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The painful passive purification just described is followed by a
resurrection of the soul and a new life. The apostles experienced this
change when, after being deprived of the presence of Christ's humanity
on Ascension Day, they were on Pentecost transformed, enlightened,
strengthened, and confirmed in grace by the Holy Ghost that they might
preach the Gospel to the ends of the known world and seal their
preaching with their blood. We shall point out here the principal
signs of the age of the perfect so far as it is distinguished from the
age of beginners and that of proficients. We shall indicate
particularly what characterizes the knowledge of God and of self in
the perfect and also their love of charity.
QUASI-EXPERIMENTAL AND ALMOST CONTINUAL KNOWLEDGE
OF GOD After the passive purification of the spirit, which is like a
third conversion and transformation, the perfect know God in a
quasiexperimental manner that is not transitory, but almost
continual. Not only during Mass, the Divine Office, or prayer, but in
the midst of external occupations, they remain in the presence of God
and preserve actual union with Him. The matter will be easily
understood by our considering the egoist's
contrary state of soul. The egoist thinks always of himself and,
without realizing it, refers everything to himself. He talks
continually with himself about his inordinate desires, sorrows, or
superficial joys; his intimate conversation with himself is endless,
but it is vain, sterile, and unproductive for all. The perfect man, on
the contrary, instead of thinking always of himself, thinks
continually of God, His glory, and the salvation of souls; he
instinctively makes everything converge toward the object of his
thoughts. His intimate conversation is no longer with himself, but
with God, and the words of the Gospel frequently recur to his mind to
enlighten from on high the smallest pleasurable or painful facts of
daily life. His soul sings the glory of God, and from it radiate
spiritual light and fervor, which are perpetually bestowed on him from
above. The reason for this state is that the perfect man, unlike the
beginner, no longer contemplates God only in the mirror of sensible
things or of the Gospel parables, about which it is impossible to
think continually. Neither does he, like the proficient, contemplate
God only in the mirror of the mysteries of the life of Christ, a
prayer that cannot last all day long; but, in the penumbra of faith,
he contemplates the divine goodness itself, a little as we see the
diffused light that always surrounds us and illumines everything from
above. According to the terms used by Dionysius the Mystic and
preserved by St. Thomas,(1) this is the movement of circular
contemplation, superior to the straight and the oblique movements. The
straight movement, like the flight of the lark, rises from a sensible
fact recalled in a parable to a divine perfection, from the sight of
the prodigal son to infinite mercy. The oblique movement rises, for
example, from the mysteries of the childhood of Christ to those of His
passion, of His glory, and finally to the infinite love of God for us.
The circular movement is similar to the flight of the eagle, which,
after soaring aloft, delights in describing the same circle several
times, then hovers seemingly motionless in the light of the sun,
scrutinizing the depths of the horizon. Here it is a question of a
knowledge of the radiating goodness of God. The soul sees now in a
quasi-experimental manner that everything God has done in the order of
nature and that of grace is intended to manifest His goodness, and
that if He permits evil, like a dissonance, it is for a higher good,
which is glimpsed at times and which will appear on the last day.
This contemplation, by reason of its superior simplicity, may
be
continual and, far from hindering us from beholding the sequence of
events, lets us see them from above, somewhat as God sees them as
a man on a mountain sees what is happening on the plain below. It is
like the prelude or the aurora of the vision of the fatherland,
although the soul is still in the obscurity of faith.
This very simple supernatural view even on earth was continual in
Mary, to a lesser degree in St. Joseph. It also enabled the apostles
after Pentecost, to see in the divine light what they were to do for
the preaching of the Gospel and the constitution of the first
churches.
This all-embracing spiritual gaze is to be found in all the saints; it
does not exclude significant details, but admirably perceives their
profound meaning. At the same time it removes the imperfections
springing from natural haste, unconscious self-seeking, and the lack
of habitual recollection. As a consequence the perfect know themselves, no longer only in
themselves but in God, their beginning and end. In Him they see their
indigence, the infinite distance separating them from the Creator;
they feel themselves preserved in being by His sovereignly free love.
They ceaselessly experience to what a degree they need His grace for
the least salutary act; they do not become discouraged over their
sins, but draw a truer humility from them. They make their examination
of conscience by considering what is written of their existence in the
book of life. They sincerely consider themselves useless servants,
who of themselves can do nothing, but whom the Lord deigns to use for
the accomplishment of great things, those that prepare the life of
eternity. If they see their neighbor's sins, they think there is no
sin committed by another which they themselves would not be capable of
committing had they the same heredity and were they placed in the same
circumstances, faced with the same temptations. If they see the great
virtues of other souls, they rejoice in them for the sake of the Lord
and of souls, remembering that in the mystical body of Christ the
growth of one member redounds to the profit of all the others.
