The Active and Contemplative Lives

V. Threefold perfect life. - In order to Christian perfection there is also distinguished a threefold life: active, contemplative, and mixed. Benedict XIV, de Can., l. 3, c. 26, n. 4, explains this distinction:

"For those among the faithful who continually, or at least frequently, devote themselves to the exercise of works of spiritual and corporal mercy, and to the assiduous exercise of virtues toward God and the neighbor, whether the works are of precept or of counsel, are said to live the active life. - Those who devote themselves to continual, or at least frequent, consideration of God and of divine things and of all revealed things, endowed with charity together with total abdication of the world, purity of heart, and subjection of the passions, are said to live the contemplative life. - Finally, those who perform those things which have just been said, and who exercise themselves now in the active life, now in the contemplative, are said to live the mixed life."

Altogether conformably to St. Thomas, who teaches in II-II, q. 179:

1. the division of human life, that is, life conforming to right reason or perfect life, into active and contemplative: "Each living thing is shown to live from the operation most proper to it, to which it is most inclined; as... the life of men is said to consist in this, that they understand and act according to reason. Hence also among men the life of each man seems to be that in which he most delights, and to which he most intends, and in which each especially wishes to live with a friend... Therefore, because certain men especially intend to contemplation of truth, but certain ones principally intend to exterior actions, from this it is that the life of man is fittingly divided into active and contemplative," a. 1. Therefore, just as the contemplative life essentially consists in the contemplation of divine truth, so the active life essentially consists in the exercise of the moral virtues;⁵

⁵ Cf. q. 180, aa. 1-4, and q. 181, a. 7.

2. that this division of itself is sufficient and complete: "That division is given concerning human life, which indeed is attended to according to the intellect. But the intellect is divided into active and contemplative, because the end of intellectual cognition is either cognition of truth itself, which pertains to the contemplative intellect; or some exterior action, which pertains to the practical or active intellect. And therefore life also is sufficiently divided into active and contemplative," art. 2;

3. that the mixed life is not a third genus really distinct, but is a middle life composed from each, by which, namely, someone intends to the study of contemplation and from this also breaks forth into exterior acts, yet in such a way that either contemplation or action predominates: "Middles are made from extremes, and therefore are contained virtually in them..., and similarly under active and contemplative there is comprehended that which is composed from both. And nevertheless just as in any mixed thing some simple element predominates, so also in the middle genus of life sometimes the contemplative superabounds, but sometimes the active," ibid., ad 2. Now:

a) The purely contemplative life of itself is to be preferred to the active life, as being simply better, as the Fathers and Theologians teach, interpreting thus the words of Christ, Luke X, 42, Mary has chosen the best part, handing down Mary as a symbol of the contemplative life, Martha as a symbol of the active life. - St. Thomas hands down a multiple reason for this doctrine, II-II, q. 182, a. 1, and adds: "in a certain respect, however, and in a case, the active life is more to be chosen because of the necessity of the present life." Hence, of themselves, those religious institutes which lead a contemplative life, such as the monks of St. Benedict and the Carmelites, are more excellent than religious institutes of the active life, q. 188, a. 6.

b) The active life is multiple and of diverse perfection according to diverse varied occupations, and thus "preeminence can be attended to according as one religious institute is ordered to a higher act in the same genus, as among the works of the active life it is better to redeem captives than to receive guests," ibid. But among the works of the active life the first place is held by actions which are directly ordered to the salvation of souls. Hence more perfect than institutes which are ordered to the care of the sick or to the instruction of youth are those which apply themselves to the active life of the sacred ministry, such as the more recent clerical religious institutes founded from the sixteenth century onward.

c) The mixed life from the contemplative and active together is more perfect than either, both because it embraces the perfection of each, and because it is the life which Christ and the Apostles led. This belongs to bishops, q. 182, a. 1, ad 1; and a religious institute can be founded for it, such as the Order of Preachers. Namely, when "the work of the active life... is derived from the fullness of contemplation, as teaching and preaching,... this is preferred to simple contemplation. For just as it is greater to illuminate than merely to shine, so it is greater to hand on to others the things contemplated than merely to contemplate," q. 188, a. 6.

"It can happen, however, that someone merits more in the works of the active life than another in the works of the contemplative or mixed life, for example if, on account of the abundance of divine love, that His will may be fulfilled, for His glory, he sometimes sustains being separated for a time from the sweetness of divine contemplation," q. 182, a. 2.

