CHAPTER XL: WE MUST EVER ASPIRE TO MYSTICAL UNION WITH GOD.
WE MUST EVER ASPIRE TO MYSTICAL UNION WITH GOD.
§ 1. Mystical union with God.
§ 2. There is a false union, which some embrace as if it were the true union with God.
§ 3. Revelations and visions. __________________________________________________________________
§ 1. Mystical union with God.
IT is a great thing, an exceeding great thing, in the time of this exile, to be joined to God in the divine light by a mystical and denuded union. This takes place when a pure, humble, and resigned soul, burning with ardent charity, is carried above itself by the grace of God, and through the brilliancy of the divine light .shining on the mind, it loses all consideration and distinction of things and lays aside all, even the most excellent images; and all liquefied by love, and, as it were, reduced to nothing, it melts away into God. It is then united to God without any medium, and be comes one spirit with Him, and is transformed and changed into Him, as iron placed in the fire is changed into fire, without ceasing to be iron. It becomes one with God, yet not so as to be of the same substance and nature as God. Here the soul reposes, and ceases from its own action; and sweetly experiencing the operation of God, it abounds with ineffable peace and joy. Here it tastes such delight, that heaven and earth and all that is in them seem by the greatness of the consolation to melt away, and to be reduced to nothing. For, being raised above the operation of its natural powers, it reaches its silent and tranquil essence; where is simplicity and unity, and where God inhabits; and having found the Eternal Truth, it possesses inexhaustible riches. That soul is verily happy, which being lifted above all created things, and above its own action, is stripped in the faculty of memory of all images and feels its own simplicity: in the faculty of intellect it perceives the surpassing illumination of the Sun of justice, and learns divine truth; and in the faculty of love it feels a certain glow of quiet love, or contact of the Holy Spirit, like a living fountain, flowing with streams of eternal sweetness; and thus it is introduced into sublime union with God.
The soul, therefore, having entered the vast solitude of the Godhead, happily loses itself; and enlightened by the brightness of most lucid darkness, becomes through knowledge as if without knowledge, and dwells in a sort of wise ignorance. And although it knows not what God is, to whom it is united by pure charity, although it sees not God as He is in His glory; it yet learns by experience that He infinitely transcends all sensible things, and all that can be written, spoken, or apprehended by the human intellect concerning Him. It feels that to pass out into God without images, is far different from beholding God in noble or divine images and similitudes. It knows God by this intimate embrace and contact better than the eyes of the body know the visible sun. This soul well knows what true contemplation is: for its sight being directed to the region of ineffable light, and there fixed, it happily discerns how small and in significant, and almost nothing, is every creature, compared with the most High and boundless God.
But all servants of God are not in this world rapt above themselves, all do not thus reach the hidden, simple, naked, God-like depths of the soul; all are not admitted to that mystical and surpassing union with God, to which no one can attain by his own labour and endeavours, unless he be assisted by the special grace of God. But those who are admitted to it, ought to resume their own action, and holy images, and good works and exercises, as soon as that glorious operation of God in them ceases; they must remain humble, and persevere in their desire of progress, and so conduct themselves as if they were now first beginning to lead a good life. For during this life no one penetrates so far and deep into God, as that he may not at any moment penetrate farther and deeper; and something will always remain in him which is not yet sufficiently mortified. Supposing that he is no longer moved by the sight of mortal creatures; still it is necessary to be vigilant and to watch over himself diligently until death. King David was assuredly a man after God's heart, who in his youth feeding the flocks of sheep had received the grace of sublime contemplation, yet after wonderful and prophetic illuminations (for God had made manifest- to him the uncertain and hidden things of His wisdom) (Psal. l. 8), after frequently tasting the divine sweetness, after mystical transformations, and loving and ardent and ecstatic unions with God, he fell in his old age into most grievous sins, namely, adultery and murder. __________________________________________________________________
§ 2. The Danger of false union.
