A SPIRITUAL CANTICLE OF THE SOUL
AND
THE BRIDEGROOM CHRIST
BY
ST. JOHN OF THE CROSS
TRANSLATED BY
DAVID LEWIS
WITH CORRECTIONS AND AN INTRODUCTION BY
BENEDICT ZIMMERMAN, O.C.D.
Prior of St. Luke's, Wincanton
1909
INTRODUCTION
THE present volume of the works of St. John of the Cross contains
the explanation of the 'Spiritual Canticle of the Soul and the
Bridegroom Christ.' The two earlier works, the 'Ascent of Mount
Carmel' and the 'Dark Night of the Soul,' dealt with the cleansing
of the soul, the unremittant war against even the smallest
imperfections standing in the way of union with God; imperfections
which must be removed, partly by strict self-discipline, partly by
the direct intervention of God, Who, searching 'the reins and
hearts' by means of heavy interior and exterior trials, purges
away whatever is displeasing to Him. Although some stanzas refer
to this preliminary state, the chief object of the 'Spiritual
Canticle' is to picture under the Biblical simile of Espousals and
Matrimony the blessedness of a soul that has arrived at union with
God.
The Canticle was composed during the long imprisonment St. John
underwent at Toledo from the beginning of December 1577 till the
middle of August of the following year. Being one of the principal
supporters of the Reform of St. Teresa, he was also one of the
victims of the war waged against her work by the Superiors of the
old branch of the Order. St. John's prison was a narrow, stifling
cell, with no window, but only a small loophole through which a
ray of light entered for a short time of the day, just long enough
to enable him to say his office, but affording little facility for
reading or writing. However, St. John stood in no need of books.
Having for many years meditated on every word of Holy Scripture,
the Word of God was deeply written in his heart, supplying
abundant food for conversation with God during the whole period of
his imprisonment. From time to time he poured forth his soul in
poetry; afterwards he communicated his verses to friends.
One of these poetical works, the fruit of his imprisonment, was
the 'Spiritual Canticle,' which, as the reader will notice, is an
abridged paraphrase of the Canticle of Canticles, the Song of
Solomon, wherein under the image of passionate love are described
the mystical sufferings and longings of a soul enamoured with God.
From the earliest times the Fathers and Doctors of the Church had
recognised the mystical character of the Canticle, and the Church
had largely utilised it in her liturgy. But as there is nothing so
holy but that it may be abused, the Canticle almost more than any
other portion of Holy Scripture, had been misinterpreted by a
false Mysticism, such as was rampant in the middle of the sixteenth
century. It had come to pass, said the learned and saintly
Augustinian, Fray Luis de Leon, that that which was given as a
medicine was turned into poison, [1] so that the Ecclesiastical
authority, by the Index of 1559, forbade the circulation of the
Bible or parts of the Bible in any but the original languages,
Hebrew, Greek, and Latin; and no one knew better than Luis de Leon
himself how rigorously these rules were enforced, for he had to
expiate by nearly five years' imprisonment the audacity of having
translated into Castilian the Canticle of Canticles. [2]
Again, one of the confessors of St. Teresa, commonly thought to
have been the Dominican, Fray Diego de Yanguas, on learning that
the Saint had written a book on the Canticle, ordered her to throw
it into the fire, so that we now only possess a few fragments of
her work, which, unknown to St. Teresa, had been copied by a nun.
It will now be understood that St. John's poetical paraphrase of
the Canticle must have been welcome to many contemplative souls
who desired to kindle their devotion with the words of Solomon,
but were unable to read them in Latin. Yet the text alone, without
explanation, would have helped them little; and as no one was
better qualified than the author to throw light on the mysteries
hidden under oriental imagery, the Venerable Ann of Jesus,
Prioress of the Carmelite convent at Granada, requested St. John
to write a commentary on his verses. [3] He at first excused
himself, saying that he was no longer in that state of spiritual
exuberance in which he had been when composing the Canticle, and
that there only remained to him a confused recollection of the
wonderful operations of Divine grace during the period of his
imprisonment. Ann of Jesus was not satisfied with this answer;
she not only knew that St. John had lost nothing of his fervour,
though he might no longer experience the same feelings, but she
remembered what had happened to St. Teresa under similar
circumstances, and believed the same thing might happen to St.
John. When St. Teresa was obliged to write on some mystical
phenomena, the nature of which she did not fully understand, or
whose effect she had forgotten, God granted her unexpectedly a
repetition of her former experiences so as to enable her to fully
study the matter and report on it. [4] Venerable Ann of Jesus felt
sure that if St. John undertook to write an explanation of the
Canticle he would soon find himself in the same mental attitude
as when he composed it.
St. John at last consented, and wrote the work now before us. The
following letter, which has lately come to light, gives some
valuable information of its composition. The writer, Magdalen of
the Holy Ghost, nun of Veas, where she was professed on August 6,
1577, was intimately acquainted with the Saint.
'When the holy father escaped from prison, he took with him a book
of poetry he had written while there, containing the verses
commencing "In the beginning was the Word," and those others: "I
know the fountain well which flows and runs, though it be night,"
and the canticle, "Where hast thou hidden thyself?" as far as "O
nymphs of Judea" (stanza XVIII.). The remaining verses he composed
later on while rector of the college of Baeza (1579--81), while
some of the explanations were written at Veas at the request of
the nuns, and others at Granada. The Saint wrote this book in
prison and afterwards left it at Veas, where it was handed to me
to make some copies of it. Later on it was taken away from my
cell, and I never knew who took it. I was much struck with the
vividness and the beauty and subtlety of the words. One day I
asked the Saint whether God had given him these words which so
admirably explain those mysteries, and He answered: "Child,
sometimes God gave them to me, and at other times I sought them
myself."' [5]
The autograph of St. John's work which is preserved at Ja�n bears
the following title:
'Explanation of Stanzas treating of the exercise of love
between the soul and Jesus Christ its Spouse, dealing with
and commenting on certain points and effects of prayer;
written at the request of Mother Ann of Jesus, prioress of
the Discalced Carmelite nuns of St. Joseph's convent,
Granada, 1584.'
As might be expected, the author dedicated the book to Ann of
Jesus, at whose request he had written it. Thus, he began his
Prologue with the following words: 'Inasmuch as this canticle,
Reverend Mother (Religiosa Madre), seems to have been written,'
etc. A little further on he said: 'The stanzas that follow, having
been written under the influence of that love which proceeds from
the overflowing mystical intelligence, cannot be fully explained.
