Chapter II. What Is to be Done During the Night of the Senses
Having given a psychological description of the passive purification of the senses and a theological explanation of the causes producing it and the end to which it is ordered, we must now speak of rules for direction suitable to this state. St John of the Cross has treated the subject in the tenth chapter of the first book of The Dark Night; his teaching can be reduced to five principal observations explaining what ought not to be done, and then afterward what positive action should be taken.
God leads certain spiritual souls from meditation to contemplation, suspending the activity of the soul's facult.es so that there may be no obstacle to the infused contemplation He is preparing them to receive, vivifying them with more abundant peace and enkindling them with the spirit of love. St John of the Cross says that they particularly need some one to understand them at this time and that, lacking such help, they may "abandon the road or lose courage; or, at least they'may be hindered from going farther by the great trouble they take in advancing along the road of meditation and reasoning," or by desiring to enjoy consolation and satisfy their own inclinations.12
2 8 THE LOVE OF GOD
In other words, those who presently find themselves devoid of all sensible grace must guard against backsliding and should choose, if they can, a learned and experienced director. Difficulties in interior prayer arise because of the withdrawal of sensible graces and of the quasi-impossibility of meditating and because of accompanying temptations against chastity and patience aroused by the devil to turn the soul from prayer. Our Lord's words seem fully verified: "How narrow is the gate, and strait is the way that leadeth to life: and few there are that find it!" 3
Our Lord permits aridity and temptations to make us live the life of the spirit more vigorously, but beginners get the impression that they have been left in a barren and waterless desert and they are afraid "of being lost on the road, thinking that all spiritual blessing is over for them and that God has abandoned them since they find no help or pleasure in good things." 4 In the midst of such difficulties they may turn back if they do not have a well instructed and experienced guide; and, as a matter of fact, many do grow tired and retreat. At this time more than at any odier the old saying that "Not to go forward is to go back" is found true. And those who would help souls to advance while in this state must see more in it than melancholy of temperament or God's punishment; otherwise they may make those whom they would encourage lose heart. 5
About directors St. Teresa has the same thing to say as St. John of the Cross.
6 Cf. what St. John of the Cross has to say on the subject in the prologue to Ascent of Ml. Carmel.
So then, it is of great consequence that the director should be prudent — I mean, of sound understanding — and a man of experience. If, in addition to this, he is a learned man, it is a very great matter. But if these qualities cannot be found together, the first two are the most important, because learned men may be found with whom we can communicate when it is necessary. . . . My opinion has always been, and will be, that every Christian should continue to be guided by a learned director if he can, and the more learned the better. They who walk in the way of prayer have the greater need of learning; and the more spiritual they are, the greater is that need. 6
We do well, then, to choose a learned and experienced director ; if such cannot be found, then a well instructed and virtuous priest; and if he cannot be had, a pious even though ignorant priest who will have the humility to recognize his own limitations and to encourage us on occasion to consult others better informed than he is. According to St. Teresa, such a man is to be preferred to those with some learning who wish to seem to know it all, setting themselves up as judges of things they know nothing about and either leading souls astray or blocking their advancement.
Besides having a good director, souls in this state should follow the advice of St. John of the Cross when he says: "It is well for those who find themselves in this condition to take comfort, to persevere in patience and to be in no wise afflicted. Let them trust in God, who abandons not those that seek Him widi a simple and right heart, and will not fail to give diem what is needful for the road, until He bring them into the clear and pure light of love. This last He will give them by
means of that other dark night, that of the spirit, if they merit that He should bring them thereto." 7
In aridity and powerlessness we must not become discouraged nor abandon prayer, saying that it has become useless and fruitless. All spiritual writers tell us that at this time we have to persevere in humble, trusting prayer and keep on mortifying our inordinate inclinations. But some authors say all this somewhat sadly with an ascetic air indicating that die direction we are to take is along the line of mere duty, without showing us that prolonged aridity marks die beginning of a new life, that we have come upon the bitter roots of a tree that bears sweet fruit. We must have recourse to prayer and mortification more than ever before to help us overcome present difficulties. This we must do because these very difficulties indicate the germinating of the mystical life within us. And so it is without any sadness but with real joy that an experienced director will encourage us to enter into die strait way that will, for faithful hearts, widen out into the immensity of God Himself.
