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We have now to describe the detachment and purity of
the three faculties of the soul and for this are
necessary a far greater knowledge and spirituality
than mine, in order to make clear to spiritual
persons how strait is this road which, said Our
Saviour, leads to life; so that, persuaded of this,
they may not marvel at the emptiness and detachment
to which, in this night, we have to abandon the
faculties of the soul.2. To this end must be
carefully noted the words which Our Saviour used, in
the seventh chapter of Saint Matthew, concerning this
road, as follows: Quam angusta porta, et arcta via
est, quae ducit ad vitam, et pauci sunt, qui
inveniunt eam.[243] This signifies: How strait is the
gate and how narrow the way that leadeth unto life,
and few there are that find it! In this passage we
must carefully note the emphasis and insistence which
are contained in that word Quam. For it is as if He
had said: In truth the way is very strait, more so
than you think. And likewise it is to be noted that
He says first that the gate is strait, to make it
clear that, in order for the soul to enter by this
gate, which is Christ, and which comes at the
beginning of the road, the will must first be
straitened and detached in all things sensual and
temporal, and God must be loved above them all; which
belongs to the night of sense, as we have said.
3. He then says that the way is narrow -- that is
to say, the way of perfection -- in order to make it
clear that, to travel upon the way of perfection, the
soul has not only to enter by the strait gate,
emptying itself of things of sense, but has also to
straiten[244] itself, freeing and disencumbering
itself completely in that which pertains to the
spirit.
And thus we can apply what He says of the strait
gate to the sensual part of man; and what He says of
the narrow road we can understand of the spiritual or
the rational part; and, when He says 'Few there are
that find it,' the reason of this must be noted,
which is that there are few who can enter, and desire
to enter, into this complete detachment and emptiness
of spirit. For this path ascending the high mountain
of perfection leads upward, and is narrow, and
therefore requires travellers that have no burden
weighing upon them with respect to lower things,
neither aught that embarrasses them with respect to
higher things: and, as this is a matter wherein we
must seek after and attain to God alone, God alone
must be the object of our search and attainment.
4. Hence it is clearly seen that the soul must not
only be disencumbered from that which belongs to the
creatures, but likewise, as it travels, must be
annihilated and detached from all that belongs to its
spirit. Wherefore Our Lord, instructing us and
leading us into this road, gave, in the eighth
chapter of St. Mark, that wonderful teaching of which
I think it may almost be said that, the more
necessary it is for spiritual persons, the less it is
practised by them. As this teaching is so important
and so much to our purpose, I shall reproduce it here
in full, and expound it according to its genuine,
spiritual sense.
He says, then, thus: Si quis vult me sequi,
deneget semetipsum: et tollat crucem suam, et
sequatur me. Qui enim voluerit animam suam salvam
facere, perdet eam: qui autem perdiderit animam suam
propter me. . . salvam lacier eam.[245] This
signifies: If any man will follow My road, let him
deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me. For
he that will save his soul shall lose it; but he that
loses it for My sake, shall gain it.
5. Oh, that one could show us how to understand,
practise and experience what this counsel is which
our Saviour here gives us concerning
self-denial,[246] so that spiritual persons might see
in how different a way they should conduct themselves
upon this road from that which many of them think
proper! For they believe that any kind of retirement
and reformation of life suffices; and others are
content with practising the virtues and continuing in
prayer and pursuing mortification; but they attain
not to detachment and poverty or selflessness[247] or
spiritual purity (which are all one), which the Lord
here commends to us; for they prefer feeding and
clothing their natural selves with spiritual feelings
and consolations, to stripping themselves of all
things, and denying themselves all things, for God's
sake.
For they think that it suffices to deny themselves
worldly things without annihilating and purifying
themselves of spiritual attachment. Wherefore it
comes to pass that, when there presents itself to
them any of this solid and perfect spirituality,
consisting in the annihilation of all sweetness in
God, in aridity, distaste and trial, which is the
true spiritual cross, and the detachment of the
spiritual poverty of Christ, they flee from it as
from death, and seek only sweetness and delectable
communion with God.
This is not self-denial and detachment of spirit,
but spiritual gluttony. Herein, spiritually, they
become enemies of the Cross of Christ; for true
spirituality seeks for God's sake that which is
distasteful rather than that which is delectable; and
inclines itself rather to suffering than to
consolation; and desires to go without all blessings
for God's sake rather than to possess them; and to
endure aridities and afflictions rather than to enjoy
sweet communications, knowing that this is to follow
Christ and to deny oneself, and that the other is
perchance to seek oneself in God, which is clean
contrary to love.
For to seek oneself in God is to seek the favours
and refreshments of God; but to seek God in oneself
is not only to desire to be without both of these for
God's sake, but to be disposed to choose, for
Christ's sake, all that is most distasteful, whether
in relation to God or to the world; and this is love
of God.
6. Oh, that one could tell us how far Our Lord
desires this self-denial to be carried! It must
certainly be like to death and annihilation,
temporal, natural and spiritual, in all things that
the will esteems, wherein consists all self-denial.
And it is this that Our Lord meant when He said: 'He
that will save his life, the same shall lose it.'
