Stanza XXVIII
Note
I HAVE said that God is pleased with nothing but love; but before I explain this, it will be as well to set forth the grounds on which the assertion rests. All our works, and all our labours, how grand soever they may be, are nothing in the sight of God, for we can give Him nothing, neither can we by them fulfil His desire, which is the growth of our soul. As to Himself He desires nothing of this, for He has need of nothing, and so, if He is pleased with anything it is with the growth of the soul; and as there is no way in which the soul can grow but in becoming in a manner equal to Him, for this reason only is He pleased with our love. It is the pro perty of love to place him who loves on an equality with the object of his love. Hence the soul, because of its perfect love, is called the bride of the Son of God, which signifies equality with Him. In this equality and friend ship all things are common, as the Bridegroom Himself said to His disciples: ' I have called you friends, because all things, whatsoever I have heard of my Father, I have made known to you.'1
My soul is occupied,
A nd all my substance in His service;
Now I guard no flock,
Nor have I any other employment:
My sole occupation is love.
THE soul, or rather the bride, having given herself wholly to the Bridegroom without any reserve whatever, now recounts to the Beloved how she fulfils her task. ' My soul and body/ she says, ' all my abilities and all my capacities, are occupied not with other matters, but with those pertaining to the service of the Bridegroom/ She is therefore not seeking her own proper satisfaction, nor the gratification of her own inclinations, neither does she occupy herself in anything whatever which is alien to God; yea, even her communion with God Him self is nothing else but acts of love, inasmuch as she has changed her former mode of conversing with Him into loving.
' My soul is occupied/
- This refers to the soul's surrender of itself to the Beloved in this union of love, wherein it devotes itself, with all its faculties, understanding, will, and memory, to His service. The understanding is occupied in con sidering what most tends to His service, in order that it might be accomplished; the will in loving all that is pleasing to God, and in desiring Him in all things; the memory in recalling what ministers to Him, and what may be more pleasing unto Him.
' And all my substance in His service.'
By substance here is meant all that relates to the sensual part of the soul, which includes the body, with all its powers, interior and exterior, together with all its natural capacities — that is, the four passions, the natural desires, and the whole substance of the soul, all of which is employed in the service of the Beloved, as well as the rational and spiritual part, as I explained in the previous section. As to the body, that is now ordered according to God in all its interior and exterior senses, all the acts of which are directed to God; the four passions of the soul are also under control in Him; for the soul's joy, hope, fear, and grief are conversant with God only; all its appetites, and all its anxieties also, are directed unto Him only.
The whole substance of the soul is now so occupied with God, so intent upon Him, that its very first move ments, even inadvertently, have God for their object and their end. The understanding, memory, and will tend directly to God; the affections, senses, desires, and longings, hope and joy, the whole substance of the soul, rise instantly towards God, though the soul is making no conscious efforts in that direction. Such a soul is very often doing the work of God, intent upon Him and the things of God, without thinking or reflecting on what it is doing for Him. The constant and habitual practice of this has deprived it of all conscious reflection, and even of that fervour which it usually had when it began to act. The whole substance of the soul being thus occupied, what follows cannot be but true also.
' Now I guard no flock/
- ' I do not now go after my likings and desires; for having fixed them upon God, I no longer feed or guard them/ The soul not only does not guard them now, but has no other occupation than to wait upon God.
' Nor have I any other employment/
Before the soul succeeded in effecting this gift and surrender of itself, and of all that belongs to it, to the Beloved, it was entangled in many unprofitable occupa tions, by which it sought to please itself and others, and it may be said that its occupations of this kind were as many as its habits of imperfection.
To these habits belong that of speaking, thinking, and the doing of things that are useless; and likewise, the not making use of these things according to the requirements of the soul's perfection; other desires also the soul may have, wherewith it ministers to the desires of others, to which may be referred display, compli ments, flattery, human respect, aiming at being well thought of, and the giving pleasure to people, and other useless actions, by which it laboured to content them, wasting its efforts herein, and finally all its strength. All this is over, says the soul here, for all its words, thoughts, and works are directed to God, and, conversant with Him, freed from their previous imperfections. It is as if it said: ' I follow no longer either my own or other men's likings, neither do I occupy or entertain myself with useless pastimes, or the things of this world/
' My sole occupation is love/
' All my occupation now is the practice of the love of God, all the powers of soul and body, memory, understanding, and will, interior and exterior senses, the desires of spirit and of sense, all work in and by love. All I do is done in love; all I suffer, I suffer in the sweet ness of love/ This is the meaning of David when he said, ' I will keep my strength to Thee/2
When the soul has arrived at this state all the acts of its spiritual and sensual nature, whether active or passive, and of whatever kind they may be, always occasion an increase of love and delight in God: even the act of prayer and communion with God, which was once carried on by reflections and divers other methods, is now wholly an act of love. So much so is this the case that the soul may always say, whether occupied with temporal or spiritual things, ' My sole occupation is love.' Happy life! happy state! and happy the soul which has attained to it! where all is the very substance of love, the joyous delights of the betrothal, when it may truly say to the Beloved with the bride in the Canticle, ' The new and the old, my Beloved, have I kept for Thee'3 ' All that is bitter and painful I keep for Thy sake, all that is sweet and pleasant I keep for Thee.' The meaning of the words, for my purpose, is that the soul, in the state of spiritual betrothal, is for the most part living in the union of love — that is, the will is habitually waiting lovingly on God.
Footnotes
Chapter 29 of 41