Notorious is this division into the Active and Contemplative life, long prefigured in the two wives of Jacob, Rachel and Lia; long fulfilled in the nightly watches of Christ the Savior and his daytime labors; commended also in the busy cares of Martha and the repose of Mary; and likewise marked in the solicitude of Peter and the solitude of John; as I shall draw out more fittingly below in the proofs, intending afterward to speak of the comparison of one to the other, and also of the excellence of each, whether taken separately or jointly. But after the Active life alone, or the Contemplative, (as each is called a state, or a certain excellence over the other) had long been exercised in the Church, there emerged at last the Mixed life, not only most useful and profitable to the Church, but in itself, because of the concord struck between Martha and Mary, most illustrious. But near the end we shall consider the principal acts of the Active life, and likewise the grades of the Contemplative.

Common is that division of the soul into Intellect and Affect, whence is born another division of the actions of the soul into Cognition and Praxis; for the latter regards the will, by which it is either commanded or elicited; the former the intellect, in which it either rests or orders the rest toward it.

The sufficiency of this division is drawn from the Seraphic Doctor, part 2 of the Breviloquium, chap. 9, at the end: for Cognition is nothing other than the discernment of truth; and affection nothing other than flight or appetite, the former of evil, the latter of good: hence the whole soul is intellectual and affective.

But further, the intellective part either discerns truth as truth, and so rests in pure cognition, or discerns it as good, and so passes into affect, and by participation in this the intellect becomes in a way practical; then the intellective power is concerned either with the understanding of eternal things, and so is called the superior part, or with the intention of temporal things, and so is called the inferior part; but in whatever station the intellect is considered, it has an affect, or will, proportioned to itself.

It must be supposed, second, from St. Thomas, q. 169 a. 1, that Life is here taken for that in which man is more occupied and delights; whence, since some delight more in internal operations, while others are more occupied with external actions, hence these are said to live in diverse ways: These things seen.

I assert that the said division of life into the Active and the Contemplative is good and sufficient.

It is proved by St. Bonaventure, serm. 1. de S. Nicol., on the authority of St. Augustine, tract. 124 on John, about the middle, where we read: The Church knows two lives preached to it by God, one of which is called active, the other contemplative: the first in labor, the second in rest, etc. Nor is it an objection that Augustine there says one is exercised on earth; the other possessed in heaven; for he speaks of the latter, that is, of the contemplative as it is perfect, excluding all labor and sin; which is accidental, and not essential to this state.

It is proved, second, by the Saintly Doctor on Luke 10, where he admirably describes the ministry of Martha and the repose of Mary; but by these two that twofold life, working and contemplating, is figured, as all the Commentators on that passage hold. See also Sts. Augustine, book 22 contra Faustum, chap. 52; Gregory, book 6 Moralia, last chap., and on the Books of Kings, chap. 4; Jerome on chap. 3 of Lamentations, around the words: Bonum est viro, etc.; and others in Suarez, lib. 1 de varietate Religionum, chap. 5.

This division the Saintly Doctor also proves in chap. 45 of the Meditations on the Life of Christ, where he says it is asserted by the Saints; and he draws it out thus: Every man applying himself to his salvation exercises himself principally toward his own utility, correcting himself from vices and forming himself in virtues, and secondarily devotes the offices of piety and justice, or works of Charity, to his neighbor; or he principally studies the utility and benefit of his neighbor, on account of his own merit accruing from it more abundantly, as in discharging the office of Prelate, Preacher, and Confessor; and in these consists the whole active life; for we do not reckon purely secular affairs, contributing little to salvation, among the functions of the active life; for although in these affairs there are truly actions, yet they are rather idleness than business, and more distracting than active.

The second member of the division is gathered thus: He who refrains from external operation conducing to his own or his neighbor's salvation must needs devote himself to internal consideration, namely, persevering in prayer and applying himself to the study of Sacred Letters: That he may perform this opportunely, let him seek solitude of mind, attend to God alone, that thus by degrees, first instructed, then illuminated, at last inflamed, imbued with true wisdom, he may ascend the summit of the contemplative life, as far as is allowed in this age.

