|
CHAPTER 4 : THE PROBLEM OF THE THREE STAGES OF THE SPIRITUAL LIFE
IN ASCETICAL AND MYSTICAL THEOLOGY
THIS chapter, written especially for theologians, will prove less
useful for the majority of readers, who will find the substance of
it explained more simply and easily in the following chapter.
One of the great problems of the spiritual life is the question
how we are to interpret the traditional distinction of the three
ways, purgative, illuminative, and unitive, according to the
terminology of Dionysius, or the way of beginners, of proficients,
and of the perfect, according to an earlier terminology.
Of this traditional division two notably different interpretations
have been given, according as the infused contemplation of the
mysteries of faith and the union with God which results from it
were considered as belonging to the normal way of sanctity, or as
extraordinary favours, not only de facto but also de jure.
Statement of the Problem.
The difference between the two interpretations may be seen if we
compare the division of ascetico-mystical theology used until the
second half of the eighteenth century with that given by several
authors who have written since that time. It is evident, for
example, if we compare the treatise of Vallgornera, O. P., Mystica
theologia divi Thomae (1662), with the two works of Scaramelli, S.
J., Direttorio ascetico (1751) and Direttorio mistico.
Vallgornera follows- more or less closely the Carmelite, Philip of
the Trinity. He likens the division given by him to that used by
previous authors, and confirms it by appeal to certain
characteristic texts of St. John of the Cross on the moment at
which the passive nights of the senses and of the spirit generally
make their appearance. [119] He divides his treatise for
contemplative souls into three parts:
1. Of the purgative way, proper to beginners, in which he treats
of the active purification of the external and internal senses,
the passions, the intellect and the will by mortification,
meditation and prayer, and finally of the passive purification of
the senses, where infused contemplation begins and leads the soul
on to the illuminative way, as St. John of the Cross explains at
the beginning of the Dark Night. [120]
2. Of the illuminative way, proper to proficients, where, after a
preliminary chapter on the divisions of contemplation, the writer
treats of the gifts of the Holy Ghost and of infused
contemplation, which proceeds especially from the gifts of
understanding and wisdom, and which is declared to be a legitimate
object of desire for all spiritual souls, as being morally
necessary for the complete perfection of the Christian life. This
second part of the work, after several articles dealing with
extraordinary graces (visions, revelations, interior speech)
concludes with a chapter of nine articles on the passive
purification of the spirit, which marks the transition to the
unitive way. This, likewise, is the teaching of St. John of the
Cross. [121]
3. Of the unitive way, proper to the perfect, where the author
deals with the intimate union of the contemplative soul with God
and with its degrees, up to the transforming union.
Vallgornera considers this division to be the traditional one, and
to be truly in harmony with the doctrine of the Fathers, with the
principles of St. Thomas and the teaching of St. John of the
Cross, and with that of the great mystics who have written on the
three periods of the spiritual life, and on the manner in which
the transition is generally made from one to another.
Quite different is the division given by Scaramelli and the
authors who follow him.
In the first place Scaramelli treats of Ascetics and Mystics, not
in the same work, but in two distinct works. The Direttorio
ascetico, twice as long as the second work, comprises four
treatises: (I) The means of perfection; (2) the obstacles
(purgative way); (3) the proximate dispositions to Christian
perfection, consisting of the moral virtues in the perfect degree
(the way of proficients); (4) the essential perfection of the
Christian, consisting of the theological virtues and especially of
charity (the love of conformity in the case of the perfect).
This treatise of Ascetics hardly mentions the gifts of the Holy
Ghost. And yet according to the common teaching of spiritual
writers the high degree of perfection in the moral and theological
virtues which is here described is unattainable without these
gifts.
The Direttorio mistico consists of five treatises: (I) An
Introduction, on the gifts of the Holy Ghost and the gratiae
gratis datae; (2) on acquired and infused contemplation, for
which, as Scaramelli admits, the gifts are sufficient; 1 (3) on
the degrees of obscure infused contemplation, from passive
recollection to the transforming union. (Here, in Chapter XXXII,
Scaramelli admits that several authors teach 1 Ch xiv. that
infused contemplation may be desired humbly by all spiritual
souls; but he comes to the conclusion that in practice it is
better not to desire it unless one has received a special call to
it: 'Altiora te ne quaesieris'); [122] (4) on the degrees of
distinct infused contemplation (visions and extraordinary interior
words); (5) of the passive purifications of the senses and of the
spirit.
It is surprising not to find until the end of this treatise on
Mystics a description of the passive purgation of the senses, a
purgation which, for St. John of the Cross and the authors above
quoted, marks the entrance into the illuminative way.
The difference between this new way of dividing ascetico-mystical
theology and the old way obviously arises from the fact that the
old authors, unlike the modern ones, maintained that all truly
spiritual souls can humbly desire and ask of God the grace of the
infused contemplation of the mysteries of the faith: the
Incarnation and Passion of Christ, Holy Mass and Eternal Life,
mysteries which are so many manifestations of the infinite
goodness of God. They considered this supernatural and confused
contemplation to be morally necessary for that union with God in
which the full perfection of the Christian life consists.
