Article VI. The Essential Character of Infused Contemplation;
How it Proceeds from The Gift of Wisdom and from Faith
For the reasons we have just set forth, theologians com monly teach that infused contemplation proceeds formally from the gifts of the Holy Ghost, particularly from the gift of wisdom which makes us taste the mysteries of salvation and, so to speak, see all things in God, just as acquired wisdom tries to judge everything by the supreme cause and the last end.1 The gift of understanding also contributes to contem plation by making us penetrate these mysteries.2 The gift of knowledge may also have a share in it by manifesting to us the emptiness and the vanity of all created things in com parison with God,'or by revealing to us, in a more striking
129 Ibid., Ila Ilae, q. 184, a.3.
INFUSED CONTEMPLATION 3 n manner than years of meditation could, the infinite gravity of mortal sin. 8
All tradition associates with the inspirations of the gift of wisdom that loving knowledge of God which is quite different from speculative knowledge. This loving knowledge supposes, together with the special illumination of the Holy Ghost, a living “connaturality with divine things,” 4 based on infused charity, a wholly supernatural attraction of the soul for God, who makes Himself felt by it as the life of its life. This living knowledge is an affective knowledge which becomes more lively, penetrating, and sweet because the gift of wisdom grows with charity and is related to it as the infused virtues and the other gifts are.
1 . THE SPIRIT OF WISDOM IN SCRIPTURE
This doctrine, which is commonly accepted in the Church, is manifestly founded on what Scripture tells us of the spirit of wisdom. It was not only of the Messias that Isaias spoke when he declared: “And the spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him: the spirit of wisdom, and of understanding, the spirit of counsel, and of fortitude, the spirit of knowledge, and of godliness. And he shall be filled with the spirit of the fear of the Lord.” 5 The Old Testament applies to all men the following words, which we have already quoted: “God loveth none but him that dwelleth with wisdom”; 8 “for wisdom will not enter into a malicious soul, nor dwell in a body subject to sins.” 7 St. John writes to the faithful: “Let the unction which
*Summa, Ha Ilae, q.9. Thus the gift of knowledge, according to St. Augustine and St. Thomas, corresponds to the gift of tears: “Blessed are those who mourn” when they see, under the inspiration of the Holy Ghost, the gravity of their faults as a disease of the soul and offense against God. The other gifts, those of counsel, piety, fortitude, and fear, do not formally participate in infused contemplation, but prepare the soul for it. Contemplation may at times be accompanied by prophetic light, but it is then an extraordinary favor.
4 Summa, Ila Ilae, q.45, a. 2, and John of St. Thomas, De donis, art. 4.
B Is. 11: 2.
6 Wis. 7: 28.
7 Ibid., 1: 4.
you have received from Him abide in you. . . . His unction teacheth you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie.” 8 St. Paul, after stating that “the charity of God is poured forth in our hearts, by the Holy Ghost, who is given to us,” 9 then adds: “For you have not received the spirit of bondage again in fear; but you have received the spirit of adoption of sons, whereby we cry: Abba (Father)/* 10 “Howbeit we speak wisdom among the perfect: yet not the wisdom of this world, neither of the princes of this world that come to nought: but we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, a wisdom which is hidden, which God ordained before the world, unto our glory: which none of the princes of the world knew; for if they had known it, they would never have crucified the Lord of glory. But, as it is written: That eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither hath it entered into the heart of man, what things God hath prepared for them that love Him. But to us God hath revealed them, by His Spirit. For the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God. For what man knoweth the things of a man, but the spirit of a man that is in him? So the things also that are of God no man knoweth, but the Spirit of God. Now we have received not the spirit of this world, but the Spirit that is of God: that we may know the things that are given us from God. Which things also we speak, not in the learned words of human wisdom: but in the doctrine of the Spirit, comparing spiritual things with spiritual. But the sensual man perceiveth not these things that are of the Spirit of God: for it is foolishness to him, and he cannot understand, because it is spiritually examined. But the spiritual man judgeth all things: and he himself is judged of no man. For who hath known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct Him? But we have the mind of Christ/* 11
These words about the wisdom preached “among the per-
8 See I John 2: 27.
9 Rom. 5: 5.
10 Ibid., 8: 15.
11 See I Cor. 2: 6-16.
INFUSED CONTEMPLATION 3 x 3 feet are fully lived only by souls raised to mystical contemplation; especially to them the unction of the Holy Ghost “teaches all things.” By Him they cry to God in their prayers; they scrutinize the deep things of God; they anticipate all He has prepared for those who love Him; they know experimentally all the riches already received; and they judge all things, whether painful or pleasurable, by referring them to the glory of God. Again St. Paul writes for all Christians; “But we all beholding the glory of the Lord with open face, are transformed into the same image from glory to glory, as by the Spirit of the Lord.” 12 Only in infused contemplation is this transformation of a certainty fully realized on earth.
Without the mystical knowledge of God, how ran we possess the full perfection of Christian life? “Now all good things came to me together with her.” 18 As the Apostle St. James says: “But the wisdom, that is from above, first indeed is chaste, then peaceable, modest, easy to be persuaded, consenting to the good, full of mercy and good fruits, without judging, without dissimulation.” 14
The doctors of the Church, following the lead of St. Augustine and St. Gregory the Great, have interpreted these passages of Scripture as referring to the gift of wisdom, the principle of infused contemplation. The liturgy likewise brings this message to all the faithful in the Veni Creator.™
2 . THE GIFT OF WISDOM AND INFUSED CONTEMPLATION ACCORDING TO THEOLOGY
St. Thomas, in conformity with tradition, teaches that con-
12 See II Cor. 3: 18.
is Wisd. 7: 11.
