Revelations of Divine Love · 28 of 127 · tr. Grace Warrack

Chapter XXI

"We be now with Him in His Pains and His Passion, dying. We shall be with Him in Heaven. Through learning in this little pain that we suffer here, we shall have an high endless knowledge of God which we could never have without that" It is God's will, as to mine understanding, that we have Three Manners of Beholding His blessed Passion. The First is: the hard Pain that He suffered ,—[beholding it] with contrition and compassion. And that shewed our Lord in this time, and gave me strength and grace to see it. And I looked for the departing with all my might, and thought to have seen the body all dead; but I saw Him not so. And right in the same time that methought, by the seeming, the life might no longer last and the Shewing of the end behoved needs to be,—suddenly (I beholding in the same Cross), He changed [the look of] His blessed Countenance. The changing of His blessed Countenance changed mine, and I was as glad and merry as it was possible. Then brought our Lord merrily to my mind: Where is now any point of the pain, or of thy grief? And I was full merry. I understood that we be now, in our Lord's meaning, in His Cross with Him in His pains and His Passion, dying; and we, willingly abiding in the same Cross with His help and His grace unto the last point, suddenly He shall change His Cheer to us, and we shall be with Him in Heaven. Betwixt that one and that other shall be no time, and then shall all be brought to joy. And thus said He in this Shewing: Where is now any point of thy pain, or thy grief? And we shall be full blessed. And here saw I verily that if He shewed now [to] us His Blissful Cheer, there is no pain in earth or in other place that should aggrieve us; but all things should be to us joy and bliss. But because He sheweth to us time of His Passion, as He bare it in this life, and His Cross, therefore we are in distress and travail, with Him, as our frailty asketh. And the cause why He suffereth [it to be so,] is for [that] He will of His goodness make us the higher with Him in His bliss; and for this little pain that we suffer here, we shall have an high endless knowing in God which we could never have without that. And the harder our pains have been with Him in His Cross, the more shall our worship be with Him in His Kingdom. THE NINTH REVELATION

§ Ask Guru about this passage →

Themes

◆Active Contemplationpraxis

A form of meditation that uses imagery, imagination, or symbolic thought rather than purely empty stillness.

The visionary engages in 'beholding' the Passion with specific emotional attitudes (contrition, compassion) and visualizes the scene of the Cross as a meditative practice.

All passages →

◆Anthropomorphismtheology

Attributing human characteristics, emotions, or form to the divine; embodied divine imagery.

The text relies heavily on human imagery for the divine, describing God's 'Pains,' 'Passion,' 'Countenance,' and 'Cheer' (mood/face).

All passages →

◆Divine Providencetheology

Pronoia — the doctrine that the divine actively orders the unfolding of the cosmos and human affairs toward intelligible ends, against pure chance or blind necessity.

The suffering is explicitly framed as 'God's will' designed to bring about a specific higher end: an 'endless knowledge of God' and greater glory.

All passages →

◆Emotional Epistemologysoteriology

The doctrine that emotions constitute a valid and necessary mode of knowing reality, complementing or surpassing intellectual cognition.

The text argues that 'contrition and compassion' are necessary modes of beholding the Passion to gain knowledge, and that a shift in emotional state (from grief to merriment) directly alters the visionary's perception of reality.

All passages →

◆Gnosis Direct Knowledgesoteriology

Salvation through direct experiential knowledge of the divine nature, not through faith, ritual, or moral works alone.

The passage explicitly states that suffering leads to a 'high endless knowledge of God' which could not be attained otherwise, framing this experiential knowing as the central soteriological goal.

All passages →

◆Living Godtheology

The divine conceived as active, present, and dynamic—not an abstract principle but a personal responsive reality.

God is depicted as dynamically interacting with the visionary, changing His countenance to change hers, speaking directly, and actively managing her emotional state.

All passages →

◆Mystical Unionsoteriology

The merging of the individual soul or self with the divine, transcending personal identity.

The text describes being 'with Him in His Pains' and 'with Him in Heaven,' emphasizing a profound participation in the divine life that transcends mere observation.

All passages →

◆Return To Sourcesoteriology

The soul's journey back to its divine origin, reversing the fall into matter through stages of purification or illumination.

The narrative arc moves from earthly suffering to a final state of being 'with Him in Heaven,' representing the soul's journey back to its divine origin.

All passages →