Hence it may be wondered whether the new division, as propounded
for example by Scaramelli, does not diminish both the unity and
the sublimity of the perfect spiritual life. When Ascetics are
separated from Mystics in this way, do we sufficiently preserve
the unity of the whole which is divided? A good division, if it is
not to be superficial and accidental, if it is to be based upon a
necessary foundation, must repose upon the definition of the whole
which is to be divided, upon the nature of that whole. And the
whole in question is the life of grace, called by tradition 'the
grace of the virtues and gifts'; [123] for the seven gifts of the
Holy Ghost, since they are connected with charity, are part of the
supernatural organism, [124] and, as St. Thomas teaches, are
necessary for salvation, a fortiori for perfection. [125]
Similarly, the new conception surely diminishes the sublimity of
evangelical perfection, since this is dealt with under the head of
Ascetics, without mention of the gifts of the Holy Ghost, and
without mention of the infused contemplation of the mysteries of
faith and the union with God which results from that
contemplation. While the new method of treatment emphasizes the
necessity of ascetics, does it not at the same time degrade it,
weakening the motives for the practice of mortification and for
the exercise of the virtues, because it loses sight of the divine
intimacy to which the whole of this work should eventually lead?
Does it throw sufficient light upon the meaning of the trials,
those prolonged periods of aridity, which generally mark the
transition from one stage of the spiritual life to the other? Does
not the new conception diminish also the importance and value of
mysticism, which, if it is separated thus from asceticism, seems
to become a luxury in the spiritual life of a few favoured ones,
and a luxury which is not without its dangers? Finally, and above
all, does not this conception debase the illuminative and unitive
ways, by regarding them simply from the ascetical point of view?
Is it possible for these two ways normally to exist without the
exercise of the gifts of the Holy Ghost, proportionate to the
exercise of charity and the other infused virtues? Are there six
ways (three ascetical ways which are ordinary, and three mystical
ways which are extraordinary), and not only three ways, three
periods in the spiritual life, as the ancients maintained? Does it
not seem that, if ascetics is divorced from the illuminative and
unitive ways, it becomes simply an abstract study of the moral and
theological virtues? Or, if the progress and perfection of these
virtues is treated in concrete-as is done by Scaramelli -- is it
not manifest, according to the teaching of St. John of the Cross,
that this perfection is unattainable without the passive
purifications and the operation of the gifts of the Holy Ghost? On
this matter we shall do well to remember the words of St. Teresa:
'According to certain books we ought to be indifferent to the evil
which is spoken of us, and even rejoice more thereat than if we
were well spoken of; we ought to make little of honour, and be
detached from our neighbour... and many other things of the same
sort. In my opinion these are pure gifts of God, these are
supernatural graces.' [126]
In order better to preserve the unity and sublimity of the
interior life, such as the Gospels and the epistles reveal it to
us, we propose the division which follows. It accords with that of
the great majority of authors who wrote before the second half of
the eighteenth century, and, by including an imperfect form of the
illuminative and unitive ways, mentioned by St. John. of the
Cross, [127] it also safeguards that portion of truth which, in
our opinion, the more recent conception contains.
Proposed Division of the Three Stages of The Spiritual Life.
Above the condition of hardened sinners, above the state of those
sensual souls who live in dissipation, conversion or justification
sets us in the state of grace; grace which sin ought never to
destroy in us, grace which, like a supernatural seed, ought
continually to grow until it has reached its full development in
the immediate vision of the divine essence and in a perfect love
which will last for ever.
After conversion there ought to be a serious beginning of the
purgative life, in which beginners love God by avoiding mortal sin
and deliberate venial sin, through exterior and interior
mortification and through prayer. But in actual fact this
purgative life is found under two very different forms: in some,
admittedly very few, this life is intense, generous; it is the
narrow way of perfect self-denial described by the saints. In many
others the purgative life appears in an attenuated form, varying
from good souls who are a little weak down to those tepid and
retarded souls who from time to time fall into mortal sin. The
same remark will have to be made for the other two ways, each of
which likewise is found in an attenuated and in an intense form.
The transition to the illuminative life follows upon certain
sensible consolations which generally reward the courageous effort
of mortification. As the soul lingers in the enjoyment of these
consolations, God withdraws them, and then the soul finds itself
in that more or less prolonged aridity of the senses which is
known as the passive purgation of the senses. This purgation
persists unceasingly in generous souls and leads them, by way of
initial infused contemplation, to the full illuminative life. In
other souls that are less generous, souls that shun the cross, the
purgation is often interrupted; and these souls will enjoy only an
attenuated form of the illuminative life, and will receive the
gift of infused contemplation only at long intervals. [128] Thus
the passive night of the senses is seen to be a second conversion,
more or less perfect.
The illuminative life brings with it the obscure infused
contemplation of the mysteries of faith, a contemplation which had
already been initiated in the passive night of the senses. It
appears under two normal forms. the one definitely contemplative,
as in the many saints of the Carmel; the other active, as in a St.
Vincent de Paul, a contemplation which, by the light of the gifts
of wisdom and counsel, constantly sees in the poor and abandoned
the suffering members of Christ. Sometimes this full illuminative
life involves, not only the infused contemplation of mysteries,
but also certain extraordinary graces (visions, revelations,
interior speech), such as those described by St. Teresa in her own
life.
