Article IV. The Conditions Ordinarily Required for Infused Contemplation

AN EXAMINATION OF THE PRINCIPAL DIFFICULTIES RELATING TO THE GENERAL CALL

We have given the reasons for our aceptance of a general and remote call to the mystical life of all souls in the state of grace, although this call becomes individual and proximate only when it can be proved that the three classic signs of the beginning of the mystical life, explained by St. John of the Cross, exist in the soul. This individual proximate call remains sufficient and inefficacious in those who resist it. In others it is efficacious in one of two ways: either it leads only to the inferior degrees of the mystical life, or it leads higher and even to the transforming union, the summit of the normal development of the interior life.

The three principal reasons we adduced for affirming the general and remote call are : ¹ The radical principle of the mystical life is the same as that of the common interior life, the grace of the virtues and the gifts; ( 2 ) In the progress of the interior life, the purification of the soul cannot be complete without the passive purifications, which belong to the mystical order; (3) The mystical life is the normal prelude to the beatific vision, the goal of the life of grace.

This teaching presupposes what we have set forth(1) on suf ficient and on efficacious grace. We summed it up in the masterly words of Bossuet: “Let us learn to bow our intel lects before the divine obscurity of this great mystery and confess two graces, one of which (sufficient grace) leaves the intellect without any excuse before God, and the other (ef ficacious grace) does not let it glory in itself." 2

• Bossuet, (Euvres completes (1845), I, 643.

It is not surprising that the traditional teaching about the general and remote call of all just souls to the mystical life should encounter obscurity or difficulty. These difficulties are not any greater than those raised against the doctrine commonly taught in the Church as to the salvation which is offered and is possible to all men who have the use of reason, even to those who have not been able to hear the Gospel preached. All receive sufficient grace (at least remote) to reach eternal life.

Since this is so and since the mystical life is the prelude to eternal life, why not admit the general and remote call which we maintain? The principal difficulties are three: (1) It is objected that, even while admitting the principles of St. Thomas in relation to the increase of the grace of the virtues and gifts, if things are considered in the concrete rather than in the abstract, it becomes evident that Christian souls generally lack the conditions of the mystical life, and that through no fault of theirs; (2) It must not be forgotten that some souls have received only one or two talents, and not five; (3) The doctrine of the general, even though remote, call seems by its nature to lead some to presumption and illusion, and others to discouragement. We will examine these different points.

I. DO GENEROUS INTERIOR SOULS GENERALLY LACK THE PRINCIPAL CONDITIONS ORDINARILY REQUIRED FOR THE MYSTICAL LIFE?

Some writers tell us that the attainment of mystical contemplation requires conditions that are impossible of realization for the majority of souls, no matter how generous they may be. According to this opinion, a special environment is necessary, such as a Carthusian or a Carmelite monastery, where silence, solitude, and long hours of prayer are the common rule. Without this atmosphere, a special tempera- merit inclined to recollection and prolonged prayer is needed. Lastly, we are told that a soul must have appropriate spiritual guidance, directing it more and more toward the contemplative life. These conditions are usually wanting in the lives of the majority of generous interior souls that remain in the world or that enter active or even mixed religious orders. The cares of administration which occupy superiors and the demands which intellectual work makes on a priest whose principal activity is teaching, also hinder the development of the mystical life, properly so called, even in interior souls much attached to their duties.

We now offer our reply to this objection. Even if the above mentioned conditions, difficult of realization for many, were required, we should not, as a result, necessarily conclude that the mystical life is not the normal summit of the development of the life of grace. We should simply have to say that, for the attainment of this summit, conditions are demanded which are difficult of realization in the world, or even in a religious life that is not very fervent. In this case the soul is like a cedar, which attains the summit of its normal development only in certain conditions of soil and climate.

Moreover, the conditions enumerated, though very useful, are not the chief ones. We recognize the fact that environment has its importance; also that a calm temperament is much better disposed to the contemplative life than a rest- . less and agitated spirit. 8 It may indeed be that among these s St. Thomas, Ila Ilae, q.182, a.4 ad-sum: “He that is prone to yield to his passions on account of his impulse to action is simply more apt for the active life by reason of his restless spirit. . . . Others, on the contrary, have the mind naturally pure and restful, so that they are apt for contemplation. . . . Those who are more adapted to the active life can prepare themselves for the contemplative by the practice of the active life; while, none the less, those who are more adapted to the contemplative life can take upon themselves the works of the active life so as to become yet more apt for contemplation.” Thus all ought to tend toward contemplation as the normal prelude to the life of heaven.

last, some, even though quite generous, would reach the mystical life only after a period longer than the ordinary span of life. And it is certain that bad spiritual direction often allows souls to vegetate or turns them away from infused contemplation, whereas another type of direction would definitely turn them toward contemplation.

However important these conditions may be, they remain superficial compared to others which are the chief ones. Here again the same rule holds true as in the matter of salvation, which is possible to all who possess a developed conscience, even to those not born in a Christian environment, who are strongly inclined to evil, and who have not had an opportunity to hear the Gospel preached. If they ordinarily follow the dictates of their conscience, they will be mysteriously led from grace to grace, from fidelity to fidelity, to eternal life.

Anyone who wishes to advance in the spiritual life and to prepare himself for the grace of contemplation must, to the best of his ability, use the great means which the Church gives us all. The assiduous reception of the sacraments, daily hearing of mass, frequent communion, love of the Eucharist, devotion to the Holy Ghost, filial and incessant recourse to the Sacred Heart of Jesus 4 and to the Blessed Virgin, mediatrix of all graces, are evidently necessary.

Contemplation is a fruit of true devotion to the Blessed Virgin, as explained by Blessed Grignion de Montfort.® He says that, without a great love for her, a soul will attain union with God only with extreme difficulty. “It is necessary to pass through dark nights, combats, strange agonies, sharp thorns, and frightful deserts. By the way of Mary, the soul advances with greater sweetness and tranquillity. Along this way it encounters many crosses and great difficulties to

4 It is fitting to unite ever more closely devotion to the Blessed Sacrament and that to the Sacred Heart of Jesus in devotion to the Eucharistic Heart of Jesus, in order to thank our Lord for the act of supreme love by which He gave us the Holy Eucharist.

6 Traiti de la vraie devotion d Marie, chap. 4, art. 5 (1909 ed., p. 119).

overcome, but our good Mother keeps so close to her faithful servants . . . that, in truth, this virginal road is a path of roses in spite of the thorns.” It thus leads more easily and surely to divine union. Mary, wonderful to relate, makes the cross easier and, at the same time, more meritorious: easier, because she sustains us with her gentle hand; more meritorious, because she obtains for us a greater charity, which is the principle of merit, and because, by offering our acts to our Lord, she increases their value. By reason of her pre-eminent charity, Mary merited more while performing the easiest acts than all the martyrs in their tortures.

Another great means to prepare for the grace of contemplation, a means within the reach of all interior souls, is found in the liturgy, in an ever more intimate union with the great prayer of the Church. “The graces of prayer and of the mystical state have their type and source in the hieratic life of the Church; they reflect in the members the likeness of Christ which is perfect in the body.” 6 Liturgical prayer recited with recollection, in union with our Lord and His mystical body, obtains for us holy lights and inspirations which illumine and inflame our hearts. Consequently it is advisable to make mental prayer after the psalmody which prepares us for it; just as after mass and holy communion, it is well to prolong our thanksgiving, and if possible devote an hour to it.

Lastly, the frequent reading of Scripture and the study of sacred doctrine, undertaken in a truly supernatural manner, are other excellent means to prepare the soul for contemplation. Thus the ancients 7 used to say that divine reading (lectio divina) by pious study ( studium ) leads to meditation (meditatio), then to prayer ( oratio ), and finally to contemplation ( contemplatio). 8

« Father Cl£rissac, O.P., Le mystbre de VEglise, p. 102. 1 The Rule of St. Benedict, chap. 48.

8 See Ila Ilae, q. 180, a. 3.

Of course certain interior dispositions are necessary if we are to make good use of the great means which the Church proposes to all. These dispositions constitute the chief conditions ordinarily required for the mystical life. 8 As a rule they accompany the proximate individual call to contemplation; in very generous souls they may supply for exterior conditions if these cannot be had.

Spiritual authors group these dispositions as follows: (1) purity of heart; (2) simplicity of spirit; (3) profound humility; (4) love of recollection and perseverance in prayer; (5) fervent charity. 10

Who can say that these interior dispositions are beyond the strength and the graces offered him? St. Jerome writes: “One man may tell me that he cannot fast; but can he declare that he cannot love? Another may affirm that he cannot preserve virginity, or sell all his goods in order to give the price to the poor; but can he tell me that he cannot love his enemies? All that is necessary is to look into one’s own heart . . . , for what God asks of us is not found at a great distance.” 11 On the other hand, if we become even a little negligent, how easy it is to fail in the interior conditions we have just enumerated!

The purity of heart mentioned in the beatitude, “Blessed are the clean of heart: for they shall see God,” is the fruit of exterior and interior mortification, which is not practiced without suffering. We must not be attached to sin, must not condone our faults or make peace with them. The soul must enter upon the narrow way that leads to true life; better than ever before, it will understand our Lord’s words, “Many are called, but few are chosen.” It must also be ready to pass through the fire of sufferings, for purity of heart should grow with contemplation through the purifying trials

#They are not, however, always required, for mystical contemplation is sometimes granted to souls that are still very imperfect.

10 Philip of the Blessed Trinity, O.C.D., Summa theologiae mysticae, II, 305.

11 St. Jerome, Comm, in Matth., chap. 5.

which God sends to those humbly and ardently desiring His divine intimacy. As Scripture tell us. He is jealous; He removes the persons and the things to which the soul might become attached and makes it pass through a crucible to cleanse it of all its blemishes. When inordinate inclinations and the disorders of sensuality, egoism, self-love, and intellectual and spiritual pride have disappeared, and purified heart is like a spotless mirror reflecting the beauty of God. Who can say that he is unable to have a clean heart?

Simplicity of spirit is born of this cleanness of heart and, like it, should be keenly desired by everyone. Holy Scripture often mentions it: “His communication is with the simple.” 12 “If thy eye be single, thy whole body shall be lightsome.” 13 “Be ye therefore wise as serpents and simple as doves.” 14 Without simplicity it is impossible to have a high degree of wisdom, which is learned from God without guile. 16 Simplicity of spirit evidently does not consist in unceremoniously telling our every thought and feeling, at the risk of contradicting ourselves from day to day when circumstances and impressions are changed. In spite of appearances, such conduct is quite the contrary of simplicity; it leads to confusion, disturbance, incoherence, and rambling. The simplicity of which we are speaking shares in that of God and consists in seeing in God all diings, all events, whether happy or unhappy, all persons, friends or enemies, and all we have to do, whether agreeable or painful. It produces unity of spirit, for he who possesses it sees that everything is willed, or at least permitted, by God for His glory and that of His elect. Consequently, that all ought to aspire to this superior unity and simplicity of spirit, is evident. The presence of simplicity in the soul indicates that the gift of wisdom is already well developed, and that the soul possessing it habit-

12 Prov. 3: 32.

13 Matt. 6: 22.

14 Matt. 10: 16.

is Wis. 7: 13.

ually is very close to mystical contemplation, if it does not already have it.

