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Many imperfections remain even in those who have advanced in the
way of God. If their sensibility has been to a great extent purged
of the faults of spiritual sensuality, inertia, jealousy,
impatience, yet there still remain in the spirit certain 'stains
of the old man' which are like rust on the soul, a rust which will
only disappear under the action of an intense fire, similar to
that which came down upon the Apostles on the day of Pentecost.
This comparison is made by St. John of the Cross. [104]
This rust remains deep down in the spiritual faculties of the
soul, in the intelligence and the will; and it consists in an
attachment to self which prevents the soul from being completely
united to God. Hence it is that we are often distracted in prayer,
that we are subject to sluggishness, to a failure to understand
the things of God, to the dissipation of the spirit, and to
natural affections which are hardly, if at all, inspired by the
motive of charity. Movements of roughness and impatience are not
rare at this stage. Moreover, many souls, even among those that
are advanced in the way of God, remain too much attached to their
own point of view in the spiritual life; they imagine that they
have received special inspirations from God, whereas they are in
reality the victims of their own imagination or of the enemy of
all good. They thus become puffed up with presumption, spiritual
pride and vanity; they depart from the true path and lead other
souls astray.
As St. John of the Cross says, this catalogue of faults is
inexhaustible; and he confines his attention almost exclusively to
those defects which relate to the purely interior life. How much
longer would the catalogue be if we considered also the faults
which offend against fraternal charity, against justice in our
relations with our superiors, our equals or our inferiors, and
those which relate to the duties of our state and to the influence
which we may exert upon others.
Together with spiritual pride there remains often in the soul
intellectual pride, jealousy, or some hidden ambition. The seven
capital sins are thus transposed into the life of the spirit, to
its great detriment.
All this, says St. John of the Cross, shows the need of the
'strong lye,' that passive purgation of the spirit, that further
conversion which marks the entrance into the perfect way. Even
after passing through the night of the senses, St. John says,
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'these proficients are still at a very low stage of progress, and
follow their own nature closely in the intercourse and dealings
which they have with God; because the gold of their spirit is not
yet purified and refined; they still think of God as little
children, and feel and experience God as little children, even as
St. Paul says, because they have not reached perfection, which is
the union of the soul with God. In the state of union, however,
they will work great things in the spirit, even as grown men, and
their works and faculties will then be divine rather than human.'
[105]
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Before this third conversion has taken place we may still
say of these souls, in the words of Isaias, that their justices
are as a soiled rag; a further, and final, purification is
necessary.
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