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We have now to prove the second reason why visions
and words which come from God, although in themselves
they are always true, are not always stable in their
relation to ourselves.
This is because of their causes, whereon they are
founded; for God often makes statements founded upon
creatures and their effects, which are changeable and
liable to fail, for which reason the statements which
are founded upon them are liable also to be
changeable and to fail; for, when one thing depends
on another, if one fails, the other fails likewise.
It is as though God should say: In a year's time I
shall send upon this kingdom such or such a plague;
and the cause and foundation for this warning is a
certain offence which has been committed against God
in that kingdom. If the offence should cease or
change, the punishment might cease; yet the threat
was true because it was founded upon the fault
committed at the time, and, if this had continued, it
would have been carried out.
2. This, we see, happened in the city of Ninive,
where God said: Adhuc quadraginta dies, et Ninive
subvertetur.[369] Which signifies: Yet forty days and
Ninive shall be destroyed. This was not fulfilled,
because the cause of the threat ceased -- namely, the
sins of the city, for which it did penace -- but, if
this had not been so, the prophecy would have been
carried into effect.
We read likewise in the Third Book of the Kings
that, when King Achab had committed a very great sin,
God sent to phophesy[370] a great punishment -- our
father Elias being the messenger -- which should come
upon his person, upon his house and upon his
kingdom.[371] And, because Achab rent his garments
with grief and clothed himself in haircloth and
fasted, and slept in sackcloth and went about in a
humble and contrite manner, God sent again, by the
same prophet, to declare to him these words: Quia
igitur humiliatus est mei causa, non inducam malum in
diebus ejus, sed in diebus filii sui.[372] Which
signifies: Inasmuch as Achab has humbled himself for
love of Me, I will not send the evil whereof I spake
in his days, but in the days of his son. Here we see
that, because Achab changed his spirit and his former
affection, God likewise changed His sentence.
3. From this we may deduce, as regards the matter
under discussion, that, although God may have
revealed or affirmed something to a soul, whether
good or evil, and whether relating to that soul
itself or to others, this may, to a greater or a
lesser extent, be changed or altered or entirely
withdrawn, according to the change or variation in
the affection of this soul, or the cause whereon God
based His judgment, and thus it would not be
fulfilled in the way expected, and oftentimes none
would have known why, save only God.
For God is wont to declare and teach and promise
many things, not that they may be understood or
possessed at the time, but that they may be
understood at a later time, when it is fitting that a
soul may have light concerning them, or when their
effect is attained.
This, as we see, He did with His disciples, to
whom He spake many parables, and pronounced many
judgments, the wisdom whereof they understood not
until the time when they had to preach it, which was
when the Holy Spirit came upon them, of Whom Christ
had said to them that He would explain to them all
the things that He had spoken to them in His life.
And, when Saint John speaks of that entry of
Christ into Jerusalem, he says: Haec non cognoverunt
discipuli ejus primum: sed quando glorificatus est
Jesus, tunc recordati sunt quia haec erant scripta de
eo.[373] And thus there may pass through the soul
many detailed messages from God which neither the
soul nor its director will understand until the
proper time.
4. Likewise, in the First Book of the Kings, we
read that, when God was wroth against Heli, a priest
of Israel, for his sins in not chastising his sons,
he sent to him by Samuel to say, among other words,
these which follow: Loquens locutus sum, ut domus tua,
et domus patris tui, ministraret in conspectu meo,
usque in sempiternum. Verumtamen absit hoc a me.
And this is as though He had said:[374] In very
truth I said aforetime that thy house and the house
of thy father should serve Me continually in the
priesthood in my presence for ever, but this purpose
is far from Me; I will not do this thing. For this
office of the priesthood was founded for giving
honour and glory to God, and to this end God has
promised to give it to the father of Heli for ever if
he failed not.
But, when Heli failed in zeal for the honour of
God (for, as God Himself complained when He sent him
the message, he honoured his sons more than God,
overlooking their sins so as not to offend them), the
promise also failed which would have held good for
ever if the good service and zeal of Heli had lasted
for ever. And thus there is no reason to think that,
because sayings and revelations come from God, they
must invariably come to pass in their apparent sense,
especially when they are bound up with human causes
which may vary, change, or alter.
