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Chapter 15SpCar.2.15

Quibus modis ad spirituales consolationes transitur.

The True Israelite's Exodus

Having left Egypt through conversion and crossed the sea of this age, the believer must not grumble against God when heavenly sweetness is delayed, but recognize that obedience is the proof of God's presence and that spiritual riches surpass all worldly prosperity.

So then, if you've been stung by the goading of such disordered desires and have thrown off the filthy pots of the Egyptians, preferring the poverty of Jesus to all the wealth of the world; if you've traded royal banquets for coarse bread and the humblest vegetables; if you've accepted lowliness and abasement in place of honors; if you've stripped yourself of the world's cares and pursuits and chosen — not under a peasant's curse, but by your own labor and the shared work of your brothers — to earn your bread; if in place of idle talk you've taken on silence, and in place of constant quarrels the affection of brotherly love; if you've already begun to fulfill the vows your lips have set down; if, I say, by these and similar signs you find that you've come out of Egypt and crossed, like a true Israelite, the waves of this great and vast sea — that is, the surging of this present age — and if the manna of heavenly sweetness doesn't at once flow down for you, don't grumble against God, don't put God to the test, and say, "Is God among us, or isn't he?"✦✦12 Since carrying out his commands is the clearest proof of his presence — as he himself said: "Whoever loves me will keep my commands, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him" (John✦3 xiv). Don't, I say, grumble — lest you fall into that blasphemy: "It's useless to serve God; what do we gain by keeping his commands?"✦45 Malach. iii.) And that word of the Psalmist: "So I have justified my heart in vain, and washed my hands among the innocent, and been struck down all day long, and my correction has been every morning" — and yet it was sinners and the worldly rich who obtained wealth in this age (Ps.✦67 lxxii), and — what is the highest thing of all — spiritual riches.8

The Necessity of Tribulation

The delay of spiritual consolation is not a sign of God's absence but a divinely appointed path of tribulation through which one enters the kingdom, as Paul and the apostles taught.

If greater grace is also bestowed in greater riches, why are we put to death all day long, and reckoned as sheep for slaughter?✦ Isn't it better to eat and drink, and enjoy the good things in this life — and in the next? Isn't that the mark of a tasteless man — to seek through intense bodily torment what can easily be obtained without any effort at all? But where is what Paul says: Through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God?✦ (Acts 14.) And to the Thessalonians: Let no one, he says, be troubled by these tribulations; for you yourselves know that we are appointed to this (1 Thess.✦ 3.)

From Marah to the Desert Springs

Just as Israel passed through bitter waters before receiving manna, so the believer must endure the bitterness of bodily labor and testing, then advance through apostolic teaching and Scripture meditation toward the hidden sweetness of contemplation, which is received not by effort but by grace.

But you wonder why heavenly sweetness doesn't welcome you at once. And yet the sons of Israel, who in Egypt were stirred up more frequently by the glory of divine miracles and fed on the flesh of that mystical lamb with its sacred rites, after crossing the Red Sea did not immediately deserve the consolation of angelic food. Instead, they were first led to the waters of Marah — that is, bitter waters — and there they were tested, and from there, passing through the twelve springs to the hidden places of the deeper desert, they were wondrously fed on heavenly bread (Exod. xv). So you too, having gone out from Egypt — if you've crossed through the swelling waves of this age with dry footing — you must first be led to the waters of Marah, that is, to bitter waters, so that the bitterness of bodily labors may strike you with dread, and you may experience that word of the Gospel: narrow is the way that leads to life (Matth.✦✦ vii). There you will be tested by the Lord, if perhaps you deserve to join the company of those to whom he says: You are the ones who have remained with me in my temptations (Luc.✦ xxii). From there you will pass on to the twelve springs — that is, to the streams of apostolic doctrine — with a more excellent step, so that, made constant by the steady meditation of the Scriptures, you may become, in a sense, outside the world. And from the divine utterances, which are surely silver refined by fire, borrowing for yourself the silvered wings of a dove, like the most chaste turtledove you will fly to the spiritual desert. There, if the piety of the Creator pours out upon you any drop of spiritual dew, know that it is not within your own choice when you gather, or how much you gather, or how long you keep what you have gathered.✦

Gathering Manna and Fighting Amalek

Spiritual consolation must be received daily in God's measure, not hoarded; after tasting sweetness the believer must remain vigilant against spiritual Amalek, and through alternating labors and consolations ascend at last to the fullness of divine love and contemplation.

