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The mentality of proficients, like that of the preceding, must be
described in function of their knowledge and love of God. With
their self-knowledge there is developed in them a quasi-
experimental knowledge of God. They know Him, no longer merely in
the mirror of the things of sense or of parables, but in the
mirror of the mysteries of salvation, with which they become more
and more familiar and which the Rosary, the school of
contemplation, sets daily before their eyes. The greatness of God
is contemplated now, no longer merely in the mirror of the starry
heavens, in the sea or the mountains, no longer merely in the
parables of the Good Shepherd or the Prodigal Son, but in the
incomparably more perfect mirror of the mysteries of the
Incarnation and the Redemption. [149] To use the terminology of
Dionysius, employed also by St. Thomas, [150] the soul rises in a
spiral movement, from the mystery of the Incarnation or the
Infancy of Jesus, to those of His Passion, His Resurrection, His
Ascension and His Glory; and in these mysteries it contemplates
the radiance of the sovereign Goodness of God, thus admirably
communicating itself to us. In this contemplation, which is more
or less frequent, the proficients receive an abundance of light --
in proportion to their fidelity and generosity -- through the gift
of understanding, which enables them to penetrate more and more
deeply into these mysteries, and to appreciate their beauty, at
once so simple and so sublime.
In the preceding period or stage God had won over their
sensibility; now He thoroughly subjugates their intelligence to
Himself, raising it above the excessive preoccupations and
complications of merely human knowledge. He simplifies their
knowledge by spiritualizing it.
Accordingly, and as a normal consequence, these proficients being
thus enlightened concerning the mysteries of the life of Christ,
love God, not only by avoiding mortal sin and deliberate venial
sin, but by imitating the virtues of our Lord. His humility,
gentleness, patience; and by observing not only those commandments
that are laid upon all, but also the evangelical counsels of
poverty, chastity and obedience, or at any rate by keeping the
spirit of these counsels, and by avoiding imperfections.
As happened in the preceding period, this generosity is rewarded,
but no longer by merely sensible consolations, but by a greater
abundance of light in contemplation and in the work of the
apostolate; by intense desires for the glory of God and the
salvation of souls, and by a greater facility in prayer. Not
infrequently we find in the proficients the prayer of Quiet, in
which the will is momentarily held captive by the love of God.
This period is marked also by a great facility in doing works for
God, such as teaching, directing, organizing, and the rest. This
is to love God, not only with the whole heart, but with the whole
soul, with the whole of one's activities; but not yet with the
whole strength, nor with the whole mind, because God has not yet
achieved complete dominion in that higher region of the soul which
we call the spirit.
And what happens generally at this stage? Something similar to
what happened in the case of the beginners who had been rewarded
with sensible consolations. The proficient begins to take
complacency -- by reason of an unconscious pride -- in this great
facility in prayer, working, teaching, or preaching. He tends to
forget that these are God's gifts, and he rejoices in them with a
proprietary air which ill beseems one who adores in spirit and in
truth. It is true that he is working for God, he is working for
souls; but he has not yet sufficiently forgotten himself. An
unconscious self-seeking and self-importance cause him to
dissipate himself and to lose the sense of the presence of God. He
thinks that his labours are being very fruitful; but it is not
quite certain. He is becoming too sure of himself, he gives
himself too much importance and is perhaps inclined to exaggerate
his own talents, to forget his own imperfection and to be too
greatly aware of the imperfections of others. Purity of intention,
true recollection, perfect straightforwardness, are often lacking;
there is something of a lie in his life.
as Tauler puts it,
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'does not belong entirely to God.'
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God is
offered an intention which really is only half given to Him. St.
John of the Cross mentions these defects of proficients as they
are found in pure contemplatives, who, he says,
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'believe in vain
visions... and presume that God and the saints are speaking with
them,' [151]
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being deceived by the ruses of the evil one. Not less
notable are the defects, mentioned, for example, by St. Alphonsus,
which are found in apostolic men entrusted with the care of souls.