In this twofold sphere of Operation and Contemplation is exercised the Gate of that Castle, through which Jesus, having entered, was received in hospitality by Martha and Mary, one hastening about, ministering, and anxiously running hither and thither; the other sitting placidly at the feet of Jesus, ardently suspending her heart upon his words; whence St. Bernard says with the Seraphic Doctor, chap. 46 of the cited Meditations: on Jesus entering into this castle, two sisters, Martha and Mary, that is, operation and intellect, received him: But Jesus bestows on each what is fitting: virtue and wisdom. Virtue to operation, wisdom to intellect: For the Christian life to be lived piously and justly, virtuous operation, or operative virtue in the hand, suffices and is required, that each provide for himself and his neighbor; and sapient understanding in the mind, that one wisely savoring things above pour them out abundantly also to his neighbor, whether by conversing or by preaching; whence in 2 Cor. 1 nothing else is preached by the Apostles than the power of God and the wisdom of God, as the Saintly Doctor notes in the place just cited; for in these is the whole man, nor is anything further required.

It is proved, third, by the example of Christ, who was wont to pass the night on the mountain and to teach in a level place, as is said in Luke 6. For the mountain is designated the place of contemplation, because it is elevated from the earth and segregated from the commerce of men; whence Moses, Aaron, and Hur ascended to the top of the hill, that the former might pray, Exod. 7. So Sara, Tob. 3, went up into the upper chamber of her house, as the Saintly Doctor expounds on chap. 6 of Luke. But the level place, in which agriculture is exercised, signifies laborious action; therefore, that he might give an example of both lives, Christ ascended the mountain by night to contemplate, and by day descended into the level place, that there in a level and common place he might work the salvation of all by teaching, consoling, and healing; and it follows: A great multitude of the people from all Judea, and Samaria, and Jerusalem, and those who had come to hear him and to be healed of their infirmities, by which words it is intimated that the functions of the active life are to be devoted not to trivial secular affairs, but to the spiritual benefit of one's neighbor and to the common salvation of all.

It is proved, fourth, by the Saintly Doctor from the practice of the Church, which from the beginning instituted the Clerical state for the active life and procuring the salvation of one's neighbor, and the Monastic state for the contemplative life and attaining one's own salvation principally: But whether there be some mixed state embracing both, I shall say below.

And although many scriptures may be adduced as supports of either life, as the Seraphic Doctor everywhere adduces in the places cited above; yet, as Suarez well notes, from them it is not clearly gathered that both lives are to be taken up separately, or in diverse states of men; but it only intimates that in us a twofold holy operation can be found, one external, placed in action; the other internal, consisting in consideration; and that these can be found in each one, as I shall explain more clearly below: But those operations are of life, or vital, insofar as each one is more principally and with greater excellence occupied in one; hence it is that the twofold life is commonly gathered from those scriptures under the name of Active and Contemplative.

But that there are diverse states of men: one wholly distended by actions and taking little of contemplation, or rather of internal attention; the other, on the contrary, wholly attentive and devoted to contemplation, caring for externals moderately and only as life's necessity requires: the aforesaid practice enduring in the Church alone proves, and it is most excellently drawn from that single example of Martha and Mary, of whom one was wholly in the ministry of her neighbor; the other was at leisure for divine contemplation; the studies of which sisters were long before prefigured in the sweet embraces of Lia and the laborious childbirths of Rachel, as the Fathers commonly expound with St. Bonaventure in the places cited above, and especially on chap. 10 of Luke.

This question is not difficult to decide; for Christ himself passed a decisive judgment in favor of the contemplative life, when those two sisters, Martha and Mary, in the presence of him who had come, were pleading their cause; the one speaking to the heart with studious silence, the other soliciting the ears of Christ with talkative ministry, saying: Lord, dost thou not care that my sister hath left me alone to serve? Speak to her therefore, that she help me. To this, however, Christ brought forth a judicial definition (as the holy Doctor says), repeating and reiterating: Martha, Martha, thou art solicitous, and art troubled about many things; but one thing is necessary: Mary hath chosen the best part, and he adds the reason of the judgment: which shall not be taken away from her; on which words the holy Doctor thus comments: One is preferred to many, because not one from many, but from one, many, as St. Augustine says, tract. 27 on John, near the end: Many are the things that were made; one is he who made them; good are the things he made, how much better is he who made them; nay, absolutely the best: and this is the part of the contemplative soul.

