Chapter III. Normal Spiritual Progress and Daily Communion
As has already been so often said, traditional doctrine as explained by St. Thomas tells us that normal spiritual progress should not only continue but should become greater and greater as the soul draws nearer to God and is more attracted by Him, just as falling bodies fall faster and faster as they near the earth and are more drawn to it. The just man, then, in his journey to eternity, ought to push on by steps of love, gressibus amoris, as St. Gregory said, going ahead more and more generously as he approaches God. Normally those in die unitive way make more rapid progress than beginners, those in the purgative way. In their last years, the saints, despite the weight of age, go forward more swiftly along the upward way to God than they did at first, although then the attraction of newness helped to carry them along. We have a striking example of this truth in St. Thomas' last years, for he became so occupied with contemplating God that he could no longer continue dictating the Summa theologica and left it unfinished.
St. Thomas knew that, unlike violent movements, that is, movements contrary to the natural tendency of the mover, all natural movement, like that of falling bodies, is more rapid when approaching the term or end naturally fitting for it.1 He adds, as we have seen, that the same is true in the order of grace: "Qui sunt in gratia, quanto plus accedunt ad finem, plus debent crescere." 2 Those in the state of grace ought to grow spiritually in proportion to their nearness to their last end, according to the words of St. Paul to the Hebrew, "comforting one another, and so much the more as you see the day approaching." 8
The progress of souls attracted by God ought to follow the same law of accelerating motion in the spiritual realm as a movement of bodies drawn by the force of gravity in the material universe. St. Augustine's words express this thought: "Wherever I go, love is the weight that draws me." 4
But, as a matter of fact, spiritual growth often resembles the slowing motion of a stone thrown into die air: its speed falls off until the stone comes to a standstill and then begins to fall earthward. Granted that this frequently happens to souls, we need not for that reason look upon it as normal, since it is an abnormality resulting from negligence and sin, which weigh the soul down and finally smother the fiery upthrust of grace.
If we consider the nature of charity, we realize that it is
- In his Confessions, XIII, 9, St. Augustine develops this analogy: "The body by its own weight tends toward its own place. Weight tends not only downward, but toward its own place. Fire tends upward, a stone downward. They are urged by their own weight, they seek their own places. Oil poured below water, is raised above the water; water poured upon oil, sinks below the oil. They are urged by their own weights to seek their own places. When out of their order, they arc resdess; restored to order, they are at rest. My weight, is my love; thereby am I borne, whithersoever I am borne. We are inflamed, by Thy gift we arc kindled; and arc carried upwards; wc glow inwardly, and go forwards. We ascend Thy ways that be in our heart, and sing a song of degrees; wc glow inwardly with Thy fire, with Thy good fire, and we go; because we go upwards to the peace of Jerusalem; for gladdened was I in those who said unto me. We will go up to the house of the Lord. There hath Thy good pleasure placed us, that we may desire nothing else, but to abide there for ever."2
an infused virtue tending to unite us more and more completely to God, to respond ever more perfecdy to the first commandment: "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart and with thy whole soul and with all thy strength and with all thy mind : and thy neighbor as diyself ." B The more our love of God grows, the greater becomes our supernatural capacity for loving Him; love empties itself more and more, as it were, that it may be filled with the fullness of the sovereign Good. 6
Effects of fervent daily Communion
This doctrine about grace finds strong confirmation in the Church's teaching concerning the effects of daily Communion. When we receive daily with the necessary dispositions and a right and pious intention, in a spirit of faith and with the desire to overcome our inordinate inclinations and to advance in God's love, it produces in us ex opere operato an increase of charity proportionate to the degree of our fervor. Tod ay' s Communion disp oses , us to receive tomorrow's, mo re worthily by increasing our cha r ity and prej)arjng_us to communicate, if not with more sensible fervor, for that is accidental, at least with greater readiness of will for Go d's service, a livelier s ubstantial devotion, even in spite of any aridity. In principle, or normally, then, if we remain generous, each"" of our Communions ought to be not only as fervent as the one preceding, but even more so and to produce in us an increase of charity proportionate to our growing fervor. We should- make steadily increasing progress in loving God. If we put no obstacle in the way and especially if we receive
39 o THE LOVE OF GOD
Communion every day with better dispositions, our love of God becomes a stronger and stronger spiritual attraction drawing us more and more powerfully to the Sovereign Good.