This simplicity is manifested by a great rectitude of life; from this point of view, St. Thomas speaks of it when he is discussing the virtue of truth or veracity as opposed to falsehood. “Simplicity,” he says, “is contrary to duplicity, by which a man makes himself out to be something other than what he is interiorly.” It is a perfect uprightness and even a certain candor, in the good sense of the word, which leads us to acknowledge our defects easily because we do not cease to see the one thing necessary above all others. To have ordinarily in our relations with our neighbor the undiminished simplicity of the dove together with the prudence of the serpent evidences a high degree of the light of divine wisdom. It is a proximate disposition for mystical contemplation. Who can say that this superior simplicity is not, upon the whole, within the reach of generous souls?

Humility of heart is no less attainable than the preceding dispositions. In fact, it is born of them at the realization of the distance separating the infinite perfection of God from the nothingness of creatures, which of themselves are incapable of existing, acting, and directing themselves as they should. Anyone who already possesses this virtue in a high degree, who is happy to recognize his nothingness and abjection before God, who loves to be nothing so that God may be all, to humble himself before what is divine in every other soul, is prepared for the grace of contemplation. Our Lord Himself says: “I confess to Thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because Thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them to little ones.” 16 “Unless you be converted, and become as little children, you shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.” 17 If you become i® Matt, n: 25.

it Matt. 18: 3.

as little children, you shall enter heaven; and by contemplation the soul enters it in a quasi-experimental manner even in this life. “Take up My yoke upon you, and learn of Me, because I am meek, and humble of heart: and you shall find rest to your souls.” 18

This rest for the soul is to be found especially in loving contemplation. “God resisteth the proud and giveth grace to the humble.” 19 He makes them humble in order to load them with His gifts. Humility prepares the soul for contemplation, for it already sings the praise of God’s glory. The Imitation says that contemplatives are few in number because there are few souls profoundly humble. To receive the grace of contemplation, ordinarily the soul must have made a profound act of true humility which colors its whole life. When a soul has often and practically recognized the fact that its entire existence depends absolutely on God, that it continues to exist only by Him, that it acts well only by reason of His grace, which works in us both to will and to accomplish, that it directs its energies only by His light, that it has sinned frequently, and that it is an unprofitable servant deserving of scorn; then the soul generally obtains the grace we are speaking of.

Love of recollection, fidelity to the grace of the present moment, and perseverance in prayer are also dispositions which should not be lacking in generous souls. These dispositions necessitate a reaction against the agitation of what today is called strenuous life. As a matter of fact, it is not life, but a fever, a deadly illness; it is materialism in action. After turning away from God and from the true life of the soul, it seeks its equivalent in multiplied and increasingly intense activity, which is often a complete loss; for the finite can never equal or become the Infinite. To a true contem-

18 Matt. 11: 29.

19 Jas. 4: 6.

39*

plative, people who are devoted to an exaggerated intensity of life must seem like walking corpses; dead men running, as an old ballad says.

“Is the decay of faith astonishing,” asks a recent translator of the works of Tauler, “since no one any longer has time to think of faith? Materialism has snuffed out spirituality. Yet the desire for God, who is man’s end, still persists in human hearts, with the result that more than ever before there is an indefinable uneasiness in the world. Souls are suffering and dying of this unconscious desire for the Infinite.” 20 The reaction from this uneasiness should raise up many contemplative vocations. This is an important argument for the doctrine we are defending here, namely, that an unfavorable environment provokes a salutary reaction in good souls.

Materialism in action extends unfortunately to the things of the spirit and prevents many souls from believing they are called to contemplation. It turns them away from recollection and perseverance in prayer. Even spiritual subjects have been developed along the lines of a material science which, instead of giving us a doctrinal judgment founded on principle, presents us with a jumble of material information which is often useless and impossible to classify. Apparently the more there is, the more science grows. In reality, this entirely material multiplicity puts a great distance between us and the unification of learning, that higher view of the whole which deserves to be called wisdom, and to be called contemplation when it is accompanied by the love of God.

If the present problem of the general call of souls to the mystical life were studied according to the methods of this material science, a doctrinal solution would never be reached; on the contrary, it would seem that no conclusions can be reached, a skeptical attitude which is no evidence of superi-

20 Cf. CEuvres de Tauler, translated into French by Father Noel, O.P., IV. 215-16, translator’s note.

ority. Weie this problem studied in the light of theological wisdom, in the works of the great masters, and also in the light of the gift of wisdom, which is particularly important here, the result would be quite different.

We can scarcely exaggerate the importance of Tauler's teaching on the dangers of a completely material study for a religious who should aspire to contemplation. Speaking even of religious, the great mystic observes that some of them are like cisterns receiving water only from drains and not from the fountain of living water. Without an interior life, they spend themselves on outward things, and pride is the result. He says these intellectuals, infatuated with themselves and their intellect, which is nourished solely by creatures, are cisterns. Their mental attainments cannot support them in trials and will be confounded at death. 21

In his explanation of the parable of those who refused the invitation to the feast, Tauler says: “Who could count today the number of men who act in the same way. . . . Everyone, I speak not only of lay people, but also of ecclesiastics and religious, is busy about his affairs. What negotiations and innumerable occupations continually distract and absorb the world! The very thought of it all is enough to set one reeling. We surround ourselves with so many things, whereas a tenth of them would suffice; for, after all, time on earth is short and uncertain. We ought to remember that this world is merely a passage to eternity, and then we would use temporal things with moderation and be satisfied with the necessities of life. It would be better to die of hunger on the way than to let ourselves be encumbered and crucified by so many occupations.” 22

Tauler is not speaking here of apostolic work which is the radiation of the interior life, but of countless useless, or at

21 Cf. Tauler, First Sermon on the Ascension (Noel ed.), II, 401.

22 Tauler, Second Sermon for the Twentieth Sunday after Trinity (Noel ed.), IV, 215.

least unsanctified, occupations. If his words were true of his time, what must be said of ours? With such conditions it is not astonishing that only a small number of souls attain to contemplation. These conditions, however, represent essential disorder, which turns souls away from the recollection and prayer necessary to any interior life. Keeping this in mind, we easily understand why our Lord said at the end of the parable of the wedding feast: “Many are called, but few are chosen.”

This is not true in a normal Christian life, even in the world. Without excessive difficulty, generous souls attain by meditation to a simple and spontaneous affective prayer, which is an excellent disposition to mystical or infused contemplation. 23

Fervent charity toward God and our neighbor is the last of the dispositions that we listed as requisite for contemplation. The love of God for man unites us to Him; and the gifts of the Holy Ghost, which are the principles of infused contemplation, being connected with charity, develop with it. “Wisdom as a gift of the Holy Ghost judges aright about them (divine things) on account of connaturality with them. . . . This sympathy or connaturality for divine things is the result of charity, which unites us to God.” 24 Hence it is inconceivable that a soul should reach a high degree of charity without having a proportionate degree of the gift of wisdom as an habitual disposition, because the Holy Ghost inspires and illumines souls, as a general rule, according to the degree of their habitual docility. These souls not only earnestly desire and humbly ask for the grace of contemplation, which will increase their love and adoration, but they cannot re-

28 Theologians who follow St. Thomas and St. John of the Cross have never admitted that so-called acquired contemplation is the end of spiritual progress in this life; rather, they see in it a proximate preparation for infused contemplation. With Philip of the Blessed Trinity (Summa theol. myst., II, 309), they agree in saying: “Contemplatio acquisita cum auxilio gratiae comparata, est optima dispositio ad contemplationem supernaturalem.”

24 St. Thomas, Ila Ilae, q.45, a.2.

strain themselves from exclaiming: “God is so beautiful; everything in Him deserves admiration even to the forgetfulness of all else. He should indeed be the sole object of our love. It is painful to see how little He is known and how few souls admire His infinite grandeur. How many Christians would love Him if they knew by experience His goodness and tenderness, which are so different from what these words usually connote! They would love Him, even to the complete forgetfulness of self and the world, that they might find again all souls in Him, since these souls are loved by Him.”

This explains why the gift of infused contemplation is ordinarily granted to the perfect, as many theologians teach. 26 The perfect have, in fact, merited in the strict sense of the word (condignly) a high degree of the gift of wisdom, considered as an habitual disposition; and they have thus merited, at least in the broad sense of the word (congruously), 26 the actual superior inspirations commensurate with this degree of the gift. 27

Evidently the principal conditions ordinarily required for the mystical life are not, as a rule, lacking in generous interior souls, even if they are detained in the world and are unable to enjoy the silence and solitude of the cloister. Like St. Catherine of Siena, they can build an interior cell in their hearts and find God there.

8 . PARTICULAR OBSTACLES TO CONTEMPLATION

After reading the preceding section, souls that have not received the grace of contemplation may question whether

26 Cf. Philip of the Blessed Trinity, C.D., Summa theol. myst., II, 310, and Anthony of the Holy Ghost, C.D., and Vallgornera, O.P., who express the same opinion in the same section of their mystical theologies which follow the division used in that of Philip.

27 This is the principal reason why we cannot accept the thesis recently upheld by Farges and Pourrat, who consider mystical contemplation as essentially extraordinary.²

S96 they themselves are setting up some obstacle to contemplation.

The obstacle always comes from an inordinate attachment, from selfishness. In many souls it is in the will; they choose their own way; in other words, they wish to go to God by using means of their own selection, and they demand, as it were, that God should come to them according to their way. They count not a little on their own activity instead of allowing God to act in them, and they desire to build up their perfection without His help. No slight obstacle is interposed when a soul wishes to direct itself in matters that should not be under its direction; it runs the risk of more or less consciously opposing the superior direc tion of the Holy Ghost. To want to be a center, to wish that good be done by us, or at least by our religious family or convent, and in our way, is an ineffectual preparation for contemplation, which is characterized precisely by being God’s way. “I confess to Thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because Thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them to little ones.” Occasionally, it is in the poorest little convents, which seem to have no influence, that the most contemplative and holiest souls are to be found.

In other souls, the obstacle to contemplation is found in the mind. They try to analyze everything psychologically, and to record it in order to evaluate their slight progress. Consequently they turn their gaze^ upon themselves instead of on God. True, self-knowledge is always necessary even in the highest states, 28 but this self-scrutiny should not be separated from the soul s attention to God. Is not the best examination of conscience that which questions sincerely what rec-

28 St. Teresa, The Interior Castle, first mansion, chap. s>: “This knowledge of self is so necessary, even to souls admitted by God to His own dwelling,, that they should never depart from it no matter how high they may be raised. Moreover, even though they should wish to do so, they could not do it.”

ord the day has left in the Book of Life? If this is done, the light of the Holy Ghost will effect what St. Augustine asked in his prayer: “That I may know Thee, O Lord, and that I may know myself. ,, “In my opinion/* says St. Teresa, “we will never succeed in knowing ourselves well unless we try to know God; by contemplating His greatness, we will discover our baseness. ... If, on the contrary, we never rise above our own miseries, we will reap distinct harm. . . . Self-knowledge becomes warped if we never take our thoughts off ourselves, and I am not a bit astonished at that. That is why I maintain, my daughters, that we should fix our eyes on Jesus Christ, our treasure, and on the saints; there we shall learn true humility. By this way, I repeat, our intellect will be ennobled, and self-knowledge will cease to make us fearful and cowardly/* 29

Among those who analyze themselves too much, some leave off their prayer to find out whether it conforms to the descriptions given by mystical authors, and also to ascertain what degree they have reached. Others imagine that, in ordei to live by these things, it is sufficient to know them exteriorly, and they try of themselves “to eliminate images and to empty their minds.’* By so doing they expose themselves to every kind of illusion; they confound a simple intellectual speculation about the Deity, which is superior to the divine perfections that it contains in its eminence, a speculation within the reach of every philosopher, even though he is in the state of mortal sin, with the infused contemplation described by Dionysius when he speaks of the great darkness. 30 They forget that the principle which leads to Christian contemplation is to love God for Himself. They lose themselves in abstract speculations and do not comprehend the love of

29 Ibid.

so This error fails to take cognizance of the fact that infused knowledge is infused, that it presupposes a special inspiration of the Holy Ghost, and that it proceeds, not from love of the joys of knowledge, but from love of God.

