Stanza XXIX
Note
OF a truth the soul is now lost to all things, and gained only to love, and the mind is no longer occupied with anything else. It is, therefore, deficient in what con cerns the active life, and other exterior duties, that it may apply in earnest to the one thing which the Bride groom has pronounced necessary ;1 and that is waiting upon God, and the continuous practice of His love. So precious is this in the eyes of God that He rebuked Martha because she would withdraw Mary from His feet to occupy her actively in the service of our Lord. Martha thought that she was doing everything herself, and that Mary at the feet of Christ was doing nothing. But it was far otherwise: for there is nothing better or more necessary than love. Thus, in the Canticle, the Bridegroom protects the bride, adjuring the daughters of Jerusalem — that is, all created things — not to disturb her spiritual sleep of love, nor to waken her, nor to let her open her eyes to anything till she pleased. ' I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem, that you stir not up, nor awake my beloved till she please/2
Observe, however, that if the soul has not reached the state of unitive love, it is necessary for it to make acts of love, as well in the active as in the contemplative life. But when it has reached it, it is not requisite it should occupy itself in other and exterior duties — unless they be matters of obligation — which might hinder, were it but for a moment, the life of love in God, though they may minister greatly to His service; because an instant of pure love is more precious in the eyes of God and the soul, and more profitable to the Church, than all other good works together, though it may seem as if nothing were done. Thus, Mary Magdalene, though her preach ing was most edifying, and might have been still more so afterwards, out of the great desire she had to please God and benefit the Church, hid herself, nevertheless, in the desert thirty years, that she might surrender her self entirely to love; for she considered that she would gain more in that way, because an instant of pure love is so much more profitable and important to the Church. 3. When the soul, then, in any degree possesses the spirit of solitary love, we must not interfere with it. We should inflict a grievous wrong upon it, and upon the Church also, it we were to occupy it, were it only for a moment, in exterior or active duties, however im portant they might be. When God Himself adjures all not to waken it from its love, who shall venture to do so, and be blameless? In a word, it is for this love that we are all created. Let those men of zeal, who think by their preaching and exterior works to convert the world, consider that they would be much more edifying to the Church, and more pleasing unto God — setting aside the good example they would give — if they would spend at least one half their time in prayer, even though they may have not attained to the state of unitive love. Certainly they would do more, and with less trouble, by one single good work than by a thousand: because of the merit of their prayer, and the spiritual strength it supplies. To act otherwise is to beat the air, to do little more than nothing, sometimes nothing and occa sionally even mischief; for God may give up such persons to vanity, so that they may seem to have done some thing, when in reality their outward occupations bear no fruit; for it is quite certain that good works cannot be done but in the power of God. O how much might be written on this subject! this, however, is not the place for it.
I have said this to explain the stanza that follows, in which the soul replies to those who call in question its holy tranquillity, who will have it wholly occupied with outward duties, that its light may shine before the world: these persons have no conception of the fibres and the unseen root whence the sap is drawn, and which nourish the fruit.
// then on the common land
I am no longer seen or found,
You will say that I am lost;
That being enamoured,
I lost myself; and yet was found.
THE soul replies here to a tacit reproach. Worldly people are in the habit of censuring those who give them selves up in earnest to God, regarding them as extrava gant, in their withdrawal from the world, and in their manner of life. They say also of them that they are useless for all matters of importance, and lost to every thing the world prizes and respects! This reproach the soul meets in the best way; boldly and courageously despising it with everything else that the world can lay to its charge. Having attained to a living love of God, it makes little account of all this; and that is not all: it confesses it itself in this stanza, and boasts that it has committed that folly, and that it is lost to the world and to itself for the Beloved.
- That which the soul is saying here, addressing itself to the world, is in substance this: . ' If you see me no longer occupied with the subjects that engrossed me once, with the other pastimes of the world, say and believe that I am lost to them, and a stranger to them, yea, that I am lost of my own choice, seeking my Beloved whom I so greatly love.' But that they may see that the soul's loss is gain, and not consider it folly and de lusion, it adds that its loss was gain, and that it therefore lost itself deliberately.
' If then on the common I am no longer seen or found.'
- The common is a public place where people assemble for recreation, and where shepherds feed their flocks. By the common here is meant the world in general, where men amuse themselves and feed the herd of their desires. The soul says to the worldly-minded: ' If you see me no more where I used to be before I gave myself up wholly to God, look upon me as lost, and say so ': the soul rejoices in that and would have men so speak of it.
' Say that I am lost/
He who loves is not ashamed before men of what he does for God, neither does he hide it through shame though the whole world should condemn it. He who shall be ashamed to confess the Son of God before men, neglecting to do His work, the Son of God also will be ashamed to acknowledge him before His Father. ' He that shall deny Me before men, I will also deny him before My Father Who is in heaven.'3 The soul, therefore, in the courage of its love, glories in what ministers to the honour of the Beloved, in that it has done anything for Him and is lost to the things of the world.
But few spiritual persons arrive at this perfect courage and resolution in their conduct. For though some attempt to practise it, and some even think them selves proficient therein, they never entirely lose themselves on certain points connected with the world or self, so as to be perfectly detached for the sake of Christ, despising appearances and the opinion of the world. These can never answer, 'Say that I am lost/ because they are not lost to themselves, and are still ashamed to confess Christ before men through human respect; these do not therefore really live in Christ.
' That being enamoured/
That is, practising virtues for the love of God, ' I lost myself; and yet was found.'
The soul remembers well the words of the Bride groom in the Gospel: ' No man can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other/4 and therefore, in order not to lose God, loses all that is not God, that is, all created things, even itself, being lost to all things for the love of Him. He who truly loves makes shipwreck of himself in all else that he may gain the more in the object of his love. Thus the soul says that it has lost itself — that is, deliberately, of set purpose.
This loss occurs in two ways. The soul loses itself, making no account whatever of itself, but of the Beloved, resigning itself freely into His hands without any selfish views, losing itself deliberately, and seeking nothing for itself. Secondly, it loses itself in all things, making no account of anything save that which concerns the Beloved. This is to lose oneself — that is, to be willing that others should have all things. Such is he that loves God; he seeks neither gain nor reward, but only to lose all, even himself, according to God's will; this is what such an one counts gain. This is real gain, for the Apostle saith, ' to die is gain '5 — that is, to die for Christ is my gain and profit spiritually. This is why the soul says that it ' was found '; for he who knows not how to lose, finds not, but rather loses himself, as our Saviour teaches us in the Gospel, saying, ' He that will save his life shall lose it; and he that shall lose his life for My sake shall find it.'6
But if we wish to know the deeper spiritual meaning of this line, and its peculiar fitness here, it is as follows: When a soul has advanced so far on the spiritual road as to be lost to all the natural methods of communing with God; when it seeks Him no longer by meditation, images, impressions, nor by any other created ways, or representations of sense, but only by rising above them all, in the joyful communion with Him by faith and love, then it may be said to have found God of a truth, because it has truly lost itself as to all that is not God, and also as to its own self.
Footnotes
Chapter 30 of 41