All this was verified in die life of the Blessed Virgin, for no venial sin, no imperfection, choked up the wellspring of her charity. The initial fullness of grace she received at the moment of her immaculate conception surpassed the graces of all the saints and angels together. She is the one perfect diamond among God's innumerable precious stones. And each succeeding and growing act of charity increased her initial spiritual treasure in a way too marvelous for our understanding. 7
Mar yjs supernatural love grew particularly when she rece'ived Holy Communion from St. J ohn. She had within her no resu l i of original sin, no im perfection to abatejhe ardor .of her charity. The principal condition for a fervent Com -. mnnion is hunger for the Eucharist. Even the greatest saints ' hay£jTev^r_e^er ienced' me~samT"spiriraallmnger as th e
HBfessed Mother knew for h er Eucharistic LordYetJtTCjth;;
j^e ^SlenacTesire d theJ Eucharist so ardently that one j ay when she ha d been refused _C ommunion a piece of thTTa rge
Tiolt~~wfach _ the celebrant Tield in his hands detached itself
^ andcame toher miraculously. TjLe^me~^acleJt^ak_place, Vnnjnjhe firsr Communion of Blessed Imelda, w ho d ied of lovp iliirinjr jier thanksgiving. |
' Think, then, of the attractive force drawing Mary's soul to Christ really present in the Eucharist. With a heart at once virginal and motherly she loved Him not only as a beloved but as a really adorable Son. Entirely forgetting herself, she relived during the Mass celebrated by St. John the sacrifice
of the cross. Better than anyone else she understood in what a profound sense these two sacrifices make but one, the same Victim being offered and the same Priest offering, "idem nunc offerens, ministerio sacerdotum," as the Council of Trent says. As she had on Calvary, Mary united herself daily more closely with Christ's sacrifice perpetuated on the altar and she shared in it by an increasingly fervent Communion.
On His side, Christ had the greatest desire for Mary's definitive sanctification. He asks only to communicate to us the treasure of grace overflowing from His heart. On earth He suffered much on finding obstacles to His divine generosity. In Mary no obstacle ever existed. Her communion with Christ in the Eucharist was the closest possible fusion of their two spiritual lives. He the Redeemer, she the coredemptrix, herself ransomed by an act of perfect preservative redemption, the highest of all Christ's works. When she received Communion, Mary became again the living tabernacle of our Savior's sacred body, a pure tabernacle a thousand times more precious than any golden ciborium, or tower of ivory, ark of the covenant, vas insigne devotionis.
What St. Teresa says of transforming union in the ^^ntr?> castTj gives us a little insight into the effects of Mary's Communion. St. Teresa tells us that this spiritual union is as close as light to the crystal it passes through, as fire to the glowing iron which has taken on its properties. The rays of supernatural light and heat coming from Christ's soul and divinity more and more enlightened the intellect and strengthened the will of His virgin Mother. These spiritual goods, her infused wisdom and shining goodness, the humble Virgin could in no way refer to herself; she never ceased giving glory to God for them. In her was fully realized our Lord's words as re-
39 2 THE LOVE OF GOD corded by St. John: "As the living Father hath sent Me, and I live by the Father; so he that eateth Me, the same also shall live by Me." 8
During her life on earth, Mary our Mediatrix was, especially at the time of Holy Communion, a pure mirror reflecting back to Christ the supernatural rays received from Him while at the same time in some way condensing them to diffuse them into our souls.
In the case of the saints, venial sins of weakness, impossible to avoid entirely, retard their progress in God's love; however, their growth in humility because of such slight offenses in some way compensates for them, and that is why God permits these negligences in His elect. At any rate, the saints go for-
. ward ever more quickly to God* as they get older, despite th ^, burden of age. The priest of eighty can say with ev er new.
" fervor when beginning Mass: "Introibo ad alt are. Dei, atL. Deum cjui laetificat piventutem meam." T he F.nr.r^risr can always really renew the spiritual youth of the priestly soul _ " and of any interior soul. Th etree of lire in the garden of Paradise could never have kept us young in so marvelous a way. _
Holy Communion and arrested progress
Nevertheless, even among daily communicants, we find arrested souls, no longer making enough progress and consequently not to be called either beginners or proficients or perfect; for a dwarf is neither a perfect child, adolescent, nor adult.
Retarded souls manifest an analogous deviation from the spiritual norm. They are in the state of grace, and when they communicate their Communions are not entirely ineffectual,
really producing in them a slight increase of charity. But a contrary growth of deliberate venial sins covers over this minimum increase, and progress may become slower and slower, like a stone thrown into the air.
Certainly St. Thomas 9 and many other theologians agree in saying that venial sins do not directly subtract from charity considered in itself ; for, being an infused virtue, it cannot be developed directly like the acquired virtues by the repetition of virtuous acts and consequently cannot be intrinsically impaired by their cessation. Further, venial sin, being a disorder relative not to our last end but to the means to our end, cannot be punished by a direct lessening of charity, since charity concerns our ultimate end, God to be loved above all things. Mortal sin can indeed destroy charity as the two are incompatible, and mortal sin turns us away from our last end. Venial sin, however, cannot impair charity in itself. Anyone who had ten talents of charity two years ago and has not sinned mortally since, still has ten talents of charity today in spite of venial sins committed during that time.
