Chapter XXXI
"The Spiritual Thirst (which was in Him from without beginning) is desire in Him as long as we be in need, drawing us up to His Bliss"
AND thus our good Lord answered to all the questions and doubts that I might make, saying comfortably: I may make all thing well, I can make all thing well, I will make all thing well, and I shall make all thing well; and you shall see yourself that all manner of thing shall be well.
In that He says, I may, I understand it for the Father; and in that He says, I can, I understand it for the Son; and where He says, I will, I understand it for the Holy Spirit; and where He says, I shall, I understand it for the unity of the blessed Trinity: three Persons and one Truth; and where He says, You shall see yourself, I understand the joining of all mankind that shall be saved to the blessed Trinity. And in these five words God wills we be enclosed in rest and in peace.
Thus shall the Spiritual Thirst of Christ have an end. For this is the Spiritual Thirst of Christ: the love-longing that lasteth, and ever shall, till we see that sight on the Day of Judgement. For we that shall be saved and shall be Christ's joy and His bliss, some be yet here and some be to come, and so shall some be, to that day. for that this is His thirst and love-longing, to have us altogether whole in Him, to His bliss, - as to my sight. For we be not now as fully whole in Him as we shall be then.
For we know in our Faith, and also it was shewed in all the Revelations that Christ Jesus is both God and man. And a result of the Godhead, He is Himself highest bliss, and was, from without beginning, and shall be, without end: which endless bliss may never be heightened nor lowered in itself. For this was plenteously seen in every Shewing, and specially in the Twelfth, where He says: I am that which is highest. And a result of Christ's Manhood, it is known in our Faith, and also it was shewed, that He, with the virtue of Godhead, for love, to bring us to His bliss suffered pains and passions, and died. And these be the works of Christ's Manhood wherein He rejoices; and that shewed He in the Ninth Revelation, where He says: It is a joy and bliss and endless pleasing to me that ever I suffered Passion for you. And this is the bliss of Christ's works, and thus he signifies where He says in that same Shewing: we be His bliss, we be His reward, we be His worship, we be His crown.
For a result of that Christ is our Head, He is glorified and impassible; and a result of His Body in which all His members are knit, He is not yet fully glorified nor all impassible. for that the same desire and thirst that He had on the Cross (which desire, longing, and thirst, as to my sight, was in Him from without beginning) the same has He yet, and shall have to the time that the last soul that shall be saved is come up to His bliss.
For as truly as there is a property in God of care and pity, so truly there is a property in God of thirst and longing. (And of the virtue of this longing in Christ, we have to long again to Him: without which no soul cometh to Heaven.) And this property of longing and thirst cometh of the endless Goodness of God, even as the property of pity cometh of His endless Goodness. And though longing and pity are two sundry properties, as to my sight, in this stands the point of the Spiritual Thirst: which is desire in Him as long as we be in need, drawing us up to His bliss. And all this was seen in the Shewing of Compassion: for that shall cease on the Day of Judgement. Thus He has care and compassion on us, and He has longing to have us; but His wisdom and His love suffers not the end to come till the best time.