Chapter XXII: That the Church at Large is a Sublime Type of the Contemplative Soul

ST. PAUL, in his admirable epistle to the Ephesians, develops the economy of the mystery of our salvation, calling it the mystery of the divine good pleasure, "the mystery of His will according to His good pleasure,"¹ and he brings it before us under the form of nuptials celebrated between the Son of God and mankind. At times indeed the apostle alludes to Christian marriage, the figure of this divine union, wishing that it should worthily represent the sublime reality; at times he treats of the individual union of each soul with God; finally, at times he takes the whole mass of regenerate mankind and brings out the mystery of marriage in its fullest and most complete form, which is the union of the Church with our Lord Jesus Christ, her Head and her Spouse: "And He hath subjected all things under His feet, and hath made Him head over all the Church, which is His Body and the fulness of Him who is filled all in all."²

St. Paul considers this divine union as an ineffable mystery, the continuation and completion of the mysteries of the Incarnation and Redemption: "Which in other generations was not known to the sons of men, as it is now revealed to His holy apostles and prophets in the Spirit.”³ In the Old Testament this mystery was made known by the inspired writers, in the New Testament it has been proclaimed far and wide by the apostles, one same Spirit working in both and drawing men to one same truth both before and after the coming of Christ. The prophets are the heralds of the bride of Christ; the apostles are more than that, they guard her as the “three score valiant ones who surround the bed of Solomon.” The favoured generations are those that have seen the Fountain of life thrown open; that is to say, the side of our Saviour, whence the Church came forth on the sixth day of the week, as heretofore Eve came forth from the side of the first Adam.

The great collective bride of the Son of God is then “a help like unto Himself;”⁴ to her the true King of Peace addresses these tender words: “One is my dove, my perfect one is but one, she is the only one of her mother, the chosen of her that bore her.”⁵ She shows forth with sublime completeness all the features we have described as proper to perfect union; the highest contemplation and the most consummate charity are found in her with a certitude, a stability, a permanence constituting an abiding miracle and stamping her as divine “even to the consummation of the world.”⁶

This indivisible union of the Church with God is not a union different from that contracted individually with God by the souls that form the Church. Nevertheless, it will not be without profit to make a study of this consummate union, such as it appears when realized in the Church Militant; in that study we shall find an abundance of teaching, so much so that, were any one to seek instruction for his spiritual life in a treatise de Ecclesia, he would be very certain of not following a wrong path. The soul that has attained consummate union is an exact miniature of the Church, One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic. The more she identifies herself with her mother, the more surely does she reach the Heart of Him who has done everything in this world for His collective bride, and who, in the carrying out of His designs, has but one type. Therefore, in studying the Church as the perfect model of the spiritual life we shall complete all that we purpose to say on this subject.

When in the island of Patmos the light of prophecy shone upon St. John, it showed him our Lord's great bride filled with all the sanctity and perfection to which mankind, assisted by the Holy Spirit, can attain. It was said to him: "She is the tabernacle of God with men." In point of fact, her consummate union with her Divine Head makes her one spirit with Him, in so admirable a unity that she will work no works but those which He shall suggest: "But the Paraclete, the Holy Ghost whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring all things to your mind, whatsoever I shall have said to you."⁷ This it is that constitutes the unity and sanctity of the Church; in whatever times or places or circumstances she works, she has never any other than this divine moving principle, so stable and permanent is her union with God.

Although the Church in her militant portion, the only one with which we are now concerned, is still living in time, she already, by her stable union with God and by her Catholicity, possesses somewhat of eternity. In point of fact, as she spreads not only over all times, but also over all places, days in her bosom do not seem to succeed days, and simultaneously she enjoys the benefit of all the divisions of time. Finally she is indeed apostolic; for it was in the person of the apostles that she began, on the day of Pentecost, that life of perfect union with God, that ineffable spiritual marriage which nothing has ever been able to break or to change; and it is by her close intimacy with the Spirit, the Consummator, that she will obtain the final victory and the coming of the heavenly Bridegroom, that the union may no longer be in faith only but in vision. Thus in considering the Church as One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic, we discover in her in the highest degree the effects of her unitive life.

