|
After this soul had refreshed a little her heart in
the mercy of God, by these words, she humbly waited
for the fulfillment of the promise made to her, and
God continuing His discourse said: "Dearest daughter,
you have spoken before Me of My mercy, because I gave
it you to taste and to see in the word which I spoke
to you when I said: 'these are those for whom I pray
you to intercede with Me,' but know, that My mercy is
without any comparison, far more than you can see,
because your sight is imperfect, and My mercy perfect
and infinite, so that there can be no comparison
between the two, except what may be between a finite
and an infinite thing.
"But I have wished that you should taste this mercy,
and also the dignity of man, which I have shown you
above, so that you might know better the cruelty of
those wicked men who travel below the Bridge. Open
the eye of your intellect, and wonder at those who
voluntarily drown themselves, and at the baseness to
which they are fallen by their fault, from which
cause, they have first become weak, and this was when
they conceived mortal sin in their minds, for they
then bring it forth, and lose the life of grace.
"And, as a corpse which can have no feeling or
movement of itself, but only when it is moved and
lifted by others, so those, who are drowned in the
stream of disordinate love of the world, are dead to
grace. Wherefore because they are dead their memory
takes no heed of My mercy. The eye of their intellect
sees not and knows not My Truth, because their
feeling is dead, that is, their intellect has no
object before it but themselves, with the dead love
of their own sensuality, and so their will is dead to
My will because it loves nothing but dead things.
"These three powers then being dead, all the soul's
operations both in deed and thought are dead as far
as grace is concerned. For the soul cannot defend
herself against her enemies, nor help herself through
her own power, but only so far as she is helped by
Me. It is true indeed, that every time that this
corpse, in whom only free-will has remained (which
remains as long as the mortal body lives), asks My
help, he can have it, but never can he help himself;
he has become insupportable to himself, and, wishing
to govern the world, is governed by that which is
not, that is by sin, for sin in itself is nothing,
and such men have become the servants and slaves of
sin.
"I have made them trees of love with the life of
grace which they received in Holy Baptism; and they
have become trees of death, because they are dead, as
I have already said to you. Do you know how this tree
finds such roots?
"In the height of pride, which is nourished by their
own sensitive self-love. Its branch is their own
impatience, and its offshoot indiscretion: these are
the four principal vices which destroy the soul of
him who is a tree of death, because he has not drawn
life from grace.
"Inside the tree is nourished the worm of conscience,
which, while man lives in mortal sin, is blinded by
self-love, and therefore felt but little; the fruits
of this tree are mortal, for they have drawn their
nourishment, which should have been humility, from
the roots of pride, and the miserable soul is full of
ingratitude, whence proceeds every evil.
"But if she were grateful for the benefits she has
received, she would know Me, and knowing Me would
know herself, and so would remain in My love: but
she, as if blind, goes groping down the river, and
she does not see that the water does not support
her."
|