The transition to the unitive life follows upon more abundant
spiritual lights, or an easier and more fruitful apostolate, these
being, as it were, the reward of the proficient's generosity. But
in them the proficient is apt to take some complacency, through
some remnant of spiritual pride which he still retains.
Accordingly, if God wills to lead the proficient into the perfect
unitive life, He causes him to pass through the night of the
spirit, a painful purgation of the higher part of the soul. If
this is endured supernaturally it continues almost without
interruption until it leads the soul to the perfect unitive life.
If, on the other hand, the proficient fails in generosity, the
unitive life will be correspondingly attenuated. This painful
purgation is the third conversion in the life of the servants of
God.
The perfect unitive life brings with it the infused contemplation
of the mysteries of faith and a passive union which is almost
continuous. Like the preceding, this life appears under two forms:
the one exclusively contemplative, as in a St. Bruno or a St. John
of the Cross; the other apostolic, as in a St. Dominic, a St.
Francis, a St. Thomas, or a St. Bonaventure. Sometimes the perfect
unitive life involves, not only infused contemplation and almost
continuous union with God, but also extraordinary graces, such as
the vision of the Blessed Trinity received by St. Teresa and
described by her in the VIIth Mansion. In this perfect unitive
life, whether accompanied by extraordinary favours or not, there
are evidently many degrees, ranging from the lowest to the highest
among the saints, to the Apostles, to St. Joseph and our Lady.
This division of the three stages of the spiritual life is set out
in the following table, which should be read beginning from below;
the three purgations or conversions figure in the table as
transitions from one stage to another.
The scheme may be compared with the doctrine of Tradition, and
above all with the doctrine of St. Thomas, concerning the grace of
the virtues and the gifts, and with that of St. John of the Cross
on the passive purgations, on infused contemplation and on the
perfect union, the normal prelude to the life of heaven.
We have seen also how it may be compared with the three ages of
our bodily life, infancy, adolescence, and manhood, especially as
regards the crises which mark the transition from one to another.
UNITIVE LIFE
▪ plenary
▪ extraordinary, eg. with vision of the Blessed Trinity.
▪ Ordinary
▪ purely contemplative form
▪ apostolic form
▪ attenuated: Intermittent union
▪ Transition: Passive purgation of the spirit, more or less
successfully endured
ILLUMINATIVE LIFE of proficients
▪ Plenary
▪ Extraordinary, with visions, revelations, etc.
▪ Ordinary
▪ purely contemplative form
▪ active form
▪ Attenuated: Transitory acts of infused contemplation.
▪ Transition: Passive purgation of the senses, more or less
successfully endured.
PURGATIVE LIFE of beginners
▪ Generous: fervent souls
▪ Attenuated: tepid or retarded souls.
▪ Transition: First conversion, or justification
The transition from one stage to another in the Spiritual Life.
The transitions from one stage to another in the spiritual life,
analogous to similar transitions in our bodily life, are marked by
a crisis in the soul; and none has described these crises so well
as St. John of the Cross. He shows that they correspond to the
nature of the human soul, and to the nature of the divine seed,
which is sanctifying grace. In the Dark Night, [129] after having
spoken of the spiritual imperfections of beginners, he writes:
'The one night or purgation will be sensual, wherein the soul is
purged according to sense, which is subdued to the spirit.... The
night of sense is common, and comes to many; these are the
beginners.' Then he adds: [130] 'When this house of sensuality was
now at rest -- that is, was mortified its passions being quenched
and its desires put to rest and lulled to sleep by means of this
blessed night of the purgation of sense, the soul went forth to
set out upon the road and way of the spirit, which is that of
progressives and proficients, and which by another name is called
the way of illumination or of infused contemplation, wherewith God
Himself feeds and refreshes the soul, without meditation, or the
soul's actual help. Such, as we have said, is the night and
purgation of sense in the soul.'
The words that we have italicized in this passage are very
significant, and they reproduce the original Spanish exactly.
St. John of the Cross then proceeds [131] to treat of the
imperfections which are proper to progressives or proficients:
natural roughness, outward clinging of the spirit, presumption, a
remnant of spiritual pride -- and he thus shows the need of the
passive purgation of the spirit, another painful crisis, a third
conversion which is necessary before the soul can enter fully upon
the life of union which belongs to the perfect, to those who, as
St. Thomas says, wish above all things to cleave to God and to
enjoy Him, and yearn ardently for eternal life, to be with
Christ.' [132]
This doctrine of the Dark Night is found also in the Spiritual
Canticle, especially in the division of the poem and in the
argument which precedes the first strophe. [133]
It is sometimes objected that this sublime conception of St. John
of the Cross far transcends the ordinary conception given by
spiritual writers, who speak less mystically of the illuminative
life of proficients and of the unitive life of the perfect. It
would seem therefore that the beginners of whom St. John speaks in
the Dark Night are not the beginners in the spiritual life, whom
writers generally have in mind, but rather those who are already
beginning the mystical states.
