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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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49. Showing how God possesses and moves the Soul
both in a Natural and a Supernatural way |
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Now mark well: I will show you an image of this. God has created
the highest heaven, a pure and simple Radiance, which enrings and
encloses all the heavens and all bodily and material things that
God has ever created; for it is an outward dwelling-place and a
kingdom of God and His saints, full of glory and eternal joy. Now
since this heaven is an unmingled Radiance, there is here neither
time, nor space, nor movement, nor any change; for it is immovable
and unchangeable above all things. The sphere which is nearest to
this glowing heaven is called the First Movement. For here all
movement arises from the highest heaven, by the Power of God. From
this movement the firmament and all planets derive their courses.
And, through it, all creatures live and grow, each according to
its kind[54]. Now understand this well: so likewise the essence of
the soul is a ghostly kingdom of God, full of Divine radiance
transcending all our powers, except they be in that simplified
state of which I will not speak now. Behold, in regard to the
essence of the soul, wherein God reigns, the unity of our spirit
is like to the First Movement; for, in this unity, the spirit is
moved from above by the power of God, both naturally and
supernaturally. For we have nothing of our own, neither in nature,
nor above nature. And this stirring of God, when it is
supernatural, is the first and principle cause of all virtues. And
through this stirring of God, there are given to some men the
seven gifts of the Holy Ghost, like to the seven planets, which
illuminate and make fruitful the whole life of man. This is the
way in which God possesses the essential unity of our spirit as
His kingdom; and in which He works and flows forth with His gifts
into our potential unity and into all our powers.
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50. Showing how a Man should be adorned if he is
to receive the most Inward Exercise |
Now consider diligently how we can acquire and possess the most
inward exercise of our spirit in the created light. The man who is
well adorned with the moral virtues of the outward life, and has
risen into nobility and divine peace by inward practices; he
possesses the unity of the spirit, enlightened by supernatural
wisdom, flowing forth in generous love toward heaven and earth and
lifting itself up by its reverence and its merits, and flowing
back into that very ground, the most high Unity of God, from which
all things proceed. For each creature, according to whether it has
received more or less from God, has more or less of ascending love
and inward tendency towards its origin; for God and all His gifts
invite us into Him, and through charity and the virtues and
resemblance, we desire to enter into Him.
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51. Of the Third Coming of Christ |
Through this loving inclination of God, and His inward working in
the unity of our spirit, and further through our glowing love and
the pressing of all our powers together into the very unity in
which God dwells, there arises the third coming of Christ in
inward working. And this is an inward touch or stirring of Christ
in His Divine brightness, in the inmost part of our spirit. The
second coming, of which we have spoken, we have likened to a
fountain, pouring forth in three rills. But this coming we will
liken to the duct which feeds the fountain. For there is no rill
without a fountain; and no fountain without a living duct. So
likewise the grace of God flows forth like rills into the higher
powers, and impels and enkindles a man in all virtue. And this
grace springs up within the unity of our spirit like a fountain,
and falls back again into that same unity whence it arises; even
as a living and gushing spring which comes forth from the living
ground of the Divine Richness, where neither faithfulness nor
grace can ever fail. And this is the touch which I mean. And the
creature passively endures this touch. For here there is a union
of the higher powers within the unity of the spirit, above the
multiplicity of all the virtues, and here no one works save God
alone, in untrammelled goodness; which is the cause of all our
virtues and of all blessedness. In the unity of the spirit, into
which this duct gushes forth, one is above activity and above
reason, though not without reason. For the enlightened reason, and
especially the power of love, feels this touch; and reason cannot
understand, nor can it comprehend, the way or the means of this
touch, how or what it is, for it is a working of God, the
upspringing and the inrushing of all graces and gifts, and the
last intermediary between God and the creature. And above this
touch, in the still being of the spirit, there broods an
incomprehensible Brightness. And that is the most high Trinity
whence this touch proceeds. There God lives and reigns in the
spirit, and the spirit in God.
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52. Showing how the Spirit goes out through the
Divine Stirring |
Now, through this touch, Christ says inwardly within the spirit:
Go ye out with practices in conformity with this touch. For this
deep touch draws and invites our spirit to the most inward
practices which a creature is able to fulfil in a creaturely way
in the created light. Here the spirit raises itself, through the
power of love, above all works, into the unity where this
life-giving spring or touch gushes forth. And this touch invites
the understanding to know God in His brightness, and it draws and
invites the power of love to enjoy God without intermediary. And
this the loving spirit desires to do, both in a natural and a
supernatural way, above all other things. By means of the
enlightened reason the spirit lifts itself up in inward
observation, and it beholds and observes the most inward part of
itself, where this touch lives. Here reason and every created
light fail and can go no further. For the Supernal Brightness
brooding over all, which gives rise to this touch, blinds in its
coming every created sight; for it is abysmal. And all
understanding in the created light is here like the eyes of a bat
in the light of the sun. Yet the spirit is continually invited and
urged anew by God and by itself to sound and to know that which is
stirring these deeps, and what God is, and what this touch is. And
the enlightened reason ever asks anew, whence this comes, and ever
seeks to explore further, that it may follow back this stream of
honey to its source. But in this it is, on the first day, as wise
as it shall ever be. And this is why reason and all observation
say: "I know not what it is," for the Supernal Brightness brooding
over all, strikes back all understanding and blinds it whenever
they meet.
So God abides in His brightness above all spirits who are in
heaven and on earth. And those who have pierced through their
ground by means of the virtues and inward practices, to their
source, that is, to the door of eternal life, may feel this touch.
There the Brightness of God shines so mightily that reason and all
understanding fail and can go no further, but must be overcome and
give way before the incomprehensible Brightness of God. But when
the spirit feels this in its ground, then, though its reason and
understanding fail before the Divine Brightness, and must remain
outside the door, the power of love desires to go forward; for it
too, like the understanding, has been invited and urged. And it is
blind and desires fruition; and fruition abides more in tasting
and feeling than in understanding. Therefore would love go
forward, whilst understanding stays outside.
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| 54. |
Here again Ruysbroeck and Dante, both
depending upon scholastic conceptions of the Universe, are in
close agreement. Ruysbroeck's "heaven of unmingled radiance"
is the Empyrean "ch' � pura luce" (Par. xxx. 39): from this
the Primum Mobile, or first revolving heaven, takes and
distributes the power by which all creation is moved.
"E questo cielo non ha altro dove
che la mente divina, in che s'accende
l'amor che il volge e la virt� ch' ei piove."
(Par. xxvii. 109.) |
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