Sermon LXIX. On Lawful and Unlawful Presumption, on the Zeal of Justice and the Zeal of Charity, and on the Loving Familiarity between God and the Faithful Soul

"My Beloved to me, and I to Him."

"My Beloved to me, and I to Him." In the preceding discourse, my brethren, I regarded these words as belonging to the universal Church, on account of the promises which God has made to her, both of the life which now is and of that which is to come. To-day we have to examine the question as to whether they may not also be assigned to the particular soul. The reason for doubting is that the individual, as it seems, cannot justly appropriate what it is lawful for the community to lay claim to, and no one member of the Church has apparently the right to represent in any way the whole. If such be the case, then it becomes necessary to refer the words of our text so exclusively to the Church that they shall in no sense be applicable to individuals; and not these words alone, but also all similar expressions which appear to contain great and special privileges, for example, "With expectation I have waited for the Lord, and He hath attended to me," and the other passages which I spoke of in my last sermon. But should anyone maintain that the member is entitled to a participation in the privileges of the body, I shall not contradict him. Yet it will be necessary to make distinctions. For not all the children of the Spouse share in their mother's prerogatives. The Church of God has certainly her spiritual sons, who not only live faithfully but also "deal confidently in her" who converse with the Lord as with a a friend, their own conscience bearing them witness that they are always seeking His glory. Who are these favoured souls? That is God's secret. But hear now from me what kind you yourselves ought to become if you desire to be numbered amongst the special friends of God. And I shall speak not as one who has already enjoyed, but only as one longing to enjoy, the experience of the things I am discussing. Give me a man who loves nothing except God and whatever is for God's sake deserving of love; a man for whom "to live is Christ" and has been for a long time; who, whether at work or repose, equally endeavours to "set the Lord always in his sight"; whose dominant desire, yea, rather, whose single desire, is to walk ever cautiously with the Lord his God, and whose grace is adequate to the accomplishment of this desire— give me, I say, such a soul, and I, at all events, will not pronounce her to ba unworthy of the heavenly Bridegroom's attention, of the regard of the Divine Majesty, of the favour of the Supreme Lord, of the Sovereign Ruler's solicitous care. And should she, like St. Paul, "have a mind to glory" on account of these things, she certainly "shall not be foolish." "But he that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord" only. In this way, therefore, the individual member may appropriate to himself the same privileges which the whole body lays claim to. Nevertheless, there are not the same grounds for the presumption of one as for the presumption of all.

II. u

The Church, as a holy society, bases her confidence upon the reasons given above, that of the faithful'soul rests on the two following considerations. First, her Bridegroom, in the absolute simplicity of His Divine Nature, has the power to regard many as if they were but one, and one again as if many. His attention is not multiplied according to the multiplicity of its objects, nor confined by solicitude for a few. It is neither' divided by diversity, nor engrossed by singularity, nor disquieted by cares, nor perturbed or agitated by solicitude. For it is given to each without being restricted, and given to all without being distracted. The second motive of the soul's confidence is a certain consolation, the experience of which is exceedingly delightful but also exceedingly rare. So great is the condescension of the Word, so great is the benevolence of the Father towards a rightly affected, well-ordered soul— although such dispositions are themselves but the Father's gift and the Word's creation —that after preventing and preparing her with Their graces and blessings, They even deign to honour her with Their presence. Yea, not only do They come to her, but They condescend so far as to make Their abode with her. For it is not enough for Their love that They make Themselves known, unless They also give them-r selves to be enjoyed unreservedly. But what are we 1 to understand by the Word's coming to the soul? He comes, no doubt, by instructing her in wisdom. And by the Father's coming? The soul may be assured that she has the Father for her Guest when she feels herself excited to such a love of wisdom as shall enable her to say with truth, "I have become a lover of her beauty." Love belongs to the Father; and, therefore. the infusion of love is a proof of the Father's presence in the soul. What would be the effect of instruction without love? It could only inflate us. And what could love do without instruction? It would simply lead us astray. They certainly had been led astray of whom the Apostle testified, "I bear them witness that they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge." It is not becoming that the Bride of the Word and of the Wisdom of God should be herself without wisdom; whilst the Father would not endure her if He found her puffed up. For "the Father loveth the Son," "and every height that exalteth itself against the knowledge of "the Word He is prepared to cast down and destroy immediately, whether by the zeal which He infuses, or by that wherewith He chastises, of which the former proceeds from His mercy and the latter from His justice. Would to God that I were taught to renounce pride, but rather in the school of grace than in that of judgment! "O Lord, rebuke me not m Thy fury," as of old Thou didst rebuke the angel who inflated himself in heaven; "nor chastise me m Thy wrath," as Thou didst chastise the first man m paradise. Both alike "meditated iniquity "both alike aimed at supereminence, the former ambitiomng supereminence of power, the latter desiring supereminence of knowledge. Eve, in her folly, gave credit to the serpent who came to seduce her with the promise, "You shall be as gods, knowing good and evil. ' Already he had seduced himself, for he had persuaded himself that he should be "hke the Most High." Now "if anyone think himself to be something, whereas he is nothing, he deceiveth himself."

