Chapter IV. Trials Ordinarily Accompanying the Night of the Senses

In discussing any interior state, we must distinguish between its essential character and the phenomena frequently accompanying it. Supernatural words, visions, and ecstasy may, for example, occur together with mystical union without formally constituting it, since the latter continues after these transitory phenomena have passed away. The same is true in regard to the afflictions so commonly associated with the passive purification of the senses. It takes place because of the withdrawal of sensible grace and the purely spiritual influx of the gifts of the Holy Ghost, especially the gifts of knowledge and fortitude. The former shows us the emptiness of things created; the latter makes us hunger and thirst for justice.

In addition, usually come temptations against chastity and patience, permitted by God to provoke a vigorous reaction of these virtues so that they may grow strong, sink their roots more deeply in the sensitive appetite, and bring about its more complete purgation and fuller submission to reason and to grace. Other trials are sometimes joined to these, the loss of temporal goods, of fortune, of honors, and of friendships to which we have become too attached ; sometimes, too, sickness is providentially sent to remind us that of ourselves we can do nothing.

Wc must here distinguish, as St. John of the Cross does, 1 between the accentuated form these afflictions take in the relatively few souls that God will afterward lead on through the night of the soul, and the mitigated way in which they are found in others.

But those who are very weak are kept for a long time in this night, and these He purges very gently and with slight temptations. Habitually, too, He gives them refreshments of sense so that they may not fall away, and only after a time do they attain to purity of perfection in this life, some of them never attaining to it. Such are neither properly in the night nor properly out of it; for, although they pass on no farther, yet, in order that they may be preserved in humility and self-knowledge, God exercises them for certain periods and at certain times in those temptations and aridities; and at other times and seasons He aids them with consolations, lest they should grow faint and return to seek the consolations of the world. 2

We shall first point out these trials as they occur in a tempered form and then afterward in that accentuated mode which is a forerunner of the night of the soul in those friends of God who are to be led by Him to the full perfection of the Christian life.

The reason for the temptations of this period To gain a good understanding of traditional doctrine on the subject, we should recall, as St. Thomas and most theologians teach, that we have in us, far below the purely spiritual or immaterial intellect and will, faculties like the animals', essentially united to the organism: the external senses, the iThe Dark Nighl, Bk. I, chap. 14. * Ibid.

imagination and sensory memory, and the sensuous appetency, called concupiscible when tending toward a delectable sensible good, and irascible when it is bent on a sensible good difficult to attain. These are the two forms of sensitive appetite in both men and animals ; from them arises the whole gamut of the different emotions, according to whether the sensible good is present or absent, and whether it appears to be obtainable or not. The concupiscible appetite gives rise to the contrary passions of love and hate, desire and aversion, joy and sadness; the irascible, to hope and despair, fear and daring, and anger. 3

To moderate the passions according to the rule of right reason, man must, by repeated acts, acquire the virtues of temperance, sobriety, chastity, fortitude, and patience. The first three give the concupiscible appetite a share, as it were, in the light of reason; the last two discipline the irascible in the same way.

But Christians must live not only like reasonable beings but as sons of God, subordinating their passions to right reason as the philosophers conceive it, and also to the life of grace and the theological virtues of faith, hope, and charity. This fact is why we receive at baptism the infused moral virtues of temperance, sobriety, chastity, fortitude, and patience. They give our sensitive appetite not merely a share in the light of reason but an entirely supernatural participation in God's inner life, as the strength of martyrs and the absolute purity of virgins consecrated to God make evident to us.

For the thorough purgation of the sensuous appetency, the acquired and the infused moral virtues must become rooted in it and work its progressive perfection, determining it to

follow the rule of reason and of faith more closely and to forsake evil in the form of excess and of defect, not falling into foolhardiness or cowardice, lust or insensibility.