Hence in Lamentations 3. it is said: The Lord is my portion, saith my soul, therefore will I wait for him; and in Psalm 141. I cried to thee, O Lord, and I said: Thou art my hope, my portion in the land of the living. This is the portion of those who contemplate, says St. Bonaventure, in whose person it is said, Deuteronomy 3. I will pass over, and will see this excellent land beyond the Jordan, and this goodly mountain, and Libanus.

This excellence of the contemplative life over the active is CONFIRMED by the holy Doctor from the defects of the latter, which Christ intimates by that reduplicated name: Martha, Martha, thou art solicitous, etc. For God is accustomed to repeat the name of him whom he wishes to arouse to more attentive consideration of his defects; thus in Jeremias 32. he upbraids the sinful man with a triplicated name: Earth, earth, earth, hear the word of the Lord; and in Exodus 3,¹ seeing that Moses boldly drew near to see the vision of the bush which the flame had kindled and he had not yet seen, he called out to him, saying: Moses, Moses. So now he reproaches Martha for her excessive solicitude, calling her, Martha, Martha, and for this reason upbraids her for a threefold defect, as the holy Doctor pursues: namely, for solicitude in thought, for tribulation in affect, and for division in act. ¹ Editor's note: the 1655 print reads 'Exodi 30.'; the scene described (Moses at the burning bush, 'Moyses, Moyses') is Exodus 3, so the chapter citation is corrected here, with the print's reading preserved in this note.

But these three things chiefly hinder a man from spiritual progress in God; wherefore Philip. 4 gives counsel: Be nothing solicitous, but in every prayer, etc. let your petitions be made known to God; and 1 Peter, last chapter: Casting all your anxiety upon him, because he hath care for you. For solicitude distracts the powers of the soul, weakens them when dispersed, and at last divides them from God, who is one and loves unity; whence St. Paul says, 1 Cor. 7: He who is with a wife is solicitous about the things of the world, and is divided; but the unmarried woman and the virgin thinketh on the things of the Lord, that she may be holy both in body and in spirit. Wherefore the Eastern Church, although it permitted clerics or priests, whose portion and study is to labor for the salvation of their neighbor, to take wives; yet we read that it was never attempted or permitted to Monks (even were they laymen); for they, having all things at once in one, ought not to abandon that one thing, as is said in Tob. 10.

Then tribulation in affect, by which the active life is most of all molested, is dissuaded in John 14: Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in me; for the troubled eye is not sharp enough to see, as the holy Doctor remarks here, of which kind was what Isaias foretold of Christ, Isaias (24): He shall not be sad, nor troublesome.

Finally division in act, which is frequent amid the multitude of affairs, is turned aside in Ecclesiasticus 11: Son, let not thy acts be in many things; for operations, even of the animal faculties, that is, of the sensitive and vegetative part, require a gathering, and as it were an attention, of all the powers of the soul, that they may be carried out well and completely; the more intensely one power is occupied about its object, the more remissly do the other faculties operate about their proper objects; and the more a man is distracted about temporal things, the more easily and frequently does he slip from the consideration of eternal things; whence, since these inconveniences are often encountered in the active life, our Savior reproved it in Martha, that by pointing out the defect of her action he might correct its importunity, as the holy Doctor concludes in the place cited, letter D.

Not therefore, however (the Seraphic Doctor resumes), is the part of Martha evil; for the excess of action, the manner or excess, not the substance, is reprehended; whence Christ said: Thou art troubled about many things; for turbation extinguishes the spirit of devotion; nor, even though it be born of fervor in acting or ministering charitably, is it laudable; because Charity, in order that it may profit the neighbor, must be well ordered in itself; as the Spouse says in the Canticles, when, at the approach of the young maidens, who had often experienced the fervor of her correction, they trembled: He ordered charity in me; for having attained a placid quiet of mind, after long contemplating and marveling at the beauty of her spouse, she dismissed every troubled manner of acting, as St. Bernard expounds on the Canticles on those words.