Christ. With a great amount of unconscious pride, they might thus go completely astray and end in a theosophical or Buddhistic contemplation.

Lastly, certain souls appear better prepared in some respects, since they would willingly allow God to operate in them, and do not pride themselves on knowing everything; but their heart seeks in God enjoyment rather than God Himself. In this they are deceived, for it is a crucified God whom we must love, and intimacy with Him is often found in suffering. Undoubtedly joy and unequaled happiness come later, but this is not what the soul should seek.

Some souls that have opposed all these obstacles to the grace of God have had the happiness of seeing Him overthrow them all in order to prove once more that He came to seek sinners and to save that which was lost. Perhaps the intimacy of prayer was necessary for their salvation; if they had not obtained it, they might have wished to enjoy their faculties for themselves and to find in a forbidden love or in the satisfactions of pride what exists in divine love alone. Priceless treasures are often wasted by shutting oneself up in self. We should invoke God’s help in the following prayer: “O Lord, take me from myself, and give me strength to give myself completely to Thee.”

3. WHAT SHOULD BE THOUGHT OF SOULS THAT HAVE RECEIVED ONLY ONE OR TWO TALENTS?

Is it morally possible for souls that have received only one or two talents to reach the divine intimacy we are now discussing? Even though they could do so only with great difficulty, it would not follow that this divine intimacy is essentially extraordinary. Not all the oaks in a forest attain the height of their normal growth; some are stunted. We find an analogy 7 in the spiritual order. God casts more or less beautiful divine seed into souls according to His good pleasure; and sometimes this seed encounters such obstacles that it is very difficult for it to attain its complete normal development.

But we must remember what St. Thomas says: “The very least grace is sufficient to resist any degree of concupiscence ; 81 that is, the very least sufficient grace gives this power, and the very least efficacious grace makes it become an act. As Cajetan, 82 Gonet, 83 and several other Thomists remark, this is true of the slightest sufficient grace considered in itself, but perhaps not of this grace when it is in a soul that is both very weak and much tempted. Thus the heat of boiling water drives away the cold; but, since water is not the natural subject of heat, the heat in turn is driven out by the cold if the fire is not kept up.

It should be remembered, however, that the privilege of frequent communion is offered to these less favored souls. If they receive the Holy Eucharist frequently with growing fervor of will, why should they not, at the end of a long life, by daily fidelity reach at least the lower degrees of the mystical life? Perhaps, as the parable of the sower relates, they will yield a thirtyfold harvest, while others will yield sixtyfold or a hundredfold. 34 We must keep in mind the parable of the laborers of the eleventh hour, who, out of gratitude, worked so well that they earned the same reward as those who had worked since morning. Let us also recall the good thief and the graces he must have received when he heard the words of the dying Christ: “Amen, I say to thee, this day thou shalt be with Me in paradise.” Finally, it must be remembered that the majority of the elect pass through purgatory after death by reason of their own fault, that is, because of negligences that prevented the perfect

81 Summa, Ilia, q.62, a. 6 ad 311m.

82 Cajetan, on la Ilae, q. 109, a. 9, no. 4.

88 Gonet, Clypeus theol. thorn,, de gratia, disp. I, a. 6, par. 2, no. 305.

34 Cf. supra, p. 345.

purification they could have reached in this life 33 with the help of grace.

85 Cf. infra, p. 409. We offer the following explanation of this particular point. According to Christian tradition, absolute purity is necessary for entrance into heaven; all the dust and rust which have encrusted the soul must be removed before it can be raised to the beatific vision, in other words, before it can see God as He sees Himself. This purification must therefore affect not only the sensual part, but also the spiritual part, of the soul. Consequently it is perfect, as St. John of the Cross shows ( The Dark Night of the Soul, Bk. I, chap. 3; Bk. II, chap. 1), only when the soul has passed through what he calls the double passive night of the senses and of the soul. It is not a subject of wonder, then, that he writes apropos of souls that have passed through the dark night of the spirit: “Because of their perfect purification by love, they will not have to pass through purgatory” (op. cit., Bk. II, chap. 20). In note 25 on p. 357, we quoted an almost similar expression of Tauler; and St. Thomas says ( Contra Gentiles, Bk. IV, chap. 91): “Ad visionem Dei creatura rationalis elevari non potest, nisi totaliter fuerit depurata . . . unde dicitur de Sapientia quod nihil inquinatum in ea incurrit.” St. Thomas also believes that the pains of purgatory are much greater than the pains of this life. Cf. St. Catherine of Genoa, Treatise on Purgatory.

Moreover, we stated that to avoid purgatory, where the soul no longer merits, ordinarily or in principle it must before death, while meriting, pass through the passive purifications of the senses and of the soul, which alone assure the perfect and stable purity of the soul in its higher as well as in its lower part.

Someone may ask what is to be thought of so many Christians for whom the world of the spiritual life is only an illusion, or for whom the life of prayer is a snare. What is to be thought of people who have not leisure to study these things, or minds able to understand them; or of those who are better endowed, but who lack time and favorable circumstances? After all, God does not give everyone a temperament that inclines to the heroism necessary for undergoing the passive purifications of the soul.

The answer to these objections must be:

1. That we affirm, as ordinarily or in principle true, what we said following the teaching of St. John of the Cross; that is, that there are exceptions, and exceptions which prove the rule. We have already listed them; for example, children who die immediately after baptism, or a religious who dies immediately after making perpetual profession with great fervor. If these children or this religious, however, continued to live, they would probably have fallen into faults and imperfections which would have required the perfect purification of which we spoke. In a sense, they die accidentally at a good moment, before reaching a stable perfection, and they will not have as high a degree of glory in heaven as if they had continued to live and merit.

2. There are equivalents of the passive purifications, for example, martyrdom, or a very intense contrition like that which the good thief, who was so near the dying Jesus, must have had.

3. Moreover, the pains of purgatory may be either very intense and short, or longer and less violent, like the passive purifications in this life.

4. Some souls that are naturally rather good, but without fervor of will or

4 - IS THIS DOCTRINE OF A NATURE TO LEAD SOME SOULS TO PRESUMPTION AND OTHERS TO DISCOURAGEMENT?

The objection may be raised that, if the doctrine of the general and remote call of all just souls to the mystical life is accepted, some souls may be inclined to anticipate God’s time and simulate passive prayer, which would lead them to quietism or semi-quietism. Others, it may be objected, may become discouraged if, in spite of their generosity, they do not have the signs of passive prayer, and they may be led to think they will never be able to reach the full perfection of the Christian life.

This objection fails to appreciate the true meaning of the doctrine we have just set forth, or it considers only the harmful application which an imprudent director might make of it.

This is evident from the way St. Thomas answers a similar objection to the expediency of vows. The objection is phrased thus: He who makes a vow exposes himself to sin against this vow; therefore it is not expedient for him to make it. St. Thomas answers: 86 “When danger arises from the deed itself, this deed is not expedient—for instance, that one cross a river by a tottering bridge. But if the danger arise through man’s failure in the deed, the latter does not cease to be expedient: thus it is expedient to mount on horseback, though there be danger of a fall from the horse: else it would interest in spiritual things, have many defects, to which they do not give much heed. If they die in this condition, after having merely sufficient contrition, they will certainly have much to suffer in order to reach the perfect purity necessary to enter heaven.

5. Finally, for many persons the passive purifications on earth may be less painful than those borne by the great saints; for in the case of the latter these sufferings are in proportion not only to the imperfections that have to be eradicated, but also to the very high degree of charity, of apostolic and reparatory life, to which God wishes to lead them.

Summa, Ha, Ilae, q.88, a.4 ad sum.

behove one to desist from all good things, since they may become dangerous accidentally. Wherefore it is written (Eccles. 11: 4): ‘He that observeth the wind shall not sow, and he that considereth the clouds shall never reap.’ ” Should people quit using knives because now and then a man cuts himself? Are the vows an obstacle to perfection, because by making them a person indirectly exposes himself to transgress them occasionally? And should we fear to lead fervent souls humbly to desire the true mystical life, simply because there is a false one? Must a very great good be renounced through fear of something unbecoming which might accidently arise?

What does St. Teresa say about those who think it dangerous to follow the way of prayer and to desire to drink from the fountain of living water? In The Way of Perfection she says: “A want of humility, of the virtues, may endanger you, but prayer—prayer! Never would God permit this. The devil must have originated these fears and so brought about, by crafty tricks, the fall of certain souls that practised prayer. . . . Therefore, sisters, banish these misgivings: take no notice of public opinion. . . . Cast aside these causeless fears. . . . Beware, daughters, of a certain kind of humility suggested by the devil, which is accompanied by great anxiety about the gravity of our past sins. He disturbs souls in many ways by this means, until at last he stops them from receiving holy communion by doubts as to whether they are in a fit state for it.” 87 Elsewhere, speaking of those who inspire such vain fears in souls, she says: “I, also, am acquainted with these semi-doctors who are always suspicious. They have cost me quite dear.” 88

The doctrine which we have explained is not at all dangerous in itself, or when applied by prudent directors. Joseph of the Holy Ghost, a Carmelite well known for his

87 The Way of Perfection, chaps. 21, 39.

88 The Interior Castle, fifth mansion, chap. 1.

work on mystical theology, sums up this doctrine in two propositions, which he gives exactly as the expression of traditional teaching: “If it is a question of infused contemplation, taken in the sense of rapture, ecstasy, and similar favors, we can neither apply ourselves to it nor ask it of God nor desire it. But if it is a question of infused contemplation itself, as an act of contemplation, although we can certainly not have it through our own activity aided by grace, we can aspire to it, by desiring it ardently and humbly asking God for it.” 89 The union of these two words “ardently” and “humbly” recalls the fortiter et suaviter of Scripture; it solves the problem by the conciliation of humility and magnanimity. St. Thomas has beautifully explained the harmony between these two virtues which are apparently so contrary. Humility, he says, by inclining us profoundly before God, reminds us of our wretchedness; while magnanimity makes us aspire to great things, even to the divine intimacy which God offers us. 40 A Christian should keenly aspire to these great things, and by increasingly perfect fidelity prepare him-

Joseph of the Holy Ghost, Cursns theologiae mystico-scolasticae, Vol. II, Praed. II, disp. XI, q.2, concl. 2, 3. He says (no. 23) that this last conclusion (that we can aspire to contemplation, etc.) is admitted by Alvarez de Paz, Philip of the Blessed Trinity, Anthony of the Holy Ghost, Vallgornera, and commonly by the mystics, communiter mystici; and that he cannot understand why Anthony of the Annunciation, another Carmelite, in his Disceptatio mystica, places infused contemplation among the graces gratis datae. Joseph of the Holy Ghost (ibid., p. 236) says that this is a great mistake, magnam aequivocationem passus est, and a false interpretation of the passage from St. Thomas, Ha Ilae, q.45, a.5 Cf. Ia Ilae, q.111, a.4 ad 4um; and In I Cor. 12: 8.