To fight temptations we have to make more energetic acts of the virtues, that they may penetrate deeply into the soil of the harrowed and upturned sensitive appetite and become fertile seeds of rational and divine life. Seen in this light, the struggle against temptation has something great and glorious about it. Lacking temptation, we often are content with less effort, with feeble virtuous acts that are widiout intensity and diat are inferior to the degree of virtue we already possess, acting like clever but lazy people who let themselves be outstripped by others with less intelligence but more diligence. As we have already noted, St. Thomas holds that acts of this kind fail to increase the acquired virtue from which they proceed: only a more intense act of any virtue will win its increase. 4 Hence, although the good but feeble acts of a just man are meritorious, diey do not immediately obtain an increase of charity and of the infused virtues; this increase will be given to him by God only after he makes a more generous act, proportionate to the degree of die infused virtues he possesses. 5 Besides, very weak acts of virtue indirectly dispose us for venial sin in the sense that they do not sufficiently oppose certain inordinate inclinations, which gradually develop and may end by getting the upper hand some day.

God permits us to be tempted but not beyond our strength aided by His grace; otherwise sin would be inevitable and no longer sin, as happens when reason is entirely obliterated by

a sudden uprush of violent passion. Although temptation stays within die limits of our strength, it makes us ill content with weak acts of virtue, for we must struggle with all our heart and strength, while begging for divine help. Because of this, if we are faithful to grace, we make very meritorious and sometimes even heroic acts, which deepen the acquired virtues and obtain for us an immediate and proportionate increase of the infused virtues.

The reason why temptation must come was told to Tobias by the angel Raphael: "And because thou wast acceptable to God, it was necessary that temptation should prove diee." 6 When we are tempted, we receive help in proportion to our need, but we must be on guard not to forfeit the grace given. "Wherefore he diat thinketh himself to stand, let him take heed lest he fall. . . . And God is faithful, who will not suffer yQU to be tempted above that which you are able: but will make also with temptation issue, that you may be able to bear it." 7 God, who is faithful, will give us grace so that we will not be vanquished but win merit in the struggle. From Him comes our constancy and our profit in temptation. If the temptation comes from the devil, God makes his evil influence itself serve to purify our soul. Undoubtedly the devil could defeat us if he were allowed, but, in the words of Isaias, the Lord "giveth strength to the weary, and increaseth force and might to them that are not. Youths shall faint and labor, and young men shall fall by infirmity. But they that hope in the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall take wings as eagles, diey shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint." 8

5 6 THE LOVE OF GOD

The soul grows hardy by passing through difficulties. Of course, we ought not to desire temptation, for it is not useful in itself, as a means to an end, but only accidentally, as an occasion for more earnest prayer and more generous effort. 9 In this sense we well understand the saying in Ecclesiasticus, "What doth he know, that hath not been tried?" 10 He is ignorant of his own weakness and misery; nor has he learned practically all that divine grace can accomplish in us. On the other hand, the man who is tempted knows his own frailty and learns to say with St. Paul, "For when I am weak, then am I powerful," 11 because he gives up relying on himself and places his whole confidence in God. Therefore the apostle St. James tells us: "My brethren, count it all joy, when you shall fall into divers temptations; knowing that the trying of your faith worketh patience. And patience hath a perfect work; that you may be perfect and entire, failing in nodiing." 12

St. Augustine says that He who permits the devil to tempt us accords us His mercy at the same time, giving us strength to fight and conquer, if we but humbly ask His help. Those who do not expose themselves to the scorching wind of pride but keep themselves humbly in the shadow of God's help are not burnt. "Blessed is the man that endureth temptation; for when he hath been proved, he shall receive die crownof life, which God hath promised to them that love Him." 18

Our Lord Himself willed to be tempted so that He might teach us to be watchful and prudent in these difficult times,

give us an example of generosity, increase our trust, and merit for us the help necessary for victory. 14 We can understand why, out of jealousy, the devil tempts better people more directly, 15 since he has a special interest in keeping them back so that they will not draw others forward with them; we understand, too, why he begins to tempt them in little things, hoping in this way to lead them on to grave sin.