Although this is true, as we have seen, 10 venial sins indirectly work harm to charity and even dispose the soul for mortal sin. They diminish the fervor of charity extrinsically by keeping it from applying itself to some object, by preventing it from radiating; they hedge it in with obstacles and rob it of liberty of action, developing inordinate inclinations that hamper the exercise of love of God and neighbor. Thus charity gives less light though it burns as before; it goes in bondage though no less strong.
It follows that if a soul has a habitual and growing attach-
10 Ibid., and above, in the preceding chapter.
3 9 4 THE LOVE OF GOD ment to venial sin, the sacramental increase of charity is not wholly lost but it grows less each day. Please God it may not come to a complete halt. If it did, then Holy Communion would indeed produce no effect whatever; it would no longer be a good Communion; the attachment to venial sin would have at last disposed the soul for mortal sin, directly or indirecdy willed. 11 The old adage, "Not to go forward is to go back," would then be completely verified. No longer to grow at all by daily Communion is to fall back as far as mortal sin, a bad state to be in. 12
Probably many who seem to make no progress in spite of frequent Communion actually receive at least the grace to avoid mortal sin, for which repeated venial sin disposes them. If they did not receive Communion, they would fall into grave sin; the fact that they do not, that diey resist temptation, shows that they are still making progress and meriting. Therefore, if they avoid mortal sin or at least, after having sinned, do not make a bad confession, their Communions received with the good intention to resist temptation produce at least some feeble growth of charity though it may be hidden by venial sins and their effects. Too often our increase of charity
11 To obtain absolution for all our serious sins, whether directly or indirectly voluntary, let us, accusing ourselves of those we remember, have a sincere sorrow proportionate to our culpability before God for those we cannot recall. Sins indirectly voluntary are generally transgressions of omission, for example, missing Mass on Sunday because we stayed up too late the night before, knowing that the probable result would be our oversleeping the next morning. Cf. Ia Ilac, q.6, a.3; a. 7, ad 3um.
12 Cf. Schram, O.S.B., Institutions theologiac mysticae, II, 125. His words may sound severe to some. However, it must be remembered that indirectly voluntary sins, the results of our negligence, must be taken into account. We are responsible not only for the evil we do but for the omission of good we should have done. On indirect voluntariness, cf. St. Thomas, Summa, Ia Ilac, q.6, a.3; q.7, ad 3" m : q. 77> a.7; Ha Ilae, q.46, a.2, ad 2um; q.64, a.8; q.79. a.3, ad 3"ni; De mato, q.3, a.8.
is slight because, owing to lack of fervor, we do not approach often enough the fire of grace, the Eucharist. And sometimes the growth of charity is not only feeble but continually more feeble, a disorder consequent on persistent and progressive attachment to venial sin. Notwithstanding, normally every Communion ought to be more fervent and more fruitful than the preceding, not in accidental, sensible devotion, but in the substantial devotion of the will.
This doctrine leads good people to ask themselves whether throughout years of daily Communion they are advancing more quickly or more slowly. In our spiritual life there lies a mystery known only to God and judged in many different ways by men. Often saints, the Cure of Ars for example, think they are slipping back, whereas in reality, by receiving Communion frequently and meriting, they are not only journeying to God at a faster and faster pace but also growing in insight into their own misery. On the other hand, many who are making no progress at all have a false sense of security springing from nothing less than carelessness and neglect of sanctification or even, it may be, of salvation.
In reacting against the Jansenistic proscription of frequent Communion, we must not fall into the other extreme as expressed in the laxist proposition that frequentation of confession and Communion, even by those who live like pagans, is a sign of predestination. 13 This proposition was condemned by Innocent XI.
Conditions for fervent Communion
For Holy Communion to produce its effects in us, we must receive it with the right intentions. For fervent Communion, l»Dcnzinger, no. 1206.
39 6 THE LOVE OF GOD we must have a living faith and that ardent desire called hunger for the Eucharist. There is no question here of any desire of the sensible order, like certain consolations sometimes accorded to us by our Lord, but of spiritual aspiration, founded on the absolute certitude of supernatural faith in the Eucharist as the good and refreshment for our spiritual forces, fire for our heart, light for our intellect, strength for our will, peace for our passions.
If we wonder how it can happen that we do not experience any spiritual hunger for the Eucharist, we ought to remember that doctors advise people who have lost their appetite to take exercise. The same can be said in regard to our spiritual life. We lack exercise. At least one act of mortification a day is a necessity for us; and little by little we should develop a spirit of sacrifice. It will give us peace and joy by putting to death our egoism, self-love, and pride, and by making room in our souls for love of God and neighbor until they take first place there. Then, by daily sacrifice and through the growth of supernatural love, we shall indeed hunger for the Eucharist.