14 Jas. 3: 17.
15 Cf. Diet . thiol., art. “Dons” by Father Gardeil, O.P., for the doctrine of the fathers. The Scriptural bases of the teaching of St. Thomas on the gifts are to be found in his commentaries on the Old and New Testament, on the passages we have just quoted, and also on the following: Ps. 41: 2; Wis. 7: 7, 22; Eccles. 15: 2; 39: 8; Is. 12: 3; 55: 1; Matt. 5: 1; John 3: 4; 4: io ; 7: 38; 14: 16-26; 16: 13 f.; Rom. 8: 26; Eph. 3: 16; 4: 30; Phil., chap. 4; I John, 4: 1-13.
3*4 templation is chiefly the fruit of the gift of wisdom. This gift is an infused disposition (habitus infusus) of the intellect, as contemplation is an intellectual act , 16 requiring an illumination of the Holy Ghost. But as the gift of wisdom presupposes charity, contemplation depends essentially also on charity, which makes us desire to know God better, not for the joy of knowing, but for God Himself, that we may love Him more. In this act the will applies the intellect to the consideration of divine things in preference to all others (order of exercise), and also (in the order of specification), from the fact that this will is fundamentally rectified and elevated by an eminent charity, these divine things appear to us more and more conformable to our highest aspirations. By experience we learn that they fill and surpass these aspirations and never cease to elevate them. Consequently we live more and more by God, by His supreme goodness, which makes itself felt by us as the life of our life. We “taste the sweetness of God”: “O taste, and see that the Lord is sweet.” 18
St. Thomas says: “Wisdom denotes a certain rectitude of judgment according to the Eternal Law. Now rectitude of judgment is twofold: first, on account of perfect use of reason, secondly, on account of a certain connaturality with the matter about which one has to judge. Thus about matters of chastity, a man after inquiring with his reason forms a right judgment, if he has learned the science of morals, while he who has the habit of chastity judges of such matters by a kind of connaturality. Accordingly, it belongs to the wisdom that is an intellectual virtue to pronounce right judgment about divine things, after reason has made its inquiry; but it belongs to wisdom 19 as a gift of the Holy i« Summa, Ila Ilae, q. 180, a. 1.
17 Ibid.
is Ps. 33: 9.
is St. Thomas says in the preceding article: “Now man obtains this judgment through the Holy Ghost . . . who searcheth all things.” In this there might indeed be a simple affective knowledge through faith united to charity. That this knowledge may proceed from the gift of wisdom, there must be, moreover,
Ghost to judge aright about them on account of connaturality with them: thus Dionysius says ( Div., Nom. } ii) that Hierotheus is perfect in divine things, for he not only learns, but he is patient of divine things. Now this sympathy or connaturality with divine things is the result of charity, which unites us to God, according to I Cor. 6: 17: He who is joined to the Lord, is one spirit.” 20
Thus love makes the object loved better known, affectus transit in conditionem objecti, as John of St. Thomas says, 21 “for by it and by affective experience this object appears to us more and more conformable to our aspirations and intimately united to us. The intellect is thus directed toward God, as if it touched Him experimentally. In this way, love moves the understanding, by applying it to consideration (in genere causae effectivae ), and also in an objective manner (in genere causae objectivae), since by this experience the object appears quite otherwise than without it” and manifests itself as supremely suitable, as Goodness itself that is felt. This is what made our Lord say: “If any man will do the will of Him (the Father); he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God, or whether I speak of Myself.” 22 This love unites us more closely to God than abstract 23 knowledge; and by the experience it gives us, it makes us more and more keenly desire the intuitive knowledge of the life to come, the beatific vision. This true prag- an inspiration of the Holy Ghost; thereby infused contemplation is distinguished from the sensible consolations acquired in meditation, as we will point out later on.
20 Summa, Ila Ilae, q.45, a.2.
21 On la Ilae, q.68, disp. 18, a.4.
22 John 7: 17.
23 Summa, la Ilae, q.28, a. 1 ad 3um: “Knowledge is perfected by the thing known being united, through its likeness, to the knower. But the effect of love is that the thing itself which is loved, is, in a way, united to the lover, as stated above. Consequently, the union caused by love is closer than that which is caused by knowledge.”
However, if knowledge is absolutely immediate, if one knows God by His very essence and no longer by a likeness, as is the case in the beatific vision, then it is this knowledge which makes us take possession of God rather than love. Cf. la Ilae, q.3, a.4.3
matism, which scoffs at pragmatism, is born of supernatural charity, which supposes faith.
A soul might have affective knowledge from the simple fact that the love of charity is united to the act of faith; this is what occurs in affective, discursive prayer. But in infused contemplation there is, in addition, an inspiration and special illumination of the Holy Ghost. This subject was discussed at length in article 5 above.
When a distinction is made, as often occurs in the writings of the fathers and of theologians, between illumination and inspiration, special illumination is a grace for the intellect, inspiration a grace for the will. In this sense we speak of infused knowledge and love that we cannot produce at will. No one can set a limit to the growing intensity of the illumination which the gift of wisdom renders us apt to receive. This illumination, as we shall see, can always grow in intensity in this life, just as charity can.
This infused contemplation is obscure because it is superior both to every sensible image and to every distinct idea. This state of transluminous obscurity is indeed, in so far as the intelligence is concerned, what constitutes the foundation of the mystical state, according to the opinion of Dionysius, St. John of the Cross, and the other great spiritual teachers. It is very difficult to describe, for it is entirely supernatural and surpasses all expression. In it is something akin to a death of the understanding, which in reality is an incomparably superior new life, the true prelude of the life of heaven. St. John of the Cross should be consulted on this point, which he discusses in The Dark Night of the Soul. He says: “The imagination is bound, and unable to make any profitable reflections; the memory is gone; and the understanding, too, is darkened and unable to comprehend anything.” 24 The faculties are, as it were, annihilated according to their human mode; here, there is a deeper and more vital communication
24 Bk. II, chap. 16, sec. 1.
3*7 of the divine mode of knowing and loving. St. John of the Cross 25 quotes St. Thomas (Ha Ilae, q. 180, a. 1) and adds: “This happens in a secret, hidden way in which the natural operation of the understanding and the other faculties have no share. And, therefore, because the faculties of the soul cannot attain it, and since the Holy Ghost infuses it into the soul in a way unknown to it, as the Bride declares in the Canticle, it is called ‘secret.’ And, it is not only the soul that is ignorant of it, but every one else, even the devil; because the Master, who now teaches the soul, dwells substantially within it where neither the devil, nor the understanding, nor natural reason can penetrate.”