To this we may easily reply that the conception of St. John of the
Cross corresponds admirably with the nature of the soul (sensitive
and spiritual) and also with the nature of grace, and that
therefore the beginners of whom he speaks are actually those who
are usually so called. To prove this it is enough to note the
faults which he finds in them: spiritual gluttony, a tendency to
sensuality, to anger, to envy, to spiritual sloth, to that pride
which causes them to 'seek another confessor to tell the wrongs
that they have done, so that their own confessor shall think that
they have done nothing wrong at all, but only good... desiring
that he may think them to be good.' [134] The souls thus described
are certainly beginners, not at all advanced in asceticism. But it
must be remembered that when St. John of the Cross speaks of the
three ways, purgative, illuminative and unitive, he takes them,
not in their attenuated sense, but in their normal and plenary
sense. And in this he follows the tradition of the Fathers, of
Clement of Alexandria, Cassian, St. Augustine, Dionysius, and the
great teachers of the Middle Ages: St. Anselm, Hugh of St. Victor,
St. Albert the Great, St. Bonaventure and St. Thomas.
This is particularly apparent in the traditional distinction of
the degrees of humility, [135] which, by reason of the connection
of the virtues among themselves, correspond to the degrees of
charity. This traditional gradation in humility leads to a
perfection
which is assuredly not inferior to that of which St. John of the
Cross speaks. St. Catherine of Siena, the author of the Imitation,
St. Francis of Sales and all the spiritual writers reproduce the
same doctrine on the degrees of humility, corresponding to the
degrees in the love of God. All books on ascetics likewise say
that we must rejoice in tribulations and in being calumniated;
but, as St. Teresa remarks, this presupposes great purgations, the
purgations of which St. John of the Cross speaks, and can result
only from faithful correspondence with the grace of the Holy
Spirit.
The same is apparent in the classic distinction, preserved for us
by St. Thomas, between political virtues (necessary for social
life), purging virtues (purgatoriae), and the virtues of the
purified soul. Describing the 'purging virtues,' [136] St. Thomas
says: 'Prudence despises all the things of the world in favour of
the contemplation of divine things; it directs all thoughts to
God. Temperance gives up all that the body demands, so far as
nature can allow. Fortitude prevents us from fearing death and the
unknown element in higher things. Justice, finally, makes us enter
fully into the way of God.' The virtues of the purified soul are
more perfect still. All this, together with what the Angelic
Doctor says elsewhere of the immediate union of charity with God
dwelling in the soul, is certainly not less sublime than what St.
John of the Cross was to write later on.
Finally, the division of the three stages of the spiritual life
corresponds perfectly to the three movements of contemplation
described by St. Thomas after Dionysius. (I) The soul contemplates
the goodness of God in the mirror of material creatures, and rises
to Him by recalling the parables which Jesus preached to
beginners; (2) The soul contemplates the divine goodness in the
mirror of intelligible truths, or the mysteries of salvation, and
rises to Him by a spiral movement, from the Nativity of Christ to
His Ascension; (3) The soul contemplates sovereign Goodness in
itself, in the darkness of faith, circling round again and again,
to return always to the same infinite truth, to understand it
better and more fully to live by it.
It is certain that St. John of the Cross follows this traditional
path which so many great teachers had trodden before him; but he
describes the progress of the soul as it is found in
contemplatives, and in the most perfect among them, in order to
arrive, 'as directly as possible at God. [137] He thus shows what
are the higher laws of the life of grace and of the progress of
charity. But these same laws apply in an attenuated form to many
other souls as well, souls which do not reach so high a state of
perfection, but which nevertheless make generous progress without
turning back. In all things, similarly, we can distinguish two
'tempos.' For example, the medical books describe diseases as they
are in their acute stage, but they also point out that they may be
found in a modified or attenuated form.
In the light of what has been said it will be easier for us now to
describe the characteristics of the three ways, with special
reference to the purgations or conversions which precede each of
them -- purgations which are necessary even though the soul may
not have fallen again into mortal sin, but remained always in the
state of grace.
From this point of view we shall now study what exactly
constitutes the spiritual state of the beginner, the proficient,
and the perfect; and it will become apparent that this is not
merely a conventional scheme, but a truly vital process founded on
the very nature of the spiritual life, that is, on the nature of
the soul and on the nature of grace, that divine seed which is the
germ of eternal life: semen gloriae. [138]
CHAPTER 5 : CHARACTERISTICS OF THE THREE STAGES OF THE SPIRITUAL
LIFE
WE have seen the different conceptions which various writers have
proposed of the three stages or periods of the spiritual life; and
we have seen which of these is to be regarded as the traditional
one. There is, we have said, an analogy between these three stages
of the life of the soul and those of the life of the body-
infancy, adolescence and manhood; and we have paid particular
attention to the transition between one period and another, marked
by a crisis analogous to that which, in the natural or physical
order, occurs in life about the age of fourteen or fifteen and
again at twenty or twenty-one. We have seen also how these
different periods of the interior life have their counterpart in
the life of the Apostles. We now intend, following the principles
of St. Thomas and of St. John of the Cross, to describe briefly
the characteristics of these three periods, that of beginners,
proficients and perfect, in order to show that these are
successive stages in a normal development, a development which
corresponds both to the distinction between the two parts of the
soul (sensitive and spiritual), and to the nature of 'the grace of
the virtues and the gifts.' This grace progressively permeates the
soul with the supernatural life, elevates its faculties, both
higher and lower, until the depth of the soul [139] is purged of
all egoism and self-love, and belongs truly, without any
reservation, to God. We shall see that the whole development is
logical, it is logical with the logic of life, the logic which is
imposed necessarily by life's end and purpose: Justum deduxit
Dominus per vias rectas: 'The Lord guides the just by straight
ways.'
