The Dialogue

How the truly obedient receive a hundredfold for one, and also eternal life ; and what is meant by this one, and this hundred fold.

" IN them is fulfilled the saying of the sweet and amorous Word, My only-begotten Son, in the gospel when He replied to Peter's demand, 'Master, we have left everything for thy love's sake, and have followed Thee, what wilt Thou give us ? ' My truth replied, ' / will give you a hundred fold for one, and you shall possess eternal life?' As if My Truth had wished to say, " Thou hast done well, Peter, for in no other way couldest thou follow Me. And I, in this life, will give thee a hundredfold for one. And what is this hundredfold, beloved daughter, besides which the apostle obtained eternal life ? To what did My Truth refer? To temporal substance?

" Properly speaking, no. Do I not, however often cause one who gives alms to multiply in temporal goods ? In return for what do I this ? In return for the gift of his own will. This is the one for which I repay him a hundredfold. What is the meaning of the number a hundred ? A hundred is a perfect number, and cannot be added to except by recommencing from the first. So charity is the most perfect of all the virtues, so perfect that no higher virtue can be attained, except by re commencing at the beginning of self-knowledge, and thus increasing many hundredfold in merit ; but you always necessarily arrive at the number one hundred. This is that hundredfold which is given to those who have given Me the unit of their own will, both in general obedience, and in the particular obedience of the religious life. And in addition to this hundred you also possess eternal life, for charity alone enters into eternal life, like a mistress bringing with her the fruit of all the other virtues, while they remain outside, bringing their fruit, I say, into Me, the eternal life, in whom the obedient taste eternal life. It is

338 THE DIALOGUE OF ST. CATHERINE

not by faith that they taste eternal life, for they experience in its essence that which they have believed through faith ; nor by hope, for they possess that for which they had hoped, and so with all the other virtues, Queen Charity alone enters and possesses Me, her possessor. See, there fore, that these little ones receive a hundredfold for one, and also eternal life, for here they receive the fire of divine charity figured by the number a hundred (as has been said). And because they have received this hundredfold from Me, they possess a wonderful and hearty joy, for there is no sadness in charity, but the joy of it makes the heart large and generous, not narrow or double. A soul wounded by this sweet arrow does not appear one thing in face and tongue while her heart is different. She does not serve, or act towards her neighbour with dissembling and ambition, because charity is an open book to be read by all. Wherefore the soul who possesses charity never falls into trouble, or the affliction of sadness, or jars with obedience, but remains obedient until death."