The Gift of Understanding
And therefore God gives him the sixth gift, which is the spirit of
Understanding. This gift we have already likened to a fountain
with three rills, for it establishes our spirit in the unity, it
reveals Truth and it brings forth a wide and general love. This
gift may also be likened to sunshine, for by its shining the sun
fills the air with a simple brightness and lights all forms, and
shows the distinctions of all colours. And thereby it shows forth
its own power; and its heat is common to the whole world, bringing
forth fruits and useful things. So likewise does the first ray of
this gift bring about simplicity within the spirit. And this
simplicity is penetrated by a particular radiance even as the air
of the heavens by the splendour of the sun. For the grace of God,
which is the ground of all gifts, maintains itself essentially
like to a simple light in our potential understanding: and, by
means of this simple light our spirit is made stable and onefold
and enlightened, and fulfilled of grace and Divine gifts: and here
it is like unto God through grace and Divine love. And since the
spirit is now like unto God, and means and loves God alone above
all gifts, it will no longer be satisfied by likeness, nor by a
created brightness; for it has both by nature and above nature a
primal tendency towards the Abysmal Being from which it has flowed
forth. And the Unity of the Divine Being eternally draws back all
likeness into its unity. And here the spirit is enkindled into
fruition, and it melts into God as into its eternal rest; for the
grace of God is to God even as the sunshine is to the sun, and the
grace of God is the means and the way which leads us to God. And
for this reason it shines within us in simplicity, and makes us
deiform, that is, like unto God. And this likeness perpetually
merges itself in God, and dies in God, and becomes one with God,
and remains one, for charity makes us one with God, and causes us
to remain one and to dwell in the One. Nevertheless we keep the
eternal likeness in the light of grace or of glory; thereby we
possess ourselves actively in charity and in the virtues. And we
keep the union with God, above our activity, in the nakedness of
our spirit, in the Divine light, where we possess God in rest,
above all virtues. For charity in the likeness must ever be at
work; and union with God in fruitive love must ever be at rest.
And this is the working of love; for in one "Now" and at the same
time love works and rests in its Beloved. And the one is
strengthened by the other; for the higher the love, the greater
the rest; and the greater the rest, the deeper the love; for the
one lives in the other, and whosoever loves not, rests not, and
whosoever rests not, loves not. And yet, some good men think that
they neither love nor rest in God; and this thought itself comes
from love. Because they desire to love more than they can, it
seems to them that their love falls short. And yet in this work
they taste love and rest; for none save the resigned, emptied and
enlightened man can understand how one may love in labour and rest
in fruition. Yet every lover is one with God in rest, and like
unto God in the works of love; for God in His most high nature, of
which we bear the likeness, dwells in fruition in eternal rest
according to His Essential Unity, but works in eternal activity
according to the Trinity: and the one is the perfection of the
other; for rest abides in the Unity, and work in the Trinity. And
thus they dwell together throughout eternity. And, therefore, if a
man is to taste of God, he must love and if he will love, then he
may taste. But if he lets himself be satisfied with other things,
he shall not be able to taste what God is. And therefore we must
possess ourselves in simplicity, in virtue, and in likeness, and
God above ourselves through love in rest and unity. And this is
the first way in which the man who is common to all is made
stable.
