Chapter 13
THE REVELATION OF DIVINE LOVE
ued blood overflows the entire earth, and is ready to wash clean from sin all creatures who are, have been and shall be of good will. The precious plenty of His priceless blood ascends into heaven in the blessed body of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is there in Him, bleeding, praying for us to the Father; it is and shall be as long as there is need. It flows in all of heaven forever, enjoying the salvation of all mankind who are there, and it shall fill up the number that is lacking [of those who are to be saved].
Chapter 13 THE FIFTH SHOWING is that the temptation of the devil is overcome by the passion of Christ, giving us an increase of joy and the devil everlasting pain.
And after that, before God showed any words, He allowed me to look at Him for a measurable period of time. And all that I had seen and all that I had understood was there, as far as the simplicity of my soul could take in.
Then, without voice or the opening of lips, He formed these words in my soul: "Herewith is the fiend overcome."
When He said these words, our Lord was referring to His blessed passion, as He had shown previously.
In this our Lord showed part of the devil's malice and all of his powerlessness, for He showed that His passion is the overcoming of the fiend. God showed that the devil has the same malice now that he had before the Incarnation, and the harder he works, the more continually he sees that all salvation's souls escape from him gloriously, by virtue of Christ's precious passion. And that is his sorrow.
His end is attained very badly, for all that God allows him to do turns to joy for us and to shame, pain and woe for him.
He has as much sorrow when God gives him permission to work as when he does not work. The reason for this is that he can never do as much evil as he would like to, because all his power is locked in God's hands.
But, as I see it, there can be no wrath in God. For our
THE FIFTH SHOWING
good Lord endlessly has regard for His own honor and for the profit of all who shall be saved. With might and right,
He withstands the discredited, who, with malice and shrewdness, busy themselves to contrive and work against God's will.
Also, I saw our Lord scorn his malice and reduce his powerlessness to nothing, and He wills that we do the same thing.
On account of this sight, I laughed loud and long, which made those who were around me laugh too, and their laughter was a pleasure to me. Then I thought I would like all my fellow Christians to have seen what I saw, for then they should all laugh with me. I didn't see Christ laugh, but I knew well that it was the sight He had shown me that had made me laugh. For I understood that we may laugh, comforting ourselves and rejoicing in God that the devil has been overcome.
When I saw God scorn the devil's malice, it was by the leading of my understanding into our Lord, that is to say by a showing of truth from within, without any change of His outward expression. For as I see it, it is a glorious property of God that He is unchanging.
And after this, I fell into a more sober mood and said, "I see three things: a jest, scorn and earnest. I see a jest in that the fiend is overcome. I see scorn in that God scorns him, and he shall be scorned. And I see earnest in that he is overcome by the blessed passion and death of our Lord Jesus Christ, which was done in absolute earnest and with sorrowful, difficult labor."
And where I said, "The devil is scorned," I meant that God scorns him, that is to say, God sees him now as He shall see him forever. In this God showed that the fiend is damned, and that's what I meant when I said the devil should be scorned.
For I saw he shall be scorned generally at the day of judgment, by all who shall be saved, for whose consolation and salvation he has had great envy. For then the devil shall see that all the woe and tribulation he has caused the saved shall be changed to an increase of their joy without end. And all
THE SIXTH SHOWING
the pain, tribulation and sorrow he has tried to bring them to shall forever go with him to hell.
Chapter 14 THE SIXTH SHOWING is of the gratitude full of honor with which God rewards His servants, and it has three joys.
After this our Lord said, "I thank you for your service, and for your distressful labor, and especially for your youth."
And in this my understanding was lifted up into heaven, where I saw our Lord like a lord in His own house who has called all His valued servants and friends to a solemn feast.
Then I saw the Lord take no place in His own house, but royally reign there, and He completely filled it with joy and mirth. He himself endlessly gladdened and solaced His valued friends with the greatest homeliness and courtesy by the marvelous melody of endless love in His own fair, blessed face. This glorious countenance of the godhead completely fills all heaven with joy and bliss.
