Chapter IV. The Passive Purification of Charity
Charity, like faith and hope, needs to be freed from every natural alloy in order to operate with utmost purity in die order of grace, so far above everything natural, no matter how richly endowed. In fact, charity has a special need for purgation because of the existence of a counterfeit charity compounded of culpable indulgence and weakness or humanitarian sentimentality. It seeks the sanction of true charity and, by its contact, often sullies it.1 The chief conflict of our day is not between what is good and what is evidently and cynically malicious, but between true and false charity. What was said of false Christs in the Gospel could apply to this so-called charity: "For there shall arise false Christs and false prophets."2 They are more dangerous when covert than when openly known as real enemies of the Church.
Optimi corruptio pessima. The worse kind of corruption is that which attacks die best in us, the highest of the theological virtues. If there is nothing in the world better than true charity, there is nothing worse than false, for the more an apparent good resembles some real and great good die more it attracts and imperils us. If foolishness and more or less con- x 6 3 THE LOVE OF GOD scious cowardice leads those who ought to represent true charity to give occasional approval to die false, incalculable evil may result. Persecutors accomplish much less for they fight in the open, and we are clearly bound to oppose them or, if need be, to give our Lord the tesdmony of our blood in martyrdom. More could be said, but this is not die place for it. Yet a simple glance at the subject can give us a deeper appreciation of the necessity for purifying charity to free it of all dross, of all diat seemingly resembles it but really forms only a silly or perverse caricature of virtue. 3
To remind ourselves how much more we need the purifying cross than most of us think, we have only to nodce how much that is human insinuates itself into works for God. When the Lord desires to make one of His servants a saint, the divine will may be terrible on poor human nature. Years of suffering come, when the soul must carry the cross daily; but after it has passed through the dme of trial, it rejoices because of what it has been through, understanding at the last something of the necessity of the cross for Christian life. Widiout the cross no Christian can become spiritual and really live the divine life, so mercifully accorded to us.
The essential features of the purgation of charity
The purification of charity has many different phases; St.
8 A fool, it has been said, is a dangerous weapon in some hands. We would willingly put up with fools if they were not so pleased with themselves. It takes effort to keep your own head while trying to get some common sense into theirs. If irony did not come to our aid, we could not keep our tempers with them. Christian charity might find a better way of expressing these observations but should not ignore the truth that they contain. The fear of rash judgment ought not to make us dupes; none have been kinder to their fellow men than the saints and none have been quicker to detect the artfulness and deceit of the enemy of good.
Teresa speaks of the last, which precedes entrance into transforming union, saying of it:
She [the soul] sees herself still far away from God, yet with her increased knowledge of His attributes her longing and her love for Him grow ever stronger as she learns more fully how this great God and Sovereign deserves to be loved. As, year by year her yearning after Him gradually becomes keener, she experiences the bitter suffering I am about to describe. . . . Perhaps you will say this is an imperfection, and you may ask why she does not conform herself to the will of God since she has so completely surrendered herself to it. Hitherto she has been able to do so and she consecrated her life to it; but now she cannot because her reason is reduced to such a state that she is no longer mistress of herself, nor can she think of anything but what tends to increase her torment. . . . She is like one suspended in mid-air, who can neither touch the earth nor mount to heaven; she is unable to reach the water while parched with thirst and this is not a thirst that can be borne, but one which nothing will quench nor would she have it quenched save with the water of which our Lord spoke to the Samaritan woman, but this is not given to her. 4
Although the soul suffers so much and "seems dying from its desire for death," the saint says that it is conscious, even while suffering, that its suffering is a great boon.
In other words, the purification of love takes place in even greater darkness than the purgation of faith and of hope. This may be owing to either of two reasons : because the soul is still very imperfect; or because it has made a special offering of itself as a victim for sinners, and God has accepted its oblation. An attempt will be made here to outline the essential characteristics of this purification widiout emphasizing
- Interior Castle, Sixth Mansion, chap. II, its various phases. Afterward we shall see what it is like when accompanied by a special share in our Lord's role of victim.
