The Adornment of the Spiritual Marriage

with the second word, he shows us what we should see, namely the arrival of the bridegroom, by saying: "The bridegroom comes." In the third place, he teaches and commands us what we should do, by saying: "Go out." In the fourth place, when he says: "To meet him," he instructs us concerning the reward and purpose of all our labor and our whole life, namely the loving encounter with the bridegroom. » We wish to explain and set forth these words in three ways: First, in the common way regarding an elementary or active life tätiges Leben: the life of outward service, moral discipline, and good works, as is necessary for all people who wish to be saved. Second, we want to present these same words regarding an inward, elevated, and God-desiring life, which many people reach through virtue and God's grace. Third, we want to explain them regarding a superessential original: "überwesentliches." This refers to a state of being beyond ordinary human essence, existing in union with God., God-beholding life, which only a few people can achieve and taste because of the height and nobility of this life.

1. Here begins the "active life."

Now, then, to the first point. Christ, the Wisdom of the Father, speaks and has spoken inwardly, according to his divinity, to all people from the time of Adam: "Behold." And there is a need for seeing. Now, take serious note: for one who is to see, whether physically or spiritually, three things are necessary. » First, to see physically from the outside, a person needs the external light of heaven or some other material light, so that the medium In medieval philosophy, the "medium" refers to the space or substance (like air) through which light and images travel to the eye.