Chapter VIII. The True Nature of Christian Perfection

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O FAR we have spoken of the sources of the interior life, that is, of sanctifying grace, the infused virtues, the seven gifts, the Blessed Trinity which dwells in us, and the influence which Christ the Redeemer and Mary Mediatrix exert on our souls that we may grow in the love of God. We must now consider the end of the interior life, not, however, its final end, of which we spoke when we said that the interior life is, in a sense, eternal life begun; + but the end which may be attained on earth, the Christian perfection that may be realized here below.

We shall see, first of all, the erroneous or incomplete ideas of perfection that have been proposed, then the true nature of Christian perfection. We shall also consider the Christian perfection that is obtainable on earth, comparing it with that of heaven. Then we shall see whether it is a duty or only a counsel for all to tend to it. Next, we shall speak of the different ages of the spiritual life, and then we shall treat of each one separately. Lastly, we shall inquire whether the full perfection of Christian life on earth belongs only to the ascetical order, or whether it truly belongs to the mystical order.

ERRONEOUS OR INCOMPLETE IDEAS OF PERFECTION

To get an exact idea of the Christian perfection which the Gospel makes known to us and to see its loftiness, we shall not fail to profit by first recalling two other ideas of human perfection that have arisen according as men placed more or less stress on one form or another of their activity.

We may distinguish three principal ideas of human perfection¹ which always tend to reappear. In antiquity the barbarians made it consist principally in fortitude. The majority of the Greek philosophers thought that it lay principally in wisdom. The Gospel tells us that it is especially in charity, or in the love of God and of our neighbor in God. These three words, fortitude, wisdom, and charity, express the dominant note in these three different conceptions of life. We shall briefly recall the first two by noting the forms they assume among us today; we shall thus better see the loftiness of the third, so much the more so as the first two contain an element of truth which, under the influence of charity, may take on great value.

The heroes of barbarian races made the perfection of man consist above all in fortitude, courage, bravery, as their legends, particularly those of the Niebelungen, remind us. The national pride of races would tend at times to bring them back to this ideal. In it is exalted the virtue of fortitude which has as its object difficult things that demand great energy and in which man’s life 1s exposed, as in combats. An element of truth is contained in this idea, so much the more so as, in less tragic but painful and rather frequent circumstances, patience, constancy, and longanimity are needed. As St. Thomas, following Aristotle,? remarks, it is even more difficult thus to hold out, to endure for a long time, to remain firm in the midst of difficulties and blows, than it is to attack in a moment of enthusiasm. To make human perfection consist above all in fortitude, is the idea of a warrior, a soldier, an explorer, or an aviator. Often not a little pride and at times injustice is mingled in it. This idea, moreover, certainly does not suffice to put man in his true place in regard to God and his neighbor.

Some ardent souls transpose this notion into the supernatural order by purifying it, and they conceive of the Christian chiefly as a soldier of Christ, for St. Paul says: “Take unto you the armor of God that you may be able to resist in the evil day and to stand in all things perfect. Stand, therefore, . . . having on the breastplate of justice

. taking the shield of faith, wherewith you may be able to extinguish all the fiery darts of the most wicked one.” 3 From this point of view, all the grandeur of martyrdom may be easily conceived.

? See Ila Iae, q.123, 2.6: “The principal act of fortitude is endurance, that is, to stand immovable in the midst of dangers rather than to attack them.” 8 Eph. 6:13-16.

But does its true grandeur come especially from the fact that it is an act of fortitude? Does it not rather derive, as St. Thomas says,* from the fact that martyrdom is the incontestable and striking sign of great charity? The three centuries of persecution of the early Church were certainly centuries of courage, of heroic fortitude, but even more, centuries of love of God. Surely this is what distinguishes the Christian martyrs from the heroes of paganism.

From a point of view somewhat similar to that we have just discussed, some persons seem to place perfection especially in austerity, fasts, vigils, and other difficult things. This evaluation may be understood in a favorable sense in a religious order particularly vowed to prayer and immolation, or to reparation, which is a manifest sign of an ardent love of God, of real zeal. Care must be taken, however, not to place a value on austerity as such, as if it were, not a means of advancement and reparation, but an end. Were this true, the most perfect religious life would be the most austere, the most difficult, and not that life which would have the best end and the means most adapted to that end.® Is what is arduous especially the proper object of virtue? This object is rather the good. Not every difficult act 1s morally good; at times it is a rash feat of strength. And if the good is often difficult, it is not always so. Some acts of love of God and of our neighbor are accomplished without difficulty, with a great supernatural impulse, and are manifestly very meritorious since they proceed from great charity.

