Discourse 46

Other reflections. Do not suppose that one who is bound by bodily passions and by worldly cares, who is circumcised from wisdom, can approach the freedom of prayer before God. The hand of mercy is made wise by the spirit, just as oil is to the flame of a lamp. Thus mercy establishes knowledge within the soul. The key to divine mysteries is the heart, given through the gift of the near one. When the heart is loosened from the bonds of the body, then the door to knowledge is opened before it. The passage of the soul from one world to another is through the reception of concepts. It is set for you that it is. The love of the near one is glorious and excellent, except when it does not separate you from the love of God in his creation. The spiritual exercise of the spiritual ones is sweet, but when it comes to be that with him it is preserved, that which is with our Lord, it is fitting to know the taking of the veil of these, until where the duty commands. This one, until from the hidden and sweet service spoken of concerning God, does not fall into its causes. The practice of the second is the foundation of the first. The one does not suffice for both exercises. The vision of worldly things disturbs the soul that has once tasted its own things, because of the service of God. For that is the sweetness of exercise. But for these, there is also the exteriority of vision.

To bodily labors: do not mingle the passions of the senses. Whatever the work, even in sounds without vision, they disturb the tranquility of his heart. Interior death together with the non-cessation of the senses: it cannot be established. Bodily conduct requires wakefulness of the senses; spiritual conduct requires wakefulness of the heart. Just as the soul is superior to the body by its nature, so the work of the soul is superior to the conduct of the body. And just as the body is prior in its existence to the soul, so bodily righteousnesses are prior to spiritual work. The power of conduct is small when bound with habit. A gentle addition, because of its habit, even penetrates hard rocks. When that person of spirit who is to be changed in you approaches, death from every cause is in you, and your soul boils with joy that has no measure in deeds, and your thoughts leap within you in the sweetness of your heart. But when the world is to be changed in you, confusion of thought increases in you, and reflection is small and without substance. The world calls this confusion: to the passions that are vain it is confusion. And what is born and completed become sin and kill the person. Just as passions are not born without a mother, so passions are not born apart from confusion of thought.

And not the completion of sin: Without the disturbance of the senses. When patience increases in the soul: It is a sign that the gift of interior silence has been received. Strong is the power of patience: from the seeds of joy that the heart desires. Life in God: the cessation of the senses. When the heart lives: the senses die. The stirring of the senses: the death of the heart. When the senses are stilled: it is a sign of the death of the heart from God. Among the superfluities of the house of the senses that are consumed: the mind does not take correction. The superfluity of others a man works: he cannot purify himself. For reward and for recompense: it is reckoned before God. But he who works in his own place: both are fulfilled. And recompense is reckoned: and purity is accomplished. Because he turned aside from the beginning: by the union of the two. Without the addition of this: the remainder from that: the manifest cessation from God. The twofold: and the place of the first is fulfilled: even without its labor. Be dead in life: so that you may be freed in your death. Be dead to the world: so that you may be freed from the laws. For those who are governed by them: not one of them attains their completion: in this life. The living dead is freed while alive: and lives while dead.

of the taking of the seal upon the intention of words: The humility of the heart that is from God is trustworthy. The soul of sensation in a life above the body: it is not subjugated to the world. To diminish a person is able without the acquisition of these: by these to increase. Completely indeed: and not to complete. And whoever is obstinate: a great disturbance moves against him. With the acquisition of these: without disturbance he is able to deny these. Sorrows and idleness: a loss of souls. Even more than demons: they suffice to destroy these. Demons, however, where the soul of light dwells: by the excellent labors of the virtues that they perform there: they are not able. The soul, however, that is dark: even to demons it becomes a delight: it is itself for the fulfillment of all evils. A body that is weak: when it is constrained to greater labors: darkness upon darkness covers the soul. And to sorrow and affliction: especially it brings her. A body that is thick: or indeed a firm constitution: if it is joined to idleness and is supported by pleasures: it fills the soul with all evils, that which dwells in it. And even if a great thought of goodness: after a short time, however, even that thought of goodness is removed from it. When, however, the soul is saturated with the joy of its own will: and with that delight in God: the body does not perceive the sufferings: even if it is lowly.

He errs, for heavy weight is oppressive and does not rest. Like one who is weaned, for the body is sustained by the pleasure of the soul, even to the point of abasement. When the soul enters into that joy of the spirit, if you are able to attain it, my brother, a gift is given to you from God: the tenderness of heart to see your soul, and in this, to enter into the joy of the spirit. If this victory is yours, it is fitting for what is said: that you never separate your soul from silence. If you have a pure heart, you will also have a pure mouth, as the blessed John said. What a person desires to adorn with beautiful things, first he brings them near to the fire in his body and gives them through a word that is pleasing in love. There is nothing that so subdues a person and persuades him to change from evils to goods as bodily goodness and honor that he sees from a person. Another proof of this is: the accompaniment of a person to his neighbor for the sake of the virtues. For he who finds his neighbor standing through prayer and vigilance can easily lead him to life, even without the help of words and perceptible adornment. But idleness and laxity not only hinder the reception of these things, but also their vision.

He errs, for by means of diligence he casts upon his standing a burden upon his companions for the beautiful things, and he conceals his vision from the weak. There is no word sufficient to relate the blessedness of how great a treasure it is. Mighty is the silence of activity for the correction of others, from diligence in words which is contentious from the beginning of behaviors. When, however, you come to stand aright, your neighbor is not a little harmed. The more that the grace of God does not enter a person, the more is the heart brought near to its fall. And the more it is adorned with many things, the more it is stripped of help. The soul that is quiet from the disturbance of the body will be moved in its own motions. Be a free man in the body, that you may be equal to the freedom of the spirit. Be a captive in your freedom, that you may not be caught in the snare of servitude to your enemies. If once you have taken that pattern which dissolves the life of the sacrifice, you will show forth in your standing, by means of a sign from its transformations, that death is for the end, for the demonstration of that future cessation, just as it is destined that diligence of everything shall cease from you by death. Do not be angry at the sicknesses of the body, for death is destined to take them from you completely. Do not fear death, for God is destined to make you above it.