Third Sermon for the Feast of the Ascension: On the Enlightenment of the Intellect by Christ and the Purification of the Will by the Hoy Spirit

“ It is expedient to you that I go, for if I go not the Pavaclete will not come to you ; but if I go I will send Him to you.” —John xvi. 7.

To-day, my brethren, the Lord of heaven has mounted up, by His own divine power, to the highest height of heaven ; and casting off, as if it were a cloud, the weakness of the flesh, has put on the garments of His glory (Is. lii. 1). The Sun of Justice has ascended at His rising, increasing in warmth and power; His rays are multiplied and far-flung on the earth, “and there is no one that can hide himself from His heat ”’ (Ps. xviii. 7). The Wisdom of God has returned to Wisdom’s home, whose inmates all both understand and seek the good (Ps. xiii. 2), being most perspicacious in mind and most ready in will to understand and “ to hearken to the voice of His orders” (Ps. cii. 20). As for us, we still abide in this lower region, where malice abounds and there is but little wisdom, “‘ for the corruptible body is a load upon the soul, and the earthly habitation presseth down the sense (sensum) that museth upon many things ” (Wisdom ix. 15). In my opinion, the word “sense” in this passage must be understood as signifying the intellect, which is then in truth “ pressed down” when it “ museth upon

ENLIGHTENMENT OF THE INTELLECT 241 many things,” that is to say, when it does not concentrate itself wholly on that one and unique consideration which concerns the ‘‘city wherein all are united together ” (Ps. cxxi. 3). Such an intellect must of necessity be oppressed and distracted by a multitude of objects in many and various ways. It seems to me also that by “‘soul’”’ we must here understand the affections of the soul, which, owing to the corruption of the body by sin, have become inordinate and are converted into blind passions, so that they cannot be restrained, much less reformed, until the will learns to love the One and to strive after the One.

Accordingly, there are two things within us which need to be purified, our intellect, namely, and our will: our intellect that it may know as it ought to know, our will that it may love as it ought to love. Happy and truly blessed are the two men, Elias and Enoch, who have been separated from all the objects and occasions capable of seducing their intellect and will; for living to God alone, they know nothing except God, and desire nothing except God. Hence we read of Enoch that “he was taken away lest wickedness should alter his understanding or deceit beguile his soul a (Wisdom iv. 11). But our intellect has been clouded, not to say darkened ; and our will has been stained, yea, covered with defilement. Christ, however, is now enlightening the one, and the Holy Spirit purifying the other. For the Son of God came to us and wrought such and so many wonders in the world as are well calculated to draw away our minds from earthly things : to the end that we may always think, and feel we can never think enough, of the marvellous

IL. 17 things He has done for us. Truly He has left us a most spacious field for the activity of our understanding— an exceedingly deep torrent of thoughts, which, according to the Prophet (Ezech. xlvii. 5), cannot be passed over. For who can conceive worthy thoughts of these things: how the Lord of the universe prevented us, visited us, assisted us; how that Sovereign Majesty willed to die that we might live, willed to serve that we might reign, willed to suffer exile that we might be brought home, willed to stoop to the meanest services that He might set us over all the works of His hands (Ps. viii. 7) ?

The Lord of the apostles revealed Himself to the apostles in such a manner that it could be no longer said of them that they saw “the invisible things of God, being understood by the things that are made ” (Rom. i. 20), for they saw Him face to face Who made all things both visible and invisible. But inasmuch as the disciples were carnal, whilst God is a Spirit, and spirit and flesh have little in common, He used the medium of a body to temper His brightness to their eyes, so that through a living veil of flesh they might see the Word in the flesh, the Sun of Justice in a cloud, the Light of the world in an earthen vessel, the Candle in a lantern. For “a Spirit before our face is Christ the Lord, to Whom we said: under Thy shadow we shall live among the gentiles,” (Lament. iv. 20). “ Under Thy shadow,” it is said, “ we shall live among the gentiles,” not among the angels, for when we are amongst them our eyes shall be perfectly pure, so that we shall be able to see the Light in Its perfect purity. Hence also it was that the power of the Most High overshadowed Mary (Luke i. 35), lest otherwise