Can fortitude be the highest virtue? For the soldier as such it may be the most necessary virtue; bravery may be the perfection of the soldier. But is it the perfection of man as man, and of a Christian as a Christian? Theology answers that fortitude and patience are virtues necessary and indispensable to perfection. Above them, however, there is justice in regard to others; there is prudence, which directs al] the moral virtues; and there are especially the theological virtues (faith, hope, and charity), which have God as their immediate object. This explains why martyrdom, which is an act of the virtue of fortitude, draws its grandeur chiefly from the fact that it is the sign of a great love of God.

We cannot, therefore, admit that the perfection of man and of the Christian consists chiefly in fortitude or in patience, necessary t See Ila Hae, q. 124, a. 1-3. 5 Ibid., q.188, a.7 ad 1um; a.8.

as these virtues are. Fortitude is evidently not the perfection of our intellect in regard to supreme truth, or that of our will in regard to sovereign good; it is merely a virtue that represses fear in the midst of difficulties and dangers in order that we may follow right reason.

If perfection does not consist primarily in fortitude, does it consist chiefly in wisdom? The majority of the Greek philosophers thought so. According to them, man is distinguished from lower beings by his intellect, and therefore the perfection of man as such is chiefly the perfection of his intellect, that is, the wisdom or eminent knowledge of all things by their supreme cause and last end. Perfection would thus lie in the knowledge or contemplation of the sovereign good, and in the love which springs from this knowledge. Plato, among others, even thought that it suffices to know the sovereign good in order to love it efficaciously above all, and that virtue is a science. As Aristotle ê remarks, this opinion did not take sufficient account of man’s free will, which can deviate in spite of the knowledge of the duty to be accomplished. Nevertheless Aristotle himself placed the perfection of man in wisdom accompanied by the virtues which are subordinate to it: that is, prudence, justice, fortitude, and temperance. Wisdom, like prudence which it dominates, is, of a certainty, indispensable to perfection and to the conduct of life; but we cannot say that speculative knowledge of God, the sovereign Good, is necessarily followed by the love of God. A philosopher with a powerful intellect, though he has a correct idea of God, First Cause of the universe and Last End, may not be a good man, a man of good will. At times he may be even a very bad man. ‘That which is true is the good of the intellect, but it is not the good of the entire man, not the whole good of man.”

Learning can exist without the love of God and of one’s neighbor. When it does, as St. Paul says, it produces the inflation of pride by making us live for ourselves and not for God. The perfection of a professor or of a doctor, as such, is not the atic on of man as man, or of a Christian as a Christian. A good professor who teaches the humanities or the elements of philosophy with distinction is not

6 Consult Nicomachean Ethics, Bk. IMI, chap. 7; Bk. VII, chap. 11, and the commentary of St. Thomas. See also Ia Iae, q.58, a.2.

7 See Ia Iae, g.57, a.1: “Whether the habits of the speculative intellect are virtues?”

always a good man. We should not confound the perfection of the speculative intellect with that of the entire man. The latter requires the profound rectification of the will in regard to our last end. The will is the faculty that must be directed toward the good of the entire subect, of the entire man, and not toward the good merely of the intellect. Aristotle made this observation,® but it was easier to think it than to live it.

Lastly, is not the love of God here on earth superior to the knowledge of God? Knowledge draws God, in a sense, toward us by imposing on Him in a certain manner the limits of our circumscribed ideas, whereas the love of God draws us toward Him and makes us love in Him what we cannot know precisely, for we are sure that His inner life, which is hidden from us, is infinitely lovable.1°

The conception of the Greek philosophers, which makes perfection consist in wisdom, is found again today mingled with many errors in those who put intellectual culture above everything else, and also in the theosophists, for whom perfection lies in “a consciousness of our identity with God,” in the intuition of what is divine in us.?!

Far from putting the creature in his humble place beneath the Creator, theosophy presupposes pantheism, which is the negation of the order of grace and of all Christian dogmas, although it often preserves the terms of Christianity while giving them an entirely different meaning. (If a man becomes involved in theosophy, he may find himself enmeshed body and soul.) A most perfidious imitation and corruption of our asceticism and mysticism, theosophy is a product of the imagination in which God and the world are confounded, and in which we find, as we do in a novelty store, all sorts of antiques which attract our curiosity and turn our souls away from divine truth and eternal life. This heresy reminds us of

8 Ibid., a.4, where St. Thomas shows that prudence, which is a true virtue, presupposes the rightness of the will with regard to the good of the whole man, whereas art and the sciences do not presuppose it. The prudent man is a good man, of whom people simply say that he is good, and not only a good painter, a good architect, a good physician, a good mathematician.

