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We discussed in the preceding chapter the second conversion
according to the teaching of Father Louis Lallemant, S.J., one of
the best spiritual writers of the seventeenth century. In the
fourteenth century, we find the same teaching under another form in
the writings of St. Catherine of Siena (d. 1380), Tauler (d. 1361 ),
and Blessed Henry Suso (d. 1366), all of whom belong to the family
of St. Dominic.
THE SECOND CONVERSION IN The Dialogue OF ST. CATHERINE OF
SIENA
St. Catherine of Siena discusses the second conversion in chapters
60 and 63 of her Dialogue, in reference to imperfect love of God and
neighbor, and cites as an example the second conversion of Peter
during the Passion. We read in chapter 60: "Some there are who have
become faithful servants, serving Me with fidelity without servile
fear of punishment, but rather with love. This very love, however,
if they serve Me with a view to their own profit, or the delight and
pleasure which they find in Me, is imperfect. Dost thou know what
proves the imperfection of this love? The withdrawal of the
consolations which they found in Me, and the insufficiency and short
duration of their love for their neighbor, which grows weak by
degrees, and ofttimes disappears. Toward Me their love grows weak
when, on occasion, in order to exercise them in virtue and raise
them above their imperfection, I withdraw from their minds My
consolation and allow them to fall into battles and perplexities.
This I do so that, coming to perfect self-knowledge, they
may know that of themselves they are nothing and have no grace,
and, accordingly in time of battle fly to Me as their benefactor,
seeking Me alone, with true humility, for which purpose I treat them
thus, withdrawing from them consolation indeed, but not grace. At
such a time these weak ones of whom I speak relax their energy,
impatiently turning backward, and so sometimes abandon, under color
of virtue, many of their exercises, saying to themselves: This labor
does not profit me. All this they do, because they feel themselves
deprived of mental consolation. Such a soul acts imperfectly, for
she has not yet unwound the bandage of spiritual self-love, for had
she unwound it, she would see that, in truth, everything proceeds
from Me, that no leaf of a tree falls to the ground without My
providence, and that what I give and promise to My creatures, I
give and promise to them for their sanctification, which is the good
and the end for which I created them."
In imperfect or mercenary love of God and neighbor, the soul,
therefore, almost unconsciously seeks itself. It must "tear out the
root of spiritual self-love." As The Dialogue states: "It was with
this imperfect love that St. Peter loved the sweet and good Jesus,
My only-begotten Son, enjoying most pleasantly His sweet
conversation, but, when the time of trouble came, he failed, and so
disgraceful was his fall, that not only could he not bear any pain
him
self, but his terror of the very approach of pain caused him to
fall, and deny the Lord, with the words, 'I have never known
Him.' "
In chapter 63 of The Dialogue, the saint says, in speaking of the passage from mercenary to filial love: "Every perfection and every
virtue proceeds from charity, and charity is nourished by humility,
which results from the knowledge and holy hatred of self, that is,
sensuality. . . . To arrive thereat. . . a man must exercise
himself in the extirpation of his perverse self-will, both
spiritual and temporal, hiding himself in his own house, as did
Peter, who, after
the sin of denying My Son, began to weep. Yet his lamentations
were imperfect, and remained so until after the forty days, that is,
until after the Ascension. But when My Truth returned, to Me in His
humanity, Peter and the others concealed themselves in the
house awaiting the coming of the Holy Spirit, which My Truth had
promised them. They remained barred in from fear, because the soul
always fears until she arrives at true love. But when they had
persevered in fasting and in humble and continual prayer, until they
had received the abundance of the Holy Spirit, they lost their fear,
and followed and preached Christ crucified."
St. Catherine of Siena shows in this passage that the imperfect soul
which loves the Lord with a love that is still mercenary, ought to
follow Peter's example after his denial of Christ. Not infrequently
at this time Providence permits us also to fall into some visible
fault to humiliate us and oblige us to enter into ourselves, as
Peter did, when immediately after his fall, seeing that Jesus looked
at him, he "wept bitterly." (1)
In connection with Peter's second conversion, we should recall that
St. Thomas teaches (2) that even after a serious sin, if a man has a
truly fervent contrition proportionate to the degree of grace lost,
he recovers this degree of grace; he may even receive a higher
degree if he has a still more fervent contrition. He is, therefore,
not obliged to recommence his ascent from the very beginning, but
continues it, taking it up again at the point he had reached when he
fell.
