De contemtu omnis honoris temporalis.
When Others Are Honored Above You
The disciple is counseled not to be wounded when others are exalted and he is despised, but to lift his heart to God in heaven, where earthly contempt loses its power to grieve.
Son, don't take it to heart when you see others honored and raised up, while you yourself are despised and humiliated. Lift up your heart to me in heaven, and the contempt of men on earth won't grieve you.
The Blindness That Leads Us Astray
The disciple confesses human blindness and the ease with which vanity draws us away from truth.
Lord, we are blind, and we're quickly led astray by vanity.
No Just Cause to Complain
Looking honestly at himself, the disciple recognizes that no creature has wronged him; his suffering is the just consequence of his own sin, and all praise belongs to God alone.
If I look at myself rightly, no creature has ever done me wrong, and so I have no just cause to complain against you. But because I have sinned against you often and grievously, every creature is justly armed against me.1 To me, then, confusion and contempt are justly owed; but to you belong praise, honor, virtue, and glory.
The Necessity of Welcoming Contempt
Unless one freely embraces being despised, abandoned, and counted as nothing, interior peace, spiritual illumination, and union with God remain impossible.
And unless I prepare myself for this — that I would gladly be despised by every creature, abandoned, and count for nothing at all — I cannot be inwardly pacified and established, nor spiritually illuminated, nor fully united to you.2
Read the original Latin
Fili, noli tibi attrahere, si videas alios honorari et elevari, te autem despici et humiliari. Erige cor tuum ad me in cælum et non contristabit te contemtus hominis in terris.
Domine, in cæcitate sumus et vanitate cito seducimur. Si recte me inspicio, nunquam facta mihi est injuria ab aliqua creatura: unde nec juste habeo conqueri adversum te: quia autem frequenter et graviter peccavi tibi, merito armatur contra me omnis creatura. Mihi igitur juste debetur confusio, et contemtus: tibi autem laus, honor, virtus et gloria. Et nisi ad hoc me præparavero, quod velim libenter ab omni creatura despici et relinqui, atque penitus nihil videri, non possum interius pacificari et stabiliri nec spiritualiter illuminari, neque tibi plene uniri.
Notes
- 1 ↩facta: the participle agrees with injuria (feminine singular), yielding 'injury was done to me'; the form is morphologically ambiguous but the sense is clear in context.
- 2 ↩præparavero: form is ambiguous between future perfect and perfect indicative; the conditional protasis with nisi favors a future sense ('unless I will have prepared' / 'unless I prepare').