But both of these heights were levelled down. Man however received the more merciful judgment, because his Judge was He Who "ordereth all things in measure, and number, and weight." For whereas the angel was punished and condemned in His fury (furore), man had experience only of His anger (ira), escaping His fury altogether, according to what we read in the Prophet Habacuc, where he says, speaking to the Lord, "When Thou art angry Thou wilt remember mercy." Therefore, even unto this day, the seed of Adam are children, not of fury, but only of wrath. Were I not generated a child of wrath I should not need to be regenerated. But had I been generated a child of fury, regeneration would not have been granted me, or, if granted, would not have profited me. Do you wish, my brethren, to behold a child of fury? If you "saw Satan like lightning falling from heaven," that is to say, cast headlong down by the force of the divine fury, then you would understand something of the fury of the Lord. He was not then "mindful of His mercy." For it is only when He is angry that He will "remember mercy," not when His wrath has been provoked to fury. Woe to the children of infidelity, even to such as belong to Adam's race, who, born children of wrath, have by their diabolical obstinacy and to their own destruction, converted anger into fury, and the rod of discipline into the bludgeon, into the sledge-hammer of vengeance. As the Apostle says, they art "treasuring up to themselves wrath against the day of wrath." Now, wrath which is treasured up and accumulated, what is it but fury? They have committed the sin of the devil, and shall be struck down by the same doom as the devil. Woe also, yet a milder woe, to certain of the sons of wrath, who, after being born children of wrath, have not lived long enough to be reborn children of grace. For dying soon after their birth, they must now remain for ever children of wrath. I say children of wrath, not children of fury, because as it is most pious to believe, so also does our natural human sympathy tearfully anticipate that their sufferings are very light (mitissimae), as inflicted for no personal offence, but for a fault entirely inherited from others.¹

The devil therefore, was judged in fury, because his ** iniquity was found unto hatred." Man's iniquity, on the contrary, was only found unto wrath, and hence he is chastised only in wrath. Thus every kind of self-exaltation has been brought low, as well the pride that inflates as the ambition which lifts up only in order to hurl down,— brought low by the Father, Who is zealous for the prerogatives of His Son. For both angel and man offered injury to the Son, the former by an usurpation of power against Him Who is the Power of God, the latter by presuming to seek for knowledge elsewhere than from Him Who is the Wisdom of God. "O Lord, who is Hke to Thee? "Surely none but He Who is the Brightness of Thy Glory and the Figure of Thy Substance: none surely but He Who is Thine own Image. He alone is in the Form of Thy Divinity. He alone "thought it not robbery to be equal to "Thee. How indeed could He be otherwise than equal to Thee, since Thou and He are but One? He is seated, not at Thy Feet, but at Thy Right Hand. And how can any creature have the presumption to usurp the place of Thine Only-Begotten? Let the invader be hurled down! He has set his seat on high: let his "chair of pestilence "be overturned! Again, who is he that "teacheth man knowledge "? Is it not Thou, O "Key of David," Who openest to whom Thou pleasest, and shuttest against whom Thou pleasest? And without the Key, how could anyone dare attempt to enter, rather say, to intrude into the divine treasury of wisdom and knowledge? "He that entereth not by the door, the same is a thief and a robber." Peter therefore shall enter, because Peter has received the keys. Yet not alone shall he enter. For, if he so please, he may introduce me with him, as he may also exclude another, according to his pleasure, by the wisdom and authority bestowed upon him from above.