We shall take time to consider especially temptations against chastity and patience; against chastity because these temptations disturb people most and because the virtue itself is one of the loveliest forms of temperance; against patience, because such temptations happen so often, since the purpose of patience is to make us bear our daily troubles in a rational and Christian manner, whereas we exercise fortitude, properly speaking, only in times of great danger. 16

Concupiscence and grace

St. James speaks of the first type of temptation when he says: "But every man is tempted by his own concupiscence, being drawn away and allured. Then when concupiscence hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin. But sin, when it is completed, begetteth death. Do not err, therefore, my dearest brethren. Every best gift, and every perfect gift, is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom diere is no change, nor shadow of alteration." 17

According to this text, when temptation begins independently of the will, as long as concupiscence has not conceived, that is, as along as it has not obtained our consent, there is

no sin ; there can even be merit if the just man resists temptation immediately. 18 But if concupiscence conceives, or obtains our consent, it brings forth sin, and when tiiat sin is grave it does the soul to death by depriving it of die supernatural life of grace.

Souls that have never experienced these temptations are rare. St. Teresa is cited as an example because, when asked by her daughters about such things, she could not give them any counsel, being ignorant of this evil; dierefore she sent them to other older sisters. St. Thomas, too, after a first victory won in his youth against one of these assaults, was delivered from diem forever after so that he could attend more freely to the contemplation of the diings of God and teach them to others.

On the contrary, many experience temptations of this kind, particularly during the passive purification of the senses. And as they already have a deep love for purity of body and soul, they are tortured interiorly, seeing their imagination sullied, their sensory appetite fanned and violently inflamed. St. John of the Cross tells us of this purgation: "It is wont to be accompanied by grave trials and temptations of sense, which last for a long time, albeit longer in some than in others. For to some the angel of Satan presents himself— namely, the spirit of fornication — that he may buffet their senses widi abominable and violent temptations, and may trouble their spirits with vile considerations and representations which are most visible to the imagination, which things at times are a greater affliction to them than death." 19

Not uncommonly, interior souls that have had a guarded

childhood and adolescence may pass many years with almost no trouble from the senses. Then a day comes when violent temptations surge up within them and last for months or even years, with intervals of calm. If the three signs of the night of the senses just described above are found in them, this new trial confirms the presence of the state of purgation. Souls going through this must not be discouraged, for they are beginning to live a higher spiritual life, and their director should give diem firm assurance of this truth, exhorting them to bear themselves with courage.

St. Paul tells us of himself: "And lest the greatness of the revelations should exalt me, there was given me a sting of my flesh, an angel of Satan, to buffet me. For which thing thrice I besought the Lord, that it might depart from me. And He said to me: My grace is sufficient for thee: for power is made perfect in infirmity. Gladly therefore will I glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may dwell in me. For which cause I please myself in my infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ. For when I am weak, then am I powerful." 20 Similar cases are remarked in the lives of the fathers of the desert, of St. Jerome, St. Benedict, St. Catherine of Siena, Blessed Angela of Foligno, St. Alphonsus Liguori, and many other saints.

In explaining what St. Paul attested, St. Thomas says 21 that a doctor often induces a less dangerous sickness to heal or prevent another that is more serious; for example, he may cure a convulsion by bringing on a fever. The Apostle shows us that the physician of souls, our Lord Jesus Christ, acts

in the same way. To rid us of serious spiritual maladies, or to immunize us against diem, He permits most of His elect and even those who are not so holy to be much tried in the body; sometimes, to cure them of very grave sins, He even allows them to fall into lesser, though mortal, sins.

Of all sins, pride is the most serious. Charity unites us to God and is the root of all the virtues. Pride makes us desire our own excellence without subordinating it to God and thus it separates us from God and is therefore the root of all the vices. For this reason God resists the proud. And since, in some respects, the good run a greater risk of taking pride in themselves precisely because of the good to be found within them, God at times permits some fault or failing of dieirs, mortal sin even, to interfere with the good that they might do. They are led in this way to humble themselves and to recognize diat by their own strength they cannot stand. St. Thomas adds that St. Paul was allowed to be so tempted to keep him from becoming puffed up by his exceptional vocation, supernatural lights, apostolic works, virginity, and knowledge. In his testing God gave him a remedy to preserve him from pride.