® Ethics, Bk. VI, chap. 5: How prudence, which is truly a virtue, is distinct from art.

10 See Ia, q.82, a.3: “The love of God is better than the knowledge of God.”

11 Cf. P. Mainage, O.P., Les principes de la théosophie, 1922 (ed. Revue des jeunes).

the bewitching foolishness which darkens the intellect, as the Book of Wisdom says: “For the bewitching of vanity obscureth good things.” 1?

While keeping themselves free from similar aberrations, some Christians, who have a quietist tendency, are inclined to think that a person can rapidly reach perfection by the assiduous reading of the great mystics, without concerning himself enough about practicing the virtues which these books recommend, and without remembering sufficiently that true contemplation should be completely penetrated by supernatural charity and forgetfulness of self.

Farther on we shall see that contemplation, which is an act of the intellect, is not what chiefly constitutes perfection. As will be made evident, perfection hes in union with God through charity. The loving contemplation of God is, so to speak, a means conjoined to this end; it disposes us immediately to union with God. The end toward which we must tend is not contemplation, but God Himself to be loved above all.

From all that we have just said, it follows that perfection indubitably requires fortitude, patience, abnegation, and also wisdom; indeed, all the theological and moral virtues accompanied by the seven gifts of the Holy Ghost are necessary. Does it follow that perfection consists in the ensemble of the virtues? In a sense it does, but on condition that this ensemble be ordered like an organism and that among the virtues there be one which dominates all the others, inspires, commands, animates, vivifies them, and makes all their efforts converge toward the supreme end. Is it not, then, in this supreme virtue in which all the other virtues ought to meet, that perfection chiefly consists? What is this supreme virtue?

Tue Fssence or PERFECTION ACCORDING TO Sr. PAUL’s INTERPRETATION OF THE GOSPEL

We shall see what answer Christian revelation gives to the question just stated. In the Gospel, on several different occasions and under the most varied forms, Christ incessantly reminds us that the supreme precept dominating all others and all the counsels is the precept of love, which had already been formulated in the Old Testament: “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with thy whole

I 50 THREE AGES OF THE INTERIOR LIFE heart and with thy whole soul and with all thy strength and with all thy mind: and thy neighbor as thyself.” '* This precept is superior to the ideal of the dominating fortitude of heroes and also to the Greek philosophers’ ideal of speculative wisdom. In Christ’s command is a fortitude of another order and a wisdom both much more realistic and far loftier. St. Paul explains this doctrine of our Savior when he writes to the Colossians (3:12-15): “Put ye on therefore, as the elect of God, holy, and beloved, the bowels of mercy, benignity, humility, modesty, patience: bearing with one another, and forgiving one another . . . even as the Lord hath forgiven you . . . but above all these things have charity, which is the bond of perfection. And let the peace of Christ rejoice in your hearts, wherein also you are called in one body: and be ye thankful.”

Charity is the bond of perfection because it is the highest of the virtues which unites our soul to God. It ought to last forever, and it vivifies all the other virtues by rendering their acts meritorious, ordaining them to the last end, that is, to its object: God loved above all else. Thus St. Paul is so convinced of this superiority of charity over all the other virtues, over the seven gifts of the Holy Ghost, and over the graces gratis datae, such as prophecy, that he writes: “If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, | am become as sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal. And if I should have prophecy and should know all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I should have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing. And if I should distribute all my goods to feed the poor, and if I should deliver my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing.” 14

Without charity, the most excellent extraordinary gifts (charismata) are of no avail for eternal life. Why is this? Because if I do not have charity, I do not fulfill the first commandment of God; I do not conform my will to His; I am turned away from Him, and my heart is set in the opposite direction from the heart of God. Therefore, “if I have not charity, I am nothing” personally in the order of salvation; I merit nothing, even though by preaching and miracles I should lead others to save their souls. With this meaning, St. Augustine says: “Love and do what you wish,” and what you will do, will merit eternal life for you, if you truly love your God

more than yourself. Still more, we must have true charity, for there is nothing worse than the false, which has nothing in common with genuine charity except the name.”

