MAN IN GOD

WE can be, then, even in this life, as the Apostle does not cease to remind us, sons of God, and become by grace and participation what God is by nature: divinae consortes naturae — partakers of the divine nature (2 Peter i, 4).

This transformation of the soul has already begun in everyone whom the sacraments have purified from sin. But in the case of those who pursue the way of sanctity to its term, it attains a mysterious consummation, which would appear to be beyond definition, for the soul no longer seems itself: I live, now not I, but Christ liveth in me (Galatians ii, 20).

Arrived at this degree of union, the soul, filled with light and carried away with love, is unable to find words with which to express what it experiences. The texts of Scripture have taken on for it a new wonder and a fragrance hitherto unknown.

The divine sonship by adoption of the Christian soul is only too often a theme worn thread-bare by theologians when dealing with the subject of grace. But these same propositions that endeavour to explain the prerogatives of the just sound altogether different to those who, prepared for it by a life of renunciation and contemplation, have personal knowledge of the divine indwelling. That divine life is like a fruit of whose bounty many get a glimpse but only those who are dead to themselves and generously faithful can taste its real sweetness. Fructus ejus dulcis gutturi meo — his fruit was sweet to my palate (Canticle of Canticles ii, 3). Although such a soul remains unquestionably distinct from God substantially as in operation, still it is transformed in him by faith and love. Per fidem et caritatem sic conjungimur Christo quod transformamur in ipsum (St Thomas on John VI, Bk. 7). For this reason, all that we say of the only-begotten Son absolutely, can be said by participation — that is, according to the union of love — of the sons by adoption, who have been incorporated in him.

When such souls, in the enjoyment of the divine union, speak of their interior state, it would seem sometimes — to hear them — that they think themselves freed from all the bonds which are necessarily inherent in the creature, or from that frailty which human nature can never lose while here on earth. But we have to understand the language of such souls who, forgetting themselves and being turned completely towards the divine object, are absorbed by its splendour. If we say that we have no sin, says St John humbly, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us (I John i, 8). Nonetheless, to those who are born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God is given the power to become the sons of God (John I, 12-13). And so, inasmuch as we are born of God, and inasmuch as we have received the Holy Spirit and through him the divine life, we shall taste even now the eternal victory, which that same St John calls 'a present joy'. 'The Holy Spirit' says St Thomas, 'is a spiritual seed which proceeds from the Father, and that is why he can generate in us the divine life, and make us sons of God (St Thomas on Epist. to the Romans VIII). Omnis qui natus est ex Deo peccatum non facit, quoniam semen Dei manet in eo — whosoever is born of God committeth not sin, for his seed abideth in him (I John iii, 9).

In the soul that abandons itself and gives its consent to the complete sacrifice in which all love finds its fulfilment, is realized more and more fully that spiritual generation which is nothing less than a reflection altogether supernatural of the eternal generation of the Word. Such a soul no longer belongs to earthy generations: it is no longer a child of the flesh, nor of its own will, but moment by moment is born of God. It lives the divine life; it knows God with the knowledge whereby God knows himself, and loves him with the love with which he loves himself. It is changed into Truth, into perfect praise; it is uttered with the Word. And, finally, it conforms to the archetype included from all eternity in the divine Mind. It is exactly what God wills. In it is verified the prophetic word of the inspired Book: I shall dwell in thee because I have chosen thee; thou shalt be my rest for all eternity. As the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, so shall thy God rejoice over thee (cf. Isaias lxii, 5).

A soul transformed in Christ is obedient. Its submission to the Father is spontaneous like the beating of its heart. It follows the divine inspiration without deviation or calculation, with a movement so direct and so prompt that the world marvels at it. For the ways of the world are complicated, and the steps of human prudence are uncertain. But he who dwells in perfect humility is completely pliant under the mysterious breath of the Spirit. For whosoever are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God (Romans viii, 14).

The soul hears the voice of the Master: Maria audiebat verbum Domini (Luke x, 39). It gives itself up to that occupation, of which it will never more be deprived: . . . qui non auferetur ab ea (Luke x, 42). Far removed from earthy cares, it is wholly abandoned to the divine will and altogether silent. So silent that it may forget itself, forget the name by which it is known. Thou shalt be called by a new name, which the mouth of the Lord shall name ... thou shalt be called My Pleasure in thee, because the Lord hath been well pleased with thee (cf. Isaias lxii, 2 and 4).

