CHAPTER 6 : THE PEACE OF THE KINGDOM OF GOD: A PRELUDE TO THE LIFE OF HEAVEN

THOSE who follow the way of generosity, self-denial, and self-sacrifice which the saints have taught, will come at length to know and taste the joys of God's complete dominion within us.

Truly spiritual delights have their source in the cross, in the spirit of sacrifice which causes disordered inclinations to die in us and gives the first place to the love of God and the love of souls in God, which installs in the throne of our souls that charity which is the source of peace, the tranquility of order. These deep joys cannot enter into the soul until the senses and the spirit have been purged and refined by tribulations and sufferings which detach us from things created. As we read in the Acts of the Apostles: 'Through many tribulations we must enter into the kingdom of God.' [161]

The divine awakening.

After the dark and painful night of the spirit there is, St. John of the Cross tells us, a divine awakening: 'The soul uses a similitude of the breathing of one that awakens from his sleep," and says, 'How gentle and loving is... thine awakening, O Word and Spouse, in the centre and depth of my soul... wherein alone, secretly and in silence, Thou dwellest as its Lord.'This divine awakening is an inspiration of the Word manifesting His dominion, His glory and His intimate sweetness. [162]

This inspiration shows the face of God radiant with graces and the works which He accomplishes. 'This is the great delight of this awakening: to know the creatures through God and not God through the creatures; to know the effects through the cause and not the cause through the effects[163] Then is the prayer of the Psalmist fulfilled: 'Arise, Lord, why sleepest thou?' 'Arise, Lord,' that is to say, remarks St. John of the Cross, 'do thou awaken us, and enlighten us, my Lord, that we may know and love the blessings that Thou hast ever set before us.' [164]

The same grace is described in the 39th Psalm: 'With expectation I have waited for the Lord, and he was attentive to me. And he heard my prayers and brought me out of the pit of misery and the mire of dregs; and he set my feet upon a rock and directed my steps, and he put a new canticle into my mouth.'

In this 'powerful and glorious awakening' the soul receives, as it were, an aspiration of the Holy Spirit, who fills it to overflowing with His goodness and His glory, 'wherein He has inspired it with love for Himself, which transcends all description and all sense, in the deep things of God.' [165]

These graces are a preparation for that other awakening of the supreme moment of death, when the soul issuing forth from the body will see itself immediately as a spiritual substance, as the angels see themselves. And the last awakening of all will be in the moment of entrance into glory, when the soul, separated from the body, sees God face to face, and sees itself in God. Happy the saints who go straight to heaven. While those about them are lamenting their departure, they have reached the end of their journey in the clearness of the vision that gives them joy. As the Gospel says, they have entered into the joy of their Lord.

The Living Flame.

Already here on earth the divine awakening produces in the soul of the perfect a flame of love which is a participation of that living flame which is the Holy Spirit Himself. 'This flame the soul feels within it, not only as a fire that has consumed and transformed it in sweet love, but also as a fire which burns within it and sends out flame.... And this is the operation of the Holy Spirit in the soul that is transformed in love, that His interior actions cause it to send out flames.... And thus these acts of the soul are most precious, and even one of them is of greater merit and worth than all that the soul may have done in this life apart from this transformation, however much this may be;... it is the same difference as that between the log of wood that is enkindled and the flame which it sends forth.... In this state, therefore, the soul can perform no acts, but it is the Holy Spirit that moves it to perform them.... Hence it seems to the soul that whensoever this flame breaks forth... it is granting it eternal life... it teaches the soul what is the savour of eternal life... it causes the soul to experience the life of God, even as David says: My heart and my flesh have rejoiced in the living God.'[166]

This flame wounds the soul as it is given, but the wound is tender, salutary and, instead of causing death, it increases life; for the soul is holiest that is most wounded by love. Thus St. John of the Cross says that 'this wound is delectable,' and he adds that this 'came to pass when the seraph wounded the soul of St. Francis (of Assisi) with love.' [167]

When the heart is thus burning with love for its God, the soul is contemplating lamps of fire which enlighten all things from on high. These are the divine perfections: Wisdom, Goodness, Mercy, Justice, Providence, Omnipotence. They are, so to speak, the colours of the divine rainbow which, without destroying one another, are identified in the intimate life of God, in the Deity, as the seven colours of the rainbow are united in the one white light from which they proceed. 'All these are one lamp, which is the Word.... This lamp is all these lamps, since it gives light and burns in all these ways.' [168]

The powers of the soul are then as though melted in the splendour of the divine lamps ;[169] it is truly a prelude to eternal life.

