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1. But since not only by passing through ourselves but also within
ourselves is it given to us to contemplate the First Principle,
and this is
greater than the preceding, therefore this mode of thought reaches
to the
fourth level of contemplation. It seems amazing, however, when it
is clear
that God is so near to our minds, that there are so few who see
the First
Principle in themselves. But the reason is close at hand. For the
human
mind, distracted by cares, does not enter into itself through
memory;
obscured by phantasms, it does not return into itself through
intelligence;
allured by concupiscence, it never returns to itself through the
desire for
inner sweetness and spiritual gladness. Thus, lying totally in
this
sensible world, it cannot return to itself as to the image of God.
2. And since, when anyone lies fallen, he must remain there
prostrate
unless someone give a helping hand and he falls in order to rise
again
[Isaiah, 24, 20], our soul has not been able to be raised
perfectly from
the things of sense to an intuition of itself and of the eternal
Truth in
itself unless the Truth, having assumed human form in Christ,
should make
itself into a ladder, repairing the first ladder which was broken
in Adam.
Therefore, however much anyone is illuminated only by the light of
nature
and of acquired science, he cannot enter into himself that he may
delight
in the Lord in himself, unless Christ be his mediator, Who says,
"I am the
door. By me, if any man enter in, he shall be saved; and he shall
go in,
and go out, and shall find pastures" [John, 10, 9]. We do not,
however,
approach this door unless we believe in Him, hope in Him, and love
Him.
It
is therefore necessary, if we wish to enter into the fruition of
Truth, as
into Paradise, that we enter through the faith, hope, and charity
of the
Mediator between God and man, Jesus Christ, Who is as the tree of
life in
the middle of Paradise.
3. The image of our mind must therefore be clothed also in the
three
theological virtues by which the soul is purified, illuminated,
and
perfected; and thus the image is repaired and is made like the
heavenly
Jerusalem and part of the Church militant, which, according to the
Apostle,
is the child of the heavenly Jerusalem. For he says: "But that
Jerusalem
which is above is free, which is our mother" [Gal., 4, 26].
Therefore the
soul which believes in, hopes in, and loves Jesus Christ, Who is
the Word
incarnate, uncreated, and spirated, that is, the way and the truth
and the
life, where by faith he believes in Christ as in the uncreated
Word, which
is the Word and the splendor of the Father, he recovers spiritual
healing
and vision: hearing to receive the lessons of Christ, vision to
look upon
the splendor of His light. When, however, he yearns with hope to
receive
the spirated Word, through desire and affection he recovers
spiritual
olfaction. When he embraces the incarnate Word in charity, as one
receiving
from Him delight and passing into Him through ecstatic love, he
recovers
taste and touch.
When these senses are recovered, when he sees his
spouse
and hears, smells, tastes, and embraces Him, he can sing like the
Bride a
Canticle of Canticles, as was done on the occasion of this fourth
stage of
contemplation, which no one knoweth but he that receiveth it [Apoc.,
2,
17]. For it occurs in affective experience rather than in rational
consideration.
On this level, when the inner senses are renewed in
order to
perceive the highest beauty, to hear the highest harmony, smell
the highest
fragrance, taste the highest delicacy, apprehend the highest
delights, the
soul is disposed to mental elevation through devotion, wonder, and
exultation, in accordance with those three exclamations which are
in the
Canticle of Canticles.
Of these the first arises from the
abundance of
devotion, by which the soul becomes like a pillar of smoke of
aromatic
spices, of myrrh and frankincense [Cant., 3, 6]; the second, from
the
excellence of wonder, by which the soul becomes as the dawn, the
moon, and
the sun, like the series of illuminations which suspend the soul
in wonder
as it considers its spouse; the third, from the superabundance of
exultation, by which the soul, overflowing with the sweetest
delight, leans
totally upon its beloved [Cant., 8, 5].
4. When this is accomplished, our spirit is made hierarchical to
mount
upward through its conformity to the heavenly Jerusalem, into
which no one
enters unless through grace it has descended into his heart, as
John saw in
his Apocalypse [21, 2]. But then it descends into one's heart
when, by the
reformation of the image through the theological virtues and
through the
delights of the spiritual senses and ecstatic elevation, our
spirit has
been made hierarchical, that is, purged, illuminated, and
perfected.