5. And when they are dependent upon these causes
God Himself knows, though He does not always declare
it, but pronounces the saying, or makes the
revelation, and sometimes says nothing of the
condition, as when He definitely told the Ninivites
that they would be destroyed after forty days.[375]
At other times, he lays down the condition, as He
did to Roboam, saying to him: 'If thou wilt keep My
commandments, as my servant David, I will be with
thee even as I was with him, and will set thee up a
house as I did to My servant David'.[376] But,
whether He declares it or no, the soul must not rely
upon its own understanding; for it is impossible to
understand the hidden truths of God which are in His
sayings, and the multitude of their meanings.
He is above the heavens, and speaks according to
the way of eternity;[377] we blind souls are upon the
earth and understand only the ways of flesh and time.
It was for that reason, I believe, that the Wise Man
said: 'God is in Heaven, and thou are upon earth;
wherefore be not thou lengthy or hasty in
speaking.'[378]
6. You will perhaps ask me: Why, if we are not to
understand these things, or to play any part in them,
does God communicate them to us? I have already said
that everything will be understood in its own time by
the command of Him Who spake it, and he whom God
wills shall understand it, and it will be seen that
it was fitting; for God does naught save with due
cause and in truth.
Let it be realized, therefore, that there is no
complete understanding of the meaning of the sayings
and things of God, and that this meaning cannot be
decided by what it seems to be, without great error,
and, in the end, grievous confusion.
This was very well known to the prophets, into
whose hands was given the word of God, and who found
it a sore trial to prophesy concerning the people;
for, as we have said, many of the people saw that
things came not to pass literally, as they were told
them, for which cause they laughed at the prophets
and mocked them greatly; so much that Jeremias went
as far as to say: 'They mock me all the day long,
they scorn and despise me every one, for I have long
been crying against evil and promising them
destruction; and the word of the Lord has been made a
reproach and a derision to me continually. And I
said, I must not remember Him, neither speak any more
in His name.'[379]
Herein, although the holy prophet was speaking
with resignation and in the form of a weak man who
cannot endure the ways and workings of God, he
clearly indicates the difference between the way
wherein the Divine sayings are fulfilled and the
ordinary meaning which they appear to have; for the
Divine prophets were treated as mockers, and suffered
so much from their prophecy that Jeremias himself
said elsewhere: Formido et laqueus facta est nobis
vaticinatio et contritio.[380] Which signifies:
Prophecy has become to us fear and snares and
contradiction of spirit.
7. And the reason why Jonas fled when God sent him
to preach the destruction of Ninive was this, namely,
that he knew the different meanings of the sayings of
God with respect to the understanding of men and with
respect to the causes of the sayings. And thus, lest
they should mock him when they saw that his prophecy
was not fulfilled, he went away and lied in order not
to prophesy; and thus he remained waiting all the
forty days outside the city, to see if his prophecy
was fulfilled; and, when it was not fulfilled, he was
greatly afflicted, so much so that he said to God:
Obsecro, Domine, numquid non hoc est verbum meum, cum
adhuc essem in terra mea? propter hoc praeoccupavi,
ut fugerem in Tharsis.[381] That is: I pray Thee, O
Lord, is not this what I said when I was yet in my
own country? Therefore was I vexed, and fled away to
Tharsis. And the saint was wroth and besought God to
take away his life.
8. Why, then, must we marvel that God should speak
and reveal certain things to souls which come not to
pass in the sense wherein they understand them? For,
if God should affirm or represent such or such a
thing to the soul, whether good or evil, with respect
to itself or to another, and if that thing be founded
upon a certain affection or service or offence of
that soul, or of another, at that time, with respect
to God, so that, if the soul persevere therein, it
will be fulfilled; yet even then its fulfillment is
not certain, since it is not certain that the soul
will persevere. Wherefore we must rely, not upon
understanding, but upon faith. |