This multiplication of life is a kind of perpetual miracle, of which all other miracles are only a figure. Divine love is reproduced in souls and, without in any way being divided in itself or exhausted, pours out upon them its essential treasure. Every child of God receives the fulness of the graces of which it stands in need, and can expect its desire to be balanced by the light it receives.

True, the act of a creature remains finite, but the divine object which it enjoys in that fulness is infinite. That is why the soul is, as it were, saturated and, according to the word of the contemplatives, 'seems to have all the rights and all the prerogatives of the only Son of God' (Consummate). 'It now only sees unity' (Suso). My dove, my perfect one, is but one (Canticle of Canticles vi, 8). All the divine secrets of which such a soul is guardian, all the graces with which it is enriched, are for it comprised in this single phrase: This is my beloved Son (Matthew iii, 17).

We live, it is true, in a world of enigmas. God dwells in us in a manner always hidden. It is in a deep shadow that, by his love, he manifests himself to souls who live in union with him. Theologians speak very truly of a 'hidden experience which, although obscure, makes us feel that our soul is living in contact with a higher life, permitting us to enjoy really and truly the presence of the divine Persons' (John of St Thomas in I.P. q.43. Disp. 7, no. 14); but 'through a veil which will never be torn here below'. It is given to us to 'taste God' — pati divina — experimentally (Ibid. no. 12); but only in a dark manner. The beloved is present to us, as the Canticle of Canticles says, quasi stans post parietem — behind the wall (Canticle of Canticles ii, 9). Truly, thou art a hidden God (Isaias xlv, 15).

Nevertheless, the soul, docile to the teachings of divine Love, understands the word of Christ: All things whatsoever I have heard of my Father, I have made known to you (John xv, 15). In faith, in the impenetrable depths of pure faith, God gives to the soul a presentment of those truths hidden in himself, which will one day be our beatitude. This 'all' that Jesus makes known to us, says St Gregory the Great, 'are the interior joys of charity and the delights of heaven that he discloses to us day by day by the inspirations of his love. By the fact that we love all the joys of heaven, we already know them; for love itself is knowledge: quia ipse amor notitia est.

I will give thee hidden treasures and the concealed riches of secret places . . . The wisdom of God in a mystery, a wisdom which is hidden, which God ordained before the world, unto our glory . . . that eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, nor has it entered into the heart of man . . . to us God hath revealed them by his Spirit. For the Spirit searcheth all things, yea the deep things of God (Isaias xlv, 3; I Corinthians ii, 7-10).

This wisdom is the reflection in the intellect of the love with which the soul is altogether penetrated, like a fire which consumes and divinizes. In fuoco amor me mise. Or, better, as St Catherine of Siena says: La mia natura è fuoco. It is enough to be on fire in order to cause other fires, near and far. For many waters cannot quench charity . . . the lamps thereof are fire and flames (Canticle of Canticles viii, 6-7). I am come to cast fire on the earth, and what will I but that it be kindled (Luke xii, 49). Our God is a consuming fire (Deuteronomy iv, 24).

That such souls should produce nothing in the eyes of men, or that they should spend themselves in a thousand works, means nothing to them. Indeed, they do but one thing: they live in God. Such is their work. It is the Father who works in them: Pater in me manens, ipse facit opera — the Father who abideth in me, he doth the works (John xiv, 10).

Such souls, then, are 'simple with the Simple'; and if they gaze deep within themselves discover there an abyss of simplicity that nothing can disturb. It is just that simplicity which constitutes their treasure and strength, and their inexhaustible joy. They rest in the purity of God. Who will give me wings like a dove, and I will fly and be at rest (Psalm 1iv, 7). Be ye simple as doves (Matthew x, 16).

And it is because it is simple that the soul is still. No one in this life is absolutely proof against temptations and faults, but when, by an excess of divine goodness, our gaze penetrates the mystery of the divine filiation in us, we cannot feel fear. Fear is not in charity (I John iv, 18). I am sure that neither death nor life . . . shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus, Our Lord (Romans viii, 38-39).