' The soul is completely absorbed in these delicate flames, and wounded subtly in each of them, and in all of them more deeply and subtly wounded in love of life, so that it can see quite clearly that that love belongs to life eternal, which is the union of all blessings. So that the soul in that state knows well the truth of those words of the Spouse in the Songs, where He says that the lamps of love were lamps of fire and flame.'[170]

The flame which the wise virgins must tend in their lamps is a participation of this flame. [171]

The following lines from a recent commentary on the Canticle of Canticles are worth pondering: 'The divine love is a consuming fire. It penetrates the soul to its depth. It burns and consumes, but it does not destroy; it transforms into itself. Material fire which burns wood to its innermost fibres and iron to its last molecules, is an image of that fire, but how feeble an image! At times, under the influence of a specially powerful grace, the soul that is on fire with divine love sends forth flames. They ascend straight to God. He is their principle as He is their end; and it is for His sake that the soul is consumed with love. The charity that elevates the soul to God is only a created, finite, analogical participation of uncreated charity; but it is nevertheless a real, positive and formal participation of the substantial flame of Jehovah.' [172]

We can understand, therefore, why St. John of the Cross often compares the soul that is penetrated by God with the union of air and fire in a flame, which is nothing else but air on fire. Doubtless there is always an infinite distance between the Creator and the creature, but God by His action enters so intimately into the purified soul that He deifies it, giving it an increase of sanctifying grace. And sanctifying grace is a real and formal participation of His inner life, His own nature, which is Deity.

Unitive love then becomes in the soul like a sea of fire that 'reaches to the farthest heights and depths, filling it wholly with love.' [173] This love, hardly perceptible at first, grows more and more until the soul experiences an ever-increasing hunger for God and a burning thirst, of which the Psalmist says: 'For thee my soul hath thirsted; for thee my flesh, O, how many ways!' [174] This is truly the beatitude of those that hunger and thirst after justice; this is truly the prelude to the life of heaven, truly a beginning of eternal life, 'quaedam inchoatio vitae aeternae.' as St. Thomas has said. This is the supreme, but normal, development of the life of grace on earth, the seed of glory, semen gloriae.

What are we to conclude from this doctrine, which may appear too sublime for us poor mortals?

It would certainly be too sublime for us if we had not received in baptism that life of grace which, in us too, must develop into eternal life; if we had not often received Holy Communion, the precise effect of which is to increase that grace within us. Let us remind ourselves that each of our Communions ought to be substantially more fervent than the preceding, since each of them ought to increase the love of God in us, and thus dispose us to receive our Lord with a greater fervour of will on the following day.

As St. John of the Cross says, [175] spiritual souls that desire this union would attain it if they did not flee from those trials which God sends them for their purification.

Exactly the same doctrine is found in the Dialogue of St. Catherine of Siena, where we are given the explanation of those words of Christ: 'If any man thirst let him come to me and drink.... Out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.'

'You were all invited, generally and in particular, by My Truth when He cried in the Temple, saying: "If any man thirst, let him come to me and drink...."So that you are invited to the fountain of living water of Grace, and it is right for you, with perseverance to keep by Him who is become for you a bridge, not being turned back by any contrary winds that may arise, either of prosperity or adversity, and to persevere until you find Me, Who give the water of Life, by means of this sweet Word of love, my only-begotten Son.... ' [176]

'But you must have thirst, because only those that thirst are invited. "If any man thirst," He says, "let him come to me and drink." He who has no thirst will not persevere, for either fatigue causes him to stop, or pleasure distracts him... he turns back at the smallest persecution, for he likes it not... The intellect must gaze into the ineffable love which I have shown thee by means of My only-begotten Son.... A man who is full of My love and the love of his neighbour finds himself the companion of many real virtues; and then the soul is disposed to thirst: it thirsts for virtue, and the honour of My name and the salvation of souls, every other thirst in him is spent and dead. The soul then walks securely... being stripped of self-love; it is raised above itself and above transitory things.... It contemplates the deep love that I have manifested to you in Christ crucified.... The heart, emptied of the things that pass away, becomes filled with heavenly love which gives access to the waters of grace. Having arrived there, the soul passes through the door of Christ crucified and tastes the water of life, slaking his thirst in Me, who am the Ocean of Peace.'

What practical conclusion are we to draw from all this? We ought to say and repeat this prayer to our Blessed Lord.

' Lord, teach me to know the obstacles that, consciously or unconsciously, I am placing in the way of Thy grace in me. Give me the strength to put them aside, and if I am negligent therein, vouchsafe Thyself to remove them, howsoever I may suffer thereby. What wouldst Thou have me to do for Thee this day, my God? Show me what it is in me that displeaseth Thee. Teach me rightly to value the Precious Blood which Thou didst shed for me, of the sacramental or spiritual communion by which we are enabled to drink that Blood from the wound of Thy most loving Heart.

' Make me, O Lord, to grow in love of Thee. Grant that our inner conversation may never cease; that I may never separate myself from Thee; that I may receive all that Thou dost deign to give me; and that I may not stand in the way of the grace which through me should be poured out upon other souls to give them light and life.'

Pax in veritate.

And thus, in the words of St. Thomas, man lives no longer for himself, but for God. [177] He may say, with St. Paul: 'To me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.' [178] Life for me is not study, not work, or natural activity of any kind, but Christ.