Indeed, I do not purpose any such thing, for my sole purpose is to
throw some general light over them, since Your Reverence has asked
me to do so, and since this, in my opinion too, is the better
course.' And again: 'I shall, however, pass over the more ordinary
(effects of prayer), and treat briefly of the more extraordinary
to which they are subject who, by the mercy of God, have advanced
beyond the state of beginners. This I do for two reasons: the
first is that much is already written concerning beginners; and
the second is that I am addressing myself to Your Reverence at
your own bidding; for you have received from Our Lord the grace of
being led on from the elementary state and led inwards to the
bosom of His divine love.' He continues thus: 'I therefore trust,
though I may discuss some points of scholastic theology relating
to the interior commerce of the soul with God, that I am not using
such language altogether in vain, and that it will be found
profitable for pure spirituality. For though Your Reverence is
ignorant of scholastic theology, you are by no means ignorant of
mystical theology, the science of love, etc.'
From these passages it appears quite clearly that the Saint wrote
the book for Venerable Ann of Jesus and the nuns of her convent.
With the exception of an edition published at Brussels in 1627,
these personal allusions have disappeared from both the Spanish
text and the translations, [6] nor are they to be found in Mr.
Lewis's version. There cannot be the least doubt that they
represent St. John's own intention, for they are to be found in
his original manuscript. This, containing, in several parts,
besides the Explanation of the Spiritual Canticle, various poems
by the Saint, was given by him to Ann of Jesus, who in her turn
committed it to the care of one of her nuns, Isabelle of the
Incarnation, who took it with her to Baeza, where she remained
eleven years, and afterwards to Ja�n, where she founded a convent
of which she became the first prioress. She there caused the
precious manuscript to be bound in red velvet with silver clasps
and gilt edges. It still was there in 1876, and, for aught we
know, remains to the present day in the keeping of the said
convent. It is a pity that no photographic edition of the writings
of St. John (so far as the originals are preserved) has yet been
attempted, for there is need for a critical edition of his works.
The following is the division of the work: Stanzas I. to IV. are
introductory; V. to XII. refer to the contemplative life in its
earlier stages; XIII. to XXI., dealing with what the Saint calls
the Espousals, appertain to the Unitive way, where the soul is
frequently, but not habitually, admitted to a transient union with
God; and XXII. to the end describe what he calls Matrimony, the
highest perfection a soul can attain this side of the grave. The
reader will find an epitome of the whole system of mystical
theology in the explanation of Stanza XXVI.
This work differs in many respects from the 'Ascent' and the 'Dark
Night.' Whereas these are strictly systematic, preceeding on the
line of relentless logic, the 'Spiritual Canticle,' as a poetical
work ought to do, soars high above the divisions and distinctions
of the scholastic method. With a boldness akin to that of his
Patron Saint, the Evangelist, St. John rises to the highest
heights, touching on a subject that should only be handled by a
Saint, and which the reader, were he a Saint himself, will do well
to treat cautiously: the partaking by the human soul of the Divine
Nature, or, as St. John calls it, the Deification of the soul
(Stanza XXVI. sqq.), These are regions where the ordinary mind
threatens to turn; but St. John, with the knowledge of what he
himself had experienced, not once but many times, what he had
observed in others, and what, above all, he had read of in Holy
Scripture, does not shrink from lifting the veil more completely
than probably any Catholic writer on mystical theology has done.
To pass in silence the last wonders of God's love for fear of
being misunderstood, would have been tantamount to ignoring the
very end for which souls are led along the way of perfection; to
reveal these mysteries in human language, and say all that can be
said with not a word too much, not an uncertain or misleading line
in the picture: this could only have been accomplished by one whom
the Church has already declared to have been taught by God Himself
(divinitus instructus), and whose books She tells us are filled
with heavenly wisdom (coelesti sapientia refertos). It is hoped
that sooner or later She will proclaim him (what many grave
authorities think him to be) a Doctor of the Church, namely, the
Doctor of Mystical theology. [7]
As has already been noticed in the Introduction to the 'Ascent,'
the whole of the teaching of St. John is directly derived from
Holy Scripture and from the psychological principles of St. Thomas
Aquinas. There is no trace to be found of an influence of the
Mystics of the Middle Age, with whose writings St. John does not
appear to have been acquainted. But throughout this treatise there
are many obvious allusions to the writings of St. Teresa, nor will
the reader fail to notice the encouraging remark about the
publication of her works (stanza xiii, sect. 8). The fact is that
the same Venerable Ann of Jesus who was responsible for the
composition of St. John's treatise was at the same time making
preparations for the edition of St. Teresa's works which a few
years later appeared at Salamanca under the editorship of Fray
Luis de Leon, already mentioned.
Those of his readers who have been struck with, not to say
frightened by, the exactions of St. John in the 'Ascent' and the
'Dark Night,' where he demands complete renunciation of every kind
of satisfaction and pleasure, however legitimate in themselves,
and an entire mortification of the senses as well as the faculties
and powers of the soul, and who have been wondering at his self-
abnegation which caused him not only to accept, but even to court
contempt, will find here the clue to this almost inhuman attitude.
In his response to the question of Our Lord, 'What shall I give
thee for all thou hast done and suffered for Me?' 'Lord, to suffer
and be despised for Thee'--he was not animated by grim misanthropy
or stoic indifference, but he had learned that in proportion as
the human heart is emptied of Self, after having been emptied of
all created things, it is open to the influx of Divine grace. This
he fully proves in the 'Spiritual Canticle.' To be made 'partaker
of the Divine Nature,' as St. Peter says, human nature must
undergo a radical transformation. Those who earnestly study the
teaching of St. John in his earlier treatises and endeavour to put
his recommendations into practice, will see in this and the next
volume an unexpected perspective opening before their eyes, and
they will begin to understand how it is that the sufferings of
this time--whether voluntary or involuntary--are not worthy to be
compared with the glory to come that shall be revealed in us.
Mr. Lewis's masterly translation of the works of St. John of the
Cross appeared in 1864 under the auspices of Cardinal Wiseman. In
the second edition, of 1889, he made numerous changes, without,
however, leaving a record of the principles that guided him.
Sometimes, indeed, the revised edition is terser than the first,
but just as often the old one seems clearer. It is more difficult
to understand the reasons that led him to alter very extensively
the text of quotations from Holy Scripture. In the first edition
he had nearly always strictly adhered to the Douay version, which
is the one in official use in the Catholic Church in English-
speaking countries. It may not always be as perfect as one would
wish it to be, but it must be acknowledged that the wholesale
alteration in Mr. Lewis's second edition is, to say the least,
puzzling. Even the Stanzas have undergone many changes in the
second edition, and it will be noticed that there are some
variants in their text as set forth at the beginning of the book,
and as repeated at the heading of each chapter.
