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I expect that for a long time the reader has been
wishing to ask whether it be necessary, in order to
attain to this high estate of perfection, to undergo
first of all total mortification in all the desires,
great and small, or if it will suffice to mortify
some of them and to leave others, those at least
which seem of little moment. For it appears to be a
severe and most difficult thing for the soul to be
able to attain to such purity and detachment that it
has no will and affection for anything.2. To this
I reply: first, that it is true that all the desires
are not equally hurtful, nor do they all equally
embarrass the soul. I am speaking of those that are
voluntary, for the natural desires hinder the soul
little, if at all, from attaining to union, when they
are not consented to nor pass beyond the first
movements (I mean,[177] all those wherein the
rational will has had no part, whether at first or
afterward); and to take away these -- that is, to
mortify them wholly in this life -- is impossible.
And these hinder not the soul in such a way as to
prevent its attainment to Divine union, even though
they be not, as I say, wholly mortified; for the
natural man may well have them, and yet the soul may
be quite free from them according to the rational
spirit.
For it will sometimes come to pass that the soul
will be in the full[178] union of the prayer of quiet
in the will at the very time when these desires are
dwelling in the sensual part of the soul, and yet the
higher part, which is in prayer, will have nothing to
do with them.
But all the other voluntary desires, whether they
be of mortal sin, which are the gravest, or of venial
sin, which are less grave, or whether they be only of
imperfections, which are the least grave of all, must
be driven away every one, and the soul must be free
from them all, howsoever slight they be, if it is to
come to this complete union; and the reason is that
the state of this Divine union consists in the soul's
total transformation, according to the will, in the
will of God, so that, there may be naught in the soul
that is contrary to the will of God, but that, in all
and through all, its movement may be that of the will
of God alone.
3. It is for this reason that we say of this state
that it is the making of two wills into one --
namely, into the will of God, which will of God is
likewise the will of the soul. For if this soul
desired any imperfection that God wills not, there
would not be made one will of God, since the soul
would have a will for that which God has not.
It is clear, then, that for the soul to come to
unite itself perfectly with God through love and
will, it must first be free from all desire of the
will, howsoever slight. That is, that it must not
intentionally and knowingly consent with the will to
imperfections, and it must have power and liberty to
be able not so to consent intentionally. I say
knowingly, because, unintentionally and unknowingly,
or without having the power to do otherwise, it may
well fall into imperfections and venial sins, and
into the natural desires whereof we have spoken; for
of such sins as these which are not voluntary and
surreptitious it is written that the just man shall
fall seven times in the day and shall rise up
again.[179]
But of the voluntary desires, which, though they
be for very small things, are, as I have said,
intentional venial sins, any one that is not
conquered suffices to impede union.[180] I mean, if
this habit be not mortified; for sometimes certain
acts of different desires have not as much power when
the habits are mortified. Still, the soul will attain
to the stage of not having even these, for they
likewise proceed from a habit of imperfection. But
some habits of voluntary imperfections, which are
never completely conquered, prevent not only the
attainment of Divine union, but also progress in
perfection.
4. These habitual imperfections are, for example,
a common custom of much speaking, or some slight
attachment which we never quite wish to conquer --
such as that to a person, a garment, a book, a cell,
a particular kind of food, tittle-tattle, fancies for
tasting, knowing or hearing certain things, and
suchlike.
Any one of these imperfections, if the soul has
become attached and habituated to it, is of as great
harm to its growth and progress in virtue as though
it were to fall daily into many other imperfections
and usual venial sins which proceed not from a
habitual indulgence in any habitual and harmful
attachment, and will not hinder it so much as when it
has attachment to anything.
For as long as it has this there is no possibility
that it will make progress in perfection, even though
the imperfection be extremely slight. For it comes to
the same thing whether a bird be held by a slender
cord or by a stout one; since, even if it be slender,
the bird will be well held as though it were stout,
for so long as it breaks it not and flies not away.
It is true that the slender one is the easier to
break; still, easy though it be, the bird will not
fly away if it be not broken.
And thus the soul that has attachment to anything,
however much virtue it possess, will not attain to
the liberty of Divine union. For the desire and the
attachment of the soul have that power which the
sucking-fish[181] is said to have when it clings to a
ship; for, though but a very small fish, if it
succeed in clinging to the ship, it makes it
incapable of reaching the port, or of sailing on at
all.