True charity, as opposed to false charity, implies all the virtues that are subordinate to it and that, from this point of view, appear as so many modalities or aspects of the love of God and of one’s neighbor. This is why St. Paul says: “Charity is patient, is kind: charity envieth not, dealeth not perversely, is not puffed up, is not ambitious, seeketh not her own; is not provoked to anger, thinketh no evil; rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth with the truth; beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.” +°

As a matter of fact, if after losing charity, we recover it by absolution, we receive with it all the infused moral virtues that are subordinate to it: Christian prudence, justice, fortitude, temperance, and the seven gifts of the Holy Ghost. To this we must add with St. Paul: “Charity never falleth away: whether prophecies shall be made void or tongues shall cease or knowledge shall be destroyed. . . . We see now through a glass in a dark manner; but then face to face. . . . And now there remain faith, hope, and charity, these three: but the greatest of these is charity.” 17 Faith will disappear to give place to vision, hope to possession, but charity will last eternally.

15 There exists, in fact, a false charity, made up of culpable indulgence, of weakness, such as the meekness of those who never clash with anybody because they are afraid of everyone. There is also a false charity, made up of humanitarian sentimentalism, which seeks to have itself approved by true charity and which, by its contact, often taints the true.

One of the chief conflicts of the present day is that which arises between true and false charity. The latter reminds us of the false Christs spoken of in the Gospel; they are more dangerous before they are unmasked than when they make themselves known as the true enemies of the Church. Optimi corruptio pessima, the worst of corruptions is that which attacks what is best in us, the highest of the theological virtues. The apparent good which attracts the sinner is, in fact, so much the more dangerous as it is the counterfeit of a higher good. Such, for example, is the ideal of the pan-Christians, who seek the union of the Churches to the detriment of the faith, which this union presupposes. If, therefore, through stupidity or more or less conscious cowardice, those who should represent true charity approve here and there the dicta of the false, an incalculable evil may result. This evil is at times greater than that done by open persecutors, with whom evidently one can no longer have anything in common.

By charity we become the temples of the Holy Ghost: “The charity of God is poured forth in our hearts, by the Holy Ghost, who is given to us.” 18 Lastly, the more we love God, the more we know Him by that entirely supernatural, quasi-experimental knowledge that is divine wisdom. This is what made St. Paul say to the Ephesians (3:17-19): “Being rooted and founded in charity, you may be able to comprehend with all the saints, what is the breadth and length and height and depth: to know also the charity of Christ, which surpasseth all knowledge; that you may be filled unto all the fullness of God.”

St. Paul is speaking here not only to privileged souls, but to all the faithful. After meditating at length on these words in the presence of God, can we say that the infused contemplation of the mysteries of faith is not in the normal way of sanctity? Care must be taken before formulating a negative proposition of this sort, for we must remember that reality, especially the reality of the interior life such as it is willed by God, is richer than even the best of all our theories. Philosophical and theological systems are often true in what they affirm and false in what they deny. Why is this? Because reality, as God made it, 1s far richer than all our limited and narrow conceptions.

“There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, Than are dreamt of in our philosophy.” 1°

To deny this would be to lose the meaning of the mystery, which is identified with contemplation. To deny it would be to impoverish singularly the words of St. Paul which we have just quoted: “Being rooted and founded in charity, you may be able to comprehend, with all the saints,” that is, with all Christians who reach perfection, “what is the breadth and length and height and depth” of the mystery of Christ . . . especially of His love, and “that you may be filled unto all the fullness of God.” 2°

St. John gives us the same doctrine, particularly in his First Epistle (4:16-21): “God is charity: and he that abideth in charity, abideth in God, and God in him. . . . And this commandment we have from God, that he who loveth God love also his brother.” Likewise St. Peter writes in his First Epistle (4:8): “But before all things have a constant mutual charity among yourselves: for charity

18 Rom. 5:5. 19 Shakespeare, Hamlet, Act I, scene 5. 20 Cf. The Commentary of St. Thomas, In Epist. ad Ephes., 3:17.

covereth a multitude of sins.” Christ said of Magdalen: “Many sins are forgiven her, because she hath loved much.” *!

According to this doctrine, perfection does not consist chiefly in humility, nor does it consist especially in poverty, nor in acts of worship or of the virtue of religion, but it lies primarily in the love of God and of one’s neighbor, which renders the acts of all the other virtues meritorious. “Poverty itself,” says St. Thomas, “is not perfection, but the means of perfection. . . . But since the means are sought not for their own sake, but for the sake of the end, a thing is better, not for being a greater instrument, but for being more adapted to the end. ‘Thus a physician does not heal the more, the more medicine he gives, but the more the medicine is adapted to the disease.” ??