A soul given over to divine Love possesses this intoxicating knowledge: that its enemies are only mortal; that is to say, things which are not. And he whom it has taken for a friend and lover, who is its centre and form, its all and only love, is he who is (Exodus iii, 14). Such a soul laughs, with the Apostle, at life and death, at the present and future, at principalities and powers, for its joy is vaster than all the oceans, and its peace deeper than all the depths.

The spirit of man longs to pass beyond finite things. It can only breathe freely if it can at last raise itself above time and number and space. We are frail, and our eyes are weak until they are turned towards the Sun of Being. But when the intellect is at last replete with eternity, it finds again that 'delightful health', that equilibrium of our first parents, for which it has felt so persistently a mysterious longing. Being rooted and founded in charity, we are able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth: to know also the charity of Christ, which surpasseth all knowledge . . . we are filled unto all the fulness of God (Ephesians iii, 17-19). The influence radiating from these centres of charity is incalculable, for by virtue of their union with Christ, such souls are the spouses of the King: they save the world.

And thus, by acting solely in God and with and for him, the man of prayer places himself at the centre of hearts. His influence is world-wide : he gives to all the fulness of grace with which he himself is filled. He that believeth in me, as the Scripture saith: out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water (John vii, 38). Now this he said, adds St John, of the Spirit, which they should receive who believed in him (John vii, 39). Having become perfect man, he sees accomplished in himself the desire of humanity; one with Christ, he becomes, so to speak, the well-Beloved himself, the desire of the everlasting hills (Genesis xlix, 26).

With much more reason than the Latin poet can he say that he is a man, and that nothing human is foreign to him (Homo sum : humani nihil a me alienum puto. Terence: Heauton I, 1.25). He possesses treasures for all who are in need; wine and milk for all who thirst; sacred and healing balm for all who are wounded.

He who is lost in the embrace of the divine Essence, who allows himself to be born anew together with Christ according to the will of the Father, becomes, indeed, a consoler of souls. He gives to others, expecting no return, the eternal happiness with which he is aflame. He enlightens and warms the world, because his only care is for God. He can apply to himself the prophetic words: The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because the Lord hath anointed me. He hath sent me to preach to the meek, to heal the contrite of heart, and to preach release to captives and deliverance to them that are in bondage (cf. Isaiah lxi, 1).

He who possesses God possesses in him everything — the archangels, the grains of dust, the centuries past and to come. So St Thomas does not hesitate to apply to the sanctified soul the words of the Psalmist: Thou hast subjected all things under his feet (Psalm viii, 8), as we read in the passage in his Commentary on the Epistle to the Corinthians where he explains the verse: For all things are yours . . . whether it be . . . the world, or life, or death, or things present or things to come (I Corinthians iii, 22).

The stability of a soul that has truly found God in itself and is buried in him, defies all created powers. Henceforth, it is placed in the single centre where the lines of the strength of divine Providence converge. Formerly, it depended upon circumstances and events, but it would seem that now all things serve and obey it. 'All that comes to pass' says the Angelic Doctor (St Thomas: In Ep. ad Rom. VIII), 'serves the universal order, and that is why nothing exists which has not as its end these heights, the wonders of which surpass all creation ...' It is to the saints of God that we can apply those words in the Gospel: Super omnia bona sua constituet eum (Matthew xxiv, 47); and St Paul's: We know that to them that love God all things work together unto good; to such as, according to his purpose, are called to be saints (Romans viii, 28).

The mind, entirely penetrated by the light of the Word, henceforth enjoys a great liberty. It is raised above the judgments and opinions of the world for, in the light in which God has established it, the foolishness of these things appears to it with a clearness which allows of no hesitation. The Lord knoweth the thoughts of men that they are vain . . . And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free (Psalm xciii, 11; John viii, 32). Thus transformed, the soul dominates the fluctuations of selfishness and interested complacences. It has no more regrets, no consolations that it can call its own. Its only aim and desire now is the greater glory of God, and it seeks with all its strength to serve him. For what have I in heaven, and besides thee what do I desire upon earth (Psalm lxxii, 25).