It is sad to see certain souls in this plight;
like rich vessels, they are laden with wealth and
good works and spiritual exercises, and with the
virtues and the favours that God grants them; and
yet, because they have not the resolution to break
with some whim or attachment or affection (which all
come to the same thing), they never make progress or
reach the port of perfection, though they would need
to do no more than make one good flight and thus to
snap that cord of desire right off, or to rid
themselves of that sucking-fish of desire which
clings to them.
5. It is greatly to be lamented that, when God has
granted them strength to break other and stouter
cords[182] -- namely, affections for sins and
vanities -- they should fail to attain to such
blessing because they have not shaken off some
childish thing which God had bidden them conquer for
love of Him, and which is nothing more than a thread
or a hair.[183]
And, what is worse, not only do they make no
progress, but because of this attachment they fall
back, lose that which they have gained, and retrace
that part of the road along which they have travelled
at the cost of so much time and labour; for it is
well known that, on this road, not to go forward is
to turn back, and not to be gaining is to be losing.
This Our Lord desired to teach us when He said:
'He that is not with Me is against Me; and he that
gathereth not with Me scattereth.'[184] He that takes
not the trouble to repair the vessel, however slight
be the crack in it, is likely to spill all the liquid
that is within it. The Preacher taught us this
clearly when he said: He that contemneth small things
shall fall by little and little.[185] For, as he
himself says, a great fire cometh from a single
spark.[186]
And thus one imperfection is sufficient to lead to
another; and these lead to yet more; wherefore you
will hardly ever see a soul that is negligent in
conquering one desire, and that has not many more
arising from the same weakness and imperfection that
this desire causes.
In this way they are continually falling; we have
seen many persons to whom God has been granting the
favour of leading them a long way, into a state of
great detachment and liberty, yet who, merely through
beginning to indulge some slight attachment, under
the pretext of doing good, or in the guise of
conversation and friendship, often lose their
spirituality and desire for God and holy solitude,
fall from the joy and wholehearted devotion which
they had in their spiritual exercises, and cease not
until they have lost everything; and this because
they broke not with that beginning of sensual desire
and pleasure and kept not themselves in solitude for
God.
6. Upon this road we must ever journey in order to
attain our goal; which means that we must ever be
mortifying our desires and not indulging them; and if
they are not all completely mortified we shall not
completely attain. For even as a log of wood may fail
to be transformed in the fire because a single degree
of heat is wanting to it, even so the soul will not
be transformed in God if it have but one
imperfection, although it be something less than
voluntary desire; for, as we shall say hereafter
concerning the night of faith, the soul has only one
will, and that will, if it be embarrassed by aught
and set upon by aught, is not free, solitary, and
pure, as is necessary for Divine transformation.
7. Of this that has been said we have a figure in
the Book of the Judges, where it is related that the
angel came to the children of Israel and said to them
that, because they had not destroyed that forward
people, but had made a league with some of them, they
would therefore be left among them as enemies, that
they might be to them an occasion of stumbling and
perdition.[187] And just so does God deal with
certain souls: though He has taken them out of the
world, and slain the giants, their sins, and
destroyed the multitude of their enemies, which are
the occasions of sin that they encountered in the
world, solely that they may enter this Promised Land
of Divine union with greater liberty, yet they
harbour friendship and make alliance with the
insignificant peoples[188] -- that is, with
imperfections -- and mortify them not completely;
therefore Our Lord is angry, and allows them to fall
into their desires and go from bad to worse.
8. In the Book of Josue, again, we have a figure
of what has just been said -- where we read that God
commanded Josue, at the time that he had to enter
into possession of the Promised Land, to destroy all
things that were in the city of Jericho, in such wise
as to leave therein nothing alive, man or woman,
young or old, and to slay all the beasts, and to take
naught, neither to covet aught, of all the
spoils.[189]
This He said that we may understand how, if a man
is to enter this Divine union, all that lives in his
soul must die, both little and much, small and great,
and that the soul must be without desire for all
this, and detached from it, even as though it existed
not for the soul, neither the soul for it.
This Saint Paul teaches us clearly in his epistle
ad Corinthios, saying: 'This I say to you, brethren,
that the time is short; it remains, and it behoves
you, that they that have wives should be as if they
had none; and they that weep for the things of this
world, as though they wept not; and they that
rejoice, as if they rejoiced not; and they that buy,
as though they possessed not; and they that use this
world, as if they used it not.'[190]
This the Apostle says to us in order to teach us
how complete must be the detachment of our soul from
all things if it is to journey to God. |