 |
|
THE ADORNMENT OF THE SPIRITUAL
MARRIAGE (cont) |
|
|
|
by Blessed John of Rusybroeck |
 |
|
THE SECOND BOOK |
|
53. Of an Eternal Hunger for God |
|
Here there begins an eternal hunger, which shall never more be
satisfied; it is an inward craving and hankering of the loving
power and the created spirit after an untreated Good. And since
the spirit longs for fruition, and is invited and urged thereto by
God, it must always desire its fulfilment. Behold, here there
begins an eternal craving and continual yearning in eternal
insatiableness. All such are the poorest of all men living; for
they are avid and greedy, and their hunger is insatiable. Whatever
they eat or drink, they shall never be satisfied, for this hunger
is eternal. For a created vessel cannot contain an uncreated Good:
and hence there is here an eternal, hungry craving without
satisfaction, and God poured forth above all and yet staying it
not. Here are great dishes of food and drink, of which no one
knows save he who tastes them: but full satisfaction in fruition
is the dish which is lacking there, and therefore this hunger is
ever renewed. Yet, in the touch, rivers of honey, full of all
delights, flow forth; for the spirit tastes these riches in all
the ways which it can conceive and apprehend; but all this is in a
creaturely way and below God, and hence there remains an eternal
hunger and impatience. Though God gave to such a man all the gifts
which are possessed by all the saints, and everything that He is
able to give, but withheld Himself, the gaping desire of the
spirit would remain hungry and unsatisfied. The inward stirring
and touching of God makes us hungry and yearning; for the Spirit
of God hunts our spirit: and the more it touches it, the greater
our hunger and our craving. And this is the life of love in its
highest working, above reason and above understanding; for reason
can here neither give nor take away from love, for our love is
touched by the Divine love. And as I understand it, here there can
never more be separation from God. God's touch within us,
forasmuch as we feel it, and our own loving craving, these are
both created and creaturely; and therefore they may grow and
increase as long as we live.
|
|
54. Of a Loving Strife between the Spirit of God
and our Spirit |
In this storm of love two spirits strive together: the spirit of
God and our own spirit. God, through the Holy Ghost, inclines
Himself towards us; and, thereby, we are touched in love. And our
spirit, by God's working and by the power of love, presses and
inclines itself into God: and, thereby, God is touched. From these
two contacts there arises the strife of love, at the very deeps of
this meeting; and in that most inward and ardent encounter, each
spirit is deeply wounded by love. These two spirits, that is our
own spirit and the Spirit of God, sparkle and shine one into the
other, and each shows to the other its face. This makes each of
the spirits yearn for the other in love. Each demands of the other
all that it is; and each offers to the other all that it is and
invites it to all that it is. This makes the lovers melt into each
other. God's touch and His gifts, our loving craving and our
giving back: these fulfil love. This flux and reflux causes the
fountain of love to brim over: and thus the touch of God and our
loving craving become one simple love. Here man is possessed by
love, so that he must forget himself and God, and knows and can do
nothing but love. Thereby the spirit is burned up in the fire of
love, and enters so deeply into the touch of God, that it is
overcome in all its cravings, and turned to nought in all its
works, and empties itself; above all surrender becoming very love.
And it possesses, above all virtues, the inmost part of its
created being, where every creaturely work begins and ends. Such
is love in itself, foundation and origin of all virtues.
|
|
55. Of the Fruitful Works of the Spirit, the which
are Eternal |
Now our spirit and this love are living and fruitful in virtues;
and for this reason the powers can no longer remain idle in the
unity of the spirit. For the incomprehensible brightness of God
and His boundless love brood above the spirit, and touch the
loving power; and the spirit goes forth once more into its works,
but with a more sublime and inward striving than ever before. And
the more noble and inward it is, the more quickly it is spent and
brought to nought in love, and goes forth once more into fresh
works. And this is heavenly love. For ever does the craving spirit
yearn to eat and to swallow God; but itself is swallowed up in the
touch of God, and fails in all its works. For the highest powers
are made one in the unity of the spirit. Here are grace and love
in their essence, above all works; for here is the source of
charity and every virtue. Here there is an eternal outflow into
charity and the virtues, and an eternal return with inward hunger
for the taste of God, and an eternal dwelling within in pure love.
And all this is in a creaturely way and below God; it is the most
inward exercise which one can perform in the created light, in
heaven and on earth; and above it there is nothing but the
God-seeing life in the Divine light and in the Godlike way. In
this exercise one cannot go astray, nor can one be deceived; and
it begins in grace, and shall for ever last in glory.
|
|
56. Showing the way in which we shall meet God in
a Ghostly Manner both with and without Means[55] |
Now I have shown you how the free and uplifted man becomes,
through the grace of God, seeing in his inward practices. And we
see that this is the first point which Christ demands and desires
of us where He says: Behold. As to the second and third points,
wherein He says: The Bridegroom cometh, and: Go ye out, I have
shown you the three ways of the inward coming of Christ; and
further that the first coming has four degrees, and how we are to
go out with practices answering to each way in which God inwardly
enkindles, teaches, and moves us. Now we must consider the fourth
point, which is the last. This is the meeting with Christ our
Bridegroom. For all our inward and ghostly vision, in grace or in
glory, and all our going out in the virtues, in whatsoever
practices this be done, it is all for the sake of a meeting and a
union with Christ our Bridegroom: for He is our eternal rest and
the end and wage of all our labour.
You know that every meeting is a coming together of two persons,
who come from different places, which are separated from, and
opposite to, each other. Now Christ comes from above as a Lord and
generous Giver, who can do all things. And we come from below as
the poor servants, who can do nothing of ourselves, but have need
of everything. The coming of Christ to us is from within outwards,
and we go towards Him from without inwards; and this is why a
ghostly meeting must here take place. And this coming and this
meeting of ourselves and Christ takes place in two ways, to wit,
with means and without means.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| 55. |
"Middel en sonder middel": i.e. mediated,
through gifts, forms, symbols and conceptual images; and
unmediated, being given as a direct intuitive experience to
the soul in the unity of the spirit. |
|
