CONTEMPLATING THE DIVINE INCARNATION

from Raymond's Contemplation
(De contemplatione Raymundi)

Lord God ! When you created the world out of nothing, the totality of your reasons was the cause of its creation. And thus the world was created good by your goodness, great by your greatness, durable by your duration, powerful by your power. And by your wisdom human and angelic intellect was created as well as instinct in natural things ; and by your will appetites and lovable things were created and virtues by your virtue, truths by your truth, natural delights by your glory and perfection by your perfection. And therefore, Lord God, all honor and glory are yours, because you wanted to create likenesses of yourself in your effect.

Lord God, since all your intrinsic reasons are numerically one and identical, your unity is portrayed in the world's oneness, and blessed Lord our God, this is how your most holy incarnation is signified. For your goodness requires that the world be very good, and your greatness that it be very great. This is why the world had to be created for one single purpose wherein your most holy reasons come to rest and this end must be a subject in which your supremely powerful reasons are regulated, ordered and conditioned. But this cannot exist in created beings without your most holy incarnation, for without it your supreme goodness and other reasons would endlessly seek to reproduce their likenesses in their effects without ever attaining the objective they want. But Lord, when you freely and graciously became incarnate, the purpose of the world was so highly exalted in goodness, greatness and the other reasons that they all came to rest in it to the full extent that a cause can come to rest in its effect; and this is because the effect of goodness, greatness etc. cannot be more highly exalted, ordered and conditioned than through incarnation.

Lord Jesus Christ, in you there are two natures, namely human nature and divine nature since you are the God man : God in your divinity, and a human in your humanity. And your glorious and most gracious humanity is sustained in divinity, and as a human you are sustained in God the Son and in his divinity, and consequently your created goodness is sustained in his uncreated goodness, as are your greatness and other reasons or principles. And therefore, glorious Lord Jesus Christ, in you the union of your divinity and your humanity is admirable beyond anything we can conceive.

.Most merciful Jesus! As you are human in God the Son, so is God the Son human in your humanity. And since you are sustained as a human in God the Son, the mode of incarnation is sustained in the modes of the divine reasons, like a mode existing between a cause and its effect, where the cause influences its effect with its likenesses so that the effect exists and the cause clothes its own natural likenesses with the effect's own natural likenesses so that the cause is its effect and the effect is its cause. And as this is necessarily true, most glorious Lord Jesus, the most excellent union in you of your divinity with your humanity is greatly to be admired.

Blessed Lord Jesus, since you are God, all physical creatures attain their purpose in you, and not without mediation because you cannot be reached physically, as you are out of reach of the senses, you cannot be moved, no light can be shed on you, you cannot be produced from the four elements or through vegetation and you cannot be imagined. But as you are the God man and since your physical humanity naturally participates with all physical creatures, all creatures find rest in you like things that are likened find rest in their likeness, for you as a human are their ultimate purpose and end. And the same is said about your holy soul which participates in its spiritual nature with the angels and the blessed souls, who come to rest through their spiritual nature in your divinity to which your soul is joined. And this is why it is said that the holy angels and souls receive a surge in their glory through your most gracious incarnation. Since this is so, is there any wonder that Saint Paul said about you : "For whom and through whom all things exist" (Hebrews 2, 10)? This means that everything exists for you and through you, blessed Lord Jesus Christ, as I adore, praise and worship you and  want very much to see you since you are my final purpose and perfection; and without you I can do nothing good, nothing great, nothing virtuous at all.

 Reference: Ramon Llull Database by Professor Anthony Bonner
De contemplatione Raymundi 
Date: 8/1297  Place: París 
Catalogue number: III.28 
Short title: ContRaym 
ROL XVII, 1-61 

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