The present edition, allowing for some slight corrections, is a
reprint of that of 1889.
BENEDICT ZIMMERMAN, PRIOR, O.C.D.
ST. LUKES, WINCANTON, SOMERSET,
Feast of St. Simon Stock,
May 16, 1909.
A SPIRITUAL CANTICLE OF THE SOUL
AND THE BRIDEGROOM CHRIST [8]
PROLOGUE
INASMUCH as this canticle seems to have been written with some
fervour of love of God, whose wisdom and love are, as is said in
the book of Wisdom, [9] so vast that they reach 'from end unto
end,' and as the soul, taught and moved by Him, manifests the
same abundance and strength in the words it uses, I do not
purpose here to set forth all that greatness and fulness the
spirit of love, which is fruitful, embodies in it. Yea, rather it
would be foolishness to think that the language of love and the
mystical intelligence--and that is what these stanzas are--can be
at all explained in words of any kind, for the Spirit of our Lord
who helps our weakness--as St. Paul saith [10]--dwelling in us
makes petitions for us with groaning unutterable for that which
we cannot well understand or grasp so as to be able to make it
known. 'The Spirit helpeth our infirmity . . . the Spirit Himself
requesteth for us with groanings unspeakable.' For who can
describe that which He shows to loving souls in whom He dwells?
Who can set forth in words that which He makes them feel? and,
lastly, who can explain that for which they long?
2. Assuredly no one can do it; not even they themselves who
experience it. That is the reason why they use figures of special
comparisons and similitudes; they hide somewhat of that which they
feel and in the abundance of the Spirit utter secret mysteries
rather than express themselves in clear words.
3. And if these similitudes be not received in the simplicity of a
loving mind, and in the sense in which they are uttered, they will
seem to be effusions of folly rather than the language of reason;
as any one may see in the divine Canticle of Solomon, and in
others of the sacred books, wherein the Holy Ghost, because
ordinary and common speech could not convey His meaning, uttered
His mysteries in strange terms and similitudes. It follows from
this, that after all that the holy doctors have said, and may say,
no words of theirs can explain it; nor can words do it; and so, in
general, all that is said falls far short of the meaning.
4. The stanzas that follow having been written under influence of
that love which proceeds from the overflowing mystical
intelligence, cannot be fully explained. Indeed I do not purpose
any such thing, for my sole object is to throw some general light
over them, which in my opinion is the better course. It is better
to leave the outpourings of love in their own fulness, that every
one may apply them according to the measure of his spirit and
power, than to pare them down to one particular sense which is not
suited to the taste of every one. And though I do put forth a
particular explanation, still others are not to be bound by it.
The mystical wisdom--that is, the love, of which these stanzas
speak--does not require to be distinctly understood in order to
produce the effect of love and tenderness in the soul, for it is
in this respect like faith, by which we love God without a clear
comprehension of Him.
5. I shall therefore be very concise, though now and then unable
to avoid some prolixity where the subject requires it, and when
the opportunity is offered of discussing and explaining certain
points and effects of prayer: many of which being referred to in
these stanzas, I must discuss some of them. I shall, however, pass
over the more ordinary ones, and treat briefly of the more
extraordinary to which they are subject who, by the mercy of God,
have advanced beyond the state of beginners. This I do for two
reasons: the first is, that much is already written concerning
beginners; and the second is, that I am addressing those who have
received from our Lord the grace of being led on from the
elementary state and are led inwards to the bosom of His divine
love.
6. I therefore trust, though I may discuss some points of
scholastic theology relating to the interior commerce of the soul
with God, that I am not using such language altogether in vain,
and that it will be found profitable for pure spirituality. For
though some may be altogether ignorant of scholastic theology by
which the divine verities are explained, yet they are not ignorant
of mystical theology, the science of love, by which those verities
are not only learned, but at the same time are relished also.
7. And in order that what I am going to say may be the better
received, I submit myself to higher judgments, and unreservedly to
that of our holy mother the Church, intending to say nothing in
reliance on my own personal experience, or on what I have observed
in other spiritual persons, nor on what I have heard them say--
though I intend to profit by all this--unless I can confirm it
with the sanction of the divine writings, at least on those
points which are most difficult of comprehension.
8. The method I propose to follow in the matter is this: first
of all, to cite the words of the text and then to give that
explanation of them which belongs to the subject before me. I
shall now transcribe all the stanzas and place them at the
beginning of this treatise. In the next place, I shall take each
of them separately, and explain them line by line, each line in
its proper place before the explanation.
SONG OF THE SOUL AND THE BRIDEGROOM
I
THE BRIDE
Where hast Thou hidden Thyself,
And abandoned me in my groaning, O my Beloved?
Thou hast fled like the hart,
Having wounded me.
I ran after Thee, crying; but Thou wert gone.
II
O shepherds, you who go
Through the sheepcots up the hill,
If you shall see Him
Whom I love the most,
Tell Him I languish, suffer, and die.
III
In search of my Love
I will go over mountains and strands;
I will gather no flowers,
I will fear no wild beasts;
And pass by the mighty and the frontiers.
IV
O groves and thickets
Planted by the hand of the Beloved;
O verdant meads
Enamelled with flowers,
Tell me, has He passed by you?
V
ANSWER OF THE CREATURES
A thousand graces diffusing
He passed through the groves in haste,
And merely regarding them
As He passed
Clothed them with His beauty.
VI
THE BRIDE
Oh! who can heal me?
Give me at once Thyself,
Send me no more
A messenger
Who cannot tell me what I wish.
VII
All they who serve are telling me
Of Thy unnumbered graces;
And all wound me more and more,
And something leaves me dying,
I know not what, of which they are darkly speaking.
VIII
But how thou perseverest, O life,
Not living where thou livest;
The arrows bring death
Which thou receivest
From thy conceptions of the Beloved.
IX
Why, after wounding
This heart, hast Thou not healed it?
And why, after stealing it,
Hast Thou thus abandoned it,
And not carried away the stolen prey?
X
Quench Thou my troubles,
For no one else can soothe them;
And let mine eyes behold Thee,
For thou art their light,
And I will keep them for Thee alone.
XI
Reveal Thy presence,
And let the vision and Thy beauty kill me,
Behold the malady
Of love is incurable
Except in Thy presence and before Thy face.
XII
O crystal well!
Oh that on Thy silvered surface
Thou wouldest mirror forth at once
Those eyes desired
Which are outlined in my heart!