Beginners.
The first conversion is the transition from the state of sin to
the state of grace, whether by baptism or, in the case of those
who have lost their baptismal innocence, by contrition and
sacramental absolution. Theologians explain at length in the
treatise on grace what precisely justification is in an adult, and
how and why it requires, under the influence of grace, acts of
faith, hope, charity and contrition, or detestation of sin
committed. [140] This purgation by the infusion of habitual grace
and the remission of sins is in a sense the type or pattern of all
the subsequent purgations of the soul, all of which involve acts
of faith, hope, charity and contrition. Often this first
conversion comes about after a more or less painful crisis in
which the soul progressively detaches itself from the spirit of
the world, like the prodigal son, to come back to God. It is God
always who makes the first step towards us, as the Church has
taught against the Semi-pelagians; it is He who inspires the good
movement in us, that initial goodwill which is the beginning of
salvation. For this purpose, by His grace and by the trials to
which He subjects the soul, He as it were 'tills' the ground of
the soul before sowing the divine seed within it; He drives a
first furrow therein, a furrow upon which He will later return, to
dig more deeply still and to eradicate the weeds which remain;
much as the vine-tender does with the vine when it has already
grown, to free it from all that may retard its development.
After this first conversion, if the soul does not fall again into
mortal sin, or at all events if it rises from sin without delay
and seeks to make progress, [141] it is then in the purgative way
of beginners.
The mentality or spiritual state of the beginner may be best
described in function of that which is primary in the order of
goodness, namely his knowledge of God and of himself, and his love
of God. Admittedly there are some beginners who are specially
favoured, like many great saints who have had greater grace in
their early beginnings than many who are proficients; just as in
the natural order there are infant prodigies. But after all, they
are children, and it is possible to say in general in what the
mentality of beginners consists. They begin to know themselves, to
see their poverty and their neediness, and they have every day to
examine their conscience to correct their faults. At the same time
they begin to know God, in the mirror of the things of sense, in
the things of nature or in the parables, for example, in those of
the Prodigal Son, the Lost Sheep or the Good Shepherd. Theirs is a
direct movement up to God, not unlike that of the swallow when it
rises up to the heavens uttering a cry. [142] In this state there
is a love of God proportionate to the soul's knowledge; beginners
who are truly generous love God with a holy fear of sin, which
causes them to avoid mortal sin and even deliberate venial sin, by
dint of mortifying the senses and concupiscence in its various
forms.
When they have been engaged for a certain time in this generous
effort they are usually rewarded by some sensible consolations in
prayer or in the study of divine things. In this way God wins over
their sensibility, for it is by their sensibility that they
chiefly live; He directs it away from dangerous things towards
Himself. At this stage the generous beginner already loves God
'with all his heart,' but not yet with all his soul, with all his
strength, or with all his mind. Spiritual writers often mention
the milk of consolation which is given at this period. St. Paul
himself says: [143] "I could not speak to you as unto spiritual
but as unto carnal, as unto little ones in Christ. I gave you milk
to drink, not meat; for you were not able as yet.'
But what happens, usually, at this stage? Practically all
beginners, when they receive these sensible consolations, take too
much complacency in them; they regard them as though they were an
end in themselves, and not merely a means to higher things. They
then become an obstacle to their progress; they are an occasion of
spiritual greed, of curiosity in the things of God, of an
unconscious pride which leads the recipient to talk about his
favours and, under a pretext of doing good to others, to pose as
master in the spiritual life. Then, as St. John of the Cross says,
[144] the seven capital sins make their appearance, no longer in
their gross form, but in the order of spiritual things, as so many
obstacles to a true and solid piety.
Accordingly, by a logical and vital transition, a second
conversion becomes necessary, described by St. John of the Cross
under the name of the passive purgation of the senses. Of this he
says that it is 'common and comes to many; these are beginners,'
and that its purpose is to lead them into 'the road and way of the
spirit, which is that of progressives and proficients... the way
of infused contemplation, wherewith God Himself feeds and
refreshes the soul.' [145] This purgation is characterized by a
prolonged aridity of the senses, in which the beginner is deprived
of all those sensible consolations in which he had taken too great
complacency. If in the midst of this aridity there is an intense
desire for God, a desire that He should reign in us, together with
a fear of offending Him, then this is a second sign that it is a
divine purgation. Still more so, if to this intense desire for God
there is added a difficulty in praying according to the discursive
method, and an inclination towards the prayer of simple regard,
with love. This is the third sign that the second conversion is in
progress, and that the soul is being raised up to a higher form of
life, that of the illuminative way.