This is why so much difficulty is found in describing psychologically what theology calls the superhuman mode of the gifts of the Holy Ghost, especially of the gift of wisdom. Among the best descriptions are the one we have just quoted, and also the passage where St. Teresa 26 distinguishes the first infused prayer (supernatural recollection) from the last of the acquired prayers which preceded it. We quoted this description above (chap. 5, arts. 2, 3).
It is important, however, not to believe with liberal Protestantism and modernistic agnosticism that this transluminous obscurity of infused contemplation, which brings no distinct knowledge, can do without a definite Credo , or that it finds an obstacle in such a Credo. On the contrary, this obscurity is at the opposite extreme from the “unstable wandering of the soul” with which sentimentality or theosophy is satisfied. To this it is somewhat opposed, as God, its object, is opposed to prime matter, which is capable of receiving all forms. In fact, infused contemplation is what gives ever more clearly
25 Ibid., chap. 17.
26 The Interior Castle, fourth mansion, chap. 3.
27 Every true Catholic mystic is and should be ready to give his life for the least iota of the Credo. Every formal heresy destroys infused faith in us and therefore charity; that is, the essential principle from which proceeds the contemplation we are speaking of.
3 1 8 the spirit of the words, concepts, and formulas of faith. It thus makes us, in a way, pass beyond the formulas of dogmas in order to enter into the deep things of God by believing in the mysteries as they are in Him, without its being granted us to see them. Thus conceived, this contemplation, far more profoundly than any study or meditation could, enables us to grasp the evangelical parables, the different mysteries of salvation, the unfathomable perfections of God, the supreme mystery of the Deity which contains them all, and the ineffable relations of the divine Persons.
Hence St. Thomas, 28 following Dionysius, distinguishes three principal degrees in this contemplation, according to the brilliance of the illumination of the Holy Ghost, which has an unlimited intensive progress.
The soul contemplates God in the mirror of sensible things of which He is the author, or in the mirror of the evangelical parables, as for instance, infinite mercy in the story of the prodigal son. The soul rises from a sensible fact toward God by a straight movement, like that of a lark soaring directly from earth toward heaven. While preaching the parable, our Lord placed His hearers in this prayer.
The soul contemplates God in the mirror of the mysteries of salvation, the mysteries of the Word made flesh, the incarnation, redemption, Holy Eucharist, the life of the Church; mysteries which the rosary constantly sets before our eyes to familiarize us with them. In this spiritual mirror the soul contemplates the goodness of God. It comprehends better and better the harmony of these mysteries, and passes from one to another by an oblique movement analogous to that of a bird which, being already aloft, flies from one point to another, its gaze lost in the azure depths of the sky.
The soul contemplates God in Himself, not as the blessed in heaven do, but in the penumbra of faith. Here the soul has risen above the multiplicity of sensible images and
28 Summa , Ila Ilae, q. 180, a. 6.
ideas. It sees, but a little indistinctly, that God our Father, who is infinitely good, is superior to every idea we can have of Him; and it sees that His goodness surpasses everything He Himself could put into human formulas for us, as the sky includes all the stars which manifest its depths to us. The soul not only tells itself these things, which every philosopher can think, even though he be in the state of mortal sin; but, under the inspiration of the Holy Ghost, by a loving and quasi-experimental knowledge it is wholly united to this unknown God; holy and sweet ignorance, superior to all knowledge. This is the pure contemplative movement which recollects the soul in God alone above all things, as Dionysius describes it in The Divine Names. This prayer has been compared to an eagle’s circular movement high up in the air, or to the movement of a bird hovering as though suspended and seeming to be motionless. This immobility is far more perfect than the varied movement that preceded it. As a circular movement has neither beginning nor end, there is here no method, for one does not start from principles in order to reach conclusions. Under the illumination of the Holy Ghost, it is truly simplex intuitus veritatis, the simple intuition of divine truths in the obscurity of faith, and the impetuosity of love which mysteriously unites us to God. 80 Christ’s sacerdotal prayer in the Gospel of St. John 31 gives us
29 Chap. 4.
30 Summa, Ila Ilae, q. 180, a. 6. This contemplation, compared by Dionysius to a circular movement, consists, as he says ( loc . cit.), “in the soul leaving exterior things so that it may enter into itself; that it may recall its intellectual faculties to unity in order that shut up, as it were, in a circle it may not go astray; then in this release from distractions, in this recollection and simplification of itself, that it may unite itself to the angels marvelously lost in unity, and allow itself thus to be led toward the beautiful and the good, toward the Deity itself, superior to the beautiful and the good.” Philip of the Blessed Trinity, C.D., followed by Vallgornera, O.P., recognizes in his Mystical Theology, II, 66, where he discusses circular contemplation, that it is generally infused. This is the least that can be said. This contemplation differs enormously from the acquired speculation of the philosopher or from meditation on the ineffability of the divine essence.
si John, chap.
the idea of this circular contemplation. An argument with major, minor, and conclusion must not be sought in it; on the contrary, it is composed, as it were, of luminous undulations which descend from heaven to us.