XIII
Turn them away, O my Beloved!
I am on the wing:
THE BRIDEGROOM
Return, My Dove!
The wounded hart
Looms on the hill
In the air of thy flight and is refreshed.
XIV
My Beloved is the mountains,
The solitary wooded valleys,
The strange islands,
The roaring torrents,
The whisper of the amorous gales;
XV
The tranquil night
At the approaches of the dawn,
The silent music,
The murmuring solitude,
The supper which revives, and enkindles love.
XVI
Catch us the foxes,
For our vineyard hath flourished;
While of roses
We make a nosegay,
And let no one appear on the hill.
XVII
O killing north wind, cease!
Come, south wind, that awakenest love!
Blow through my garden,
And let its odours flow,
And the Beloved shall feed among the flowers.
XVIII
O nymphs of Judea!
While amid the flowers and the rose-trees
The amber sends forth its perfume,
Tarry in the suburbs,
And touch not our thresholds.
XIX
Hide thyself, O my Beloved!
Turn Thy face to the mountains,
Do not speak,
But regard the companions
Of her who is travelling amidst strange islands.
XX
THE BRIDEGROOM
Light-winged birds,
Lions, fawns, bounding does,
Mountains, valleys, strands,
Waters, winds, heat,
And the terrors that keep watch by night;
XXI
By the soft lyres
And the siren strains, I adjure you,
Let your fury cease,
And touch not the wall,
That the bride may sleep in greater security.
XXII
The bride has entered
The pleasant and desirable garden,
And there reposes to her heart's content;
Her neck reclining
On the sweet arms of the Beloved.
XXIII
Beneath the apple-tree
There wert thou betrothed;
There I gave thee My hand,
And thou wert redeemed
Where thy mother was corrupted.
XXIV
THE BRIDE
Our bed is of flowers
By dens of lions encompassed,
Hung with purple,
Made in peace,
And crowned with a thousand shields of gold.
XXV
In Thy footsteps
The young ones run Thy way;
At the touch of the fire
And by the spiced wine,
The divine balsam flows.
XXVI
In the inner cellar
Of my Beloved have I drunk; and when I went forth
Over all the plain
I knew nothing,
And lost the flock I followed before.
XXVII
There He gave me His breasts,
There He taught me the science full of sweetness.
And there I gave to Him
Myself without reserve;
There I promised to be His bride.
XXVIII
My soul is occupied,
And all my substance in His service;
Now I guard no flock,
Nor have I any other employment:
My sole occupation is love.
XXIX
If, 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.
XXX
Of emeralds, and of flowers
In the early morning gathered,
We will make the garlands,
Flowering in Thy love,
And bound together with one hair of my head.
XXXI
By that one hair
Thou hast observed fluttering on my neck,
And on my neck regarded,
Thou wert captivated;
And wounded by one of my eyes.
XXXII
When Thou didst regard me,
Thine eyes imprinted in me Thy grace:
For this didst Thou love me again,
And thereby mine eyes did merit
To adore what in Thee they saw
XXXIII
Despise me not,
For if I was swarthy once
Thou canst regard me now;
Since Thou hast regarded me,
Grace and beauty hast Thou given me.
XXXIV
THE BRIDEGROOM
The little white dove
Has returned to the ark with the bough;
And now the turtle-dove
Its desired mate
On the green banks has found.
XXXV
In solitude she lived,
And in solitude built her nest;
And in solitude, alone
Hath the Beloved guided her,
In solitude also wounded with love.
XXXVI
THE BRIDE
Let us rejoice, O my Beloved!
Let us go forth to see ourselves in Thy beauty,
To the mountain and the hill,
Where the pure water flows:
Let us enter into the heart of the thicket.
XXXVII
We shall go at once
To the deep caverns of the rock
Which are all secret,
There we shall enter in
And taste of the new wine of the pomegranate.
XXXVIII
There thou wilt show me
That which my soul desired;
And there Thou wilt give at once,
O Thou, my life!
That which Thou gavest me the other day.
XXXIX
The breathing of the air,
The song of the sweet nightingale,
The grove and its beauty
In the serene night,
With the flame that consumes, and gives no pains.
XL
None saw it;
Neither did Aminadab appear
The siege was intermitted,
And the cavalry dismounted
At the sight of the waters.
ARGUMENT
These stanzas describe the career of a soul from its first
entrance on the service of God till it comes to the final state of
perfection--the spiritual marriage. They refer accordingly to the
three states or ways of the spiritual training--the purgative,
illuminative, and unitive ways, some properties and effects of
which they explain.
The first stanzas relate to beginners--to the purgative way. The
second to the advanced--to the state of spiritual betrothal; that
is, the illuminative way. The next to the unitive way--that of the
perfect, the spiritual Marriage. The unitive way, that of the
perfect, follows the illuminative, which is that of the advanced.
The last stanzas treat of the beatific state, which only the
already perfect soul aims at.
EXPLANATION OF THE STANZAS
NOTE
THE soul, considering the obligations of its state, seeing that
'the days of man are short;' [11] that the way of eternal life is
strait; [12] that 'the just man shall scarcely be saved;' [13]
that the things of this world are empty and deceitful; that all
die and perish like water poured on the ground; [14] that time is
uncertain, the last account strict, perdition most easy, and
salvation most difficult; and recognising also, on the other
hand, the great debt that is owing to God, Who has created it
solely for Himself, for which the service of its whole life is
due, Who has redeemed it for Himself alone, for which it owes Him
all else, and the correspondence of its will to His love; and
remembering other innumerable blessings for which it acknowledges
itself indebted to God even before it was born: and also that a
great part of its life has been wasted, and that it will have to
render an account of it all from beginning unto the end, to the
payment of 'the last farthing,' [15] when God shall 'search
Jerusalem with lamps;' [16] that it is already late, and perhaps
the end of the day: [17] in order to remedy so great an evil,
especially when it is conscious that God is grievously offended,
and that He has hidden His face from it, because it would forget
Him for the creature,�the soul, now touched with sorrow and
inward sinking of the heart at the sight of its imminent risks
and ruin, renouncing everything and casting them aside without
delaying for a day, or even an hour, with fear and groanings
uttered from the heart, and wounded with the love of God, begins
to invoke the Beloved and says:
STANZA I
THE BRIDE
Where hast Thou hidden Thyself,
And abandoned me to my sorrow, O my Beloved!
Thou hast fled like the hart,
Having wounded me.
I ran after Thee, crying; but Thou wert gone.
