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There is much to be said concerning the purpose of
God, and concerning the manner wherein He gives these
visions in order to raise up the soul from its lowly
estate to His Divine union. All spiritual books deal
with this and in this treatise of ours the method
which we pursue is to explain it; therefore I shall
only say in this chapter as much as is necessary to
answer our question, which was as follows: Since in
these supernatural visions there is so much hindrance
and peril to progress, as we have said, why does God,
Who is most wise and desires to remove
stumbling-blocks and snares from the soul, offer and
communicate them to it?2. In order to answer this,
it is well first of all to set down three fundamental
points. The first is from Saint Paul ad Romanos,
where he says: Quae autem sunt, a Deo ordinatoe sunt.[333]
Which signifies: The works that are done are ordained
of God. The second is from the Holy Spirit in the
Book of Wisdom, where He says: Disponit omnia
suaviter.[334] And this is as though He had said: The
wisdom of God, although it extends from one end to
another -- that is to say, from one extreme to
another -- orders all things with sweetness. The
third is from the theologians, who say that Omnia
movet secundum modum eorum. That is, God moves all
things according to their nature.
3. It is clear, then, from these fundamental
points, that if God is to move the soul and to raise
it up from the extreme depth of its lowliness to the
extreme height of His loftiness, in Divine union with
Him, He must do it with order and sweetness and
according to the nature of the soul itself. Then,
since the order whereby the soul acquires knowledge
is through forms and images of created things, and
the natural way wherein it acquires this knowledge
and wisdom is through the senses, it follows that, if
God is to raise up the soul to supreme knowledge, and
to do so with sweetness, He must begin to work from
the lowest and extreme end of the senses of the soul,
in order that He may gradually lead it, according to
its own nature, to the other extreme of His spiritual
wisdom, which belongs not to sense. Wherefore He
first leads it onward by instructing it through
forms, images and ways of sense, according to its own
method of understanding, now naturally, now
supernaturally, and by means of reasoning, to this
supreme Spirit of God.
4. It is for this reason that God gives the soul
visions and forms, images and other kinds of sensible
and intelligible knowledge of a spiritual nature; not
that God would not give it spiritual wisdom
immediately, and all at once, if the two extremes --
which are human and Divine, sense and spirit -- could
in the ordinary way concur and unite in one single
act, without the previous intervention of many other
preparatory acts which concur among themselves in
order and sweetness, and are a basis and a
preparation one for another, like natural agents; so
that the first acts serve the second, the second the
third, and so onward, in exactly the same way.
And thus God brings man to perfection according to
the way of man's own nature, working from what is
lowest and most exterior up to what is most interior
and highest. First, then, He perfects his bodily
senses, impelling him to make use of good things
which are natural, perfect and exterior, such as
hearing sermons and masses, looking on holy things,
mortifying the palate at meals and chastening the
sense of touch by penance and holy rigour.
And, when these senses are in some degree
prepared, He is wont to perfect them still further,
by bestowing on them certain supernatural favours and
gifts, in order to confirm them the more completely
in that which is good, offering them certain
supernatural communications, such as visions of
saints or holy things, in corporeal shape, the
sweetest perfumes, locutions, and exceeding great
delights of touch, wherewith sense is greatly
continued in virtue and is withdrawn from a desire
for evil things.
And besides this He continues at the same time to
perfect the interior bodily senses, whereof we are
here treating, such as imagination and fancy, and to
habituate them to that which is good, by means of
considerations, meditations, and reflections of a
sacred kind, in all of which He is instructing the
spirit.
And, when these are prepared by this natural
exercise, God is wont to enlighten and spiritualize
them still more by means of certain supernatural
visions, which are those that we are here calling
imaginary; wherein, as we have said, the spirit, at
the same time, profits greatly, for both kinds of
vision help to take away its grossness and gradually
to reform it.
And after this manner God continues to lead the
soul step by step till it reaches that which is the
most interior of all; not that it is always necessary
for Him to observe this order, and to cause the soul
to advance exactly in this way, from the first step
to the last; sometimes He allows the soul to attain
one stage and not another, or leads it from the more
interior to the less, or effects two stages of
progress together. This happens when God sees it to
be meet for the soul, or when He desires to grant it
His favours in this way; nevertheless His ordinary
method is as has been said.
5. It is in this way, then, that God
instructs[335] the soul and makes it more spiritual,
communicating spirituality to it first of all by
means of outward and palpable things, adapted to
sense, on account of the soul's feebleness and
incapacity, so that, by means of the outer husk of
those things which in themselves are good, the spirit
may make[336] particular acts and receive so many
spiritual communications[337] that it may form a
habit as to things spiritual, and may acquire actual
and substantial spirituality, which is completely
removed from every sense.
To this, as we have said, the soul cannot attain
except very gradually, and in its own way -- that is,
by means of sense -- to which it has ever been
attached. And thus, in proportion as the spirit
attains more nearly to converse with God, it becomes
ever more detached and emptied of the ways of sense,
which are those of imaginary meditation and
reflection.
Wherefore, when the soul attains perfectly to
spiritual converse with God, it must of necessity
have been voided of all that relates to God and yet
might come under the head of sense. Even so, the more
closely a thing grows attracted to one extreme, the
farther removed and withdrawn[338] it becomes from
the other; and, when it comes to rest perfectly in
the one, it will also have withdrawn itself perfectly
from the other.
Wherefore there is a commonly quoted spiritual
adage which says: Gustato spiritu, desipit omni caro.