As much must be said of humility, which makes us bow before God that we may with docility receive His influence, which ought to lift us up to Him.?3

The virtue of religion, which renders to God the worship due Him, is also inferior to the theological virtues; it is meritorious only by reason of the charity that animates it.?* If we should forget this, we would perhaps become more attentive to worship, to the liturgy, than to God Himself, to the figures rather than to the reality, to the manner in which we ought to say an Our Father or a Credo rather than to the sublime meaning of these prayers: the service of God would take precedence over the love of God. Hence our conclusion is that, according to Christian revelation, charity is “the bond of perfection.”

SoME Exactr THEOLOGICAL STATEMENTS ON THE NATURE OF PERFECTION

The scriptural teaching which we have just recalled assumes a more precise form in the doctrinal body of theology. Relying on the a Luke 934%.

23 Ibid., q.161, a.5 ad 2um: “Humility holds the first place, inasmuch as it expels pride (the source of all sin), which God resisteth, and makes man open to receive the influx of divine grace. . . .In this sense, humility is said to be the foundation of the spiritual edifice.” (It is inferior to the theological virtues which unite us to God.)

24 The virtue of religion has for its immediate object, not God Himself but the worship which is due to God. This is why it is not a theological virtue, but is inferior to the theological virtues. Cf. Summa, Ila Iae, q.81, a.5.

Scriptures, St. Thomas easily establishes the fact that Christian perfection consists especially in charity. “A thing is said to be perfect,” he says, “in so far as it attains its proper end, which is the ultimate perfection thereof. Now it is charity that unites us to God, who is the last end of the human mind, since ‘he that abideth in charity abideth in God, and God in him’ (I John 4:16). Therefore the perfection of the Christian life consists chiefly in charity.” *

Infused faith and hope could evidently not be that in which perfection chiefly consists, for they can exist in the state of mortal sin, in a man whose will is turned away from God, his last end. ‘They remain in him like the root of a tree which has been cut down and can revive. Not every mortal sin, in fact, makes a man lose faith and hope, but only a mortal sin that is directly contrary to these virtues. When the sinner who continues to believe and who still hopes, recovers charity, it revivifies faith and hope, and renders their acts not only salutary but meritorious, by ordaining them to God efficaciously loved above all else. St. Thomas adds farther on: “Primarily and essentially, the perfection of the Christian life consists in charity, principally as to the love of God, secondarily as to the love of our neighbor, both of which are the matter of the chief commandments of the divine law. . . . Secondarily and instrumentally, however, perfection consists in the observance of the counsels.” 26 The great sign of the love of God is precisely love of one’s neighbor. Christ Himself says so, and we cannot insist too strongly on this point: “A new commandment I give unto you: That you love one another, as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this shall all men know that you are My disciples, if you have love one for another.” ?7 This love of our neighbor is the great sign of the progress of the love of God in our hearts, so much so that St. John adds: “He that saith he is in the light, and hateth his brother, is in darkness even until now.” 28 “We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love the brethren. . . . Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer.” 29

Farther on we shall speak of the counsels of poverty, chastity, and

obedience; but even now it is clear that they are subordinate to charity, to the love of God and of one’s neighbor in God.

We should like to insist here on two points that show the difference between Christian perfection on earth and perfection in heaven.

THe SUPERIORITY OF CHARITY TO THE KNOWLEDGE OF Gop ın Tuts LIFE

Some intellectuals raise an objection to the traditional doctrine, based on Scripture, according to which perfection consists primarily in charity. They ask whether the intellect is not the first faculty of man, the one which directs the others and which primarily distinguishes us from the animal. Since this is true, they say, should we not then conclude that the perfection of man lies chiefly in the intellectual knowledge that he can have of all things, considered in their principle and in their end, and therefore in the knowledge of God, the supreme rule of human life? From this point of view, a Bossuet may seem to surpass a number of canonized servants of God who did not particularly excel in intelligence, as for example, a holy lay brother or a St. Benedict Joseph Labre.

