Chapter VIII, conclusion

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meo sociatum est, et sanguis ejus ornavit genas meas. Sic igitur contemplatione veritatis id quod Christo unitur, pulchritudinem et calorem Christi assumit.

6. Unio devota. In omnibus autem quatuor praedictis tandem quinto loco unio devota perficitur, indissolubilem habens ad corpus unionem et indistantem, ut in corpore sit, et in ipso animetur et vivat, et jam de caetero non nisi de corpore esse reputetur. Hoc autem fit per omnium bonorum quae a capite vel a corde corpori influunt participationem, sicut dicitur in Psalmo CXVIII, 63: Particeps ego sum omnium timentium te, et custodientium mandata tua. Sic sub alia metaphora de Christo unitis loquitur Apostolus, ad Roman. XI, 17: Insertus es in illis, scilicet, in ramis bonae olivae, et socius radicis et pinguedinis olivae factus es. Quia omnia bona quae fluunt a Christo, taliter uniti percipiunt sicut reliqua membra corporis ejus. Sic dicit Christus, Joan. XVII, 22 et 23: Ego claritatem quam dedisti mihi, dedi eis: ut sint unum, et sicut nos unum sumus. Ego in eis, et tu in me, ut sint consummati in unum.

Haec est catena aurea, qua colligamur et a multis reducimur ad unum unde exivimus. Pater enim omnino unus, a quo sicut a fonte Filius nascitur, et a Patre et Filio procedit Spiritus sanctus. Spiritus autem sanctus hujus unionis est vinculum. I ad Corinth. VI, 17: Qui adhaeret Deo, unus spiritus est, scilicet cum eo. Forma autem cui alligamur, Filius est, forma Patris aeterni, et sacramentum corporis et sanguinis est, quo Christo incorporamur, et sic in Filio ad omnis boni Patrem coelestem reducimur, et in illo fruimur omni bono Filii in Spiritus dulcedine et beatitudine. Et omnes ab hac catena recedentes, pereunt, in multa partiti dividuntur. Osee, X, 2: Divisum est cor eorum, nunc interibunt. Hinc est, quod cum Isaias, XXV, 6, dixisset de hoc convivio in ejus deliciis, statim adjunxit de unione colligationis ejus, sic dicens: Faciet Dominus exercituum omnibus populis in monte hoc convivium pinguium, convivium vindemiae, pinguium medullatorum, vindemiae defaecatae. Et adjungit dicens, v. 7: Et praecipitabit in monte isto faciem vinculi colligati super omnes populos. Charitas enim Christi hoc vinculum in impetu praecipitat, quod colligatum est a Patre in Filium, et ab utroque in Spiritum sanctum, et per sacramentum Filii Dei est etiam in omnes populos concorporales Domino colligatum.

Sic igitur perficitur unio ad Christum per connaturalitatem in his quinque quae a nobis dicta sunt.

has been joined to mine, and his blood has adorned my cheeks. Thus therefore, by contemplation of truth, that which is united to Christ assumes the beauty and warmth of Christ.

6. Devout union. But in all the four things aforesaid, finally, in the fifth place, devout union is perfected, having an indissoluble and undistant union with the body, so that it is in the body, and in it is animated and lives, and now thereafter is considered to be nothing except of the body. But this happens through participation in all the goods which flow into the body from the head or from the heart, as is said in Psalm 118:63: "I am a partaker of all who fear you and keep your commandments." Thus under another metaphor the Apostle speaks of those united to Christ, at Romans 11:17: "You have been grafted into them," namely, into the branches of the good olive, "and have been made a sharer of the root and fatness of the olive." For all the goods which flow from Christ are perceived by those so united, just as by the other members of his body. Thus Christ says, John 17:22 and 23: "The glory which you have given me, I have given them, that they may be one, and as we are one. I in them, and you in me, that they may be consummated in one."

This is the golden chain by which we are bound together and are led back from many to the one whence we went forth. For the Father is entirely one, from whom, as from a fountain, the Son is born, and from the Father and the Son the Holy Spirit proceeds. But the Holy Spirit is the bond of this union. 1 Corinthians 6:17: "He who cleaves to God is one spirit," namely with him. But the form to which we are bound is the Son, the form of the eternal Father, and the sacrament of the body and blood is that by which we are incorporated into Christ; and thus in the Son we are led back to the heavenly Father of every good, and in him we enjoy every good of the Son in the sweetness and blessedness of the Spirit. And all who depart from this chain perish, divided and parted into many things. Hosea 10:2: "Their heart has been divided; now they will perish." Hence it is that when Isaiah, 25:6, had spoken of this banquet in its delights, at once he added concerning the union of its binding, saying thus: "The Lord of hosts will make for all peoples on this mountain a banquet of fat things, a banquet of vintage, of fat things full of marrow, of refined vintage." And he adds, saying, v. 7: "And he will cast down on this mountain the face of the bond bound together over all peoples." For the charity of Christ casts down this bond with force, which has been bound together from the Father into the Son, and from both into the Holy Spirit, and through the sacrament of the Son of God has also been bound together into all peoples as those made bodily together with the Lord.

Thus therefore union with Christ through connaturality is perfected in these five things which have been spoken of by us.