Charity is that supernatural virtue which makes us love God for His own sake because He is infinitely good in Himself, and our neighbor as well, not just because of his natural qualities or the good things that we receive from him, but for love of God, who has loved him and called him, as He has called us, to glorify Him eternally. Charity is then real friendship, a mutual love of benevolence between God, the audior of grace, and the just man enlivened by grace, a sharer in the intimate life of the Most High. 6 God's love for us is not a response to any lovableness already in us but is itself the cause of our lovableness. 0 Since God shares His intimate life with us and wills to make His eternal happiness ours, we in turn model our love on His, rejoicing that He is God, that He possesses infinite perfections, His wisdom, His holiness, and His happiness, and we will Him to be known, loved, and glorified as the First Truth and the Supreme Good deserve to be known, loved, and glorified.
The formal motive of the love of friendship between our Father in heaven and His children is therefore the uncreated Goodness as supernaturally known by faith to be supremely lovable, infinitely more lovable than any gifts that come to us from Him. To love God not merely for Himself but for the good things that we have received or hope to receive from Him falls short of being an act of charity, although a consideration of God's benefits disposes us for a better knowledge of the sovereignly lovable divine goodness. Charity and perfect gratitude rise above the love of benefits to love the
Benefactor Himself. 7 It is in this sense that God ought to be loved for Himself, 8 and if charity leads us to desire our own happiness, it does so for a motive higher than mere hope, 9 out of the will to glorify God eternally, so that His infinite goodness may be known and loved as He deserves: "Not to us, O Lord, not to us; but to Thy name give glory." 10
The just, even when still imperfect, possess charity, aldiough many faults, such as unconscious egoism, self-love, pride, sensuality, and sloth, may keep it company. Even though charity makes us love God for Himself, we often dwell too much on the benefits of all kinds that He bestows on us, such as the sensible or spiritual consolations accorded to us in prayer which make Him felt, so to say, within us. Charity makes us love others, too, for love of God, but affection and gratitude also bind us to them. And who can tell what motive prevails in some affections, the divine or the human ; and who knows whether the human is truly and fully subordinated to the divine ?
When a soul has ardent hope and our good God wills its charity to become more disinterested, cleansed of all faults and imperfections, and freed from every trace of egoism, He deprives it at times of all consolation, both sensible and spiritual. To put it more correctly, He does not exactly deprive it of these gifts but gives it such an ardent desire of Himself for His own sake that it suffers much at being still separated from Him, at having to wait for perfect union with Him.
9 Hope makes us desire God as our supreme good and last end by subordinating ourselves to Him, as we have seen; however, it does not make us formally love Him for His own sake nor cause us to desire beatitude in order to glorify God eternally. Cf. Ia Ilae, q.62, a.4; Ila Hae, q.27, a.3.
Like a banked fire, God remains in the soul's center; no spark seems to come from Him. Nevertheless faith and hope frequently are almost purified in such souls. They are like the souls in purgatory who have come to die end of their sufferings and ardently desire the vision of God. No created good can any longer offer them consolation, so strong is their desire for an infinitely greater good. More clearly than ever before die soul now sees that "Vanity of vanities, and all is vanity" save to love God and to serve Him. Yet the Lord seems to withdraw Himself from the soul; and the more it desires to be united to Him, the more this separation pains and racks it.
As St. John of the Cross expresses it so well : "The very light and the loving wisdom which are to be united with the soul and transform it are the same that at the beginning purge and prepare it: even as the very fire which transforms the log of wood into itself, and makes it part of itself, is that which at the first was preparing it for that same purpose." He adds that this figure serves to explain the sufferings of the souls in purgatory: "For die fire would have no power over them, even though they came into contact with it, if they had no imperfections for which to suffer. These are the material upon which the fire of purgatory seizes; when that material is consumed, there is nought else that can burn. So here, when the imperfections are consumed, the affliction of the soul ceases and its fruition remains." 11 These sufferings, like personal purifications, last for a shorter time when more intense and when borne more supernaturally, with perfect abandonment. 12 u The Dark. Night, Bk. II, chaps. 10, 12.
12 It is true that when a tested soul offers itself for sinners it continues to have great sufferings, even when its personal purification is only just accomplished.
