De visione Dei

I contemplate you, my Jesus, by your gift, surely the best and greatest,, I proclaim you the words of life,, and sowing the divine seed abundantly in the hearts of hearers; and I see them go away who have not perceived the things that are of the spirit. But I see the disciples remaining, who have already begun to taste the sweetness of the teaching that gives life to the soul. For all of whom that prince and highest of all the apostles, Peter, confessed, how you, Jesus, have the words of life; and, seeking life,, he wondered at going away from you. Paul heard from you, Jesus, the words of life in rapture; and then neither persecution,, nor sword,, nor bodily hunger,, could separate him from you; none of all men ever could desert you, who has tasted the words of life. Who can separate a bear from honey, after it has tasted its sweetness! How great is the sweetness of truth, which bestows a most delightful life beyond all bodily sweetness! For it is absolute sweetness, whence flows all that appears to every taste.¹ What is stronger than love,, from which every lovable thing has that it is loved! If the bond of contracted love is at times so great, that fear of death cannot break it, of what sort then is the bond of that tasted love from which is all love! I do not at all wonder that the cruelty of punishments² was counted as nothing by your other soldiers, Jesus,, to whom you offered yourself as a life to be foretasted. O Jesus, my love,, you sowed the seed of life in the field of believers,, and watered it with the testimony of blood; by bodily death you showed that truth is the life of the rational spirit. The seed grew in good earth, and bore fruit. You show me, Lord, how my soul is a breath of life with respect to the body,, into which it breathes and flows life, and is not life with respect to you, God,, but as it were a potency toward life. And because you cannot but grant to those who ask,, if they ask with most attentive faith, you flow into me: in the boy there is a soul which has the vegetative power in act. For the boy grows. It has also the sensitive power in act. For the boy feels. It has also the imaginative power, but not yet in act. It has also the ratiocinative power, whose act is still more distant. It has also the intellective power, but in a more remote potency. Thus we experience one soul, with respect to the lower potencies to be in act first,, and afterwards with respect to the higher, so that man is first animal, then spiritual. Thus we experience a certain mineral power, which can also be called spirit, to be in the bowels of the earth, and it to be in potency, to become the mineral of stone,, or in potency to become the mineral of salt,, and another to become the mineral of metal, and such spirits to be various according to the variety of stones,, salts,, and metals. Yet the spirit of the mineral of gold is one, which from solar or celestial influx, continuously more and more purified,, is at last fixed into such gold, as is through no element, corruptible. And in it the incorruptible light of heaven shines forth abundantly.³ For it is much likened to the bodily light of the sun. So indeed do we experience concerning the vegetative and sensible spirit. For the sensible spirit in man conforms itself much to the celestial motive and influent power, and under the influx of heaven

MARG: Petrus. MARG: Paulus.

it takes successive increase until it is placed in perfect act. But it is educed from the potency of the body; therefore its perfection ceases when the perfection of the body on which it depends fails. There is then the intellectual spirit, which in the act of perfection does not depend on the body,, but is united to it by the mediation of the sensitive power; this spirit, because it does not depend on the body,, is not subject to the influx of the celestial bodies. Nor does it depend on the sensible spirit; thus it does not depend on the motive power of heaven. But as the movers of the celestial orbs are subject to the first mover, so too this mover which is intellect. But because it is united to the body through the medium of the sensitive, then without the senses it is not perfected. For all that reaches it from the sensible world, goes to it through the medium of the senses. Whence nothing of the sort can be in the intellect, that was not first in sense. And the purer and more perfect sense shall have been,, and the clearer imagination,, and the better discourse, the less impeded the intellect is in its intellectual operations,, the more perspicacious it is. But the intellect is fed through the word of life, under whose influx it is constituted,, as the movers of the orbs. Differently, however, as also the spirits which are subject to the influxes of heaven are perfected differently. And it is not perfected except per accidens by the sensible spirit. Just as an image does not perfect, though it excites to inquiring into the truth of the exemplar. As the image of the crucified does not pour devotion in,, but excites memory that devotion may flow in. And since the intellectual spirit is not necessitated through the influx of heaven,, but is wholly free, then unless it submit itself through faith to the influx of the word of God,, it is not perfected. Just as a free disciple who is his own master, unless he submit himself through faith to the word of the master,, is not perfected. For he must trust and hear the master. But the intellect is perfected through the word of God and grows, and becomes continually more capacious and more apt and more like the word. And this perfection which comes thus from the word from which it had being is not a corruptible perfection,, but is deiform. As the perfection of gold is not corruptible,, but heavenlike. But every intellect must submit itself through faith to the word of God, and hear most attentively that inner teaching of the highest master. And in hearing what the Lord speaks in him, it will be perfected. Wherefore you, Jesus, singular master,, preached faith to be necessary for all approaching the font of life, and showed the influx of divine power to be present according to the degree of faith. Two things only did you teach, Christ Savior: faith and love. Through faith the intellect approaches the word. Through love it is united to it. As much as it approaches, so much is it increased in power. And as much as it loves, so much is it fixed in its light. But the word of God is within it. And there is no need for it to seek outside itself, because it will find the path within⁴, and will be able to approach through faith. And that it may approach more closely, it will be able to obtain by prayers. For the word will increase faith, through communication of its own light. To you, Jesus, I give thanks, because to this I have come by your light. In your light I see the light of my life, how you, the word, give life in all your believers,, and perfect all who love you. How brief⁵ and how efficacious is your teaching, good Jesus! You persuade nothing but to believe, and command nothing but to love. What is easier than to believe God! What sweeter than to love him! How sweet is your yoke, and how light your burden, singular teacher! You promise, to those keeping this teaching,, all that is desired. For nothing, however arduous,⁶ is difficult to one believing, and nothing deniable to one loving. Such are the promises which you pledge to your disciples. And they are most true, because you are truth,, who can promise nothing but true things. Indeed you promise nothing but yourself, who are the perfection of every perfectible thing. To you praise,, to you glory,, to you thanksgiving through eternal ages. AMEN.