Part 10 (1/2)
HOW THE THIRD RIVER CONFIRMS THE WILL
FROM this joy and fullness of graces, and divine faithfulness, there is born and flows out the third river in this same unity of spirit.
This river, like a flame, lights up the spirit and absorbs all things in unity. And it causes to overflow and flood with rich gifts and singular n.o.bility, all the faculties of the soul, and it creates in the will a love without labour, spiritual and subtle. Now Christ says internally in the spirit by means of this flaming river: ”Go forth by exercises according to the mode of these gifts and this coming.” Thanks to the first river--that is to say, to a simple light, the memory is lifted up above the accidents of sense, and is established in the unity of spirit. Thanks to the second river-- that is to say, to the brightness spread abroad within, the intelligence and reason are enlightened, so as to recognise the diverse modes of the virtues and of exercises, and the mysteries of the Scriptures. Thanks to the third river--that is to say, to an inspired ardour, the sublime will is kindled into a more tranquil love, and adorned with greater riches. In this way a man becomes spiritually enlightened, for the grace of G.o.d abides, like a fountain in the unity of the spirit; and these rivers create in the faculties of the soul an effluence of all the virtues. And the fountain of grace always requires a reflux towards its source.
HOW CHRIST IS GIVEN TO ALL MEN IN THE SACRAMENT OF THE ALTAR
THERE is a special benefit which Christ left in the Holy Church, to all good people, in this supper of the great Paschal feast, when He was about to pa.s.s from His sufferings to His Father after having eaten the Paschal lamb with His disciples, and when the ancient law was accomplished. At the end of the supper, He wished to give them a special meal, as He had long desired to do. And this is why He wished to finish the ancient law and to inaugurate the new law. He took bread in His sacred hands, and consecrated His holy body, and then His holy blood, and gave them to all His disciples, and left them to all the just, for their eternal good.
This gift and this special food rejoice and adorn all the great festivals and all the banquets in heaven and on earth. In this gift Christ gives Himself to us in three manners; He gives us His flesh and blood and His bodily life, glorified and full of joys and griefs. And He gives us His spirit with its highest faculties, and full of glory, of gifts, of truths and justifications. And He gives us His personality with the divine light which lifts up His spirit and all enlightened spirits, even to the sublime and joyous unity.
Now Christ wishes us to remember Him, whenever we consecrate, offer, and receive His body. Now observe how we should remember Him. We shall observe and consider how Christ bends towards us in loving affection, in great desire, in loving joy, and by flowing into our bodily nature. For He gives us that which He received from our humanity--that is to say, His flesh and blood and bodily nature. We shall contemplate this precious body pierced and wounded with love, by reason of His faithfulness to us. It is by it that we are adorned and nourished in the lower part of our human nature. He gives us also, in this sublime gift of the sacrament, His spirit full of glory, and the richest gifts of the virtues, and ineffable marvels of charity and n.o.bleness.
It is by this that we are nourished, adorned, and illuminated in the unity of our spirit and in our higher faculties, thanks to the indwelling of Christ with all His riches. He gives us also in the sacrament of the altar His sublime personality in incomprehensible light. And thanks to this, we are united to the Father, and so we reach our inheritance of divinity in eternal bliss. If a man meditate rightly on this, he will meet Christ in the same manner in which Christ comes to him. He will raise himself up to receive Christ, with all his faculties and in eager joy. It is not possible for our joy to be too great, for our nature receives His nature--that is to say the glorified humanity of Christ, full of joyfulness and full of merits. This is why I would that man, at the reception of this sacrament, should melt away with desire, joy, and pleasure, for he is receiving the fairest, the most gracious, the most lovable of the children of men, and is united to Him. In this union and in this joy great benefits often come to men, and many mysterious and marvellous secrets of divine treasures are manifested and disclosed.
When a man meditates, at this reception, on the martyrdom and sufferings of the precious body of Christ, whom he is receiving, he enters sometimes into so loving a devotion and so great a compa.s.sion, that he desires to be nailed with Christ to the cross, and to shed his heart's blood for the honour of Christ. And he presses himself to the wounds and open heart of Christ His Saviour.
In these exercises revelations and great benefits have often come to men.
