi enim, o anima rationalis, prae ceteris animantibus haec praerogativa servatur; quo te sensibus carnis emergens, ad altiora contendas: nec aliquando saties appetitum, donec ad id quod est summum, id quod est optimum, id quo nihil superius, nihil excellentius, felici curiositate pervenias. Ubicunque infra substiteris, tametsi altum, tametsi magnum, tametsi jucundum judicetur, misera procul dubio remanebis. Misera, quia indiga. Indiga, quia restat quod petas; restat ad quod anheles, restat postremo ipsa beatitudo, ad quam appetendam animam rationalem vis quaedam naturalis impellit. Quocirca cum omnes homines beatos esse velle singulorum testis sit conscientia, cum haec voluntas ullomodo nequeat aboleri, patet rationalem creaturam optatam omnibus requiem nonnisi in beatitudinis adeptione sortiri. Proinde deploranda satis es, miseri hominis caeca perversitas, qui cum beatitudinem vehementer exoptet, non modo non agit, quibus adipiscatur optata; verum proniori affectu ea committit, quibus miseriam magis accumulet suam. Quod, ut mea fert opinio, nequaquam ageret, nisi hinc eum falsa quaedam felicitatis imago deluderet; hinc verae miseriae similitudo terreret. Nam pauperiem, luctum, famem, sitim quis non videat miseriae fore non modicam portionem?
Quibus tamen plerumque vera miseriae praecavetur, aeterna beatitudo conquiritur. Beati enim pauperes, ait Jesus, quoniam vestrum est regnum coelorum. Beati qui lugetis, quoniam consolabimini. Beati qui esuritis nunc, quia saturabimini (Matth. v). Pauperies ergo aeternis divitiis muneratur; luctus aeterna jucunditate mutatur; esurienti satietas aeterna servatur. Haec enim omnia, divitias scilicet, jucunditatem, satietatem, beatitudini non deesse, nemo qui dubitet. Verum, quia reprobum quemque in qualicunque suae voluntatis affectu species quaedam jucunditatis eludit, in desideriorum expletione delectatio falsa dissolvit, ignorans miser quanta sit electis et in pressuris consolatio, et in spe gratulatio.
Perhorrescit quidem eam, quae in facie paret, infelicitatis effigiem, sed sub felicitatis colore veram excipit infelicitatem, falsam jucunditatem, quae verum dolorem non effugit, et miseriae praeferens, cui vera beatitudo succedit. Non secus quam si aeger quispiam salutem vehementer exoptet, sed ob praesentem molestiam refugiat sectionem, adustionem exhorreat ac praesenti quadam suavitate pellectus olei fomenta requirat, quanquam morbus ejusmodi sit, ut hac magis lenitate fervescat, nec sine adustionis sectionisve dolore lentescat. Sic miser homo sic vel deceptus, dum putat felicitatem esse, quae non est, vel praesentium suavitate illectus, quae falsa est; et seipsum miseriae addicit, et beatitudinis appetitum non amittit; ac perinde infelici circuitu laborans, nunquam quiescit. Enimvero cum anima rationali solus sit superior Deus, par angelus, cetera omnia inferiora judicentur, quid dementis tam vicinum, quam relicto superiore, in his quibus ipsa fit melior, requiem aucupari?
Scripture echoes
- ↩Matt.5.3-Matt.5.6 — Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Matt.5.4 — Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. Matt.5.5 — Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. Matt.5.6 — Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.
- ↩Matt.5.3 — Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
- ↩Matt.5.4 — Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.
- ↩Matt.5.6 — Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.
- ↩Rom.5.3-Rom.5.5 — And not only that, but we also boast in our tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces endurance. Rom.5.4 — and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, Rom.5.5 — And hope does not put us to shame, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.
- ↩Rom.12.12 — Rejoice in hope; endure in affliction; persevere in prayer.
Speculum caritatis (The Mirror of Charity) companion
Reorder one love at a time, daily
Use the study map with the free Chosen Portion app's daily readings to work through Aelred at a sustainable pace.
Aelred wrote the Mirror as a rule for daily interior discipline in community, and Chosen Portion carries that discipline forward as a short ordered reading each day.
- All 3 books and 102 chapters mapped into 4 weekly themes with page-level pointers
- Aelred's choice-motion-fruit test, turned into a one-page self-examination worksheet
- 16 discussion questions ready for personal journaling or a 4-session small group