God showed three degrees of bliss that every soul that has willingly served God in any degree on earth shall have in heaven.
The first is the gratitude full of honor that he shall receive from our Lord God when he is delivered from pain. This thanks is so lofty and so full of honor that it seems to the recipient that it would satisfy him even if there were nothing further. For it seemed to me that all the pain and painful labor that could be suffered by all living men could not deserve this thanks full of honor that one man, who has freely served
God, shall have.
The second degree of bliss is that all the blessed creatures who are in heaven shall see that glorious thanking, and God shall make the person's service known to all who are in heaven. At this time, this example was shown. If a king thanks his subjects, it is a great honor to them; if he makes his thanking known to all the realm, their honor is greatly increased.
THE SEVENTH SHOWING
The third degree of bliss is that it shall last forever, just as new and pleasing as it is when it is first received.
And I saw this shown, simply and sweetly — that the age of every man shall be known in heaven, that each shall be rewarded for his willing service and for his time, and especially that the years of those who deliberately and freely offer their youth to God are exceedingly rewarded and wonderfully thanked. For I saw that when, for whatever time, a person is truly turned to God, even for a single day's service and for God's eternal will, he shall have all these three degrees of bliss. And the more the loving soul sees this courtesy of God the more anxious it is to serve Him all its life.
Chapter 15 THE SEVENTH SHOWING is of frequent alternations of feeling: wellbeing to woe; and of how it is expedient that man sometimes be left without comfort when sin is not the cause.
And after this He gave me a most intense spiritual delight in my soul, and in it I was completely filled with everlasting certitude, firmly sustained, without any painful dread.
This feeling was so glad and so spiritual that I was entirely at peace, at ease and at rest, so that there was nothing on earth that could have disturbed me.
This lasted only for a while. Then I was transformed and left to myself in depression, weary of my life and irked with myself, so that I kept the patience to go on living only with difficulty. There was no comfort and no ease for me, except faith, hope and charity, and these I had in reality, though I had very little feeling of them.
And immediately after this our Lord again gave me comfort and rest of soul in delight and certitude, so blessed and so mighty that no dread, no sorrow, no bodily or spiritual pain that could be suffered should have caused me distress.
And then the pain returned to my feelings, again followed by the joy and delight — first the one and then the other, at,
I suppose, about twenty different times. In the time of joy I
THE REVELATION OF DIVINE LOVE
could have said with Saint Paul, "Nothing shall separate me from the love of Christ." And in the pain I could have said,
"Lord, save me! I perish!"
This vision was showed to me to teach my understanding that it is profitable for some souls to experience these alternations of mood — sometimes to be comforted and sometimes to fail and to be left to themselves. God wills that we know that He keeps us ever equally safe, in woe as in well-being.
For the profit of a man's soul, he is sometimes left to himself, although sin is not ever the cause. For at this time I had committed no sin that should have caused me to be left to myself, it came on me so suddenly; besides, I didn't deserve to have the blessed feeling either, but our Lord gave it to me freely when He chose. Sometimes He allows us to suffer misery, but both well-being and woe express the same love.
For it is God's will that we hold ourselves in His comfort with all our might, for bliss is everlasting, while pain is passing and shall be reduced to nothingness for those who shall be saved. Therefore, it is not God's will that we follow the feelings of pain, sorrowing and mourning on their account, but that we immediately pass beyond them and hold ourselves in the endless delight that is God.
Chapter 16 THE EIGHTH SHOWING is of the last, precious pains of Christ's dying; of the discoloring of His face; and of the drying of His flesh.
After this, Christ showed a part of His passion near His death. I saw His sweet face as if it were dry and bloodless, pale with dying. Next it became more pale and dead-looking with increasing weakness, and then it turned more deadlooking, to blue and then to brown-blue as the flesh continued more and more to die. For His passion was visible to me most completely in His blessed face, particularly in His lips.
There I saw these four colors, though they were previously fresh, ruddy, lifelike and pleasing to my sight.
This deep dying caused a change pitiful to watch. The nose