We have already virtually cleared up this objection by pointing out in one of our previous chapters that speculative and abstract knowledge of God can exist without being accompanied by profound righteousness of the will. It may exist in a very intelligent but heartless man, who could not be called “a man of good will” in the meaning given to this term by the Gospel. For the same reason, infused faith can remain in a soul that has lost charity and has turned away from God. Moreover, we said with St. Thomas, that on earth the love of God is better than the knowledge of God.*° It is important to insist on this point. St. Thomas clearly recognizes that the intellect is superior to the will which it directs. The intellect has, in fact, a more simple, more absolute, more universal object, being in all its universality, and consequently all beings; the will has a more restricted object, the good, which is a modality of being, and which is in everything the perfection that renders it desirable. Besides, we must not confound apparent good with true good, which

30 See Ia, q.82, a.3. “Wherefore the love of God is better than the knowledge of God; but, on the contrary, the knowledge of corporeal things 1s better than the love thereof. Absolutely, however, the intellect is nobler than the will.”

the intellect recognizes and judges, and proposes to the will. As the good presupposes the true and being, the will presupposes the intellect and is directed by it. Therefore by the intellect, which is the first of his faculties, man differs primarily from the animal.

St. Thomas admits also that in heaven our beatitude will consist essentially in the beatific vision, in the intellectual and immediate vision of the divine essence, for it 1s above all by this immediate vision that we shall take possession of God for eternity. We shall plunge the gaze of our intellect into the depths of His inner life seen directly. God will thus give Himself immediately to us, and we shall give ourselves to Him. We shall possess Him and He will possess us, because we shall know Him as He knows Himself and as He knows us. Beatific love will be in us a consequence of this immediate vision of the divine essence; it will even be a necessary consequence, for the beatific love of God will no longer be free, but superfree, above liberty. Our will will be invincibly ravished by the attraction of God seen face to face. We shall see His infinite goodness and beauty so clearly that we shall be unable not to love Him; we shall even be unable to find any pretext of momentarily interrupting this act of superfree love, which will no longer be measured by time, but by participated eternity, by the single instant of the immobile duration of God, the instant that never passes. In heaven the love of God and the joy of possessing Him will necessarily follow the beatific vision, which will thus be the essence of our beatitude.*! All this is true. It is difficult to afirm more strongly than St. Thomas does the superiority of the intellect over the will in principle and in the perfect life of heaven.

Since this is true, how can the holy doctor maintain that Christian perfection on earth consists primarily in charity, which is a virtue of the will, and not in wisdom or contemplation, which belong to the intellect? To this question he gives a profound answer, which should be meditated on for the spiritual life. He says in substance: Although a faculty may by its nature be superior to another, it may happen that an act of the second is superior to an act of the first. For example, sight is superior to hearing, it is less painful to be deaf than blind; nevertheless, although sight is superior to hearing, the audition of a Beethoven symphony is more sought after than the sight of an ordinary object. Likewise, although the intellect

is by its very nature (simpliciter) superior to the will which it directs, here on earth the love of God is more perfect than the knowledge of God.?? Therefore perfection lies chiefly in the love of God. A saint who has little learning in theological matters but who has a very great love of God, is certainly more perfect than a theologian who has a lesser charity. This observation, which is elementary for every Christian, appears upon serious reflection as a lofty and precious truth. It could be illustrated by many quotations from Scripture and from the works of the great spiritual writers, especially from The Inntation of Christ.

Whence comes this superiority of the love of God over the knowledge of Him that we have on earth? St. Thomas answers as follows: “The action of the intellect consists in this, that the idea of the thing understood ıs in the one who understands; whereas the act of the will consists in this, that the will is inclined to the thing as existing in itself. And therefore the Philosopher says (Metaph., VI) that good and evil, which are objects of the will, are in things, but truth and error, which are objects of the intellect, are in the mind.” 33 It follows that on earth our knowledge of God is inferior to the love of God, since, as St. Thomas further says,’ when we know God, we draw Him in a way to ourselves, and in order to represent Him to ourselves, we impose on Him the bounds of our limited ideas; whereas when we love Hin, it is we who are drawn to Him, lifted up to Him, such as He is in Himself. An act of love of God made by the Curé of Ars as he taught catechism, was worth more than a learned theological meditation inspired by a lesser love. Our knowledge of God draws Him to us, whereas our love of God draws us to Him. Therefore, as long as we have not the beatific vision, that is, while we are on earth or in purgatory, the love of God is more perfect than the knowledge of God. It presupposes this knowledge, but it surpasses it.

