Chapter XII
THE TWELVE PATRIARCHS
had a presentiment of this bond of friendship when after Levi's birth she exclaimed with great exultation: "Now my husband shall be joined to me" (Gen. 29:34). The true spouse of the soul is God, whom we truly join with us from this time on when we adhere to Him through true love. Or rather from this time on God truly joins
Himself to us when by a kind of inner communication He incites us to love Him and binds us more tightly. What heart is so unfeeling and hard that divine piety cannot soften it by His presence and cannot attract it by His sweetness? Therefore it happens that the one whom he used to fear greatly, afterward he begins to love more ardently. You see already, I think, that just as after fear increases daily, of necessity grief rises up repeatedly; so certainly after hope is born and makes progress through daily increments, love is born.
And so this is that son of Jacob who is born in the fourth place and in Scripture is called Judah, that is "confessing."
If we seek the reason for this name we shall find it quickly. For we know that whatever a person approves, that he loves, and the more he loves, the more he approves. And what is approval except praise? By all means that truly is praise which arises from chaste love and that is pure confession which proceeds from the admiration of praise. Do you wish to know more openly and more excellently than all the rest what is the voice of exultation and confession that Judah alone knew?
Chapter XII What the nature of love is Pay attention to a soul loving someone excessively and burning with an excessive love. Pay attention to what it feels, to what it says to itself about the one whom it loves so much and greatly admires.
What does it say? What does it say quietly to itself? It says, "O how good, how liberal! O how pleasant, how sweet, how lovable, how embraceable, how wholly admirable, how wholly desirable! O blessed is the one he loves! O happy is the one he judges worthy of his love. Happy am I if I am permitted to enjoy him; blessed am I, if I should happen to possess him!" If I am not mistaken, this is that
RICHARD OF ST. VICTOR
voice of exultation and confession which always resounds from the mouth of Judah into the ears of divine kindness. What do you say,
Leah? What do you exclaim for Judah? What do you pay to the Lx)rd? What do you give back for such a son? Now, she says, I shall confess to the Lx)rd: "I shall confess abundantly to the Lord with my mouth" (Ps.
108:30). Surely and without doubt, you truly confess to the Lord not only frequently, but also unceasingly, if you love Him perfectly: "I will bless the Lord at all times; His praise shall always be in my mouth" (Ps.
33:2). Indeed, you always praise if you always love and always long. For you would not love if you did not approve. As it has been said, what is approval except praise? And praise itself is confession itself. But do not think that it would suffice for Judah to confess so much with the heart unless he also confessed with the mouth. For Judah wishes both to commend
Him to others and to kindle them to love of Him whom he judges to be worthy of the love of all and who longs to be loved by all. All these things are said concerning the confession of praise. But what shall we say concerning the confession of crimes? Perhaps Judah ignores the latter, however much he so excellently recognizes the former.
I do not think so, because I know the latter and the former both pertain very much to the honor of God. And I know that he who loves more truly does more freely whatever he knows to serve the honor of God. Not only His generosity but also our iniquity greatly commends the goodness of God. For if it is a great thing to grant many things freely to those who deserve nothing, how much greater will it be to give good things to those who deserve evil things? O what sort of kindness, which even our impiety is not able to overcome. There are some things that He mercifully forgives; there are other things that He abundantly bestows. For He forgives our evils; He gives his goods generously. Always quick to forgive; always ready to give generously. The former is kind; the latter, generous. In both cases beneficent; always good. Therefore let us confess our evils to Him. Let us confess our goods to Him. Let us confess our evils to be from us, so that He may in kindness forgive them. Let us confess our goods to be from Him so that He may preserve and increase them. Judah is incessantly engaged in these things in order not to appear ungrateful for either forgiveness conferred or grace granted. Therefore
I think this son is rightly called
THE TWELVE PATRIARCHS
Judah, that is "confessing," because true love always confesses.
Finally, since it is written that "God is truth," it is shown clearly that God does not love whoever is ashamed to confess the truth.
Scripture says: "In the beginning the just man is an accuser of himself" (Prov.
18:17). Therefore the man who believes or desires himself to be a lover of God knows what to do unless perhaps he thinks loving God is other than loving the justice of God. Behold, we now have the fourth of the first sons of Leah. The first is fear of punishment; the second, sorrow of penance; the third, hope of forgiveness; the fourth, love of justice. After these she ceases to give birth. For she thinks that she is able to be sufficient for herself since she considers herself to love truly the true good.
Chapter XIII How the mind is incited to investigation of invisible things by love of invisible things But what do you think goes on in the heart of Rachel; by what heat of longings is she excited when she sees her sister Leah the joyful mother of sons while she remains sterile? Let us hear what she says, and let us know why she grieves. What does she say to Jacob her husband: "Give me children, otherwise I shall die" (Gen.
30:1). Without doubt, if the pursuit of wisdom does not make progress, it soon fails. Let us inquire diligently how it can be that after the birth of Judah, Rachel burns more than usual with love of offspring. We said above that just as it pertains to Leah who is affection of the soul to love, so it is for Rachel who is reason to know.
Indeed, from the former every ordered affection is born; from the latter, mental sense or pure intellect. But what do we understand by Judah, if not ordered love, love of celestial things, love of God, love of the highest good? And so, at the birth of Judah—that is when longing for invisible goods rises up and ferments—Rachel begins to burn with desire for children because she begins to want to know. Where there is love, there is seeing. We gladly look at one whom we greatly love. No one doubts that since he can love invisible goods, he will want immediately to know and
RICHARD OF ST. VICTOR
to see them through the understanding. So the more Judah grows (that is, the affection called loving), the greater there burns in Rachel the desire to give birth, which is the pursuit of knowing.
Chapter XIV What the first way is for everyone entering into the contemplation of invisible things: namely through the imagination
But who does not know how difficult it is—or rather how well-nigh impossible it is— for the carnal mind, as yet unskilled in spiritual pursuits, to rise up to knowledge of invisible things and to fix the eye of contemplation on them? Certainly up until now it knows nothing except corporeal things; nothing else occurs to one thinking except only the visible things he is accustomed to think.
He seeks to see invisible things, but nothing occurs except forms of visible things. He longs to see incorporeal things, and he dreams nothing except the images of corporeal things.
Therefore, what should he do? Is it not better to think of those things by any mode whatever than to commit them to oblivion and neglect? Indeed, if the mind loves well it does not easily forget these things. Nevertheless, with much more difficulty is it raised up to contemplation of these things. Yet it does what it can, it considers them insofar as it is able.
It thinks by means of imagination because it does not yet have the power to see by means of purity of the understanding.
This, I think, is the reason why Rachel must first have children from her handmaid rather than giving birth from herself because it is sweet for her to retain, at least by means of imagination, the memory of those things while she does not yet have the power to grasp by the reasoning process an understanding of them. Just as by Rachel we understand reason, so by her handmaid we understand imagination. Therefore reason urges that it is more suitable to think about true goods in any mode whatever and at least to kindle the soul to a longing for them by a kind of imaginary beauty rather than to fix thought on false and deceptive goods. And this is the reason why Rachel wished to give her handmaid to her husband. No one is ignorant that this is the first way for all those who enter into con-