40 On the reconciliation of the most profound humility and the loftiest magnanimity, such as it is found in the souls of the saints, cf. St. Thomas, Ila Ilae, q. 129, a. 3 ad 4um: “Magnanimity makes a man deem himself worthy of great things in consideration of the gifts of God. . . . Humility makes a man think little of himself in consideration of his own deficiency, and magnanimity makes him despise others in so far as they fall away from God’s gifts; since he does not think so much of others as to do anything wrong for their sake. Yet humility makes us honor others and esteem them better than ourselves in so far as we see some of God’s gifts in them,” which are always very superior to what we have of ourselves, that is, our indigence and personal defects. These two virtues are, therefore, contrary only in appearance, and not in reality like vice and virtue.

self for them, and humbly wait for the divine mercy to bestow them. In the present article, we have insisted particularly on humility, which corrects presumption, and on the desire of hope and charity, which, united to forgetfulness of self, corrects discouragement. It is well to keep in mind that, by reason of the connection of the virtues, profound humility is impossible without great magnanimity, as the lives of the saints show. As St. Paul says, we bear an exceedingly precious treasure, grace and the Blessed Trinity, in a fragile vase; the greater our knowledge .of the fragility of the vase, the greater also will be our appreciation of the value of the treasure, and the keener our aspiration to live intimately by it. This is taught by the passive purifications, a mystical state which, far from making the soul proud, humbles it profoundly. Without these purifications, it is scarcely possible to love to be nothing in order that God may be all; amare nesciri et pro nihilo reputari.

The doctrine leading to presumption is the teaching that all interior souls are called to the mystical life, not only in a general and remote manner, but in a proximate and individual way. Were this mistake made, the director should advise souls to practice the repose of passive prayer even before he had been able to prove the existence in them of the three signs enumerated by St. John of the Cross, and discussed in the course of these pages. 41 The soul would thus end in quietism.

The doctrine leading to discouragement is that which would maintain that interior souls are not generally called, even in a remote manner, to the divine intimacy of the mystical life. Many souls would thus be retained in the lower forms of the spiritual life and many, in spite of their generosity, would despair of reaching intimate union with God in this life.

Others, before undergoing the passive purifications of the Cf. supra , p. 373.

senses and of the soul, might decide, and not without presumption, that they had reached the ordinary unitive life, and that it would be enough for them to remain in it, since the higher degrees are extraordinary, and humility does not permit one to aspire to them.

To combat the excess of quietism or semi-quietism, care should be taken not to fall into the opposite extreme, a sort of practical naturalism which breaks the progress of the interior life. As usual in these great problems, truth is found in a happy mean above two extreme errors, which are opposed to each other; truth, like a summit, dominates the ramblings and contradictions of error. Moreover, it rises above an inconsistent eclecticism which always goes only halfway, which cannot affirm anything precisely, and which oscillates from right to left because it fails to see the superior principles that alone reconcile the most varied aspects of reality. The apparent antagonisms are resolved by the equilibrium of their terms carried to the highest degree; on this summit harmony is reached, for example, between humility and magnanimity. Every interior soul ought to strive humbly and ardently for great things. Humility in itself should not be inferior to magnanimity, for these virtues, in appearance so contrary, grow together and mutually strengthen each other; at one and the same time, they preserve the soul from pride and discouragement. The apparent contradiction between them is solved by what St. Paul says: “For God . . . has shined in our hearts . . . but we have this treasure in earthen vessels.” If we consider the fragility of the vessel, we can never humble ourselves too greatly; if we consider the value of the treasure, we can never too greatly desire the intimate reign of God in our souls and the more and more perfect fulfilment of the first precept which knows no limit. “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart, and with thy whole soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind,” in order to become truly “an adorer in spirit and in truth.” We can never too greatly desire to grow in charity and in divine wisdom which, like all the gifts, grows with it.

This doctrine does not, therefore, lead good souls either to discouragement or to presumption, but, like the dogma of predestination, it makes them aspire to divine union by instilling in them a holy fear of not being sufficiently generous and docile to the Holy Ghost. It does not lead to discouragement any more than do the passive purifications, which are intended to refine the virtue of hope by the struggle against temptations to despair. These temptations arise when God Himself reveals more clearly to the soul the height of the goal to be attained. In this light the soul sees more and more its own wretchedness, and must then, in spite of the devil’s suggestions, hope against all hope. This purification is necessary that the soul may be completely and forever cured of vain self-complacency, and that the roots of pride and presumption may be completely extirpated. Instead of leading to pride, mystical contemplation destroys it and teaches humility, as God alone can. “Where humility is, there also is wisdom”; 42 and where profound humility is, there is also lofty wisdom, that which comes from the Father of light. As the author of The Imitation says, there are so few contemplatives because the number of profoundly humble souls is so small.

This doctrine, therefore, makes it possible to reply to the difficulties proposed against it; it is thereby newly confirmed and appears more and more as the true expression of traditional teaching. To live it, however, we need what many authors have called “the second conversion.” What this should be may be determined from what we have just said about the interior conditions ordinarily required for mystical contemplation or for the virtues which prepare for it. If there are few perfect souls, this is because there are few 42 Pr 0 V. 11:2.

that follow the direction of the Holy Ghost. His seven gifts often have little effect in many souls because they are, as it were, fettered by contrary habits and affections. More or less deliberate and frequent venial sins exclude the graces necessary to produce the acts of the gifts. 43 But we cannot doubt their existence, because Scripture, tradition, and the liturgy speak of them, and, if the obstacles were removed, we should ordinarily see the gradual realization of what the Church makes us implore in the Veni Creator:

Creator, Spirit, all divine.

Come visit every soul of Thine,

And fill with Thy celestial flame The bosoms Thou Thyself didst frame.

The sevenfold mystic gifts are Thine,

Finger of God's right hand divine;

His gracious promise sent to teach The tongue a rich and heavenly speech.

Kindle with fire brought from above Each sense, and fill our hearts with love And grant our flesh so weak and poor That strength which lasts forevermore.

This prayer, which should be said by the faithful soul with an ever increasing fervor of will, reminds us that the life of grace is eternal life begun; and it ends by asking for the normal fruit of this “grace of the virtues and of the gifts," the infused contemplation of the Blessed Trinity dwelling in us:

To us, through Thee, the grace be shown To know the Father and the Son:

And Spirit of Them both, may we Forever hold firm trust in Thee.

** Father Lallemant, S.J., Doctrine spirituelle, pp. 113, 187 ff., 203.

Consequently the mystical life is the plenitude of faith, hope, charity, and the gifts which accompany them; in other words, the normal prelude to the life of heaven.

We must have confidence in the divine promises. Aridity is not the result of tepidity, when, instead of love of the world, interest in our spiritual advancement predominates. We must trust in the Holy Ghost who dwells in us and who increases His work in us in proportion to our growing fidelity to the first commandment: “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart, and with thy whole soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind” in order to become “adorers in spirit and in truth.” Our Lord said: “I will not now call you servants . . . but I have called you friends.” We should believe in the wholly divine strength of the grace received in baptism, of the Holy Ghost who was given to us. We do not see this strength any more than we see the life hidden in an acorn from which a vigorous oak grows. If the oak is encircled by a band of iron, the bark will soon grow over it. Who can measure the supernatural energy contained in the grace of the virtues and the gifts, which is none other than eternal life begun? Who can set a limit to the work of sanctification which the Holy Ghost has begun in us, and prevent souls from reaching even the inner sanctuary where the Blessed Trinity dwells? “Wherefore I wished, and understanding was given me: and I called upon God, and the spirit of wisdom came upon me.” 44 “I confess to Thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because Thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them to little ones.” 45

44 Wis. 7: 7.

45 Matt. 11: 85.

SOME THEORETICAL DIFFICULTIES CAN THE GRACE OF CONTEMPLATION BE MERITED?

ARE THE REQUIRED CONDITIONS NORMAL?

Some objections in the speculative order may be raised against the doctrine we have expounded. Particularly deserving of examination is the objection which bears on the question as to whether the grace of contemplation can be merited at least congruously.

The first objection: “The law of the development of grace in man ought not to be understood only for grace abstractly considered, but for grace as capable of being shared by human nature. It is thus St. Thomas (qu. disp. de caritate, a. 10) distinguishes between: (1) the absolutely perfect charity which God alone can have; (2) the perfect charity which man can have only in heaven; and (3) the perfect charity which he can have in this life. St. Thomas expresses the same opinion in Ila Ilae, q. 24, a. 8, and Ilia, q. 7, a. 10.’’

It is easy to answer that, in the question of the general and remote call, 4 ® we considered the grace of the virtues and the gifts, not in a purely abstract manner, independent of the mode according to which it exists in angels or in man, but as it exists in the human soul even in this life. This quasiideal soul was itself considered as a beginner, a proficient, and finally as perfect. And we insisted particularly on one point, namely, that infused contemplation does not require infused ideas like those of the angels, but that acquired ideas suffice, as they do for the act of faith. The question is, therefore, concerned with grace in so far as it can be shared by man in this life, and not in purgatory or in heaven.

Moreover, in the question of the individual call 47 we considered the life of grace as capable of being shared in and as participated in by an individual soul, according as it pos-

40 Cf. supra, pp. 337 f., 340, 345 £.

Cf. supra, p. 37*.

sesses or does not possess the three signs mentioned by Tauler and later by St. John of the Cross, signs which have become the classic indications of the beginning of infused contemplation. Furthermore, in this second question the distinction between the merely sufficient call and the efficacious call (efficacious in the Thomistic sense, whether it be to the lower degrees of the mystical life or to the higher degrees) safeguards the gratuity of God’s gift, just as in the case of the grace of conversion or that of final perseverance.

Therefore it is in entire conformity with the doctrine taught by St. Thomas ( qu. disp. de. caritate, a. io), since even the transforming union 48 is included in what St. Thomas calls caritas perfecta secundum tempus, scilicet quae potest haberi in hac vita. ia

Every soul should be sufficiently purified at the moment of death to go straight to heaven without passing through purgatory, where it will be detained only through its own fault in neglecting graces that were granted or offered it. It will suffer so greatly in purgatory from the deprivation of the sight of God only because it is radical to the order established by God to see Him immediately after death. The fact that there are a great many retarded souls should not make us forget the normal way of sanctity, to which every Christian should aspire in order to be in the radical order willed by God.