This infused contemplation proceeds from a living faith illumined by
the gift of wisdom, which, under the special inspiration of the Holy
Ghost, shows that nothing good happens unless God wills it, nothing
evil unless God permits it for a higher good. This eminent view may be
almost continual by reason of its simplicity and universality,
because the events of daily life fall under its scope, like
lessons about the things of God and like the application of the
Gospel to each one's life. It is the continuation of the Gospel which is
being written in souls until the end of time. Then the Christian
who has attained to this state has such knowledge
of the divine perfections and of the virtues demanded of the soul,
that he has passed beyond not only the confused concept but also the
distinct concept of the theologian, to the experimental concept, rich
in all the experience of life, which becomes concrete, enlightening
him from above for the good of souls. Thus he attains to the
experiential concept of infinite goodness, as well as to that of
perfect simplicity and true humility, which inclines him to love to be
nothing in order that God may be all.
LOVING GOD WITH ONE'S WHOLE MIND The perfect man attains in
consequence to that profound intimacy with
the Lord toward which charity or the divine friendship tends. Such
intimacy is truly reciprocal benevolence together with this convivere,
this life shared with another, which is a prolonged spiritual
communion. As the egoist, who is always thinking of himself, loves himself badly
in every respect, the perfect man, who is almost always thinking of
God, loves Him continually, no longer only by fleeing from sin, or by
imitating the virtues of our Lord, but "by adhering to Him, by
enjoying Him; and, as St. Paul says, he 'desires to be dissolved and
to be with Christ.' " (2)
This adherence to God is a simple, direct act, which transforms a
man's fundamental will and is at the basis of discursive and
reflective acts. This adherence to God loved above all, not only as
another self but more than self, contains the solution of the problem
of the pure love of God harmonized with a legitimate love of self, for
indeed the perfect man loves himself in God while loving God more
than himself, and he desires heaven less for his personal happiness
than that he may eternally glorify the divine goodness, the source of
every created good. He tends more toward God Himself than toward the
joy that will come to him from God.(3) This is pure love
of God and of souls in God; it is apostolic zeal more ardent than
ever, but humble, patient, and meek. Here the soul grasps the profound
meaning of the gradation contained
in the statement of the precept of love according to Deuteronomy (6:
5) and St. Luke (10: 1. 7 ): "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with
thy whole heart and with thy whole soul and with all thy strength and
with all thy mind." The beginner already loves God with his whole
heart, occasionally receiving sensible consolations in prayer; next
he loves God with his whole soul without consolation, placing all his
activities at His service; later the advanced Christian loves God with
all his strength, particularly in the trials of the night of the
spirit; finally, on emerging from these trials, he loves the Lord with
all his mind. The perfect man no longer rises only at rare intervals
to this higher region of the soul; he is established there; he is
spiritualized and supernaturalized; he has become "an adorer in spirit
and in truth." Consequently such souls almost always keep their peace even in the
midst of the most painful and unforeseen circumstances, and they
communicate it frequently to the most troubled. This is what causes
St. Augustine to say that the beatitude of the peacemakers corresponds
to the gift of wisdom, which, with charity, definitively predominates
in the perfect. Their eminent model, after the holy soul of Christ, is
the Blessed Virgin Mary. Therefore it is evident that the spiritual age of the perfect is
characterized by almost uninterrupted intimate conversation with God,
loved purely above all, together with the ardent desire of making Him
known and loved.
THE INDWELLING OF THE BLESSED TRINITY IN THE PURIFIED SOUL
Consideration of what characterizes the purified soul throws light on
the nature of the indwelling of the Blessed Trinity in the perfect
soul. In heaven the three divine Persons dwell in the beatified soul
as in a temple where they are clearly known and loved. The Blessed
Trinity is seen openly in the innermost depths of the beatified soul,
which It preserves in existence and in consummated and inamissible
grace. Each of the blessed is thus like a living tabernacle, like a
consecrated host, endowed with supernatural knowledge and love.
The normal prelude to this life of heaven is realized on earth in the
perfect soul that has reached the transforming union, which we shall
describe farther on, following St. John of the Cross. Here we wish
merely to point out that this close union is not essentially
extraordinary, although very rare; but that it is the result of the
mystery of the indwelling of the Blessed Trinity in every just soul(4)
The life of grace, which is the seed of glory, is essentially the same
as the life of heaven. And since in heaven the Blessed Trinity is
present in the souls of the blessed, where It is seen without any
veil, It must already dwell in the just soul here on earth in the
obscurity of faith, and according as the soul is more purified, it
has a proportionately better experimental knowledge of this divine
presence. As the soul is present to itself and knows itself
experimentally as the principle of its acts, so it is given to it to
know God as the principle of supernatural acts which it could not
produce without His special inspiration. And the purer the soul is,
the more it distinguishes in itself what
comes from itself with the general help of God and what can come only
from the inspiration of the Holy Ghost. Christ declares: "If anyone
love Me, he will keep My word. And My Father will love him, and We
will come to him and will make Our abode with him." (5)
"But the Paraclete, the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in My
name, He will teach you all things, and bring all things to your mind,
whatsoever I shall have said to you." (6) St. John also says to his
disciples: "His unction teacheth you of all things." (7) And St. Paul
writes to the Romans: "For whosoever are led by the Spirit of God,
they are the sons of God. For you have not received the spirit of
bondage again in fear; but you have received the spirit of adoption of
sons, whereby we cry: Abba (Father). For the Spirit Himself giveth
testimony to our spirit that we are the sons of God." (8) Commenting on
these words, St. Thomas says that the Holy Ghost gives us this
testimony by the filial affection He inspires in us for Him. He thus
makes Himself felt at times as the soul of our soul and the life of
our life.