Such is the way that leads to this quasi-experimental and almost continuous knowledge of the Blessed Trinity dwelling within us. And this is what makes St. Catherine say at the end of her Dialogue:[179]

' O eternal Trinity, O Godhead, O divine Nature that gavest to the Blood of Thy Son so great a price, Thou, O eternal Trinity, art a bottomless sea into which the more I plunge the more I find, and the more I find the more I seek Thee still. Of Thee it is never possible to say- Enough. The soul that is sated in Thy depths desires Thee yet unceasingly, for it hungers ever after Thee.... Thou art the fire that burns ever and is never quenched, the fire that consumes in itself all the self-love of souls, that melts all ice and gives all light. This light is an ocean into which the soul plunges ever more deeply and there finds peace.'

What better commentary could we find on those sublime words of St. Paul to the Philippians:[180]' the peace of God, which surpasseth all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.' l his is the fruit of the third conversion, in very truth a prelude to the life of heaven.

NOTE ON THE CALL TO THE INFUSED CONTEMPLATION OF THE MYSTERIES OF FAITH

WE have pointed out above -- and we have developed the theme at length elsewhere [181] -- that the seven gifts of the Holy Ghost are connected with charity, [182] and that they consequently develop together with it. It is therefore impossible to have a high degree of charity without having at the same time and in a proportionate degree the gifts of understanding and wisdom, gifts which, together with faith, are the principle of the infused contemplation of revealed mysteries. In some of the saints, as in St. Augustine, this contemplation bears immediately upon the mysteries themselves; in others, as in a St. Vincent de Paul, it bears upon the practical consequences of these mysteries; for example, upon the life of the members of the mystical body of Christ. But in either case it is infused contemplation. The superhuman mode of the gifts, a mode of activity which is derived from the special inspiration of the Holy Ghost and which transcends the human mode of the virtues, [183] is at first latent, as in the ascetic life; but then it becomes manifest and frequent in the mystical life. In fact, the Holy Ghost usually inspires souls proportionately to their habitual docility or to their supernatural dispositions (i. e. according to the degree in which they possess the virtues and the gifts). This is definitely the traditional teaching.

We have also shown elsewhere, [184] that according to St. Thomas the gifts have not a human mode specifically distinct from their superhuman mode; for if this were so, the former might always be perfected without ever attaining to the latter, and would thus not be essentially subordinate to it.

Now, if the gifts have no human mode specifically distinct from their superhuman mode, it follows that -- as we have often said -- there is for all truly spiritual. souls a general remote call or vocation to the infused contemplation of the mysteries of faith -- a contemplation which alone can give a profound and living understanding of the redemptive Incarnation, of the indwelling of God within us, of the sacrifice of Calvary substantially perpetuated on the altar during the Mass, and of the mystery of the Cross which should be reproduced in any true and profound Christian life. However, this 'general and remote call' does not mean the same as an 'individual and proximate call,' just as a ' sufficient call' does not mean the same as an 'efficacious call.'

We have recently been conceded, on this matter, a point which we had not asked -- and which, incidentally, we do not accept -- namely, that 'the negative clement of perfection, that is to say, detachment from creatures, must be the same for all souls: complete, absolute, universal' ; 'there can be no degrees in the absence of voluntary faults. The very smallest, like the very greatest, destroys perfection... a thread is enough to hold a man captive.'

We do not think that detachment from creatures is the same for all, whether for the greatest saints or for those souls that have reached a minimal perfection. And the principal reason is, that perfection excludes not only faults that are directly voluntary, but also those that are indirectly voluntary; those which proceed from negligence and a relative tepidity, from a secret and semi-conscious egoism that does not allow the depth of the soul to belong completely to God. Likewise there is a certain co-relational between the intensive growth of charity and its extension, in consequence of which charity gradually excludes even those obstacles which we more or less unconsciously oppose to the work of grace in our souls.

If then, as we are granted, every soul is called by its progress in the love of God to exclude all voluntary faults, even the smallest, even those that are indirectly voluntary, it will succeed only by means of a high degree of charity. This charity will, evidently, be proportionate to the vocation of the individual soul; it will not be the same for Bernadette of Lourdes as it was for St. Paul; but it will have to be a high degree of charity. Without this the depth of the soul will not belong completely to God; without this there will still be some egoism, which will manifest itself often enough by faults that are at least indirectly voluntary.

If a soul is to be perfect, it must possess a degree of charity higher than that which it possessed when it was still in the ranks of beginners or of proficients; just as in the physical order the full age of manhood presupposes a physical strength superior to that of childhood or adolescence -- though it may be that accidentally a youth is found to be more vigorous than a fully grown man. [185]

What conclusion follows regarding the purgation of the depth of the soul, which is necessary to exclude all egoism and secret pride? A recent study on this question contains the following:

' I admit that the passive purgations (which are of the mystical order) are necessary in order to arrive at the purity required for mystical union; and it is in this sense that St. John of the Cross speaks.... But I deny that the passive purgations are necessary for the purity required in the union of love by conformity of wills. -- The reason of this difference is a profound one. For the mystical union, which involves infused contemplation and love, active purgation is not sufficient, precisely because the purity of the will is not sufficient. It is necessary that there should be added to it a sort of psychological purity of the substance and the powers of the soul, which consists in rendering them adapted to the mode of being of the divine infusion.'

