Book I. Dialogue XIV: On the trials of afflicted souls and the act of abandonment most perfect and most fitting to their state
Q. Before I question you on the subject of trials, I should like you to tell me why you pass over the book of the Instruction Pastorale, in which are the thirtyfour articles drawn up at Issy, with the qualifications of the propositions we have just seen in general to have been condemned.
A. In the first place because these thirty-four articles were only drawn up pending this ample Instruction, and as a supplement to it, as Bossuet declares in his Ordinance. In the second place because once the faithful are instructed on suspicious and dangerous practices, it is enough, says the Bishop of Meaux,1 for them to know in general that the Church has censured them all, without knowing in particular that such and such are erroneous, or suspect or dangerous. Lastly, because, as he points out, this part of the Instruction Pastorale is merely a recapitulation of the whole work we have just summarized.
I
Q. Tell me, what is to be understood, and what does Bossuet mean, by the trials of certain afflicted souls ?
A. He means, as he tells us, 2 a state of interior desolation in which God makes so strong an impression of his justice, that the soul, which does not feel anything can come out of it but evil, bound moreover and closely pressed by a sovereign hand, is hardly able to produce acts, or hardly dares do so.
13° ON PRAYER
Q. Does he not give some examples ?
A. Only that of Job, who was very much less afflicted by the exterior ills that beset him than by the interior desolation to which he was given over.
Q. How does he express this interior desolation ?
A. By simply repeating the words of Job, who said: 4 For the arrows of the Lord are in me, the rage whereof drinketh up my spirit; and the terrors of the Lord war against me 5; and later: 2 He hath hedged in my path round about, and I cannot pass; and in my way he hath set darkness. 5
II
Q. What happens to souls which are plunged into much the same darkness and trouble ?
A. Much the same as happened to Job. The more one is driven to despair the more hope arises. Hear what Job says: c I have done with hope, I shall now live no longer. Spare me, for my days are nothing, 5 and 1 Why do I tear my flesh with my teeth, and carry my soul in my hands ? 5
Q. But to what does this apparent despair lead ?
A. It leads him to say a little later: ‘ Although he should kill me, I will trust in him. But yet I will reprove my ways in his sight; and he shall be my Saviour. 5 This shows, says Bossuet, that feelings of hope which were thought dead have only strengthened themselves by an internal concentration.
Q. How can this happen ?
A. Because, just as the heavy blows of the wind only make stronger the roots of strong trees, in the same way feelings of despair, which attack a strong soul in order to beat it down, kindle in it violent interior efforts which only revive and strengthen the roots of hope. Besides, from every ray of light that God lets out from time to time, are born feelings of hope as live and penetrating as they are least expected.
Q. Is it the same with all the other pious feelings ?
DIALOGUE XIV I 3 I
A. Yes, surely, for see how the apparent revolts of Job against God continue; he said: ‘ But yet I will speak to the Almighty; and I desire to reason with God.... I would not that he should contend with me by means of his omnipotence, nor overwhelm me with the weight of his greatness. Let him propose equity against me, and let my judgement come to victory. 5 But all this pride and dispute with God only lead him to say: ‘ God’s ways are impenetrable.... But he knows all my ways, he follows me step by step without my slightest movement escaping him. I have but to keep silent and implore the mercy of my Judge. My God, condemn me not, extend thy hand to thy creature, thou hast counted all my steps, but forgive me my sins. 5 See, says Bossuet, how feelings of the most perfect submission are preserved in a sort of revolt against God. 1
Ill
Q. But how are sentiments of love preserved ?
A. Adorable mystery of grace ! cries Bossuet here; in these souls harried to an extreme in their sufferings, feelings of love are hidden beneath bitter reproaches; and sometimes even, as in Job, under an appearance of blasphemies which at bottom are merely a love wounded and outraged by the apparent contempt of a lover who seems to forsake one. This lover is no other than God himself, from whom the soul believes herself able to hope for anything, and from whom in the end she seems to receive nothing but disdain and indignation. All the bitterness of the reproaches is thus only an effect of the regret one bears in one's bosom at seeing oneself as it appears, separated from and rejected by God. 2
Q. Is there not in Job some passage wherein are to be seen great feelings of love hidden beneath an apparent hatred ?
A. Here is a very remarkable one: c Who will
• Book X, § 17.