The soul thus divinized lives in a sacred depth, for its life is buried with Christ in God: Vita vestra abscondita est cum Christo in Deo (Colossians iii, 3). Such a one is hidden from the sight of men but knows himself known to God, just as he knows that God recognizes himself in him: Sicut novit me Pater, et ego agnosco eum — as the Father knoweth me, and I know the Father (John x, 15). The Holy Spirit now makes him say unceasingly Abba, Father, and his whole life is given to recognizing this Paternity. That word from the depths of his soul is the offering the Father accepts above all others. As the Father hath taught me these things, I speak, and he hath not left me alone. For I do always the things that please him (John viii, 28 and 29).

All souls ennobled with the dignity of sons of God are one in the communion of saints, and thereby form the Mystical Body of Christ. Each of them represents the whole human race; each one is a Christ. And their union, even in this life, constitutes but one Christ, the only-begotten Son, in whom all things are gathered and return to the Father. Particeps sum omnium timentium to — I am a partaker with all them that fear thee (Psalm cxviii, 63) . . . That he might make known unto us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure which he hath purposed in him; in the dispensation of the fulness of times, to re-establish all things in Christ, that are in heaven and on earth, in him. In whom we also are called ... to be unto the praise of his glory (Ephesians i, 9-12).

This is the dawn of eternal life. That life, which the transformed soul begins even in this life, is a participation in the life of the most Blessed Trinity. Of the inner secrets of that mysterious communication of the divine life we have, when all is said and done, explained nothing. Nor will we attempt to do so of ourselves, or stretch out an over-bold hand towards the veil which hides the glory of the sanctified soul. Super omnem gloriam protectio - for over all the glory shall be a protection (Isaias iv, 5). To attempt to write in unsanctioned words the absolute character of that eternal union which silent love demands, anticipates and possesses even now, would be a profanation. Let us, then, allow him whom the Church calls the Mystical Doctor to utter the words which will leave us at the threshold of the ultimate secret.

'It is only in heaven that the soul will know God as it is known by him, and love him as it is loved by him. Then, indeed, will its love be none other than the love of God itself . . . Then will the soul love with the will and strength of his love . . . and there will be only one love, namely the love of God. Until the soul arrives at this consummation, it is not satisfied. . .

'It is by the Holy Spirit' continues the same Mystical Doctor, 'that the soul in heaven will be able to breathe in God with the same aspiration of love which the Father breathes with the Son and the Son with the Father, which is the Holy Spirit himself . . . For the soul's consummation would not be a true and total one, were it not transformed in the three Persons of the Blessed Trinity, in a clear and manifest manner. And even when that communication is received in this life, no mortal tongue can describe it, for the soul, united with God and transformed in him, breathes God in God, and that aspiration is that of God himself (St John of the Cross: Spiritual Canticle, stanza 38).

'As soon as God has bestowed upon the soul so great a favour as to unite it to the most Blessed Trinity, whereby it becomes like unto God and God by participation, is it altogether incredible that it should exercise the faculties of its understanding and perform its acts of knowledge and love — or, to speak more accurately, should have it all done in the Trinity together with It — as the Blessed Trinity Itself? Is it not in order to allow the soul to attain to such a life that God created it in his own image and likeness? But no knowledge, no intellectual power can explain that mystery . . . Yet the Son of God has obtained for us such a grace, in giving us the power to become children of God. It was his express request of the Father: Father, I will that where I am, they also whom thou hast given me may be with me (cf. John xvii, 24). Which is the same as saying that they (the souls) may do by participation in the Blessed Trinity what Jesus does naturally: that is, breathe the Holy Spirit' (St John of the Cross: Spiritual Canticle, stanza 39).

And Jesus goes on to say: Not for them only do I pray, but for them also who through their word shall believe in me: that they all may be one, as thou, Father, in me and I in thee, that they also may be one in us . . . I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one. I pray for them whom thou hast given me, for they are thine. All that is mine is thine, and thine is mine, and I am glorified in them . . . Holy Father, keep them in thy Name, whom thou hast given me, that they may be one as we also are one (cf. John xvii, 9-11; 20-23).

The Spirit and the Bride say: Come. And he that heareth, let him say: Come ... Behold I come quickly, and my reward with me. Amen: come, Lord Jesus ... (cf. Apocalypse xxii, 17-20).

*****