The important question, then, is: Are the passive purgations, according to St. John of the Cross, not necessary for the profound purity of the will? Are they not necessary in order to exclude that more or less conscious egoism, and those indirectly voluntary faults which are incompatible with the full perfection of charity, incompatible also with the full perfection of the infused virtues and gifts, which develop together with charity like so many functions of the same spiritual organism?

The answer to this extremely important question, for our part, is not for a moment in doubt.

It suffices to read in the Dark Night [186] the description of those faults of beginners which render the purgation of the senses necessary. Here are, not faults opposed to the sort of psychological purity of which our author speaks, but faults which are contrary to the moral purity of the sensibility and of the will. They are, in fact, as St. John of the Cross tells us, the seven capital sins translated into the order of the spiritual life, such as spiritual greed, spiritual sloth, spiritual pride.

The same remark may be made of the faults [187] of proficients which render necessary the passive purgation of the spirit; they are 'stains of the old man which still remain in the spirit, like a rust which will disappear only under the action of an intense fire.' These proficients, says St. John of the Cross, are really subject to natural affections; they have moments of roughness, of impatience; there is still in them a secret spiritual pride, and an egoism which causes some of them to make use of spiritual goods in a manner not sufficiently detached, and so they are led into the path of illusions. In a word, the depth of the soul is lacking, not only in psychological purity, but in the moral purity that is required. Tauler has spoken in the same sense, solicitous especially to purify the depth of the soul of all self-love, of all more or less conscious egoism. Hence it is our opinion that the passive purgations are necessary for this profound moral purity. But these purgations are of the mystical order. They do not always appear under so definitely contemplative a form as that described by St. John of the Cross; but in the lives of the saints, even of the most active among them, like a Vincent de Paul, the chapters which treat of their interior sufferings prove that they all have a common basis, which none has described better than St. John of the Cross.

A final and very important concession has been made to us in connection with the famous passage of the Living Flame, ST. II, 23:

' It behoves us to note why it is that there are so few that attain to this lofty stale. It must be known that this is not because God is pleased that there should be few raised to this high spiritual state-on the contrary it would please Him if all were so raised -- but rather because He finds few vessels in whom He can perform so high and lofty a work. For, when He proves them in small things and finds them weak and sees that they at once flee from labour, and desire not to submit to the least discomfort or mollification... He finds that they are not strong enough to bear the favour which He was granting them when He began to purge them, and goes no farther with their purification....'

With regard to this it has recently been conceded. 'We admit that St. John of the Cross is treating here of the spiritual marriage, and that he states that the will of God is that all souls should attain to this state. But we deny that this implies a universal call to the mystical life.... The confusion arises, in our opinion, from a failure to distinguish two elements included by St. John of the Cross in the two degrees of union called spiritual betrothal and marriage. One of these two elements is essential and permanent; the other accidental and transitory. The essential element is the union of wills between God and the soul, a union which results from the absence of voluntary faults and from the perfection of charity; the accidental element consists in the actual union of the powers, a mystical union in the proper sense of the word, a union which cannot be continuous.'

In this supposition, it is possible that the transforming union, or spiritual marriage, should exist in a person without that person ever having had a mystical union, the mystical union being merely an accidental element, like the interior words or the intellectual vision of the Blessed Trinity mentioned by St. Teresa. [188] To us, on the contrary, it appears certain that, according to St. John of the Cross, the transforming union cannot exist without there having been at least from time to time a very lofty contemplation of the divine perfections, an infused contemplation [189] proceeding from the gifts, which have now reached a degree proportionate to that of perfect charity. It is, he says, 'even as the fire that penetrates the log of wood... and having attacked and wounded it with its flame, prepares it to such a degree that it can enter it and transform it into itself.' [190]

Moreover, to our mind it is absolutely certain-that the profound union of wills between God and the soul, which is recognized as being the essential element of the transforming union, presupposes the moral purgation of the depth of the soul, a purgation from that more or less conscious self-love or egoism which is the source at least of many indirectly voluntary faults; and this moral purification of the depth of the soul, according to St. John of the Cross, requires the passive purgations which eliminate the faults of beginners and proficients.

We therefore maintain what we have said, in common with numerous theologians, Dominican and Carmelite, about the doctrine of St. Thomas and St. John of the Cross concerning the gifts of the Holy Ghost. To conclude, we recall especially these two important texts

' The night of sense is common and comes to many; these are the beginners.' [191] Being passive, this purification, or night, is of the mystical order.' The way of progressives or proficients... is called the way of illumination or of infused contemplation, wherewith God Himself feeds and refreshes the soul.' [192] Hence infused contemplation is in the normal way of sanctity, even before the unitive way is reached; and therefore it is inconceivable that a soul should be in the state of spiritual marriage or the transforming union without ever having had that infused contemplation of the mysteries of faith which is the eminent exercise of the gifts of the Holy Ghost, developing in us side by side with charity.