This circular contemplation no more resembles meditation or abstract speculation on the divine essence than a circumference resembles a polygon inscribed within it; in proportion as the circumference is simple, the other is complex. Very often commentaries on the works of the saints give the same impression as this polygon; in vain we would multiply its sides in an attempt to make them identical with the circle enclosing them.
As can be seen from his Commentary on the Divine Names ,* 2 St. Thomas follows Dionysius. Above symbolical theology, which speaks of God in metaphores, and above speculative theology, which is expressed in less unsuitable terms and which reasons on the divine perfections and mysteries, there is “a perfect knowledge of God, which is obtained by ignorance in virtue of an incomprehensible union. This takes place when the soul, leaving all things and forgetting self, is united to the splendors of the divine glory and is enlightened in the splendid depths of unfathomable wisdom.” 33 Only a person who has received this grace can clearly understand all that these words express. St. Thomas adds: “We know God by ignorance, by a certain union with the divine which is above the nature of the mind . . . and thus knowing God, in such a state of knowledge, the soul is illumined from the very depths of divine Wisdom, which we cannot scrutinize.” S4c
We attain the mysterious ocean of being, which is superior to substance, to life, and to light, only by the repose of the superior faculties, not by reasoning or by a sight of God,
82 He says in the Summa (Ila Ilae, q. 180, a.6 ad 211m): “Discoursing must be laid aside and the soul’s gaze fixed on the contemplation of the one simple truth.”
as The Divine Names, VII, 3.
8* Loc. cit., lect. 4.
but by a most loving and intimate union, “by a sort of initiation which no master can teach.” 85 Dionysius says: “We desire to enter that transluminous obscurity and to see and know, by the very fact of not seeing and not knowing, Him who is above all sight and all knowledge. For the soul truly sees and knows and supersubstantially praises the supersubstantial when it declares that the supersubstantial is nothing of that which other beings are.” 86 “The good Being . . . drives away ignorance and error from all souls in which He reigns; He dispenses to them all sacred light. . . . First of all He gives them a little light; then when, having tasted it, they desire it in greater abundance, He distributes it to them with greater largess. Because they have loved much. He inundates them with this light; and He ever urges them forward in proportion to the zeal they exercise in directing their faculties toward Him.” 87
The soul cannot by its own efforts reach this infused contemplation, but it ought to prepare itself to receive it. This it should do by prayer and mortification, 88 and by setting aside the senses and reasoning: “As for thee, O well beloved Timothy, exercise thyself unceasingly in mystical contemplation. Put aside the senses and the operations of the understanding, all that is material and intellectual, all the things that exist and those that do not, and by a supernatural flight unite thyself as intimately as possible with Him who is above all being and all knowledge. For it is by this sincere, spontaneous, and total abandonment of thyself and of all things that, free and disengaged from all ties, thou wilt cast thyself into the mysterious splendor of the divine obscurity.” 89 “This intimate union, which surpasses the range of nonmystical minds, is a fusion produced by divine love . . . for
35 Ep., IX, 1.
so Tkeol. myst., II.
87 The Divine Names, IV, 5.
88 Ibid., Ill, 1.
8 » Theol. myst., I, i.
love is a unifying force/’ 40 It is the perfection on this earth of the “deification of the soul.” 41
“Mystical knowledge,” says St. Albert the Great, 42 “does not proceed from the findings of reason, but rather from a certain divine light. The object seized by the soul (God Himself) acts so strongly on the intellect that the soul wishes at any price to be united to it. Since this object is above the grasp of the intellect, it does not make itself clearly known to it; consequently the understanding rests on something which is not determined.”
This contemplation gives us a foreknowledge of the divine perfections, which are identical with each other, without excluding each other, in the eminence of the Deity. It shows us how infinite justice harmonizes with infinite mercy, without ceasing to be justice; how sovereign mercy could not exist without being identical with this justice, in appearance so contrary to it. 43 The soul is introduced into the divine darkness, which Dionysius speaks of and which Blessed Angela of Foligno so wonderfully praises, 44 by a speculative and a quasi*
40 The Divnie Names, IV, 12.
41 Hierar. coel., I, 3.
42 in libr , de myst. theol. Dionys. q._proem., ad 1.
43 We have treated this question elsewhere from the speculative point of view. Cf. Garrigou-Lagrange, God, His Existence and His Nature, Vol. II, chap. 3, “Reconciliation of the Divine Attributes: Their Formal Existence and Their Identification in the Eminence of the Deity.” “Absolute perfections are contained formally and eminently in God, and yet they are only virtually distinguished from each other. They are contained formally, which means according to their formal concept; they are contained eminently, which means according to a mode infinitely above the created mode. . . . Thus, the absolute perfections are contained formally in God and yet are only virtually distinguished from one another, or, in other words, according to a reasoned-out distinction for which there is a foundation, but consequent to the consideration of the mind” (ibid., p. 196).
44 Le livre des visions et instructions de la B. Angele de Foligno, chap. 26: “One day my soul was ravished and I saw God in a light superior to every known light; in a plenitude superior to every plenitude. In the place where I was, I sought love and I no longer found it. . . . Then I saw God in a darkness, and necessarily in a darkness because He is too far above the spirit, and all that can become the object of a thought cannot express Him. . . . This is an ineffable delectation in the good which contains all, and nothing there can become the object of a word or a concept. I see nothing, I see
3*3 experimental knowledge that God in His intimate life, in what constitutes Him as such (in His nature as God) is, so to speak, superior to being, truth, good, wisdom, love, mercy, and justice; and that nevertheless these divine perfections are in Him formally in an eminent manner, without any real distinction.
