Chapter 51
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to see all truth. "Three points make me bold enough to ask this. The first is because it is so small a thing, for if it were a lofty thing, I should be afraid to ask. The second is that it is so common, for if it were special and secret, I should also be afraid. The third is that it is necessary for me to understand it, it seems to me, in order that, if I should continue to live here, I may discern good and evil. Then, by reason and grace, I may better separate them from one another, and love goodness and hate evil, as holy Church teaches."
I cried inwardly with all my might, seeking for help from God, saying, "Ah, Lord Jesus, King of bliss, how shall I be eased? Who will teach me and tell me what I need to comprehend if I cannot see it in You at this time?"
Chapter 51 The answer to the previous doubt by a marvelous example of a lord and a servant; God will be waited for, because it was nearly twenty years later before she understood this example completely; and how it is to be understood that Christ sits at the right hand of the Father.
And then our courteous Lord answered by showing most sweetly a wonderful example of a lord who had a servant, and gave insight to my understanding about both. The sight was showed double in the lord and double in the servant. The first part was showed spiritually with a bodily image. The second part was showed more spiritually, without a bodily image.
In the first part I saw as follows. There were two bodily images of persons, that is to say a lord and a servant, and with these images God gave me spiritual understanding. The lord sat solemnly, in rest and in peace. The servant stood before his lord reverently, ready to do his lord's will.
The lord looked most lovingly, sweetly and meekly upon his servant. He sent him into a certain place to do his will.
The servant not only went; for love, he jumped up suddenly and ran in great haste to do his lord's will. And immediately he fell into a ravine and suffered very great injury. Then he
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groaned and moaned, he wallowed and writhed, but he could not rise nor help himself in any kind of way.
And in all this the greatest danger was the failing of his comfort, for he could not turn his face to look up to his loving lord, who was very near him and in whom is complete comfort. But like a man who is very feeble and unwise, he paid attention, for the moment, to his feeling and stayed in misery.
In this woe he suffered seven great pains. The first was the sore bruising he took in his fall, which made him feel great pain. The second was the heaviness of the body. The third was the feebleness that followed these two. The fourth was that he was blinded in his reason and stunned in his mind, to the extent that he had almost forgotten his own love. The fifth was that he could not rise. The sixth pain was the most surprising to me, and that was that he lay alone. I looked all around and stared far and near, high and low, and I saw no help for him. The seventh pain was that the place in which he lay was long, hard and grievous.
I marveled how this servant could suffer all this woe there so meekly. And I gazed with attention to learn if I could perceive any fault in him, or if the lord should assign him any kind of blame. And in truth, none was seen, for the only cause of his falling was his good will and his great desire, and he was zealous, and as willing, and as good inwardly as when he had stood before his lord ready to do his will.
His loving lord looked at him continually in just this way, and had a twofold expression. The first part was outward. It was most meek and mild, with great compassion and pity.
The second part was inward. It was more spiritual. This was showed by my spirit's being led into the lord; in the showing
I saw him rejoice greatly, because of the glorious and noble raising he wills and shall bring to his servant by his abundant grace. (All this refers to the second part of the showing.)
Now my understanding was led back to the first part of the showing, while keeping both in mind. Then this courteous Lord indicated what He meant us to understand: "Look!
Look at My beloved servant! See what harm and unease he has suffered in My service, for My love. Yes, and on account
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of his good will is it not reasonable that I should reward him for his fright and his dread, his hurt and his maiming, and all his woe? Not only this, but does it not fall to Me to give him a gift that will be better for him and more to his honor than his own wholeness would have been? Or else it seems to me
I have done him no favor."
With this an inward spiritual showing of what the Lord meant descended into my soul. In it I saw that it ought and had to be so, given His great goodness and His own glory, that His most valuable servant, whom He loved so much, should be, in truth, nobly and blissfully rewarded without end, beyond what he would have received if he had not fallen — so much so that his falling and all the woe that he suffered from it should be turned into lofty, surpassing glory and endless bliss.
And at this point the showing of the example vanished and our good Lord led forth my understanding in vision and in showing of the revelation to the end. But notwithstanding all this leading forth, my wondering at the example never left me, for it seemed to me that it had been given to me as an answer to my desire. And still I could not grasp the complete understanding of it for my ease at that time.
For in the servant, who stood for Adam, as I shall explain, I saw many different properties that could in no way be applied to Adam alone. And thus at that time I was solidly fixed in unknowing, for the full understanding of this marvelous example was not given me at that time.
In this mighty example three properties of the revelation are still greatly hidden. Notwithstanding this, I saw and understood that every showing is full of secret things.