We cannot admit that a mind of the calibre of St. John of the Cross can have meant only something accidental when he wrote the passage which we have just quoted, and which we quote once more in conclusion:

'The way of progressives or of proficients... is called the way of illumination or of infused contemplation, wherewith God Himself feeds and refreshes the soul.'

***END OF TEXT***

ENDNOTES

1 St. Thomas often quotes this Augustinian thought: cf. I-IIae, Q. xxviii, art. 4, ad 2; III, Q. xxiii, art. 1, ad 3

2 Luther went so far as to say: 'Pecca fortiter et crede firmius: sin mightily and believe more mightily still; you will be saved.' Not that Luther intended thereby to exhort men to sin; it was merely an emphatic way of saying that good works are useless for salvation -- that faith in Christ alone suffices. He says, truly enough (Works, Weimar edition, XII, 559 (1523) ), that if you believe, good works will follow necessarily from your faith. 'But as Maritain justly observes (Notes sur Luther; appendix to the second edition of Trois Reformateurs),' in his thought these good works follow from salutary faith as a sort of epiphenomenon. 'Moreover, the charity which will follow this faith is the love of our neighbour rather than the love of God. And thus the notion of charity is degraded, emptied gradually of its supernatural and God-ward content and made equivalent to works of mercy. In any case, it remains true that for Luther a man is justified simply by faith in Christ, even though the sin is not blotted out by the infusion of charity, or the supernatural love of God.

3 J. Maritain explains very clearly how Naturalism arises necessarily from the principles of Protestantism: 'According to the Lutheran theology, it is we ourselves, and only we ourselves, who lay hold of the mantle of Christ so that with it we may "cover all our shame."' It is we who exercise this' ability to jump from our own sin on to the justice of Christ, thus becoming as sure of possessing the holiness of Christ as we are of possessing our own bodies. 'The Lutheran theory of justification by faith may be called a Pelagianism born of despair. In ultimate analysis it is man who is left to work out his own redemption by stimulating himself to a despairing confidence in Christ. Human nature has then only to cast aside, as a useless theological accessory, the mantle of a grace which means nothing to him, and to transfer its faith-confidence from Christ to itself -- and there you have that admirable emancipated brute, whose unfailing and continuous progress is an object of wonder to the universe. In Luther and his doctrine we witness -- on the spiritual and religious plane -- the advent of the Ego.

'We say that it is so in fact; it is the inevitable outcome of Luther's theology. But this does not prevent the same theology in theory from committing the contrary excess.... And so Luther tells us that salvation and faith are to such an extent the work of God and of Christ that these alone are active in the business of our redemption, without any co-operation on our part.... Luther's theology was to oscillate between these two solutions: in theory it is the first, apparently, that must prevail: Christ alone, without our co-operation, is the author of our salvation. But since it is psychologically impossible to suppress human activity, the second has inevitably prevailed in fact.' It is a matter of history that liberal Protestantism has issued in Naturalism.

4 Cf. St. Thomas, I-IIae, Q. cix, art. 3: 'Homo in statu naturae integrae dilectionem suiipsius referebat ad amorem Dei sicut ad finem, et similiter dilectionem aliarum rerum, et ita Deum diligebat plus quam seipsum et super omnia. Sed in statu naturae corruptae homo ab hoc deficit secundum appetitum voluntatis rationalis, quae propter corruptionem naturae sequitur bonum privatum, nisi sanetur per gratiam Dei.' Ibid., art. 4: 'In statu naturae corruptae, non potest homo implere omnia mandata divina sine gratia sanante.'

5 Ps. 1, 3-14.

6 Isa. xliii, 25

7 i, 7

8 vi, 10.

9 xxxvi, 25

10 i, 16

11 i, 5

12 v, 5

13 iv, 7

14 i, 11-13

15 John iii, 5

16 iii, 9.

17 i, 8

18 2 Pet. i, 4

19 i, 17

20 I John iii, 2

21 Matt. v, 48

22 John iii, 36; v, 24, 39; vi, 40, 47, 55

23 vi, 55.

24 viii, 51-58

25 John iv, 10-14

26 John vii, 37

27 xiv, 23

28 I John iv, 16.

29 Luke xvii, 20

30 1 John iii, 14

31 V, 13

32 John xvii, 3.

33 II-IIae, Q. xxiv, art. 3; I-IIae, Q. lxix, art. 2; De Ver., Q. xiv, art. 2.

34 Meditations sur l'Evangile, II, 37th day; in Joan., xvii, 3.

35 De civ. Dei, lib. IV, c. 9

36 In Joan., tract. 92, c. xiv, 12

37 Q. cxiii, art. 9.

38 In reality there is a greater distance between any created nature, even the angelic nature, and the inner life of God, of which charity is a participation, than there is between bodies and created spirits. All creatures, even the highest, are at an infinite distance from God, and in this sense are equally below Him

39 Pensees (ed. Havet), p. 269

40 John xiv, 23

41 John iv, 16

42 cf I-IIae, Q. lxxxvii, art. 3

43 I Cor. xiii, 8, 13

44 I-IIae, Q. Ixvi, art. 2.

45 We have treated it fully elsewhere: Perfection chretienne et contemplation, t. 11, pp. 430-462; see also note below, p. 105.

