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← Speculum caritatis (The Mirror of Charity)/Book 2 · Speculum caritatis — Liber II
Chapter 20SpCar.2.20

Novitius ille unde Deum se magis amasse probat, inde minus amasse convincitur: et quibus lacrymarum profusio proficiat ostenditur.

The Paradox of Greater Love

The speaker shows that the grounds on which the novice believed he loved God more are precisely the grounds on which he is convicted of having loved him less.

"See, then," I said, "how things have turned out beyond what you expected." "How so?" he said. "Lest, perhaps," I said, "the very grounds on which you believed you loved God more are the grounds on which you stand convicted of having loved him less." "For a moment," he said, "this reasoning is dawning on me as well; still, I'd like to understand it more fully as you argue it through." "Surely," I said, "the more negligent a person has been, or the weaker in mind, the more imperfect they will be shown to be in the love of God?" "That can't be denied," he said. "But as you yourself say — and you see it more clearly — that first affection accused the one who was going astray; this second one sustains the one who is faltering." "Exactly so," he said.

False Compunction and Its Deceptions

Those who experience a fleeting feeling of compunction but return to their vices are miserably deceived, and such compunction blinds rather than heals.

"They convict, therefore, I say, the one who loves more imperfectly." Then he, sighing: "O," he says, "how miserably they are deceived — how they betray their own salvation — who, entangled in countless damnable vices, if they experience even a little of the feeling you speak of, not only promise themselves pardon for past sins, but actually return to the same things more confidently, in a way, and gain nothing from this spiritual exhortation; but thinking themselves holier because of it, they wallow all the more shamelessly in their own filth and negligence."1 Perhaps the Apostle says of such people: "God gave them a spirit of compunction, eyes that do not see, and ears that do not hear" (Rom.✦2 xi). Doesn't this kind of compunction blind the eyes and stop up the ears — of those only who think that the most monstrous filth of vices, without the fruits of penitence, can be washed away by these few tears?3

The Acceptable Sacrifice of Tears

True tears of repentance, offered with humility and a contrite heart and joined to worthy fruits of penance, are the most pleasing sacrifice to God.

"It is indeed, I say, the most pleasing and most acceptable sacrifice to God — the outpouring of tears, a sufficient holocaust for all sins admitted — if it is offered by those repenting and confessing, but not repeating the things they have repented of; but by those fleeing with a spirit of humility and a contrite heart to the merciful heart of Jesus, but persisting with the worthy fruits of penitence according to their ability."45 "Therefore you, and everyone anxious for their salvation, must work at this: that this mortification of the flesh, this diligence of vigils and labors, this plainness of garments, this harshness of food, this weight of silence — this, I say, of all the members of inner and outer man, as it were a most acceptable holocaust — may become rich, so to speak, with the fatness of tears, as I might put it, and with the sweetness of the most devoted affections, so that in the ark of the heart, with the fire of love admitted, it may give forth a sweet fragrance; and thus, according to the Prophet: 'Let your holocaust be made rich' (Psal.✦678 xix).

Obedience Over Spectacular Gifts

It is better to live without tears in apostolic poverty and purity than to oppose God's daily commands with daily tears, for even those who work wonders will hear 'Depart from me' if they are workers of iniquity.

But if you can't do both, it's better to live without tears in apostolic poverty and evangelical purity than to oppose God's daily commands with daily tears. For even if they raise the dead, cast out demons, and give sight to the blind, they will nonetheless hear the Lord say: 'Depart from me' (Matt. 7:5), all you workers of iniquity. vii, 5), all you workers of iniquity.✦ »

Read the original Latin

« Vide igitur, inquam, quam praeter opinionem tuam res acta sit. — Quomodo, inquit? — Ne forte, inquam, unde te Deum magis amare credebas, hinc minus convincaris amasse. — Aliquantisper, inquit, et mihi haec ratio interlucet: velim tamen plenius eam, te disputante, cognoscere. — Nonne, inquam, quanto quisque negligentior fuerit, vel mente infirmior, tanto in Dei amore probabitur imperfectior? — Negari, inquit, non potest. — Sed sicut, inquam, temetipsum dicis clarius intueri, primus ille affectus arguebat errantem: secundus iste sustinet infirmantem. — Prorsus, inquit, ita.