For this reason I now ought and have to tell three properties of the example about which I have been somewhat eased.
The first is what I understood of the beginning of the teaching at the time I received it. The second is the inward teaching that I have since understood about it. The third is the entire revelation from the beginning to the end, that is to say of this book. This our Lord God, of His goodness, frequently brings freely to the sight of my understanding. These three are so
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united, as I understand it, that I cannot and may not separate them.
And from these three as one, I have received teaching such that I ought to believe and trust in our Lord God, that by the same goodness and for the same end that He showed it, He shall declare it to us when it is His will. For, twenty years less three months after the time of the showing, I received inward teaching that I shall tell you: "It is your place to pay attention to all the properties and conditions that were showed in the example, though you may think them misty and indifferent in your sight."
I assented deliberately, with great desire, feeling inwardly with attention all the points and properties that were showed at the same time, as far as my wit and understanding would serve.
Beginning with my seeing the lord and the servant, I noticed the way in which the lord sat and the place he sat on, the color of his clothing and the way it was shaped, his outward expression and his inward nobility and goodness. I noticed the way the servant stood, the kind, color and shape of his clothing, his outward behavior and his inward goodness, and his willingness.
The lord, who sat solemnly in rest and in peace, I understood to be God. The servant who stood before the lord I understood to represent Adam. That is to say, one man and his falling were shown at that time to make us understand by this how God views all of mankind and its falling. For in the sight of God all of mankind is one man, and one man is all of mankind.
This man was hurt in his power and made very feeble, and he was stunned in his understanding, for he was turned away from the seeing of his Lord, but his will was kept whole in God's sight. For I saw our Lord commend and approve his will, though he himself was prevented and blinded from knowing this will.
This was a great sorrow and a grievous unease to him, for he neither clearly saw his loving Lord, who was completely meek and mild toward him, nor did he see truly what he
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himself was in the sight of his loving Lord. And well I knew that when these two things are wisely and truly seen we shall have great rest and peace, here in part, and the fulness of bliss in heaven, by His abundant grace.
This was a beginning of the teaching that I saw at the time.
By it I could come to know in what manner He sees us in our sin. And then I saw that only pain blames and punishes; our courteous Lord comforts and assists us. He always wears a cheerful expression for the soul, loving us and longing to bring us to bliss.
The place that our Lord sat upon was simply the earth — barren and a desert. He sat alone in the wilderness. His clothing was ample and full and most beautiful, as becomes a lord.
The color of His clothing was as blue as azure, most sober and fair.
His expression was merciful. The color of His face was fair — brownish white — with most beautiful features. His eyes were black, most fair and lovely, appearing full of lovely pity, and having within them a look, lofty, long and broad, all filled with the endless heavens. The lovely look with which He gazed continually upon his servant, specifically in His falling, it seemed to me, would melt our hearts for love and break them in two for joy. This fair gaze appeared to be a beautiful mixture that was marvelous to behold. One part of it was compassion and pity; the other part was joy and bliss. The joy and bliss surpassed the compassion and pity as far as heaven is above earth. The pity was earthly, the bliss heavenly.
The compassion and pity of the Father was for the fall of Adam, who is His most loved creature. The joy and bliss were for His most precious Son, who is equal to the Father. The merciful sight of His loving expression completely filled the whole earth and descended with Adam down into hell. With its continuing pity Adam was kept from endless death. And this mercy and pity dwells with mankind until we come up into heaven.
But man is blinded in this life, and therefore we cannot see our Father, God, as He is. When He of His goodness wills to
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show Himself to man, He shows Himself in homely fashion, as man. Notwithstanding that, I saw that in truth we ought to know and believe that the Father is not man.
But His sitting on the earth, barren and a desert, stands for the fact that He has made man's soul to be His own city and His dwelling place, which, of all His works, pleases Him most. And when man fell into sorrow and pain, he was not lovely enough to serve in that office. Therefore our kind Father would have no other place prepared for Himself, but seated Himself upon the earth waiting for mankind, which is mingled with earth, until by His grace His most precious Son had again brought this city into noble fairness by His hard, bitter labor.
The blueness of the clothing is a symbol of His steadfastness. The brownness of His fair face with the lovely blackness of the eyes was most suitable to show His holy seriousness.
The fullness of His clothing, which was flaming fair around Him, stood for the fact that He has enclosed in Himself the entire heavens and all of endless joy and bliss.
And this was showed to me in a touch, where I saw that my understanding was led into the Lord. In this touch I saw
Him greatly rejoice on account of the glorious restoration that He wills and to which He shall bring His servant by His abundant grace.