When the air is fulfilled with the brightness of the sun, the
beauty and the wealth of the whole world are revealed, and the
eyes of men become enlightened and rejoice in the manifold
diversity of colours. And so it is, when we are onefold within
ourselves, and our power of understanding is enlightened and the
Spirit of Understanding shines through it. Then we can become
aware of the high attributes which are in God, and which are the
causes of all the works which flow forth from Him. Although all
men may understand the works, and God through His works; yet no
one can truly understand, neither in their appearance nor in their
reality, the attributes of the works of God as they are in their
ground, save by means of this gift. For this teaches us to seek
out and to recognise our own nobleness, and it gives us the power
to discern the virtues and all practices, and the way in which we
should live without error in accordance with eternal Truth: and he
who is enlightened by it can dwell in the spirit, and can, with
enlightened reason, rightly apprehend and understand all things in
heaven and on earth. And therefore such a one walks in heaven, and
beholds and apprehends with all saints the nobility of his
Beloved, His incomprehensible height, His abysmal depth, length
and breadth, wisdom and truth, His bounty and His unspeakable
generosity, and all those loveworthy attributes which are in God
our Lover without number, and without limit in His most high
nature: for all this is He Himself. Then that enlightened man
lowers his eyes, and beholds himself and all other men and all
creatures, and observes how God in His free generosity has created
them in nature and endowed them in many ways, and how, above
nature, it is His pleasure to endow them and to enrich them with
Himself, if they will but seek and desire Him. All such reasoning
observation of the manifold diversities of the Divine riches
rejoices our spirit, if, through Divine love, we have died unto
ourselves in God, and if we live and walk in the spirit, and taste
of the things which are eternal. This gift of Understanding shows
us the unity which we possess in God through the fruitive
immersion of love, and also the likeness to God which we have in
ourselves through charity and the works of virtue. And it gives to
us light and brightness in which we can walk with discernment in
the ways of the spirit, and can seek out and recognise God in
ghostly similitudes, and also ourselves, and all things according
to the mode and the measure of that light and according to the
will of God and the greater nobility of our understanding. This is
the second degree in which the man who is common to all may be
enlightened.
According to the measure in which the air is irradiated by the
brightness of the sun, so too the heat increases and brings all
things to fruitfulness. When our reason and understanding are so
enlightened, that they can recognise and distinguish Divine truth,
then the will, that is, the power of love, grows hotter and
streams forth in abundant loyalty and love towards all men in
common. For this gift, through the knowledge of truth which is
imparted to us in its light, establishes in us a wide-stretching
love toward all in common. Now the most simple are also the most
tranquil, and have the most peace in themselves; and are the most
deeply immersed in God; and are most enlightened in understanding,
and most fruitful in good works, and in outflowing love toward all
in common. And they are hindered least, for they are most like
unto God; for God is simplicity in His Being, clarity in His
understanding, and outflowing and universal love in His works. And
the more we are like unto God in these three things, so much the
more closely are we united with Him. And for this reason we must
remain simple in our ground, and must apprehend all things by
means of enlightened reason, and must flow forth through all
things in universal love. So likewise the sun in the heavens,
though it abides in itself simple and unchanged, sends forth its
light and heat to the whole world in common.
Now understand how we should live with enlightened reason in
universal love. The Father is the Origin of the whole Godhead
according to Essence and according to Personality. We therefore
should bow down in spirit, in humble awe, before the sublimity of
the Father: and thereby we possess humility, the foundation of all
the virtues. We should fervently adore, that is to say, we should
honour and reverence, the mightiness of the Father, because He, in
His might, creates and preserves all things out of nothing. And
thereby we shall be lifted up in ghostly wise. We should offer
praise and thanks and everlasting service to the faithfulness and
love of God, Who has freed us from the fetters of the enemy and
from eternal death: and thereby we shall be made free. We should
present and bewail before the wisdom of God the blindness and
ignorance of human nature; and should crave that all men may
become enlightened, and may attain to the knowledge of truth: thus
God shall be known and honoured by them. We should pray for the
mercy of God upon sinners, that thus they may be converted, and
may grow in virtue: thus God shall be loved by them with a
desirous love. We should give generously to all those who have
need of it of the rich treasures of God, that therewith they may
all be filled, and may flow back towards God; and thus God shall
be possessed by them all. We should offer to the Father, with awe
and reverence, all the service and all the works which Christ,
according to His manhood, fulfilled in love: thus all our prayers
shall be heard. We should also offer to the Father in Christ Jesus
all the fervent devotion of the angels and the saints and the
just: so we shall be united with them all in the glory of Godly We
should also offer up to the Father the whole service of Holy
Church, and the Holy Sacrifice of all the priests, and all that we
may achieve and think, in the name of Christ; that thereby we may
go out to meet God through Christ, and may become like unto Him in
universal love, and may transcend all likeness in simplicity, and
may be united with Him within the Essential Unity. We should ever
abide in oneness with God, and should eternally flow forth with
God and all His saints in universal love, and continually return
with thankfulness and praise, and immerse ourselves in fruitive
love in the Essential Rest. This is the richest life of which I
know: and in it we possess the gift of Understanding.