A mountain climber who stumbles halfway up, rises immediately, and
continues the ascent. The same is true in the spiritual order.
Everything leads us to think that by the fervor of his repentance
Peter not only recovered the degree of grace that he had lost, but
was raised to a higher degree of the supernatural life. The Lord
permitted this fall only to cure him of his presumption so that he
might become more humble and thereafter place his confidence, not in
himself, but in God. Thus, the humiliated Peter on his knees
weeping over his sin is greater than the Peter on Thabor, who did
not as yet sufficiently know his frailty.
The second conversion may also take place, though we have no grave
sin to expiate, for example, at a time when we are suffering from
an injustice, or a calumny, which, under divine grace, awakens in us
not sentiments of vengeance, but hunger and thirst for the justice
of God. In such a case, the generous forgiving of a grave injury
sometimes draws down on the soul of the one who pardons, a great
grace, which makes him enter a higher region of the spiritual life.
The soul then receives a new insight into divine things and an
impulse which it did not know before. David received such
a grace when he pardoned Semei who had outraged and cursed him,
while throwing stones at him.(3)
A more profound insight into the life of the soul may originate also
on the occasion of the death of a dear one, or of a disaster, or of
a great rebuff, when anything occurs which is of a nature to reveal
the vanity of earthly things and by contrast the importance of the
one thing necessary, union with God, the prelude of the life of
heaven.
In her Dialogue St. Catherine also speaks often of the necessity of
leaving the imperfect state in which a person serves God more or
less through interest and for his own satisfaction, and in which he
wishes to go to God the Father without passing through Jesus
crucified.(4) To leave this imperfect state, the soul which still
seeks itself must be converted that it may cease to seek itself and
may truly go in search of God by the way of abnegation, which is
that of profound peace.
THE SECOND CONVERSION ACCORDING TO BLESSED
HENRY SUSO AND TAULER
The works of Blessed Henry Suso contain a number of instructions relative to the second conversion. He himself experienced
this conversion after a few years of religious life, during which he
had slipped into some negligences. Particular attention ought to be
given to what he says about the necessity of a more interior and
deep Christian life in religious who give themselves most
exclusively to study, and in others who are chiefly attentive to
exterior observances and austerities. In the divine light he saw
"these two classes of persons circling about the Savior's cross,
without being able to reach Him," (5) because both groups sought
themselves, either in study or in exterior observances, and because
they judged each other without charity. He understood then that he
should remain in complete self-abnegation, ready to accept all
that God
might will, and to accept it with love, at the same time practicing
great fraternal charity. (6)
Tauler, who, as Bossuet says, is "one of the most solid and most
correct of the mystics," (7) speaks of the second conversion
especially in two of his sermons, that for the second Sunday of
Lent, and the one for the Monday before Palm Sunday.(8)
In the sermon for the second Sunday of Lent, Tauler points out those
who need the second conversion; they are those who still more or
less resemble the scribes and Pharisees. We may summarize his
teaching as follows:
The scribes, he says, were wise men who made much of their
learning, whereas the Pharisees, who were strongly attached to
their practices and observances, highly esteemed their own piety.(9)
We recognize in these two classes the two most harmful evil
inclinations that can be found among pious people. . . . Nothing
good comes from either of these dispositions. Nevertheless, rare
are they who are not somewhat retained in one or the other of these
evil inclinations or even in both of them at the same time; but some
are much more held than others.
By the scribes we must understand intellectual men who value
everything according to the standard of their reason or
sensibility. They pass on to their reason what their senses have
furnished them, and thus they come to understand great things. They
glory in this knowledge and speak eloquently, but the depths of
their souls, whence the truth should come, remain empty and
desolate.
The Pharisees, on the other hand, are pious people who have a good
opinion of themselves, think they amount to something, hold firmly
to their observances and their practices, believe there is nothing
beyond these, and aspire to esteem and consideration because of
these practices. They condemn those who do not see things as they do
(even if their lives are in no way seriously reprehensible).