— Convincunt igitur, inquam, imperfectius amantem. » Tum ille suspirans: « O, inquit, quam miserabiliter falluntur, quam sunt suae salutis proditores, qui vitiis innumerabilibus ac damnabilibus implicati, si parum quid hujus, de quo loqueris, experiantur affectus; non solum sibi veniam de praeteritis pollicentur, imo ad eadem securius quodammodo revertuntur, nec aliquid hoc spirituali incitamento proficiunt; sed sanctiores hinc semetipsos arbitrantes, in suis sordibus vel negligentiis impudentius volutantur. Forte de talibus ait Apostolus: Dedit illis Deus spiritum compunctionis, oculos, ut non videant; et aures, ut non audiant (Rom. xi). Nunquid non genus hoc compunctionis excaecat oculos, aures obturat, illorum duntaxat, qui immanissimas vitiorum sordes sine poenitentiae fructibus paucis his lacrymis aestimant abluendas? — Est profecto, inquam, gratissimum et acceptissimum Deo sacrificium profusio lacrymarum, pro omnibus admissis sufficiens holocaustum, si poenitentibus et confitentibus, sed ea unde poenituerint, non iterantibus; sed cum spiritu humilitatis et animo contrito ad pia viscera Jesu fugientibus, sed dignis poenitentiae fructibus pro posse insistentibus. Quocirca tibi, omnique suae salutis sollicito elaborandum est, quatenus haec carnis mortificatio, haec vigiliarum ac laborum sollicitudo, haec vestium vilitas, haec ciborum asperitas, haec silentii gravitas, haec, inquam, omnium membrorum interioris et exterioris hominis quasi acceptissimum holocaustum, sagimine, ut ita dixerim, lacrymarum, ac devotissimorum affectuum suavitate pinguescat, ut in arca cordis igne charitatis admisso suave redoleat, et sic, secundum Prophetam: Holocaustum tuum pingue fiat (Psal. xix).

Caeterum si utrumque non possis, satius est, sine lacrymis in apostolica paupertate, et evangelica vivere puritate, quam cum quotidianis lacrymis quotidie divinis obviare mandatis. Nam licet mortuos suscitent, daemonia ejiciant, caecos illuminent: nihilominus tamen audient a Domino: Discedite a me (Matth. vii, 5), quicunque fuerint operarii iniquitatis. »

Scripture echoes

  1. ↩Rom.11.8 — Just as it is written, "God gave them a spirit of stupor, eyes that would not see and ears that would not hear, to this very day."
  2. ↩Ps.19.3;Ps.21.3 — Day to day pours forth speech, and night to night reveals knowledge. Ps.21.3 — You have given him the desire of his heart, and the request of his lips you have not withheld. Selah.
  3. ↩Matt.7.23 — And then I will declare to them, 'I never knew you; depart from me, you who practice lawlessness.'

Notes

  1. 1 ↩parum quid: idiomatic Latin phrase meaning 'a little something' — rendered here as 'even a little something' to capture the dismissive tone toward minimal spiritual feeling.
  2. 2 ↩Candidate allusion to Romans 11:8 (Vulgate), where Paul quotes Isaiah 29:10. The Latin phrasing here does not match the Vulgate Romans 11:8 exactly — the Vulgate reads 'spiritum compunctionis' in some manuscripts but the clause structure differs. Moses resolution needed.
  3. 3 ↩genus hoc compunctionis: 'this kind of compunction' — the author distinguishes a false or superficial compunction (mere tears without penitential fruit) from genuine compunction. The rhetorical question expects 'yes.'
  4. 4 ↩holocaustum: rendered 'holocaust' in its theological sense of a whole burnt offering, a complete sacrifice to God — not the modern historical sense.
  5. 5 ↩pia viscera Jesu: literally 'the pious/merciful inward parts of Jesus' — rendered as 'the merciful heart of Jesus' to convey the biblical idiom of divine compassion.
  6. 6 ↩sagimine lacrymarum: 'with the fatness of tears' — the metaphor draws on sacrificial language where fat represents the richest, most pleasing part of the offering. Rendered literally to preserve the vivid sacrificial imagery.
  7. 7 ↩arca cordis: 'ark of the heart' — the heart as an ark or vessel containing the fire of charity.
  8. 8 ↩Candidate allusion to Psalm 19(20):3 (Vulgate) or Psalm 20:3 (Hebrew), 'Holocaustum tuum pingue fiat.' Psalm numbering follows the Vulgate. Moses resolution needed.

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