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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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6. Of the Second Coming of our Lord in the Inward Man |
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The second way in which Christ comes inwardly, with a higher
nobleness, more after His likeness, with increased gifts, and with
a greater radiance, is a pouring forth of the riches of His Divine
gifts into the higher powers of the soul, whereby the spirit is
strengthened, enlightened, and enriched in many ways. This
streaming of God into us demands of us a flowing out and a flowing
back, with all these riches, into that same Source from which that
torrent has flowed. And in this torrent God gives to us and shows
to us great wonders; but He asks back from the soul all His gifts,
increased beyond anything that any creature could accomplish. This
exercise and this way is more noble and more like unto God than
the first; and by it the three higher powers of the soul are
adorned.
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7. Of the Third Coming of our Lord |
The third way in which our Lord comes inwardly is by an inward
stirring or touch in the unity of the spirit, wherein are the
higher powers of the soul; wherefrom they flow forth, and to which
they return again, and with which they always remain united in the
bonds of love and through the natural unity of the spirit. In this
coming consists the highest and most interior condition of the
inward life; and by it the unity of the spirit is adorned in many
ways.
Now, in each coming, Christ desires of us a special going out of
ourselves, toward a life that shall accord with the way of His
coming. And therefore He says in ghostly wise within our hearts at
each coming: Go ye out in your lives and in your practices in the
way in which My graces and My gifts shall urge you. For according
to the manner and way in which the Spirit of God urges, and
drives, and draws, and streams into us, and stirs us; in this way
we must go out and progress in our inward practices, if we are to
become perfect. But if we withstand the Spirit of God by a life
that does not accord with it, we lose that inward urge, and then
the virtues will depart from us.
These are the three comings of Christ, in inward exercises. We
will now explain and set forth each coming separately. Attend
therefore with diligence; for he who never has himself felt or
experienced this he shall not easily understand it.
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8. How the First Coming has Four Degrees |
The first coming of Christ in the exercise of desire is, as we
have said, an inward and sensible thrust of the Holy Ghost, urging
and driving us towards all virtues. This coming may be likened to
the splendour and the power of the sun, which, from the moment
when it rises, enlightens and brightens and warms the whole
world.[43] So likewise Christ, the eternal Sun, beams and shines,
dwelling above the summit of the spirit; and enlightens and
enkindles the lowest part of man, namely, the fleshly heart and
the sensible powers. And this happens in a moment of time, shorter
than the twinkling of an eye; for God's work is swift. But that
man in whom this should take place must be inwardly seeing, with
the eyes of the understanding.
In the higher lands, in the middle region of the world, the sun
shines upon the mountains, bringing an early summer there, with
good fruits and strong wine, and filling that land with joy. The
same sun gives its splendour to the lower lands, at the utmost
part of the earth. There the country is colder, and the power of
the heat less; nevertheless, there too it produces many good
fruits, though little wine. The men who dwell in the lower parts
of themselves, in their outward senses, yet with a good intention,
in moral virtues, in outward work, and in the grace of God: they
too produce the good fruits of virtue, in great numbers and in
many ways; but of the wine of inward joy and ghostly consolation
they taste little.
Now the man who wishes to feel within himself the glow of the
Eternal Sun, which is Christ Himself, he should be seeing, and
should dwell on the mountains in the higher lands, by a gathering
together of all his powers, and lifting up his heart towards God,
free and careless of joy and grief, and of all created things.
There Christ, the Sun of righteousness, shines upon the free and
uplifted heart: and these are the mountains that I mean.
Christ, the glorious Sun, the Divine Brightness, by His inward
coming and by the power of His Spirit, enlightens and brightens
and enkindles the free heart and all the powers of the soul. And
this is the first work of the inward coming in the exercise of
desire. Like as the power and the nature of fire enkindles
everything which is offered to the flames, so Christ, by the fiery
ardour of His inward coming, enkindles every ready, free and
uplifted heart; and in this coming He says: Go ye out by exercises
according to the way of this coming.
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43. |
The source of this image seems to be a
well-known passage in Dionysius the Areopagite�
"That brilliant likeness of the Divine Goodness, our great
sun, all-radiant and ever-shining as a distant echo of the
Good, enlightens all capable of receiving light . . . pouring
upon the universe above and beneath the splendour of its rays.
And if anything does not share in them this is not because of
any lack in its distribution of light, but because of the
inaptitude for light of those things which do not unfold
themselves that they may participate in the light." (Divine
Names, cap. 4.)
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