Which signifies: After the taste and sweetness of the
spirit have been experienced, everything carnal is
insipid. That is: No profit or enjoyment is afforded
by all the ways of the flesh, wherein is included all
communication of sense with the spiritual.
And this is clear: for, if it is spirit, it has no
more to do with sense; and, if sense can comprehend
it, it is no longer pure spirit. For, the more can be
known of it by natural apprehension and sense, the
less it has of spirit and of the supernatural, as has
been explained above.
6. The spirit that has become perfect, therefore,
pays no heed to sense, nor does it receive anything
through sense, nor make any great use of it, neither
does it need to do so, in its relations with God, as
it did aforetime when it had not grown spiritually.
It is this that is signified by that passage from
Saint Paul's Epistle to the Corinthians which says:
Cum essem parvulus, loquebar ut parvulus, sapiebam ut
parvulus, cogitabam ut parvulus. Quando autem factus
sum vir, evacuavi quae erant parvuli.[339] This
signifies: When I was a child, I spake as a child, I
knew as a child, I thought as a child; but, when I
became a man, I put away[340] childish things.
We have already explained how the things of sense,
and the knowledge that spirit can derive from them,
are the business of a child. Thus, if the soul should
desire to cling to them for ever, and not to throw
them aside, it would never be aught but a little
child; it would speak ever of God as a child, and
would know of God as a child, and would think of God
as a child; for, clinging to the outer husk of sense,
which pertains to the child, it would never attain to
the substance of the spirit, which pertains to the
perfect man.
And thus the soul must not desire to receive the
said revelations in order to continue in growth, even
though God offer them to it, just as the child must
leave the breast in order to accustom its palate to
strong meat, which is more substantial.
7. You will ask, then, if, when the soul is
immature, it must take these things, and, when it is
grown, must abandon them; even as an infant must take
the breast, in order to nourish itself, until it be
older and can leave it.
I answer that, with respect to meditation and
natural reflection by means of which the soul begins
to seek God, it is true that it must not leave the
breast of sense in order to continue taking in
nourishment until the time and season to leave it
have arrived, and this comes when God brings the soul
into a more spiritual communion, which is
contemplation, concerning which we gave instruction
in the eleventh chapter of this book.[341]
But, when it is a question of imaginary visions,
or other supernatural apprehensions, which can enter
the senses without the co-operation of man's free
will, I say that at no time and season must it
receive them, whether the soul be in the state of
perfection, or whether in a state less perfect -- not
even though they come from God. And this for two
reasons.
The first is that, as we have said, He produces
His effect in the soul, without its being able to
hinder it, although, as often happens, it can and may
hinder visions; and consequently that effect which
was to be produced in the soul is communicated to it
much more substantially, although not after that
manner. For, as we said likewise, the soul cannot
hinder the blessings that God desires to communicate
to it, since it is not in the soul's power to do so,
save when it has some imperfection and attachment;
and there is neither imperfection nor attachment in
renouncing these things with humility and misgiving.
The second reason is that the soul may free itself
from the peril and effort inherent in discerning
between evil visions and good, and in deciding
whether an angel be of light or of darkness. This
effort brings the soul no advantage; it merely wastes
its time, and hinders it, and becomes to it an
occasion of many imperfections and of failure to make
progress. The soul concerns not itself, in such a
case, with what is important, nor frees itself of
trifles in the shape of apprehensions and perceptions
of some particular kind. This has already been said
in the discussion of corporeal visions; and more will
be said on the subject hereafter.
8. Let it be believed, too, that, if Our Lord were
not about to lead the soul in a way befitting its own
nature, as we say here, He would never communicate to
it the abundance of His Spirit through these
aqueducts, which are so narrow -- these forms and
figures and particular perceptions -- by means
whereof He gives the soul enlightenment by crumbs.
For this cause David says: Mittit crystallum suam
sicut buccellas.[342] Which is as much as to say: He
sent His wisdom to the souls as in morsels. It is
greatly to be lamented that, though the soul has
infinite capacity, it should be given its food by
morsels conveyed through the senses, by reason of the
small degree of its spirituality and its
incapacitation by sense.
Saint Paul was also grieved by this lack of
preparation and this incapability of men for
receiving the Spirit, when he wrote to the
Corinthians, saying: 'I, brethren, when I came to
you, could not speak to you as to spiritual persons,
but as to carnal; for ye could not receive it,
neither can ye now.' Tamquam parvulis in Christo lac
potum vobis dedi, non escam.[343] That is: I have
given you milk to drink, as to infants in Christ, and
not solid food to eat.
9. It now remains, then, to be pointed out that
the soul must not allow its eyes to rest upon that
outer husk -- namely, figures and objects set before
it supernaturally. These may be presented to the
exterior senses, as are locutions and words audible
to the ear; or, to the eyes, visions of saints, and
of beauteous radiance; or perfumes to the sense of
smell; or tastes and sweetnesses to the palate; or
other delights to the touch, which are wont to
proceed from the spirit, a thing that very commonly
happens to spiritual persons.
Or the soul may have to avert its eyes from
visions of interior sense, such as imaginary visions,
all of which it must renounce entirely. It must set
its eyes only upon the spiritual good which they
produce, striving to preserve it in its works and to
practise that which is for the due service of God,
paying no heed to those representations nor desiring
any pleasure of sense.
And in this way the soul takes from these things
only that which God intends and wills -- namely, the
spirit of devotion -- for there is no other important
purpose for which He gives them; and it casts aside
that which He would not give if these gifts could be
received in the spirit without it, as we have said --
namely, the exercise and apprehension of the senses. |