Chapter 26
THE TWELFTH SHOWING
Our Lord showed me no one in particular except our Lady Saint Mary, and He showed her to me three times. The first was as she conceived, the second was as she was in her sorrows under the cross, and the third was as she is now, in delight, glory and joy.
Chapter 26 THE TWELFTH SHOWING is that the Lord our God is Being Allsovereign.
And after this our Lord showed Himself more glorious in my sight than I had ever seen Him before. In this I was taught that our soul shall never have rest until it comes to Him, knowing that He is the fulness of joy, homely and courteously blissful, and life itself.
Our Lord Jesus frequently said, "I am it! I am the one! I am that which is the highest! I am what you love! I am what delights you! I am the One you serve! I am what you long for! I am what you desire! I am what you intend! I am all! I am what holy Church preaches and teaches you! I am the One who has shown Myself to you here."
The number of the words exceeded my wit, all my understanding and all my powers, and as I see it, this is the highest point, for in these words is comprehended — I cannot tell; but the joy I saw in the showing of them goes beyond anything the heart may will and the soul may desire. That is why the words are not repeated here. But let every man, according to the grace God gives Him in understanding and loving, receive them as our Lord intends them.
Chapter 27 THE THIRTEENTH SHOWING is that our Lord God wills that we have great regard for all the deeds He has done in the great nobility of His making of all things and of how sin is not known except by the pain.
After this, the Lord brought to my mind the longing I had had for Him before, and I saw that nothing stood in my way
THE REVELATION OF DIVINE LOVE
but sin. I saw that this is generally true of all of us. It seemed to me if sin had not existed, we would all have been pure and like our Lord, as He made us. Thus, in my folly, before this time, I had often wondered why the beginning of sin had not been prevented by the great foreseeing wisdom of God, for then, I thought, all would have been well.
This stirring definitely ought to have been given up; nevertheless, I had mourned and sorrowed on its account without reason or discretion. But Jesus, Who in this vision informed me of all I needed to know, answered in these words, saying,
"Sin is necessary, but all shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of things shall be well."
In this naked word "sin" our Lord brought to my mind all that is not good in general, the shameful contempt and utter noughting [reduction to nothingness] He bore for us in this life, His dying, and all the pains and passions, spiritual and bodily, of all His creatures. For we are all, in part, made nothing, and following our master Jesus, we shall be made nothing until we are fully purged — that is to say, until we are fully stripped of our mortal flesh and of all our inward affections that are not truly good.
In beholding all this, together with all the pains that ever were or ever shall be, I understood the passion of Christ as the greatest pain, passing beyond all the rest. All this was shown in a touch, and immediately was transformed into comfort, for our good Lord did not choose to have the soul made afraid by this ugly sight.
But I did not see sin, for I believe it has no kind of substance and no part of being and that it cannot be known except by the pain it causes. And thus pain is something for a time, as I see it, for it purges us and makes us know ourselves and ask for mercy. The passion of our Lord is a comfort to us confronting all this, and so is His blessed will.
Because of the tender love our good Lord has for all those who shall be saved, He gives comfort readily and sweetly, assuring us, "It is true that sin is the cause of all this pain, but all shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of things shall be well."
THE THIRTEENTH SHOWING
These words were said most tenderly, showing no kind of blame assigned to me or to anyone who shall be saved. Consequently, it would be a most unnatural act for me to blame or wonder at God on account of my sin, seeing that He does not blame me for sin.
And in these same words, I saw a marvelous, lofty secret hidden in God, which He shall make known openly to us in heaven. In knowing it we shall see in truth the reason why
He allowed sin to come, and in this sight we shall endlessly rejoice in our Lord God.
Chapter 28 How the children of salvation shall be shaken in sorrows, but Christ rejoices with compassion; and a remedy against tribulation.