Before approaching the holy table, we do well to remember how Mary received Communion and to ask her to obtain grace for us that our hearts may be so purified that when our Lord comes to us He will find no obstacle to His grace, but only an ardent desire to receive Him. Then we shall allay His burning thirst for our salvation and sanctification. Then in Communion and thanksgiving, we shall truly find the Eucharistic heart of Christ and grow in appreciation of that supreme act of love by which it is given to us in the holy sacrament. We shall see more clearly how the Eucharistic heart is indeed a heart that loves us, that waits for us patiently, hears us eagerly, burns with new graces to give us and longs to speak to listening hearts.
Blessed Grignon de Montfort 14 advises us at Communion time to ask Mary to share with us her own sentiments in receiving; to obtain for us a loving faith in the mystery of redemption, and in the infinite value of the sacrifice of the cross perpetuated on our altars; to give us a deeper understanding of how Holy Communion ought to be daily a more intimate participation in that sacrifice, that is, in the sentiments our Lord Himself had when He offered Himself for us on Calvary and in those ever living in His heart as He continues to offer Himself through the ministry of His priests.
If we always had these dispositions, every Communion would be more fervent than the one before, and our journey to God would, by the same token, be made at greater and greater speed, like the saints'. This would be nothing extraordinary, but merely the normal life of generosity, even as in the life of grace the normal thing is never to sin mortally after baptism. Frequent mortal sin in the baptized is an absolute disorder killing what was meant to last forever and flower forth in glory — the life of grace. Not only should sanctifying grace never be destroyed after baptism, but it ought to go on developing until death in proportion to our nearness to God and His growing attractive force on our souls. In following this normal way generously, souls ordinarily arrive at loving contemplation of the mysteries of faith, and particularly that mystery daily renewed for us, the Mass. Certainly this is the meaning of the quotation from St. Thomas cited at the beginning of the chapter: "Qui sunt in gratia, quanta plus ac-
14 True Devotion to Mary, tr. Faber, chap. 8.
cedunt ad finem, plus debent crescere." Those who are in the state of grace ought to grow spiritually all the more as they near the end of their journey to eternity.
Charity and the gift of wisdom
That the virtues and the seven gifts grow together with charity, is especially true of the gift of wisdom, the highest gift of all, with a particular affinity for the great virtues. 18 Therefore the apostle St. James teaches us to ask for the light of wisdom: "But if any of you want wisdom, let him ask of God . . . and it shall be given him." 16 Blessed Grignon de Montfort 17 tells us that we must ask for it with a firm and lively faith 18 and without hesitation; whoever wavers in his faith cannot hope to obtain it. 19 And we must ask for it with pure faith, without grounding our prayer on sensible consolations, visions, or personal revelations. Although all these may be genuine and good, as they were in the lives of some of the saints, it is always dangerous to depend on them, and faith may become less pure and meritorious in the degree in which it is based on extraordinary and sensible graces of this kind. In what the Holy Ghost makes known of the wonders and beauties of wisdom, of our need for it and God's desire to give it to us, we find powerful motives for desiring and asking wisdom of God in all faith and eagerness.
The just man, the wise man, lives by faith without seeing, without feeling, although he may be attacked by doubts and darkness of mind, of illusions in the imagination, of disgust and boredom of
heart, and sadness and anguish of soul. The wise do not ask to see the extraordinary things saints have seen, nor to taste sweetness in their prayers and devotions; they ask with faith for divine wisdom, and it ought to be held as more certain that it will be given to them (Jas. i : 5) than if an angel had come down from heaven to assure them of it, because Wisdom Himself has said: "For every one that asketh, receiveth" (Luke n: 10). "If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father from heaven give the good Spirit to them that ask Him?" (Luke ii: 13.)
We must, moreover, ask for wisdom with perseverance, for if we are to acquire this precious pearl and have this infinite treasure, we must use a holy importunity with God, or we shall never receive it. Whoever would obtain wisdom, must ask for it day and night, without growing weary or disheartened. Happy will he be if he obtains it after ten, twenty, or thirty years of prayer, and even an hour before death. . . .
The Holy Ghost Himself has composed a prayer to express our plea for wisdom: "God of my fathers, and Lord of mercy, who hast made all things with thy word, . . . give me wisdom, that sitteth by thy throne, and cast me not off from among thy children. . . . Send her out of thy holy heaven, and from the throne of thy majesty, that she may be with me and may labour with me, that I may know what is acceptable with thee. . . . For by wisdom they were healed, whosoever have pleased thee, O Lord, from the beginning" (Wisd., chap. 9).
Footnotes
Chapter 16 of 37