No man, therefore, can hold himself excused; for if from his natural
root the man does not produce sweet fruit, it is possible for him to
have it by the process of grafting; and in fact there would be as many
who should be grafted as those are who, sprung from a good root, allow
themselves to grow degenerate.
Of the two ways of goodness, one is more full of bliss than the other,
as is the Speculative, which is the use of our noblest part without
any alloy, and which, for the root, Love, as has been said, is
especially to be loved as the intellect. And in this life it is not
possible to have the use of this part perfectly, which is to see God,
who is the Supreme Being to be comprehended by the Mind, except
inasmuch as the intellect considers Him and beholds Him through His
effects, His Works. And that we may seek this Beatitude as the
supreme, and not the other, that is, that of the Active Life, the
Gospel of St. Mark teaches us, if we will look at it well.
Mark says that Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James, and Mary
Salome went to find the Saviour in the Tomb, and they found Him not,
but they found a youth clothed in white, who said to them: "You seek
the Saviour, and I tell you that He is not here; and therefore be not
affrighted, but go and tell His disciples and Peter that He goeth
before you into Galilee; and there ye shall see Him, as He said unto
you." By these three women may be understood the three sects of the
Active Life, that is to say, the Epicureans, the Stoics, and the
Peripatetics, who go to the Tomb, that is to say, to the present
World, which is the receptacle of corruptible things, and seek for the
Saviour, that is, Beatitude, and they find it not; but they find a
youth in white garments, who, according to the testimony of Matthew,
and also of the other Evangelists, was an Angel of God. And therefore
Matthew said: "The Angel of the Lord descended from Heaven, and came
and rolled back the stone from the door, and sat upon it. His
countenance was like lightning, and his raiment white as snow." The
Angel is this Nobility of ours which comes from God, as it has been
said, of which our argument speaks, and says to each one of these
sects, that is, to whoever seeks perfect Happiness in the Active Life,
that it is not here; but go and tell the disciples and Peter, that is,
tell those who seek for it and those who are gone astray like Peter,
who had denied Him, that He will go before them into Galilee; meaning
that the Beatitude or Happiness will go before us into Galilee, that
is, into Contemplation; Galilee is as much as to say, Whiteness.
Whiteness is a colour full of material light, more so than any other;
and thus, Contemplation is more full of Spiritual light than any other
thing which is below.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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