It would however be very inadequate to study the effects without referring them to their cause. The Father "greatly desires the beauty of that resplendent Virgin, but it is no mere external beauty, the external is but a radiation of the internal splendour: "All the glory of the King's daughter is within."⁸ Hence, all the power of the holy Church, all the beauty of her onward march through ages; all the magnificence which she sheds upon her path, even in human things, letters, arts and sciences; all the life that she communicates to whatever comes in touch with her; all, even down to the progress of true civilization, all comes "from within," that is, from her close union with God. From the very beginning its exuberant power appeared in the Church, and unbelievers mistaking its cause cried out: "These men are full of new wine."⁹ But Peter, the visible representative of the invisible Head, defended the bride, saying: "These are not drunk, as you suppose, seeing it is but the third hour of the day; but this is that which was spoken of by the Prophet Joel: 'And it shall come to pass, in the last days, saith the Lord, I will pour out of My Spirit upon all flesh.’”¹⁰

In this way, the apostle of the Gentiles instructed the newborn children who had just been incorporated into the Church: “In whom you also are built together into an habitation of God in the Spirit.”¹¹ And revealing to them the internal force which is henceforth to take possession of them and to establish them in divine union, he says: “Wherefore become not unwise, but understanding what is the will of God. And be not drunk with wine, wherein is luxury, but be ye filled with the Holy Spirit. Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual canticles, singing and making melody in your hearts to the Lord, giving thanks always for all things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, to God and the Father.”¹²

So then, the Church Militant possesses within herself the principle of her life; she draws from her prayer the energies of her supernatural action. Just as the soul animates the body, so does the divine Paraclete animate the Church; and within her, as in the human soul, He produces the “unspeakable groanings” which are always heard by “Him who searcheth the hearts, and knoweth what the Spirit desireth.”¹³

No way of prayer is better regulated than that of the holy

Church. She leaves nothing to self will; she fixes everything, the attitude of the body as well as that of the soul, even to the slightest movements. Thus she preserves herself in a marvellous manner from the spirit of independence, while she subjects herself in all things to the "Spirit of adoption," whose unceasing aim is to take entire possession of the whole of human nature in order to bring it back to its divine Author.

To suppress all human methods of prayer in order to adopt only the Church's method, is not to throw off all yoke: it is on the contrary to enter the spiritual school wherein it is requisite to make profession of singular self-denial, by renouncing all private judgment and everything that savours of independence. Then the Church imposes her own form, which is the one given to her by the Holy Spirit, and she fashions the soul by a process which in a single day contains all the degrees that the masters have pointed out in the spiritual life. For the Church Militant in her prayer, which is the Divine Office, the "work of God" as St. Benedict says, reveals all the forms of acquired and of infused prayer.

We see her practising meditation in the reading of the Fathers, that is the human and discursive element of her prayer; for it, only the ordinary help of the Holy Spirit is needed, such as we require whenever we wish to apply our minds to divine truths. Contemplation appears in many of the liturgical prayers which express a very simple gazing at divine mysteries rather than a thoughtful analysis of them. Prophetic light shines forth in the inspired writings; while the "Sanctus," the Doxologies, the "Gloria Patri," the "Alleluia," the "Amen," and in general all those expressions by which the Church Militant echoes the songs of the Church Triumphant, speak of the inebriation of the soul with the fulness of God. It was fitting moreover that while the Church has to walk in faith, she should be recognized by her perfect and consummate charity, which is none other than the charity of heaven, and this is why she uses the language of heaven, for though at present she is in the state of a wayfarer

(in via) she belongs to heaven, she "came down from heaven,"¹⁴ as St. John says, and she returns thither, just as the dove returns to the ark carrying the olive branch, a symbol of that perfect peace, flowing from the unction of the Holy Spirit of which she cannot be deprived for one single day, she, the Sulamite of the peaceful King, the Prince of peace.

It is but just that, in the body of her prayer, the Church Militant should follow the teachings of her divine Spouse, contenting herself with developing what, in an abridged form, our Lord has in the Pater noster given her. Hence, for the instruction of her children she unceasingly puts upon their lips this divine formula, imitating by this frequent repetition the patience of a tender mother who, when teaching her little one to speak, over and over again takes up the stammered syllable without ever growing weary till it is perfectly articulated. For our mother, the holy Church, in her prayer converses with God, and at the same time she forms us, the children born of her by the Spirit.