If the soul endures this purgation satisfactorily its sensibility
becomes more and more subject to the spirit; the soul is cured of
its spiritual greed and of the pride that had led it to pose as a
master; it learns better to recognize its own neediness. Not
infrequently there arise other difficulties pertaining to this
process of purgation, for example, in study, in our relations with
persons to whom we are too greatly attached, and from whom God now
swiftly and painfully detaches our affections. At this time, too,
there arise often enough grave temptations against chastity and
patience, temptations which God allows so that by reaction against
theta these virtues, which reside in the sensible part of our
nature, may become. more firmly and truly rooted in us. Illness,
too, may be sent to try us during this period.
In this crisis God again tills the ground of the soul, digging
deeper in the furrow which He has already driven at the moment of
our first conversion: He is uprooting the evil weeds, or the
relics of sin, 'reliquias peccati.'
This crisis is not without its dangers, like the crisis of the
fourteenth or fifteenth year in the development of our natural
life. Some prove faithless to their vocation Some souls do not
pass through this crisis in such a way as to enter upon the
illuminative way of proficients, and they remain in a state of
tepidity; they are not in the proper sense beginners, rather they
are retarded or tepid souls. In their case, the words of the
Scriptures are fulfilled: 'They have not known the time of their
visitation' ; they have failed to recognize the time of their
second conversion. These souls, especially if they are in the
religious or the priestly state, are not tending to perfection as
they should, and unconsciously they are stopping others from doing
so, placing serious obstacles in the way of those who really
desire to make progress. Communal prayer, instead of becoming
contemplative, becomes mechanical; instead of prayer supporting
the soul, the soul has to support and endure prayer. Such prayer
may even, unhappily, become anti-contemplative !
In those, on the contrary, who pass through this crisis
successfully it is, according to St. John of the Cross, the
beginning of infused contemplation of the mysteries of faith,
accompanied by an intense desire for perfection. Then the
beginner, under the illumination especially of the gift of
understanding, [146] becomes a proficient and enters upon the
illuminative way; he recognizes his own poverty, sees the
emptiness of honours and dignities and the things of this world;
he detaches himself from these entanglements. This he must do, as
P. Lallemant says, 'in order to take the step' which will lead him
into the illuminative way. He now begins what is like a new life;
he is like the child that becomes a youth.
It is true that this passive purgation of the senses, even in the
case of those who actually enter upon it, may be more or less
manifest and more or less successfully endured. St. John of the
Cross remarks this, speaking of those who are less generous at
this stage: 'This night of aridities is not usually continuous in
their senses. At times they have these aridities; at others they
have them not. At times they cannot meditate; at times they can...
for not all those who consciously walk in the way of the spirit
are brought by God to contemplation.... And this is why He never
weans the senses of such persons from the breasts of meditations
and reflections, but only for short periods and at certain
seasons.' [147] In other words, they have only an attenuated form
of the illuminative life. St. John of the Cross explains this
later by their lack of generosity: 'Here it behoves us to note why
it is that there are so few that attain to this lofty state. 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.... 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 mortification.... He goes no farther with their
purification... they would fain go farther on the road, yet cannot
suffer the smallest things nor submit themselves to them....'
[148]
Such is the transition, more or less generously made, which leads
to a higher form of life. So far it is easy to see the logical and
vital sequence of the phases through which the soul must pass.
This is no mechanical juxtaposition of successive states, but an
organic development of life.
Proficients or progressives
The mentality of proficients, like that of the preceding, must be
described in function of their knowledge and love of God. With
their self-knowledge there is developed in them a quasi-
experimental knowledge of God. They know Him, no longer merely in
the mirror of the things of sense or of parables, but in the
mirror of the mysteries of salvation, with which they become more
and more familiar and which the Rosary, the school of
contemplation, sets daily before their eyes. The greatness of God
is contemplated now, no longer merely in the mirror of the starry
heavens, in the sea or the mountains, no longer merely in the
parables of the Good Shepherd or the Prodigal Son, but in the
incomparably more perfect mirror of the mysteries of the
Incarnation and the Redemption. [149] To use the terminology of
Dionysius, employed also by St. Thomas, [150] the soul rises in a
spiral movement, from the mystery of the Incarnation or the
Infancy of Jesus, to those of His Passion, His Resurrection, His
Ascension and His Glory; and in these mysteries it contemplates
the radiance of the sovereign Goodness of God, thus admirably
communicating itself to us. In this contemplation, which is more
or less frequent, the proficients receive an abundance of light --
in proportion to their fidelity and generosity -- through the gift
of understanding, which enables them to penetrate more and more
deeply into these mysteries, and to appreciate their beauty, at
once so simple and so sublime.
In the preceding period or stage God had won over their
sensibility; now He thoroughly subjugates their intelligence to
Himself, raising it above the excessive preoccupations and
complications of merely human knowledge. He simplifies their
knowledge by spiritualizing it.
Accordingly, and as a normal consequence, these proficients being
thus enlightened concerning the mysteries of the life of Christ,
love God, not only by avoiding mortal sin and deliberate venial
sin, but by imitating the virtues of our Lord. His humility,
gentleness, patience; and by observing not only those commandments
that are laid upon all, but also the evangelical counsels of
poverty, chastity and obedience, or at any rate by keeping the
spirit of these counsels, and by avoiding imperfections.
