CHAPTER 13
After this, and before God used any words, he allowed me to contemplate him for a good while and to consider all that I had seen, and all the significance that was contained there; as much as my simple soul could grasp, at least. Then, without speaking or opening his lips, God formed in my soul these words: ‘Here is the Fiend overcome.’ This is what our Lord said, meaning his blessed passion as shown before.
In this, our Lord showed that his passion is the overcoming of the Fiend. God showed that the Fiend retains the same malice that he had before the incarnation. And as hard as he works, he continually sees that all saved souls escape him wonderfully, by the virtue of Christ’s precious passion. And that is his sorrow, and an evil of which he is he ashamed; for all that God allows him to do, becomes joy for us and shame and woe for him. And he has as much sorrow when God gives him leave to work, as when he does not work. And that is because he can never do as ill as he would like; for his might is locked in God’s hand.
But in my view, there can be no wrath in God, for our good Lord endlessly has regard to his own honour and to the benefit of all that shall be saved. With might and right he withstands the reproved, while they busy themselves with malice and wickedness, contriving to thwart God’s will. Also I saw our Lord scorn the Fiend’s malice and set at nought his lack of strength; and he wills that we do so too. At this sight I laughed loudly, and those who were round about me began to laugh, and their laughing was a pleasure to me. I thought how good it would be if all my fellow Christians had seen as I saw, for then they would all laugh with me. But I did not see Christ laugh. And I understood that we may laugh for our comfort and in the enjoyment of God, for the devil is overcome. And when I saw him scorn the Fiend’s malice, it led my understanding into our Lord; that is to say, it was an inward showing of truth, without any change of expression. For in my estimation, it is a wonderful characteristic of God, that he is always the same.
And after this I fell into a deep sadness and said: ‘I see three things: I see game, scorn and earnest. The game I see is that the Fiend is overcome; I see scorn, in that God scorns him and he shall be scorned; and I see serious purpose, in that he is overcome by the blissful passion and death of our Lord Jesus Christ that was done with such sincere purpose and harsh labour.
When I said that the Fiend is scorned, I meant that God scorns him; that is to say, he sees him now as shall be done with him forever. For in this word God revealed that the Fiend is condemned. And this is what I meant when I said: ‘He shall be scorned at the Day of Judgement by all those who shall be saved, and towards whose consolation the Fiend bears great envy.’ For then he shall see that all the woe and tribulation that he has brought upon them shall in fact increase their joy, endlessly. While all the pain and tribulation he longed to bring them shall endlessly go with him to hell.