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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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33. Showing how these Four Degrees in their Perfection are
Found in Christ |
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If we wish to progress rightly in the four aforesaid degrees of
the inward exercise which adorn a man's bodily powers and the
lower part of his nature, we should mark Christ, Who taught us
these four ways and has gone before us therein. Christ, the bright
Sun, rose in the heavens of the most high Trinity, and in the dawn
of His glorious mother, the Virgin Mary; who was, and is, the dawn
and daybreak of all those graces in which we shall rejoice
eternally.
Now mark this: Christ had, and still has, the first degree; for he
was one and in oneness. In Him were, and are, gathered and united
all the virtues that ever were, and ever shall be, practised;
moreover all the creatures who ever practised, and ever shall
practise, these virtues. Thus He was the Father's Only Begotten
Son, and was united with human nature. And He was inward; for He
brought to earth the fire that inflamed all the saints and all
good men. And He yielded a sensible love and loyalty to His
Father, and to all those who shall enjoy Him in eternity. And His
devotion and His loving and aspiring heart burned and groaned
before His Father because of the miseries of all men. His whole
life, and all His works, from without and from within, and all His
words, were thanksgiving and praise, and glorifying of His Father.
This is the first degree.
Christ, the Sun of Love, sparkled and shone brighter still, and
more ardently; for in Him was, and is, the fulness of all graces
and gifts. And for this reason the heart of Christ and His way of
life, and His conduct, and His service, over-flowed in mercy, in
gentleness, in humility, and in generosity; and He was so gracious
and so lovable that His ways and His person drew all men of
goodwill. He was the unspotted lily amidst the flowers of the
field, wherefrom all the just may suck the honey of eternal
sweetness and eternal consolation. For all the gifts which were
ever bestowed upon the manhood of Christ, Christ thanked and
praised, according to His manhood, His Eternal Father, Who is the
Father of all gifts; and He rested, as regards the highest powers
of His soul, above all gifts, in the most high Unity of God, from
which all gifts flow forth. Thus He possessed the second degree.
Christ the glorious Sun sparkled and shone higher still, and
brighter, and more ardently; for all the days of His life long His
bodily powers and His senses, His heart and His mind, were called
and destined of His Father to that most high glory and beatitude
which He now enjoys, according to His senses and His bodily
powers. And He Himself was both naturally and supernaturally
inclined thereto, according to His affections; nevertheless He was
willing to abide in this exile until the time that His Father had
foreseen and ordained from eternity. Thus He possessed the third
degree.
When the due time had come wherein Christ should reap, and carry
into the Eternal Kingdom, the fruits of all those virtues which
ever had ripened, or ever should ripen, then the Eternal Sun began
to descend; for then Christ humbled Himself, and delivered His
bodily life into the hands of His enemies. And in this distress He
was denied and forsaken of His friends, and from His human nature
there was withdrawn all inward and outward consolation; and there
was laid on it misery and sorrow, buffettings, blasphemies, and
heavy burdens, and it paid the price of all our sins according to
justice. And He bore these things in humble patience, and, whilst
He was thus forsaken, He wrought the greatest work of love. And,
thereby He has bought back and redeemed our eternal heritage. Thus
is He adorned in the lower part of His noble manhood; for in it He
suffered these pains for our sins. And this is why He is called
the Saviour of the world, and why He is glorified, honoured, and
exalted, and set on the right hand of His Father, where He reigns
in mightiness; and all creatures, in heaven, and on earth, and in
hell, bow the knee eternally before His most high Name.
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34. Showing how a Man should Live if he would be
Enlightened |
The man who lives in true obedience and in the moral virtues,
according to the commandments of God, and besides this practices
the inward virtues according to the teaching and stirring of the
Holy Ghost, who is just in deed and in word, who seeks not his
own, neither in time nor in eternity, who can bear with equanimity
and with true patience, darkness and heaviness, and all kinds of
miseries, and thanks God for everything, and offers himself up
with humble resignation: he has received the first coming of
Christ according to the way of inward exercise. And he has gone
out from himself in the inward life, and has adorned with rich
virtues and gifts his quickened heart and the unity of his body
and senses. When such a man has been altogether purified and set
at rest, and is gathered together into unity as regards his lower
powers, he can be inwardly enlightened, if God deems that the time
is fit and he craves it. It may also come to pass, that a man may
be enlightened at the beginning of his conversion, if he yield
himself wholly to the will of God and renounce all selfhood; all
lies in this. Such a man, however, must afterwards pass through
those degrees and ways of the outward and the inward life which
have been shown heretofore; but this would be easier to him than
to another, who mounts from below upwards, for he has more light
than the other man.
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35. Of the Second Coming of Christ, or, the Fountain with
Three Rills |
Now we will speak further of the second manner of the coming of
Christ, in those inward exercises by which a man is adorned,
enlightened, and enriched in the three highest powers of the soul.
This coming we will liken to a living fountain with three
rills.[49]
The fountain-head, from which the rills flow forth, is the fulness
of Divine grace within the unity of our spirit. There grace dwells
essentially; abiding as a brimming fountain, and actively flowing
forth in rills into all the powers of the soul, each according to
its need. These rills are special inflowings or workings of God in
the higher powers, wherein God works by means of grace in many
diverse ways.
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36. The First Rill adorns the Memory[50] |
The first rill of grace, which God causes to flow forth in this
coming, is a pure simplicity, shining in the spirit without
differentiation. This rill takes its rise from the fountain within
the unity of the spirit; and it flows straight downwards and pours
through all the powers of the soul, the lower and the higher; and
raises them above all multiplicity and all busyness and produces
simplicity in a man; and shows and gives him the inward bond of
unity of spirit. Thus he is lifted up as regards his memory, and
is freed from distracting images and from fickleness.
Now in this light, Christ demands a going out in conformity with
this light and with this coming. So the man goes out, and knows
and finds himself, through this simple light which has been poured
into him, to be united and established and penetrated and
confirmed, in the unity of his spirit or mind. Thereby the man is
raised up and set in a new state, and he turns inwards, and fixes
his memory upon the Nudity, above all the distractions of sensible
images, and above multiplicity. Here the man possesses the
essential and supernatural unity of his spirit, as his own
dwelling-place and as his own eternal, personal heritage. He ever
has a natural and a supernatural tendency towards this same unity;
and this same unity through the gifts of God and through
simplicity of intention, shall have an eternal loving tendency
towards that most high Unity, where, in the bond of the Holy
Ghost, the Father and the Son are united with all saints. And thus
the first rill, which demands unity, is satisfied.[51]
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| 49. |
Probably Ruysbroeck had here in mind such a
"fountain" or lavabo as was to be seen in almost any
fourteenth century cloister: a cistern or basin fed by a duct
of running water, and pouring itself out in several streams
into the lower basin or trough which provided washing-places
for the brethren.
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| 50. |
It should be remembered that for the medieval
psychologist the term "memory" included all that we mean by
"mind."
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| 51. |
"The Godhead," says Dionysius, "is celebrated
by religion as One and as Unity, because of the simplicity and
oneness of its supernatural indivisibility. Thereby, as by a
unifying power, we are unified; and, when our various
diversities have been gathered together in a supernatural way,
we are collected into a divine onefoldness and union wherein
we are like unto God." (Divine Names, cap. 1.) |
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