Of the ends and way of God in communicating spiritual blessings to the soul through the interior senses. Answer to the question proposed.

soul through the interior senses. Answer to the question proposed. I HAVE much to say of the end which God has in view, and of the ways He employs, when He sends visions to raise up the soul from its tepidity to the Divine union with Himself. This is treated of in all spiritual] books, and I shall therefore confine myself here to the solution of the question before us. That question is this: Why does God Who is most wise, and ever ready to remove every snare and every stumbling-block from before us, send us these supernatural visions, seeing that they are so full of danger, and so perplexing to us in our further progress?

To answer this we have three principles to take for granted. The first is thus expressed by 8. Paul: ‘Those that are, are ordained of God.’* That is, all that is done is done according to the ordinance of God. The second is expressed by the Holy Ghost saying of wisdom that it ‘ordereth all things sweetly.’ t The third is an axiom of Theology, God moveth all things in harmony with their constitution.t Ac-

* Rom. xiii. 1. t+ Wisd. viii. 1, {t Deus omnia movet secundum modum eorum.

cording to these principles, then, it is evident that God, when He elevates the soul from the depths of its own vileness to the opposite heights of His own dignity in union with Himself, worketh orderly, sweetly, and in harmony with the constitution of the soul. As the process by which the soul acquires knowledge rests on the forms and images of created things, and as the mode of its understanding and perception is that of the senses, it follows that God, in order to raise it up to the highest knowledge, orderly and sweetly, must begin with the lower senses, that He may thus raise it up in harmony with its own constitution to the supreme Wisdom of the Spirit which is not cognisable by sense. For this reason He leads the soul first of all through forms, images, and sensible ways, proportionate to its capacity, whether natural or supernatural, and through reflections, upwards to His own Supreme Spirit. This is the cause of His sending visions and imaginary forms, and other sensible and intelligible means of knowledge. Not because He would not in an instant communicate the substance of the Spirit, provided that the two extremes, the human and Divine, that is, sense and Spirit, were ordinarily able to meet together, and to be united in a single act, without the previous intervention of many disposing acts, which orderly and sweetly concur together, one being the foundation and the preparation for the other, as in natural operations where the first subserves the second, that the next, and so onwards. Thus the way in which God leads man to perfection is the way of his natural constitution, raising him up from what is vile and exterior to that which is interior and noble.

In the first place He perfects him in the bodily senses, moving him to make a right use of good things which in themselves are natural, perfect, and exterior; such as hearing Mass and sermons, veneration of holy things, mortification of the appetite at meals, the maceration of the body by

penance, and the chastening of the sense of touch by holy austerities. And when the senses are in some measure prepared, God is wont to perfect them ‘still more by granting them certain supernatural favours and consolations that they may be confirmed the more in goodness. He sends to them certain supernatural communications, such as visions of Saints or of holy things in bodily form, delicious odours, Divine locutions accompanied by a pure and singular sweetness, whereby the very senses are greatly strengthened in virtue and withdrawn from the desire of evil things. Besides, He perfects also the interior bodily senses, the imagination and the fancy, at the same time; accustoms them to good, through considerations, meditations, and holy reflections, according to the measure of their capacity, and in all teaches and informs the mind. And when the interior senses are disposed by this natural exercise, God is wont to enlighten them, and to spiritualise them, more and more, through the instrumentality of certain supernatural visions, which I have called imaginary; from which the mind at the same time derives great profit, and through the interior and exterior visions casts off its natural rudeness and becomes by degrees refined.

This is the way of God in elevating the soul to that which is interior. Not that it is necessary for Him to observe this order and succession of progress, for He occasionally effects one degree without the other, as he sees it expedient for a particular soul, and as it pleases Him to dispense His graces; still His ordinary way is what I have described. This is the ordinary method of God in teaching and spiritualising the soul; He begins by communicating to it spiritual things through things outward, palpable, and appropriate to sense, condescending to its weakness and the slight measure of its powers; so that through the veil of exterior objects, in themselves good, the mind, forming particular acts, and receiving such portions of the spiritual communication, may acquire the habit of

spirituality and attain to the Substance of the Spirit, to which sense is a stranger, and which the soul could never reach but by little and little in its own way, through the senses, on which it has always rested. And thus in proportion as it approaches spirituality in its converse with God, does it detach itself from, and empty itself of, the ways of sense, that is, of reflections, meditation, and imagination. And when it shall have attained perfectly to converse in spirit with God, it must of necessity have emptied itself of all that relates to that converse which falls under the cognisance of sense.