ENLIGHTENMENT OF THE INTELLECT 243 even her eagle eye should bedazzled and oppressed by the intolerable splendour and brightness of Divinity. | But the reason why the Lord showed Himself in the flesh to His disciples was this: in order to withdraw their thoughts and affections gradually from earthly things, attaching them at first to His own sacred Flesh (by Which, as they perceived, He spoke and wrought so many wonders), so that thence He might lift them up to a purely spiritual love of Himself: for “ God is a Spirit, and they that adore Him must adore Him in spirit and in truth ” (John iv. 24).* Did He not, think you, enlighten their intellect when “ He opened their understanding that they might understand the Scriptures ” (Luke xxiv. 45) making known to them that “ Christ ought to have suffered these things and so to enter into His glory ” (ibid. 26) ?

The disciples, however, being so tenderly attached to His most holy Humanity, could not bear to hear a word about His departure from them, could not bear to hear Him speak of leaving them, who for His sake had left all things (Matt. xix. 27). Wherefore this ?

Because although their intellect had been enlightened, their will was not as yet purified. Hence their gracious Master kindly and sweetly consoles them, saying, “ Because I have spoken these things to you, sorrow hath filled your heart. But I tell you the truth: it is expedient to you that I go, for if I go not the Paraclete will not come to you” (John xvi. 6, 7). How is it, my brethren, that so long as Christ abode on earth the Paraclete could not come to them? Is it that the Holy Spirit abhorred the companionship of that Flesh Which by Him and through Him was conceived in and born of the Virgin Mother? God forbid that we should think so! No, He tarried because the purpose of His coming was in order to point out to us the way in which we should walk, and to impress upon us the form wherewith we should be sealed.* For the Lord Jesus, having mounted into heaven amidst the tears and lamentations of the disciples, sent down upon them the Holy Spirit, Who purified or rather transformed their affection, that is to say, their will, in such sort that they who before would have retained their dear Master amongst them, were now better pleased He had ascended to the Father. Thus was fulfilled what He had Himself predicted, ‘‘ You shall be ` made sorrowful, but your sorrow shall be turned into joy ” (John xvi. 20). In this way, then, their intellect was first enlightened by Christ and their will afterwards purified by the Holy Spirit, so that they might not only know the good, but also will it.\ And this alone is | perfect religion, or shall I say, religious perfection ?

ENLIGHTENMENT OF THE INTELLECT 245

There occurs to me now that request of the holy Prophet Eliseus, how, when told by Elias that at the time of his (Elias’s) departure or ascension he might ask whatever he pleased, he made answer and said, “ I beseech thee that in me may be thy double spirit.” To this the other replied, “ Thou hast asked a hard thing. Nevertheless, if thou see me when I am taken from thee, thou shalt have what thou hast asked ; but if thou see me not, thou shalt not have it” (4 Kings li. 9, 10). Does it not seem to you, my brethren, that Elias, in his taking up, was a figure of the Lord’s ascension, and that Eliseus represented the little band of disciples, afflicted and disconsolate at the departure of Christ ? For just as Eliseus refused on any account to part from Elias, so neither could the disciples be separated from the visible presence of Christ. Scarcely did He succeed at last in convincing them that “without faith it is impossible to please God’’ * (Heb. xi. 6). What, therefore, is this double spirit prayed for, but the enlightenment of the intellect and the purification of the will? “ A hard thing,” no doubt, and not often do we find on earth one who has merited to receive it. “Nevertheless, if thou see Me when I am taken from thee, thou shalt have what thou hast asked.” Thy disciples, then, Lord Jesus, were, or need have been at no loss when, “ while they looked on,” Thou wast raised up into heaven, ‘‘mounting in the greatness of Thy strength” (Is. Ixiii. 1), and followed by their yearning eyes. Or perhaps we had better understand the “ double spirit ’’ of the promise which the Saviour made to His disciples, when He said to them, “ Amen, amen,-I say to you, he that believeth in Me, the works that I do he also shall do, and greater than these shall he do” (John xiv. 12). And in point of fact did not Peter perform greater wonders than Christ—although it was by the power of Christ—since of him it is said that ‘‘they brought forth the sick into the streets, and laid them on beds and couches, that, when Peter came, his shadow at least might overshadow any of them and they might be delivered from their infirmities ” (Acts v. 15)? But we nowhere read of any infirmities having been cured by the shadow of the Lord.