This time of trial is a time for making generous acts of faith, trust, and love, for we find ourselves in the happy necessity of being unable to confine ourselves to imperfect acts of these virtues. Let us not forget St. Thomas' doctrine that generous acts of charity obtain an immediate increase of charity, but imperfect acts {actus remissi) do not. The man who has five talents and acts as if he had only two does not immediately obtain a sixth; he receives it when he acts to the full power within him.
If we are not to lose ground during the night of die senses, we must begin to love God with all our strength, no longer
by the virtues alone but by the special inspiration of the Holy Ghost. Then our strength will be the strength of ten. Far from giving up or shortening prayer, although it seems to have become useless, die beginner must often appeal to God, saying: "Lord, save me, keep my patience; make me do what You command, and command me to do what You will."
Sensible fervor doubtless is lost at this time, but normally substantial devotion greatly increases, for it proceeds from the virtue of religion and the gift of piety; the losses of the senses leave untouched the will's readiness to serve God: "the will to do promptly what pertains to the service of God." 8 The illuminative way is dawning and is well wordi the trouble required for entering into it. Men climb the Alps and risk their lives to stand on Mt. Blanc and look down on the glaciers. We should be willing to accept much to enter into true intimacy with God. 9
A third step in our inquiry deals with the question whether souls in this state can persevere patiendy in prayer when they find meditation impossible. St. John of the Cross advises them what to do:
The way in which they are to conduct themselves in this night of the sense is to devote themselves not at all to reasoning and meditation, since it is not the time for this, but to allow the soul to remain in peace and quietness, although it may seem clear to them that they are doing nothing. . . . The truth is that they will be doing quite sufficient if they have patience and persevere in prayer without making any effort. What they must do is merely to leave the soul free and disencumbered and at rest from all knowledge and thought, troubling not themselves, in that state,
about what they think or meditate, but contenting themselves with no more than a peaceful and loving attentiveness toward God. 10
A little earlier, when speaking about those who desire to return to meditation, St. John of the Cross remarks:
This effort they make not without great inward repugnance and unwillingness on the part of their soul, which was taking pleasure in being in that quietness and ease, instead of working with its faculties. So they have abandoned one pursuit, yet draw no profit from the other; for, while they seek what is prompted by the.ir own spirit, they lose the spirit of tranquillity and peace which they had before. And thus they are like to one who abandons what he has done in order to do it over again, or to one who leaves a city only to re-enter it, or to one who is hunting and lets his prey go in order to hunt it once more. This is useless here, for the soul will gain nothing further by conducting itself in this way, as has been said.
We give ourselves profitless trouble when we try to move against the current of grace instead of going with it. It is as if we were to go on looking for the source of living water when we already stand on the water's edge; we will be certain to go past it if we do not give up searching. It is as if we wished to keep on spelling out words when we know how to read and can take in a whole line at a glance. We are struggling downhill instead of letting God lift us up to the heights.
Spiritual persons who find themselves in prolonged sensible aridity and are not conscious of any recent outstanding fault, may conclude that they are gaining and not losing by being deprived of sensible fervor and that, although they
cannot feel it, grace is being accorded to them in another higher and more spiritual form.
St. John of the Cross makes a fourth observation 11 that relates to those who do not exactly wish to return to discursive meditation but who would like to feel some consolation again:
What they must do is merely to leave the soul free and disencumbered and at rest from all knowledge and thought, troubling not themselves, in that state, about what they think or meditate, but contenting themselves with no more than a peaceful and loving attentiveness toward God, and in being without anxiety, without the ability and without desire to have experience of Him or to perceive Him. For all these yearnings disquiet and distract the soul from the peaceful quiet and sweet ease of contemplation which is here granted to it. . . .
