Fourth question. "Since your incarnation was so important for the salvation of the human race, why did you delay so long in becoming incarnate?

    Fifth question. "Since the human soul is so much better than the world, why do you not send your friends and preachers always and everywhere?"

    Answer to the first question. The Judge answered: "Friend, you do not ask in order to know but so as to let your wickedness be known. There is surely nothing of flesh or represented by flesh in my divinity, for my divinity is Spirit. Nor can the good and the wicked live together in me, no more than light can coexist with darkness. There is neither right and left in my divinity, as the physical image portrays it, nor are those on my right happier than those on the left, but this is all said figuratively.

    By 'right hand' is understood the sublimity of my divine glory, by 'left hand' the lack and privation of all good. Furthermore, sheep or goats are not to be found in that wondrous glory of mine, where nothing is found that is bodily and soiled or changeable. Rather, human characters are often described by means of comparisons and by symbols of animals; for example, innocence is signified by sheep, impurity by goats. In other words, the incontinent man is signified as placed on the left, where there is a lack of all good. You should understand that I, God, sometimes make use of human words and similes so that the little child may have something to suck on, and so that the perfect may become more perfect. It is also to fulfill the Scripture that says that the Virgin's Son has been placed as a sign of contradiction so that the thoughts of many hearts might be revealed."

    Answer to the second question. "As to why I, the Son of God, said that I do not know the hour of judgment, I answer: It is written that Jesus progressed in age and wisdom. Anything that progresses and regresses is changeable; but the deity is unchangeable. Thus I, the Son of God, coeternal with the Father, progressed in the sense that I did so in my human nature. What I did not know was what my humanity did not know, but, according to my divine nature, I both knew and know all things. For the Father does nothing unless I, the Son, also do it. Can the Father know anything unknown to me, the Son, and the Holy Spirit? Of course not. But the Father alone, with whom I, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are one substance, one deity, and one will, knows the hour of the judgment, and not the angels nor any other creature."

    Answer to the third question. "As to why, if the Holy Spirit has spoken through them, there is so much variance among the evangelists, I answer: It is written that the Holy Spirit is various in his operations in that he distributes his gifts to his chosen people in varied ways. Indeed, the Holy Spirit is like a man with a balance in his hand, measuring and balancing the scales until the balance reaches equilibrium and comes to rest. A balance is handled in different ways by a person who is used to it and by one who is unused to it, by one who is strong and by one who is weak.

    So the Holy Spirit now rises like a balance in human hearts, and then sinks again. He rises when he uplifts the mind through keenness of understanding and through the soul's devotion and through the inflaming of spiritual desire. He sinks when he allows the mind to fall into difficulties and to be anxious about trifling vanities and upset by tribulation. Therefore, just as the balance cannot reach equilibrium unless the weights are adjusted, and it is controlled by a guiding hand, so too measure and a good life, a simple intention, and discretion in works and virtues are necessary for the operation of the Holy Spirit.

    When I, the Son of God, visible in the flesh, preached different things in different places, I had different kinds of followers and listeners. Some followed me out of love, others in order to have an occasion for fault finding or out of curiosity. Some of my followers had a keener intellect, others a simpler. Accordingly, I spoke simply to instruct the simple. I also spoke deeply to awaken the wonder of the wise. Sometimes I spoke darkly in parables, which gave some people an occasion for commenting. At other times I repeated things said earlier and sometimes added to or simplified them. So it is no wonder that those who arranged the gospel narrative recorded different but still true things, for some of them wrote it down word for word, others captured the sense but not the exact words. Some wrote things they had heard but not seen; others placed earlier events later; others wrote more about my divinity; yet all of them as the Spirit gave them to speak.

    However, I want you to know that only those evangelists are to be accepted whom the church accepts. Many people attempted to write who had zeal but not in accordance with my knowledge. Recall what I said in today's reading: 'Destroy this temple and I shall rebuild it.' Those who testified to what they heard were truthful regarding the words they heard, but they were false witnesses because they did not consider the sense of my words, for I spoke concerning my body. Likewise when I said: 'Unless you eat my flesh, you shall not have life.' Many hearers went away, because they did not consider the conclusion that I added: 'My words are spirit and life, that is, they have a spiritual meaning and force. It is not remarkable that they went astray, inasmuch as they did not follow me out of love. Thus the Holy Spirit rises in human hearts like a balance, at one time speaking corporeally, at another spiritually. And he sinks when the human heart is hardened against God or falls into heresies or worldliness and is darkened."

    At that moment the Judge said to the monk who sat questioning him on the rung of the ladder: "Friend, you have posed subtle questions to me several times already. Now, for the sake of my bride who is standing here, I ask you: Why does your soul, which can understand and distinguish between good and bad, love perishable things rather than heavenly ones and does not live in accord with its understanding?" The monk replied: "Because I act against reason and allow my bodily senses to prevail over reason." And Christ said: "Then your conscience shall be your judge."

    Then Christ said to the bride: "See, daughter, how great the effects in the man are not only of the malice of the devil but also of a deformed conscience! And this comes about because he does not struggle against temptation as he ought. But the master known to you did not act in this way. Indeed the Spirit sank in him, tempting him to such an extent that it seemed as if all the heresies stood before him and said with one mouth: 'We are the truth: But he did not trust his thoughts and did not think beyond himself. For that reason he was rescued and became knowledgeable all the way from 'In the beginning' to the 'alpha and omega: just as it was promised to him."

    Answer to the fourth question. "As to why I delayed so long in becoming incarnate, I answer: My incarnation was indeed necessary, for through it the curse was lifted and all things were reconciled in heaven and on earth. Yet it was necessary for people to be instructed first by natural law, and then by written law. Through natural law it became clear what human love was and how much it was worth. Through the written law humankind understood its weakness and wretchedness and began to seek medicine.

    It was right for the doctor to come just when the sickness was raging, so that where disease abounded, the medicine might even more abound. There were also many righteous people under the dispensations of natural law and of written law, and many who had the Holy Spirit and made many predictions and instructed others in all virtue, and awaited me, the Savior. These approached my mercy, not everlasting punishment."

    Answer to the fifth question. "As to why, given that the human soul is better than the world, preachers are not sent always and everywhere, I answer: The soul is indeed worthier and nobler than all the world, and more lasting than all things. The soul is more worthy, because she is a spiritual creature like the angels and made for eternal joy. She is more noble because she was made in the image of my divinity, both immortal and eternal. Because humankind is worthier and nobler than all creatures, the human race should live more nobly as having been endowed with reason beyond all the rest. If they abuse their reason and my divine gifts, what wonder is it if, at the time of judgment, I punish that which had been overlooked in the time of mercy?

    So preachers are not sent always and everywhere, because I, God, foreseeing the hardness of many hearts, spare my chosen ones the trouble, so that they need not work in vain. And because many, deliberately sinning with full knowledge, decide to persevere in sin rather than to be converted, they are not worthy to hear the messengers of salvation.

    But now, my friend, I shall end my response to your thoughts here and you shall end your life. Now you shall see what good your wordy eloquence and human favor can do for you. O how happy you would have been if you had attended to your profession and vow!"

    Then the Spirit said to the bride: "Daughter, this man, whom you saw asking so many questions - and such questions - still lives in the flesh but will not remain alive for one day more. The thoughts and affections of his heart were revealed to you in likenesses, not for his greater disgrace, but for the salvation of other souls. And now his hope and life shall be ended together with his thoughts and affections."