Chapter 67
THE SIXTEENTH SHOWING
ple who were with me observed me and wet my temples, and my heart began to take comfort.
And at once a little smoke came in through the door with a great deal of heat and a foul stench. I said, "Bless the Lord!
Everything here is on fire!" I imagined it was a physical fire that would burn us all to death. I asked those who were with me if they smelled any stench, and they said no, they smelled nothing. I said, "Blessed be God!" because then I understood clearly that it was the fiend, who had only come to tempt me.
Immediately I recalled what our Lord had showed me that same day, with all the beliefs of holy Church, for I saw both as one. I fled to these two as to my comfort. At once everything vanished entirely, and I was brought to a great rest and peace, without sickness of body or dread of conscience.
Chapter 67 Of the glorious sight of the soul, which is so nobly created that it could not have been any better made; in it the Trinity rejoices everlastingly; the soul can have rest in nothing but God, Who sits in it ruling all things.
And then our good Lord opened my spiritual eye and showed me my soul in the middle of my heart. I saw the soul as large as if it were an endless world and also as if it were a blessed, blissful kingdom. By the conditions I saw in this
[showing], I understood that the soul is a glorious city.
In the middle of that city sits our Lord Jesus, true God and true man, a fair person, large in stature — the noblest bishop, the most solemn king, the lord most full of honor.
And I saw Him clothed solemnly. He sits in the soul in glory, completely tranquil in peace and rest, and He rules and saves heaven and earth and everything that exists. The manhood sits with the godhead at rest. The godhead rules, sustains and saves heaven and earth and all that exists, without any instrument or activity, and the soul is completely occupied with the godhead, which is sovereign Might, sovereign Wisdom and sovereign Goodness.
THE REVELATION OF DIVINE LOVE
The place that Jesus takes in our soul He shall never remove Himself from, without end, as I see it. For in us is
His most homelike home and His endless dwelling. This He showed in the delight He takes in the creation of man's soul.
For as well as the Father could make a creature and as well as the Son could make a creature, so well did the Holy Spirit will that man's soul be made — and so was it done. Therefore, the blessed Trinity rejoices without end in the creation of man's soul, for He saw without beginning what would please Him without end.
Everything that He has made shows His lordship. An understanding of this was given me at the same time by the example of a creature brought to see the great nobility and kingdoms belonging to a lord. When it had seen all the nobility beneath, then, marveling, it was stirred to seek up above to that high place where the lord dwelt, knowing by reason that his dwelling was in the worthiest place.
Thus I understood in truth that our soul can never have rest in things that are beneath itself. And when it comes above all creatures into itself, it still cannot dwell in this contemplation by its own strength, for all such contemplation is blissfully fixed in God, Who is the Maker dwelling within it.
For man's soul is his true dwelling, and the most intense light and the brightest shining of the city is the glorious love of our Lord God, as I see it.
And what can make us rejoice in God more than to see in Him that He rejoices in us, the noblest of His works?
For I saw in the same showing that if the blessed Trinity could have made man's soul any better, any fairer, any nobler than He did make it, He would not have been fully pleased with the making of man's soul. But because He made man's soul as fair, as good and as precious as He could make a creature, therefore the blessed Trinity is completely pleased without end in the making of man's soul. And He wills that our hearts should be powerfully raised above the depths of the earth and all vain sorrows, and that they should rejoice in Him.
THE SIXTEENTH SHOWING
Chapter 68 Of her knowing in truth that it was Jesus who showed all this and it was no hallucination; and how we ought to have secure trust during all our tribulations, that we shall not be overcome.
This was a delectable sight and a restful showing, and it is this way without end. The contemplation of this [reality] while we are here is most pleasant to God and a very great profit for us. The soul that contemplates it this way makes itself like Him who is contemplated, and joins itself to Him in rest and peace by His grace.
It was a singular joy and bliss to me that I saw Him sitting, for the security of sitting symbolizes endless dwelling. He gave me reassurance that, in truth, it was He who had shown me everything before this. When I had gazed at this with attention, our good Lord showed me words, most meekly, without voice and without the opening of lips, just as He had done before, and said most sweetly, "Now know well that it was no hallucination you saw today, but accept it, believe it, keep yourself in it, comfort yourself with it, and trust in it, and you will not be overcome."
These last words were said in order to teach [me] the complete, real security that is our Lord Jesus, who showed me everything. Just as in the first word our good Lord said, "By this (meaning His blessed passion) is the fiend overcome," in exactly the same sense in the last word He said, with full, true faithfulness, "You (meaning all of us) will not be overcome."
All this teaching and this true comfort are meant in general, for all my fellow Christians, as I have said before, and that is
God's will.
The words "You will not be overcome" were said very sharply and very powerfully as a security and a comfort to be used in any tribulation that may come. He did not say,
"You will not be troubled" or "You will not have bitter labor" or "You will have no discomfort," but "You will not be overcome." God wills that we pay attention to this truth and that we be ever strong in faithful trust, in well-being and woe. For He loves us and delights in us, and wills that, in the same
THE REVELATION OF DIVINE LOVE
way, we love Him and delight in Him and strongly trust in Him — and all shall be well.