Let them remain in peace, as there is no question save of their being at ease and having freedom of spirit. For if such a soul should desire to make any effort of its own with its interior faculties, 12 this means that it will hinder and lose the blessings which, by means of that peace and ease of the soul, God is instilling into it and impressing upon it. It is just as if some painter were painting or dyeing a face; if the sitter were to move because he desired to do something, he would prevent the painter from accomplishing anything and would disturb him in what he was doing. And thus, when the soul desires to remain in inward ease and peace, any operation and affection or attention wherein it may then seek to indulge will distract it and disquiet it and make it conscious of aridity and emptiness of sense. For the more a soul endeavors to
12 That is, any effort outside the special inspiration of the Holy Ghost, in which it should rest The description of the state given here by St. John of the Cross shows that it corresponds to St. Teresa's "Fourth Mansion."
find help in affection and knowledge, the more will it feel the lack of these, which cannot now be supplied to it upon that road.
This passage is psychologically profound, revealing how natural activity, when exerted contrary to the gifts of the Holy Ghost, serves as an obstacle to their delicate inspirations. We must not desire to feel God's gift but seek to receive it with docility in the obscurity of faith; then it will bear fruit. Aristotle says that as youth has its bloom, so has every act its pleasure; we must seek not pleasure but the object and end of the virtuous act itself; peace or the tranquillity of order will follow, bringing with it a pure joy which, though not the end of the act, is its result. 13
Having seen what souls should not do, that they ought not to attempt to go back to discursive meditation and to experiencing feelings, we should next find out what positive action is to be taken. St. John of die Cross tells us:
Wherefore it behooves such a soul to pay no heed if the operations of its faculties become lost to it; it is rather to desire that this should happen quickly. For, by not hindering the operation of infused contemplation that God is bestowing upon it, it can receive this with more peaceful abundance, and cause its spirit to be enkindled and to burn with the love which this dark and secret contemplation brings with it and sets firmly in the soul. For contemplation is naught else than a secret, peaceful and loving infusion from God, which, if it be permitted, enkindles the soul with the spirit of love. 14
At the beginning of the same chapter, the holy doctor says that in this way God brings the soul from meditation to contemplation, that is, to infused contemplation, there be-
ing no question here of acquired contemplation but only of the infusion of the sweet light of life. The soul should, in other words, content itself with "a peaceful and loving attentiveness toward God." 15 The general and obscure knowledge of His presence which God infuses into the soul is superior to every sense image and distinct idea; it reaches the spirit quickening the letter of the Gospel, discovers the treasure it contains, and fulfills our Lord's words: "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." 18
These words were not addressed only to the apostles, for in his first epistle St. John writes to the faithful: "As for you, let that which you have heard from the beginning, abide in you. . . . You also shall abide in the Son. . . . Let the unction, which you have received from Him, abide in you . . . as His unction teacheth you of all things." 17
At first sight it may seem that, if we find ourselves in like circumstances, we should do nothing; in reality, the Gospels we have read and meditated on so often will communicate their spirit to us, opening up the rich treasure of their meaning and giving us what apostles particularly need to be fit ministers not of the letter but of the spirit of the New Testament. 18 Every Christian, too, must, in a sense, become truly interior and have some depth of understanding of Christ's' words, our "spirit and life." 10 Infused prayer begins with a spiritual lifting up of our souls to God in a way senses and
3 6 THE LOVE OF GOD reasoning cannot reach; it is adoration in spirit and in truth, surpassing all figures of the imagination and formulas of reason, arriving at the divine reality which they seek to express, attaining to diat infinite and diffusive goodness from which all life comes.
When we are undergoing the passive purification of the senses which takes place, according to St. John of the Cross, at the beginning of the illuminative way, 20 the conduct we should follow is then indicated for us. However, a difficulty remains to be cleared up. Suppose the soul has no such general and obscure knowledge of God, should it then return to discursive meditation, giving itself, for example, to the consideration of our Savior's passion or slowly reflecting on the petitions of the Our Father ?