And still I wondered, looking at the lord and the servant I mentioned before. I saw the lord sit solemnly and the servant stand reverently before his lord. In this servant there is a double understanding — one from without, the second from within.
Outwardly he was clad as simply as a laborer who was ready for hard labor. He stood very near the lord, not directly in front of him but partly to one side, the left side. His clothing was a single white tunic, old and completely soiled, dyed with the sweat of his body. It fit him tightly, was short — a hand's breadth below the knee — and seemed threadbare, as if it would soon be worn out and ready to be torn into rags.
I wondered greatly at this, thinking, "Now, this is unbe-
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coming clothing for a servant who is so greatly loved to stand in before so glorious a lord."
Inwardly, there was shown within him a foundation of love which he had for the lord, that was equal to the love the lord had for him. The wisdom of the servant saw inwardly that there was one thing to do that would be an honor to the lord.
And the servant, for love, having no regard for himself, or for anything that could happen to him, when his lord sent him, hastily jumped up and ran to do the thing that was his lord's will and for his honor.
It seemed from the servant's outer clothing that he had been a laborer continuously and had worked very hard for a long time. But by the inward sight I had, both of the lord and of the servant, it seemed that he was made anew — that is to say, newly beginning to labor hard, as a servant who had never been sent out before.
There was a treasure in the earth which the lord loved. I marveled and thought what it might be. And I was answered in my understanding, "It is a meal which is delightful and pleasing to the lord." For I saw the lord sit as a man, and I saw neither meat nor drink with which to serve him. This was one marvel. A second marvel was that this solemn lord had no servant but this one, and he sent him out.
I looked at this, thinking, "What kind of labor can it be that this servant does?" And then I understood that he was doing the greatest labor and the hardest work; that is, he was a gardener, digging and making ditches, sweating and turning the earth over, seeking the depths and watering the plants at the right time.
He would continue his hard labor in this way, making sweet floods run and a noble abundance of fruit to spring forth. This he would bring before the lord and serve him with it, to the lord's delight. He would never return again until he had prepared this meal, making it completely ready, in the way he knew would please the lord. And then he would take this meal with the drink and carry it most respectfully before the lord. And all this time the lord would sit right in the same place, awaiting the servant whom he had sent out.
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And yet I wondered where the servant came from, for I saw in the Lord that He had within Himself endless life and all kinds of goodness, except for the treasure that was in the earth, and that was grounded within the Lord in the marvelous depth of endless love. But all this was not entirely a glory for Him until this servant had thus nobly prepared it and brought it before Him, in his own person. And without the lord, there was absolutely nothing but wilderness.
I didn't entirely understand what this example meant. That is why I wondered where the servant came from.
In the servant is comprehended the Second Person of the blessed Trinity, and Adam — that is to say all men. Therefore, when I say "the Son" I mean the godhead which is equal to the Father, and when I say "the servant" I mean Christ's manhood, which is the rightful Adam.
By the nearness of the servant, the Son is to be understood, and by his standing at the Lord's left side Adam is to be understood. The lord is God the Father; the servant is this same Jesus Christ; the Holy Spirit is the equal love that is in both of them.
When Adam fell, God's Son fell, because of the rightful union that was made in heaven. God's Son could not be separated from Adam, for by "Adam" I understand all men. Adam fell from life to death into the abyss of this wretched world, and after that into hell. God's Son fell with Adam into the abyss of the womb of the maiden who was the fairest daughter of Adam, in order to excuse Adam from blame in heaven and on earth, and powerfully He fetched Adam out of hell.
By the wisdom and the goodness that are in the servant is to be understood God's Son. By his poor clothing as a laborer standing near the lord's left side is to be understood the manhood of Adam with all the evil consequences and feebleness that follow. For in all this our good Lord showed His own
Son and Adam as a single man. The virtue and the goodness that we have is from Jesus Christ; the feebleness and blindness that we have is from Adam. Both of them were shown in the servant.
Thus has our good Lord taken upon Himself all our blame.
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And therefore our Father can and will assign no more blame to us than to His own most precious Son, Jesus Christ. He was the servant before His coming to earth by standing ready before the Father in His purpose, until the time the Father would send Him to do the glorious deed by which mankind was brought again to heaven. That is to say, notwithstanding the fact that He is God, equal with the Father as concerns the godhead, He would be as man in His foreseeing purpose, to save man by fulfilling the will of His Father. Thus
He stood before His Father as a servant, deliberately taking upon Himself all that was charged against us.
And then He jumped up, completely ready at the Father's will. Immediately, He fell very low, into the maiden's womb, having no regard for Himself, nor for His hard pains.