Those who object to our teaching on this subject insist further. “It seems,” they say, “that a law of grace (of its growth and perfection) cannot be as rigorously formulated as a law of nature. Grace, which is a participation in the divine nature and an absolutely gratuitous gift, has not by reason of this double title and, as it were, form, any measure that can regulate its perfection and mode of growth other than the free love of God for each man in particular.”

48 Cf. The Interior Castle, seventh mansion.

49 Cf. Ha IIae f q.24, a.8; q.184, a. 2, which were explained at length supra, pp. 156-98.

This interesting objection leads us to state definitely an important point. Certainly, according to the teaching of St. Thomas 50 —and St. John of the Cross expresses the same opinion 51 —the degree of glory of each predestined soul and the corresponding degree of charity at the hour of death depend on God’s good pleasure. In addition, neither the first grace nor that of final perseverance can be merited; 52 and we shall see that not even any efficacious help which keeps us in the state of grace can be merited condignly, or according to the strict meaning of the word “merit.” 58

Nevertheless, if God gratuitously places a soul in the order of grace, and maintains it therein, then the laws of this order apply to that soul. Among these laws of the order of grace, some are absolutely rigorous and without exception; for example, there are truths of faith which must, not only of precept but of necessity, be believed by adults as an indispensable means of salvation. Likewise, it is impossible to have a supernatural love of God without faith; besides, the infused virtues are connected with charity, just as the gifts are. 54 This connection presupposes numerous mutual relations between the infused virtues and the gifts, relations which are the laws of the supernatural organism. As a result, in la Ilae and Ila Ilae of the Summa, almost every article dealing with the relations of the virtues to each other, or of the gifts to each other, or of the gifts with the virtues, contains a law belonging to the order of grace.

so Summa, la, q.23, a.5.

51 The Ascent of Mount Carmel , Bk. II, chap. 5.

52 St. Thomas, la Ilae, q.114, a.5, 9.

53 Condign merit is a supernatural and free act, the value of which constitutes a right to a supernatural reward, to the increase of grace, and to eternal life. It is, therefore, founded on justice. Congruous merit is not merit in the strict sense but rather in the broad sense of the term. It is not founded on justice but on friendship, vel in jure amicabili, vel solum in liberalitate et benignitate praemiantis.

54 Cf. Ia Ilae, q.65; q.68, a.5. Faith and hope can subsist in a soul in the state of mortal sin; but then they do not, properly speaking, deserve the name of virtues. Cf. Ia Ilae, q.65, a.4 ad lum: “Faith and hope . . . can be without charity, although they are not virtues without charity.”

This is the way we can merit condignly (or in the strict sense, a rigorous law) the increase of charity which is accompanied by that of the infused virtues and of the gifts. 65 This is so true that a soul cannot have charity in a heroic degree without having the other infused virtues and the gifts (as habitus) in a proportionate degree. 66 This law is more rigorous than the law in virtue of which the five fingers of the hand develop at the same time. In the sensible order, there are exceptions, inasmuch as matter sometimes escapes the domination of the directing form or idea which organizes it. The infused virtues, which are mutually connected, considered formally, grow simultaneously without exception: “Their growth in man is equal, as the fingers . . . grow in proportion to one another.” 67 The same is true of the gifts that are connected with them in charity. 68

A further objection is offered: “If this point of view were entirely exact, there would be no need of hesitation in saying that the mystical state can, at a given moment, be merited condignly.”

We answer this objection 69 in our frequently reiterated statement that a distinction must be made between the gifts themselves, considered as habitual dispositions, and the acts that proceed from them.

It is true that we can merit condignly the increase of charity, of the virtues, and of the gifts as habitus, and that in this life no limit can be placed on this augmentation. 80 os See la Ilae, q.114, a. 8.

0 & Ibid., q.66, a. 2.

67 Ibid., and the Commentary of the Theologians of Salamanca, no. 2.

os Ibid., q.68, a.5. The spiritual organism should develop proportionately in all its parts so that their harmony may subsist, just as our corporal organism does. But as in the body a part may hypertrophy to the detriment of the other parts, so in the spiritual life the harmony of the virtues may be compromised as a result of certain defects. In some souls, for example, faith is not developed in proportion to other virtues and to scientific or philosophical culture. This disorder may reach such a degree that he who suffers from it becomes a spiritual dwarf.

69 Cf. supra, p. 353.

60 Summa, Ila Ilae, q.24, a.7.

The Holy Ghost moves souls as a rule according to the degree of their infused habitus, of their habitual docility (provided there is no obstacle, venial sin or imperfection; in case there is, the meritorious act is weak, remissus, inferior to the degree of charity). Consequently Thomists 61 usually say that the just man, who perseveres in fervor, can merit saltern de congruo (at least in the broad sense of the word “merit”) the grace of infused contemplation. Why do they say saltern, at least congruously? Because in the grace of infused contemplation there is something merited strictly or condignly, that is, a high degree of the gifts of understanding and wisdom, considered as habitus; it is an act, and the mystical state is this act which lasts a certain time. But this act supposes an efficacious, actual grace. According to Thomists, we cannot strictly or condignly merit the efficacious help which keeps us in the state of grace. Why is this? Because the principle of merit does not fall under merit: that is why neither the first grace nor the efficacious help which maintains us in the state of grace nor the gift of final perseverance, though so necessary to salvation, can be merited condignly . 62

Moreover, if a just man could strictly merit efficacious grace A, by it he would likewise merit efficacious grace B, and so on to the grace of final perseverance, which would

61 Vallgornera, Theol. myst. D. Thomae, q.3, disp. 3, a. 6, no. 5; Meynard,

Traite de la vie interieure (1885), 128; Philip of the Blessed Trinity, Theol.

myst. (1874), II, 311, and Anthony of the Holy Ghost, Directorium mysticum, tr. Ill, sec. 6, no. 240.

62 See la Ilae, q.114, a.9. On this article, cf. John of St. Thomas, no. 1: "Principium meriti non potest cadere sub meritum: sed auxilium et motio divina, qua aliquis movetur a Deo, ut non succumbat tentationibus, nec gratiam interrumpat per peccatum, tenet se ex parte principii meriti, quia auxilium et motio est principium operandi, et in hoc solum consistit quod moveat ad opus; igitur non potest cadere sub meritum.” No. 4: “Conservatio est continuatio primae productions ...» unde qui mereretur auxilia continuativa gratiae, seu perseverantiam, consequenter mereretur ipsam continuationem principii meriti, quod est gratia secundum quod se tenet ex parte Dei moventis ad conservandum. . . . Quod probat non posse sub meritum cadere motionem divinam, non quamcumque, sed quatenus est conservativa gratiae, qu?« fct principium meriti.” Cf. Salmanticences, ibid., nos. 89-109.

thus be merited condignly. Whence it follows that many graces necessary to salvation cannot be the object of strict merit. It should not surprise us then that the actual efficacious grace of infused contemplation cannot be merited condignly, even though it is in the normal way of sanctity. It can be merited more than the grace of final perseverance, for it would be an exaggeration to say that this last can be merited at least congruously. But in one sense the actual grace of infused contemplation is more gratuitous than that necessary to the obligatory exercise of the infused virtues, for we use infused virtues when we wish to do so. The same is not true of the gifts, although by our fidelity we can prepare ourselves to receive the inspiration of the Holy Ghost. Indeed, we ought to prepare ourselves for it; and if we do this generously, a day will come when the grace of contemplation will be given to us quite frequently. God ordinarily gives it to the perfect, provided there are no accidental obstacles; but He gives it either in aridity and night, or in light and consolation . 64

The following objection is offered: “What you consider accidental and what you are a bit inclined to scorn theoretically because it is material, is perhaps part of that material causality, which is as indispensable to the essence of the composite (nature and grace) as formal causality, although in an inferior rank/'

We must answer this objection by stating that souls receive grace according to the obediential power which is the same

«3Cf. la Ilae, q.114, a.9; also the Commentary of Billuart. He shows that according to the principles of St. Thomas it seems that final perseverance cannot be merited by a congruous merit properly so called, but only by a congruous merit improperly so called. While condign merit is founded on justice (jus ad praemium) and congruous merit, properly so called, on jure amicabili , secundum leges amicitiae , congruous merit improperly so called is founded in liberalitate et benignitate Dei.

64 Moreover, by prayer we can obtain the grace of a happy death, which cannot be merited; in like manner the interior soul ought to ask humbly for the grace of contemplation. Cf. supra, p. 354 note 18.

in all. 6 ' As for the material causality, which prepares for the reception and increase of grace, it is itself the effect of an actual grace of supernatural order. According to St. Thomas, this is the meaning of the axiom: “If man does what is in him to do, God will not deny him grace.” 63 The infusion and increase of grace certainly require an aptness, for no form or perfection is produced in a subject unless the subject is disposed for it; but it is God Himself who thus disposes our souls, or who moves them supernaturally to prepare themselves. Grace and charity are not given to us in proportion to our natural capacities or dispositions, for they surpass them infinitely. Consequently Thomists teach that it is our super-

85 What is more, the obediential power or capacity to receive grace is no greater in angels than in men. It is according to this capacity that the soul is the subject of grace.

ee Cf. Ia Ilae, q.109, a. 6. This article concludes as follows: “Hence it is clear that man cannot prepare himself to receive the light of grace except by the gratuitous help of God moving him inwardly." The reason for this is that the order of the agents must correspond to the order of the ends, and that only a supernatural agent can move to a supernatural end. Ibid., ad 2um. “Hence when a man is said to do what is in him to do, this is said to be in his power according as he is moved by God.” Therefore, to a man doing what is in him to do (with the help of actual grace), God does not deny (habitual) grace.

67 See Ia Ilae, q.112, a.2: Taking grace in the first sense (habitual) a certain preparation of grace is required for it, since a form can only be in disposed matter. Ibid., ad 3um. “So likewise, when God infuses grace into a soul, no preparation is required which He Himself does not bring about.” The same is true for the increase of charity, Ha Ilae, q.24, a. 2, and the following articles.

68 See Ha Ilae, q.24, a.3: “Since charity surpasses the proportion of human nature ... it depends, not on any natural virtue, but on the sole grace of the Holy Ghost who infuses charity. Wherefore the quantity of charity depends neither on the condition of nature nor on the capacity of natural virtue, but only on the will of the Holy Ghost who divides His gifts according as He will.” Ibid., ad 2um: “The form does not surpass the proportion of the matter; they are both of the same genus. In like manner, grace and glory are referred to the same genus, for grace is nothing else than a beginning of glory in us. But charity and nature do not belong to the same genus, so that the comparison fails.” It is not, therefore, only the mystical graces which are gratuitous, in this sense that the Holy Ghost gives them when He wills, but it is also the degree of charity given at the moment of justification to an adult who is converted with greater fervor than another, under the impulse of a stronger actual grace. St. Thomas, ibid., ad lum.

natural acts which not only merit, but physically prepare for the augmentation of charity. 69

We considered these supernatural dispositions for infused contemplation at considerable length in the preceding chapters. 70 That teaching on the subject is classical, and it would be an unpardonable fault to neglect it. These dispositions, as we have seen, are chiefly: (1) great purity of heart, “Blessed are the clean of heart”; (2) great simplicity of mind which seeks only the truth; (3) profound humility; (4) habitual recollection; (5) perseverance in prayer; (6) fervent charity. This last disposition is the most important together with a profound humility. In the order of material preparation, humility is fundamental, according to St. Thomas, ut removens prohibenSj inasmuch as it removes the principal obstacle which is pride, intellectual pride so frequent in a certain type of learning, or spiritual pride. 71 This is why St. Teresa insisted so strongly on this fundamental disposition in all her works, particularly in the Epilogue to The Interior Castle. Our Lord Himself taught this to us when He exclaimed: “I confess to Thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth because Thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them to little ones.” Often, by reason of humility, the inequality of supernatural conditions or of graces balances marvelously the inequality of natural conditions or dispositions. In the exposition of traditional teaching, too much insistence cannot, therefore, be placed on the supernatural dispositions to contemplation. And who can answer that he is unable to have this purity

«o Cf. Billuart, De caritate, diss. II, a. 2.