grant that... he that hath begun may destroy me; that he may let loose his hand, and cut me off? And that this may be my comfort, that afflicting me with sorrow, he spare not; lest I contradict the words and the will of the Holy One. 5 That is, lest by weakness or impatience I am lacking in submission towards God: for 4 my strength is not the strength of stones; nor is my flesh of brass. 5 What respect, Bossuet continues, what filial love, which begins by a transport in which appears only a kind of hatred, to end in sentiments of most perfect submission to the will of God, and thus of pure love,3 d. What is the conclusion to be drawn from what we have just heard ?
A. That during trials the feelings of piety are not lost; they only disappear from sight, hiding themselves at the bottom of the soul, often beneath their exact opposite. They shelter there, they purify themselves and become strong, and they emerge from time to time with a new vigour. Thus there is nothing more true than what the mystics say, particularly S. Francis de Sales: that sentiments of piety, which seem driven back and apparently defeated by tangible things, retire to the highest point of the spirit, from which the inferior is governed,
Q. What does Bossuet think of those souls who treat as pure imagination these various states of affliction, of interior trials and impotence ?
A. In a way he seems to rank them with the Quietists, but in a quite opposite sense, when he says: 2 4 There are here two excesses to avoid: one is the error of those who think that the afflictions of these states are imaginary, or in any case purely human; the other is the error of the Quietists, who use this impotence to infer in all these states their perpetual passivity. 5
IV
Q. As it is meet that afflicted souls should above all abandon themselves wholly to God, even for eternal salvation, could you not give me an exact idea of this abandonment, which is regarded as one of the most delicate points of the spiritual life ?
A. S. Peter himself does it, defining abandonment in these words: x ‘ Casting all your care upon him, for he hath care of you, 5 from which it follows, says S. Augustine, that we must so abandon our salvation to God that no anxiety remains to us; for, he continues, we are in more certainty if we abandon everything to God than if we abandon it partly to him and partly to ourselves. The abandonment is only perfect, according to this holy doctor, when there is nothing left to us to confide in.
Q. What does Bossuet conclude from this ?
A. That we must take great care to put no part of our hope in ourselves, nor to lean to any extent on our good works, but only on the goodness of God and the merits of Jesus Christ. 2
(T But are not our good works necessary to salvation ?
A. That is true: but is it not God himself who gives us them, according to his good will, as S. Paul says ? From which we must conclude with S. Augustine and S. Cyprian that in order to get to the source of things we must give all to God. This is true, says this holy doctor, and full of piety; it is of profit to us to speak and think thus, and, working seriously for our salvation to attribute the total effect of it to God.
Q. Then I can and must no longer lean on my good works or on my good will, nor on the best of dispositions acquired ?
A. No, replies S. Augustine, 3 for all that is or can be in me is changing and variable; the will of God alone is unchanging; and since this will holds my own in its hand, there is only certitude for me in so far as I can attach myself to this supreme will; that alone can make me do what is necessary to be saved; which is only to be hoped for through entire abandonment ‘ Book X, §18. * Ibid, * Ibid.
to God’s will. From which it follows that in striving after one's salvation one will always be troubled, anxious, and with reason, so long as one does not abandon oneself to God, for true repose is to be found only in this abandonment, which is nothing but the entire surrender of our blind and feeble will to that of God, who is as wise and mighty as he is pitiful.
Q. But does not this forcing of man to give all the work of his salvation to God reduce him to despair ?
A. Why ! replies S. Augustine,4 is this despair of salvation, to learn to hope not in oneself but in God ? While he cries with the words of a prophet: Cursed be the man that hopeth in man; and it is good to confide in the Lord, rather than to have confidence in man. Is it then to be feared, continues this Father, that man despairs when he learns to put his trust in God ? and is it to be thought that he should be delivered from this despair if, unhappy as he is presumptuous, he puts his trust in himself?