Thus I saw how Christ has compassion on us because of sin. And just as before I was completely filled with pain and compassion in the passion of Christ, so now I was filled, in part, with compassion for all my fellow Christians — for that well, well-beloved people that shall be saved for He loves most fully the people that shall be saved. What I mean is that God's servants, holy Church, shall be shaken in sorrows, anguish and tribulation in this world as men shake a cloth in the wind.
Our Lord answered that in this way: "I shall make a great thing of all this in heaven, a thing of endless glories and everlasting joys."
Indeed, I saw that our Lord rejoices at the tribulations of His servants with pity and compassion to the extent that, in order to bring each person He loves to His bliss, He lays on him some thing that is no lack in His sight but by which the person is lowered and despised in this world — scorned, mocked and cast out. This He does in order to prevent the harm that His servants would suffer from the pomp and vainglory of this wretched life, to make ready their way to come to heaven, and to raise them in His bliss lasting without an end. For He says, "I shall shatter you in your vain affections
THE REVELATION OF DIVINE LOVE
and your vicious pride, and then I shall gather you together and make you mild and meek, pure and holy, by making you one with Me."
And then I saw that each act of natural compassion a man performs for his fellow Christians in charity is Christ in him and that every kind of reduction to nothingness Christ suffered in His passion is repeated here in this compassion.
In this our Lord intended two kinds of understandings.
The one was the bliss that we are brought to, in which He wills to be enjoyed. The second is for comfort in our pain, for He wills that we understand that all of it shall be turned into glory and profit by virtue of His passion. He also wills that we understand that we do not suffer alone, but with Him, and that we see Him as our ground. He wills that we see that His pains and His being made nothing so far surpass all that we can suffer that it can't really be imagined.
The careful contemplation of this [truth] will save us from grumbling and despair as we experience our pain, especially if we see that, in truth, our sin deserves it, yet His love excuses us. He does away with all our blame by His noble courtesy and regards us with compassion and pity, like innocent children, who can't be hated.
Chapter 29 Adam's sin was the greatest sin, but the satisfaction for it is more pleasing to God than ever the sin was harmful.
But I continued to look at this in general, in mourning and darkness, saying mentally to our Lord with very great respect,
"Ah, good Lord, how can all be well, with the great harm that has come to your creatures by sin?" And here I desired, as much as I dared, to have some more open declaration in which I could find ease in this regard.
To this request, our blessed Lord answered most meekly and with a very lovely expression. He showed that Adam's sin was the greatest harm that was ever done, or ever shall be done to the world's end. He also showed that this is known
THE THIRTEENTH SHOWING
openly on earth in all of the holy Church. Furthermore, He taught me that I should behold its glorious satisfaction.
For this making of satisfaction is, beyond comparison, more pleasing to God and more valuable for man's salvation than ever Adam's sin was harmful.
By this teaching our blessed Lord means us to understand and pay heed to this: "For since I have made well the greatest harm, then it is My will that you know thereby that I shall make well all that is less."
Chapter 30 How we should rejoice and trust in our Savior, Jesus, not presuming to pry into His secret purposes.
He gave me understanding of two parts [of truth]. The first part is our Savior and our salvation. This blessed part is open, clear, fair, light and abundant, for all men who are, and shall be, of good will are included in this part. To this part we are bound by God, and to it we are drawn, counseled and taught, inwardly by the Holy Spirit and outwardly by holy Church, by the same grace.
In this first part our Lord wills that we be occupied rejoicing in Him, for He rejoices in us. The more fully we take from this source with reverence and meekness the more thanks we earn from Him and the more success we gain for ourselves.
Thus we can say, rejoicing, that our part is our Lord.
The second part of truth is hidden and barred from us — that is to say, everything that is unrelated to our salvation.
These are our Lord's secret purposes. It belongs to the royal lordship of God that He should possess His secret purposes in peace; to His servants belong obedience and reverence, not full knowledge to will to comprehend His purposes.
Our Lord has pity and compassion on us, because some [of His] creatures do busy themselves with His secret purposes.
I am sure if we knew how very greatly we would please Him and ease ourselves by abandoning this curiosity, we would do so. The saints who are in heaven will to know nothing