III. THE AIM OF THIS WORK
How shall we deal with the interior life? We shall not take up in a
technical manner many questions about sanctifying grace and the
infused virtues that have been treated at length by theologians. We
assume them here, and we shall revert to them only in the measure
necessary for the understanding of what the spiritual life should be.
Our aim is to invite souls to become more interior and to tend to
union with God. To do so, two very different dangers must be avoided.
Rather frequently the spirit animating scientific research even in
these matters tarries over details to such an extent that the mind is
turned away from the contemplation of divine things. The majority of
interior souls do not need many of the critical studies indispensable
to the theologian. To understand them, they would need a philosophical
initiation which they do not possess and which, in a sense, would
hamper them who in an instant and in a different manner go higher, as
in the case of St. Francis of Assisi. He was astonished to see that in
the course of philosophy given to his religious, time was taken to
prove the existence of God. Today, occasionally exaggerated
specialization in studies produces in many minds a lack of the general
view needed to judge wisely of things, even of those in which they are
especially interested and whose relation with every thing else they no
longer see. The cult of detail ought not to make us lose sight of the
whole. Instead of becoming spiritual, we would then become
materialistic, and under pretext of exact and detailed learning, we
would turn away from the true interior life and from lofty Christian
wisdom.
On the other hand, many books on religious subjects that are
written in a popular style, and many pious books lack a solid
doctrinal foundation. Popularization, because the kind of
simplification imposed upon it is material rather than formal, often
avoids the examination of certain fundamental and difficult problems
from which, nevertheless, light would come, and at times the light of
life.
To avoid these two opposite dangers, we shall follow the way
pointed out by St. Thomas, who was not a popularizer and who is still
the great classic authority on theology. He rose from the learned
complexity of his first works and of the Quaestiones disputatae
to the superior simplicity of the most beautiful articles of the
Summa theologica. He ascended to this height so well that at the
end of his life, absorbed in lofty contemplation, he could not dictate
the end of his Summa because he could no longer descend to the
complexity of the questions and articles that he still wished to
compose.
The cult of detail and that of superficial simplification, each in
its way alienates the soul from Christian contemplation, which rises
above these opposing deviations like a summit toward which all
prayerful souls tend.
IV. THE OBJECT OF ASCETICAL AND MYSTICAL THEOLOGY
One sees from the matter which ascetical and mystical theology
should treat that it is a branch or a part of theology, an application
of theology to the direction of souls. It must, therefore, proceed
under the light of revelation, which alone gives a knowledge of the
nature of the life of grace and of the supernatural union of the soul
with God.
This part of theology is, above all, a development of the treatise
on the love of God and of that on the gifts of the Holy Ghost, to show
how they are applied or to lead souls to divine union.(10)
Similarly, casuistry is, in a less elevated domain, an application of
moral theology to the practical discernment of what is obligatory
under pain of mortal or venial sin. Moral theology ought to treat, not
only of sins to be avoided, but of virtues to be practiced, and of
docility in following the inspirations of the Holy Ghost. From this
point of view, its applications are called ascetical and mystical
theology.
Ascetical theology treats especially of the mortification of vices
or defects and of the practice of the virtues. Mystical theology
treats principally of docility to the Holy Ghost, of the infused
contemplation of the mysteries of faith, of the union with God which
proceeds from it, and also of extraordinary graces, such as visions
and revelations, which sometimes accompany infused contemplation.(11)
We shall examine the question whether ascetical theology is
essentially ordained to mystical theology by asking whether the
infused contemplation of the mysteries of faith and the union with God
that results from it is an essentially extraordinary grace, such as
visions an revelations, or whether in the perfect it is not rather the
eminent but normal exercise of the gifts of the Holy Ghost, which are
in all the just. The answer to this question, which has been discussed
several times in recent years, will form the conclusion of this work.
V. THE METHOD OF ASCETICAL AND MYSTICAL THEOLOGY
We shall limit ourselves here to what is essential in regard to the
method to be followed.(12) We must avoid two contrary deviations that
are easily grasped: one would result from the almost exclusive use of
the descriptive or inductive method, the other from a contrary excess.