For if on the Sabbath you go out to gather any heavenly food, you will find none at all.✦ On other days, however, a fixed measure will be prescribed for you — a gomor, that is, the measure set by divine judgment.✦ Furthermore, if you try to keep any of it for the next day, so that you might be fed by heavenly food without daily labor, your own expectation will breed worms for you.✦ But once you've tasted spiritual sweetness, don't immediately dissolve into idleness; for soon Amalek will rise up against you from the side — a spiritual Amalek, to be overcome not by weapons but by prayer.✦ And so, as consolations from divine mercy follow one after another, and as labors born of your own disordered desires follow in turn, after countless struggles you will ascend to that ineffable kind of visitation, to be rewarded — blazing with the full ardor of love, so that from the very entrance into the glory of God, as if from the fruit of the promised land, you may be filled to satisfaction; and with the fire of divine love completely consuming the yoke of desire, you may rest in the radiance of gold, in the splendor of wisdom, in the sweetness of divine contemplation — and you may experience with your whole being that the yoke of the Lord is sweet, and his burden is light.✦ 11).

Read the original Latin

Ceterum si talibus affectuum aculeis excitatus, sordidas AEgyptiorum ollas abjecisti, ac paupertatem Jesu cunctis mundi opibus praetulisti; si regalia fercula grossioris panis, et vilissimi oleris commutasti edulio, si subjectionem et abjectionem honoribus compensasti, si mundi curis ac negotiis exutus, non cum rusticorum maledictione, sed proprio tuo, ac communi fratrum tuorum labore victum quaerere delegisti, si pro loquacitate silentium, pro crebris litibus fraternae dilectionis induisti affectum, si jam coepisti reddere vota tua, quae distinxerunt labia tua; si, inquam, his atque hujusmodi indiciis deprehendes temetipsum exisse de AEgypto, et hujus maris magni et spatiosi, saeculi videlicet hujus fluctus, quasi verus Israelita transisse, si non statim coelestis dulcedinis tibi manna profluxerit; noli adversus Deum murmurare, noli Deum tentare, et dicere: Si Deus est in nobis, an non? cum praeceptorum illius exsecutio praesentiae illius apertissimum indicium sit, ipso dicente: Si quis diligit me, mandata mea servabit: et Pater meus diliget eum, et ad eum veniemus, et mansionem apud eum faciemus (Joan. xiv). Noli, inquam, murmurare, incidasque in illam blasphemiam, ut dicas: Vanus est qui servit Deo; et quid emolumenti, qui custodivimus praecepta ejus? (Malach. iii.) Et illud Psalmistae: Ergo sine causa justificavi cor meum, et lavi inter innocentes manus meas, et fui flagellatus tota die, et castigatio mea in matutinis, quando quidem ipsi peccatores et abundantes in saeculo, obtinuerunt divitias (Psal. lxxii), et quod est summum, divitias spirituales.

Si in amplioribus divitiis amplior praestatur et gratia, ut quid mortificamur tota die, aestimamur ut oves occisionis? Nonne melius est manducare et bibere, et frui bonis in ista vita, et in alia? Nonne insulsi hominis est id ingenti corporis quaerere cruciatu, quod facile possit, et sine labore conquiri? Sed ubi est quod ait Paulus: Per multas tribulationes oportet nos introire in regnum Dei? (Act. xiv.) Et ad Thessalonicenses: Nemo, inquit, moveatur in tribulationibus istis, ipsi enim scitis quod in hoc positi sumus (I Thess. iii).