As happened in the preceding period, this generosity is rewarded,
but no longer by merely sensible consolations, but by a greater
abundance of light in contemplation and in the work of the
apostolate; by intense desires for the glory of God and the
salvation of souls, and by a greater facility in prayer. Not
infrequently we find in the proficients the prayer of Quiet, in
which the will is momentarily held captive by the love of God.
This period is marked also by a great facility in doing works for
God, such as teaching, directing, organizing, and the rest. This
is to love God, not only with the whole heart, but with the whole
soul, with the whole of one's activities; but not yet with the
whole strength, nor with the whole mind, because God has not yet
achieved complete dominion in that higher region of the soul which
we call the spirit.
And what happens generally at this stage? Something similar to
what happened in the case of the beginners who had been rewarded
with sensible consolations. The proficient begins to take
complacency -- by reason of an unconscious pride -- in this great
facility in prayer, working, teaching, or preaching. He tends to
forget that these are God's gifts, and he rejoices in them with a
proprietary air which ill beseems one who adores in spirit and in
truth. It is true that he is working for God, he is working for
souls; but he has not yet sufficiently forgotten himself. An
unconscious self-seeking and self-importance cause him to
dissipate himself and to lose the sense of the presence of God. He
thinks that his labours are being very fruitful; but it is not
quite certain. He is becoming too sure of himself, he gives
himself too much importance and is perhaps inclined to exaggerate
his own talents, to forget his own imperfection and to be too
greatly aware of the imperfections of others. Purity of intention,
true recollection, perfect straightforwardness, are often lacking;
there is something of a lie in his life. 'The depth of the soul,'
as Tauler puts it, 'does not belong entirely to God.' God is
offered an intention which really is only half given to Him. St.
John of the Cross mentions these defects of proficients as they
are found in pure contemplatives, who, he says, 'believe in vain
visions... and presume that God and the saints are speaking with
them,' [151] being deceived by the ruses of the evil one. Not less
notable are the defects, mentioned, for example, by St. Alphonsus,
which are found in apostolic men entrusted with the care of souls.
These defects in proficients become manifest especially in the
obstacles which they are called upon to meet, or in differences of
opinion which, even at this advanced period of the spiritual life,
may cause vocations to be lost. It then becomes evident that the
presence of God is not sufficiently borne in mind, and that in the
search for God it is the self which is really being sought. Hence
the need of a third purgation; hence the need of that 'strong lye'
of the purgation of the spirit, in order to cleanse the very depth
of the spiritual faculties.
Without this third conversion there is no entrance into the life
of union, which is the adult age, the manhood of the spiritual
life.
This new crisis is described by St. John of the Cross [152] in all
its depth and acuteness, as it occurs in the great contemplatives
who, in point of fact, usually suffer not only for the sake of
their own purification, but for the souls for whom they have
offered themselves. The same trial occurs also in proficients of
the apostolic type, generous souls who have reached a high
perfection, but it is generally less obvious in them since it is
mingled with the sufferings incident to their apostolic labours.
In what does this crisis essentially consist? -- In the soul being
deprived, not only of sensible consolations, but of its
supernatural lights on the mysteries of salvation, of its ardent
desires, of that facility in action, in preaching and in teaching,
in which it had felt a secret pride and complacency, and by reason
of which it had been inclined to set itself above others. This is
a period of extreme aridity not only as regards the senses, but as
regards the spirit, in prayer and the recitation of the office.
Temptations frequently occur during this stage, not precisely
against chastity or patience now, but against the virtues that
reside in the higher part of the soul, against faith, hope and
charity towards one's neighbour, and even against charity towards
God, whom the soul is tempted to regard as cruel for trying souls
in such a crucible of torment. Generally during this period great
difficulties occur in connection with the apostolate. detraction,
failures, checks. It will often happen that the apostle is made to
suffer calumnies and ingratitude, even from those souls to whom he
has done much good, so that he may thus be brought to love them
more exclusively in God and for God's sake. Hence this crisis, or
passive purgation of the spirit, is like a mystical death; it is
the death of the old man, according to the words of St. Paul: 'Our
old mall is crucified with Jesus Christ, that the body of sin may
be destroyed.' [153] It is necessary to 'put off... the old man
who is corrupted according to the desire of error, and be renewed
in the spirit of your mind, putting on the new man who according
to God is created in justice and holiness of truth."[154]
All this is profoundly logical; it is the logical development of
the supernatural life. 'Sometimes,' says St. John of the Cross,
'in the stress of this purgation the soul feels itself wounded and
hurt by strong love. It is a heat that is engendered in the
spirit, when the soul, overcome with sufferings, is grievously
wounded by the divine love. 'The love of God is as a fire that
progressively dries up the wood, penetrates it, sets it alight and
transforms it into itself. [155] The trials of this period are
permitted by God in order to lead proficients to a more lofty
faith, to a firmer hope, and to a purer love; for it is absolutely
necessary that the depth of their soul should belong completely to
God. This is the meaning of the words of Scripture: 'As gold in
the furnace he hath proved them, and as a victim of a holocaust he
hath received them.' [156] 'The just cried and the Lord heard
them; and delivered them out of all their troubles. The Lord is
nigh unto them that are of a contrite heart.... Many are the
afflictions of the just; but out of them all will the Lord deliver
them.' [157]
This crisis, like the preceding, is not without its dangers; it
calls for great courage and vigilance, for a faith sometimes
reaching to heroism, a hope against all hope, transforming itself
into perfect abandonment. For the third time God tills the ground
of the soul, but this time much more deeply, so deeply indeed that
the soul seems overwhelmed by these afflictions of the spirit,
afflictions similar to those often described by the prophets, in
particular by Jeremias in the third chapter of the Lamentations.