If St. Paul took refuge in prayer at such times, what should we not do, who are so much weaker than he was? We know how he was answered. A sick man who is ignorant of the nature of his illness may beg the doctor not to prescribe some strong and painful remedy; but the doctor, who wishes him to recover his health, pays no attention to him. God acted thus in regard to St. Paul, not putting an end to his trial but giving him more than he asked — help to keep him from yielding and to make him triumph over temptation. "My grace is sufficient for thee; for power is made perfect in in- firmity." St. Jerome says that we see God's goodness in this, that He often refuses to grant us what we ask of Him only to give us something better, which we should prefer.

Besides prayer and work, a great devotion to Mary is recommended by spiritual authors to help us resist temptations against chastity. Blessed Grignon de Montfort gives a beautiful treatment of this subject in his treatise on True Devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary. 22 He tells us that our devotion to Mary should be interior, tender, holy, constant, and disinterested; that it consists in the perfect consecration of our entire selves to Jesus through Mary, a renewing of our baptismal vows and a deeding over to Mary of all that is communicable in our good works and prayers so that she may use them all to benefit souls according to her good pleasure.

Alluding directly to the passive purifications, Blessed Grignon adds: "It is true that we can attain divine union by other roads; but it is by many more crosses and strange deaths, and with many more difficulties, which we shall find it hard to overcome. We must pass through obscure nights, through combats, through strange agonies, over craggy mountains, through cruel thorns and over frightful deserts. But by the path of Mary we pass more gently and more tranquilly.

"We do find, it is true, great battles to fight, and great hardships to master; but that good Mother makes herself so present and so near to her faithful servants, to enlighten them in their darknesses and their doubts, to strengthen them in their fears, and to sustain them in their struggles and their difficulties, that in truth this virginal path to find Jesus Christ

22 Tr. Faber, rev. cd., Montfort Fathers (St. Anthony Guild Press: Patcrson, N.J., 1941).

6a THE LOVE OF GOD is a path of roses and honey compared with other paths." 2S Mary gives us special protection against the wiles and temptations of the devil, helps us to draw much profit from our struggle, and makes die battle both easier and more meritorious for us: easier, because she joins forces with us; more meritorious, because she obtains for us the means to fight valiantly— by a greater charity, die very principle of merit.

The fruits of patience and meekness

As our contest widi temptations against chastity implants the virtue itself more deeply in the sensory appetite, weakens the appetite's inclination to concupiscence, and subordinates it more and more to right reason and grace, so the exercise of patience and meekness serves to discipline the other and easily irritated part of our sensory appetite, the irascible. 24 It is no wonder, then, that God so often allows temptations against the virtues of patience and mildness during die passive purification of the senses. We meet unforeseen and redoubled vexations, misfortunes, contradictions, and sometimes even persecutions, aldiough we should take care not to exaggerate the importance of the latter. These experiences, in one degree or another, prove the truth of St. Paul's words, "And all that will live godly in Christ Jesus, shall suffer persecution." 25 At the very least, they will surfer to see sin preventing the coming of God's kingdom in souls.

The way to true wisdom is wanting to none: it is the cross. Plato and Aristotle were of the opinion that few men would

TRIALS IN NIGHT OF THE SENSES 63 attain wisdom because the human means to reach it were not within the compass of all. Our Lord tells us, "If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me." The cross, when carried with supernatural love and patience, teaches us more and more of the deep meaning of the mysteries of faith.

In St. Thomas' words, "The principal act of fortitude is endurance, that is, to stand immovable in the midst of dangers rather than to attack them." 26 Attack, with its strong and largely temperamental uprush of courage, is not the principal act of fortitude. Endurance, the restraint of fear by reason and will, is. To stand firm under assault, to pass dirough passion without any moral yielding to evil, to tire the adversary by force of constancy, belongs to heroism and marks the martyr. To control fear is more difficult than to moderate daring; to bear up under a present evil demands more of us than to rush out to meet one still ahead.