46 Rom. viii, 29

47 I Cor. ii, 9.

48 Heb. i, 3.

49 2 Cor. iv, 10

50 Second Sermon for Lent

51 Dark Night, Book 1, ch. 9 and ch. 10

52 Doctrine Spirituelle, Pr. II, sect. ii, ch. 6, art. 2

53 Sermon for Monday in Passion Week

54 Dark Night, Book II, ch. 1-13

55 II-IIae Q. xxiv, art. 3, ad 2; I-IIae, Q. lxix, art. 2

56 2 John vi, 47-55.

57 La Doctrine Spirituelle, Pr. II, sect. ii, ch. 6, art. 2.

58 This is not an instance of a private revelation relating to some future event or some new truth, it is a more profound contemplation of a truth already revealed in the Gospel -- a fulfiment of the promise of Christ that the Holy Spirit would call to mind whatsoevcr He had told to His Apostles (John xiv, 26).

59 Luke xxii, 31-34

60 xxii, 60-62

61 III, Q. lxxxix, art. 2.

62 The teaching of St. Thomas is quite clear: 'Contingit intensionem motus poenitentis quandoque proportionatum esse majori gratiae, quam fuerit illa a qua ceciderat per peccatum, quandoque aequali, quandoque vero minori. Et ideo poenitens quandoque resurgit in majori gratia, quam prius habuerat, quandoque autem in aequali, quandoque etiam in minori' (III, Q. lxxxix, art. 2). Certain modern theologians think that it is possible to recover a high degree of grace with an attrition which is barely sufficient. St. Thomas and the ancient theologians do not admit this. And in fact we find in human relationships that, after considerable offence has been given, friendship will revive in the same degree as it existed before only if there is, not merely regret, but regret proportionate to the offence committed and to the greatness of the previous friendship

63 Ch. 63

64 John xxi, 15 seq

65 Ch. 60

66 According to St. Thomas this mixture is impossible in the angels, because they cannot sin venially. They are either very holy or very perverse. Either they love God perfectly, or else they turn away from Him completely by mortal sin. This is due to the vigour of their intelligence, which enters completely and definitively into the way it has taken (I-IIae, Q. lxxxix, art. 4).

67 This is the quasi-experimental knowledge of the distinction between nature and grace, quite different from that which we have through speculative theology. It is not difficult to understand in abstract the difference between the two orders; but to see it in concrete, and to perceive it almost continuously, supposes a spirit of faith which, in this degree, is found hardly in any but the Saints

68 Dialogue, ch. 63.

69 Thus our Lord deprived His disciples of His visible presence, saying to them: 'It is expedient to you that I go.' It was in fact expedient that they should be for some time deprived of the sight of His humanity, so that they might be elevated to a higher spiritual life, a life more independent of the senses, a life which would later, when made more vigorous, find expression in the sacrifice of an heroic martyrdom.

70 Dark Night, Book I, ch. 9

71 Ibid., ch. 14

72 Luke xxii, 61

73 It is obvious that when the Saint speaks of 'self-hatred' she has in mind the aversion which we must have for that self-love, or inordinate love of self, which is the source of all sin. Self-love, she tells us in chapter 122 of the Dialogue, is the cause of injustice towards God, towards one's neighbour, and towards oneself, it destroys in the soul both the desire for the salvation of souls and the hunger for virtue; it prevents the soul from reacting as it should against the most crying injustices, because of the inordinate fear of offending creatures that self-love entails. 'Self-love,' she says 'has poisoned the whole world and the mystical body of the holy Church, and through self-love the garden of the Spouse has run to seed and given birth to putrid flowers.'

'Thou knowest,' God says to the Saint (ch. 51), 'that every evil is founded in self-love, and that self-love is a cloud that takes away the light of reason, which reason holds in itself the light of faith, and one is not lost without the other.' We find the same doctrine in St. Thomas: 'Inordinate love of self is the source of all sin and darkens the judgement - for when will and sensibility are ill-disposed (that is, when they tend to pride and sensuality) everything that is in conformity with these inclinations appears to be good; (I-IIae, Q. lxxvii, art. 4).

74 Ch. 75

75 Luke x, 27.

76 Ch. 60

77 There is nothing easier than to be convinced in theory that Providence ordains all things without exception unto good. But it is rare to find that truth realized in practice when some unforeseen disaster enters like a cataclysm into our lives. There are few who are able to see in such an event one of God's greatest graces, the grace of their second or third conversion. The venerable Boudon, a priest held in high repute by his own bishop and by several bishops in France, one day received, in consequence of a calumny, a letter from his bishop suspending him and forbidding him to say Mass or to hear confessions. He straightway threw himself on his knees before his crucifix, thanking our Lord for a grace of which he felt himself to be unworthy. He had achieved that concrete and living conviction, of which St. Catherine speaks here, that in the divine government everything, absolutely everything, is ordained to the manifestation of His goodness.