ON THE UNITY OF THE DIVINE NATURE IN THE TRINITY OF PERSONS
THE sublime and superessential unity of the Divine nature, in which the Father and the Son possess their nature in the unity of the Holy Spirit, above the conception and comprehension of all our faculties, in the bare essence of our spirit, surpa.s.ses in this sublime calm all the creatures of created light. This sublime unity of the Divine nature is living and fruitful, for, from this same unity, the eternal Word is born from the Father without interruption. And by this birth the Father knows the Son, and all things in the Son. And the Son knows the Father, and all things in the Father, for their nature is simple. From this reciprocal vision of the Father and the Son in an eternal clearness, flow forth an eternal satisfaction and unfathomable love, which is the Holy Spirit. And by the Holy Spirit and the eternal Wisdom G.o.d inclines towards every creature severally, and loads every one of them with gifts and kindles it with love, according to its n.o.bility and according to the state wherein it is const.i.tuted and elected though its virtues and the eternal foresight of G.o.d. And it is by this that all just spirits, in heaven and on earth, are united in virtue and justice.
HOW G.o.d MOVES AND POSSESSES THE SOUL, NATURALLY AND SUPERNATURALLY
NOW be attentive: I am about to give you an example on this subject. G.o.d has made the upper heaven a pure and simple clearness encircling and enveloping all the heavens; and all the material world which G.o.d has created for it is the exterior abode and kingdom of G.o.d and His saints, full of glory and eternal joys. Now the heaven being an unmixed clearness, there is there neither time, nor state, nor temptation, nor change, for it is unchangeably fixed above all things. The sphere which approaches most nearly to it is called the primum mobile. All movement, by the power of G.o.d, emanates from the supreme heaven. This is the movement which carries with it the motions of the firmament and all the planets. It is by this same initial movement that all the creatures live and grow, according to their order. Now understand that the essence of the soul is like a spiritual kingdom of G.o.d, full of Divine clearness, surpa.s.sing all our faculties, unless these faculties are not transformed in a simple fas.h.i.+on, of which I do not wish to speak now. See; in this essence of the soul in which G.o.d reigns, the unity of our spirit is like the primum mobile; for in this unity the spirit is moved from above, by the power of G.o.d, naturally and supernaturally; for by ourselves we have nothing either in or above nature. And this motion of G.o.d, when it is supernatural, is the first and chief cause of all our virtue. And by this motion of G.o.d the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit are granted to certain enlightened men, like the seven planets which illuminate all the lives of men. This is how G.o.d possesses the essential unity of our spirit, as His Kingdom.
ON THE ESSENTIAL MEETING WITH G.o.d, WITHOUT INTERMEDIARY
NOW attend carefully. The unity of our spirit has two modes, one essential and the other active. You should know that the spirit, according to its essential existence, receives the coming of Christ in its bare nature, without intermediary and without interruption.
For this essence and life which we are in G.o.d, in our eternal image, and which we have in ourselves, according to essential existence, are without intermediary and inseparable. This is why the spirit receives, in its highest and most intimate part, in its bare nature, the impression of its eternal image, and the divine brightness without interruption, and it is an eternal dwelling of G.o.d, which He occupies by a perpetual inhabitation, and which He visits always with a new coming, and a new effulgence from His eternal birth. For where He comes He is, and where He is He comes. And where He has never been, He will never come, for there is in Him neither accident nor change, and everything, where He is, is in Him, for He never goes out of Himself. And this is why the spirit possesses G.o.d essentially in its bare nature, and G.o.d the spirit, for the spirit lives in G.o.d, and G.o.d in the spirit. And it is capable, in its highest part, of receiving the brightness of G.o.d, and all that G.o.d may grant it, without intermediary. And by the brightness of its eternal image, which s.h.i.+nes essentially and personally in it, the spirit is plunged, as regards the highest part of its vitality, in the divine essence; and there enters into possession of its eternal bliss, and flowing out again by the eternal birth of the Son is placed in its created essence by the free will of the Holy Trinity, And here it is like the image of the sublime Trinity and Unity for which it is created. And in its created nature, it takes the impression of its eternal image without interruption, like an immaculate mirror in which every impression abides, and which renews the likeness in itself without interruption. This essential unity of our spirit in G.o.d, exists not in itself, but abides in G.o.d and flows out from G.o.d, and is immanent in G.o.d and returns to G.o.d, as to its eternal cause. It never separates itself from G.o.d, for this unity is a fact of bare nature, and if nature separated itself from G.o.d it would fall into nothingness. And this unity is above time and conditions, and works always without interruption according to the mode of G.o.d. This is the n.o.bleness which we have naturally according to the essential unity of our spirit, where it is united naturally to G.o.d.
This makes us neither saints nor blessed, for all men have it in them, the bad as well as the good; but it is the first cause of all holiness and bliss; and this is the meeting and unity of G.o.d in our spirit, in our base nature.