And what are these keys, my brethren? They are the power of opening, and the power of shutting, and the power of discriminating between those who are to be admitted and those who are to be excluded. It is not in the serpent that the "treasures of wisdom and knowledge" are laid up, but in Christ. Therefore the serpent could not communicate the wisdom which he did not himself possess; but it was truly communicated by Him by Whom it was truly possessed. Neither was the serpent possessed of power, since he had not received it; but Peter was a real holder of power, because he had really received it. It was given by Christ and given to Peter. Nor was the Apostle inflated with his knowledge or elated with his power. Why so? Because for neither of these endowments did he "exalt himself against the knowledge of God,'* since he had sought to obtain neither of them without the knowledge of God, very different from him, who "in His sight hath done deceitfully, that his iniquity might be found unto hatred." How, I ask, could Peter have obtained anything without the knowledge of God, since he distinctly tells us that he is an apostle "according to the foreknowledge of God the Father "? Thus much in connexion with that zeal which I have represented God as exercising against the two prevaricators, the angel and man; for in both He found iniquity. And I have endeavoured to show how, in His wrath or in His fury. He has "pulled down every height that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God."

But I must now return to the zeal of His mercy, that is, the zeal which He infuses into us rather than exercises Himself. For the zeal which He exercises is the zeal of His justice, as I have already explained; and the examples I have cited of those transgressors on whom this zeal has been so terribly exercised, are doubtless sufficient to alarm us. Therefore will I fly from the face of the fury of the Lord whither I may find for myself a place of refuge: I will fly to that zeal of piety which burns so sweetly, yet so powerfully atones. Shall it be said that charity atones not? Nay, but it does atone, and with power. I have even read of it that it "covereth a multitude of sins." I ask further: has it not the power and the sufficiency to bring down and humble every kind of "haughtiness of the eye" and of the heart? Most assuredly it has. For "charity is not puffed up, is not ambitious." If therefore the Lord Jesus would vouchsafe to visit me, or rather to come into my heart, not in the zeal of His fury, nor yet in the zeal of His wrath, but in charity and in the spirit of sweetness, "jealous of me with the jealousy of God"— for what is so much God's as charity? although in truth it is rather God Himself than something that belongs to Him— if, I say, He would condescend to come into me, thus meek and loving, I should thereby understand that He has come not alone, but that His Father also is with Him. What indeed can be so like the Father as such condescension? Hence, He has been called not only the Father of the Word, but also the "Father of mercies," because, namely, it is His very nature "to have pity always and to spare." If ever, like the disciples journeying to Emmaus, I perceive that my understanding has been "opened" and enabled to comprehend the meaning of Holy Scripture; or if I feel the words of wisdom welling up, so to speak, from the bottom of my heart; or if I am conscious of an infusion of heavenly hght, in which mysteries are made manifest; or finally, if the mighty breast of heaven seems to bend upon my soul and to pour down upon my mind a more than usually abundant rain of holy meditations, then, my brethren, I can have no doubt of the Bridegroom's presence within me. For such spiritual treasures all belong to the Word, and it is of His fullness that we receive them. But if at the same time I feel in my inmost soul a plentiful outpouring of the grace of humble devotion, so that I not only know the truth, but love it also, and from this love conceive a kind of spontaneous hatred and contempt for vanity, lest I should be inflated with knowledge or lifted up by the frequency of divine visitations— I then realise that I am being treated with fatherly affection, and I cannot resist the persuasion that the Father Himself is at hand. And if thereafter, so far as it depends upon me, I persevere in corresponding faithfully to this grace of condescension by worthy sentiments and worthy actions, so that I may be able to affirm with St. Paul, "His grace in me hath not been void,"— I may now feel assured that the Father Who fosters me, and the Son Who instructs me, have not only come to me, but have even taken up Their abode with me.