Now the chief act of fortitude, to endure or to stand firm, is found in a certain way in patience, not in regard to great dangers but in relation to our daily troubles; for patience makes us endure like Christians the sadness they cause us. Its companion virtue, meekness, restrains our anger, makes us masters of ourselves, and keeps us from answering sharply and hotly when people tell us the trudi about ourselves. Thus it prepares us to receive the knowledge of the supreme truth, God. 27

Our Lord teaches us all this when He says, "Blessed are the meek; for they shall possess the land." They shall possess first the land of their own souls, if we may so express it; be-

26 Ila Hae, q. 123, a. 6. "Ibid., q.157. a. 4- cause meekness, by restraining anger in the midst of contradictions, gives us great self-possession inspired by faith, by love of God and of neighbor. All these virtues increase together when, instead of giving in to temptations of impatience and irritability, we resist them firmly. "Patience bears roses," says an old proverb. Because of patience, Job, when deprived of possessions and health alike, could still say, "the Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away . . . blessed be the name of the Lord." 28 Analogously, we must practice patience in the night of the senses; it disposes us for the dawning of contemplation.

The crosses met in this period of the spiritual life are all the harder to bear when they come not only from the wicked but also from good people, particularly relatives and friends and those to whom we are especially devoted. When we are the only ones to suffer, we do well to remember our Lord's words, "But I say to you not to resist evil: but if one strike thee on thy right cheek, turn to him also the other." 29 Meekness often wins an adversary to God, a greater victory than the defense of our own rights and a display of anger. "Answer not a fool according to his folly, lest thou be made like him." 80 However, immediately after these words in the Book of Proverbs we read, "Answer a fool according to his folly, lest he imagine himself to be wise." 31 When it is a question of the good of our adversary himself or the legitimate defense of the common good of family, country, or Church, then we do well to answer. 82 The baseless opposition of good people with good inten-

TRIALS IN NIGHT OF THE SENSES 65 tions is particularly hard to bear; for it makes us ask ourselves whether those who grieve us, with their evident good will, have not genuine reasons for doing so. The more there are who judge us severely, the more this purgation hurts. St. Teresa went through such trials when priests and religious, some of them her own confessors, thought that she was deceived by the devil and began to estrange themselves from her. She suffered great anguish at this, the more so because in certain respects her humility made her judge herself even more harshly than her critics did.

The more we have done for friends and the more we have loved them, the harder it is to suffer persecution at their hands. "For if my enemy had reviled me, I would verily have borne with it. And if he that hated me had spoken great things against me, I would perhaps have hidden myself from him. But thou a man of one mind, my guide, and my familiar, who didst take sweetmeats together with me: in the house of God we walked with consent." 88 Betrayal by a friend is one of the most trying things to bear, and the spirit of evil sometimes makes use of it to introduce the worst kind of divisions in the Church and in religious communities.

When we are wronged the temptation to curse presents itself. 34 At times the devil tries to lead us to blaspheme. 35 In Job's trials, his wife said to him: "Dost thou still continue in thy simplicity ? Curse God and die." To which he answered : "Thou hast spoken like one of the foolish women: if we have received good things at the hand of God, why should we not receive evil ?" 38

In the same way, after Tobias, a man of many charities, had

become blind but continued to give thanks to God daily, his wife and friends came to him saying: "Where is thy hope, for which thou gavest alms, and buriedst the dead ?" Tobias answered: "Speak not so; for we are the children of saints, and look for that life which God will give to those that never change their faith from him. . . . Thou art just, O Lord, and all Thy judgments are just, and all Thy ways mercy, and truth, and judgment: And now, O Lord, think of me, and take not revenge of my sins, neither remember my offenses nor those of my parents." 37 Humility and compunction of heart, die fruit of trials like these, always speak in the same accents. Cursed by Semei, David answered forbearingly: "Let him alone that he may curse as the Lord hath bidden him. Perhaps the Lord may look upon my affliction, and the Lord may render me good for the cursing of this day." 38

The opposition of well-intentioned superiors may cause souls their greatest sorrow during this period. Preoccupied with what they consider the common good, superiors may fail to appreciate spiritual attractions that come, nevertheless, from God. When this happens, we should, in a spirit of faith, recognize it as providential. Those who obey humbly and heroically in such times of testing show that they are being led by the spirit of God. 38

Humility and patience and meekness are necessary in these contradictions; and God lets us be proven in exactly this

88 Obedience does not necessarily require conformity of the speculative judgment concerning the thing itself, such as a different interpretation of a doctrine, but it does demand conformity of the practical judgment and of the will to a superior's legitimate command. He himself might later change his mind and his successor might see things differently but as long as the order stands, our practical judgment must conclude: this is what I must do in the practical order.