And soon all was closed, and I saw no more after this.
Chapter 69 Of the second long temptation by the devil to despair; but she strongly trusted in God and in the faith of holy Church, reciting the passion of Christ, by which she was delivered.
After this the fiend came again with his heat and with his stench and kept me very busy, the stench was so vile and so painful, and the bodily heat was so dreadful and so like hard labor. I also heard bodily talking, as if there had been two people talking. As it seemed to me, both talked at once as if they were holding a parliament with much business, with everything softly muttered and whispered, and I did not understand what they said. All this was intended to stir me to despair, as I thought. It seemed to me they mockingly imitated a recitation of the rosary which is said boisterously with the mouth, lacking the devout intention and wise diligence we owe God in our prayers. And our Lord God gave me the grace strongly to trust in Him and to comfort my soul with bodily speech, as I would have comforted another person who had endured bitter labor. It seemed to me that this busyness could not be compared with any bodily busyness.
I set my bodily eye on the same cross where I had received comfort before this time. I set my tongue to speak of Christ's passion and to recite the faith of holy Church. I set my heart to fasten itself onto God with all its trust and might.
And I thought to myself something like this: "You are extremely busy now, keeping yourself in the faith, in order not to be captured by your enemies! Would that, from now on and evermore, you should be so busy keeping yourself from sin! This would be a good and sovereign occupation." For in truth, I thought that if I were safe from sin, I would be completely safe from all the fiends in hell and the enemies of my soul.
THE SIXTEENTH SHOWING
Thus He occupied me all that night and into the morning, until it was about Prime [6 a.M.]. Immediately, then, they were gone and passed, and nothing was left behind there but the stench, which lasted for a while longer. I scorned him, and thus was I delivered from him by virtue of Christ's passion, for by it is the fiend overcome, as our Lord Jesus Christ had said before.
Chapter 70 In all tribulations we ought to be steadfast in the faith, trusting strongly in God; for if our faith had no enemies it would deserve no reward; and how all these showings are in the faith.
In all this blessed showing our Lord gave me to understand that the seeing of them should pass. But faith preserves this blessed showing with God's own good will and His grace.
For He left with me neither a sign nor a token by which I could know the revelation was real, but He left me with His own blessed word in true understanding, bidding me most powerfully to believe it — and I do so, blessed may He be!
I believe that He who showed it is our Savior, and that it is in the faith that He showed it. Therefore I love it, ever rejoicing, and I am bound to it by everything He Himself meant, together with the words that follow next: "Keep yourself in it, comfort yourself with it, and trust in it."
Thus I am bound to keep it in my faith. For on the same day that it was showed, when the seeing was past, like a coward, I abandoned it and said aloud that I had been raving.
Then our Lord Jesus, of His mercy, willed not to let the revelation perish, but showed it all again within my soul, with greater fulness and with the blessed light of His precious love, saying these words most powerfully and most meekly:
"Now know well that it was no hallucination you saw today," as if He had said, "Because the sight passed from you, you lost it and could or might not keep it. But know it now," that is to say, "now that you see it." This was said not only for that time but also to be used as the ground of my faith, where He
THE REVELATION OF DIVINE LOVE
says (immediately following), "but accept it, believe it, keep yourself in it, comfort yourself with it and trust in it, and you will not be overcome."
In the six commands that follow "take it," His intention is to fasten it faithfully in our hearts, for He wills that it dwell with us in faith until the end of our lives, and afterward in the fulness of joy, willing that we have ever a sure trust in His blissful commands and promises, knowing His goodness.
For our faith is opposed in various ways by our own blindness and our spiritual enemy within and without. Therefore our precious Lover helps us with spiritual sight and light and true teaching on different matters, interior and exterior, by which we can know Him.
And therefore, in whatever way He teaches us, He wills that we perceive Him wisely, receive Him sweetly, and keep ourselves in Him faithfully. For above the faith no goodness is kept in this life, as I see it, and beneath the faith there is no health of soul or help for it. But it is in the faith that our Lord wills that we keep ourselves, for by His goodness and His own working we are able to keep ourselves in the faith, and by His permission, through spiritual enmity we are tested in the faith and made strong. For if our faith did not face enmity, it would deserve no reward, as I understand what our Lord means.
Chapter 71 Jesus wills that our souls look to Him with a glad expression, for He gives us a merry and loving look; how He shows us three kinds of expression: of suffering, of compassion and of complete bliss.
Glad, merry and sweet is the blissful, lovely expression of our Lord to our souls. For He sees us always living in lovelonging, and He wills that our souls look to Him with a glad expression, in order to give Him His reward. And thus I hope, by means of His grace, that He has drawn, and shall further draw, the outer expression to the inner disposition, and will make us entirely at one with Him and with one another in the true, lasting joy that is Jesus.