Tuovu showest me, O Light unfailing, that the perfect union whereby human nature is united through my Jesus with Thy divine nature is not in any wise like unto infinite union. The union whereby Thou, God the Father, art united unto God Thy Son is God the Holy ‘Spirit, and thus ’tis an infinite union, seeing that it attaineth unto absolute and essential identity. °Tis not so when human nature is united unto the divine, for human nature cannot pass over into essential union with the divine, even as the finite cannot be infinitely united unto the infinite, because it would pass into identity with the infinite, and thus would cease to be finite when the infinite were verified in it. Wherefore this union, whereby human nature is united unto the divine nature, is naught else than the attraction in the highest degree of the human nature unto the divine,
in such wise that human nature, as such, could not be attracted to greater heights. This union, then, of human nature, as such, with the divine is the greatest, in the sense of being the greatest possible, but it is not purely and simply the greatest, and infinite, as is the divine union.
Thus through the bounty of Thy grace I see in Thee, Jesu, Son of Man, the Son of God, and in the Scn of God, the Father. Now, in Thee the Son of Man I see the Son of God, because Thou art both of these alike, and in Thy finite nature which is attracted I perceive the infinite nature which attracteth; in the absolute Son I behold the absolute Father, for the Son cannot be seen as Son unless the Father be seen. I behold in Thee, Jesu, the divine sonship which is the truth of all sonship, and equally with it the highest human sonship, which is the most approximate image of the absolute sonship. Just as the image, between which and the exemplar no more perfect image can be interposed, hath an existence nearest in truth to the object whereof it is the image, even so I perceive Thy human nature subsisting in the divine nature.
Accordingly, I see in Thy human nature all that I see in the divine, but I see that in Thy
human nature those attributes exist in human guise which in the divine nature are divine truth itself. That which I see to exist in human guise in Thee, Jesu, is a likeness unto the divine nature, but the likeness is united unto the exemplar without a medium, in such wise that no greater likeness can exist or be imagined. In Thy human or rational nature I see the rational human spirit most closely united unto the divine Spirit, which is absolute reason, and so the human intelligence and all things in Thine intelligence, Jesu, united unto the divine intelligence. For Thou, Jesu, as God, dost understand all, and to understand in this sense is to be all. As Man, Thou understandest all, and to understand in this sense is to be a likeness of all. For man only comprehendeth things by a likeness; a stone existeth not in human understanding as in its proper cause or nature, but as in its specific idea and likeness. Thus in Thee, Jesu, human intelligence is united unto the divine intelligence itself, even as a most perfect image unto the truth of its pattern. If I consider the ideal form of the coffer in the craftsman’s mind and the species of coffer made by that master most perfectly carrying out his idea, I learn how the ideal form is the
truth of the species, and that only in this one master is it united unto it as truth is unto the image. So in Thee, Jesu, Master of masters, I see that the absolute idea of all things, and with it what resembles it in species, are united in the highest degree.
I see Thee, good Jesu, within the wall of Paradise, since Thine intelligence is alike truth and image, and Thou art alike God and creature, alike infinite and finite. And ’tis not possible that Thou shouldst be seen this side of the wall, for Thou art the bond between the divine nature that createth and the human nature that is created.
Howbeit, between Thy human intellect and that. of any other man soever I perceive a difference: for no one man knoweth all things that may be known by man, since no man’s intellect is so joined unto the exemplar of all things, as the image unto the truth, but that it could not be more nearly joined, and more actually set therein, and so it doth not understand so much but that it could understand yet more, had it access unto the exemplar of things whence every thing actually existent deriveth its actuality. But Thine intellect actually understandeth all that may be apprehended of men, because in Thee human nature
is in full perfection, and most entirely joined unto its exemplar. By means of this union, Thy human intelligence exceedeth all created intelligence in perfection of understanding. Wherefore, all rational spirits are far beneath Thee, and Thou, Jesu, art the Master and Light of them all, and Thou art perfection, and the fullness of all things, and by Thee they attain unto absolute truth, as by their mediator. For Thou art alike the way unto truth, and the truth itself; Thou art alike the way unto the life of the intellect and that life itself; Thou art alike the fragrance of the food of joy and the taste that maketh joyful. Be Thou, then, most sweet Jesu, blessed for ever!
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