"The Spiritual Thirst (which was in Him from without beginning) is
desire in Him as long as we be in need, drawing us up to His Bliss"
And thus our good Lord answered to all the questions and doubts that I
might make, saying full comfortably: _I may make all thing well, I can
make all thing well, I will make all thing well, and I shall make all
thing well; and thou shalt see thyself that all manner of thing shall
be well._
In that He saith, _I may_, I understand [it] for the Father; and in
that He saith, _I can_, I understand [it] for the Son; and where He
saith, _I will_, I understand [it] for the Holy Ghost; and where He
saith, _I shall_, I understand [it] for the unity of the blessed
Trinity: three Persons and one Truth; and where He saith, _Thou shalt
see thyself_, I understand the oneing of all mankind that shall be
saved unto the blessed Trinity. And in these five words God willeth we
be enclosed in rest and in peace.
Thus shall the Spiritual Thirst of Christ have an end. For this is the
Spiritual Thirst of Christ: the love-longing that lasteth, and ever
shall, till we see that sight on Doomsday. For we that shall be saved
and shall be Christ's joy and His bliss, some be yet here and some be
to come, and so shall some be, unto that day. Therefore this is His
thirst and love-longing, to have us altogether whole in Him, to His
bliss,--as to my sight. For we be not now as fully whole in Him as we
shall be then.
For we know in our Faith, and also it was shewed in all [the
Revelations] that Christ Jesus is both God and man. And anent the
Godhead, He is Himself highest bliss, and was, from without beginning,
and shall be, without end: which endless bliss may never be heightened
nor lowered in itself. For this was plenteously seen in every Shewing,
and specially in the Twelfth, where He saith: _I am that [which] is
highest_. And anent Christ's Manhood, it is known in our Faith, and
also [it was] shewed, that He, with the virtue of Godhead, for love, to
bring us to His bliss suffered pains and passions, and died. And these
be the works of Christ's Manhood wherein He rejoiceth; and that shewed
He in the Ninth Revelation, where He saith: _It is a joy and bliss and
endless pleasing to me that ever I suffered Passion for thee._ And
this is the bliss of Christ's _works_, and thus he signifieth where He
saith in that same Shewing: we be His bliss, we be His meed, we be His
worship, we be His crown.
For anent that Christ is our Head, He is glorified and impassible; and
anent His Body in which all His members are knit, He is not yet fully
glorified nor all impassible. Therefore the same desire and thirst
that He had upon the Cross (which desire, longing, and thirst, as to
my sight, was in Him from without beginning) the same hath He yet, and
shall [have] unto the time that the last soul that shall be saved is
come up to His bliss.
For as verily as there is a property in God of ruth and pity, so verily
there is a property in God of thirst and longing. (And of the virtue of
this longing in Christ, _we_ have to long again to Him: without which
no soul cometh to Heaven.) And this property of longing and thirst
cometh of the endless Goodness of God, even as the property of pity
cometh of His endless Goodness. And though longing and pity are two
sundry properties, as to my sight, in this standeth the point of the
Spiritual Thirst: which is _desire in Him as long as we be in need_,
drawing us up to His bliss. And all this was seen in the Shewing of
Compassion: for that shall cease on Doomsday.
Thus He hath ruth and compassion on us, and He hath longing to have us;
but His wisdom and His love suffereth not the end to come till the best
time.