There are some, who foolishly imagine perfection to consist in this, that they being quiet and free, can dismiss images from their intellect, and with mere idle sensuality can retire into themselves; neglecting meanwhile the love of God, and all pious works and exercises. They indeed are miserable slaves of the devil, following after false quiet, while they from impure motives seek themselves, and delight in themselves rather than in God. But legitimate cultivators of contemplation and supernatural quiet, so seek after a denuded mind, and holy inactivity, that yet they do not abandon good works and exercises. For they give themselves to virtue according to their strength, and praise God, and reflect upon the Passion of our Lord, and give thanks, and pray frequently, if they have time, and cleave to God by sincere charity; they also regard and seek the honour of God rather than their own pleasure. God works in them His most noble work; for they, being filled with divine love, present themselves before Him in the nudity and simplicity of interior silence, forming in their minds no thought and no consideration. In this manner being by the grace of God freed from all images, they are rapt and fly up to the rays of the divine darkness, and are without medium united to God. Most pious men, although they do not attain to this height in the time of this exile, yet feel in themselves a certain simplicity of thought, when, excluding tumult from their minds, they dwell in silence, humbly, calmly, and lovingly upon the joyful presence of God, giving little or no attention to anything else.
Furthermore, as it would be absurd if one to whom a King had assigned the office of standing at his table and waiting upon him, were impudently to sit down unbidden to the banquet of the King, so he would he equally blameworthy who should wish to give himself up to the quiet of contemplation when he is evidently not called to it by God. Do thou therefore more and more desire and strive to please God, and nevertheless be always content with that grace which God deigns to bestow upon thee. If He should will to work in thee something singular, impede Him not; but dutifully follow His will, keeping thyself ever in holy humility and self-abasement. __________________________________________________________________
§ 3. Revelations.
Desire not inordinately visions and revelations, (which are sometimes granted even to the wicked). Those who foolishly seek after them, and thoughtlessly lend faith to them, are easily deceived by Satan, who transformeth himself into an angel of light (2 Cor. xi. 14), and in order to mislead, mostly mingles truth with falsehood. He gives out sometimes true things and sometimes false; but the Holy Spirit never reveals, foretells, or announces anything except the truth.
When the good Spirit visits the soul, it is usually at first, seized with fear, but soon receives joy and consolation; and it retains its activity, its interior pence, and eager desire for virtue. But when the devil presents himself, the first fear remains, and even increases in the soul; and though the soul may be exhilarated in the beginning, when the demon transforms himself into an angel of light, yet it is afterwards confused, and filled with darkness and trouble. If thou art in doubt after having seen a vision, till thou canst satisfy thyself, thou dost not offend God, even if the vision be holy and divine. It is right to examine diligently and discreetly whether these visions and revelations are free from all falsehood, fiction, and absurdity, whether they agree with the Catholic faith and the Holy Scriptures, and the writings of the orthodox Fathers; for if they do not agree with them, they must be instantly rejected. A diabolical illusion makes a man proud, unresigned, and obstinate in his own judgment; but a divine revelation renders him humble, resigned, and docile. There are some servants of God who even while they are awake and in good health, are rapt by the operation of God out of their bodily senses, that these being suspended, they may more perfectly attend to divine visions and revelations.
Those are assuredly least liable to be seduced by the malignant spirit who are inundated in revelations with the exceeding sweetness of divine love, and the pure influence of intellectual and supernatural light. And the Lord graciously preserves and protects from being caught in the snares of the devil all who are endowed with sincere humility, and who piously seek and invoke Him, lest they perish. For they who are proud, and who conceal within themselves any duplicity and dissimulation, miserably mislead themselves, and fall of their own accord into the nets of the devil. Since God is a most faithful Father, to His humble children asking for bread, an egg, or a fish, He gives not a stone for bread, nor a scorpion for an egg, nor a serpent for a fish: but He gives them His good Spirit (St. Luke xi. 11, 12, 13). He gives that which conduces to their salvation. It is in no wise possible that He should abandon those who humbly have recourse to Him, and truly trust in Him. Therefore the humble always escape the snares of Satan, and there is doubtless no more certain sign and proof of true holiness, than true humility and perfect resignation. __________________________________________________________________