The Gift of Wisdom
Now understand this well: when we turn within ourselves in
contemplation, the fruitive unity of God is like to a darkness, a
somewhat which is unconditioned and incomprehensible. And the
spirit turns inward through love and through simplicity of
intention, because it is active in all virtues, offering itself up
in fruition above all virtues. In this loving introversion, there
arises the seventh gift, which is the spirit of Savouring
Wisdom;[63] and it saturates the simplicity of our spirit, soul
and body, with wisdom and with ghostly savours. And it is a
ghostly touch or stirring within the unity of our spirit; and it
is an inpouring and a source of all grace, all gifts and all
virtues. And, in this touch of God, each man savours his exercise
and his life according to the power of the touch and the measure
of his love. And this Divine stirring is the inmost mediator
between God and ourselves, between rest and activity, between the
conditioned and the unconditioned, between eternity and time. And
God works this ghostly touching within us first of all, before all
gifts; and yet it is known and tasted by us last of all. For only
when we have lovingly sought God in all our practices even to the
inward deeps of our ground, do we first feel the gushing in of all
the graces and gifts of God; and we feel this touch in the unity
of our highest powers, above reason, but not without reason, for
we understand in truth that we are touched. But if we would know
what this is and whence it comes, then reason and all creaturely
observation fail. For though the air be illuminated by the
sunlight, and the eyes be sharp and sound, if one would follow the
rays which bring the brightness, and look at the disc of the sun,
the eyes would fail in their activity, and would only receive the
lustre of the rays in a passive way. So likewise, the reflection
of the Incomprehensible Light in the unity of our highest power is
so intense that all creaturely activity which works in distinction
must fail. And here our activity must passively endure the
interior working of God, which is the source of all Divine gifts.
For could we receive God Himself into our comprehension, He would
give Himself to us without intermediary; but this is impossible to
us because we are too narrow and too little to comprehend God. And
therefore He pours His gifts into us according to the measure of
our comprehension and the worthiness of our practices. For the
fruitful unity of God ever abides above the unity of our powers
and ever demands of us likeness in love and in virtues. And that
is why we are touched again and again, that we may each time be
renewed and become more like Him in the virtues. And, through
these renewed touches, the spirit falls into hunger and thirst,
and would taste through and through, and pass through and through
the whole abyss in a storm of love, that thereby it may be
satisfied. Hence there comes an eternal, hungry craving, and an
eternal unsatisfied desire. For all loving spirits desire and
strive after God, each according to its nobleness and the measure
in which it has been touched by God; yet God remains eternally
incomprehensible by way of our active desires, and therefore there
abides in us, together with all saints, an eternal hunger, and an
eternal desirous introversion. And in the meeting with God, the
radiance and the heat are so great and so limitless that all
spirits must fail in their activity, and must melt and vanish away
in sensible love in the unity of their spirit. And here they must
passively endure as sheer creatures the working of God. And here
our spirit and Divine grace and all our virtues are one sensible
love without activity; for our spirit has spent itself and has
itself become love. And here the spirit is simple and susceptible
of all gifts and is capable of every virtue. And, in this ground
of sensible love, there dwells the gushing spring, that is, the
inpouring or inward working of God, which at every hour moves us
and urges us and draws us inward and causes us to flow forth into
new works of virtue. Thus I have shown to you the ground and the
condition of all the virtues.
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