He who passes through this crisis, loves God, not only with all
his heart and all his soul, but according to the scale of the
Scriptural phrase, with all his strength; and he now prepares to
love Him 'with all his mind,' to become an 'adorer in spirit and
in truth,' that higher part of the soul which should control the
whole of our activity being now in some sort established in God.
The Perfect.
What is the spiritual state of the perfect after this purgation,
which has been like a third conversion for them? They know God
with a knowledge which is quasi-experimental and almost
continuous; not merely during times of prayer or the divine
office, but in the midst of external occupations, they have a
constant sense of the presence of God. Whereas at the beginning
man had been selfish, thinking constantly of himself and,
unconsciously, directing all things to himself, the perfect soul
thinks constantly of God, of His glory, of the salvation of souls
and, as though instinctively, causes all things to converge upon
that end. The reason of this is that he no longer contemplates God
merely in the mirror of the things of sense, no longer merely in
parables or even in the mirror of the mysteries of the life of
Christ, for this cannot continue throughout the whole day, but he
contemplates the divine goodness in itself, very much in the way
in which we constantly see light diffused about us and
illuminating all things from on high. In the terminology of
Dionysius, employed also by St. Thomas, it is a movement of
contemplation, no longer straight nor spiral, but circular, like
the flight of the eagle which, after rising to a great height,
circles round and round, and hovers to view the horizon.
This simple contemplation removes those imperfections that arise
from natural eagerness, from unconscious self-seeking and from the
lack of habitual recollection.
The perfect know themselves no longer merely in themselves, but in
God, their source and their end, they examine themselves,
pondering what is written of their existence in the book of life,
and they never cease to see the infinite distance that separates
them from their Creator. Hence their humility. This quasi-
experimental contemplation of God proceeds from the gift of
wisdom, and, by reason of its simplicity, it can be almost
continuous; it can persist in the midst of intellectual work,
conversation, external occupations, such continuity being
impossible in the case of a knowledge of God which uses the mirror
of parables or that of the mysteries of Christ.
Finally, whereas the egoist, thinking always of himself, wrongly
loves himself in all things, the perfect, thinking nearly always
of God, loves Him constantly, and loves Him, not merely by
avoiding sin and by imitating the virtues of our Lord, but 'by
adhering to Him, enjoying Him, desiring, as St. Paul said, to be
dissolved and to be with Christ.' [158] It is the pure love of God
and the love of souls in God; it is apostolic zeal, zealous beyond
measure; but humble, patient and gentle. This is to love God, no
longer merely 'with the whole heart, with the whole soul, with the
whole strength,' but continuing up the scale, 'with the whole
mind.' For he that is perfect is no longer merely rising gradually
to this highest region in himself; he is established there; he is
spiritualized and supernaturalized; he has now become truly 'an
adorer in spirit and in truth.' These souls preserve peace almost
constantly amidst even the most distressful and unforeseen
circumstances, and they communicate it to others who are troubled.
This is why St. Augustine says that the beatitude of the
peacemakers corresponds to the gift of wisdom, which, together
with charity, holds dominion over these souls. The great model of
such souls, after the holy soul of Christ, is the Blessed Virgin
Mary.
All this, so it seems to us, shows the legitimacy of the
traditional division of the three periods of the spiritual life,
as understood by a St. Thomas, a St. Catherine of Siena, a Tauler,
and a St. John of the Cross. The transition from one stage to
another is explained by the need of a purgation which in actual
fact is more or less manifest. These are not schemes artificially
constructed and placed mechanically side by side; it is the
description of a vital development in which each stage has its own
raison d'etre. If there is sometimes a misunderstanding of the
division, it is because sufficient account is not taken of the
defects even of generous beginners or of proficients; it is
because the necessity of a second and even a third conversion is
forgotten; it is because it is sometimes overlooked that each of
the purgations necessary may be more or less satisfactorily
undergone, and may thus introduce more or less perfectly into the
illuminative or the unitive way. [159]
Unless due attention is paid to the necessity of these
purifications it is impossible to form a just idea of what the
spiritual condition of proficients and perfect must be. It is of
the necessity of a new conversion that St. Paul was speaking when
he wrote to the Colossians: [160] 'Lie not one to another;
stripping yourselves of the old man with his deeds, and putting on
the new, who is renewed unto knowledge according to the image of
him who created him.... But above all these things have charity,
which is the bond of perfection.'
LAST PAGE
NEXT PAGE
|