The white tunic is His flesh. Its singleness symbolizes the fact that there was absolutely nothing between the godhead and the manhood. The tightness of the tunic is poverty. The age of the tunic comes from Adam's wearing of it. The soiling is from the sweat of Adam's bitter labor. The shortness shows that the servant labors.
And thus I saw the Son, as He intended it, standing and saying, "Look, my dear Father! I stand before you in Adam's tunic, all ready to jump and run. I would be on earth for Your glory when it is Your will to send me. How long shall
I desire it?"
The Son knew most truly when it was the Father's will and how long He would desire, that is to say, in His godhead, for He is the wisdom of the Father. Therefore this meaning was shown to be understood of the manhood of Christ. All of mankind that shall be saved by the sweet Incarnation and the blissful passion of Christ is the manhood of Christ, for He is the head and we are His members. To these members, the time when passing woe and sorrow shall have an end and everlasting joy and bliss shall be fulfilled is unknown. All the company of heaven longs for and desires to see that day and time.
For all who are under heaven [and] who shall come to it, their way is by longing and desiring. This desiring and long-
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ing were showed 'in the servant standing before the lord, or else by the Son standing before the Father in Adam's tunic.
The longing and desire of all of mankind that shall be saved appeared in Jesus. For Jesus is all that shall be saved. And all that shall be saved is Jesus, as is all of the charity of God, with the obedience, meekness, patience and the virtues that belong to us.
I have also found in this marvelous example an inner teaching within, like the beginning of an ABC, by which I may have some understanding of our Lord's meaning. For the secrets of the revelation are hidden in it notwithstanding that all the showings are full of secret things.
The sitting of the Father symbolizes His godhead, that is to say in showing rest and peace, for in the godhead there can be no hard labor. That He shows Himself as a lord symbolizes our manhood. The standing of the servant symbolizes bitter labor. His standing on the Lord's left side symbolizes that he was not fully worthy to stand directly before the Lord. His jumping up was symbolic of the godhead, and the running symbolized the manhood, because the godhead jumped up from the Father into the maiden's womb, falling into His taking of our nature. In this falling He received a great wound.
The wound that He took was our flesh. In it He immediately felt mortal pains.
The fact that the servant stood, full of dread, before the Lord, and not directly in front of Him, means that his clothing was not decent enough for him to stand directly in front of the Lord, that this could not, and should not, be his office while he was a laborer, and also that he might not sit with the Lord in rest and peace until he had won his peace rightfully with his hard, bitter labor. The fact that the servant stood at the left side means that the Father deliberately left His own Son in His manhood to suffer all man's pain without sparing Him.
By the fact that the servant's tunic was at the point of being torn to rags is to be understood the rods, the blows and scourges, the thorns and the nails, the drawing and dragging of his tender flesh, the tearing of it, as I saw part only the flesh torn from the skull, its falling in pieces until the bleed-
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ing stopped, when it began to dry and cleave to the bone again.
And by the wallowing and writhing, groaning and mourning, is to be understood that He could never rise All-powerful from the time He had fallen into the maiden's womb until
His body was slain and dead and He yielded His soul into the Father's hand with all mankind for whom He was sent.
At this point He first began to show His power, for then He went into hell. When He was there, He raised up out of the deepest depths the great root that was rightfully knitted to Him in high heaven.
The body lay in the grave until Easter morning. And from that time He never again lay down dead, for then the wallowing and writhing, the groaning and moaning were rightfully ended. Our foul, mortal flesh, which God's Son took upon Himself — Adam's old tunic, right, bare and short — was then, by our Savior, made fair, new, white and bright, of endless cleanness, ample and full, fair and richer than was the clothing I saw on the Father. For the Father's clothing is bliss, and Christ's clothing is now a fair and becoming mixture that is so marvelous that I cannot describe it, for it is all of glory itself.
Now the Lord does not sit on earth in the wilderness, but He sits on His rich and noble chair, which He made in heaven to be most to His liking. Now the Son does not stand before the Father as the servant stands before the lord, dreadfully clothed and partly naked, but He stands before the Father directly in front of Him, richly clothed in blissful amplitude, with a crown of precious richness on His head. For it was showed that we are His crown, and this crown is the Father's joy, the Son's glory, the Holy Spirit's delight, and endless marvelous bliss to all who are in heaven.
Now the Son does not stand before the Father on the left side like a laborer, but He sits at the Father's right hand in endless rest and peace. But this does not mean that the Son sits at the Father's right hand beside him, as one man sits next to another in this life, for there is no such "sitting" in the Trin-