70 Cf. supra, pp. 388-95.

71 See Ila Ilae, q.161, a.5: "Humility makes a man a good subject to ordinance of all kinds and in all matters.” Ibid., ad 2um: "First, by way of removing obstacles: and thus humility holds the first place, inasmuch as it expels pride, which God resisteth, and makes man open to receive the influx of divine grace. Hence it is written (Jas. 4: 6): God resisteth the proud, and giveth grace to the humble. In this sense humility is said to be the foundation of the spiritual edifice.”

4 i 7 of heart, simplicity of mind, profound humility, spirit of prayer, and charity? We ought to beg God to give us these dispositions.

We have, moreover, considered the external conditions that favor contemplation and union with God. They are: a certain solitude, silence, sufficient time given to prayer, no overburdening, no useless reading, no preoccupations foreign to our vocation. To these external conditions must be added natural aptitude and also enlightened direction. If many of these exterior conditions are lacking, it is difficult to reach contemplation, which no longer has its normal environment, Profound humility and ardent charity, however, may supply this lack, especially if joined with great devotion to the Blessed Virgin and to the Eucharistic Heart of Jesus. 72 He who habitually begins his prayer with these two mediators, will be led by them to intimate union with God, since the object of the Blessed Virgin’s influence is to lead us to her Son, and that of Christ to lead us to the Father.

When suitable external conditions are lacking, it may happen that generous souls will reach contemplation only after a period of time longer than the usual span of life; but they tend to it as to the normal prelude of the beatific vision. And the active life itself, according to St. Thomas, is thus ordained to the contemplative life, for which it should prepare us. 78

To revert to the proposed objection, we have shown in the preceding chapter 74 that we understand “accidental” or per accidens in the same sense as St. Thomas does. Since sanctifying grace is, in fact, a beginning of eternal life

72 Cf. Blessed Grignion de Montfort, Le traits de la vraie devotion a Marie, chap. 4, art. 5, and the summary of this treatise, Le secret de Marie, made by Blessed Grignion. With a view to mental prayer, it is also well to meditate often on the office and mass of the Sacred Heart, and also on the office and mass of the Eucharistic Heart which have been recently approved by the Church.

73 Summa, Ha Ilae, q. 181, a. 1 ad 3um; q. 182, a.4.

74 Cf. supra, pp. 341-43.

4 i8 CHRISTIAN PERFECTION

(inchoatio vitae aeternae, semen gloriae), it is of itself (ratione sui) inamissible and should continually increase, especially through daily communion. But we hold this treasure in a fragile vessel and, because of the subject or of the defectibility of our free will, grace can be lost or may increase very little. Now this loss or even this check in its development is opposed to the intrinsic law of the divine seed, which was created to develop continually until eternal life is reached. This opposition characterizes sin in its various degrees. Whoever does not advance in the spiritual life, retrogresses. 75

In view of the three fundamental reasons quoted in the preceding chapter, 76 we know that in principle (per se loquendo), infused contemplation is in the normal way of sanctity, given the above mentioned interior dispositions and good direction in a favorable environment. But if accidentally good direction, which should be normal in the Church, is lacking, and with it silence and recollection, and if the environment opposes contemplation instead of favoring it, then even generous souls may possibly not attain to infused contemplation in this life. This is similar to the case of a good intellect in a milieu that is strongly prejudiced against the teaching of St. Thomas. In such a situation, a good intellect will find great difficulty in reaching a clear grasp of St. Thomas’ doctrine. This also represents something accidental. 77

To know what is the normal way of sanctity and the full development of the grace of the virtues and the gifts, we must consider how this grace grows in principle (per se) in suitable and not contrary interior and exterior conditions. The same rule holds good in the spiritual order as in the natural order. When we wish to discover what a certain seed will produce, for example, the seed of a cedar, we plant it in

75 Cf. supra, pp. 188 £.

76 Cf. supra, pp. 345-67.

77 Cf. supra, pp. 341-43.

suitable soil; otherwise it will not reach the summit of its normal development. We are speaking, therefore, of souls in a Christian environment which corresponds to the designs God has on them.

Another difficulty may be stated as follows: “From the sole concept of grace formally considered, we cannot deduce a priori that the mystical state is normal, even in the sense which has just been expressed. The proof should be supplemented at least by the observation of facts, or by having recourse to theological authority, tradition for example.”

This objection is easily answered. The three fundamental proofs proposed in the preceding chapter 78 are individually, as well for the major as for the minor and the conclusion, founded not only on the concept of the grace of the virtues and the gifts, but on tradition and the experience of the perfect life, as it has been described especially by St. Teresa and St. John of the Cross. Moreover, ten to fifteen years’ experience in ministering to contemplative communities, and even to those of fervent mixed life, suffices to show that the experience of the perfect life conforms even today with what the saints have told us about it.

Therefore infused contemplation is in the normal way of sanctity for the following reasons: (1) It proceeds from the grace of the virtues and the gifts accorded to every baptized person, and it appears when the superhuman mode of the gifts begins to prevail, as is proper for perfection, over the human and imperfect mode of the virtues. 78 This takes place in the illuminative and especially in the unitive way. (2) In this life the soul is perfectly purified in the depths of its faculties only by the passive purifications of the senses and of the soul, which belong to the mystical order and are accompanied by infused contemplation, at least by initial or arid contemplation. (3) Infused contemplation and the very ar-

78 Cf. supra , pp. 245-67.

79 Cf. supra, pp. 299, 324-26.

dent desire to see God are, according to tradition and the experience of the perfect life, the normal prelude to the beatific vision. Therefore, since heaven is accessible to all, as much must be said of what is its ordinary prelude in the perfect. 80

Although eminent, the grace of infused contemplation is in the normal way of sanctity, even of the sanctity which every Christian should have before death in order to avoid purgatory and, immediately after the separation of the soul from the body, to be in the radical order willed by God, and not to be painfully deprived of the beatific vision for a longer or shorter time.

There is a further objection: “No one can question the fact that the spiritual progress expressed under these three aspects is in the normal line of the formal development of grace. But does not human nature in this life (in via) present in its normal state such resistance to this growth that this development should be considered an extraordinary favor? The beatific vision is, indeed, in the order of the formal development of grace, but it would be essentially extraordinary to receive it here below. Now, between the normal conditions of human life and the exterior and interior conditions required for the mystical life, almost as great a distance exists as between life and death.”

Here again we reply with St. Thomas, 81 that the beatific vision cannot take place in this life without rapture, and that it excludes the co-operation of the imagination. The case is quite otherwise with infused contemplation, which we are here considering. It is, therefore, conformable to the so The Teresian Congress of Madrid (see El Monte Carmelo of Burgos, May, 1923) approved the following conclusion: "Since the virtues find their ultimate perfection in the gifts, and the gifts reach their perfect actuation in contemplation, it results that contemplation is the ordinary ‘way’ of sanctity and of habitually heroic virtue." Theologians are more and more agreed in accepting this teaching. On this subject, see our "Chronique de th^ologie mystique” in La vie spirituelle, June, 1923.

8i See Ha Ilae, q.175, a.4; q.180, a.5.

normal state of man in this life. 82 In addition, we should not forget that there is less distance between a just man on this earth, even though he is not a mystic, and a saint in heaven, than between this just man and a sinner deprived of grace; for nature is not the seed of grace, whereas grace is the seed of glory, or eternal life begun, inchoatio vitae aeternae. No great distance separates the normal conditions of a perseveringly fervent Christian life from the conditions required for the mystical life. 88

The conditions required for the mystical life are found both in contemplative orders and in fervent communities devoted both to contemplation and to action, and even in Christian marriage when it is truly what it ought to be. 84 Many experienced directors have found in all these walks of life, among generous souls habitually faithful to the Holy Ghost, many that have reached the mystical state. Recently one of these directors wrote as follows: “Many believe themselves to be on the mystical way and qualified to write and speak about it, who have no true experience of it. . . . On the other hand, many lead the mystical life unawares and sometimes are very far advanced in it without suspecting that God is doing very great things in them, or realizing that theirs is the mystical life. I have found such in all walks of life, notably among the poor and little children and among

82 See Ha Ilae, q. 180, a.5 ad 2um: “In the present state of life, human contemplation is impossible without phantasms, because it is connatural to man to see the intelligible species in the phantasms, as the Philosopher states (De anima, iii). Yet intellectual knowledge does not consist in the phantasms themselves, but in our contemplating in them the purity of the intelligible truth: and this is not only in natural knowledge, but also in that which we obtain by revelation. For Dionysius says ( Coel. hier., ii) that the divine glory shows us the angelic hierarchies under certain symbolic figures, and by its power we are brought back to a single ray of light, i. e., to the simple knowledge of the intelligible truth. It is in this sense that we must understand the statement of Gregory that contemplatives do not carry along with them the shadows of things corporeal, since their contemplation is not fixed on them, but on the consideration of the intelligible truth.’*

83 Cf. supra, pp. 393 f.

84 Cf. supra, p. 384.

illiterate persons, and even among savage tribes of North America.” 85 The author of these lines goes so far as to maintain that ordinarily a soul does not persevere in fervor, humility, self-forgetfulness, and generosity, without attaining to the life of intimate union with God; in other words, to the essence of the mystical life. This does not prevent him from writing: “An amazing fact is that a comparatively enormous number of persons remain beginners all their lives. Very few, even among religious and clerics and secular persons making a profession of piety, very few indeed are those who really go beyond the threshold of the mystical life and who answer the loving, pressing invitation of God: Triend, go up higher* (Luke 14: 10).” 86 As we said in the preceding chapter, 87 this explains the fact that conditions necessary for the mystical life are not generally lacking in the case of generous interior souls. If we are inclined to hold a contrary opinion, we should take care not to seek in an unfounded theory the justification of a certain spiritual mediocrity. We should not assert that the mystical life is extraordinary, simply to avoid the obligation of aspiring to it by that despoiling of self which prepares for it.