That is to say: He that will possess anything or seek
anything for himself, the same shall lose it; and he
that loses his soul for My sake, the same shall gain
it. That is to say: He who for Christ's sake
renounces all that his will can desire and enjoy, and
chooses that which is most like to the Cross (which
the Lord Himself, through Saint John, describes as
hating his soul[248]), the same shall gain it. And
this His Majesty taught to those two disciples who
went and begged Him for a place on His right hand and
on His left; when, giving no countenance to their
request for such glory, He offered them the chalice
which He had to drink, as a thing more precious and
more secure upon this earth than is fruition.[249]
7. This chalice is death to the natural self, a
death attained through the detachment and
annihilation of that self, in order that the soul may
travel by this narrow path, with respect to all its
connections with sense, as we have said, and
according to the spirit, as we shall now say; that
is, in its understanding and in its enjoyment and in
its feeling. And, as a result, not only has the soul
made its renunciation as regards both sense and
spirit, but it is not hindered, even by that which is
spiritual, in taking the narrow way, on which there
is room only for self-denial (as the Saviour
explains), and the Cross, which is the staff
wherewith one may reach one's goal, and whereby the
road is greatly lightened and made easy.
Wherefore Our Lord said through Saint Matthew: 'My
yoke is easy and My burden is light'; which burden is
the cross. For if a man resolve to submit himself to
carrying this cross -- that is to say, if he resolve
to desire in truth to meet trials and to bear them in
all things for God's sake, he will find in them all
great relief and sweetness wherewith he may travel
upon this road, detached from all things and desiring
nothing. Yet, if he desire to possess anything --
whether it come from God or from any other source --
with any feeling of attachment, he has not stripped
and denied himself in all things; and thus he will be
unable to walk along this narrow path or to climb
upward by it.
8. I would, then, that I could convince spiritual
persons that this road to God consists not in a
multiplicity of meditations nor in ways or methods of
such, nor in consolations, although these things may
in their own way be necessary to beginners; but that
it consists only in the one thing that is needful,
which is the ability to deny oneself truly, according
to that which is without and to that which is within,
giving oneself up to suffering for Christ's sake, and
to total annihilation.
For the soul that practises this suffering and
annihilation will achieve all that those other
exercises can achieve, and that can be found in them,
and even more.
And if a soul be found wanting in this exercise,
which is the sum and root of the virtues, all its
other methods are so much beating about the bush, and
profiting not at all, although its meditations and
communications may be as lofty as those of the
angels.
For progress comes not save through the imitation
of Christ, Who is the Way, the Truth and the Life,
and no man comes to the Father but by Him, even as He
Himself says through Saint John.[250] And elsewhere
He says: 'I am the door; by Me if any man enter he
shall be saved.'[251] Wherefore, as it seems to me,
any spirituality that would fain walk in sweetness
and with ease, and flees from the imitation of
Christ, is worthless.
9. And, as I have said that Christ is the Way, and
that this Way is death to our natural selves, in
things both of sense and of spirit, I will now
explain how we are to die, following the example of
Christ, for He is our example and light.
10. In the first place, it is certain that He died
as to sense, spiritually, in His life, besides dying
naturally, at His death. For, as He said, He had not
in His life where to lay His head, and at His death
this was even truer.
11. In the second place, it is certain that, at
the moment of His death, He was likewise annihilated
in His soul, and was deprived of any relief and
consolation, since His Father left Him in the most
intense aridity, according to the lower part of His
nature. Wherefore He had perforce to cry out, saying:
'My God! My God! 'Why hast Thou forsaken Me?'[252]
This was the greatest desolation, with respect to
sense, that He had suffered in His life.
And thus He wrought herein the greatest work that
He had ever wrought, whether in miracles or in mighty
works, during the whole of His life, either upon
earth or in Heaven, which was the reconciliation and
union of mankind, through grace, with God. And this,
as I say, was at the moment and the time when this
Lord was most completely annihilated in everything.
Annihilated, that is to say, with respect to human
reputation; since, when men saw Him die, they mocked
Him rather than esteemed Him; and also with respect
to nature, since His nature was annihilated when He
died; and further with respect to the spiritual
consolation and protection of the Father, since at
that time He forsook Him, that He might pay the whole
of man's debt and unite him with God, being thus
annihilated and reduced as it were to nothing.
Wherefore David says concerning Him: Ad nihilum
redactus sum, et nescivi.[253] This he said that the
truly spiritual man may understand the mystery of the
gate and of the way of Christ, and so become united
with God, and may know that, the more completely he
is annihilated for God's sake, according to these two
parts, the sensual and the spiritual, the more
completely is he united to God and the greater is the
work which he accomplishes.
And when at last he is reduced to nothing, which
will be the greatest extreme of humility, spiritual
union will be wrought between the soul and God, which
in this life is the greatest and the highest state
attainable. This consists not, then, in refreshment
and in consolations and spiritual feelings, but in a
living death of the Cross, both as to sense and as to
spirit -- that is, both inwardly and outwardly.
12. I will not pursue this subject farther,
although I have no desire to finish speaking of it,
for I see that Christ is known very little by those
who consider themselves His friends: we see them
seeking in Him their own pleasures and consolations
because of their great love for themselves, but not
loving His bitter trials and His death because of
their great love for Him.
I am speaking now of those who consider themselves
His friends; for such as live far away, withdrawn
from Him, men of great learning and influence, and
all others who live yonder, with the world, and are
eager about their ambitions and their prelacies, may
be said not to know Christ; and their end, however
good, will be very bitter. Of such I make no mention
in these lines; but mention will be made of them on
the Day of Judgment, for to them it was fitting to
speak first this word of God,[254] as to those whom
God set up as a target for it,[255] by reason of
their learning and their high position.
13. But let us now address the understanding of
the spiritual man, and particularly that of the man
to whom God has granted the favour of leading him
into the state of contemplation (for, as I have said,
I am now speaking to these in particular), and let us
say how such a man must direct himself toward God in
faith, and purify himself from contrary things,
constraining himself that he may enter upon this
narrow path of obscure contemplation. |