How can the soul know in this way that Deity, which is common to the three divine Persons and from which they are not in reality distinct? Grace alone permits us to know it in this way, because grace is precisely a real and formal participation in this Deity, in the divine nature as such. Whereas a stone resembles God because it has existence; a plant, because it has life; and the natural man, because he is endowed with intelligence; grace makes us resemble God precisely inasmuch as He is God, in His Deity, superior to being, life, and thought. This relationship belongs to an order quite superior to a sensible miracle and to the prophecies of possible future events. 45 Such is this connaturality, this natural resemblance with God, the grace of the virtues and the gifts. It makes the just soul, as it were, an Aeolian harp which, under the breathing of the Holy Ghost, gives forth the most harmonious sounds, the sweetest as well as the most brilliant, the most piercing as well as the most solemn. As a new leitmotif, which at first is imperceptible and distant, little by little rises, approaches, envelops us, and ends by dominating all, so the mysterious harmony of the gift of wisdom rises in our soul. Its superhuman mode scarcely appears at first, and then all. The more profound the darkness is, the more the good exceeds all. This is the reserved mystery. . . . The divine ppwer, wisdom, and will, which I saw marvelously elsewhere, seems less than this. This is a whole; the others could be called parts. ... In the immense darkness I see the Blessed Trinity. . . . That is the supreme attraction, in comparison with which all is nothing; that is the incomparable.” On the same subject, cf. St. Thomas, In De divinis Nominibus, c. VII, lect. 4; and I Sent, d.8, q.i, a.i ad 5um. It would be a gross error to confound this infused contemplation with the philosophical meditation in which one thinks that the divine essence surpasses all our concepts.
45 Summa, la Ilae, q. 111, a.5.
3«4 in rather a negative manner by the disappearance of the human mode of thinking. As St. John of the Cross says, 46 meditation becomes impossible or impracticable; the soul has no desire to fix its imagination on any particular interior or exterior object; it is pleased in prayer to find itself alone with God, and to fix its attention lovingly on Him. This is the beginning of the divine intimacy.
Theology, by what it teaches about the gift of wisdom, makes us know ontologically the spiritual organism of contemplation; but it leaves to mystics the description of the psychological signs that correspond to contemplation. It thus remains a superior science, distinct from the eminent art of the direction of souls, which is its application. We can see from this point of view why St. Thomas (Ha Ilae, q. 180) treats contemplation in a formal manner. He determines its essence, which is analogically found in both philosophical and infused contemplation; 47 but he does not describe the different types of the latter according to the psychological and material signs that manifest it. St. Teresa is essentially descriptive; St. John of the Cross, both a mystic and a theologian, takes his place between the two. A number of authors make a mistake in wanting to discern which of these three points of view is the highest. In the great sobriety of his language, St. Thomas expresses the essence of things; without writing of mystical theology, he has given us its principles.
III. PROGRESSIVE PREDOMINANCE OF THE DIVINE MODE OF THE GIFT OF WISDOM IN PRAYER
When we say that spiritual progress normally demands the progressive predominance of the divine mode of the gifts of the Holy Ghost in order to remedy the imperfect mode of the
46 The Ascent of Mount Carmel, Bk. II, chaps. 11-13; The Dark Night of the Soul, Bk. I, chap. 9.
47 Thus he treats of the essence of prudence, which is analogically found in acquired and in infused prudence, or of the essence of friendship which makes possible the definition of charity.
3*5 infused virtues, and when we add that the mystical life is precisely characterized by this predominance and by perfect docility to the interior Master, we do not mean to reserve to the mystical state the intervention of the gifts of the Holy Ghost, or to exclude the exercise of the virtues from this state. On the contrary, we have always said that, before the entrance into the mystical state, the gifts intervene in a manner that may be latent and rather frequent, or that may be manifest but rare. 48 When this intervention becomes frequent and manifest, then the mystical life begins, characterized by this predominance of the divine mode of the gifts, 49 whereas the ascetical life is characterized by the human mode of the virtues.
What we do not admit is that the gifts must enter into play every time the soul receives an actual grace; because an actual grace is required for even the most imperfect exercise of the Christian virtues, for remissi acts notably lower than the degree of charity we possess. In these acts no influence of the gifts is seen. 50 It would be an error to confound actual grace, at first exciting, then co-operating, which moves us to deliberate well according to the human mode, to will, and to act in consequence, with the inspiration of the Holy Ghost, to which the gifts render us docile, without our having to deliberate according to the human mode. 51 It may well be
48 This is what theologians, particularly Thomists, generally teach. Cf. Joseph of the Holy Ghost, C. D., Cursus theol. scol.-mysticae, Vol. II, Disp. VII, q.i, no. 28.
49 On this point cf. Joseph of the Holy Ghost, ibid.
bo Cf. Gardeil, Diet, theol., art. “Dons,” the last part of the article.
si St. Thomas says (Ila Ilae, q.52, a.2 ad lum): “In the gifts of the Holy Ghost, the position of the human mind is of one moved rather than of a mover.” He speaks in the same manner of operating grace in order to distinguish it from co-operating grace (la Ilae, q. 111, a. 2): “Hence in that effect in which our mind is moved and does not move, but in which God is the sole mover, the operation is attributed to God, and it is with reference to this that we speak of operating grace. But in that effect in which our mind both moves and is moved, the operation is not only attributed to God, but also to the soul; and it is with reference to this that we speak of co-operating grace.” The inspiration of the Holy Ghost, of which we are speaking, is an operating grace that a latent inspiration rather often accompanies human deliberation and work, just as a breeze facilitates the labor of a man who is rowing; but the divine mode of acting remains specifically distinct from the human mode. When the divine mode predominates in an act or a state to such an extent that this act and this state cannot be produced by our industry or human activity aided by the actual grace required for the exercise of the virtues, then that state is called passive. For example, when the wind blows with such force that a boat advances without the necessity of rowing, its progress does not depend on the activity of the oarsman. There is, therefore, more than a difference of degree between the human mode of the virtues and of the corresponding actual grace and the divine mode of the gifts of the Holy Ghost; there is a specific difference. This specific difference would not exist if the divine motion were only more intense. The difference arises from the fact that the objective regulation of the act is formally different, according as it proceeds from reason, which, enlightened by faith, deliberates in a human manner; or from the inspiration of the Holy Ghost, superior to all human deliberations and to every discursive process, whether it is intrinsic to prudence, or whether it disposes the soul to make at a desired moment acts of faith, hope, or charity. 62 that we receive with docility and that makes us accomplish acts which we would not succeed in producing by our personal efforts aided by grace. St. Teresa says, in speaking of the prayer of union (fifth mansion, chap. 1): “Here God does not leave us any other share than that of a fully submissive will.” Likewise St. Felicitas remarked to one of her jailers when she was suffering the pains of childbirth: “Today it is I who suffer; but then (during martyrdom) there will be another in me who will suffer for me, because I also will suffer for Him.” This is the difference between the virtue and the gift.
