FROM MAN TO GOD

And so the divine life pours itself out for us with an incomprehensible liberality. If these waves of love do not penetrate our hearts it is because the latter are filled with created vanities. The divine light is completely compelling of itself, and if we are not aware of it it is because our own life, the feeble life of our ego, keeps us in our blindness. Man shall not see God and live (Exodus xxxiii, 20).

The first phase in our spiritual life is to empty ourselves of ourselves by a ceaseless and merciless war against every form of self-love. For sin, in sundering the bond between the Creator and the creature has destroyed the interior harmonies of the latter. Our life, separated from its Source, is utterly disorientated and disturbed. We are in revolt against God, and hence our senses are in revolt against reason.

By nature, our hearts should be turned towards God: os homini sublime dedit (Ovid: Metamorphoses, I, 85). Instead, however, of keeping them in the divine light we have be-come earthbound, and the desire for material things has captivated us. But God made men up-right, as the Scripture says: Lo, this only have I found, that God hath made man upright (cf. Ecclesiastes vii, 30). It is in order to get back that first rectitude that we must fight against our twisted nature and our disordered senses. I chastise my body and bring it into subjection . . . If any man will come after me, let him take up his cross daily, and follow me (I Corinthians ix, 27; Luke ix, 23).

This is not the work of a day. Each one of us must climb his own Calvary step by step; must lay himself down upon the cross of sacrifice for a long agony, and endeavour with all his fallen nature to die. To this work of purification we must bring a constant, uninterrupted application, and even when we think we have at last won the day, we still have to keep a ceaseless watch over ourselves. For the lower forces of our being are ever ready to rebel, and with one moment of relaxation we shall see them regain that tyrannical domination from which we have suffered so long. With courage and determination we must drink the deathly chalice of which Christ our elder brother drank before us; and bow our heads under the sword red with the Blood of the Lamb. Because for thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are counted as sheep for the slaughter (Psalm xliii, 22).

But the body is not our deadliest enemy, nor the most tenacious. Sin has penetrated in us more deeply still. It is at the very centre of our mind that it has planted pride. It is there in truth that self-love hides its elusive roots; and if to all outward appearances we seem dead to self, we may never forget that the deep germ of the evil has lost nothing of its virulence. The terrific battle between the Spirit of God and our own spirit takes place in our heart, and its issue, favourable or otherwise, will fix our destiny.

Anyone who wishes to live in keeping with his dignity as a reasonable being must undertake this struggle. The sages of antiquity have given us an example of it, but the combat in which mere nature endeavoured to triumph over itself could only end in that barely disguised self-esteem, in that vanity with which the virtue of the greatest Stoics left off. For us, the means are indicated by that Revelation which calls us to our divine inheritance, and it is from Christ alone that those means will come to us.

Perilous will be the illusion of those who think that they can, by their own efforts, raise themselves to that higher life in the supernatural order to which we are called. Most certainly we have to make every effort on our own part, but it is grace which calls forth those efforts, and accompanies and sustains them. It is grace also which crowns them. Deus est qui operatur in nobis et velle et perficere — it is God who worketh in us, both to will and to accomplish (cf. Philippians ii, 13) . . . Not by the works of justice which we have done, but according to his mercy, he saved us (Titus iii, 5).

To understand this doctrine is one of the greatest favours we can receive from the liberality of the divine Master. And that knowledge of our nothingness is at the same time the freest of gifts, and the reward which follows inevitably in proportion to our generous and sustained efforts. In the struggle with ourselves there will always be some victories, but if we push our endeavours still further, we shall understand more and more the immense task which remains for us to carry through, and the absurd inadequacy of our doubtful conquests. It is then, at last, that we turn utterly to God, certain henceforth that of ourselves we can do nothing, abandoning ourselves to his all-powerful and beneficent action. Convinced of our nothingness, we shall lose ourselves in the certitude that God is all.

Even our failures and our faults will thus become the cause and occasion of our final victory. And the tears in which we have bathed our faults will be the initial baptism of a life of abandonment and pure confidence, and our weakness will be our strength. Gladly, therefore, will I glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may dwell in me ... for when I am weak, then am I powerful . . . My grace is sufficient for thee . . . I can do all things in him who strengtheneth me (2 Corinthians xii, 9-10; Philippians iv, 13).

Christ not only gives us the means to attain our end: it is through him that we must pass: Ego sum ostium — I am the door (John x, 9). He himself is the Way: I am the Way . . . no man cometh to the Father but by me (John xiv, 6).

Our intimacy with the Lamb will purify us. It is the clean of heart who will, already here below, see God (cf. Matthew v, 8). Their inner vision will begin to catch something of the eternal glory, that light which enlighteneth every man that cometh into this world (John i, 9). They will at last have the strength to allow themselves to be wholly taken by God, and he who is already their Way will show himself to them as the Truth and the Life. Now this is eternal life, that they may know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent (John xvii, 3).

And so, dead to ourselves, we shall begin to live in God. Unless the grain of wheat falling into the ground die, itself remaineth alone. But if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit . . . I am the resurrection and the life; he that believeth in me, although he be dead shall live (John xii, 24-25; John xi, 25). Having overcome the trials of the first part of the way which leads to divine union, we hear the voice of the Saviour saying: Amice, ascende superius — friend, go up higher (Luke xiv, 10). Then the breath of the Holy Spirit will fill our soul with gifts and virtues, which will purify it and ennoble it, like a heavenly, healing balm. Surge, aquilo, et veni auster; perfla hortum meum et fluent aromata illius — Arise, O north wind, and come O south wind: blow through my garden, and let the aromatical spices thereof flow (Canticle of Canticles iv, 16).

The soul is thus ready to be penetrated with the uncreated light. Illumined and ablaze with these supernatural rays, we begin already on earth to taste the inheritance of the sons of God. That the Father of glory may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and of revelation, in the knowledge of him; the eyes of your heart enlightened, that you may know what is the hope of his calling, and what are the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness of his power towards us (Ephesians i, 17-19) ... For the Spirit himself giveth testimony to our spirit that we are the sons of God. And if sons, heirs also: heirs, indeed, of God and joint heirs with Christ; yet so, if we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified with him (Romans viii, 16-17).