Sed miraris, quod non statim te dulcedo coelestis excipiat. Et tamen filii Israel, qui in AEgypto quidem crebrius divinorum miraculorum gloria excitati, ac mystici illius agni sacris sunt carnibus pasti, post maris Rubri transitum non statim angelici pabuli meruere solatium, imo primo ad aquas Mara adducti, ibique tentati sunt, ac inde per duodecim fontes ad secretioris eremi abdita pervenientes, coelesti pane mirabiliter saginantur (Exod. xv). Et tu ergo egressus de AEgypto, si intumescentes hujus saeculi fluctus sicco vestigio pertransisti, ducendus es primo ad aquas Mara, id est amaras, ut te corporalium laborum amaritudo deterreat, experiarisque illud Evangelicum, quia arcta est via, quae ducit ad vitam (Matth. vii). Ibique tentaberis a Domino; si forte ad illorum merearis transire consortium, quibus dicit: Vos estis qui permansistis mecum in tentationibus meis (Luc. xxii). Inde ad duodecim fontes, ad apostolicae videlicet fluenta doctrinae gradu excellentiore transibis, ut assidua Scripturarum meditatione assuefactus, quodammodo extra mundum, efficiaris, et e divinis eloquiis, quae sunt nimirum argentum igne examinatum, mutuatis tibi pennis columbae deargentatis, quasi turtur castissimus ad eremum pervoles spiritualem, ubi si quid tibi stillicidii spiritualis pietas Conditoris effuderit, scito non tui esse arbitrii, quando colligas, aut quantum colligas, aut quandiu quod collegeris serves.

Nam si Sabbato egressus aliquid coelestis edulii colligere tentaveris, ne inveniri quidem poterit. Caeteris vero diebus certam tibi quantitatem gomor, id est divini judicii mensura praescribet. Porro si quid in crastinum servare tentaveris, ut sine labore diurno coelesti pascaris alimento; vermes tibi tua exspectatio procreabit. Verum gustata dulcedine spirituali non statim otio dissolvaris; mox enim a latere spiritualis insurget Amalec, non armis, sed orationibus evincendus. Ita succedentibus sibi ex divina quidem pietate nonnullis consolationibus, ex propriis autem concupiscentiis multis laboribus, post innumeros agones ad illud ineffabile visitationis genus munerandus ascendes, ut ex integro charitatis ardore flammescens ab introitu gloriae Dei, quasi ex fructu terrae repromissionis feliciter satieris, ac igne divini amoris jugum concupiscentiae penitus absumente, requiescas in pallore auri, in splendore sapientiae, in suavitate contemplationis divinae; experiarisque ex toto quia jugum Domini suave est, et onus ejus leve est (Matth. xi).