Further, says St. Thomas, even here on earth our love of charity attains God immediately; *° it adheres immediately to Him, and from Him it goes on to creatures. “For knowledge begins from

32 See Ia, q.82, a.3. On the contrary, it is better to know inferior things than to love them.

creatures, tends to God, and love begins with God as the last end, and passes on to creatures.” °° Finally, we love in God even that in Him which is hidden from us because, without seeing it, we are sure that it is Goodness itself. In this sense we can love God more than we know Him. We love even more what is most hidden in Him, for we believe that therein precisely lies His intimate life, which surpasses all our means of knowing: for example, what is most hidden in the mystery of the Trinity and in that of predestination. Therefore the love of God surpasses here on earth the knowledge of God. This is why theologians admire saints, such as St. Benedict Joseph Labre, who were only meagerly endowed with intellect, but who were consumed with zeal for the love of God and of souls.

This teaching is extremely beautiful, and shows us the superiority of charity over faith and hope, over all knowledge here on earth, even over the act of contemplation which proceeds from faith illumined by the gifts of understanding and of wisdom. This quasiexperimental knowledge of God still remains, in fact, essentially obscure; it does not grasp Him as He is in Himself, and it draws its delight from the very love which inspires it.37

We see more clearly why St. Paul says: “Charity is the bond of perfection.” No other virtue unites us as intimately to God, and all the other virtues inspired and vivified by it, are ordained by it to God loved above all. We must, therefore, repeat with all tradition that the perfection of Christian life consists chiefly in charity, and in active charity, which unites us actually to God, in aridity as well as in consolation, and which fructifies in every kind of good work.*8

88 See Col. 1:9. Thomists generally hold (cf. Passerini, De statibus hominum, in Ifa Hae, q. 184, a.1) that perfection consists formally not in the habitus or virtue of charitv, but in the activity of this virtue, which is morally continuous in the perfect. It is clear, in fact, that the virtue 1s ordained to its operation and that perfection 1 is in actual union with God; “It is good for me to adhere to my God” (Ps. 72:28). St. Thomas says: “Man’ s third pursuit is to aim chiefly at union with and enjoyment of God” (Ila Tae, q.24, a.9).

On the contrary, the quietists, inclined to inaction, were disposed to say that perfection is not in the acts of charity, but in the habitus of charity, for, in their opinion, “velle operari active est Deum offendere, qui vult esse ipse solus agens” (cf. Denzinger, no. 1222). They thus reached a pseudo-passive state, not infused but acquired and, what is more, acquired, not by acts but by the cessation of every act, by a sort of pious somnolence. Therein were

Charity ought, therefore, incontestably to have the first place in our soul, above that of the love of knowledge and of any kind of human progress. Moreover, charity will increase tenfold all our moral and intellectual powers by placing them in the service of God and of our neighbor. The love of esteem (appretiative summus) which we ought to have for God will thus become more intense, as it should.

THe Love or Cuariry Cannot Be ABSOLUTELY CONTINUAL oN Eartruy as Ir Witt Be ın HEAVEN

In comparing Christian perfection on earth with that of heaven, St. Thomas observes 3° that God alone can love Himself infinitely as much as He is lovable, as He alone can have a comprehensive vision of His essence. However, without loving God as much as He is lovable, the saints in heaven love Him with all their strength with an ever actual, uninterrupted love. This absolute continuity in love is not possible on earth; sleep, in particular, does not permit ıt.

The perfection possible on earth excludes everything that is contrary to the love of God, that is, mortal sin, and also all that hinders our love from being completely directed toward God. Thus those of the just who are called beginners and proficients tend toward this union with God, which is the possession of the perfect.*°

According to these principles formulated by St. Thomas, the perfection of charity in the perfect excludes not only mortal sin and fully deliberate venial sin, but also voluntary imperfections, two grave errors, which with one stroke of the pen suppressed asceticism and distorted mysticism.

An opposite excess to quietism would make perfection consist chiefly in the exterior activity of charity on behalf of one’s neighbor. From this point of view, one might end by forgetting practically that the love of God is superior to that of one’s neighbor, and that this second love is only the effect and sign of the first. One would thus unconsciously invert the order of charity.

Others, more attentive to the interior life than to its activity, aim too greatly at multiplying its acts, instead of tending to simplified affective prayer, which is, so to speak, the continuation of one and the same act, like a prolonged spiritual communion.

40 We treated this question in greater detail in Christian Perfection and Contemplation, pp. 167-75.

such as a lesser generosity in the service of God and the habit of acting in an imperfect manner (remissa) and of receiving the sacraments with little fervor of will. He who has a charity equal to five talents and acts as if he had only two talents still performs meritorious but weak acts. These acts of charity, called remissi, do not immediately obtain the increase of charity that they deserve,! and are not proper to the perfect, who ought indeed ever to advance more rapidly toward God, for the nearer souls approach Him, the more they are drawn by Him.?