But she is principally the mistress and the model of souls who have reached the summit of the spiritual life and have attained that state of sublime ignorance spoken of by St. Denis. The Church prays absolutely as those do who, in the inmost depths of their own souls, adore God unceasingly, and who have but one act, but one most simple operation for their prayer and union with God, because they feel within themselves the constant indwelling of the august Trinity. Observe how in the Office the Church seems to bring everything back to a continual Gloria Patri. The intervals between are more or less long, the thoughts suggested in them are more or less abundant; but these Doxologies are always recurring, and are, as it were, the groundwork, the scope, the summary of the whole Office, the centre of the homage paid to God.

We ventured to say that in her prayer the Church Militant gave example even of simple meditation; she returns to it in fact just as those souls do who, having reached the height of contemplation, are sometimes brought back by God to favours and processes of a less elevated nature, in the midst of which, however, they always preserve something of their sublime state, which is that of perfect charity. When using simple meditation the Church always appears as the bride of the divine Lamb. Resuming the songs of the purgative life she sings them with such eminent perfection that repentance becomes of a most exalted kind. The sinner can make her language his own; but on the lips of the Church every song rises to the proportions of her admirable holiness, a holiness which is indeed human, and consequently always within our reach, and capable of increase, but a holiness so truly consummate that the purgative life, in its most emphatic expressions, becomes clothed with the perfection of charity.

In like manner the heavenly splendours of the illuminative life inundate the Church with an incomparable brilliancy. She sees clearly, because she puts no obstacle to the light, the force of which is ever tending to become perfect in divine union. And yet, in the most pure light of faith, she can stay to contemplate truth; her eye, strong and steady, can bear the brightness of the Sun of Justice, and thus she introduces into a higher state those of her children who are gifted with the light of knowledge, but who have not yet tasted the sweetness of divine things. No initiation can be more sure than hers, for having herself the relish of the mysteries which she contemplates she is a sublime mistress in the art of communicating light and relish to others.

Above all this the Church appears experienced in the mysteries of the unitive life; from the lowest to the highest degrees nothing is hidden from her. Neither is she ignorant of the nature of passive trials, of which we find a faithful expression in a great number of the Psalms. But at the same time she sounds the note of generous self-denial, which in these painful purifications at once produces the effect intended by the

Holy Spirit.

Moreover, she unceasingly attains consummate union with God by the august sacrifice which is perpetually renewed within her bosom, and which establishes her permanently in her state of ineffable spiritual marriage. For if St. Augustine can say: "Every work which is done that we may cleave to God in holy union is a true sacrifice,"¹⁵ what shall we think of that incomparable sacrifice which is the mysterious reproduction and continuation of the oblation described in these words by St. Paul: "For by one oblation he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified"?¹⁶ There it is that the Church by the divine Lamb offers to God a sacrifice worthy of Him, and there it is that, participating in the Flesh of that living and immolated Lamb, she is in her turn transformed into Him and offered as the mystic Body of her divine Head, as His fulness and completion. "Already have I communicated of His sacred Body, and His Blood hath graced my cheek,"¹⁷ said the glorious virgin Agnes after having understood the mystery of consummation.

It is in this sacrifice that the Church finds the highest contemplation where God communicates Himself without symbol and without image, because the union is made between substance and substance, and because nothing is more real than that which eludes all visible form. This is the "Mystery of faith—Mysterium fidei"; beyond it there is nothing but the intuitive vision.

The Church is then the type and the model of the contemplative soul. She is Rachel before being Lia; she is Mary before acting as Martha; she gives to the exterior only out of her interior fulness, following the counsel of the Apostle: "Let the word of Christ dwell in you abundantly, in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms, hymns and spiritual canticles, singing in grace in your hearts to God."¹⁸

By her continuous prayer, the Divine Office, the indwelling of our Lord reveals itself; on this point never has she consented to deviate from her customs, and though the imperative duty of preaching the Gospel was incumbent upon the early Christians, it in no way hindered them from following this divine plan: "And continuing daily with one accord in the Temple, and breaking of bread from house to house, they took their meat with gladness and simplicity of heart, praising God."¹⁹ There can be no question here of ordinary bread and food since those who were admitted partook of it with so much joy.