IN this first stanza the soul, enamoured of the Word, the Son of
God, the Bridegroom, desiring to be united to Him in the clear and
substantial vision, sets before Him the anxieties of its love,
complaining of His absence. And this the more so because, now
pierced and wounded with love, for which it had abandoned all
things, even itself, it has still to endure the absence of the
Beloved, Who has not released it from its mortal flesh, that it
might have the fruition of Him in the glory of eternity. Hence it
cries out,
'Where hast Thou hidden Thyself?'
2. It is as if the soul said, 'Show me, O Thou the Word, my
Bridegroom, the place where Thou art hidden.' It asks for the
revelation of the divine Essence; for the place where the Son of
God is hidden is, according to St. John, 'the bosom of the
Father,' [18] which is the divine Essence, transcending all mortal
vision, and hidden from all human understanding, as Isaias saith,
speaking to God, 'Verily Thou art a hidden God.' [19] From this we
learn that the communication and sense of His presence, however
great they may be, and the most sublime and profound knowledge of
God which the soul may have in this life, are not God essentially,
neither have they any affinity with Him, for in very truth He is
still hidden from the soul; and it is therefore expedient for it,
amid all these grandeurs, always to consider Him as hidden, and to
seek Him in His hiding-place, saying,
'Where hast Thou hidden Thyself?'
3. Neither sublime communications nor sensible presence furnish
any certain proof of His gracious presence; nor is the absence
thereof, and aridity, any proof of His absence from the soul. 'If
He come to me, I shall not see Him; if He depart, I shall not
understand.' [20] That is, if the soul have any great
communication, or impression, or spiritual knowledge, it must not
on that account persuade itself that what it then feels is to
enjoy or see God clearly and in His Essence, or that it brings it
nearer to Him, or Him to it, however deep such feelings may be.
On the other hand, when all these sensible and spiritual
communications fail it, and it is itself in dryness, darkness,
and desolation, it must not on that account suppose that God is
far from it; for in truth the former state is no sign of its
being in a state of grace, nor is the latter a sign that it is
not; for 'man knoweth not whether he be worthy of love or hatred'
[21] in the sight of God.
4. The chief object of the soul in these words is not to ask only
for that affective and sensible devotion, wherein there is no
certainty or evidence of the possession of the Bridegroom in this
life; but principally for that clear presence and vision of His
Essence, of which it longs to be assured and satisfied in the
next. This, too, was the object of the bride who, in the divine
song desiring to be united to the Divinity of the Bridegroom Word,
prayed to the Father, saying, 'Show me where Thou feedest, where
Thou liest in the midday.' [22] For to ask to be shown the place
where He fed was to ask to be shown the Essence of the Divine
Word, the Son; because the Father feedeth nowhere else but in His
only begotten Son, Who is the glory of the Father. In asking to be
shown the place where He lieth in the midday, was to ask for the
same thing, because the Son is the sole delight of the Father, Who
lieth in no other place, and is comprehended by no other thing,
but in and by His beloved Son, in Whom He reposeth wholly,
communicating to Him His whole Essence, in the 'midday,' which is
eternity, where the Father is ever begetting and the Son ever
begotten.
5. This pasture, then, is the Bridegroom Word, where the Father
feedeth in infinite glory. He is also the bed of flowers whereupon
He reposes with infinite delight of love, profoundly hidden from
all mortal vision and every created thing. This is the meaning of
the bride-soul when she says,
'Where hast Thou hidden Thyself?'
6. That the thirsty soul may find the Bridegroom, and be one with
Him in the union of love in this life--so far as that is possible--
and quench its thirst with that drink which it is possible to
drink of at His hands in this life, it will be as well--since that
is what the Soul asks of Him--that We should answer for Him, and
point out the special spot where He is hidden, that He may be
found there in that perfection and sweetness of which this life is
capable, and that the soul may not begin to loiter uselessly in
the footsteps of its companions.
7. We must remember that the Word, the Son of God, together with
the Father and the Holy Ghost, is hidden in essence and in
presence, in the inmost being of the soul. That soul, therefore,
that will find Him, must go out from all things in will and
affection, and enter into the profoundest self-recollection, and
all things must be to it as if they existed not. Hence, St.
Augustine saith: 'I found Thee not without, O Lord; I sought Thee
without in vain, for Thou art within,' [23] God is therefore
hidden within the soul, and the true contemplative will seek Him
there in love, saying,
'Where hast Thou hidden Thyself?'
8. O thou soul, then, most beautiful of creatures, who so longest
to know the place where thy Beloved is, that thou mayest seek Him,
and be united to Him, thou knowest now that thou art thyself that
very tabernacle where He dwells, the secret chamber of His retreat
where He is hidden. Rejoice, therefore, and exult, because all thy
good and all thy hope is so near thee as to be within thee; or, to
speak more accurately, that thou canst not be without it, 'for lo,
the kingdom of God is within you.' [24] So saith the Bridegroom
Himself, and His servant, St. Paul, adds: 'You are the temple of
the living God.' [25] What joy for the soul to learn that God
never abandons it, even in mortal sin; how much less in a state
of grace! [26]
9. What more canst thou desire, what more canst thou seek without,
seeing that within thou hast thy riches, thy delight, thy
satisfaction, thy fulness and thy kingdom; that is, thy Beloved,
Whom thou desirest and seekest? Rejoice, then, and be glad in Him
with interior recollection, seeing that thou hast Him so near.
Then love Him, then desire Him, then adore Him, and go not to seek
Him out of thyself, for that will be but distraction and
weariness, and thou shalt not find Him; because there is no
fruition of Him more certain, more ready, or more intimate than
that which is within.
10. One difficulty alone remains: though He is within, yet He is
hidden. But it is a great matter to know the place of His secret
rest, that He may be sought there with certainty. The knowledge of
this is that which thou askest for here, O soul, when with loving
affection thou criest,
'Where hast Thou hidden Thyself?'
11. You will still urge and say, How comes it, then, that I find
Him not, nor feel Him, if He is within my soul? It is because He
is hidden, and because thou hidest not thyself also that thou
mayest find Him and feel Him; for he that will seek that which is
hidden must enter secretly into the secret place where it is
hidden, and when he finds it, he is himself hidden like the object
of his search. Seeing, then, that the Bridegroom whom thou lovest
is 'the treasure hidden in the field' [27] of thy soul, for which
the wise merchant gave all that he had, so thou, if thou wilt
find Him, must forget all that is thine, withdraw from all
created things, and hide thyself in the secret retreat of the
spirit, shutting the door upon thyself--that is, denying thy will
in all things--and praying to thy Father in secret. [28] Then
thou, being hidden with Him, wilt be conscious of His presence in
secret, and wilt love Him, possess Him in secret, and delight in
Him in secret, in a way that no tongue or language can express.