To resolve the difficulty proposed, a commentary was added to early editions of The Dark. Night after the tenth chapter of Book I. No manuscript contains the commentary. Instead of recourse to an interpolation of this kind, it is quite simple to call attention to the fact that St. John of the Cross himself met the objection in the Ascent of Mount Carmel with the following solution. He says:
With regard to what has been said, there might be raised one question— if progressives (that is, those whom God is beginning to bring into this supernatural knowledge of contemplation whereof we have spoken) must never again, because of this that they are beginning to experience, return to the way of meditation and argument and natural forms. To this the answer is that it is not to be understood that such as are beginning to experience this loving knowledge must never again, as a general rule, try to return to meditation; for, when they are first gaining in proficiency,
the habit of contemplation is not yet so perfect that whensoever they wish they can give themselves to the act thereof, nor, in the same way, have they reached a point so far beyond meditation that they cannot occasionally meditate and reason in a natural way, as they were wont. . . .
The soul, then, will frequently find itself in this loving or peaceful state of waiting upon God without in any way exercising its faculties — that is, with respect to particular acts— and without working actively at all, but only receiving. In order to reach this state, it will frequently need to make use of meditation, quietly and in moderation. 21
To meditate slowly on the Our Father or on some verses from the Gospel serves as an excellent preparation for receiving a general and obscure knowledge of God, the beginning of infused contemplation.
In her Life St. Teresa describes how the noria, or water wheel, which symbolizes human effort under grace, has to be put to use during the beginning of the prayer of quiet, although the prayer of quiet is God's gift and lies beyond the attainment of all the soul's efforts, 22 bringing with it some knowledge of the bliss of glory, giving new strength to the virtues, and manifesting a new and special work of God in the soul. 23 In other words, it indicates a special inspiration of the Holy Ghost higher than ordinary actual grace. St. Teresa's words about the noria as typifying the initial degree of the prayer of quiet agree exactly with what St. John of the Cross says about the work of the understanding in preparing the soul for deeper recollection and for what will be given
22 These words show that the prayer of quiet is infused although the mind can prepare itself to receive it.
3 8 THE LOVE OF GOD to it during the passive night of the senses, the beginning of infused contemplation.
The principal rules of direction for the state of purification having now been outlined, we still have to investigate its effects; for a tree is judged by its fruits, and the fruit of this tree is abundant and full of flavor. The accompanying trials, the temptations allowed by God to provoke the soul to energetic reaction and to the firm establishment of the virtues having their seat in die sensuous appetency, must also be considered. To find out precisely when the passive purification of these senses ordinarily takes place is another task that lies ahead.
Even now it is already evident how much this purgation achieves in making the soul holy and wholesome and the way in which it brings to pass our Lord's words, "How narrow is the gate, and strait is the way that leadeth to life: and few diere are that find it!" 24 Blessed are they who will not let the difficulties of the way discourage them; with every forward step they make their hearts burn more and more ardently for God and they sing the song of the Psalmist with their whole soul: "As the hart panteth after the fountains of water; so my soul panteth after Thee, O God. My soul hath thirsted after the strong living God; when shall I come and appear before the face of God? . . . Send forth Thy light and Thy truth: they have conducted me, and brought me unto Thy holy hill, and into Thy tabernacles. And I will go in to the altar of God : to God who giveth joy to my youth. To Thee, O God my God, I will give praise upon the harp." 25 What is expressed here is not merely the conditional and
«Ps. 41: i Lj 42:3-5- inefficacious desire to see the First Cause, the furnace of life from which creation flames up; 26 it is an increasingly pressing and burning supernatural desire enkindled in the heart by the Holy Ghost Himself. "Blessed are they that hunger and diirst after justice: for they shall have dieir fill." Even in this life they shall know true intimacy with God.
Footnotes
Chapter 19 of 37