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1. Now then, after having explained why the soul calls this contemplation a
secret ladder, we have still to comment on the third word of this verse,
"disguised," and tell why it also says that it departed by this "secret ladder,
disguised."
2. It should be known for the sake of understanding this verse that people
disguise themselves by simply dissembling their identity under a garb and
appearance different from their own. And they do this either to show exteriorly
by means of that garment their will and aspiration toward gaining the favor and
good pleasure of their beloved, or also to hide from rivals and better execute
their plan. They then choose the garments and livery that most represent and
signify their heart's affections and with which they can better dissemble
themselves from their enemies.
3. The soul, then, touched with love for Christ, her Spouse, and aspiring to win
his favor and friendship, departs in the disguise that more vividly represents
the affections of her spirit.1 Her advance in this disguise makes her more
secure against her adversaries: the devil, the world, and the flesh. The livery
she thus wears is of three principal colors: white, green, and red. These three
colors stand for the three theological virtues: faith, hope, and charity, by
which she not only gains the favor and good will of her Beloved but also
advances very safely, fortified against her three enemies.
4. Faith is an inner tunic of such pure whiteness that it blinds the sight of
every intellect. When the soul is clothed in faith the devil is ignorant of how
to hinder her, neither is he successful in his efforts, for faith gives her
strong protection - more than do all the other virtues - against the devil, who
is the mightiest and most astute enemy. As a result, St. Peter found no greater
safeguard than faith in freeing himself from the devil, when he advised: Cui
resistite fortes in fide [1 Pt. 5:9].2 To obtain the favor of the Beloved and
union with him, the soul can have no better inner tunic than this white garment
of faith, the foundation and beginning of the other garments or virtues. Without
faith, as the Apostle says, it is impossible to please God [Heb. 11:6]; and with
faith it is impossible not to please him, since he himself declares through the
prophet Hosea, Desponsabo te mihi in fide [Hos. 2:20], which is similar to
saying: If you desire, soul, union and espousal with me, you must come
interiorly clothed in faith.
5. The soul wore her white tunic of faith when she departed on this dark night
and walked, as we said, in the midst of interior darknesses and straits, without
the comfort of any intellectual light - neither from above, because heaven
seemed closed and God hidden, nor from below, because she derived no
satisfaction from her spiritual teachers, and suffered with constancy and
perseverance, passing through these trials without growing discouraged or
failing the Beloved. The Beloved so proves the faith of his bride in
tribulations that she can afterward truthfully declare what David says: Because
of the words of your lips I have kept hard ways [Ps. 17:4].
6. Over this white tunic of faith the soul puts on a second colored garment, a
green coat of mail. Green, as we said, signifies the virtue of hope, by which
one in the first place is defended and freed from the second enemy, the world.
This greenness of living hope in God imparts such courage and valor and so
elevates the soul to the things of eternal life that in comparison with these
heavenly hopes all earthly things seem, as they truly are, dry, withered, dead,
and worthless. The soul is thus divested of all worldly garments and does not
set her heart on anything there is, or will be, in the world; she lives clothed
only in the hope of eternal life. Having her heart so lifted up above the things
of the world, she is not only unable to touch or take hold of worldly things,
but she cannot even see them.
7. By this green livery and disguise, the soul is therefore protected against
its second enemy, the world. St. Paul calls hope the helmet of salvation [1 Thes.
5:8]. A helmet is a piece of armor that protects the entire head and covers it
so there is no opening except for a visor through which to see. Hope has this
characteristic: It covers all the senses of a person's head so they do not
become absorbed in any worldly thing, nor is there any way some arrow from the
world might wound them. Hope allows the soul only a visor that it may look
toward heavenly things, and no more. This is the ordinary task of hope in the
soul; it raises the eyes to look only at God, as David asserts it did with him:
Oculi mei semper ad Dominum3 [Ps. 25:15]. David hoped for nothing from anyone
else, as he says in another psalm: Just as the eyes of the handmaid are fixed on
the hands of her mistress, so are our eyes on the Lord our God until he has
mercy on us who hope in him [Ps. 123:2].
8. As a result, this green livery, by which one always gazes on God, looks at
nothing else, and is not content save with him alone, so pleases the Beloved
that it is true to say the soul obtains from God all that she hopes for from
him. The Bridegroom of the Canticle consequently says of his bride that she
wounded his heart by merely the look of her eyes [Sg. 4:9]. Without this green
livery of hope in God alone, it would not behoove anyone to go out toward this
goal of love; a person would obtain nothing, since what moves and conquers is
unrelenting hope.
9. The soul advances through this dark and secret night in the disguise of the
green livery of hope, for she walks along so empty of all possessions and
support that neither her eyes nor her care are taken up with anything but God.
She places her mouth in the dust that there might be hope [Lam. 3:29], as we
previously quoted from Jeremiah.4
10. Over the white and green, as the finishing touch and perfection of this
disguise, the soul puts on a third color, a precious red toga. This color
denotes charity, the third virtue, which not only adds elegance to the other two
colors but so elevates the soul as to place her near God. Charity makes her so
beautiful and pleasing to God that she dares to say: Although I am black, O
daughters of Jerusalem, I am beautiful, and for this reason the king has loved
me and brought me into his chamber [Sg. 1:5].5
With this livery of charity, a
livery that by manifesting love increases love in the Beloved, the soul receives
protection and concealment from the flesh, her third enemy. For where there is
true love of God, love of self and of one's own things finds no entry. Not only
does charity protect her, but it even makes the other virtues genuine,
strengthens and invigorates them in order to fortify the soul, and bestows on
them loveliness and charm so as to please the Beloved thereby. For without
charity no virtue is pleasing to God. This is the seat draped in purple on which
God rests, as is said in the Song of Songs [Sg. 3:10].
The soul is clothed in
this red livery when, as explained in the first stanza, she departs in the dark
night from herself and from all creatures, fired with love's urgent longings,
and advances by the secret ladder of contemplation to perfect union with God,
who is her Beloved salvation.
11. This, then, is the disguise the soul says she wore on this secret ladder in
the night of faith, and these are its colors. These colors are a most suitable
preparation for union of the three faculties (intellect, memory, and will) with
God.
Faith darkens and empties the intellect of all its natural understanding
and thereby prepares it for union with the divine wisdom.
Hope empties and
withdraws the memory from all creature possessions, for as St. Paul says, hope
is for that which is not possessed [Rom. 8:24]. It withdraws the memory from
what can be possessed and fixes it on what it hopes for. Hence only hope in God
prepares the memory perfectly for union with him.
Charity also empties and
annihilates the affections and appetites of the will of whatever is not God and centers them on him alone. Thus charity prepares the will and unites it with God
through love.
Because these virtues have the function of withdrawing the soul
from all that is less than God, they consequently have the mission of joining it
with God.
12. Without walking sincerely in the garb of these three virtues, it is
impossible to reach perfect union with God through love. This garb and disguise
worn by the soul was very necessary for her to reach her goal, which was this
loving and delightful union with her Beloved. It was a great grace for the soul
to have put on this vesture, and to have persevered in it until attaining her
end or goal, the union of love, which she so desired. Consequently she proclaims
in the next verse:
- ah, the sheer grace! -
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