Question 175. How does she comprehend in herself the blessing given to Naphtali?

QUESTION 175. How does she comprehend in herself the blessing given to Naphtali?

There follows concerning the blessing of Naphtali. Genesis 49:21: Naphtali is a deer sent forth, giving words of beauty.

The Gloss says: “Just as it pertains to the office of Dan to repress rising vices through the representation of punishment, so it pertains to Naphtali to inflame good desires through consideration of rewards ¹.” And below: “Therefore, because whatever he finds written he turns to spiritual understanding, rightly he has received the name of conversion ².” And below ³: “It must indeed be noted that he is compared not to a flying bird, but to a running deer. For a bird by flying is suspended far from the earth, but a deer leans upon the earth to make its leaps, and not even in its leaps is it separated farther from the earth. So surely Naphtali, while through the form of visible things he seeks the nature of invisible things, is accustomed to make certain leaps, but not to grow fully strong, because in the very fact that he raises himself to the highest things, drawing with him the shadow of corporeal things, he does not wholly leave the lowest. Thus Naphtali knows how to mingle carnal things with spiritual things, and to describe incorporeal things through corporeal things, so that each nature of the human being may find in his sayings something from which to be marvelously refreshed, since he consists of corporeal and incorporeal nature. But this is very marvelous in his sayings: that they almost always soothe more delightfully when according to the sense of the letter they seem to sound nothing, such as that saying: Your hair is like flocks of goats ⁴. And that: Your nose is like the tower of Lebanon ⁵. And similar sayings. For perhaps in sayings of this sort this is what we embrace so gladly, that by a certain pleasing foolishness of the letter, so to speak, we are compelled to flee to spiritual understanding.”

From these things it is gathered that through Naphtali is understood the contemplation of invisible things through the teaching of visible things. Five properties of this grace are spoken of here, which embrace the blessing of Naphtali. The first is consideration of rewards. The second, the inflaming of desires. The third, the turning of the Scriptures to spiritual understanding. The fourth, the leaving of neither visible nor invisible things, but a leaping between both. The fifth, compulsion toward spiritual understanding through the absurdity of the letter.

The most blessed Virgin had these things in the highest degree, because she alone among all wayfarers had perfect contemplation on the way; she alone understood all the Scriptures according to every sense; and by the uncreated Word she learned the Old and New Testament and taught it expressly, and she herself, by mouth and deed, was glorious in the highest degree as teacher of the discipline of God. And thus also her blessing included the blessing of Naphtali.