Thus, when an object is attracted to one extreme, the more it recedes from the other the nearer it approaches; and when it shall have completely reached the point to which it tends, it will then be completely withdrawn from the other. This is the spiritual maxim so generally known: Gustato Spiritu, desipit omnis caro. When we have tasted the sweetness of the Spirit, all that is flesh becomes insipid; that is, it profits us no more, and the ways of sense are no longer pleasing. This maxim refers to all the ways in which sense may be employed about spiritual things. This is evident: for if a thing be spiritual it falls not under the cognisance of the senses, and if it be such as is comprehensible by sense, then is it no longer purely spiritual. For the more anything is comprehended by sense and our natural perceptions, the less it has of the Spirit and of the supernatural.

The spiritual man, therefore, having attained to perfection, makes no account of sense, receives nothing through it, does not avail himself of it, neither has he any need of it in his converse with God, as was the case before with him when he had not received the increase of the Spirit. This is the - meaning of S. Paul when he said: ‘When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child. But when I became a man, I put away the things of

be-

;

a child.’* I have already said that the objects of sense and the knowledge which results from them are the occupations of achild. That soul which ever clings to these, and which never detaches itself from them, will never cease to be a child; asa child will it always speak, understand, and think of God, because relying on the outward veil-of the senses which is childish, it will never attain to the Substance of the Spirit, which is the perfect-man. And so the soul ought not to admit revelations, with a view to its own spiritual growth, even though God should send them; for the infant must abandon the breasts if it is to become accustomed to more solid and substantial food.

Is it necessary then, you will ask, that the soul, in its spiritual infancy, should accept these revelations, and abandon them when it has grown; for the infant must seek its nourishment at the breast to be able to leave it when the time is come? My answer is, that with regard to meditation and natural reflections, through which the soul begins its search after God, it must not, it is true, abandon the breast of the interior senses, to support itself, until the time has come when it may do so. That time is come when God raises the soul to a more spiritual converse with Himself, which is contemplation, and of that I spoke in the thirteenth chapter of this book. Still I maintain that these imaginary visions or other supernatural impressions, to which the senses are subject without the assent of the will, are, upon all occasions and at all times, whether in the perfect or less perfect state, and notwithstanding their coming from God, not to be sought after, nor dwelt upon by the soul; and this for two reasons: — |

First, because these visions produce their effects passively in the soul, without its being able on its own part to

* T Cor. xii, 13.

hinder them, though it may do something towards hindering the manner of the vision; consequently the secondary effects which it is intended to produce are much more substantially wrought, though not in that way. For in renouncing them with humility and fear, there is neither imperfection nor selfishness, but rather disinterestedness and emptiness of self, which is the best disposition for union with God.

Secondly, because we are thereby delivered from the risk and labour of discerning between good and bad visions, and of ascertaining whether the angel of light or of darkness is at hand. The attempt to do so is not profitable at all, but rather waste of time, an occasion of many imperfections and delay on the spiritual journey. That is not the way to direct a soul in matters which are of real importance, nor to relieve it of the vexation of trifles which are involved in particular apprehensions and perceptions, as I have said with respect to bodily visions and to those of the imagination, and as I shall have to say again. Believe me, our Lord would never have communicated the abundance of the Spirit through these channels, so narrow, of forms and ‘figures and particular perceptions, by which, as if by crumbs, He sustains the soul, if He had not to raise up that soul to Himself in the way appropriate to its own constitution. This is the meaning of the Psalmist when he said: ‘ He sendeth His crystal like morsels.’* The Wisdom of God is His crystal. How sad it is that the soul, whose capacity is as it were infinite, should be fed by morsels through the senses, because of its want of generosity, and because of its sensual weakness. §. Paul also saw with grief this littleness of mind and absence of good spiritual dispositions, when he said to the Corinthians: ‘And I, brethren, could not speak to you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal.

* Ps. exlvii. 17.

2.

condoing of selffaith,

As unto little ones in Christ, I gave you milk to drink, not meat: for you were not able as yet. But neither indeed are you now able, for you are yet carnal.’ *

Let us, then, keep in mind that the soul must not regard these figures and objects, which are but the rind, when supernaturally set before it; whether occurring through the exterior senses, as voices and words in the ear, visible visions of the Saints and beautiful lights, odours to the smell, sweetness to the palate, and other delectations of the touch, which are wont to proceed from the Spirit; or through the interior senses as the interior imaginary visions. These things the soul must not regard; yea, rather it must renounce them wholly, having its eyes fixed on that spiritual good alone which they effect, labouring to preserve it in good works, and employing itself in that which is purely for the service of God without reference to these visions, and without seeking for sensible sweetness. In this way we shall reap from these visions that fruit only which God intends and wills, a spirit of devotion, for that is the chief end, and none other, for which He sends them; and we shall also pass by

that which He too would have passed by, if we could without

it have received the blessings He intends to confer, namely, the usage and appliance of sense.