And never, whatever may be the wants of mankind, however much active works may seek to encroach, how great soever may be the miseries of the times, the decay of faith, the importunities of carnal-minded men, the weakness of her organs, the poverty of her resources, never does the Church Militant consent to interrupt her prayer, to change its method or modify its plan. In vain are utilitarian theories held out to her; in vain is the objection brought forward that she must needs take up weapons of defence against unbelievers, and in face of the false, set forth true science, or what touches her maternal heart still more—that she must needs look to the souls that are perishing all around—never will she yield, nor for one single day let anything hinder the exercise of her sublime contemplation. The secret indeed is that she finds in this contemplation her link with heaven, and the very motive power which gives efficacy to all her works.

Her enemies so well know what is the power of this prayer that they dread it more than all outward resistance, and therefore they exclaim with such rabid determination: "Let us abolish all the festival days of God from the land."²⁰ The Holy Spirit, on the other hand, in making the eulogy of king David, enumerates all that the holy king did to enhance the splendour of God's worship: "And he set singers before the altar, and by their voices they made sweet melody. And to the festivals he added beauty, and set in order the solemn times even to the end of his life, that they should praise the holy name of the Lord, and magnify the holiness of God in the morning."²¹

After this there can be no hesitation in admitting that the honour bestowed upon St. Benedict's Order of being so powerful a bulwark of the Church Militant, should be attributed in great measure to that sentence of the Holy Rule: "Let nothing be preferred to the work of God."²² The Church recognized her own spirit and her own tendencies in this maxim. She seems to be enjoying a foretaste of eternity, when she groups her children on earth in the same way as she contemplates the elect in heaven: "Therefore they are before the throne of God, and they serve Him day and night in His temple; and He that sitteth on the throne shall dwell over them."²³ The state of the blessed in heaven has been represented by St. John as an immense “Opus Dei—Divine service,” celebrated in a mysterious temple, before the heavenly altar, with harmonious chants and a living incense which is the prayer of the saints, and the smoke of the incense in censers of gold ascends before God from the hands of the angels themselves. The power of the Church consists here below in echoing back these marvellous mysteries of heaven, imitating and reproducing them as far as she can with the means which her Divine Spouse has given her. She knows that one of the severest chastisements of Divine Justice is this: “And the angel took the censer, and filled it with the fire of the altar, and cast it on the earth, and there were thunders.”²⁴ Yes, when the censer, destined to burn the living incense before God, is with its coals of fire, cast upon the earth, then the tempest reveals God’s anger, for He no longer beholds in this world the image of the Jerusalem above. The Church Militant then appeases her Lord just as the soul who is still a wayfarer does, by reproducing as far as she is able the prayer of heaven.

But if in one single day the Church Militant provides the most finished model of the soul’s onward march to God, even unto perfection, she provides it still more fully in the round of her liturgical cycle.

This teaching is very old, and it was in the third century received by all. We give a proof of this by quoting the following passage from Origen: “To the perfect Christian, who is ever in his thoughts, words and deeds serving his Lord, God the Word, all his days are the Lord’s, and he is always keeping the Lord’s day. He also who is unceasingly preparing himself for the true life, and abstaining from this life’s pleasures which lead so many astray—who is not indulging the lust of the flesh, but ‘keeping his body under, and bringing it into subjection’—such a one is always keeping ‘preparation day.’ Again, he who considers that 'Christ our Passover was sacrificed for us,' and that it is his duty to keep the feast by eating of the Flesh of the Word, never ceases to keep the Paschal feast; for the 'Pascha' means a 'Passover,' and in all his thoughts, words and deeds he is ever striving to pass over from the things of this life to God, and is hastening towards the city of God. Finally, he who can truly say: 'We are risen with Christ,' and 'He hath exalted us, and made us to sit with Him in heavenly places in Christ,' is always living in the season of Pentecost; and most of all, when going to the upper chamber, like the apostles of Jesus, he gives himself to supplication and prayer, that he may become worthy of receiving 'the mighty wind rushing from heaven,' which is powerful to destroy sin and its fruits among men, and worthy of having some share of the tongue of fire which God sends." "But the majority of those who are accounted believers are not of this advanced class; but from being either unable or unwilling to keep every day in this manner, they require some sensible memorial to prevent spiritual things from passing altogether away from their minds. It is to this practice of setting apart some days distinct from others that St. Paul seems to me to refer in the expression, 'part of the feast'; and by these words he indicates that a life in accordance with the Divine Word consists not 'in a part of the feast,' but in one entire and never-ceasing festival."²⁵ For a fuller exposition of this matter we refer our readers to Dom Gueranger's "Liturgical Year," and principally to the general preface of the work, in which the venerable author has in a most clear and elevated style condensed his whole thought.