St. Thomas #3 points out also that in the perfect, charity toward one’s neighbor, the great sign of our love of God, extends not only to all in general, but as soon as the occasion presents itself to each of those with whom the perfect have relations, not only to friends but to strangers and even to adversaries. Moreover, this fraternal charity is intense in them, reaching even to the sacrifice of exterior goods and of life itself for the salvation of souls, since Christ said: “This is My commandment, that you love one another, as I have loved you.” ** We see this charity in the apostles after Pentecost, when they were “rejoicing that they were accounted worthy to suffer reproach for the name of Jesus.” 4 This is also what made St. Paul say: “But I most gladly will spend and be spent myself for your souls.” 48

Perfect charity demands serious effort, a veritable struggle, a spirit of abnegation or renunciation, in order that our affection, ceasing to descend toward the things of earth or to fall back egoistically on ourselves, may always rise more purely and strongly toward God. For this ascent toward God we need prayer, habitual recollection, a great docility to the Holy Ghost, and the generous acceptance of the cross which purifies. As soon as the soul’s life ceases to descend, it ascends toward God. It cannot remain stationary on earth; and its law, like that of the flame which symbolizes it, is not the law of descent, but of ascent. Therefore, without having the absolute continuity of the love of heaven, the charity of the perfect

46 See II Cor. 12:15. Cf. also St. Catherine of Siena, Dialogue, chaps. 74, 78, 79, passim; Perfect love and its signs.

on earth is characterized by an admirable and almost ceaseless activity.

The author of The Imitation admirably expresses this thought when he says: “Because I am as yet weak in love and imperfect in virtue, therefore do I stand in need of being strengthened and comforted by Thee. Wherefore do Thou visit me often, and instruct me in Thy holy discipline. . . . A great thing is love, a great good in every way, which alone lighteneth all that 1s burdensome and beareth equally all that is unequal. It carrieth a burden without being burdened, and maketh all else that is bitter sweet and savory. The noble love of Jesus impelleth us to do great things, and exciteth us always to desire that which is the more perfect. Love will tend upwards and not be detained by things beneath. Love will be at liberty, and free from all worldly affection that its interior vision be not hindered; that it suffer itself not to be entangled with any temporal interest, or cast down by misfortune. Nothing is sweeter than love, nothing stronger, nothing higher, nothing wider, nothing more pleasant . . . for love is born of God, and cannot rest but in God, above all created things. The lover flieth, runneth, and rejoiceth; he is free, and cannot be restrained. He giveth all for all, and hath all in all; because he resteth in one sovereign Good above all, from whom all good floweth and proceedeth. . . . Love often knoweth no measure, but groweth fervent above all measure. . . . Love watcheth, and sleeping slumbereth not. When weary it is not tired; . . . but like a vivid flame and a burning torch, it mounteth upward and securely passeth through all.” 47

This is truly the life of the saints. We are called to it, for we are all called to the life of heaven where there will be only saints. In order to attain it, we must sanctify all the acts of our day, remembering that above the succession of daily deeds, whether pleasurable or painful, foreseen or unforeseen, there is the parallel series of

47 The Imitation of Christ, Bk. III, chap. 5. St. Thomas teaches that we cannot love God as much as He aught to be loved, or believe in Him or hope in Him as much as He deserves. Cf. Ia Iae, q.64, a.4: “The measure and rule of theological virtue is God Himself. . . . So that never can we love God as much as He ought to be loved.” Cf. Ila Iae, q.27, a.5.

See also Tauler, Sermons, for the distinction between the upright man and the interior or sale a man, and the description of the state of the perfect. Cf. Sermons de Tauler (trans. Hugueny, Théry, 1927), I, 200-4, 218-24, 265- 69, 284, 296 ff., 357.

actual graces which are granted to us from moment to moment that we may draw the best spiritual profit from these daily deeds. If we think about this, we shall no longer see these acts only from the point of view of the senses, or from that of our reason which is more or less led astray by self-love, but from the supernatural point of view of faith. Then these daily deeds, whether pleasurable or painful, will become the practical application of the doctrine of the Gospel, and gradually an almost continual conversation will be established between Christ and us. This will be the true interior life, as it were, eternal life begun.

Footnotes

1. Cf. supra, chap. 1. 144 ↩