How great a grace of holy familiarity between the Word and the soul must spring out of this divine indwelling! And from such familiarity how great a grace of confidence! There is no longer any reason that I can see why a soul thus privileged should not presume to say, "My Beloved to me." For in her consciousness that she loves the Bridegroom, and loves Him ardently, she has convincing evidence that He loves her also and loves her with similar ardour. In like manner with regard to her devoted attention to Him, her solicitude and carefulness for His"glory, her laborious and diligent service, her zeal^ which keeps her constantly and eagerly on the alert, ever anxious to know" how she may please God "—she has no doubt at all that He, in His turn, is looking after her interests with the same watchful assiduity; because she remembers His promise," With what measure you mete, it shall be measured to you again."Nevertheless the Spouse in her prudence is careful to claim for her own part only the return of love, recognising that she has been prevented by the grace of her Bridegroom. Therefore it is that she puts in the first place the giving which belongs to Him, when she says," My Beloved to me, and I to Him."Thus we see how from her own dispositions and sentiments towards God she comes to know what His feelings are for her. Such in truth is the case. It is God's love for the soul that excites the soul's love for Him; it is His antecedent attention to her that makes her attentive to Him; it is His solicitude for her that is the cause of her solicitude for Him. For once the soul is enabled to" behold the glory of the Lord with open face,"by some, I know not what, affinity of nature, she is immediately and of necessity conformed thereto and" transformed into the same image."From what has been said, we may gather that, such as we make and present ourselves to God, such also will He exhibit Himself to us. This is what the Psalmist means where he says to the Lord," With the holy Thou wilt be holy and with the innocent man Thou wilt be innocent." And why may we not say with equal truth, "With the loving Thou wilt be loving, with the reposeful Thou wilt be reposeful, with the attentive Thou wilt be attentive, and with the solicitous Thou wilt be solicitous."? Indeed He has Himself declared, "I love them that love Me; and they that in the morning early watch for Me, shall find Me."

You observe, my brethren, how He gives us here an assurance that we possess His love when we offer Him ours. But not only this. He also tells us that He watches with solicitude over our interests whenever He perceives us to be solicitous for His. Art thou vigilant in His service? Then He also is vigilant in thine. Rise up in the night to begin thy vigils, hasten a^^ much as thou pleasest, even anticipating the matin hour: thou shalt not be beforehand with Him, thou shalt find Him already waiting for thee. In this emulation of charity thou wouldst be acting rashly wert thou to attribute to thyself either precedency or superiority. For He loves thee more than thou lovest Him, and His love for thee is older than thy love for Him. If the Spouse knows all this, yea rather because she knows all this, art thou surprised to hear her glorying that the infinite Majesty of God, neglecting, as it were, every other interest, attends exclusively to her, and that she in her turn disengages herself from all created objects in order to devote herself to Him with her whole heart's affection? I must now bring my discourse to an end. But before concluding, I want to speak one last word, astonishing indeed, yet strictly true, for the benefit of those amongst you who may be called spiritual persons. What I desire to say is this: The soul that sees God beholds Him so intent upon herself as if she were the sole object of His solicitude. Hence the confidence with which she affirms that her Beloved attends to her and she to Him; for she also can have regard to nothing except to Him and to herself. How good Thou art, O Lord, to the soul that seeks Thee! Thou runnest to meet her, Thou dost embrace her, Thou revealest Thyself to her as her own Bridegroom, Thou WTio art her Lord, yea Who art over all things, God blessed for ever. Amen.

Footnotes

1. It is the teaching of many of the Fathers, including St. Augustine, that the souls of infants who die without baptism are punished eternally in the fire of hell, although much less severely than those condemned for personal sin. This view, however, has been for long losing favour, especially since the time of St. Thomas, who lent his authority to the more indulgent doctrine that the pain of loss (deprivation of the Beatific Vision) is the only penalty due to original sin. A second question is whether such purely negative reprobation is a cause of sadness to the soul. Bellarmin and some others answer in the affirmative; but the majority with St. Thomas hold the negative opinion. There are even many authors of great name, such as Lessius, Perrone, and Mazzella, who maintain that souls excluded from the Beatific Vision for original sin alone shall enjoy the same natural beatitude as would be the reward of our obedience to the natural law if we had not been elevated by grace to the supernatural order. — (Translator.) ↩