Likewise the soul is stamped by the following nine steps when it
is
disposed in an orderly way: perception, deliberation,
self-impulsion,
ordination, strengthening, command, reception, divine
illumination, union,[1]
which one by one correspond to the nine orders of angels, so that
the first
three stages correspond to nature in the human mind, the next
three to
industry, and the last three to grace.[2]
With these acquired, the
soul,
entering into itself, enters into the heavenly Jerusalem, where,
considering the orders of the angels, it sees God in them, Who
living in
them causes all their operations. Whence Bernard said to Eugenius
that--"God in the seraphim loves as Charity, in the Cherubim He knows as
Truth,
in the Thrones He is seated as Equity, in the Dominations He
dominates as
Majesty, in the Principalities He rules as the First Principle, in
the
Powers He watches over us as Salvation, in the Virtues He operates
as
Virtue, in the Archangels He reveals as Light, in the Angels He
aids as
Piety."[3]
From all of which God is seen to be all in all through the
contemplation of
Him in the minds in which He dwells through the gifts of His
overflowing
Charity.
5. For this grade of contemplation there is especially and
outstandingly
added as a support the consideration of Holy Scripture divinely
issued, as
philosophy was added to the preceding. For Holy Scripture is
principally
concerned with the works of reparation. Wherefore it especially
deals with
faith, hope, and charity, by which the soul is reformed, and most
of all
with charity.
Concerning this the Apostle says that the end of the
Commandments is reached by a pure heart and a good conscience and
an
unfeigned faith [I Tim., 1, 5]. This is the fulfillment of the
Law, as he
says. And our Saviour adds that all the Law and the Prophets
depend upon
these two Commandments: the love of God and of one's neighbor.
Which two
are united in the one spouse of the Church, Jesus Christ, Who is
at once
neighbor and God, at once brother and Lord, at once king and
friend, at
once Word uncreated and incarnate, our maker and remaker, the
alpha and
omega. He is the highest hierarch, purging and illuminating and
perfecting
His spouse, the whole Church and any holy soul.
6. Of this hierarch and this ecclesiastical hierarchy is the
entire Holy
Scripture by which we are taught to be purified, illuminated, and
perfected, and this according to the triple law handed down to us
in it:
the law of Nature, of Scripture, and of Grace; or rather according
to the
triple principal part of it: the Mosaic Law purifying, the
prophetic
revelation illuminating, and evangelical teaching perfecting; or
above all,
according to the triple spiritual meaning of it--the tropological
which
purifies us for an honest life, the allegorical which illuminates
us for
the clarity of understanding, the analogical which perfects us by
mental
elevation and the most delightful perceptions of wisdom--in
accordance with
the three aforesaid theological virtues and the spiritual senses
reformed
and the three above-mentioned stages of elevation and hierarchical
acts of
the mind, by which our mind retreats into itself so that it may
look upon
God in the brightness of the saints [Ps., 109, 3] and in them, as
in a
chamber, it may sleep in peace and take its rest [Ps., 4, 9] while
the
spouse adjures it that it stir not up till she pleases [Cant., 2,
7].
7. Now from these two middle steps, by which we proceed to
contemplate God
within ourselves as in the mirrors of created images--and this as
with
wings opened for flying which hold the middle place--we can
understand that
we are led into the divine by the powers of the rational soul
itself placed
therein by nature as far as their operations, habits, and
knowledge are
concerned, as appears from the third stage.
For we are led by the
powers of
the soul reformed by virtues freely granted, by the spiritual
senses, and
by mental elevation, as appears from the fourth stage. We are
nonetheless
led through hierarchical operations, that is, by purgation,
illumination,
and perfection of human minds through the hierarchical revelations
of the
Holy Scriptures given to us, according to the Apostle, through the
Angels
in the hand of a mediator [Gal., 3, 19]. And finally we are led by
hierarchies and hierarchical orders which are found to be ordered
in our
minds in the likeness of the heavenly Jerusalem.
8. Our mind, filled with all these intellectual illuminations, is
inhabited
by the divine wisdom as the house of God; become the daughter, the
spouse,
and the friend of God; made a member of Christ the head, the
sister, and
the fellow-heir; made nonetheless the temple of the Holy Spirit,
founded by
faith, elevated by hope, and dedicated to God by the sanctity of
the mind
and the body.
All of this has been brought about by the most
sincere love
of Christ which is poured forth into our hearts by the Holy
Spirit, Who is
given to us [Rom., 5, 5], without which Spirit we cannot know the
secrets
of God. For just as no one can know the things of a man except the
spirit
of a man that is in him, so the things also that are of God no man
knoweth
but the spirit of God [I Cor., 2, 11] In charity then let us be
rooted and
founded, that we may be able to comprehend with all the saints
what is the
length of eternity, the breadth of liberality, the height of
majesty and
the depth of the wisdom which judges us [Eph., 3, 17 18].
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