Part 1, lesson 25. Of the mystery of the Ascension of our Lord ; of its grace and state, which is that of the perfect

Q. What is then the grace and state of the mystery of the Ascension ?

A. It is a state of perfect transformation into God, a state of triumph and glory, a state in which nothing infirm any longer, appears.

Q. Did any infirmity appear in our Lord after his Resurrec tion ?

A. He had still some marks of it, and seemed occasionally to despoil himself of the perfect glory of his consummation in God, and of his total resem blance with his Father. He still rendered his humanity oc casionally palpable and visible to the eyes of his apostles; he still would eat with them.* But, after the day of his As cension, his glory no longer suffered any interruption or suspension; the sight of it was no longer supportable to the eyes of men: having entered into the splendor of God his Father, he now lives hidden in his bo-

• Palpate et videte, quia Spiritus camera et ossa non habet, sicut me videtis habere. Luc. xxiv, 39.

som, and no longer falls under our senses; and, although he still preserves the qualities of human nature, he does not sub ject them any longer to our in firmities. He has become a vi vifying Spirit, having perfectly entered into a participation of the nature of his Father, glorious, spiritual, all powerful; so that he even sends with him his Holy Spirit, arid participates in the fecundity of the Father, to com municate this Spirit without. For, as the eternal Word, in finitely one with his Father, by an interior and identical prin ciple, produces the Holy Ghost with him and in him, so Jesus Christ our Lord, who is exterior to God by his human nature, in uniting himself to him, and entering into perfect unity with him, produces the Holy Ghost, whom he sends with him to his apostles; and in this con sists the admirable wonder of the mystery of the Ascension. Hence, at the time when a soul enters in this state of the divine Ascension of our Lord, it receives the participa tion of his divinity, as the church" sings,* after the holy apostle, who says that we are made par takers of the divine nature, t

• Est elevatus in ccelum, ut nos divinitatis suae tribueret esse participes. Praefat. Ascensionis.

f Divinae consortes naturae, ii, Petr.

A truly wonderful state of the soul, rendered interiorly conformable and wholly similar to God, and, as the saints say, perfectly deiform, that is, all glowing with love, and lumi nous with the splendor of God.

The soul in this state does not fall any longer from its union with God, to descend to the wretched condition of hu man infirmity. It no longer yields to passion or self-love, no longer allows itself to be transformed into the creature, no longer permits in itself the love of perishable things, which makes one see himself in them and them in him, and thus causes him to lose the perfect resemblance with God and his adora ble Son ascended into heaven, where being now himself trans formed and consummated in his Father, he draws us gently to the same transformation and consummation. It is for this reason that he said to Mag dalen,* Do not touch me, for I am not yet ascended to my Father: wait until I am in that state, in which I will, draw souls to my Father, and to the transformation into him. This is what lie does in the most holy Sacrament of the al tar, in' which, having entered

• Noli me tangere ; nondum enim ascendi ad Patrem meum. Joan, xx, 17 into his power, he transforms souls into himself: "you will not change me into you, but you will be changed into me." The soul, in the state of resur rection, ought to fear the at tachment and even the approach of creatures, for fear of being transformed into them, and be coming partaker of their vile being.

Q. The state of the holy As cension is then the state of the perfect?

A. Yes; it is the state of souls that are already perfect and interiorly transformed into God, into whose being and life they have passed by virtue of a perfect and most intimate union.

Q. How truly admirable this union is ?

A. Yes; and it is for this reathat the Ascension of our Lord is called admirable,* and that it makes souls enter into a state of ineffable sanctity.

Q. Tell me something more of it, to make me still more de sirous of attaining to it?

A. The soul, in this state, is impenetrable to the attacks of the world; it is no longer sus ceptible of the imperfection of creatures; it is entirely sepa rated from the profane being; it

• Peradmirabilem Ascensionem tuam, Litan.

possesses a divine peace and repose, and is immoveable in its interior: to a soul in this state we may safely apply these words : There shall no evil come to thee, nor shall the scourge come near thy dwelling. * One would say that such a soul has already entered, by a happy anticipation, the region of eter nal bliss. This state is one of admirable purity, one in which the soul has no longer any union with profane things. It sees its old man and its flesh change and alter; but al ways intimate and interior with

• Non accede! ad te malum, et flagellum non appropinquabit tabernaculo tuo. Ps. xc, 10.

itself, it does not fall from its union with God; it remains firm, and constantly makes new pro gress; and it is only in its flesh that there is any alteration.*

• Licet is, qui foris est, noster homo qorrumpatur ; tameu is qui intus est, renovatur de die in diein. II Cor. • v, 16.