|
According then to what we have said, holy quiet has
divers degrees. For sometimes it is in all the powers
of the soul joined and united to the will; sometimes
it is in the will only, and there sometimes sensibly
at other times imperceptibly: because it happens
sometimes that the soul takes an incomparable delight
in feeling by certain interior sweetnesses that God
is present with her (as happened to S. Elizabeth when
our Blessed Lady visited her): and at other times the
soul has a certain ardent sweetness in being in God's
presence, which for the moment is imperceptible to
her, as happened to the pilgrim-disciples, who
walking with our Saviour did not fully perceive the
agreeable pleasure with which they were thrilled,
till such time as they had arrived and had known him
in the divine breaking of the bread.(1)
Sometimes the soul not only perceives God's
presence, but hears him speak, by certain inward
illuminations and interior persuasions which stand in
place of words. Sometimes she perceives him, and in
her turn speaks to him, but so secretly, sweetly and
delicately, that it does not make her lose her holy
peace and quiet, so that without awaking she watches
with him; that is, she wakes and speaks to her
well-beloved's heart, with as sweet tranquillity and
grateful repose as though she sweetly slumbered. At
other times she hears the beloved speak, but she
cannot speak to him, because the delight she has to
hear him, or the reverence she bears him, keeps her
in silence, or, perhaps, because she is in dryness,
and is so languid in spirit that she has only
strength to hear and not to speak; as is sometimes
the case in corporeal matters with those who are
going to sleep, or who are greatly weakened by some
malady.
But, finally, sometimes she neither hears nor speaks
to her well-beloved, nor yet feels any sign of his
presence, but simply knows that she is in the
presence of her God, to whom it is pleasing that she
should be there. Suppose, Theotimus, that the
glorious Apostle S. John had slept with a bodily
sleep in the bosom of his dear Master at the Last
Supper, and that he had slept by his commandment;
verily in that case he would have been in his
Master's presence without in any way feeling it. And
mark, I pray you, that there is more care required to
place oneself in God's presence, than to remain there
when placed: for, to place oneself there it is
requisite to apply the mind and render it actually
attentive to this presence (as I explain in the
Introduction.(2)) But being placed in this presence,
we keep ourself there by many other means, so long
as, whether by understanding or by will, we do
anything in God or for God: as, for example, by
beholding him, or anything for love of him; by
hearing him, or those that speak for him; by speaking
to him, or to some one for love of him; and by doing
any work whatsoever for his honour and service.
Yea, one may continue in God's presence not
only by hearing him, seeing him, or speaking to him,
but also by waiting to see if it may please him to
look at us, to speak to us, or to make us speak to
him: or yet again, by doing nothing of all this, but
by simply staying where it pleases him for us to be,
and because it pleases him for us to be there. But if
to this simple fashion of staying before him, it
pleases him to add some little feeling that we are
all his, and he all ours - O God how desirable and
precious is our privilege!
My dear Theotimus, let us further take the liberty to
frame this imagination. If a statue which the
sculptor had niched in the gallery of some great
prince were endowed with understanding, and could
reason and talk; and if it were asked: O fair statue,
tell me now, why art thou in that niche? -- It would
answer, - Because my master placed me there. And if
one should reply, - But why stayest thou there
without doing anything? - Because, would it say, my
master did not place me here to do anything, but
simply that I should be here motionless. But if one
should urge it further, saying: But, poor statue,
what art thou the better for remaining there in that
sort? Well! would it say, I am not here for my own
interest and service, but to obey and accomplish the
will of my master and maker; and this suffices me.
And if one should yet insist thus: Tell me then,
statue, I pray, not seeing thy master how dost thou
find contentment in contenting him? No, verily, would
it confess; I see him not, for I have not eyes for
seeing, as I have not feet for walking; but I am too
contented to know that my dear master sees me here,
and takes pleasure in seeing me here. But if one
should continue the dispute with the statue, and say
unto it: But wouldst thou not at least wish to have
power to move that thou mightest approach near thy
maker, to afford him some better service? Doubtless
it would answer, No, and would protest that it
desired to do nothing but what its master wished. Is
it possible then, would one say at last, that thou
desirest nothing but to be an immovable statue
there,within that hollow niche? Yes, truly, would
that wise statue answer in conclusion; I desire to be
nothing but a statue and ever in this niche, so long
as my master pleases, contenting myself to be here,
and thus, since such is the contentment of him whose
I am, and by whom I am what I am.
O true God! how good a way it is of remaining in
God's presence to be, and to will to be, ever and for
ever, at his good pleasure! For so, I consider, in
all occurrences, yea, in our deepest sleep, we are
still more deeply in the most holy presence of God.
Yea, verily, Theotimus: for if we love him we sleep
not only in his sight, but at his pleasure, and not
only by his will, but also according to his will. And
meseems it is himself, our Creator and heavenly
sculptor, who lays us there on our beds as statues in
their niches, that we may settle there as birds
nestle in their nests. Then at our waking, if we
reflect upon it, me find that God was ever present
with us, and that we were in no wise absent or
separated from him. We have then been there in the
presence of his good-pleasure, though without seeing
or noticing him, so that we might say in imitation of
Jacob:(3)Indeed I have slept by my God and in the
arms of his divine presence and providence, and I
knew it not!
Now this quiet, in which the will works not save only
by a simple acquiescence in the divine good-pleasure,
willing to be in prayer without any other aim than to
be in the sight of God according as it shall please
him, is a sovereignly excellent quiet, because it has
no mixture of self-interest, the faculties of the
soul taking no content in it, nor even the will save
by its supreme point, in which its contentment is to
admit no other contentment but that of being without
contentment for the love of the contentment and
good-pleasure of its God, in which it rests. For in
fine the height of love's ecstasy is to have our will
not in its own contentment but in God's, or, not to
have our contentment in our own will, but in God's.
|