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THE ADORNMENT OF THE SPIRITUAL
MARRIAGE (cont) |
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by Blessed John of Rusybroeck |
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THE SECOND BOOK |
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3. Of the Inflow of the Grace of God into our Spirit |
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From this unity, wherein the spirit is united with God without
intermediary, grace and all gifts flow forth: and out of this same
unity, where the spirit rests above itself in God, Christ the
Eternal Truth says: Behold, The Bridegroom cometh, go ye out to
meet Him. Christ, who is the light of Eternal Truth, says: Behold:
for through Him we become seeing; for He is the light of the
Father, and without Him there were no light, neither in heaven nor
on earth. This speaking of Christ within us is nothing else than
an inrush of His light and His grace. This grace pours into us in
the unity of our higher powers and of our spirit; wherefrom,
through the power of the grace received, the higher powers flow
out to become active in all virtues, and whereto, because of the
bond of love, they ever return again.
In this unity lie the power for, and beginning and end of, every
natural and supernatural work of the creature in so far as it is
wrought in a creaturely way, through grace and Divine gifts, and
by the creature's own strength. And therefore God pours His grace
into the unity of the higher powers, that therewith man may always
fulfil the virtues, through the power and the richness and the
thrust of grace. For God gives us grace, therewith to work; and
above all graces He gives Himself, for fruition and for rest. The
unity of our spirit is our dwelling-place, in the peace of God and
in the riches of charity; and there all the manifold virtues are
gathered together, and live in the simplicity of the spirit.
Now the grace of God, pouring forth from God, is an inward thrust
and urge of the Holy Ghost, driving forth our spirit from within
and exciting it towards all virtues. This grace flows from within,
and not from without; for God is more inward to us than we are to
ourselves, and His inward thrust or working within us, be it
natural or supernatural, is nearer to us and more intimate to us,
than our own working is. And therefore God works in us from within
outwards; but all creatures work from without inwards. And thus it
is that grace, and all the gifts of God, and the Voice of God,
come from within, in the unity of our spirit; and not from
without, into the imagination, by means of sensible images.
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4. Showing how we should found our Inward Life on a Freedom
from Images |
Now Christ says in ghostly wise in the man who is turned within:
Behold. Three things, as I have said, make a man seeing in his
inward exercise. The first is a shining forth of the grace of God.
The grace of God in a soul is like a candle in a lantern or in a
glass vessel; for it enlightens, and brightens, and shines
through, the vessel, that is, the righteous man. And it manifests
itself to the man who has it within him, if he be observant of
himself. And it manifests itself through him, to other men, in
virtues and in good example. This flash of divine grace inwardly
stirs and moves a man with swiftness, and this swift movement is
the first thing which makes us see.
Of this swift movement of God there springs from the side of
man the second thing, which is a gathering together of all inward
and outward powers in the unity of the spirit, in the bonds of
love.
The third point is the freedom which allows the man to turn
inwards, without hindrance from sensible images, as often as he
wills and thinks upon his God. This means that a man must be
indifferent to gladness and grief, profit and loss, rising and
falling, to strange cares, to delight and to dread, and never be
attached to any creature.
These three things make a man seeing in his inward exercise. If
you have these three, you have the foundation and the beginning of
the inward practice and the inward life.[42]
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5. Of a Three-fold Coming of our Lord in the Inward Man |
Even though the eye be clear and the sight keen, if there were no
loveworthy and desirable object, clearness of sight would neither
please nor profit a man. And this is why Christ shows to the
enlightened eyes of the understanding what they shall see, to wit,
the inward coming of Christ their Bridegroom.Three ways of this special inward coming of God are found in those
men who exercise themselves with devotion in the inward life; and
each of these three comings raises a man to a higher degree and to
a more inward exercise.
The first coming of Christ in inward
working drives and urges a man in his inward feeling; it draws him
with all his powers upwards to heaven, and it calls him to unite
himself with God. This driving and drawing we feel in the heart,
and in the unity of all the bodily powers, and especially in the
desirous power. For this coming stirs, and works in, the lower
part of man; for this must be wholly purged and adorned, and
inflamed and drawn inwards. This inward urge of God gives and
takes, makes rich and poor, brings weal and woe upon a man; it
causes hope and despair; it burns and it freezes. But no tongue
can tell of those gifts and works and contraries that here come to
pass.
This coming with its working is parted into four degrees, each one
higher than the other, as we will show afterwards. And with it the
lower part of man is adorned in the inward life.
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| 42. |
The three points here described�the
enlightenment or impulse of grace, concentration of mind, and
the deliberate expulsion of distracting thoughts and
images�are summed up in the exercise which ascetic writers
call Recollection, and which prepares consciousness for the
contemplative state. |
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