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It is now, I think, becoming clear how faith is dark
night to the soul, and how the soul likewise must be
dark, or in darkness as to its own light so that it
may allow itself to be guided by faith to this high
goal of union. But, in order that the soul may be
able to do this, it will now be well to continue
describing, in somewhat greater detail, this darkness
which it must have, in order that it may enter into
this abyss of faith. And thus in this chapter I shall
speak of it in a general way; and hereafter, with the
Divine favour, I shall continue to describe more
minutely the way in which the soul is to conduct
itself that it may neither stray therein nor impede
this guide.2. I say, then, that the soul, in order
to be effectively guided to this state by faith, must
not only be in darkness with respect to that part
that concerns the creatures and temporal things,
which is the sensual and the lower part (whereof we
have already treated), but that likewise it must be
blinded and darkened according to the part which has
respect to God and to spiritual things, which is the
rational and higher part, whereof we are now
treating.
For, in order that one may attain supernatural
transformation, it is clear that he must be plunged
into darkness and carried far away from all contained
in his nature that is sensual and rational. For the
word supernatural means that which soars above the
natural self; the natural self, therefore, remains
beneath it. For, although this transformation and
union is something that cannot be comprehended by
human ability and sense, the soul must completely and
voluntarily void itself of all that can enter into
it, whether from above or from below -- I mean
according to the affection and will -- so far as this
rests with itself. For who shall prevent God from
doing that which He will in the soul that is
resigned, annihilated and detached? But the soul must
be voided of all such things as can enter its
capacity, so that, however many supernatural
experiences it may have, it will ever remain as it
were detached from them and in darkness.
It must be like to a blind man, leaning upon dark
faith, taking it for guide and light, and leaning
upon none of the things that he understands,
experiences, feels and imagines. For all these are
darkness, which will cause him to stray; and faith is
above all that he understands and experiences and
feels and imagines. And, if he be not blinded as to
this, and remain not in total darkness, he attains
not to that which is greater -- namely, that which is
taught by faith.
3. A blind man, if he be not quite blind, refuses
to be led by a guide; and, since he sees a little, he
thinks it better to go in whatever happens to be the
direction which he can distinguish, because he sees
none better; and thus he can lead astray a guide who
sees more than he, for after all it is for him to say
where he shall go rather than for the guide. In the
same way a soul may lean upon any knowledge of its
own, or any feeling or experience of God, yet,
however great this may be, it is very little and far
different from what God is; and, in going along this
road, a soul is easily led astray, or brought to a
standstill, because it will not remain in faith like
one that is blind, and faith is its true guide.
4. It is this that was meant by Saint Paul when he
said: Accedentem ad Deum oportet credere quod
est.[225] Which signifies: He that would journey
towards union with God must needs believe in His
Being. As though he had said: He that would attain to
being joined in a union with God must not walk by
understanding, neither lean upon experience or
feeling or imagination, but he must believe in His
being, which is not perceptible to the understanding,
neither to the desire nor to the imagination nor to
any other sense, neither can it be known in this life
at all.
Yea, in this life, the highest thing that can be
felt and experienced concerning God is infinitely
remote from God and from the pure possession of Him.
Isaias and Saint Paul say: Nec oculus vidit, nec
auris audivit, nec in cor hominis ascendit, qua
praeparavit Deus iis, qui diligunt illum.[226 Which
signifies: That which God hath prepared for them that
love Him neither eye hath seen, nor ear heard,
neither hath it entered into the heart or thought of
man.
So, however much the soul aspires to be perfectly
united through grace in this life with that to which
it will be united through glory in the next (which,
as Saint Paul here says, eye hath not seen, nor ear
heard, neither hath it entered into the heart of man
in the flesh), it is clear that, in order perfectly
to attain to union in this life through grace and
through love, a soul must be in darkness with respect
to all that can enter through the eye, and to all
that can be received through the ear, and can be
imagined with the fancy, and understood with the
heart, which here signifies the soul.
And thus a soul is greatly impeded from reaching
this high estate of union with God when it clings to
any understanding or feeling or imagination or
appearance or will or manner of its own, or to any
other act or to anything of its own, and cannot
detach and strip itself of all these. For, as we say,
the goal which it seeks lies beyond all this, yea,
beyond even the highest thing that can be known or
experienced; and thus a soul must pass beyond
everything to unknowing.
5. Wherefore, upon this road, to enter upon the
road is to leave the road; or, to express it better,
it is to pass on to the goal and to leave one's own
way,[227] and to enter upon that which has no way,
which is God. For the soul that attains to this state
has no longer any ways or methods, still less is it
attached to ways and methods, or is capable of being
attached to them. I mean ways of understanding, or of
perception, or of feeling.
Nevertheless it has within itself all ways, after
the way of one that possesses nothing, yet possesses
all things.[228] For, if it have courage to pass
beyond its natural limitations, both interiorly and
exteriorly, it enters within the limits of the
supernatural, which has no way, yet in substance has
all ways. Hence for the soul to arrive at these
limits is for it to leave these limits, in each case
going forth out of itself a great way, from this
lowly state to that which is high above all others.
6. Wherefore, passing beyond all that can be known
and understood, both spiritually and naturally, the
soul will desire with all desire to come to that
which in this life cannot be known, neither can enter
into its heart. And, leaving behind all that it
experiences and feels, both temporally and
spiritually, and all that it is able to experience
and feel in this life, it will desire with all desire
to come to that which surpasses all feeling and
experience.
And, in order to be free and void to that end, it
must in no wise lay hold upon that which it receives,
either spiritually or sensually, within itself[229]
(as we shall explain presently, when we treat this in
detail), considering it all to be of much less
account. For the more emphasis the soul lays upon
what it understands, experiences and imagines, and
the more it esteems this, whether it be spiritual or
no, the more it loses of the supreme good, and the
more it is hindered from attaining thereto.
And the less it thinks of what it may have,
however much this be, in comparison with the highest
good, the more it dwells upon that good and esteems
it, and, consequently, the more nearly it approaches
it. And in this wise the soul approaches a great way
towards union, in darkness, by means of faith, which
is likewise dark, and in this wise faith wondrously
illumines it. It is certain that, if the soul should
desire to see, it would be in darkness much more
quickly, with respect to God, than would one who
opens his eyes to look upon the great brightness of
the sun.
7. Wherefore, by blinding itself in its faculties
upon this road, the soul will see the light, even as
the Saviour says in the Gospel, in this wise: In
judicium veni in hunc mundum: ut qui non vident,
videant, et qui vident, caeci fiant.[230] That is: I
am come into this world for judgment; that they which
see not may see, and that they which see may become
blind. This, as it will be supposed, is to be
understood of this spiritual road, where the soul
that is in darkness, and is blinded as regards all
its natural and proper lights, will see
supernaturally; and the soul that would depend upon
any light of its own will become the blinder and will
halt upon the road to union.
8. And, that we may proceed with less confusion, I
think it will be necessary to describe, in the
following chapter, the nature of this that we call
union of the soul with God; for, when this is
understood, that which we shall say hereafter will
become much clearer. And so I think the treatment of
this union comes well at this point, as in its proper
place. For, although the thread of that which we are
expounding is interrupted thereby, this is not done
without a reason, since it serves to illustrate in
this place the very thing that is being described.
The chapter which follows, then, will be a
parenthetical one, placed, as it were, between the
two terms of an enthymeme, since we shall afterwards
have to treat in detail of the three faculties of the
soul, with respect to the three logical virtues, in
relation to this second night. |