第34章 THE SECOND PART(5)

Eternal Wisdom.--In what manner My glorified body and My soul,according to the whole truth,are in the Sacrament,this can no tongue express,nor any mind conceive,for it is a work of My omnipotence.

Therefore oughtest thou to believe it in all simplicity,and not pry much into it.And yet I must say a little to thee about it.I will thrust this wonder aside for thee with another wonder.Tell Me how it can be in nature that a great house should shape itself in a small mirror,or in every fragment of a mirror,when the mirror is broken?Or,how can this be,that the vast heavens should compress themselves into so small a space as thy small eye,the two being so very unequal to each other in greatness?

The Servant.--Truly,Lord,I cannot tell,it is a strange thing,for my eye is to the heavens but as a small point.

Eternal Wisdom.--Behold,though neither thy eye nor anything else in nature is equal to the heavens,yet nature can do this thing,why should not I,the Lord of nature,be able to do many more things above nature?But now,tell me further,is it not just as great a miracle to create heaven and earth,and all creatures out of nothing,as to change bread invisibly into My body?

The Servant.--Lord,it is just as possible for Thee,so far as I can understand,to change something into something,as to create something out of nothing.

Eternal Wisdom.--Dost thou wonder then at that,and not at this?Tell Me further,thou believest that I fed five thousand persons with five loaves,where was the hidden matter which obeyed My words?

The Servant.--Lord,I know not.

Eternal Wisdom.--Or dost thou believe thou hast a soul?

The Servant.--This I do not believe,because I know it,for otherwise I should not be alive.

Eternal Wisdom.--And yet thou canst not see thy soul with thy bodily eyes.

The Servant.--Lord,I know that there are many more beings invisible to human eyes than such as we can see.

Eternal Wisdom.--Now listen:many a person there is of senses so gross as hardly to believe that anything which he cannot perceive with his senses really exists,concerning which the learned know that it is false.In like manner does the human understanding stand related to divine knowledge.Had I asked thee how the portals of the abyss are constructed,or how the waters in the firmament are held together,thou wouldst perhaps have answered thus:

It is a question too deep for me,I cannot go into it:I never descended into the abyss,nor ever mounted up to the firmament.Well,I have only asked thee about earthly things which thou seest and hearest,and understandest not.Why shouldst thou wish,then,to understand what surpasses all the earth,all the heavens,and all the senses?Or why wilt thou needs inquire into it?Behold,all such wondering and prying thoughts proceed alone from grossness of sense,which takes divine and supernatural things after the likeness of things earthly and natural,and such is not the case.If a woman were to give birth to a child in a dark tower,and it were to be brought up there,and its mother were to tell it of the sun and the stars,the child would marvel greatly,and would think it all against reason and incredible,which its mother,nevertheless,knows so well to be true.

The Servant.--Indeed,Lord,I have nothing more to say,for Thou hast so enlightened my faith that I ought to think of marvelling in my heart again,or why should I seek to enquire into the highest,who cannot comprehend the lowest?Thou art the truth which cannot lie;Thou art the highest wisdom that can do all things;Thou art the omnipotent who can dispose of all things.Oh,noble and loving Lord,I have often desired in my heart that,like holy Simeon in the temple,I might have received Thee bodily in my arms,might have pressed Thee to my heart and soul,so that the spiritual kiss of Thy presence might have been as truly mine as it was his.