It is no wonder that when the very core of a man's soul is being purged that he feels forever bereft of any good that he once possessed. 13 At diis point, people are tempted to believe God cruel. Job complains that instead of God hearing him and coming to his aid : "I cry to Thee, and Thou hearest me not : I stand up, and Thou dost not regard me. Thou art changed to be cruel toward me, and in the hardness of Thy hand Thou art against me." 14 The Psalmist makes the same plaint: "Arise, why sleepest Thou, O Lord? arise, and cast us not off to the end. Why turnest Thou Thy face away ? and forgetest our want and our trouble?" 15 Above all, the words of the psalm uttered by Christ in His agony come back to memory at such times: "O God, my God why hast Thou forsaken Me?" But with diem comes the thought that in His hour of darkness our Savior offered Himself to His Father who had delivered Him up for us.
In union with Him, frequently repeating His seven last words, we too can make a great act of love for the single and pure motive that God is sovereignly lovable in Himself, infinitely more deserving of love than all the gifts diat He has accorded to us or that we can hope to receive from Him. This realization marks the rising of the third star in the night of the soul; and contemplating it, a man resigns himself fully to God's will. Whatever acts of faith, of hope, and of charity he makes are in some way all grounded in an act of perfect abandonment to the divine will. Christ consecrated the sacrifice of the cross with His dying words, "Father, into Thy hands I commend My spirit."
The Christian now believes with ardent faith that Christ ls Op. cit.. Bk. II, chap. 10. « Job 30: 21. "Ps. 43: 23.
continues to offer Himself to His Father and, together with Himself, all the members of His mystical body, by the ministry of His priests. 16 Knowing tins, the follower of Christ unites himself with the Eucharistic sacrifice that perpetuates the substance of Christ's sacrifice on our altars. And those who suffer supernaturally some particle of what our Lord endured and, mindful of the four ends of sacrifice, allow themselves to be offered to the Father by Him, have a special share in Christ's offering. Our actions have only finite worth, but when Christ Jesus offers them, they are His oblation and, because of His divine personality, their value is beyond measure. Yet, even when our Lord offers up our personal sufferings to God, they are not the matter for the Sacrifice of the Mass: we must always distinguish between the victim of infinite worth and all odiers. The oblation which Christ makes of Himself includes us, however, for in offering Himself, He offers us as well. By embracing us, our Lord's sacrifice becomes no more perfect in itself but radiates on us and through us; just as in creating the universe and having it reflect His goodness and hymn His glory, God becomes no greater than He was before.
At this period of the spiritual life, the time for the purification of our love of neighbor has also come. Therefore we no longer receive from him any marks of esteem or of gratitude, in spite of all the good that we would do for him. Sometimes those to whom we are most devoted cause us this apostolic suffering. Then we learn to love those dear to us purely for God's sake, that they may be saved and sanctified and may
""Idem nunc offerens ministerio sacerdotum ," as the Council of Trent says in showing that the Sacrifice of the Mass is the same in substance as the sacrifice of the cross. In some recent works on the Mass this important point of doctrine is far from receiving the emphasis which, we believe, it should receive.
glorify Him eternally, and we understand of what small moment this act of ours is in comparison to St. Peter Martyr's supplication for the man who killed him and afterward became a saint, in comparison to St. Stephen's cry for those who stoned him, and our Lord's prayer for diose who crucified Him. What St. John of the Cross says of our intimate relations with God must also be affirmed of our relations with our neighbor, superiors and equals alike.