way so that we may make very meritorious acts of these virtues and increase them tenfold by our exertion. The hailstorm that seems to be beating us down is really a rain of diamonds. When our Lord told His disciples diat they would have much to suffer, He said too: "But a hair of your head shall not perish. In your patience you shall possess your souls." 40 "Blessed are they that suffer persecution for justice' sake; for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are ye when they shall revile you, and persecute you, and speak all that is evil against you, untruly, for My sake. Be glad and rejoice, for your reward is very great in heaven." 41

As a matter of fact, later, after the apostles had been beaten with rods, they went out of the Sanhedrin "rejoicing that they were accounted worthy to suffer reproach for the name of Jesus." 42 They accepted the cross not merely with resignation but with understanding and love, bearing their sufferings in such a way as to bring marvelous fruitfulness to their apostolate.

When we are put to the proof, we should say to God: "It is good for me that Thou hast humbled me." 43 And when calm returns, we shall see the fruit of our ordeal and can say to God : "O how great is die multitude of Thy sweetness, O Lord, which Thou hast hidden for them that fear Thee! Which Thou hast wrought for diem that hope in Thee. . . . Thou shalt hide them in the secret of Thy face, from the disturbance of men. Thou shalt protect them in Thy tabernacle from the contradiction of tongues. Blessed be the Lord. . . . But I said in the excess of my mind : I am cast away from

before Thy eyes. Therefore Thou hast heard the voice of my prayer, when I cried to Thee." 44

What is said here of the purification of individuals is equally true of religious families, they being tried especially at the time of their foundation. Our Lord's words must be fulfilled in both cases: "Everyone that heareth these My words, and doth them, shall be likened to a wise man that built his house upon a rock. And the rain fell, and the winds blew, and they beat upon that house, and it fell not, for it was founded on a rock. And everyone that heareth these My words, and doth them not, shall be like a foolish man that built his house upon the sand. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and they beat upon that house, and it fell, and great was die fall thereof." 45 Our Lord gives us an even more striking image of this purgation when, after saying, "I am the true vine; and My Father is the husbandman," he adds: ". . . and every [branch] that beareth fruit, He will purge it, that it may bring forth more fruit." 48

The time for the night of the senses

The last question to be considered concerning the passive purification of the senses is when it ordinarily takes place and how long it usually lasts in the spiritual life. Many modern authors treat of this question in chapters on the unitive way, as if it generally occurred after the soul had already entered there. Other authors, Vallgornera, for instance, discuss it at the end of the purgative way and take up the consideration

of the night of the soul at the end of the illuminative way. 47 To discover which of these viewpoints represents the traditional one, we must consult the great masters who have themselves experienced such a purgation and have considered it in itself and for itself and not in relation to numberless irrelevancies connected with it. Among the masters, St. John of the Cross, recently declared a doctor of the Church, takes precedence because he has treated the problem ex professo and gone into the subject more thoroughly than anyone before him and deserves to be considered a faithful witness to tradition.

An attentive reading of St. John of the Cross reveals what Vallgornera saw so well, that, for him, the passive night of the senses is the normal transition from the purgative to the illuminative way, just as the night of the soul marks the passage from the illuminative to the unitive way.

In The Darf( Night we read : "When this house of sensuality was now at rest — that is, was mortified — its passions being quenched and its desires put to rest and lulled to sleep by means of this blessed night of the purgation of sense, the soul went forth, to set upon the road and way of the spirit, which is that of progressives and proficients, and which, by another name is called the way of illumination or of infused contemplation, wherewith God Himself feeds and refreshes the soul, without meditation, or the soul's active help. Such, as we have said, is the night and purgation of sense in the soul." 48 Earlier, when explaining the third sign of the night

47 Vallgornera, O.P., Mystica iheologia S. Thomae, q.Tl, disp. viii; q.IH, disp. vi. Father Regis Gcrcst, O.P., has adopted the same point of view in his modification and completion of Father Andre Mari Meynard's Traite de la vie interieure (Paris,

7 o THE LOVE OF GOD of the senses, St. John of the Cross says that infused contemplation begins during the period of transition from the purgative to the illuminative way. 49

Elsewhere in the same work we find another confirmation that this time marks the soul's progress from the purgative to the illuminative way: "The night of sense is common and comes to many; these are the beginners; and of this night we shall first speak. The night of the spirit is the portion of the very few, and these are they that are already practiced and proficient, of whom we shall treat hereafter." 50 Few souls are generous enough in fact to reach the full perfection of Christian life and to pass through the two purifications demanded by it.