(Tauler certainly does not believe that these last are in the
illuminative
way.)
Let everyone, he adds, guard against these Pharisaical ways in the
depths of his soul, and be watchful that no false sanctity hide
there.
In this connection we should recall what the Gospel tells us about
the prayer of the Pharisee and the publican, a parable which shows
the necessity of a more profound conversion.
What occurs at the beginning of the second conversion? God
begins to pursue the soul, and it likewise seeks God, not, however,
without a struggle against the inclinations of the exterior man and
without anxiety. This state is manifested by a keen desire for God
and for perfection, and also by what St. Paul calls the struggle of
the
spirit against the flesh or the inferior part of man.(10) From this struggle originates anxiety or even a certain anguish; the soul asks
itself if it will reach the end so keenly desired.
Tauler gives a good description of this state, which St. John of
the Cross later on calls the passive purification of the senses, in
which there is a beginning of infused contemplation. In the sermon
for the second Sunday of Lent, the old Dominican master declares:
"From this pursuit of God (and of the soul who seek each other)
keen anguish results. When a man is plunged into this anxiety and
becomes aware of this pursuit of God in his soul, it is then without
doubt that Jesus comes and enters into him. But when one does not
feel this pursuit or experience this anguish, Jesus does not come.
"Of all those who do not let themselves be caught by this pursuit and this anguish, none ever turns out well; they remain what they are, they do not enter into themselves, and consequently they know
nothing of what is taking place in them."
These last words show that in Tauler's opinion this passive
purification is indeed in the normal way of sanctity and not an
essentially extraordinary grace like revelations, visions, and the
stigmata. It is a purification that must be undergone on earth while
meriting, or in purgatory without meriting, in order to reach
perfect purity of soul, without which one cannot enter heaven. If a
man must labor to obtain a doctor's degree in theology or law, he
must also toil to reach true perfection.
Though some people stricken with neurasthenia erroneously believe
they are in this state, it often happens that interior souls who are
truly in this anxiety and who seek light from a confessor, obtain
only this answer: "Do not trouble yourself; those are only
scruples. Remain in peace; the passive purifications that certain
books speak of are very rare and extraordinary." After this answer,
the soul is no more illuminated than before and has the impression
of not having been understood.
What Tauler speaks of in the above passage is truly in the normal
way of sanctity or of the full perfection of Christian life. God
appears here as the Hunter in pursuit of souls for their greatest
good.
What should the soul do that is thus pursued by the Savior? Tauler
answers: "In truth, it should do what the woman of Canaan did: go to
Jesus and cry in a loud voice, that is, with an ardent desire:
'Lord, Son of David, have pity on me!'
"Ah! my children, this divine pursuit, this hunt provokes (in some
souls) an appealing cry of immense force; the supplication of the
spirit carries thousands of leagues and more (that is, even to the
Most High); it is a sigh which comes from a measureless depth. This
desire of the soul reaches far beyond nature; it is the Holy Ghost
Himself who must utter this sigh in us, as St. Paul says: 'The
Spirit Himself asketh for us with unspeakable groanings.'" (11)
These words of Tauler show that in his opinion and, as we shall
see, later on in that of St. John of the Cross, the soul in this
struggle enters on the mystical life through a special inspiration
of the Holy Ghost and a beginning of contemplation, in spite of the
aridity in which it remains. The Holy Ghost, who dwells in all the
just, begins to render His influence manifest.
Tauler points out here that, after this cry of the soul, God treats
it at times as Jesus did the woman of Canaan; He acts as if He did
not hear or were not willing to grant its prayer. This is the time
to insist, as the woman of Canaan did so admirably, under the divine
inspiration which pursued her in the midst of obvious rebuffs.
"Ah! my children," says Tauler, "how greatly then should the desire
in the depths of the soul become more keen and more urgent. . . .
Even if God refused to give bread, even if He disowned one
as His child. . . , one should answer Him as did the Canaanite: 'Yea
Lord; for the whelps also eat of the crumbs that fall from the table
of their masters.'