My brethren, I have no doubt that the understanding of every one of you who are now listening to me, has been sufficiently enlightened; but I have very good grounds for suspecting that not all your wills have been correspondingly purified. You all know what is the good you ought to strive after ; you know the way in which you should walk and how you should | advance therein. But not in all is found the same good will, For there are some who, as regards all the exercises of our rule of life, do not simply walk, but | run, yea, rather fly to them in the alacrity of their zeal, finding the long vigils short, and the coarse food sweet, and the poor clothes beautiful, and the hard toil not only supportable but actually pleasant. There are Others less fervent, who with a cold heart and a reluctant will can scarcely be forced by shame or by the fear of hell-fire to the performance of their religious duties. Others again there are who cannot be moved even by fear or shame: they have a brazen forehead

ENLIGHTENMENT OF THE INTELLECT 247 and will not blush (Jer. iii. 3). There are many amongst us, I say, who eat the same bread with us, who sleep under the same roof with us, who sing psalms in the same choir with us, and toil in the same field with us, and whose lot is most unhappy and pitiful, because, whilst participating with us in all our tribulation, they have no part in our consolation. Shall we suppose “the hand of the Lord is shortened ” (Is. lix. 1) so that He cannot communicate His gifts to all—He Who “openeth His hand and filleth with blessing every living creature ” (Ps. cxliv. 16)? God forbid! But what, then, is the explanation of the mystery? The explanation is this, that such religious do not see Christ when He is taken away from them. That is to say, they do not consider how He has left them orphans, how they are but “‘sojourners and strangers ” (x Par. xxix. 15) upon the earth, how they are still confined in the horrid prison of a corruptible body and are not with Christ (2 Cor. v. 6). But if monks of this kind continue long—with such dispositions—to endure the rigours of the monastic life, they will either end by being oppressed and sinking beneath the burden, or they will find themselves in a very hell upon earth, since they can never rejoice as they ought in the light of God’s mercies, or in that liberty of spirit which alone makes the yoke sweet and the burdenlight (Matt. xi. 30).

Now the source of this most dangerous tepidity will be found in an affection or will that is not yet purified : these persons have knowledge of the good, but love not the same, “being mightily drawn away and allured by their own concupiscence ” (James i. 14). For they delight in those little earthly consolations which flatter the flesh, whether they be words, or signs, or deeds, or whatever else ; and although they sometimes interrupt the evil habit, they refuse to break it off altogether.

| Hence it is that their affections are so rarely directed _to God. Here also we have the reason why their compunction is so inconstant, lasting scarce an hour, nay, scarce a moment. Now, obviously, the soul which is subject to such distractions cannot be replenished with divine grace; this is infused in greater or less degree according to the measure in which she rids herself of those. Or if you prefer to have it put in this way: there can never beany intermingling of divine with human consolations, because the oil can only descend so far as it finds the vessel empty (4 Kings iv. 6), and men will put new wine into none but new bottles so that bothmay be preserved (Mark ii. 22). Moreover, there can be no fellowship between the Spirit and the flesh, between fire and tepidity, particularly as the Lord is wont to vomit what is lukewarm out of His mouth (Apoc. iii. 16).