These defects in proficients become manifest especially in the
obstacles which they are called upon to meet, or in differences of
opinion which, even at this advanced period of the spiritual life,
may cause vocations to be lost. It then becomes evident that the
presence of God is not sufficiently borne in mind, and that in the
search for God it is the self which is really being sought. Hence
the need of a third purgation; hence the need of that 'strong lye'
of the purgation of the spirit, in order to cleanse the very depth
of the spiritual faculties.
Without this third conversion there is no entrance into the life
of union, which is the adult age, the manhood of the spiritual
life.
This new crisis is described by St. John of the Cross [152] in all
its depth and acuteness, as it occurs in the great contemplatives
who, in point of fact, usually suffer not only for the sake of
their own purification, but for the souls for whom they have
offered themselves. The same trial occurs also in proficients of
the apostolic type, generous souls who have reached a high
perfection, but it is generally less obvious in them since it is
mingled with the sufferings incident to their apostolic labours.
In what does this crisis essentially consist? -- In the soul being
deprived, not only of sensible consolations, but of its
supernatural lights on the mysteries of salvation, of its ardent
desires, of that facility in action, in preaching and in teaching,
in which it had felt a secret pride and complacency, and by reason
of which it had been inclined to set itself above others. This is
a period of extreme aridity not only as regards the senses, but as
regards the spirit, in prayer and the recitation of the office.
Temptations frequently occur during this stage, not precisely
against chastity or patience now, but against the virtues that
reside in the higher part of the soul, against faith, hope and
charity towards one's neighbour, and even against charity towards
God, whom the soul is tempted to regard as cruel for trying souls
in such a crucible of torment. Generally during this period great
difficulties occur in connection with the apostolate. detraction,
failures, checks. It will often happen that the apostle is made to
suffer calumnies and ingratitude, even from those souls to whom he
has done much good, so that he may thus be brought to love them
more exclusively in God and for God's sake. Hence this crisis, or
passive purgation of the spirit, is like a mystical death; it is
the death of the old man, according to the words of St. Paul:
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'Our
old mall is crucified with Jesus Christ, that the body of sin may
be destroyed.' [153]
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It is necessary to
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'put off... the old man
who is corrupted according to the desire of error, and be renewed
in the spirit of your mind, putting on the new man who according
to God is created in justice and holiness of truth.'[154]
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All this is profoundly logical; it is the logical development of
the supernatural life.
says St. John of the Cross,
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'in the stress of this purgation the soul feels itself wounded and
hurt by strong love. It is a heat that is engendered in the
spirit, when the soul, overcome with sufferings, is grievously
wounded by the divine love. '
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The love of God is as a fire that
progressively dries up the wood, penetrates it, sets it alight and
transforms it into itself. [155] The trials of this period are
permitted by God in order to lead proficients to a more lofty
faith, to a firmer hope, and to a purer love; for it is absolutely
necessary that the depth of their soul should belong completely to
God. This is the meaning of the words of Scripture:
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'As gold in
the furnace he hath proved them, and as a victim of a holocaust he
hath received them.' [156]
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'The just cried and the Lord heard
them; and delivered them out of all their troubles. The Lord is
nigh unto them that are of a contrite heart.... Many are the
afflictions of the just; but out of them all will the Lord deliver
them.' [157]
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This crisis, like the preceding, is not without its dangers; it
calls for great courage and vigilance, for a faith sometimes
reaching to heroism, a hope against all hope, transforming itself
into perfect abandonment. For the third time God tills the ground
of the soul, but this time much more deeply, so deeply indeed that
the soul seems overwhelmed by these afflictions of the spirit,
afflictions similar to those often described by the prophets, in
particular by Jeremias in the third chapter of the Lamentations.
He who passes through this crisis, loves God, not only with all
his heart and all his soul, but according to the scale of the
Scriptural phrase, with all his strength; and he now prepares to
love Him 'with all his mind,' to become an 'adorer in spirit and
in truth,' that higher part of the soul which should control the
whole of our activity being now in some sort established in God.
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