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Section 5 - The Life of Faith.
The fruit of these trials. The conduct of the submissive soul.
It results from all that has just been
described that, in the path of pure faith, all that takes place
spiritually, physically, and temporarily, has the aspect of death.
This is not to be wondered at. What else could be expected? It is
natural to this state. Gad has His plans for souls, and under this
disguise He carries them out very successfully. Under the name of
"disguise" I include ill-success, corporal infirmities, and
spiritual weakness. All succeeds, and turns to good in the hands
of God. It is by those things that are a trouble to nature that He
prepares for the accomplishment of His greatest designs. "Omnia
cooperantur in bonum its qui secundum propositum vocati sunt
sancti." "All things work together unto good to such as according
to His purpose are called to be saints." (Rom. viii. 28). He
brings life out of the shadow of death; therefore, when nature is
afraid, faith, which takes everything in a good sense, is full of
courage and confidence. To live by faith is to live by joy,
confidence, and certainty about all that has to be done or
suffered at each moment according to the designs of God. It is in
order to animate and to maintain this life of faith that God
allows the soul to be plunged into and carried away by the rough
waters of so many pains, troubles, difficulties, fatigues and
overthrows; for it requires faith to find God in all these things.
The divine life is given at every moment in a hidden but very sure
manner, under different appearances such as, the death of the
body, the supposed loss of the soul, and the confusion of all
earthly affairs. In all these, faith finds its food and support.
It pierces through all, and clings to the hand of God, the giver
of life. Through all that does not partake of the nature of sin,
the faithful soul should proceed with confidence, taking it all as
a veil, or disguise of God whose immediate presence alarms and at
the same time reassures the faculties of the soul. In fact this
great God who consoles the humble, gives the soul in the midst of
its greatest desolation an interior assurance that it has nothing
to fear, provided it allows Him to act, and abandons itself
entirely to Him. It is grieved because it has lost its
Well-beloved, and yet something assures it that it possesses Him.
It is troubled and disturbed, yet nevertheless has in its depths I
know not what important grounds for attaching itself steadfastly
to God. "Truly," said Jacob, "God is in this place, and I knew it
not" (Gen. xxviii. 16). You seek God and He is everywhere;
everything proclaims Him, everything gives Him to you. He walks by
your side, is around you and within you: there He lives, and yet
you seek Him. You seek your own idea of God while all the time you
possess Him substantially. You seek perfection, and it is in
everything that presents itself to you. Your sufferings, your
actions, your attractions are the species under which God gives
Himself to you, while you are vainly striving after sublime ideas
which He by no means assumes in order to dwell in you.
Martha tried to please Jesus by cooking nice dishes, but Mary was
content to be with Jesus in any way that He wished to give Himself
to her; but when Mary sought Him in the garden according to the
idea she had formed of Him, He eluded her by presenting Himself in
the form of a gardener. The Apostles saw Jesus, but mistook Him
for a phantom. God disguises Himself, therefore, to raise the soul
to the state of pure faith, to teach it to find Him under every
kind of appearance; for, when it has discovered this secret of
God, it is in vain for Him to disguise Himself; it.says, "He is
there, behind the wall, He is looking through the lattice, looking
from the windows" (Cant. ii. 9). Oh! divine Love, hide yourself,
proceed from one trial to another, bind by attractions; blend,
confuse, or break like threads all the ideas and methods of the
soul. May it stray hither and thither for want of light, and be
unable to see or understand in what path it should walk; formerly
it found. You dwelling in Your ordinary guise; in the peaceful
repose of solitude and prayer, or in suffering; even in the
consolations You give to others, in the course of conversation, or
in business; but now after having tried every method known to
please you, it has to stand aside not seeing You in any of these
things as in former times. May the uselessness of its efforts
teach it to seek You henceforth in Yourself, which means to seek
You everywhere, in all things without distinction and without
reflexion; for, oh divine Love! what a mistake it is, not to find
you in all that is good, and in every creature. Why then seek You
in any other way than that by which You desire to give Yourself?
Why, divine Love, seek You under any other species than those
which You have chosen for Your Sacrament? The less there is to be
seen or felt so much the more scope for faith and obedience. Do
You not give fecundity to the root hidden underground, and can You
not, if You so will, make this darkness in which You are pleased
to keep me, fruitful? Live then, little root of my heart, in the
deep, invisible heart of God; and by its power, send forth
branches, leaves, flowers and fruits, which, although invisible to
yourself, are a pure joy and nourishment to others. Without
consulting your own taste, give of your shade, flowers, and fruit
to others. May all that is grafted on you receive that
indeterminate sap which will be known only by the growth and
appearance of those same grafts. Become all to all, but as to
yourself remain abandoned and indifferent. Remain in the dark and
narrow prison of your miserable cocoon, little worm, until the
warmth of grace forms you, and sets you free. Then feed upon
whatever leaves it offers you, and do not regret, in the activity
of abandonment, the peace you have lost. Stop directly the divine
action would have you stop, and be content to lose, in the
alternations of repose and activity, in incomprehensible changes,
all your old formulas, methods and ways, to take upon you those
designed for you by the divine action. Thus you will spin your
silk in secret, doing what you can neither see nor feel. You will
condemn in yourself a secret envy of your companions who are
apparently dead and motionless, because they have not yet arrived
at the point that you have attained; you continue to admire them
although you have surpassed them. May your affliction in your
abandonment continue while you spin a silk in which the princes of
the Church and of the world and all sorts of souls will glory to
be attired.
After that what will become of you, little worm? by what outlet
will you come forth? Oh! marvel of grace by which souls are
moulded in so many different shapes! Who can guess in what
direction grace will guide it? And who could guess either, what
nature does with a silkworm if he had not seen it working? It is
only necessary to provide it with leaves, and nature does the
rest.
Therefore no soul can tell from whence it came, nor whither it is
going; neither from what thought of God the divine wisdom drew it,
not to what end it tends. Nothing is left but an entire passive
abandonment, and to allow this divine Wisdom to act without
interfering by our own reflexions, examples and methods. We must
act when the time to act comes, and cease when it is time to stop;
if necessary letting all be lost, and thus, acting or remaining
passive according to attraction and abandonment we, insensibly,
do, or leave undone without knowing what will be the result; and
after many changes the formed soul receives wings and flies up to
Heaven, leaving a plentiful harvest on earth for other souls to
gather.
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