"Ah! my children," adds Tauler, "if one could succeed in thus
penetrating the depths of the truth (of our consciences) not by
learned commentaries, words, or indeed with the senses, but into the
true depth! Then neither God nor any creature could tread on you,
crush you, bury you so deeply that you would not plunge yourselves
truly much deeper still. Though you should be subjected
to affronts, scorn, and rebuffs, you would remain firm in
perseverance, you would plunge still deeper, animated by a complete
confidence, and you would ever increase your zeal.(12) Ah! yes, my
children, everything depends on this; a man who reached this point,
would be really successful. These roads, and these alone, lead, in
truth, without any intermediary station to God. But to some it seems
impossible to reach this degree of limitless annihilation and to
remain thus in this depth with perseverance, with entire and
veritable assurance, as this poor Canaanite woman did. Consequently
Christ answered her: 'O woman! great is thy faith. Be it done to
thee as thou wilt.' In truth, this is the answer that will be made
to all those who will be found in such dispositions and on this
road."
Tauler relates at this point what happened to a young girl who,
believing herself far from God, nevertheless abandoned herself entirely to His holy will, no matter what it might bring, and gave
herself up wholly for eternity; then, he says, "she was carried
very far above every intermediary and completely drawn into the
divine abyss."
To show the fruits of the second conversion, the old master adds:
"Take the last place, as the Gospel teaches, and you shall be
lifted up. But those who exalt themselves will be humbled. Desire only
what
God has willed from all eternity; accept the place which in His most
amiable will He has decided should be yours.(13)
"My children, it is by a person's complete renunciation of self and
of all that he possesses that he goes to God. One drop of this
renunciation, one rill of it,(14) would better prepare a man and lead
him nearer to God than if he had stripped himself of all his
garments and given them away, than if he had eaten thorns and
stones, supposing that nature could bear it. A short moment lived
in these dispositions would be more useful for us than forty years
following practices of our own choice. . . .
"For long years you go your own little way and you do not advance,
. . . a deplorable condition. Let us, therefore, pray our Lord that
we may plunge ourselves so profoundly in God that we may be found in
Him. Amen." (15)
Such is Tauler's description of the second conversion in which the
soul is far more profoundly "turned toward God", like the soil, for
example, which, on second plowing, is more deeply turned up that it
may become really fruitful.
Tauler treats the same subject in the sermon for the Monday before
Palm Sunday (16) while explaining the text: "If any man thirst, let
him come to Me, and drink. . . . Out of his belly shall flow rivers
of living water." (17) In this sermon he describes (18) the soul's
thirst for God which arises under the inspiration of the Holy Ghost,
at the same time as a sort of disgust for everything created, for
everything in it that is inordinate, untrue, and vain. This lively
desire for God and this distaste for creatures are accompanied by a
struggle against the inordinate inclinations of the sensibility and
impatience. This is in reality the state that St. John of the Cross
later calls the passive purification of the senses. Tauler
describes it with an abundance of metaphors that today seem
excessive. He notes that after this trial there is a period of
repose and enjoyment.(19) Then he describes the second series of
trials by which the unitive way of the perfect begins; (20) these
trials are those which St. John of the Cross calls the passive night
of the spirit.
This teaching, which is approximately the same under varied forms in
the works of St. Catherine of Siena, Blessed Henry Suso, and
Venerable Tauler, shows that to enter the illuminative way of
proficients a person needs what Father Lallemant and several others
have rightly called a second conversion. Then the soul begins to
understand Christ's words to the apostles, who were arguing to find
out who was the first among them: "Amen I say to you, unless you
be converted and become as little children [by simplicity and
consciousness of your weakness], you shall not enter into the
kingdom of heaven." (21) The apostles were already in the state of
grace, but they needed a second conversion to enter the intimacy of
the kingdom, to penetrate deeply into it, that "the depths of the
soul," which Tauler speaks of so frequently, might no longer contain
any
egoism or self-love, but belong wholly to God so that God might
truly reign in it. Until His reign is established in the generous
soul, the Lord pursues it; and, under the divine inspiration, it
will also seek Him by an increasingly pure and strong desire, at the
same time that it ceases to seek itself. Then its eyes will be
opened and it will see that a number of those whom it judged
severely are better than it. This work is the divine work par
excellence, that of the profound purification of the soul; first of
the sensitive part; then of the spiritual part to the end that it
may be established in the intimacy of the divine union, the normal
prelude of the life of heaven.
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