Footnotes

1. Sacramentum voluntatis suæ secundum beneplacitum ejus (Eph. i, 9). ↩

2. Omnia subjecit sub pedibus ejus, et ipsum dedit caput supra omnem Ecclesiam, quæ est corpus ipsius, et plenitudo ejus qui omnia in omnibus adimpletur (Eph. i, 22, 23). ↩

3. Quod aliis generationibus non est agnitum filiis hominum, sicut nunc revelatum est sanctis apostolis ejus, et prophetis in Spiritu (Ibid, iii, 5). ↩

4. Adiutorium simile sibi (Gen. ii, 18). ↩

5. Una est columba mea, perfecta mea, una est matris suæ, electa genetrici suæ (Cant, vi, 8). ↩

6. Usque ad consummationem sæculi (Matth. xxviii, 20). ↩

7. Paraclitus autem spiritus sanctus, quem mittet Pater in nomine meo, ille vos docebit omnia, et suggeret vobis omnia quæcumque dixero vobis (Joann., xiv, 26). ↩

8. Omnis gloria ejus filiæ regis ab intus (Ps., xliv, 14). ↩

9. Musto pleni sunt isti (Act. ii, 13). ↩

10. Non enim, sicut vos æstimatis, hi sunt ebrii, quum sit hora diei tertia; sed hoc est, quod dictum est per prophetam Joel: Et erit in novissimis diebus, dicit Dominus, effundam de Spiritu meo super omnem carnem (Ibid. 15-17). ↩

11. In quo et vos coædificamini in habitaculum Dei in Spiritu (Eph. ii, 22). ↩

12. Nolite fieri imprudentes, sed intelligentes quæ sit voluntas Dei. Et nolite inebriari vino, in quo est luxuria; sed implemini Spiritu sancto, loquentes vobismetipsis in psalmis, et hymnis et canticis spiritualibus, cantantes et psallentes in cordibus vestris Domino, gratias agentes semper pro omnibus in nomine Domini nostri Jesu Christi, Deo et Patri (Eph., v, 17-20). ↩

13. Qui autem scrutatur corda, scit quid desideret Spiritus (Rom., viii, 27). ↩

14. Descendentem de cœlo (Apoc. xxi, 2). ↩

15. Verum sacrificium est omne opus quod agitur ut sancta societate inhæreamus Deo (S. Aug., De Civ. Dei, X, vi). ↩

16. Una enim oblatione consummavit in sempiternum sanctificatos (Heb., x, 14). ↩

17. Jam corpus ejus corpori meo sociatum est, et sanguis ejus ornavit genas meas (In Offic. S. Agnetis, V.M.) ↩

18. Verbum Christi habitet in vobis abundanter, in omni sapientia, docentes, et commonentes vosmetipsos psalmis, hymnis, et canticis spiritualibus in gratia cantantes in cordibus vestris Deo (Col., iii, 16). ↩

19. Quotidie quoque perdurantes unanimiter in templo, et frangentes circa domos panem, sumebant cibum cum exsultatione et simplicitate cordis, collaudantes Deum (Act. ii, 46). ↩

20. Quiescere faciamus omnes dies festos Dei a terra (Ps. lxxiii, 8). ↩

21. In omni opere dedit confessionem Sancto et Excelso in verbo gloriæ . . . Et stare fecit cantores contra altare, et in sono eorum dulces fecit modos. Et dedit in celebrationibus decus, et ornavit tempora usque ad consummationem vitæ, ut laudarent nomen sanctum Domini, et amplificarent mane Dei sanctitatem (Eccli, xlvii, 9-12). ↩

22. Nihil operi Dei præponatur (S. Reg., xliii). ↩

23. Ideo sunt ante thronum Dei, et serviunt ei die ac nocte in templo ejus: et qui sedet in throno, habitabit super illos (Apoc., vii, 15). ↩

24. Et accepit angelus thruibulum et implevit illud de igne altaris; et misit in terram, et facta sunt tonitrua (Apoc., viii, 5). ↩

25. Orig., Contra Cels., lib. VIII, cap. xxii, xiii. ↩