HOW MAN IS LIKE G.o.d BY GRACE, AND UNLIKE HIM BY MORTAL SIN
NOW examine this thought with care, for if you understand well what I wish to say to you, and what I have already said, you will understand all the divine truth which a creature can apprehend at present, and even things far more sublime. In the second mode, our spirit keeps itself actively in this same unity, and subsists by itself as in its personal created essence. This is the foundation and origin of the supreme faculties, and this is the beginning and end of all the works of a created nature, accomplished according to the mode of the creatures, both in nature and above nature.
Nevertheless this unity does not operate as unity; but all the faculties of the soul have their power entirely in their foundation--that is to say, in the unity of the spirit, where it resides in its personal essence. In this unity the spirit must always be like unto G.o.d, by grace and virtue, or unlike Him by mortal sin; for man is made in the likeness of G.o.d, which he must understand in the sense of grace; for grace is a deiform light which s.h.i.+nes through us and makes us like unto G.o.d; and without this light we cannot be united supernaturally to G.o.d, even though we can never lose the image of G.o.d, nor our natural unity in Him. If we lose this likeness--that is to say, grace, we are d.a.m.ned. And this is why, so soon as G.o.d finds in us something which is capable of receiving His grace, He wishes to enliven us by His goodness, and to make us like unto Himself by His gifts. And this happens whenever we turn towards Him with full purpose; for at the same moment Christ comes to us and in us, with and without intermediary--that is to say, by the virtues and above all the virtues. And He impresses His image and likeness upon us--that is to say, Himself and all His gifts, and He relieves us from sin and makes us like unto Himself.
By the same operation in which G.o.d relieves us from sin, and makes us like Him and free in charity, the spirit is plunged in joyous love. And here take place a meeting and a union, which are without intermediaries and supernatural, and wherein resides our supreme blessedness. Although all that He gives by love and pure goodness is natural to G.o.d, yet to us it is accidental and supernatural, according to our mode, since formerly we were strangers and unlike, and only subsequently have become like G.o.d and obtained union with Him.
ON THE SUPREME DEGREE OF THE INTERIOR LIFE
NOW understand. This incomprehensible light transforms and penetrates the joyous inclination of our spirit. In this light, the spirit is plunged in joyous repose; for this repose is without mode and without bottom, and we can only know it by itself--that is to say, by repose. For if we could know it and conceive it, it would fall into mode and measure, and so would not be able to satisfy us, and repose would become an eternal restlessness. And this is why the simple, loving, complete inclination of our spirit forms in us a joyous love, and joyous love is without bottom. And the abyss of G.o.d calls to abyss; so it is with all those whose spirits are united to G.o.d in joyous love. This calling is an irruption from His essential brightness; and this essential brightness in the embrace of His bottomless love, causes us to lose ourselves and escape from ourselves, in the lonely darkness of G.o.d. And thus united, without intermediary, to the spirit of G.o.d, we can meet G.o.d by G.o.d, and possess unchangeably, with Him and in Him, our eternal blessedness.
ON THE FIRST MODE OF THIS HIGHEST MEETING
THE most interior life is practised in three ways. Sometimes the interior man operates, above all activity and all virtue, by simple introspection in joyous love. And here he meets G.o.d without intermediary. And from the unity of G.o.d a simple light s.h.i.+nes in him, and this light shows him darkness, nakedness, and nothingness.
He is enveloped in darkness, and falls into the absence of mode as one who loses his way. He loses, in nakedness, the power of observing and distinguis.h.i.+ng all things, and he is transformed and penetrated by a simple brightness. He loses, in nothingness, all his works, for he is overcome in the work of the unlimited love of G.o.d; and in the joyous inclination of his spirit he triumphs in G.o.d and becomes one spirit with Him. This is the first mode, which is inactive; for it empties a man of all things, and lifts him up above works and virtues.
ON THE SECOND MODE
THERE are moments when the interior man turns desirously and actively towards G.o.d, to pay Him homage, and to offer up and annihilate, in the love of G.o.d, his being and all that he can give.
And here he meets G.o.d, through an intermediary. This intermediary is the gift of wisdom, which is the foundation and source of all the virtues, and excites the just to virtues in proportion to their love; and sometimes it touches and inflames the interior man with love so violently, that all the gifts of G.o.d, and all that G.o.d can give without giving Himself, seem to him too little and do not satisfy him, but only increase his impatience. For he has at the bottom of his being an interior perception or sensation, wherein all the virtues begin and end, and wherein he offers to G.o.d all the virtues, and wherein love lives. And thus the hunger and thirst of love become so great, that he is reduced to nothingness, and then touched anew, as it were for the first time, by the irradiation of G.o.d. Thus in living he dies and in dying he lives again. This is the second mode, and it is more useful and more glorious than the first; for none can enter into the repose that is above action unless he has first actively loved love. And this is why none will be inactive, who is master of himself and who is able to practise love.