It is PROVED further by the holy Doctor on the same chapter 10 of Luke, that the Contemplative life excels the active: What is more permanent, other things being equal, is more excellent. But contemplation is more permanent than action: Therefore. The major is evident; for the excellence of Charity shines forth above the other theological virtues in this, that it never falls away, but endures even in the beatific vision, at least in specific reason; but the contemplative operation begins here and remains in the future, as the Gloss has it on those words: Which shall not be taken away, etc. Therefore it is the better, the more it remains, as the Seraphic Doctor subjoins; for, as he reports there from the said Gloss: the labor of multitude passes away, and the Charity of unity remains; in figure of which, speaking of John, who bore the person of the Contemplative, the Lord says: So I will have him remain till I come, indicating that the part which Mary chose is not to be taken away but to be perfected; concerning which he says in book 3 on chapter 10 of Luke, tome 5: The fire of love, which here begins to burn, when it shall have seen him whom it loves, blazes forth more in love; and this same is prefigured in Isaias 31: Whose fire is in Sion, and his furnace in Jerusalem.

It is PROVED lastly by St. Bonaventure in the same place, where in three little words he concludes all the reasons which Suarez there (in the place cited, chapter 6) deduces at length, saying: The Contemplative life is simply more to be desired, as being the better, both because it is more secure, and because it is sweeter, and because it is more stable. The Seraphic Doctor nevertheless concludes that the active life is not on that account to be despised: both because it is prior; and because it is more penal; and because it is more fruitful; for it avails for itself and for others, in which nonetheless the contemplative life prevailest over it for itself and for others; for the latter does not impede, nay rather promotes, the salvation of others; for whether one be a Prelate or a preacher, in order to rule well and preach well to himself and others, it is necessary that he not neglect Contemplation; whence St. Gregory says of both lives, book VI Morals, chapter 18, quoted by the Seraphic Doctor in the place cited: Great are the merits of the active life, but greater those of the Contemplative.

YOU WILL OBJECT: to what purpose, then, is the life that is only active, if even in Prelates and preachers the Contemplative life takes its place: for prelature and preaching are external actions principally ordered to the neighbor.

The holy Doctor ANSWERS in the place cited, letter D, and with him Suarez in the said chapter 6, that spiritual exercises, such as those of Prelates and Preachers, since they have a connection with contemplation, as being as it were its acts and effects, suppose it as their origin; for preaching is nothing else than the internal contemplation of truth described outwardly in words and gestures; whence spiritual men must sometimes go out and sometimes go in, now ascend, presently descend, as in that vision of Jacob, Gen. 28, the angels ascended and descended, at once contemplating God and aiding men. But that life which is purely active obtains the greater, or more proper, part of itself in bodily exercises, as in assisting the sick, visiting widows, succoring the bodily necessities of the poor. Now these actions, although they require proceeding from an intention and some consideration, do not properly require contemplation, such as will be described below in question 5; otherwise no action would be good or meritorious which did not suppose contemplation.

We conclude, however, with the holy Doctor, 1 part of the Cen(tury), sect. 46, that both lives, in order to be perfect, must affect, occupy, or engage the three powers of the soul, so that with respect to these, each one has three properties, in which the one exceeds the other, not by an excess of excellence, but of exclusion; so that the one excludes the other as to act, which is true only in those who cultivate either the active or the contemplative life alone; but not in those leading the mixed life, as I shall say below in the following question.

¶ The FIRST property of the active life is sedulous diligence of public utility and necessity; and this occupies the Rational power, whose office it is to consider how and why it should issue forth into action.

The SECOND is charity toward the neighbor, by compassionating his misery; and this holds the place in the Concupiscible.

The THIRD is fruitfulness of good works in acting, by persevering patiently unto the end; and this continually kindles the Irascible toward arduous things.

But of the CONTEMPLATIVE life the first property is the intuition of supernal beauty with delight, and this affects the Rational.

The SECOND is repose with serenity and security, and this pacifies the Irascible.

The THIRD is cleanness of heart, with the gust of supernal goodness, whereby the Concupiscible is delighted.

The Seraphic Doctor here mentions THREE orders of the Ecclesiastical state, instituted of old, to each of which its own distinct office fell. First, the Cenobites, continually profiting in the study of virtues, follow the footsteps of Christ, inasmuch as he led a social life with his disciples, and was for them the exemplar of perfection; for the Cenobitic life is a professed Society of many living together under one manner of life, that by mutual examples they may spur one another on to emulating the better charisms: wherefore this state is most convenient for progress in perfection, nor does it on that account lose the name of a Religious or Monastic institution, because the solitude of bodies is not there so exactly observed; for although Monas means one, yet that one rather signifies that solitude which is more adapted to the end of acquisition, for the sake of which the monastic state was first instituted; and to this solitude the unity, or solitude, of mind contributes more than that of body: whence St. Augustine on Psalm 132, on those words, Quam bonum, et quam iucundum habitare fratres in unum (How good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in one), thus speaks of monastic solitude: for they who so live in one as to make one man, so that it be true of them, as it is written, one heart and one soul; many bodies, but one heart and one soul, are rightly called Monas, that is, one alone; wherefore from the beginning of the Church, when many withdrew into desert places for the sake of the pursuit of perfection, they were accustomed to come together on fixed days, exhorting and exciting one another to the unity of spirit; as is read in the lives of the Fathers.