szSumma, la Ilae, q.68, a.i: “Human virtues perfect man according as it is natural for him to be moved by his reason in his interior and exterior actions. Consequently, man needs yet higher perfection, whereby to be moved by God. . . . Even the Philosopher says in the chapter on Good Fortune (Ethic, Eudem., loc. cit.) that for those who are moved by divine instinct there is no need to take counsel according to human reason, but only to follow their inner conscience, since they are moved by a principle higher than human reason. This then is what some say, viz., that the gifts perfect man for acts which
This difference appears in infused contemplation especially at its beginning and in its progress. It is helpful to recall the ascent described by St. Teresa and St. John of the Cross. In the aridity of the night of the senses, the gift of knowledge dominates by acquainting us especially with the vanity of created things; 53 in the night of the soul, the gift of understanding 54 shows us not so much the goodness of God as His infinite majesty, and by contrast our wretchedness. Between the two nights and especially after the second, the superhuman mode of the gift of wisdom is not only latent, but becomes more and more manifest to an experienced spiritual director. The soul, under the illumination of the Holy Ghost, thus possesses this quasi-experimental knowledge by connaturality with divine things. This knowledge can certainly not be had at will; while one can at will, with an actual grace, make an act of faith even when in the state of mortal sin.
In some perfect souls, this predominance of the superhuman mode of the gift of wisdom is striking (and at times even accompanied by graces gratis datae, by prophetic light); in others it is diffuse, but nevertheless very real. In these souls the practical gifts of counsel, fortitude, and fear, or those of piety and knowledge, are more manifest. But they are truly under the direction of the spirit of wisdom, and its light, like that diffused in the air, without attracting one’s gaze, penetrates everything and gives to all life a superior tone, as appreciable as the difference between day and night.
This grace of infused contemplation, even in the diffuse are higher than acts of virtue.” Cf. John of St. Thomas on this article. It is clear that every actual grace does not dispense us from deliberating.
St. Thomas speaks thus (In Rom. 8: 14) on the text: “For whosoever are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God”: “Homo spiritualis, non quasi ex motu proprie voluntatis principaliter, sed ex instinctu Spiritus Sancti inclinatur ad aliquid.” Cf. Froget, O.P., De Uhabitation du Saint Esprit dans les ames justes. Part IV, chap. 6, p. 407.
63 Summa, Ha Ilae, q.g, a.4.
6 ±Ibid., q.8, a. 7.
state, certainly differs from the sensible consolations which sometimes accompany vocal prayer or the meditation of beginners. St. Teresa clearly marks this difference 55 by showing what distinguishes “spiritual tastes from the consolations acquired in meditation.” “We secure the latter,” she says, “by our reflections, by means of considerations on created things, and by a painful labor of the understanding. And as, after all, they are the fruit of our efforts, they noisily fill the basin of our soul with some spiritual profit.” The saint also compares these acquired consolations to water which comes through pipes from a distance. On the contrary, when speaking symbolically of the consolations of God, which she has called elsewhere the prayer of quiet, she writes: “In the other fountain, the water proceeds from the same source, which is God. Moreover, when it pleases His Majesty to grant us a spiritual favor, this water flows from the most intimate depths of our being with extreme peace, tranquillity, and sweetness. But whence it springs and in what manner, that I do not know.”
It is possible to have a certain affective knowledge of God by the simple exercise of faith united to charity. This is the case with the consolations acquired in meditation, in which emotion may have a large part. 56 Infused contemplation, moreover, requires a special illumination or inspiration of the Holy Ghost to which precisely, as we have seen, the gift of wisdom renders us docile.
This gift, like the other six gifts and the infused virtues, is related to charity and most certainly grows with it. In a truly docile soul, infused contemplation ought thus normally to appear and then to develop. Consequently there should
65 The Interior Castle, fourth mansion, chap. 2.
56 See what St. Thomas says about the passions or emotions resultant by redundance (la Ilae, q.24, a. 3 ad xum); of sensible joy, the effect of the devotion of the will (Ila Ilae, q.82, a.4); and of the effects of communion (Ilia, q.79, a.i ad 2um).
normally be a progressive predominance, either striking or diffuse, of the divine mode of the gift of wisdom over the human mode of meditation or of acquired prayer. In this way appears the supernatural prayer of which St. Teresa speaks. This prayer, which ought always to unite the soul more closely to God, is sometimes accompanied by ecstasy, by interior words, or even by visions. Yet these things are only accidental and transitory phenomena which pass, while infused contemplation continues. If the light of prophecy (lumen propheticum) co-operates at times in this contemplation, it is in a concomitant manner. Graces gratis datae belong to an order inferior to that of the virtues and gifts. 57 With this in mind, we can easily harmonize four recently proposed opinions as to the nature of the mystical state. 58 The first holds that it consists in an infused knowledge of God and of divine things; the second, in an infused love; the third, in a special passivity of the soul more acted upon than acting; and the fourth, in a simple and loving attention to God. The last cannot, in fact, be prolonged without a rather manifest intervention of the gifts. 59
67 Summa, la Ilae, q. 111, a.5. In this article St. Thomas states that sanctifying grace is “nobler than gratuitous grace/* It is helpful to reread the office for the feast of St. Teresa, particularly the Little Chapter in which only the gift of wisdom is mentioned: “Wherefore I wished, and understanding was given me: and I called upon God, and the spirit of wisdom came upon me” (Wis. 7: 7).