At the end of this trial, charity for God and neighbor is purified of every alloy. Like gold out of the crucible, it has lost whatever dulled and tainted it and yet it comes out more abundant than it was before. Unlike feeble acts of charity, heroic acts obtain immediately the increase of charity which they merit, and tiiey merit according to the measure of thenfervor. 17 And, with sanctifying grace, all the virtues and the seven gifts of the Holy Ghost united to charity, show a like increase. 18
St. John of the Cross says:
This is an enkindling of love in the spirit, where, in the midst of these dark afflictions, the soul feels itself to be keenly and acutely wounded in strong divine love. . . . And, inasmuch as this love is infused, it is passive rather than active, and thus it begets in the soul a strong passion of love. . . . The yearning and the grief of this soul in this enkindling of love arc greater because it is multiplied in two ways: first, by the spiritual darkness wherein it finds itself, which afflicts it with its doubts and misgivings; and then by the love of God, which enkindles and stimulates it, and with its loving wound, causes it a wondrous fear. . . . But in the midst of these dark and loving afflictions the soul feels within itself a certain
companionship and strength which bear it company and strengthen it. 19
After the purification of charity, begins that "transforming" union with God which both St. Teresa and St. John of the Cross speak of, she in seventh mansions of The Interior Castle and he in The Living Flame of Love. Our Lord's words to His Father are as fully realized as they can be in this world : "That they all may be one, as Thou, Father, in Me, and I in Thee; that they also may be one in Us." 20 The soul reaches its perfect age and experiences the fulfillment of St. Paul's words, "But he who is joined to the Lord, is one spirit." 21 The action of fire offers us some comparison to transforming union, for it first blackens and dries wood and then pervades and transforms it into fire itself. 22 Crystal shot through with sunlight provides another parallel. As St. Thomas says, fire can transform bodies, but God alone can make souls Godlike. 23
The more perfect deification possible to the soul in this life has now been achieved ; it has been brought into the inner sanctuary, the intimate center where the Blessed Trinity dwells; and it receives a supernatural peace that can never, so to speak, be lost; and lives only to contemplate and love God. Under certain substantial touches, it feels God so near that He seems to be just behind a thin veil and about to be seen. By the gift of wisdom it tastes more and more of God's infinite goodness: "Taste and see that the Lord is sweet." 2 *
And it recalls the words of the Canticle of Canticles: "For winter is now past, the rain is over and gone. The flowers have appeared in our land, the time of pruning is come: the voice of the turtle is heard in our land . . . die vines in flower yield their sweet smell." 25 Something like a prelude to eternal life has begun in time, yet sometimes at this juncture new trials begin.
Participation in our Lord's victimhood
Often souls in this state are lead by the Holy Ghost to offer themselves as victims for sinners, in union with Christ and following His example. Before making such an offering, we should do well to make satisfaction for our own sins and become purified ourselves. But when die Holy Ghost Himself seems to incline a soul that way and it wins the approval of a wise director with the grace of state to recognize divine inspiration, should it not say: "If it is indeed Thou, Lord, inspiring diis act, I have no desire to resist Thy appeal." Then just as the cross has led to perfect love, now perfect love leads back to the cross, and the soul accepts it with much greater generosity than before, somewhat as our Lord and His Blessed Mother, who needed no purification for diemselves, took up the cross for our sakes. So, after some time of intimate divine union, the night of the soul begins again but in a different way. Now a partially perceptible peace reigns at the summit of the soul and holds its own even in the midst of the most terrible tempests, a dim but true image and reminder of our Lord's peace during the anguish of the cross. 26
26 Our Lord, says a disciple of St. Thomas, could have found in the beatific vision a defense against the evils which He was enduring. But He willed that the vision which beatified His soul should touch only the contemplative heights of His in- i73 THE LOVE OF GOD
When souls have become united to God in this way, the sufferings that recommence thereafter are more redemptive than purifying. All at once the purification of the three theological virtues seems to begin again but it has a new character. When we offer ourselves for sinners, prayer alone fails to suffice. We must struggle with them, share their dangers and trials, feel in ourselves what they endure in losing God, and, in union with our Savior, in some way bear their sins, their unbelief, their despair, their discontent, and thenanger. A soul thus put to the proof feels rejected by God, damned. Ncvcrdieless, although grace is unfelt, it strengthens and sustains die sufferer, giving him, in the place of those for whom he suffers, a holy hatred for die sins which they will one day repent of through die grace thus won for them.