78 Ch. 166

79 Luke xxiv, 25-27

80 Thus St. Thomas at the end of his life was raised up to a supernatural contemplation of the mysteries of the faith, such that he could not dictate the end of the Summa Theologica, the last part of the treatise on Penance. He could no longer compose articles with a status quaestionis, beginning with three difficulties, followed by the body of the article and by the answers to the objections. The higher unity which he had now attained made him view all theological principles more simply and more radiantly, and he could no longer descend to the complexity of a purely didactic exposition.

81 Ch xxvi, 74

82 Luke xxiv, 11

83 In Joan., tract. 25, n. 3; Serm. 265, 2-4.

84 Acts ii, 1-4.

85 It is in the light of what is said here of the grace that purifies and transforms that we should read the articles of St. Thomas on the gifts of understanding and wisdom, and on the purification which they bring about within us; likewise the Dark Night of St. John of the Cross

86 Acts ii, 17, 21.

87 Cf. St. Thomas, I, Q. xliii, art. 6, ad I.

88 John xiv, 26

89 Acts ii, 8-12

90 Matt. xxviii, 19

91 II-IIae, Q. clxxxviii, art. 6: 'Ex plenitudine contemplationis derivatur doctrina et praedicatio.

92 Ps. cxviii, 140.

93 Acts i, 6

94 It is to be noted in this and similar texts that the immutable or plan of God is mentioned before His foreknowledge of which it is the basis. God foresaw from all eternity the mystery of the Redemption, because from all eternity He had decreed to bring it about.

95 Acts ii, 22-36

96 ii, 41

97 Acts iii, 15; iv, 11-12

98 Matt. xvi, 22--23

99 Acts vii, I-53

100 Acts i, 8

101 Acts v, 41

102 ii, 42--47; iv, 32--37; v, I-11

103 Ps. 1, 12.

104 Dark Night, Book II, ch. vi.

105 Dark Night, Book II, ch. iii.

106 ibid., ch. iv

107 II-IIae, Q. i, art. 5.

108 John xvi, 7

109 John viii, 12

110 I Cor. ii, 10: 'Spiritus enim omnia scrutatur, etiam profunda Dei.... Nos autem accepimus.... Spiritum qui ex Deo est, ut sciamus quae a Deo donata sunt nobis.

111 Col. ii, 3

112 Ps. Xii, 4.

113 xvii, 29.

114 1, 12

115 Luke xii, 49.

116 Dark Night, Book II, ch. v.

117 John vii, 37

118 iv, 10, 14.

119 Cf. Philip of the Trinity: Summa theologiae mysticae (ed. 1874, p. 17)

120 Book I, ch. viii and ch xiv

121 Dark Night Book II, ch. ii and ch. xi

122 Similarly Tr. I, ch. 1, n. 10.

123 Cf. St. Thomas, III, Q. lxii, art. 2: 'Utrum gratia sacramentalis addat aliquid super gratiam vir[utum et donorum' ; where we are reminded that habitual or sanctifying grace perfects the essence of the soul, and that from grace there proceed into the faculties the infused virtues (moral and theological) and the seven gifts of the Holy Ghost, which are to the soul like the sails of a ship intended to receive inspirations from heaven

124 I-IIae, Q. lxviii, art. 5: 'Sicut virtutes morales connectuntur sibi invicem in prudentia, ita dona Spiritus Sancti connectuntur sibi invicem in caritate; ita scilicet quod qui caritatem habet, omnia dona Spiritus Sancti habet, quorum nullum sine caritate haberi potest

125 I-IIae, Q. lxviii, art. 2, where these passages of Scripture are cited: 'God loveth none but him that dwelleth with wisdom' (Wisd. vii, 28), and 'Whosoever are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God' (Rom. viii, 14).

126 Life, c. xxxi

127 Dark Night, Book I, c. xiv.

128 See Dark Night, Book I, c. ix and c. xiv; Living Flame, 2nd stanza, v. 5

129 Book I, ch. viii

130 Ibid. ch. xiv

131 Dark Night, Book II, ch. ii

132 II-IIae, Q. xxiv, art. 9

133 See also str. 4, str. 6, str. 22, v. I.

134 Dark Night, Book I, ch. ii.

135 See above, p. 63

136 I-IIae, Q. lxi, art. 5

137 Cf. P. Louis de la Trinite, O. C. D., Le Docteur mystique; Desclee de Brouwer, 1929, p. 55.

138 An interesting point in this connection is that which Pope Pius X had in mind when, in prescribing an earlier age for First Communion, he said: 'There will be saints among the children.' These words seem to have found their fulfilment in the very special graces which have been granted to several children, taken very early into heaven, who are to-day proving to be the source of so many vocations to the priestly and the religious life: such as little Nelly, Anne de Guigne Guy de Fontgalland, Marie-Gabrielle, T. Guglielmina and several others in France and Belgium -- souls that remind us of the Blessed Imelda, who died of love while making her thanksgiving after her First Communion. Our Lord, who said: 'Suffer the little children to come unto me,' is able evidently to endow these souls with great sanctity at a very early age; He sows the divine seed in greater or less abundance in souls, according to His good pleasure. (See Collection Parvuli, Lethielleux, Paris. )