12. Courage, then, O soul most beautiful, thou knowest now that
thy Beloved, Whom thou desirest, dwelleth hidden within thy
breast; strive, therefore, to be truly hidden with Him, and then
thou shalt embrace Him, and be conscious of His presence with
loving affection. Consider also that He bids thee, by the mouth of
Isaias, to come to His secret hiding-place, saying, Go, . . . enter
into thy chambers, shut thy doors upon thee'; that is, all thy
faculties, so that no created thing shall enter: 'be hid a little
for a moment,' [29] that is, for the moment of this mortal life;
for
if now during this life which is short, thou wilt 'with all
watchfulness keep thy heart,' [30] as the wise man saith, God will
most assuredly give thee, as He hath promised by the prophet
Isaias, 'hidden treasures and mysteries of secrets.' [31] The
substance of these secrets is God Himself, for He is the substance
of the faith, and the object of it, and the faith is the secret
and the mystery. And when that which the faith conceals shall be
revealed and made manifest, that is the perfection of God, as St.
Paul saith, 'When that which is perfect is come,' [32] then shall
be revealed to the soul the substance and mysteries of these
secrets.
13. Though in this mortal life the soul will never reach to the
interior secrets as it will in the next, however much it may hide
itself, still, if it will hide itself with Moses, 'in the hole of
the rock'--which is a real imitation of the perfect life of the
Bridegroom, the Son of God--protected by the right hand of God, it
will merit the vision of the 'back parts'; [33] that is, it will
reach to such perfection here, as to be united, and transformed by
love, in the Son of God, its Bridegroom. So effectually will this
be wrought that the soul will feel itself so united to Him, so
learned and so instructed in His secrets, that, so far as the
knowledge of Him in this life is concerned, it will be no longer
necessary for it to say: 'Where hast Thou hidden Thyself?'
14. Thou knowest then, O soul, how thou art to demean thyself if
thou wilt find the Bridegroom in His secret place. But if thou
wilt hear it again, hear this one word full of substance and
unapproachable truth: Seek Him in faith and love, without seeking
to satisfy thyself in aught, or to understand more than is
expedient for thee to know; for faith and love are the two guides
of the blind; they will lead thee, by a way thou knowest not, to
the secret chamber of God. Faith, the secret of which I am
speaking, is the foot that journeys onwards to God, and love is
the guide that directs its steps. And while the soul meditates on
the mysterious secrets of the faith, it will merit the revelation,
on the part of love, of that which the faith involves, namely, the
Bridegroom Whom it longs for, in this life by spiritual grace, and
the divine union, as we said before, [34] and in the next in
essential glory, face to face, hidden now.
15. But meanwhile, though the soul attains to union, the highest
state possible in this life, yet inasmuch as He is still hidden
from it in the bosom of the Father, as I have said, the soul
longing for the fruition of Him in the life to come, ever cries,
'Where hast Thou hidden Thyself?'
16. Thou doest well, then, O soul, in seeking Him always in His
secret place; for thou greatly magnifiest God, and drawest near
unto Him, esteeming Him as far beyond and above all thou canst
reach. Rest, therefore, neither wholly nor in part, on what thy
faculties can embrace; never seek to satisfy thyself with what
thou comprehendest of God, but rather with what thou comprehendest
not; and never rest on the love of, and delight in, that which
thou canst understand and feel, but rather on that which is beyond
thy understanding and feeling: this is, as I have said, to seek
Him by faith.
17. God is, as I said before, [35] inaccessible and hidden, and
though it may seem that thou hast found Him, felt Him, and
comprehended Him, yet thou must ever regard Him as hidden, serve
Him as hidden, in secret. Be not thou like many unwise, who, with
low views of God, think that when they cannot comprehend Him, or
be conscious of His presence, that He is then farther away and
more hidden, when the contrary is true, namely, that He is nearer
to them when they are least aware of it; as the prophet David
saith, 'He put darkness His covert,' [36] Thus, when thou art near
unto Him, the very infirmity of thy vision makes the darkness
palpable; thou doest well, therefore, at all times, in prosperity
as well as in adversity, spiritual or temporal, to look upon God
as hidden, and to say unto Him, 'Where hast Thou hidden Thyself?
'And left me to my sorrow, O my Beloved?'
18. The soul calls Him 'my Beloved,' the more to move Him to
listen to its cry, for God, when loved, most readily listens to
the prayer of him who loves Him. Thus He speaks Himself: 'If you
abide in Me . . . you shall ask what thing soever you will, and it
shall be done to you.' [37] The soul may then with truth call Him
Beloved, when it is wholly His, when the heart has no attachments
but Him, and when all the thoughts are continually directed to
Him. It was the absence of this that made Delila say to Samson,
'How dost thou say thou lovest me when thy mind is not with me?'
[38] The mind comprises the thoughts and the feelings. Some there
are who call the Bridegroom their Beloved, but He is not really
beloved, because their heart is not wholly with Him. Their prayers
are, therefore, not so effectual before God, and they shall not
obtain their petitions until, persevering in prayer, they fix
their minds more constantly upon God and their hearts more wholly
in loving affection upon Him, for nothing can be obtained from God
but by love.
19. The words, 'And left me to my sorrow,' tell us that the
absence of the Beloved is the cause of continual sadness in him
who loves; for as such an one loves none else, so, in the absence
of the object beloved, nothing can console or relieve him. This
is, therefore, a test to discern the true lover of God. Is he
satisfied with anything less than God? Do I say satisfied? Yea, if
a man possess all things, he cannot be satisfied; the greater his
possessions the less will be his satisfaction, for the
satisfaction of the heart is not found in possessions, but in
detachment from all things and in poverty of spirit. This being
so, the perfection of love in which we possess God, by a grace
most intimate and special, lives in the soul in this life when it
has reached it, with a certain satisfaction, which however is not
full, for David, notwithstanding all his perfection, hoped for
that in heaven saying, 'I shall be satisfied when Thy glory shall
appear.' [39]
20. Thus, then, the peace and tranquillity and satisfaction of
heart to which the soul may attain in this life are not sufficient
to relieve it from its groaning, peaceful and painless though it
be, while it hopes for that which is still wanting. Groaning
belongs to hope, as the Apostle says of himself and others, though
perfect, 'Ourselves also, who have the first fruits of the Spirit,
even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption
of the sons of God.' [40] The soul groans when the heart is
enamoured, for where love wounds there is heard the groaning of
the wounded one, complaining feelingly of the absence of the
Beloved, especially when, after tasting of the sweet converse of
the Bridegroom, it finds itself suddenly alone, and in aridity,
because He has gone away. That is why it cries,
'Thou hast fled like the hart.'
