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1. Now that these six considerations have been studied as the six
steps of
the true throne of Solomon by which one ascends to peace, where
the truly
peaceful man reposes in peace of mind as if in
the inner Jerusalem; as
if, again, on the six wings of the Cherub by which the mind of the
truly
contemplative man grows strong to rise again, filled with the
illumination
of supreme wisdom; as if, once again, during the first six days in
which
the mind has to be exercised that it may finally arrive at the
Sabbath of
rest after it has beheld God outside itself through His traces and
in His
traces, within itself by His image and in His image, above itself
by the
likeness of the divine light shining down upon us and in that
light, in so
far as is possible in this life and the exercise of our mind--
when,
finally, on the sixth level we have come to the point of beholding
in the
first and highest principle and the Mediator of God and men, Jesus
Christ,
those things of which the likeness cannot in any wise be found in
creatures
and which exceed all the insight of the human intellect, there
remains that
by looking upon these things it [the mind] rise on high and pass
beyond not
only this sensible world but itself also.
In this passage Christ
is the way
and the door, Christ is the stairway and the vehicle, like the
propitiatory
over the ark of God and the mystery which has been hidden from
eternity
[Eph, 3, 9].
2. He who with full face looks to this propitiatory by looking
upon Him
suspended on the cross in faith, hope, and charity, in devotion,
wonder,
exultation, appreciation, praise, and jubilation, makes a passover--that
is, the phase or passage [Exod., 12, 11] with Him--that he may
pass over
the Red Sea by the staff of the cross from Egypt into the Desert,
where he
may taste the hidden manna and with Christ may rest in the tomb as
if
outwardly dead, yet knowing, as far as possible in our earthly
condition,
what was said on the cross to the thief cleaving to Christ:
''Today thou
shalt be with me in Paradise."
3. That was shown to the blessed Francis when, in the transport of
contemplation on the high mountain--where I thought out these
things which
I have written--there appeared to him the Seraph with the six
wings nailed
to the cross, as I and several others have heard from the
companion who was
with him when he passed over into God through the transports of
contemplation and became the example of perfect contemplation,
just as
previously he had been of action; as another Jacob is changed into
Israel,
so through him all truly spiritual men have been invited by God to
passage
of this kind and to mental transport by example rather than by
word.
4. In this passage, if it is perfect, all intellectual operations
should be
abandoned, and the whole height of our affection should be
transferred and
transformed into God. This, however, is mystical and most secret,
which no
man knoweth but he that hath received it [Apoc., 2, 17], nor does
he
receive it unless he desire it; nor does he desire it unless the
fire of
the Holy Spirit, Whom Christ sent to earth, has inflamed his
marrow. And
therefore the Apostle says that this mystic wisdom is revealed
through the
Holy Spirit.
5. Since, therefore, nature is powerless in this matter and
industry but
slightly able, little should be given to inquiry but much to
unction,
little to the tongue but much to inner joy, little to the word and
to
writings and all to the gift of God, that is, to the Holy Spirit,
little or
nothing to creation and all to the creative essence, Father, Son,
and Holy
Spirit, saying with Dionysius to God the Trinity:
"Trinity, superessential and superdivine and supergood guardian of
Christian knowledge of God, direct thou us into the
more-than-unknown and
superluminous and most sublime summit of mystical eloquence, where
new and
absolute and unchangeable mysteries of theology are deeply hidden,
according to the superluminous darkness of instructive
silence--darkness
which is supermanifest and superresplendent, and in which all is
aglow,
pouring out upon the invisible intellects the splendors of
invisible
goodness."[1]
This to God. To the friend, however, to whom I address this book,
let me
say with the same Dionysius:
"Thou then, my friend, if thou desirest mystic visions, with
strengthened
feet abandon thy senses and intellectual operations, and both
sensible and
invisible things, and both all nonbeing and being; and unknowingly
restore
thyself to unity as far as possible, unity of Him Who is above all
essence
and knowledge. And when thou hast transcended thyself and all
things in
immeasurable and absolute purity of mind, thou shalt ascend to the
superessential rays of divine shadows, leaving all behind and
freed from
ties of all."[2]
6. If you should ask how these things come about, question grace,
not
instruction; desire, not intellect; the cry of prayer, not pursuit
of
study; the spouse, not the teacher; God, not man; darkness, not
clarity;
not light, but the wholly flaming fire which will bear you aloft
to God
with fullest unction and burning affection.
This fire is God, and
the
furnace of this fire leadeth to Jerusalem; and Christ the man
kindles it in
the fervor of His burning Passion, which he alone truly perceives
who says,
"My soul rather chooseth hanging and my bones death" [Job, 7, 15].
He who
chooses this death can see God because this is indubitably true:
"Man shall
not see me and live" [Exod., 33, 20].
Let us then die and pass
over into
darkness; let us impose silence on cares, concupiscence, and
phantasms; let
us pass over with the crucified Christ from this world to the
Father [John,
13, 1], so that when the Father
is shown to us we may say with Philip, "It is enough for us"
[John, 14, 8];
let us hear with Paul, "My grace is sufficient for thee" [II Cor.,
12, 9];
let us exult with David, saying, "For Thee my flesh and my heart
hath
fainted away; Thou art the God of my heart, and the God that is my
portion
forever [Ps. 72, 26]. . . . Blessed be the Lord God of Israel from
everlasting to everlasting; and let all the people say: So be it,
so be it"
[Ps., 105, 48]. AMEN.
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