We might add that unfavorable surroundings often provoke a salutary reaction in good souls, especially in very good ones; and the Lord helps them in proportion to the difficulties to be overcome. For example, the suffering caused by injustice reveals to us the worth of justice; self-sufficiency and pride, which become unendurable, demonstrate the worth of humility. Love of truth, relish for the word of God, solid piety, all of which are not content with appearances, react by common accord and quite spontaneously against empty and pretentious learning, which alters everything by its false spirit. The lack of simplicity in life empha-

85 Dom Louismet, The Mystical Life, p. 8.

80 Ibid., p. 23.

87 Cf. supra, p. 384.

sizes the desirability of that frank cordiality without which there is no true union of hearts and minds in God. A discordant note, which violates the order of charity by placing the love of neighbor above the love of God, startles us and by contrast recalls the grandeur of the first precept. Falsehood under its various forms shows us the worth of truth; the absence of truth in varying degrees is one of the greatest obstacles to the life of prayer. A soul becomes contemplative only if it is established in the truth, because infused contemplation is simply the immediate effect of the direct operation of God’s truth on the soul to bring it to a greater love.

Finally, the chief obstacle comes from certain subtleties of intellectual or spiritual pride which, especially when found in those who direct souls, can have irremediable consequences, at least for a time. In this case, mystical grandiloquence is no less to be feared than a certain sterile intellectualism. This explains by contrast why more real contemplation and sanctity are sometimes found in poor convents that are very little known, but are exceedingly dear to our Lord Jesus Christ. The divine mercy often compensates for the inequality of natural conditions by great graces. “Blessed are the poor in spirit.” Deep humility supplies for other conditions in the life of union with God. The two great mediators, Jesus and Mary, stoop to the humble in order to lead them to the intimacy of the Father. We have only one life, and on it our eternity depends. As Tauler says, if we have not entered the divine intimacy before we are advanced in years, we run the risk of not entering it in this life, even though it is the normal prelude to heaven.

Lastly, this objection is offered: “The conditions generally required for the mystical life, although normal to grace, are abnormal to human nature, which is not made normally for these conditions of life. In the habitual mode of acting which characterizes the mystical state, and in the terrible passive purifications, there is an annihilation of nature to which nature is not essentially ordained. This annihilation is not required for simple justification or for the life of grace according to the human mode of the virtues. . . . Finally, in this life the normal prelude of the beatific vision is charity, strictly speaking, and not infused contemplation proceeding from the gift of wisdom.”

This objection, which devotes more attention to the exigencies of nature than to those of grace, is reminiscent of the spirit of certain Christian humanists rather than of the spirit of wisdom mentioned here. It fails to recognize several essential points that we have expounded at length.

1. It loses sight of the scope of our Lord’s teaching on the mystery of the cross. In St. Luke’s Gospel (9: 23) we read: “And He said to all: If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me. For whosoever will save his life shall lose it; for he that shall lose his life for My sake, shall save it.” From this point of view, the conditions of the mystical life which seem abnormal to nature are not so to nature regenerated by grace; they are not abnormal to Christian life, considered especially in its full perfection attainable on this earth. A Christian should imitate Christ crucified. The passive purifications are not opposed to the harmony of nature and grace. These purifications, more or less painful according to the faults to be expiated and to the degree of supernatural life to which God wishes to conduct the soul, 88 are, like the cross, necessary, according to the saints, in order to reach this perfect harmony, which on earth finds its complete realization only in the fully developed unitive life, that is, in the mystical life and its superhuman mode. 89 In it alone the virtues apparently

88 Cf. supra, p. 357.

80 St. Thomas even says of the theological virtues, independently of the gifts: “The theological virtues are above man as stated above (q.58, a.3 ad 3um). Hence they should properly be called not human but superhuman or Godlike” (la Ilae, q.6i, a. 1 ad 2um). Consequently it is only among the virtues which are properly human that the four cardinal virtues are called so contrary harmonize completely: the loftiest wisdom with prudence, attentive to the slighest detail; strength with meekness; mercy with justice. In the unitive life alone the supernatural life becomes truly connatural without losing any of its elevation. It is like a second nature whose acts are spontaneous and very simple because the purified soul refers all to God 90 instead of referring all instinctively to self.

We should not forget, however, that fallen nature rises again to its natural normal state only by the grace which heals (gratia sanans), and that without this grace we cannot observe all the natural laws or love God, the Author of our nature, above all else, even in a natural way. St. Thomas is explicit in his teaching on this point. He says: “In the state of perfect nature, man referred the love of himself and of all other things to the love of God as to its end; and thus he loved God more than himself and above all things. But in the state of corrupt nature, man falls short of this in the appetite of his rational will, which, unless it is cured by God’s grace, follows its private good, on account of the corruption of nature.” 91

2. The objection would, in addition, lead one to maintain.

principal virtues, in spite of the incomparable superiority of the theological virtues, which are directed toward the last end. Cf. ibid.

00 Cf. supra, pp. 37, 40 f., 152 If.

0i Summa, la Ilae, q. 109, a. 3, 4. In the works of St. Thomas, see the references to the fomes peccati and the wounds; cf. Tabula aurea under these words.

That Thomists are faithful to St. Thomas is shown when they teach generally that man in the state of fallen nature, not as yet regenerated, is weaker in regard to good than he would have been in the state of pure nature. On the article quoted, see the Commentaries of Lemos, Alvarez, Billuart, John of St. Thomas, and especially Salmanticenses, De gratia, tr. XIV, q.109, disp. 2, dub. 2-5, nos. 99, 102, 116, 129, 135. Among modern theologians, this is the opinion of St. Alphonsus; it is generally the doctrine of spiritual authors, who echo the writing of the saints. Cf. The Imitation of Christ, Bk. Ill, chaps. 54, 55* Such seems to be also the natural meaning of the texts of the ecclesiastical magisterium where it speaks of the wounds of fallen nature and of free will not destroyed but attenuated, weakened, and of the fomes peccati; cf. Denzinger (10th ed.), nos. 174, 181, 198, 788, 793, 1275, 1616, 1627, 1634®., 1643.

in opposition to what we have set forth about the sublimity of the first commandment, 02 that the majority of just souls could not by progressive fidelity reach Christian perfection, that is, the third degree of charity. As we have seen, 98 this degree is normally accompanied by the third degree of the gifts, which belongs to the mystical order. God is prompt in giving the grace of contemplation to those who are prepared for it, but man is slow in preparing suitably by perfect humility and abnegation.

3. It would also follow that for the majority of the elect purgatory would be inevitable, since they could not be perfectly purified in this life. This error fails to take into account the fact that, in the order willed by God, purification should be undergone in this life with the resulting merit, instead of after death without merit. 94

4. It is not only charity which in perfect souls is the normal prelude to the beatific vision, but charity accompanied by the virtues of the purified soul (purgati animi ), 95 by the gifts in the third degree, and by the beatitudes, the reward of which belongs in a sense to this life. 96

The solution of these objections confirms the doctrine we taught in the preceding chapter on the general and remote call of just souls to the mystical life, which is in the normal way of sanctity, on the normal way to heaven, to which all the just are most certainly called. This explains our summary of this doctrine in the following outline. Its meaning and scope can now be better understood. By reading from the bottom up, the ascending movement of grace in our souls is followed.

92 Cf. supra, pp. 191-98, 399.

os Cf. supra, pp. 299-310.

94 cf. supra, pp. 356 f., 400 ff.

vsSumma, la Ilae, q.61, a.5.

MIbid., q.69, a. 2, and ad 311m, commentary on "Blessed are the clean of heart: for they shall see God."

interior

Call to the mystical"

life

'proximate (three signs enumerated by St. John I of the Cross)

[remote

'to the superior degrees of the mysti-

„ rr. cal life, refficacious i . r . .

to the inferior degrees of the mystil cal life.

(call which many

~ . resist. “Many are .sufficient „ . . 7 called, but few are chosen”).

(from the fact of being in the state of grace; grace is the seed of glory).

(.sufficient exterior individual e. g., by the director, general e. g., by Holy Scripture.

Too much insistence cannot be placed on the divers obstacles hindering the exercise of the gifts of the Holy Ghost in our souls. Father Lallemant, S.J., gives a clear exposition of these hindrances in his beautiful book. The Spiritual Doctrine. 97 He says: “It has been asked why the majority of religious and devout persons who lead a lukewarm spiritual life make so few acts of the gifts of the Holy Ghost, since, being in the state of grace, they possess them. ... It is surprising to see so many religious who, after living in the state of grace for forty or fifty years, saying mass daily, and performing all the holy exercises of the religious life, and consequently possessing the gifts of the Holy Ghost in a very high physical degree, corresponding to that sort of perfection in grace which theologians call gradual or a physical increase 97 Part IV, chap. 3, art. 3.

—it is surprising, I repeat, to see that these religious give no evidence of the gifts of the Holy Ghost in their actions and conduct. Their life is entirely natural, for when blamed or disobliged they show their resentment; they are very eager for praise, esteem, and the applause of the world, and take great pleasure in these things. They love and seek their ease and all that flatters self-love.

“This should not be a subject of amazement, for the venial sins which they commit continually hold the gifts of the Holy Ghost, as it were, bound 88 in such a way that it is hot at all surprising that they do not show their effect. It is true that the gifts grow, like charity, habitually and in their physical being; but not actually, and in that perfection which corresponds to the fervor of charity and which increases our merit, because venial sins are opposed to the fervor of charity and consequently hinder the operation of the gifts of the Holy Ghost. ... It is past all conception, says St. Lawrence Justinian, how many sins fill our hearts if we do not take care to purify them constantly. . . . Few people give themselves wholly to God, and abandon themselves so completely to the conduct of the Holy Ghost that He alone lives in them and is the principle of all their actions.”

Moreover, people often neglect to correct a multitude of imperfections which are not, at least essentially, venial sins. St. John of the Cross 98 names many of them, when he speaks of the imperfections of beginners and of proficients. 100

98 In the same chapter. Father Lallemant says: “Venial sins, which they commit in great number, exclude the graces necessary to produce acts of the gifts of the Holy Ghost. God refuses them the help of His graces, because He foresees that if He gave them these graces in their present disposition, they would be of no use to them, since their will is bound by a thousand fetters which would prevent them from consenting/' These bonds are contrary habits and affections.

»0 The Dark Night of the Soul, Bk. I, chap. 3; Bk. II, chap. 2.

100 He makes a distinction between habitual imperfections and actual imperfections. Among the habitual imperfections in beginners, he lists the inclination to spiritual sensuality and to spiritual pride. Venial sins are often

In this matter, it is important to see how, according to the opinion of the best Thomists, imperfection differs from venial sin. At first glance, this distinction seems contrary to two principles enunciated by St. Thomas. He teaches 101 that there are no deliberate individual or concrete acts which are indifferent, that is, which are neither morally good nor morally bad. If they are indifferent by reason of their object, as, for example, taking a walk, they are either good or bad by reason of the end which the person intends; because man, when acting deliberately, ought always to do so for a right end. If he does this, the act is morally good; otherwise, it is bad. Hence it does not seem that between virtuous acts and venial sins there can be any place for what is called an imperfection.

Elsewhere St. Thomas teaches 102 that the perfection of charity falls under the precept of the love of God, if not as matter, or something to be accomplished, at least as the end toward which every Christian, each according to his condition, should tend. Consequently it seems that when he does not accomplish all that he can at a given moment, he commits a venial sin, slight perhaps, but real. Therefore imperfection does not seem distinct from venial sin.