68 Revue d’ascetique et de mystique, October, 1920. On the question of mystical contemplation, cf. pp. 333-336.
69 The first two opinions can be reconciled by the principle of the mutual causality of knowledge and love, “causae ad invicem sunt causae in diverso genere.” From different points of view, there exists here priority either of knowledge or of love, as there is, for example, at the end of the deliberation when the free will determines upon the last practical judgment which directs its choice. The third opinion mentions the special passivity which is proper, at one and the same time, to infused knowledge and to infused love, which are united in the simple and loving attention of which the fourth opinion speaks. It is not, therefore, very difficult to reach an understanding on this point; the divergencies in this case may be only verbal.
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IV. WHETHER CONTEMPLATION PROCEEDS EXCLUSIVELY FROM THE GIFT OF WISDOM, OR ALSO FROM FAITH UNITED TO CHARITY
It would be an error, as we have seen, to declare that the intervention of the gifts of the Holy Ghost is reserved to the mystical state. It would assuredly be another mistake to exclude the exercise of the theological virtues from the mystical state. On the contrary, the mystical state, according to the great masters, consists in the most perfect exercise of these virtues, which are the highest of all. How can this assertion be reconciled with what we have just said about the predominance of the divine mode of the gifts in this state?
Some writers seem to hold that contemplation is not an act of faith, but that it presupposes an act of faith, at once distinct from it and simultaneous with it, as the deduction of a theological conclusion presupposes the knowledge of the principles of faith. This conception seems to conform but slightly to the perfect simplicity of the contemplative act, which is in no way discursive, and which dwells immediately on the mysteries of faith, penetrating and tasting them. Besides, the greatest mystics, such as St. John of the Cross, always declare that infused contemplation is an eminent act of living faith. Evidently they mean faith united to the gift of wisdom, and to a superior degree of this gift. 60 Therefore, together with Cajetan, 61 Joseph of the Holy Ghost, 02 and a number of other commentators of St. Thomas, 68 we think that there are not two simultaneous acts, but that infused contemplation is an act which proceeds, in so far as its sub-
60 The Ascent of Mount Carmel, Bk. II, chaps. 2, 5, 8: Faith is the only proximate and proportionate means which enables the soul to attain to the divine union; chap. 9; Bk. Ill, chaps. 4, 6.
61 On Ila Ilae, q.45, a. 1.
62 Cursus theol. scol.-mysticae, Vol. II, dist. 13, p. 395, where Suarez is also quoted as admitting this conclusion.
63 This seems to be the thought of John of St. Thomas, De donis, d.18, a.4; a.2, no. 25: “Dona ad excellentius perficiendum et exercendum virtutes theologicas deserviunt.” Cf. T. Vallgornera, O.P., Theol. myst. S. Thomae, I, 471; II, 446.
S3 1 stance is concerned, from infused faith, and with respect to its superhuman mode, from the gift of wisdom. The perfect contemplative is he who lives by faith and who, while believing supernatural mysteries, penetrates them, sounds their depths, tastes them, and assimilates them, or rather allows himself to be assimilated by them. It is he who is not content with believing, but who fully lives his faith (Justus ex fide vivit) } and who judges everything according to it, that is, according to the very thought of God, as if he saw with the eye of God. Charity also co-operates in contemplation, since charity is what moves us to contemplate God that we may love Him better. 84
This would seem to be the meaning of St. Thomas* statement that: ‘‘The gifts perfect the virtues by raising them above the human mode; as the gift of understanding perfects the virtue of faith.” 65 “The theological virtues (uniting us to the Holy Ghost) are superior to the gifts which they regulate,” 66 and nevertheless receive a new perfection from them. “The operation which proceeds from the virtue perfected by the gift is called a beatitude.” 87
V. THE FRUITS OF THE HOLY GHOST AND THE BEATITUDES
By the gifts of the Holy Ghost the just soul becomes, as it were, a musical instrument from which the interior Master may draw marvelous harmonies: “Instrumentum musicum a Spiritu pulsatum divinamque gloriam et potentiam canens.” 68 The soul thus sings the glory of God, a fact demonstrated by every page of the lives of the saints.
z±Summa, Ha Ilae, q. 180, a.i.
Quaest. disp. de caritate , a.2 ad 1711m; III, d.34, q.i, a.i.
66“Sicut virtutes intellectuales praeferuntur virtutibus moralibus et regulant eas; ita virtutes theologicae (per quas unimur Spiritui Sancto moventi), praeferuntur donis Spiritus Sancti et regulant ea.” Thus faith is the remote rule of the intellectual gifts, which can be exercised only on the truths of faith. Their proximate, immediate rule is the illumination of the Holy Ghost, which constitutes the formal motive of penetrating or sweet, infused contemplation.
67 St. Thomas, Super Isaiam, chap. 11.
68 St. Gregory Nazianzen, Orat. ad popul,, XLIII, no. 67.
Scripture compares a just man to a tree planted near running water, and giving its fruit in due season. 69 “The fruit of the Spirit is charity, joy, peace, patience, benignity, goodness, longanimity, mildness, faith, modesty, continency, and chastity.” 70
In what do these fruits differ from the virtues and the gifts? As St. Thomas explains, 71 they are not habits, but acts which proceed in us from the influence of the Holy Ghost and which man delights in. They are thus opposed to what may be called the fruits of reason.