But, my brother, if the apostles, because of their attachment to the Flesh of the Lord (Which was singularly holy as being the Flesh of the Holy of holies) could not be filled with the Holy Ghost until that Flesh had been withdrawn from them : how canst thou think it possible for thee to receive that Spirit of infinite purity whilst thou art still wedded and devoted to thine own flesh, corrupt as it is, and full of all defilement ; whilst thou still makest no endeavour to renounce absolutely these carnal consolations? Now, it is true that when thou beginnest to mortify thyself thus, sorrow shall fill thy heart ; but if thou perseverest, thy “sorrow shall be turned into joy” (John xvi. 20). For then thy intellect shall be enlightened and thy will

ENLIGHTENMENT OF THE INTELLECT 249 renewed : or rather thy will shall be newly created, so that what before appeared difficult, nay, impossible, thou shalt accomplish now with the greatest pleasure and avidity.* ‘Thou shalt send forth Thy Spirit,”

sings the Psalmist, “and they shall be created; and

Thou shalt renew the face of the earth ” (Ps. ciii. 30).

Just as the outer man is recognised by his face, so is the inner man made known by the will. By the sending forth of the Spirit, therefore, the face of the earth is created and renewed, that is to say, the will that was earthly is changed and made heavenly, ready to obey with all promptitude every injunction of authority. Happy they that are such, who not only do not feel oppressed by the hardships of penance, but, on the contrary, experience therein a joyous expansion of heart. But as for those lukewarm religious’ of whom I was speaking a while ago, it is with reference to them that God pronounced the terrible words, “‘ My Spirit shall not remain in man for ever, because he is flesh ” (Gen. vi. 3), that is, because he has become carnal, and all that was spirit in him is in a manner changed into flesh.

It is to-day, my dearest brethren, that the Bridegroom has been taken away from us, not without much sorrow of heart on our side. Nevertheless, He is only gone that He may send us the Spirit of truth. Let us, therefore, pray with all earnestness that that Divine Spirit may find or rather may render us worthy

. * “ This path of (penance) is indeed narrow in the beginning i but when thou shalt have advanced therein and grown strong in faith, thy heart shall be enlarged, and thou shalt run in the way of God’s commandments with that unspeakable delight which charity imparts to the soul.”—Preface to the Holy Rule of St. Benedict (Mount Melleray Translation).

of His visitation and may fill the whole house where we are now sitting (Acts ii. 2), so that His grace shall “teach us of all things ”? (rt John ii. 27) and we shall not need vexation to make us understand (Is. xxviii. 19) ; and that having thus enlightened our intellect and purified our will, He may vouchsafe to come into our hearts and to make His abode with us (John xiv. 23). And as the rod of Aaron, changed into a serpent, devoured all the serpents of the magicians (Exod. vii. 12), so shall the Holy Spirit, when He comes, empty our hearts of all carnal affections and delights, and infuse into them instead His own heavenly consolations, with the result that thenceforth we shall find rest in labour, joy in affliction, glory in shame. Thus we read of them whom He filled of yore how “they went forth from the presence of the council rejoicing that they were accounted worthy to suffer reproach for the name of Jesus ” (Acts v. 41). For the Spirit of Jesus, the Good Spirit, the Holy Spirit, the “‘ Right Spirit,” the Sweet | Spirit, the “ Perfect Spirit” (Ps. l. 12, 14), will make broad and easy whatever appears narrow and hard in this wicked world: He will teach us to regard disgrace as a source of joy and contempt as exaltation. Let us, therefore, as the Prophet commands, “let us search our ways, and seek and return to the Lord; let us lift up our hearts with our hands to the Lord in the heavens ” (Lament. iii. 40, 41), so that we may rejoice the more abundantly on the approaching solemnity of the Holy Ghost, Who will teach us all truth, as the Son of God has promised (John xvi. 13).