Scripture echoes

  1. ↩Exod.17.7 — And he called the name of the place Massah and Meribah, because of the quarreling of the sons of Israel, and because they tested the LORD, saying, "Is the LORD among us, or not?"
  2. ↩Exod.17.7 — And he called the name of the place Massah and Meribah, because of the quarreling of the sons of Israel, and because they tested the LORD, saying, "Is the LORD among us, or not?"
  3. ↩John.14.23 — Jesus answered him, 'If anyone loves me, he will keep my word. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.'
  4. ↩Mal.3.14 — You have said, 'It is futile to serve God. What profit is it that we have kept his charge, and that we have walked in mourning before the LORD of hosts?'
  5. ↩Ps.72.13-Ps.72.14;Ps.74.13-Ps.74.14 — He will have pity on the poor and the needy, and he will save the lives of the needy. Ps.72.14 — He will redeem their lives from oppression and violence, and their blood will be precious in his sight. Ps.74.13 — You broke apart the sea by your strength; you shattered the heads of the sea monsters over the waters. Ps.74.14 — You crushed the heads of Leviathan; you gave him as food for the people of the wilderness.
  6. ↩Rom.8.36 — As it is written, 'For your sake we are being put to death all day long; we are counted as sheep for slaughter.'
  7. ↩Acts.14.22 — strengthening the souls of the disciples, encouraging them to remain in the faith, and saying that through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God.
  8. ↩1Thess.3.3-1Thess.3.4 — so that no one would be shaken by these afflictions; for you yourselves know that we are appointed for this. 1Thess.3.4 — For indeed, when we were with you, we kept telling you beforehand that we were going to suffer affliction; and just as you know, so it happened.
  9. ↩Matt.7.14 — Because the gate is narrow and the road is hard that leads to life, and there are few who find it.
  10. ↩Exod.15.23-Exod.15.25 — When they came to Marah, they could not drink the water there, for it was bitter; therefore they named the place Marah. Exod.15.24 — And the people grumbled against Moses, saying, "What shall we drink?" Exod.15.25 — Then he cried out to the LORD, and the LORD showed him a tree; he cast it into the waters, and the waters became sweet. There He established for him a statute and an ordinance, and there He tested him.
  11. ↩Luke.22.28 — But you are those who have remained with me in my trials,
  12. ↩Ps.11.7 — For the LORD is righteous; he loves righteous deeds. The upright will behold his face.
  13. ↩Exod.16.27 — And it came about on the seventh day that some of the people went out to gather, but they found none.
  14. ↩Exod.16.16-Exod.16.18 — This is the thing that the LORD has commanded: Gather from it, each person according to what he can eat—an omer per person, according to the number of your people; each one shall take it for those who are in his tent. Exod.16.17 — The people of Israel did just that—some gathered much and some gathered little. Exod.16.18 — And when they measured by the omer, the one who gathered much had no excess, and the one who gathered little had no lack; each gathered according to what they would eat.
  15. ↩Exod.16.19-Exod.16.20 — Moses said to them, "No one is to leave any of it until morning." Exod.16.20 — But they did not listen to Moses. Some of them kept part of it until morning, and it bred worms and stank. And Moses was angry with them.
  16. ↩Exod.17.8-Exod.17.13 — Then Amalek came and fought with Israel at Rephidim. Exod.17.9 — Moses said to Joshua, "Choose men for us, and go out and fight against Amalek. Tomorrow I will stand on the top of the hill with the staff of God in my hand." Exod.17.10 — Joshua did as Moses had told him, to fight against Amalek; and Moses, Aaron, and Hur went up to the top of the hill. Exod.17.11 — And it was, when Moses raised his hand, Israel prevailed, and when he lowered his hand, Amalek prevailed. Exod.17.12 — Moses' hands grew heavy, so they took a stone and put it under him, and he sat on it. Aaron and Hur held up his hands, one on one side and one on the other, and his hands were steady until the sun went down. Exod.17.13 — And Joshua disabled Amalek and his people with the edge of the sword.
  17. ↩Matt.11.30 — For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.

Notes

  1. 1 ↩The passage uses the Exodus journey as a sustained allegory for the soul's passage from worldly attachment to spiritual freedom. "Egypt" = bondage to disordered desires; "manna" = spiritual consolation; the "great sea" = the turbulence of the present age.
  2. 2 ↩Affectuum rendered "affections" in the sense of disordered emotional impulses, not mere feelings. Edulio rendered "food/sustenance" in context. Victum quaerere rendered "to earn your bread" to capture the concrete force of manual labor for sustenance.
  3. 3 ↩Scriptural quotation from John 14:23. Verse reference to be confirmed in tx-08 Moses resolution.
  4. 4 ↩The quoted blasphemy closely echoes Malachi 3:14–15. Final resolution deferred to tx-08 Moses.
  5. 5 ↩Emolumenti rendered "gain" to preserve the mercenary tone of the blasphemer's complaint.
  6. 6 ↩Psalm quotation: the Latin corresponds to Psalm 72:13–14 (Vulgate numbering), which is Psalm 73:13–14 in the Hebrew. Verse numbering to be confirmed in tx-08 Moses.
  7. 7 ↩Justificavi cor meum rendered 'I have justified my heart' — the Psalmist laments that his moral effort seemed vain, not that he performed a theological act of justification.
  8. 8 ↩The phrase 'quod est summum' refers back to the Psalmist's lament: the highest riches are not worldly wealth but spiritual ones. The author contrasts the material prosperity of sinners with the spiritual wealth of the faithful.

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