St. Thomas, nevertheless, often speaks of good acts which are imperfect. This is the case with acts of charity that are notably inferior to our degree of charity (actus remissi): for example, when, having five talents, we act as though we had the result. There are also first movements of impatience, sensuality, and pride which precede all actual advertence, and sometimes even the advertence possible in beginners, especially when they are fatigued or drowsy. Cf. St. Thomas, la Ilae, q.74, a. 3 ad 211m: “This corruption of the fomes does not hinder man from using his rational will to check individual, inordinate movements, if he be presentient of them, for instance, by turning his thoughts to other things.” Cf. ibid., Salmanticences; also la Ilae, q.17, a.7; q.8o, a.3 ad 3um; Ila Ilae, q.154, a.5; De malo, q.7, a.6 ad 6um.

101 See la Ilae, q.18, a. 9.

102 See Ila Ilae, q.184, a.3.

only two. 108 Besides, when St. Thomas 104 defines initial fear, which is intermediate between servile fear (the fear of suffering) and filial fear (the fear of sin), he says that initial fear does not differ essentially from filial fear (it is, therefore, not a venial sin); but that it is something imperfect, for it is accompanied by a certain amount of servile fear. A man who as yet possesses only initial fear, says St. Thomas, “is inclined toward good, not only through love of justice, but also for fear of punishment; for this fear ceases in a soul that possesses perfect charity.” As a matter of fact, servile fear diminishes with the progress of charity, while filial fear increases.

The reason which serves as a basis for the distinction between venial sin and imperfection has been clearly expounded in the Thomistic school by the Carmelites ol Salamanca. 105 Their doctrine is as follows: Venial sin cannot be ordained to the end of charity (est irreferibile ad finem caritatis) for it is a disordered act, in the order of means, as mortal sin is disordered in relation to the last end from which it turns us aside. 106

On the contrary, what is called “an imperfection” is a morally good act which can be ordained to the end of charity, but which lacks a certain perfection suitable to spiritual progress.

For a clear understanding of this distinction we must, as the Carmelites of Salamanca say, observe that an imperfect act (often called an imperfection) is not absolutely identified with the absence of perfection (or formal imperfection) which is found in it. This absence of perfection is certainly

103 Summa, Ha Ilae, q.24, a.6 ad lum (and the Thomistic commentators); also la Ilae, q.114, a.8 ad 311m. C t. supra, pp. 188-98. The progress of the soul should be uniformly accelerated, and each communion more fervent and fruitful than the preceding, since each ought to increase charity in us and thus dispose us for a better reception of the Holy Eucharist the next day.

104See Ila Ilae, q. 19, a.8.

105 Cursus theol., De peccatis, tr. XIII, disp. 19, dub. 1, nos. 8 and 9, and De incarnatione (in St. Thomas, Ilia, q, 15, a.i, De impeccabilitate Christ i), where it is shown that no venial sin or imperfection was possible in Christ.

loo Summa, la Ilae, q.88, a. 2.

not good. But the imperfect act we are speaking of is morally good, though it does not possess the degree of perfection suitable to spiritual progress. It can, therefore, be ordained to the end of charity.

It is not an indifferent act in individuo, since it is good. Properly speaking, neither is it opposed to the precept of the love of God, for the perfection of charity does not fall under this precept as materia, something to be done sub gravi or sub levi, but only as the end. Sin is committed only when there is a transgression of a precept with respect to the matter of this precept, whether obligatory sub gravi or sub levi. An imperfect act is opposed only to a counsel, which in itself does not oblige. As a matter of fact, we must preserve the distinction between the precepts and the counsels, whether the latter are contained in the Gospel, or are directly inspired by God in a certain soul. The Holy Ghost often makes a soul comprehend that a certain act is better for it, but that it is not obliged to that act, unless it has made the vow of doing what is most perfect.

The division of imperfections, analogous to that of venial sins, has its origin in this definition. Thus, there are imperfections: (1) ex genere suo; (2) ex parvitate materiae ; (3) ex indeliberatione .

1. An imperfection ex genere suo, or by its very nature, is of such a kind that even when deliberate it does not become a venial sin. To this class belong supernatural and meritorious acts that are imperfect (remissi) relative to our degree of charity: for example, when a proficient makes an act of charity proportionate to the virtue of beginners. Likewise initial fear is imperfect because of servile fear which accompanies it and which should diminish with the progress of charity. To this category may also be linked natural acts that are not forbidden, but that are not in accord with spiritual progress, and that would surprise us in a mortified person and especially in the saints, unless a special reason

43« motivated them: for example, the use of certain needless things, such as tobacco; certain ways of amusing oneself or of taking pleasure in scientific or artistic things; in study, an activity that has been branded as “natural” because it is not sufficiently supernaturalized by the motive prompting it. We may place in this class the omission of something which we think is better for us, and to which at the time, from a lawful but less perfect motive, we prefer something less good: for example, when, although we could make a visit to the Blessed Sacrament, we prefer to spend our time at a useful philosophical study which could be postponed. This act in itself is not evil, nor is it so for us unless by a special vow we are obliged to do what is most perfect. Therefore it is good, since concretely no deliberate act is indifferent; but it is less good than the other. We should not stigmatize as evil what is only less good. But we should keep in mind this imperfection in the order of good, remembering that, as venial sin disposes to mortal sin, imperfection disposes to venial sin. If we desire to keep to what is strictly obligatory with God, He, who often gives us much more than what is strictly necessary, will on His part diminish His graces.

Moreover, in the cases quoted there will, as a matter of fact, accidentally be venial sin, since the motive for our not doing what is best for us here and now is frequently negligence or laziness. 107

2. There are imperfections ex levissima materia, because the matter or object involved is extremely slight, and man is not obliged to deliberate on these extremely slight things: 108 for example, some little negligence in one's bearing.

3. Finally, there are imperfections ex imperfectione actus ,

107 it is unlawful to omit something which is better for us for the sole motive that we are not obliged to it, and that we wish to use our liberty. Several Thomists rightly remark that this is a will without just motive, volitio otiosa carens pia utilitate aut justa necessitate . Cf. Billuart, De actibus humanis, diss. IV, a.6, solv. obj. 3 .

108 See la Ilae, q. 14, a. 4.

that is, through lack of attention or deliberation. In this category are ranged acts that are good by reason of their object, but that are accomplished in a mechanical fashion as a result of involuntary distraction. These acts are not sins, although they lack the perfection which comes from attention. 109 To this class belong also the very first disordered movements of sensuality, which are produced before we can be aware of them and repress them. They are an imperfection destined to disappear chiefly as a result of the passive purifications of the senses and of the soul; and they become rare in a perfect soul. As much must be said of the defective way in which a perfect soul accomplishes a good act; for example, in the necessary repression of evil, even the saints sometimes —and that quite contrary to their intention—mingle some movement of anger which slightly exceeds the just measure. 110 Lastly, to this class belongs the purely material transgression of a precept through invincible ignorance.

There are certainly many imperfections which, though not essentially venial sins, take from our lives the harmony, peace, and vigor suitable to spiritual progress. They appear particularly in the common life, especially in acts requiring a greater perfection: for example, chanting the office too slowly or too rapidly may annoy our neighbor without our being aware of it; playing the organ in a certain way may become a hindrance to prayer rather than an aid. It may be these acts contain no venial sin, properly so called, but an imperfection springing from our temperament, from fatigue, from a defect in our training, or from a certain cast of char-

109 But, as a matter of fact, in these there is often negligence and, as a result, venial sin, when one could and should consider and deliberate.

110 St. Thomas observes (Ilia, q. 15, a. 9 ad gum), apropos of anger, that when Christ drove the buyers from the Temple His anger was perfectly holy and proportioned to the motive which inspired it; while in us anger, even when commanded and moderated by right reason, slightly disturbs the gaze of contemplation; for when the operation of one of our faculties is intense, it often hinders the act of another faculty. “This is the reason why any movement whatsoever of anger, even if it be tempered by reason, dims the mind’s eye of him who contemplates.” This disappears gradually in the saints.

acter inclined either to neglect details or, on the contrary, to become absorbed in them. A more perfect charity, characterized by a greater delicacy toward God and our neighbor, accompanied by the gifts of the Holy Ghost in a proportionate degree, would cause these imperfections to disappear gradually.

We have already listed 111 several imperfections that constitute obstacles to contemplation. Especially important are those indicated by St. John of the Cross in The Dark Night of the Soul: 112 the inclination to seek enjoyment in God rather than God Himself; the first movements of spiritual pride; the stains of the old man which persist in the spirit even after the passive purification of the senses; a certain dullness of the mind; natural rudeness, the result of sin. “Proficients themselves are subject to distractions and to dissipation of mind. . . . Some use their spiritual goods in a manner that is not very interior. . . . They thus expose themselves to delusion by the suggestions of the devil or their own fancy. . . . This matter is inexhaustible. ... In order to show the necessity of the night of the soul, we must add that there is not one among the proficients, however great may be his efforts, who is exempt from many natural affections and imperfect habits, which must be purified before divine union is attained.” 118

This is another argument in favor of the doctrine that these passive purifications and infused and obscure contemplation, which is the principle of the purifications, are truly in the normal way of sanctity. “This dark night is an inflo wing of God into the soul to purify it of its habitual ignorances and imperfections, both natural and spiritual. Contemplatives call it infused contemplation and mystical theology, in which God instructs the soul secretly in the perfection of in Cf. supra, pp. 395 ff.

in Bk. I, chap. 3; Bk. II, chap. s.

11a Ibid.

love, without any intervention on its part, and without its understanding in what this infused contemplation consists. . . . How does it happen that the soul calls the divine light a dark night? . . . There are two reasons for this. The first is that the divine wisdom transcends by reason of its elevation the capacity of the soul, and for that very reason is darkness for it. The second reason lies in the baseness and impurity of the soul which makes the light painful, afflictive, and at the same time dark for it. . . . Although still in darkness, the soul sees none the less clearly its own impurity by means of this light. It is persuaded that it is unworthy of God or of any creature. . . . The divine and obscure light places clearly before it all its infidelities.” 114 Thereby it learns true humility, which prepares it to receive an abundance of divine grace, for “God gives His grace to the humble,” and He makes them humble in order to load them with His gifts.

Such is the way of true life, the only sure road to eternal beatitude. “Blessed are the undefiled in the way, who walk in the law of the Lord. Blessed are they that search His testimonies: that seek Him with their whole heart. ... I have run the way of Thy commandments, when Thou didst enlarge my heart,” 115 by divine charity, in the light of life, which reveals Thy grandeur and omnipotence, and Thy infinite mercy toward us. The voice of the psalms is that of contemplation, animating the great prayer of the Church. To live truly by faith, every believing soul should aspire to this contemplation. In this aspiration humility and magnanimity, by reason of the connection of the virtues, ought to be united; and only when they are united, are they genuine. 116 Only a profoundly humble soul can in a fitting manner aspire to the great things promised by Christ to those who wish to follow Him; from the very fact that a soul is humble.

The Dark Night of the Soul, Bk. II, chap. 5. ii® Ps. 118: 1-2, 32.

11 *Summa, Ila Ilae, q. 129, a. 3 ad 411m.

43 6 CHRISTIAN PERFECTION it will be filled to overflowing: Deposuit potentes de sede, et exaltavit humiles.

Footnotes

1. Cf. chap. 3, arts. 3, 4. ↩

2. « This is the very expression of the theologians we have just quoted. Cf. Philip, ibid., p. 311. ↩