The almost exclusive use of the descriptive or inductive method
would lead us to forget that ascetical and mystical theology is a
branch of theology, and we would end by considering it a part of
experimental psychology. We would thus assemble only the material of
mystical theology. By losing the directing light, all would be
impoverished and diminished. Mystical theology must be set forth by
the great principles of theology on the life of grace, on the infused
virtues, and on the seven gifts; in so doing, light is shed on all of
it, and one is face to face with a science and not a collection of
more or less well described phenomena.
If the descriptive method were used almost exclusively, we would be
struck especially by the more or less sensible signs of the mystical
state and not by the basic law of the progress of grace, whose
essential supernaturalness is of too elevated an order to fall under
the grasp of observation. More attention might then be given to
certain extraordinary and, so to speak, exterior graces, such as
visions, revelations, stigmata, than to the normal and elevated
development of sanctifying grace, of the infused virtues, and of the
gifts of the Holy Ghost. By so doing, we might be led to confound with
what is essentially extraordinary that which is only extrinsically so,
that is, what is eminent but normal; to confound intimate union with
God in its elevated forms with the extraordinary and relatively
inferior graces which sometimes accompany it.
Lastly, the exclusive use of the descriptive method might give too
much importance to this easily established fact, that intimate union
with God and the infused contemplation of the mysteries of faith are
relatively rare. This idea might lead us to think that all interior
and generous souls are not called to it, even in a general and remote
manner.(13) This would be to forget the words of our Lord so
frequently quoted by the mystics in this connection: "Many are called,
but few are chosen."
On the other hand, care must be taken to avoid another deviation
that would spring from the almost exclusive use of the deductive
theological method. Some souls that are rather inclined to
over-simplify things would be led to deduce the solution of the most
difficult problems of spirituality by starting from the accepted
doctrine in theology about the infused virtues and the gifts, as it is
set forth by St. Thomas, without sufficiently considering the
admirable descriptions given by St. Teresa, St. John of the Cross, St.
Francis de Sales, and other saints, of the various degrees of the
spiritual life, especially of the mystical union. It is to these facts
that the principles must be applied, or rather it is these facts,
first of all well understood in themselves, that must be illuminated
by the light of principles, especially to discern what is truly
extraordinary in them and what is eminent but normal.
The excessive use of the deductive method in this case would lead
to a confusion radically opposed to the one indicated above. Since,
according to tradition and St. Thomas, the seven gifts of the Holy
Ghost are in every soul in the state of grace, we might thus be
inclined to believe that the mystical state or infused contemplation
is very frequent, and we might confound with them what is only their
prelude, as simplified effective prayer.(14) We would thus be led not
to take sufficiently into account the concomitant phenomena of certain
degrees of the mystical union, such as suspension of the faculties and
ecstasy, and we would fall into the opposite extreme from that of the
partisans of the solely descriptive method.
Practically, as a result of these two excesses two extremes also
are to be avoided in spiritual direction: advising souls to leave the
ascetical way too soon or too late. We will discuss this matter at
length in the course of this work.
Obviously the two methods, the inductive and the deductive, or the
analytic and the synthetic, must be combined.
The concepts and the facts of the spiritual life must be analyzed.
First of all, must be analyzed the concepts of the interior life and
of Christian perfection, of sanctity, which the Gospel gives us, in
order that we may see clearly the end proposed by the Savior Himself
to all interior souls, and see this end in all its elevation without
in any way diminishing it. Then must be analyzed the facts: the
imperfections of beginners, the active and passive purifications, the
various degrees of union, and so on, to distinguish what is essential
in them and what is accessory.
After this work of analysis, we must make a synthesis and point out
what is necessary or very useful and desirable to reach the full
perfection of Christian life, and what, on the other hand, is properly
extraordinary and in no way required for the highest sanctity.(15)
Several of these questions are very difficult, either because of
the elevation of the subject treated, or because of the contingencies
that are met with in the application and that depend on the
temperament of the persons to be directed or on the good pleasure of
God, who, for example, sometimes grants the grace of contemplation to
beginners and withdraws it temporarily from advanced souls. Because of
these multiple difficulties, the study of ascetical and mystical
theology requires a profound knowledge of theology, especially of the
treatises on grace, on the infused virtues, on the gifts of the Holy
Ghost in their relations with the great mysteries of the Trinity, the
Incarnation, the redemption, and the Blessed Eucharist. It requires
also familiarity with the great spiritual writers, especially those
who have been designated by the Church as guides in these matters.
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