2 — NECESSITY OF INTERIOR PURIFICATION

Presence of God. — Purify, O Lord, my soul, that it may be wholly invaded by Your light and Your love.

Meditation

1 — St. John of the Cross compares the soul to a windowpane struck by the sun; if the pane “is clouded, the sun will not be able to illumine it well and transform it wholly into its own light... indeed, it will enlighten it all the less the less it is free of stains... On the contrary, if it were completely clean and clear, it would be illumined and transformed in such a way as to seem like the very ray itself and to give forth the same light” (A. II, 5, 6). God is the divine sun that shines upon our souls, desirous of invading and penetrating them until He transforms them into His light and His love; but, to do so, He waits for the soul to decide to free itself from every “stain of creature,” that is, from the stains of sin and disordered attachments. As soon as God finds a soul clean from mortal sin, He immediately invests it with His grace; this most precious gift is only the beginning of the great transformation the Lord wishes to work in it. And thus, the more the soul purifies itself from every sin, from every attachment even slight and from every imperfection - that is, in the measure in which it conforms its will to the will of God not only in serious obligatory matters, but also in small things and those of greater perfection - the more it becomes fit to be totally penetrated and transformed by divine grace.

Grace, God’s gift that makes the soul a participant in the divine nature, is poured into the soul in proportion to its degree of interior purity, which always corresponds to its degree of conformity to the will of God. Therefore, the soul that desires to be wholly invaded and transformed by divine grace must, in practice, as St. John of the Cross teaches, strive to conform itself fully to God’s will “in such a way that there be in it nothing contrary to the divine will, but in everything and through everything it be moved only by the will of God” (A. I, 11, 2).

2 — God not only strikes the soul with the ray of His divine grace, but He Himself, One and Triune, places His dwelling in it, according to Jesus’ promise: “if anyone loves Me... We will come to him and make Our dwelling with him” (Jn. 14, 23).

Even if you possess only one degree of grace, God dwells in you, inviting you to live in real union with Him; yet He does not give Himself completely to you, He does not consume you in His unity, He does not wholly transform you in Himself, as long as He finds in you something, however small, contrary to His will. Even the smallest imperfection is contrary to God’s will, because God cannot will the smallest imperfection, and still less can He admit to perfect union with Himself a soul that preserves something, however slight, opposed to His infinite perfection. The basis of every perfect union is always total conformity of will and affection. As long as you love and will, even in very tiny things, what God cannot love and will, your will is not fully conformed to the will of God; these two wills - yours and God’s - cannot become one alone, “which is the will of God that has become also the will of the soul” (J.C. A. I, 11, 3).

And as long as you do not reach this perfect union of your will with the divine will, God, though dwelling in you, will not communicate Himself totally to your soul. Therefore St. John of the Cross teaches: “the soul disposes itself for union... through purity and love, that is, only through renunciation and perfect stripping of everything for the Lord.” But when the soul has thus disposed itself, God grants it “this supernatural grace by which all divine things and the things of the soul are one in participating transformation: the soul seems more God than soul, and indeed is God by participation, though always retaining its natural being, distinct from God’s, in the same way that the windowpane keeps its being distinct from the ray, however much illumined by it” (A. II, 5, 8 and 7).

Colloquy

O my God, for what greatnesses You have created me!

You created me to know You, love You, serve You not as a servant, but as a child, as a friend, living in Your intimacy, sitting at Your table, enjoying Your presence. O Jesus, You said it: “I no longer call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master does; I have called you friends, because I have made known to you all that I have heard from My Father” (Jn. 15, 15).

You revealed to me the great mystery of a God who deigns to love me as a child, who deigns to place His dwelling in my soul, who deigns to invite me to the most intimate friendship and union with Him. Indeed, You Yourself, at the Last Supper, asked for me this union: “as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, may they also be one in Us” (Jn. 17, 21). To be one thing with God, to be consumed in the unity of the Most Holy Trinity. O Jesus, how sublime is the ideal You set before me, how great is the invitation You address to me! Yes, Your words are valid for me too, a creature of misery and sin. Then why shall I delay, lingering among the low and vain things of this earthly life? Why should I, like a reptile, be content to crawl upon the earth, when You invite me to eagle flights and provide me with wings? Alone I can do nothing, and in vain I would struggle to free myself from sin, to detach myself from creatures and from myself; all my efforts would be vain, because my native weakness continually tends to drag me down. But Your grace and Your love, O my God, are the wings that can raise me to perfect union with You. Before this ideal, how could I find it hard to begin and carry through a profound work of purification and total stripping?

O Lord, let me understand well that “true love consists in stripping oneself of all that You are not” (cf. J.C. A. II, 5, 7). Of all, and not only of something: of all, because love is by nature totalitarian, of all, because a perfect union demands a perfect accord of will, desires, and affections.

My God, what profound purification is necessary for me, so that You may unite me to You, infinite perfection!