St. John of the Cross always calls those undergoing the passive purification of the senses "beginners" and, as has been done traditionally ever since the time of Clement of Alexandria, he distinguishes them from the proficient and the perfect. 51 St. Teresa's view is the same. In The Interior Castle, before taking up the subject of the prayer of quiet, she treats, at the end of the third mansions of sensible aridity, another designation for the night of die senses; later, at the beginning of the sixth mansions, she describes the night of the soul, a means of disposing the soul for a life of perfect union with God.

In her Life, after saying that she endured sensible dryness for many years and all that time considered it a mercy of God if she got but one drop of water from the well of consolation, she adds: "I believe that it is our Lord's good pleas-

"Cf. The Dark. Night, Bk. I, chaps, x, 9, 10; Bk. Q, chap. 1; Ascent of Mt. Carmel, Bk. II, chaps. 12, 13.

St Marys Hospital ure frequently in the beginning, and at times in the end, to send these torments, and many other incidental temptations, to those who love Him." 52 The words "and at times in the end" seem to correspond to a thought St. John of the Cross had that the senses are truly purified only when the purgation of the soul has begun. 53

It seems an obvious mistake to maintain that St. John of the Cross gave a special meaning to the traditional terms "beginners," "proficients," and "perfect," and that those he calls beginners are beginners in the sense of starting out on the unitive way. The beginners St. John of the Cross talks about have the faults of real beginners, as we can see from his description of them. 54 He even says that some of them have two confessors, one to whom they relate their progress, another to whom they tell their failings : a tiling they would not do if they had really reached the unitive way. St. John of the Cross takes these three terms in the traditional sense in which they have been used since the time of Clement of Alexandria, by St. Augustine, by St. Gregory the Great, and by St. Thomas. He accepts, too, the corresponding terms of purgative, illuminative, and unitive ways, although he describes the latter two stages of the spiritual life not in any attenuated form but as they exist in their fullness. 08

The only comment that need be added is that interior souls not called to a purely contemplative life reach the illuminative way more slowly and, in many instances, the passive

65 Dom Chevallicr, O.S.B., has recently made a critical study of the authentic text of The Spiritual Canticle of St. John of the Cross, confirming this point of view. A careful study of the Spanish text of The Dark, Night leads to the same conclusion.

purgations are hidden in the ordinary sufferings of life or the trials of the apostolate. 50 The light of contemplation is less evident and more diffuse, yet quite real. The lives of saints devoted to the apostolate and to the corporal and spiritual works of mercy provide examples of this.

As to how long the night of the senses usually lasts, St. John of the Cross says :

For how long a time the soul will be held in this fasting and this penance of sense, cannot be told with any certainty; for all do not experience it after one manner, neither do all encounter the same temptations. For this is meted out by the will of God, in conformity with the greater or the smaller degree of imperfection which each soul has to purge away. In conformity, likewise, with the degree of love o£ union to which God is pleased to raise it, He will humble it with greater or less intensity or in greater or less time. Those who have the disposition and greater strength to suffer, He purges with greater intensity and more quickly. 57

The purgadon of others is not so hard but lasts longer. 58 Some never come to the end of it, alternating between consolation and aridity, both sent by God, for if He did not seem to withdraw from them, some souls would never draw nearer to Him.

In The Living Flame, when speaking of divine union as the end of purification, St. John of the Cross says:

And here it behooves us to note the reason why there are so few that attain to this lofty state of the perfection of union with God.

s8 Christian Perfection and Contemplation, p. 417. 67 Op. cit., Bk. I, chap. 14.