It is especially through the gift of wisdom that we have the
quasiexperimental knowledge of this divine presence. As St. Thomas
explains,(9) this gift makes us, in fact, judge of divine things by a
certain connaturalness with these things, by a sort of supernatural
sympathy based on charity, and by the inspiration of the Holy Ghost
who makes use of this sympathy, which He Himself has aroused to make
Himself felt by us. We thus taste the mysteries of salvation and the
presence of God in us a little as the disciples of Emmaus did when
they said: "Was not our heart burning within us, whilst He spoke in
the way?" (10) What the disciples experienced was a quasi-experimental
knowledge, superior to reasoning, analogous to that which the soul has
of itself as the principle of its acts. God, the Author of grace and
salvation, is closer to us than we are to ourselves, and He inspires
in us the most profound acts to which we could not of ourselves move
ourselves. In this way He makes Himself felt by us as the principle
of our interior life.(11) The term "quasi-experimental"
is applied to this knowledge for two
reasons: (I) because it does not attain God in an absolutely
immediate manner, as happens in the beatific vision, but in the act
of filial love which He produces in us; (2) because we cannot discern
with absolute certitude these supernatural acts of love from the
natural impulses of the heart that resemble them. Hence without a
special revelation or an equivalent favor we cannot have absolute
certainty of being in the state of grace. The indwelling of the
Blessed Trinity is permanent as long as habitual
union with God lasts, from the fact of the state of grace; it is thus
that it lasts even during sleep. But this habitual union is
manifestly ordered to the actual union we have just spoken of, and
even to the closest, to the transforming union, the prelude of that of
heaven. Consequently it is evident that in the purified soul the supernatural
image of God appears more and more.(12) By its nature the soul is
already the image of God, since it is a spiritual substance, capable
of intellectual knowledge and love. By habitual grace, the principle
of the theological virtues, the soul is capable of supernatural knowledge
and love of God. The more habitual grace and charity grow,
the more they separate us from what is inferior and unite us to God.
Finally, in heaven, consummated grace will enable us to see God
immediately as He sees Himself and to love Him as He loves Himself.
Then the supernatural image of God in us will be completed; inamissible
charity will render us like the Holy Ghost, personal Love; the
beatific vision will liken us to the Word, who, being the splendor of
the Father, will make us like to Him. We can thus judge what should be
even here on earth that perfect union, which is the proximate
disposition to receive the beatific vision immediately after
death without having to pass through purgatory. It is the secret of the
lives of the saints.(13)
THE SIGNS OF THE INDWELLING OF THE BLESSED TRINITY IN THE PURIFIED
SOUL
The signs of this indwelling are set forth at length by St. Thomas in
the Contra Gentes,(14) and more briefly in the Summa theologica
(15)
where he asks whether a man can know if he is in the state of grace.
Without having absolute certitude that he has grace, he has signs
which enable him, for example, to approach the Holy Table without fear
of making a sacrilegious Communion. The principal signs of the state
of grace, in ascending gradation,
are the following. The first sign is the testimony of a good conscience, in the sense
that he is not conscious of any mortal sin. This is the fundamental
sign, presupposed by the following signs which confirm it.