In the SECOND place are the Hermits, more frequently intent upon Contemplation, and keeping a more exact solitude, withdrawing from every congregation and commerce of men; and these sometimes dwelt in the monasteries which they built for themselves in the wildernesses, whence also they were called Eremitae, though less properly; such were the Religious of St. Basil, as Suarez has it, lib. 1. cit. cap. 2. But others dwelt solitarily in desert places, fleeing all society of men; and these are properly called Hermits, such as that Paul who is acclaimed in the Calendar as the first Hermit.

In the THIRD and last place are the secular Clerics, so called because they hold a place in the civil dealings and contracts of the age; and accordingly in the very age (saeculum) they can dwell with other seculars; while they are Pastors of souls, or Rectors of Churches, of whom the state is twofold, Episcopal and Parochial: the former destined for ruling dioceses, the latter for caring for parishes.

But since that threefold state did not at once attain the perfection of Christ, but one state imitated his contemplative life only by withdrawing into the desert, another emulated his conversation among the disciples and the examples of his virtues, and the last finally followed him in procuring the salvation of the neighbor; the Seraphic Doctor argues that it behooved some to be given who would follow Christ in all things, and would reconcile his nocturnal Contemplations and withdrawals with his diurnal occupations; and such would truly lead a mixed life.

I ASSERT therefore, with the Seraphic Doctor, that there is given a Mixed Life resulting from the Contemplative and the Active. This is the common opinion of the Fathers and Scholastics, as in Suarez, cit. cap. 6., where, among the many whom he produces, he passes over St. Bonaventure, while retaining the authority of so great a Doctor, and rendering his reasons useful to himself. This is held before others by St. Thomas 2. 2. quaest. 188. art. 6. et 3. dist. 35. quaest. 1. art. 4. quaestiunc. 1. See also there Durandus quaest. 2. Paludanus, 4. dist. 38. quaest. 2. art. 1. Cajetan 2. 2. quaest. 188. art. 6. Antoninus 3. parte, tit. 16. cap. 1. §. 2. Henriquez, quodlib. 12. quaest. 25. Sylvester, in summa, V. Religio 1. quaest. 4. and the Canonists in cap. nisi cum pridem, de renunciat. Archi. in cap. si quis, dist. 56.

It is PROVED especially by St. Bonaventure in the place cited above, by the example of Christ himself, made the exemplar of both lives, while he tarried by night on Mount Olivet, intent on Contemplation and holy prayer; but by day he taught in the Temple, healed the sick, etc., as is said in Luke 21. On which passage the holy Doctor shows that therein is given to Prelates an example of perfect vigilance in the life at once Active and Contemplative; for since the government of souls is a most arduous office, its true and laudable dispensation or ministration can be obtained only from above, from the Father of lights, from whom is every perfect gift; and therefore one must devote oneself to Contemplation, on which the supernal truth shines. But prelature of itself, since it is a ministry to another, also implies action, nor does it impede Contemplation, if action proceeds in an orderly way from it; for, as the holy Doctor says, in the place cited, the faithful exercise of a good work quiets the conscience, and by fattening it raises it to supernal things. The Seraphic brings the example of one who labored in preparing a banquet, at which he afterwards feasted pleasantly, and whose sweetnesses he tasted beforehand in the very preparation.

It is PROVED secondly by the holy Doctor, on chapter 10 of Luke, by the example of the Virgin Mother of God, to whom was infused whole and without division what was given in parts to Martha and Mary; of whom the figure was the Ark, in which at once the tablet of testimony and the rod of Aaron were kept; for by the tablet of testimony is signified the reception of divine truth through Contemplation; and by the rod of Aaron is indicated the rectitude of good action, both as regards oneself and as regards the neighbor, as St. Bonaventure explains, in the place cited.