The beatitudes are still higher. By this term we designate certain acts of the present life which, by reason of their very special perfection, are the pledge, the meritorious cause and, as it were, the first fruits of perfect beatitude. 72 “By reason of their perfection, they are assigned to the gifts rather than to the virtues.” 78
“Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” 74 The virtue of poverty may inspire the detachment that makes us use the goods of earth with moderation; but it is the gift of fear that inspires scorn of them in comparison with superior goods.
“Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted.” It is the gift of knowledge which shows us the vanity of transitory good, the gravity of sin as a spiritual evil, as an offense against God. Happy is he who sheds the tears of a holy contrition.
“Blessed are the meek: for they shall possess the land.” The virtue of meekness makes us completely overcome the impetuosity of anger; but it is especially the gift of piety that
Ps. i: 3.
70 Gal. 5: 22 f.
71 Summa, la Ilae, q.70, a.i, 2.
72 St. Thomas, la llae, q.69, a.i; q.70, a. 2.
72 Ibid., q.70, a.2.
74 Matt. 5: 3.
bestows calmness, serenity, perfect self-possession, and entire submission to the will of God.
These three are the beatitudes of flight from and deliverance from sin. The next two, as St. Thomas says, are the beatitudes of the active life of a Christian who, freed from evil, engages in the pursuit of good with all the ardor of his heart.
“Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after justice: for they shall have their fill.” To desire justice, perfect order, is the effect of the virtues; but to hunger and thirst after it, to be tormented by this hunger, is the fruit of a loftier inspiration.
This thirst for justice should not become a bitter zeal with regard to the guilty; consequently our Lord says: “Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy.” Attentive to the sufferings of others, the merciful are able to give that counsel which reanimates and encourages. Accordingly the spirit of counsel corresponds to this beatitude.
This union of justice and mercy is one of the most striking signs of the presence of God in the soul; for He alone can intimately harmonize virtues that are apparently so contrary.
Lastly we have the beatitudes of the contemplative life. “Blessed are the clean of heart: for they shall see God.” A truly pure heart is like a limpid fountain where God is reflected even in this life. The gift of understanding enables us to catch a glimpse of the divine beauty, in proportion to the growing purity of our intention.
“Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God.” According to St. Augustine and St. Thomas, this beatitude corresponds to the gift of wisdom which makes us see, as it were experimentally, all things in God; for every good thing comes from Him, and evil occurs only when it is permitted in view of a greater good. The gift of wisdom thus reveals the admirable order of the providential plan. Now, peace is the tranquillity of order. A contemplative soul not only possesses peace; it can communicate it to others. A contemplative soul does not allow itself to be troubled in its higher part by painful, unexpected events; it receives all from the hand of God as a means or an occasion of approaching closer to Him. Wisdom bestows a radiant peace, leading us to love our enemies. It is the mark of the true children of God who never for an instant, so to speak, lose the thought of their heavenly Father. At the beginning of its life, a soul that was stained with egoism, was often preoccupied with self, and perhaps referred everything to self; now it is the thought of God which possesses it, and it refers everything to Him. This peace, which is the fruit of the gift of wisdom and which the world cannot give, is found fully on earth only in the mystical life, which is characterized precisely by this gift, united to perfect charity and very lively faith. This is what makes St. Paul say to the Philippians: 75 “Rejoice in the Lord always; again, I say, rejoice. Let your modesty be known to all men. The Lord is nigh. Be nothing solicitous; but in everything, by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your petitions be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasseth all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.”
Such is the fruit of that wisdom which Scripture praises in these words: “And I preferred her before kingdoms and thrones, and esteemed riches nothing in comparison of her. . . . For all gold in comparison of her, is as a little sand, and silver in respect to her shall be counted as clay. I loved her above health and beauty, and chose to have her instead of light: for her light cannot be put out. Now all good things came to me together with her, and innumerable riches through her hands. And I rejoiced in all these: for this wisdom went before me, and I knew not that she was
75 Phil. 4: 4-9.
the mother of them all. Which I have learned without guile, and communicate without envy, and her riches I hide not. For she is an infinite treasure to men, which they that use, become the friends of God/* 76 “And if a man desire much knowledge: she knoweth things past, and judgeth of things to come: she knoweth the subtilties of speeches, and the solutions of arguments. ... I purpose therefore to take her to me to live with me.*' 77 . . . “Lord of mercy, . . . 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 labor with me, that I may know what is acceptable with Thee. . . . For who among men is he that can know the counsel of God? or who can think what the will of God is? . . . And who shall know Thy thought except Thou give wisdom, and send Thy holy Spirit from above.” 78 What more beautiful prayer could be found by which to ask God with humility and confidence for the spirit of wisdom, which is the principle of contemplation and the source of peace?
To the beatitude of the peacemakers is added the last, which is the confirmation and manifestation of the others: “Blessed are they that suffer persecution for justice' sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” When man is confirmed in spiritual poverty, meekness, love of justice, and the other beatitudes, persecution is powerless to detach him from these goods and to deprive him of interior peace and joy. Thus the soul is stamped with the likeness of Christ crucified by the last trials it undergoes to reach sanctity. Then it comprehends in a practical way our Lord's words: “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.” 79 Are not
76 Wis. 7: 8-14.
77 Ibid., 8: 8 £.
78 Wis., chap. 9.
79 Matt. 5 : 11 .
these the words that gave birth in the hearts of the saints to their thirst for suffering and martyrdom?
In this way the gifts of the Holy Ghost which are in every just soul and which develop normally, as infused habits, with charity, prepare us progressively for the loftiest and most heroic acts of the spiritual life. The word “mystical” is rightly applied to the spiritual life that has reached this degree of intimacy with God. In some perfect souls, the gifts of contemplation especially are manifest; in others, those of action. But even among the latter, the spirit of wisdom is what directs their lives and illumines all with its diffuse light.
Footnotes
Chapter 20 of 31