139 This expression, a favourite with Tauler, has the same meaning as 'the summit of the soul' the metaphor changes according as the things of sense are considered as exterior or as inferior

140 Cf. Council of Trent (Denzinger, 798) and St. Thomas, I-IIae, Q. cxiii art. 1-8 inclusive

141 St. Thomas (III, Q. lxxxix, art. 5, ad 3) explains that recovery is proportionate to the fervour of contrition. That is to say, if a person had two talents before committing a mortal sin, and if his contrition has been only barely sufficient and imperfect in relation to his former goodness, he will perhaps recover only one talent (resurgit in minori caritate). To recover the same degree of grace and charity which he had lost he will need a more fervent contrition, proportionate to the sin and to his former sanctity.

142 The beginner sometimes considers the goodness of God also in the mysteries of salvation; but he is not yet familiar with these and it is not an exercise which is proper to his condition

143 I Cor. iii, 2

144 Dark Night, Book I, ch. i-vii

145 Dark Night, Book I, ch. viii; Book I, ch. xiv

146 Dark Night, Book I, ch. xiv.

147 Dark Night, Book I, ch. ix

148 Living Flame, stanza II, 23.

149 The proficient also contemplates the goodness of God in the things of nature and in the parables of the Gospel; but this is not the exercise proper to his condition, now that he has become familiar with the mysteries of salvation. But he has not yet attained, unless it be rarely and transitorily. to that circular movement whereby the perfect contemplate the divine goodness in itself.

150 II-IIae, Q. clxxx, art. 6.

151 Dark Night, Book II, ch. ii.

152 Dark Night, Book II, ch. 3 seq.

153 Rom. vi, 6

154 Eph. iv, 22.

155 The progress in the knowledge and love of God which characterizes this purgation is precisely what differentiates it from certain sufferings which bear some resemblance to it, such as those of neurasthenia. These neurasthenic sufferings may have of themselves no purging character, but they too may be endured with resignation and for the love of God. Similarly the sufferings which may be the effect of our own lack of virtue, the effect of an undisciplined and exaggerated sensibility, have no purging quality of themselves, although they similarly may be accepted as a salutary humiliation in consequence of our faults, and in reparation for them.

156 Wisd. iii, 6

157 Ps. xxxiii, 18-20

158 II-IIae, Q. xxiv, art. 9. Hence I would reply to M. H. Bremond that this adherence to God, a direct act, which is at the source of the discursive and reflex acts of the perfect, contains the solution of the problem of the pure love of God and its reconciliation with a legitimate love of self; for this is truly to love oneself in God, and to love Him more than oneself.

159 The Carmelite, Philip of the Holy Trinity, in the prologue of his Summa theologiae mysticae (ed. 1874, p. 17), also regards the passive purgation of the senses as a transition between the purgative and the illuminative way, and the passive purgation of the spirit as a disposition to the way of union. In this, as in many other things, Th. Vallgornera, O. P., has followed him, and even copied literally from his work. Anthony of the Holy Spirit, O. C. D., has done likewise, summarizing him in his Directorium mysticum.

160 iii, 9-14.

161 xiv 21

162 Living Flame. st. IV. 3. 4

163 Living Flame, st. IV, 5

164 Ibid., 9

165 Ibid., 17

166 Living Flame, st. I, 20-22; cf. Ps. lxxxiii, 3

167 Ibid., II, 12

168 Living Flame, st., III, 3

169 Ibid. 9

170 Ibid., 5

171 Matt. xxv, 4-7.

172 Virgo Fidelis, by Robert de Langeac (Lethielleux, 1931), p. 279

173 Living Flame, st. II, 9

174 Ps. lxii, 2; Dark Night, Book II, ch. xi

175 Living Flame, st. II, 23

176 Ch. 53.

177 II-IIae, Q. xvii, art 6, ad 3

178 Phil. i, 21

179 Ch. 167

180 iv, 7

181 Perfection chretienne et contemplation, t. I, pp. 338-417; t. II, pp.- 430-477

182 Cf. St. Thomas, I-IIae, Q. lxviii, art. 5

183 I-IIae, Q. lxviii, art. 1; see also Perfection chretienne... t. I, pp. 355-385; t. II, pp. (52)-(64).

184 Vie Spirituelle, November, 1932 (Supplement, pp. (65)-(83): Les dons ont-ils un mode humain?

185 Non sunt judicanda ea qua sunt per se, per ea quae sunt per accidens.

186 Book I, ch. ii-ix

187 Dark Night, Book II, ch. i and ch. ii.

188 VIIth Mansion, ch. i and ch. ii

189 According to St. John of the Cross (Dark Night, Book I, ch. xiv) 'the way of illumination' is a 'way of infused contemplation, wherewith God Himself feeds and refreshes the soul.' A fortiori, Man in the way of union

190 Living Flame, st. 1, 16

191 Dark Night, Book I, ch. viii

192 Dark Night, Book I, ch. xiv.