Souls called to follow diis hard path go through such darknesses and torments that sometimes their directors have no idea where they arc going and, because of their anxiety, cause them much more suffering without meaning to do so. St. Teresa speaks of the trial of having confessors who dread and suspect everything. 27 To go through all this means real agony, a terrible conflict with the spirit of evil, a martyrdom of the heart. But diose who are faidiful will find realized within diemselves what is greatest in die life of the Church militant, the spouse of Christ: "Love is strong as deadi, jealousy as hard as hell, the lamps thereof are fire and flames. Many waters cannot quench charity, neither can the floods drown it." 28 Supernatural love for God and souls is stronger tellcct and not be diffused cither over the lower part of His spiritual powers or into His sense faculties. Cf. St. Thomas, Ilia, q.46, a. 8 and the present work. Vol. I, Part 1, chap. 4.
than the death of the body, for it lives on eternally; it is stronger than spiritual death and hell, for it gives crucified souls a share in our Redeemer's victory over sin and Satan.
St. Catherine of Siena, St. Rose of Lima, St. Magdalen of Pazzi, and many others were made acquainted with torment of this kind and thus came to love God and souls for God so purely that their love had no trace of egoism. 2 " We admire the pure conjugal love of Christian widows who, with the courage of love, manage to raise their children to become living images of the father they have lost. How much more we should admire die spouses of Christ who, without consolation for years, remain faithful to Him in their life of prayer and immolation and keep on loving Him widi a love as strong and as pure as it is sorrowful.
Under the special influence of die gift of understanding, progressively enlightening us about the infinite greatness of God and our own weakness, the three theological virtues are purified of every alloy. Like three stars in the night, the three pure motives of these virtues shine out more and more clearly in their essential supernaturalness, inaccessible to the natural powers of any created intellect and will. Faith, hope, and charity, and the gifts of wisdom and understanding show considerable growth and, as the Holy Ghost generally moves souls according to the degree of the virtues and gifts to be found in them, He now gives them supernatural contemplation and a proportionate degree of actual union. They are brought thus to the supreme and normal completion of the life of grace and the perfect realization of the first command-
29 St. Thomas says: "As Augustine adds in the same passage, the measure of our love for God is to love Him with our whole heart, that is, to love Him as much as He can be loved." Ha Ilae, q.27, a. 6, ad 2um.
r 74 THE LOVE OF GOD ment: "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart and with diy whole soul and with all thy strength and with all thy mind: and thy neighbor as thyself." 30
What practical conclusion should we draw from all this ? When reading of die wonderful things that took place in the lives of the saints, let us not get big-headed and desire crosses that we could not carry or believe ourselves burdened with trials that exist only in our imagination; but let us carry the crosses which our Lord actually sends us — usually they are small. Let us carry them with resignation, with thankfulness, and with love. With resignation: we have to suffer. Modern progress has tried to do away with suffering but has certainly not succeeded; and to struggle against suffering only adds irritation to pain and robs us of merit. In the world there are, sad to say, many who carry a lost cross, gaining no more from it than the bad thief gained from his.
Gradtude should be joined to rcsignadon, for the cross is a hidden and precious grace sent to us for our purification. We may not see diis immediately, but when we think about some of the crosses that have come to us in the past, we realize how useful and fruitful diey have been for us. Sometimes we wish for crosses other dian our own, but were they given to us, we would wish to take back the one that Providence has chosen for us, since it is perfectly adapted to our strength aided by grace.
Love ought to accompany gradtude, or, if not love, at least a desire to love the cross. We should never consider the cross apart from our Savior. Let us look upon Christ crucified to be drawn to Him by sufferings that make us resemble Him. From Him will come our strength to bear them. Let us have so Luke 10 : 27.
the courage to allow Him to love and purify us and incorporate us into Himself. He desires to communicate to us something of His hidden and sorrowful life, before giving us a participation in His glorious life in heaven. We see this in the lives of saints with a special love for die cross, such as St. Benedict Joseph Labre. Shortly before his death, when in adoration before the Blessed Sacrament, he seemed to have the face of Christ, so much like Him had he become through sufferings accepted with love. Blessed are those who have a deep understanding of the mystery of redemption and live by it. In them Christ's sufferings are in some way condnued. The mysdeal body of the Savior can no more live without suffering than our eyes can function without light. The sorrowful mysteries are the way leading to die glorious mysteries of eternity, the beginning of eternal life in time.
Footnotes
Chapter 26 of 37