Chapter 61
THE FOURTEENTH SHOWING
in itself that it cannot truly be said of anyone but Him, or to anyone but Him, Who is the true Mother of life and of everything.
To motherhood as properties belong natural love, wisdom and knowledge — and this is God. For though it is true that our bodily bringing forth is very little, low and simple compared to our spiritual bringing forth, yet it is He who does the mothering through the creatures by whom it is done.
The natural loving mother, who recognizes and knows the need of her child, takes care of it most tenderly, as the nature and condition of motherhood will do. And continually, as the child grows in age and size, she changes what she does but not her love. When the child has grown older, she allows it to be punished, breaking down vices to enable the child to receive virtues and grace.
This work, with all that is fair and good, our Lord does through those by whom it is done. Thus He is our Mother in nature, by the working of grace in the lower part for love of the higher. And He wills that we know it, for He wills to have all our love fastened to Him.
In seeing these things, I understood that all the debts we owe, by God's commandment, to fatherhood and motherhood, are repaid by our true loving of God because of His
Fatherhood and Motherhood. Christ makes this blessed love in us. And this was showed in everything, especially in the noble, plenteous words, where He says, "I am what you love."
Chapter 61 Jesus uses more tenderness in our spiritual bringing forth; though He allows us to fail in knowing of our wretchedness, He hastily raises us, not breaking His love because of our trespass, for He cannot allow His child to perish; He wills that we have the property of a child, fleeing to Him always in our necessity.
And in our spiritual bringing forth He uses tenderness beyond comparison in keeping us — more than [the tenderness]
THE REVELATION OF DIVINE LOVE
He used in our bodily bringing forth as our soul's worth is greater in His sight than our body's.
He kindles our understanding, He prepares our ways, He eases our conscience, He comforts our soul, He lightens our heart and gives us, in part, the knowing and loving of His blessed, blissful godhead, with the gracious mentality of His sweet manhood and His blessed passion, and with these a courteous marveling at His noble, surpassing goodness. He makes us love all that He loves for [the sake of] His love, and well satisfied with and with all His works.
And when we fall, He raises us hastily, by His lovely calling and His gracious touching. When we are strengthened by His sweet working, then we deliberately choose Him, by His grace, and choose to be His servants and His lovers forever, without end.
And yet after this He allows some of us to fall harder and more seriously than we have ever done before, as we imagine. And then we suppose that we are not entirely wise, and that all we have begun is nothing. But it is not so. For it is necessary for us to fall, and it is necessary for us to see the fall.
If we did not fall, we would not know how feeble and wretched we are of ourselves, nor should we know so fully the marvelous love of our Maker. For we shall truly see in heaven without end that we have sinned grievously in this life.
And notwithstanding this, we shall see in truth that we never lost any of His love, nor were we ever of less worth in His sight. And by the test of this failure we shall have a noble and marvelous experience of love without end in God, for that love is hardy and wonderful. It cannot and will not be broken on account of trespass.
That was one profitable understanding. Another is the humility and meekness we shall receive from the sight of our falling. By which we shall be raised high in heaven. To this raising we might never have come without that meekness, and therefore we must see our failure. And if we don't see the fall, though we fall it will not be profitable for us. Com-
THE FOURTEENTH SHOWING
monly, first we fall and then we see our failure, and both are from the mercy of God.
A mother may allow her child to fall sometimes, and be made uncomfortable in various ways for his own profit, but because of her love she can never allow any kind of peril to come to her child. And though our earthly mother can allow her child to perish, our heavenly Mother, Jesus, can never allow us who are His children to perish. For He is Almighty,
All-wisdom, All-love, and there is none like Him, blessed may He be!
But frequently when our failure and our wretchedness are shown to us, we are so terribly frightened and so greatly ashamed of ourselves that it is with difficulty that we know where to put ourselves.
But then our courteous Mother does not will that we flee away; for Him nothing could be more loathsome. But He wills then that we act the way a child does. When a child is in discomfort and afraid, he runs hastily to his mother, and if he can do nothing more, he cries out to his mother for help with all his might. Jesus wills that we act this way, saying like a meek child, "My natural Mother, my gracious Mother, my most precious Mother, have mercy on me. I have made my self dirty and unlike You, and I may not and cannot make it better, except with Your secret help and Your grace."
If we don't feel ourselves eased at that point, immediately we should be sure that He is acting the way a wise mother does. For if He sees that it is for our profit to mourn and to weep, He allows it, with compassion and pity, for love, to last until the time that is best.
And He wills then that we act the way a child acts, who evermore naturally trusts the love of the mother in well-being and woe. And He wills that we take ourselves with great strength to the faith of holy Church and find there our most precious Mother in comfort and true understanding, with the whole communion of blessed ones. For a person by Himself can frequently be broken, as it seems to Himself, but the whole body of holy Church was never broken and never shall be, without end. Therefore it is a sure thing, a good thing, and
THE REVELATION OF DIVINE LOVE
a gracious thing to will meekly and powerfully to be fastened and joined to our Mother, holy Church that is Christ Jesus.
For the flood of mercy that is His most valuable blood and precious water is plentiful enough to make us fair and clean.
The blessed wounds of our Savior are open and rejoice to heal us. The sweet, gracious hands of our Mother are ready and diligent around us, for He in all this work performs the true office of a natural nurse who has nothing else to do but to attend to the salvation of her child. It is His office to save us; it is His glory to do it, and it is His will that we know it. For He wills that we love Him sweetly and trust in Him meekly and powerfully. And this He showed in these gracious words:
"I keep you most securely."
Chapter 62 The love of God never allows His chosen ones to lose time, for all their trouble is turned into endless joy; how we are all bound to God by nature and by grace; every nature is in man; we do not need to look outside for various natures, but only in holy Church.
At that time, He showed our frailty and our fallings, our breakings and our nothingness, our malice and what we are charged with, our exiles and all our misery, to the extent that these things could befall us in this life, as it seemed to me.
With this He showed His blessed power, His blessed wisdom, His blessed love. In these He preserves us during this time as tenderly and sweetly for His glory and as surely for our salvation as He does when we have most solace and comfort.
And to achieve these things He raises us high in heaven spiritually, and transforms everything for His glory and for our endless joy. Because of His precious love, He never allows us to lose time. All this comes to us from the natural goodness of God, by the working of grace.
God is natural in His being; that is to say, in the goodness that is natural to God. He is the ground, He is the substance,
He is the same thing that nature is. And He is the real Father and the real Mother of natures. All the natures that He has