Q. What is the practice of perfect abandonment according to this doctrine ?
A. It is never to lean on ourselves nor on the good we have done or hope to do; but, rising above our good works, and in a way even above the grace which makes us perform them, to attach ourselves to the source, that is to that goodness which is in God alone; and without relaxing any efforts for salvation to place our feeble will within an almighty and all pitiful one. 2
V
(f. What is the effect of this abandonment ?
A. It releases us radically from ourselves; it unites us to God as much as is possible in this life; it makes us regret our sins for the highest and most mighty of all motives; at certain moments it removes all our fears, for so perfect a love consumes and absorbs them. This act in itself holds all the assurance we can have, continues Bossuet, for nothing makes us feel more strongly the goodness of God than the movement which inspires us to expect all things from him. Thus this act combines, with perfect faith and perfect hope, a pure and perfect love.5
Q. This abandonment then is not a single act but a number of acts, a collection of the most perfect acts of faith, hope and charity.
A. That is so, says Bossuet; 2 but yet it makes always three acts, for, as S. Paul says, faith, hope and charity are three things, but three acts which, united together, join to make the Christian tranquil and happy, according to these words: Blessed is the man that hopeth in God.
Q. Why does Bossuet so carefully distinguish these three acts which are included in a single act of abandonment ?
A. For two reasons: in order to combat as usual the so-called single and invariable act of the Quietists; and to confound the ignorance of certain people who do not even realize that it is possible to make several acts at once by the actual disposition of the heart alone, or consequently in what a number and collection of acts consists.
Q. On what is this abandonment founded, according to Bossuet, and what should be its support ?
A. First to believe with a living faith that God has care of us. Second, that we must not the less act, watch and pray, for fear of tempting God. But in actings watching and praying we must count only on God and attribute all to him, as S. Augustine says in S. Cyprian’s words: Ut totum Deo detur.
As a conclusion to this Dialogue the following passages taken from The Imitation of Christ will be welcome:
‘ When consolation shall be taken away do not presently give up hope; but wait with humility and patience for the heavenly visit; for God is able to give thee back again a fuller consolation. This is no new thing nor strange to those who have experienced the ways of
God; for in the great saints and ancient prophets, this has often been the way that the one changes for the other. Hence one said at the time when grace was with him: “ In my abundance I said; I shall never be moved. 55 But when grace was withdrawn, what he experienced in himself he immediately tells us: Thou didst turn away thy face from me; and I was troubled. Yet in the mean time he despairs not; but more earnestly prays to the Lord, saying: To thee, O Lord, will I cry; and I will pray to my God. At length he receives the fruits of his prayer; and witnesses that he was heard, saying: The Lord hath heard me and hath had mercy on me; the Lord hath become my helper.6... If it has been thus with great saints, we that are weak and poor must not be discouraged, if we are sometimes fervent, sometimes cold; because the spirit comes and goes according to the good pleasure of his will.
... I have never found anyone so religious and devout, as not to have sometimes a withdrawing of grace, or to feel some decrease of fervour. No saint was ever so highly rapt and illuminated, as not to be tempted before or after. For he is not worthy of the high contemplation of God, who has not been exercised with some tribulation for the sake of God. For of the consolation which follows it, temptation is usually the sign going before.... But divine consolation is given that a man may be better able to support adversities. And temptation follows, that he may not be puffed up because of the good. The devil sleeps not neither is the flesh yet dead....’ 2
‘ If thou shouldest come to be so valiant and long suffering in hope, that when inward consolation is withdrawn, thou canst prepare thy heart to suffer still more; and when thou dost not justify thyself as if thou oughtest not to suffer such great things; but acknowledgest my justice in all my appointments and
*37 praisest my holy name; then it is that thou walkest in the true and right way of peace; and mayest hope without any doubt, to see my face again with great joy. And if thou shouldest arrive at an entire contempt of thyself; know that then thou shalt enjoy an abundance of peace as far as is possible in this sojourn on earth.’7
- Think not thyself wholly forsaken, although for a time I have sent thee some tribulation: or withdrawn from thee the consolation which thou desirest, for this is the way to the kingdom of heaven....’ 2
Footnotes
Chapter 18 of 31