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In order to conclude this discussion on the memory,
it will be well at this point to give the spiritual
reader an account of the method which he must
observe, and which is of universal application, in
order that he may be united with God according to
this sense. For, although what has been said makes
the subject quite clear, it will nevertheless be more
easily apprehended if we summarize it here.
To this end it must be remembered that, since our
aim is the union of the soul with God in hope,
according to the memory, and since that which is
hoped for is that which is not possessed, and since,
the less we possess of other things, the greater
scope and the greater capacity have we for hoping,
and consequently the greater hope, therefore, the
more things we possess, the less scope and capacity
is there for hoping, and consequently the less hope
have we.
Hence, the more the soul dispossesses the memory
of forms and things which may be recalled by it,
which are not God, the more will it set its memory
upon God, and the emptier will its memory become, so
that it may hope for Him Who shall fill it. What must
be done, then, that the soul may live in the perfect
and pure hope of God is that, whensoever these
distinct images, forms and ideas come to it, it must
not rest in them, but must turn immediately to God,
voiding the memory of them entirely, with loving
affection.
It must neither think of these things nor consider
them beyond the degree which is necessary for the
understanding and performing of its obligations, if
they have any concern with these. And this it must do
without setting any affection or inclination upon
them, so that they may produce no effects in the
soul.
And thus a man must not fail to think and recall
that which he ought to know and do, for, provided he
preserves no affection or attachments, this will do
him no harm. For this matter the lines of the Mount,
which are in the thirteenth chapter of the first
book, will be of profit.
2. But here it must be borne in mind that this
doctrine ours does not agree, nor do we desire that
it should agree, with the doctrine of those pestilent
men, who, inspired by Satanic pride and envy, have
desired to remove from the eyes of the faithful the
holy and necessary use, and the worthy[526]
adoration, of images of God and of the saints.
This teaching of ours is very different from that;
for we say not here, as they do, that images should
not exist, and should not be adored; we simply
explain the difference between images and God. We
exhort men to pass beyond that which is
superficial[527] that they may not be hindered from
attaining to the living truth beneath it, and to make
no more account of the former than suffices for
attainment to the spiritual.
For means are good and necessary to an end; and
images are means which serve to remind us of God and
of the saints. But when we consider and attend to the
means more than is necessary for treating them as
such, they disturb and hinder us as much, in their
own way, as any different thing; the more so, when we
treat of supernatural visions and images, to which I
am specially referring, and with respect to which
arise many deceptions and perils.
For, with respect to the remembrance and adoration
and esteem of images, which the Catholic Church sets
before us, there can be no deception or peril,
because naught is esteemed therein other than that
which is represented; nor does the remembrance of
them fail to profit the soul, since they are not
preserved in the memory save with love for that which
they represent; and, provided the soul pays no more
heed to them than is necessary for this purpose, they
will ever assist it to union with God, allowing the
soul to soar upwards (when God grants it that favour)
from the superficial image[528] to the living God,
forgetting every creature and everything that belongs
to creatures. |