58 Facts substantiate this statement that the length of time the passive purification lasts differs with different individuals. St. Teresa had to endure it for eighteen years; St. Francis of Assisi, for ten; St. Mary Magdalen of Pazzi, five years at first, and then later, sixteen; Blessed Henry Suso, ten years; St. Mary of Egypt, seventeen; and St. Rose of Lima, for an equal length of time. Cf. Card. Bona, Via comp. ad Deum, cio, no. 6.

It must be known that it is not because God is pleased that there should be few raised to this high spiritual state, for it would please Him that all souls should be perfect, but it is rather that He finds few vessels which can bear so high and lofty a work. For, when He proves them in small things and finds them weak and sees that they at once flee from labour, and desire not to submit to the least discomfort or mortification, He finds that they are not strong and faithful in the little things wherein He has granted them the favour of beginning to purge and fashion them, and sees that they will be much less so in great things; so He goes no farther with their purification, neither lifts them up from the dust of the earth, since greater constancy and fortitude would be necessary for this than they exhibit. 58

In her Life, St. Teresa, too, warns us that many begin to give themselves to the spiritual life but then make no further progress — aldiough their failure saddens them — mainly because they have no love for the cross. 00 The same thought is repeated by all the masters of the spiritual life: Tauler, Blessed Henry Suso, St. Catherine of Siena. In her Dialogue, St. Catherine says diat patience in time of trial is the sign of perfect love, die touchstone of true obedience, and the marrow of charity.

In answer to the question why good men never come to experience what he tells them of the wonderful things of God, Ruysbroeck says that they fail to respond to the divine motion by self-abnegation, care too little for self-knowledge, and also regard good works as more important than a right motive and love of God. They remain, therefore, exterior and complex. 61

The Imitation summarizes diis whole doctrine as follows:

81 The Book, of Supreme Truth, chap. 7.

"Why, then, art thou afraid to take up thy cross, which leadeth to the kingdom? In the cross is salvation; in the cross is life; in the cross is protection from enemies. In the cross is infusion of heavenly sweetness; in die cross is strength of mind; in the cross is joy of spirit. In the cross is height of virtue; in the cross is perfection of sanctity. . . . Take up, therefore, thy cross, and follow Jesus, and diou shalt go into life everlasting. ... If thou carry the cross willingly, it will carry thee, and bring diee to thy desired end." 62

"And this is the reason why there are found so few contemplative persons, because there are few that know how to sequester themselves entirely from perishable creatures." 68 St. Paul taught die same high spiritual wisdom: "For the Spirit himself giveth testimony to our spirit, that we are the sons of God. And if sons, heirs also; heirs indeed of God, and joint heirs widi Christ: yet so, if we suffer with Him, that we may be also glorified with Him. For I reckon that the sufferings of this time are not worthy to be compared with the glory to come, that shall be revealed in us." 04

Blessed Grignon de Montfort speaks of the passive purifications to be encountered in the apostolate. Having said that eternal Wisdom communicates all Its light and the virtues and gifts in an eminent degree to those who possess the spirit of wisdom, he adds that Wisdom inspires them to undertake great things for the glory of God and the salvation of souls. To prove them and make them worthy, Wisdom makes Its chief work the securing of great combats for them, laying up contradictions and crosses for diem in almost everything

that they undertake. Sometimes die devil is permitted to tempt them, the world to calumniate and despise them, dieir enemies to overcome them and cast them down, their friends and reladves to abandon and betray them. They lose some treasure, meet sickness and sadness, and know what it is to be faint of heart and tried at every turn. Yet the Holy Ghost says: "Their affliction is light and their reward will be great because God has proven them and found diem wordiy of Him. He has tried them like gold in a furnace; He has received them as a victim of holocaust and He will look upon diem with favor when their time comes." 65

Wisdom protects the just man against his enemies, defends him from seducers, and gives him a strong conflict so that he may overcome and know that wisdom is mightier than all. 66 And Wisdom, being a lovable sovereign, does all things according to number, weight, and measure, meting out crosses to friends only in proportion to their strength and pouring out so much sweetness on each cross that it becomes the delight of him who takes it up. Those who seek or possess eternal Wisdom, have the cross as dieir portion and reward. 67

87 Amour de la divine sagesse, Pt. I, chap. 6.