21. Here it is to be observed that in the Canticle of Canticles
the bride compares the Bridegroom to the roe and the hart on the
mountains--'My Beloved is like unto a roe and to a fawn of
harts' [41]--not only because He is shy, solitary, and avoids
companions as the hart, but also for his sudden appearance and
disappearance. That is His way in His visits to devout souls in
order to comfort and encourage them, and in the withdrawing and
absence which He makes them feel after those visits in order to
try, humble, and teach them. For that purpose He makes them feel
the pain of His absence most keenly, as the following words show:
'Having wounded me.'
22. It is as if it had said, 'It was not enough that I should feel
the pain and grief which Thy absence causes, and from which I am
continually suffering, but Thou must, after wounding me with the
arrow of Thy love, and increasing my longing and desire to see
Thee, run away from me with the swiftness of the hart, and not
permit me to lay hold of Thee, even for a moment.'
23. For the clearer understanding of this we are to keep in mind
that, beside the many kinds of God's visits to the soul, in which
He wounds it with love, there are commonly certain secret touches
of love, which, like a fiery arrow, pierce and penetrate the soul,
and burn it with the fire of love. These are properly called the
wounds of love, and it is of these the soul is here speaking.
These wounds so inflame the will, that the soul becomes so
enveloped with the fire of love as to appear consumed thereby.
They make it go forth out of itself, and be renewed, and enter on
another life, as the phoenix from the fire.
24. David, speaking of this, saith, 'My heart hath been inflamed,
and my reins have been changed; and I am brought to nothing, and I
knew not.' [42] The desires and affections, called the reins by
the prophet, are all stirred and divinely changed in this burning
of the heart, and the soul, through love, melted into nothing,
knowing nothing but love. At this time the changing of the reins
is a great pain, and longing for the vision of God; it seems to
the soul that God treats it with intolerable severity, so much so
that the severity with which love treats it seems to the soul
unendurable, not because it is wounded--for it considers such
wounds to be its salvation--but because it is thus suffering from
its love, and because He has not wounded it more deeply so as to
cause death, that it may be united to Him in the life of perfect
love. The soul, therefore, magnifying its sorrows, or revealing
them, says,
'Having wounded me.'
25. The soul says in effect, 'Thou hast abandoned me after
wounding me, and Thou hast left me dying of love; and then Thou
hast hidden Thyself as a hart swiftly running away.' This
impression is most profound in the soul; for by the wound of love,
made in the soul by God, the affections of the will lead most
rapidly to the possession of the Beloved, whose touch it felt, and
as rapidly also, His absence, and its inability to have the
fruition of Him here as it desires. Thereupon succeed the groaning
because of His absence; for these visitations of God are not like
those which recreate and satisfy the soul, because they are rather
for wounding than for healing--more for afflicting than for
satisfying it, seeing that they tend rather to quicken the
knowledge, and increase the longing, and consequently pain with
the longing for the vision of God. They are called the spiritual
wounds of love, most sweet to the soul and desirable; and,
therefore, when it is thus wounded the soul would willingly die a
thousand deaths, because these wounds make it go forth out of
itself, and enter into God, which is the meaning of the words that
follow:
'I ran after Thee, crying; but Thou wert gone.'
26. There can be no remedy for the wounds of love but from Him who
inflicted them. And so the wounded soul, urged by the vehemence of
that burning which the wounds of love occasion, runs after the
Beloved, crying unto Him for relief. This spiritual running after
God has a two-fold meaning. The first is a going forth from all
created things, which is effected by hating and despising them;
the second, a going forth out of oneself, by forgetting self,
which is brought about by the love of God. For when the love of
God touches the soul with that vividness of which we are here
speaking, it so elevates it, that it goes forth not only out of
itself by self-forgetfulness, but it is also drawn away from its
own judgment, natural ways and inclinations, crying after God, 'O
my Bridegroom,' as if saying, 'By this touch of Thine and wound of
love hast Thou drawn me away not only from all created things, but
also from myself--for, in truth, soul and body seem now to part--
and raised me up to Thyself, crying after Thee in detachment from
all things that I might be attached to Thee:
'Thou wert gone.'
27. As if saying, 'When I sought Thy presence, I found Thee not;
and I was detached from all things without being able to cling to
Thee--borne painfully by the gales of love without help in Thee or
in myself.� This going forth of the soul in search of the Beloved
is the rising of the bride in the Canticle: 'I will rise and go
about the city; in the streets and the high ways I will seek Him
Whom my soul loveth. I have sought Him and have not found . . .
they wounded me.' [43] The rising of the bride--speaking
spiritually--is from that which is mean to that which is noble;
and is the same with the going forth of the soul out of its own
ways and inferior love to the ennobling love of God. The bride
says that she was wounded because she found him not; [44] so the
soul also says of itself that it is wounded with love and
forsaken; that is, the loving soul is ever in pain during the
absence of the Beloved, because it has given itself up wholly
unto Him hoping for the reward of its self-surrender, the
Possession of the Beloved. Still the Beloved withholds Himself
while the soul has lost all things, and even itself, for Him; it
obtains no compensation for its loss, seeing that it is deprived
of Him whom it loveth.
28. This pain and sense of the absence of God is wont to be so
oppressive in those who are going onwards to the state of
perfection, that they would die if God did not interpose when the
divine wounds are inflicted upon them. As they have the palate of
the will wholesome, and the mind pure and disposed for God, and as
they taste in some degree of the sweetness of divine love, which
they supremely desire, so they also suffer supremely; for, having
but a glimpse of an infinite good which they are not permitted to
enjoy, that is to them an ineffable pain and torment.
STANZA II
O shepherds, you who go
Through the sheepcots up the hill,
If you shall see
Him Whom I love,
Tell Him I languish, suffer, and die.
THE soul would now employ intercessors and mediators between
itself and the Beloved, praying them to make its sufferings and
afflictions known. One in love, when he cannot converse personally
with the object of his love, will do so in the best way he can.
Thus the soul employs its affections, desires, and groanings as
messengers well able to manifest the secret of its heart to the
Beloved. Accordingly, it calls upon them to do this, saying:
'O shepherds, you who go.'
2. The shepherds are the affections, and desires, and groanings of
the soul, for they feed it with spiritual good things. A shepherd
is one who feeds: and by means of such God communicates Himself to
the soul and feeds it in the divine pastures; for without these
groans and desires He communicates but slightly with it.