A second sign is joy in hearing the word of God preached, not
only for the sake of hearing it, but to put it into practice. This may
be observed in several countries where there is preserved, together
with a simple life, a great Christian faith which leads the faithful
to listen willingly to their pastor when he explains the great truths
of the Gospel. A third sign, confirming the preceding ones, is the relish of divine
wisdom, which leads a man to read the Gospel privately, to seek in it
the spirit under the letter, to nourish his soul with it, even when it
deals with the mystery of the cross and with the cross he must bear
every day. A fourth sign is the inclination leading the soul to converse
intimately with God, and faithfully to resume this conversation when
it has been interrupted. We cannot repeat too often that every man
carries on an intimate conversation with himself, which, at times, is
not good. True interior life begins, as we have often pointed out,
when this intimate conversation is no longer only with self, but with
God. St. Thomas says: "Friendship inclines a man to wish to converse
with his friend. The conversation of man with God is made through the
contemplation of God, according to these words of St. Paul: 'Our
conversation is in heaven' (Phil. 3: 20). And as the Holy Ghost gives
us the love of God, He also inclines us to contemplate Him. That is
why the Apostle also says: 'But we all beholding the glory of the Lord
with open face, are transformed into the same image from glory to
glory, as by the Spirit of the Lord'" (II Cor. 3: 18).(16)
This is one of St. Thomas' texts which most clearly shows that in his
opinion the infused contemplation of the mysteries of faith is not
something extraordinary, but something eminent in the normal way of
sanctity. The holy doctor says in the preceding chapter (17) that this intimate
conversation with God is like the revelation of the most secret
thoughts, in the sense that nothing in us is hidden from the Lord and
that He Himself recalls to us the portion of the Gospel that should
illumine the duty of every moment. There, says St. Thomas, we have an
effect of friendship, "for it in a way unites two hearts in one, and
what we reveal to a true friend seems not to have been said outside of
ourselves." (18) A fifth sign is to rejoice in God, fully consenting to His will
even in adversity. Sometimes in the midst of dejection there is given
us a pure and lofty joy which dissipates all sadness. This is a great
sign of the Lord's visit. Moreover, Jesus, in promising the Holy
Ghost, called Him the Paraclete, or Comforter. And normally we
rejoice so much the more in the Lord as we more perfectly fulfill
His precepts, for by so doing we form increasingly one sole heart with
Him. A sixth sign is found in the liberty of the children of God. On this
subject, St. Thomas writes: "The children of God are led by the Holy
Ghost, not like slaves, but like free creatures. . . . The Holy Ghost,
in fact, makes us act by inclining our free will to will, for He gives
us to love God and inclines us to act for love of Him and not through
fear in a servile manner. That is why St. Paul tells us: 'You have not
received the spirit of bondage again in fear; but you have received
the spirit of adoption of sons, whereby we cry: Abba (Father). For the
Spirit Himself giveth testimony to our spirit, that we are the sons of
God.' (19) The Apostle also says: 'Where the Spirit of the Lord is,
there is liberty' (II Cor. 3: 17, deliverance from the slavery of
sin, and 'If by the Spirit you mortify the deeds [and affections] of
the flesh, you shall live' (Rom. 8: 13)'" (20) This is truly the
deliverance or the holy liberty of the children of God, who reign with
Him over inordinate desires, the spirit of the world, and the spirit
of evil. Lastly, a seventh sign of the indwelling of the Blessed Trinity in the
soul, according to St. Thomas,(21) is that the person speaks of God out
of the abundance of his heart. In this sense is realized what the holy
doctor says elsewhere: "Preaching should spring from the plenitude of
the contemplation of the mysteries of faith." (22) Thus, from Pentecost
on, St. Peter and the apostles preached the mystery of the redemption;
so too, St. Stephen, the first martyr, preached before being stoned;
and likewise St. Dominic, who knew how to speak only with God or of
God.
Thus the Holy Ghost appears increasingly as a source of ever new graces,
an unexhausted and inexhaustible source, "the source of
living water springing up into life eternal," the source of light and
love. He is, as the saints say, our consolation in the sorrows of exile. A
great hope is left to us in the present world crisis, for the hand of
the Lord is not shortened. The numerous saints recently canonized
evidence the fact that God is always rich in mercy. These saints
who are His great servants, furnish us with magnificent, and often
imitable, examples of faith, hope, and love. Proof of this statement
is found in the lives of St. Teresa of the Child Jesus, St. Gemma
Galgani, St. John Bosco, St. Joseph Cottolengo, Blessed Anthony Mary
Claret, St. Catherine Laboure, St. Louise de Marillac, St. Conrad of
Parzham, the humble Capuchin lay brother in whom are so admirably
fulfilled our Savior's words: "I confess to Thee, O Father, Lord of
heaven and earth, because Thou hast hid these things from the wise and
prudent, and hast revealed them to little ones" (Matt. 11:25).
In this spirit interior souls should consecrate themselves to the Holy
Ghost in order to place themselves more profoundly under His direction
and impulsion, and not allow so many of His inspirations to pass
unperceived. Good Christians consecrate themselves to the Blessed Virgin that she
may lead them to our Lord, and to the Sacred Heart that Jesus may lead
them to His Father. Particularly during the Pentecostal season, they
should consecrate themselves to the Holy Ghost in order better to
discern and follow His inspirations. With this intention they should
repeat the beautiful prayer:
O Lux beatissima,
Reple cordis intima
Tuorum fidelium. Sine tuo numine,
Nihil est in homine,
Nihil est innoxium. Da virtutis meritum,
Da salutis exitum,
Da perenne gaudium.
Amen.
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