'You who go.'
You who go forth in pure love; for all desires and affections do
not reach God, but only those which proceed from sincere love.
'Through the sheepcots up the hill.'
3. The sheepcots are the heavenly hierarchies, the angelic choirs,
by whose ministry, from choir to choir, our prayers and sighs
ascend to God; that is, to the hill, 'for He is the highest
eminence, and because in Him, as on a hill, we observe and behold
all things, the higher and the lower sheepcots.� To Him our prayers
ascend, offered by angels, as I have said; so the angel said to
Tobias 'When thou didst pray with tears, and didst bury the dead .
. . I offered thy prayer to the Lord.' [45]
4. The shepherds also are the angels themselves, who not only
carry our petitions to God, but also bring down the graces of God
to our souls, feeding them like good shepherds, with the sweet
communications and inspirations of God, Who employs them in that
ministry. They also protect us and defend us against the wolves,
which are the evil spirits. And thus, whether we understand the
affections or the angels by the shepherds, the soul calls upon
both to be its messengers to the Beloved, and thus addresses them
all:
'If you shall see Him,'
That is to say:
5. If, to my great happiness you shall come into His presence, so
that He shall see you and hear your words. God, indeed, knoweth
all things, even the very thoughts of the soul, as He said unto
Moses, [46] but it is then He beholds our necessities when He
relieves them, and hears our prayers when he grants them. God does
not see all necessities and hear all petitions until the time
appointed shall have come; it is then that He is said to hear and
see, as we learn in the book of Exodus. When the children of
Israel had been afflicted for four hundred years as serfs in Egypt,
God said unto Moses, 'I have seen the affliction of my people in
Egypt, and I have heard their cry, and . . . I am come down to
deliver them.' [47] And yet He had seen it always. So also St.
Gabriel bade Zacharias not to fear, because God had heard his
prayer, and would grant him the son, for whom he had been praying
for many years; [48] yet God had always heard him. Every soul
ought to consider that God, though He does not at once help us
and grant our petitions, will still succour us in His own time,
for He is, as David saith, 'a helper in due time in tribulation,'
[49] if we do not become faint-hearted and cease to pray. This is
what the soul means by saying, 'If you shall see Him'; that is to
say, if the time is come when it shall be His good pleasure to
grant my petitions.
6. 'Whom I love the most': that is, whom I love more than all
creatures. This is true of the soul when nothing can make it
afraid to do and suffer all things in His service. And when the
soul can also truly say that which follows, it is a sign that it
loves Him above all things:
'Tell Him I languish, suffer, and die.'
7. Here the soul speaks of three things that distress it: namely,
languor, suffering, and death; for the soul that truly loves God
with a love in some degree perfect, suffers in three ways in His
absence, in its three powers ordinarily--the understanding, the
will, and the memory. In the understanding it languishes because
it does not see God, Who is the salvation of it, as the Psalmist
saith: 'I am thy salvation.' [50] In the will it suffers, because
it possesses not God, Who is its comfort and delight, as David
also saith: 'Thou shalt make them drink of the torrent of Thy
pleasure.' [51] In the memory it dies, because it remembers its
privation of all the blessings of the understanding, which are the
vision of God, and of the delights of the will, which are the
fruition of Him, and that it is very possible also that it may
lose Him for ever, because of the dangers and chances of this
life. In the memory, therefore, the soul labours under a sensation
like that of death, because it sees itself without the certain and
perfect fruition of God, Who is the life of the soul, as Moses
saith: 'He is thy life.' [52]
8. Jeremias also, in the Lamentations, speaks of these three
things, praying unto God, and saying: 'Remember my poverty . . .
the wormwood and the gall.' [53] Poverty relates to the
understanding, to which appertain the riches of the knowledge of
the Son of God, 'in whom all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge
are hid.' [54] The wormwood, which is a most bitter herb, relates
to the will, to which appertains the sweetness of the fruition of
God, deprived of which it abides in bitterness. We learn in the
Apocalypse that bitterness appertains spiritually to the will, for
the angel said to St. John: 'Take the book and eat it up; and it
shall make thy belly bitter.' [55] Here the belly signifies the
will. The gall relates not only to the memory, but also to all
the powers and faculties of the soul, for it signifies the death
thereof, as we learn from Moses speaking of the damned: 'Their
wine is the gall of dragons, and the venom of asps, which is
incurable.' [56] This signifies the loss of God, which is the
death of the soul.
9. These three things which distress the soul are grounded on the
three theological virtues--faith, charity, and hope, which relate,
in the order here assigned them, to the three faculties of the
soul--understanding, will, and memory. Observe here that the soul
does no more than represent its miseries and pain to the Beloved:
for he who loves wisely does not care to ask for that which he
wants and desires, being satisfied with hinting at his
necessities, so that the beloved one may do what shall to him seem
good. Thus the Blessed Virgin at the marriage feast of Cana asked
not directly for wine, but only said to her Beloved Son, 'They
have no wine.' [57] The sisters of Lazarus sent to Him, not to ask
Him to heal their brother, but only to say that he whom He loved
was sick: 'Lord, behold, he whom Thou lovest is sick.' [58]
10. There are three reasons for this. Our Lord knows what is
expedient for us better than we do ourselves. Secondly, the
Beloved is more compassionate towards us when He sees our
necessities and our resignation. Thirdly, we are more secured
against self-love and selfseeking when we represent our necessity,
than when we ask for that which we think we need. It is in this
way that the soul represents its three necessities; as if it said:
'Tell my Beloved, that as I languish, and as He only is my
salvation, to save me; that as I am suffering, and as He only is
my joy, to give me joy; that as I am dying, and as He only is my
life, to give me life.'
STANZA III
In search of my Love
I will go over mountains and strands;
I will gather no flowers,
I will fear no wild beasts;
And pass by the mighty and the frontiers.
THE soul, observing that its sighs and prayers suffice not to find
the Beloved, and that it has not been helped by the messengers it
invoked in the first and second stanzas, will not, because its
searching is real and its love great, leave undone anything itself
can do. The soul that really loves God is not dilatory in its
efforts to find the Son of God, its Beloved; and, even when it has
done all it could it is still not satisfied, thinking it has done
nothing. Accordingly, the soul is now, in this third stanza,
actively seeking the Beloved, and saying how He is to be found;
namely, in the practice of all virtue and in the spiritual
exercises of the active and contemplative life; for this end it
rejects all delights and all comforts; and all the power and wiles
of its three enemies, the world, the devil, and the flesh, are
unable to delay it or hinder it on the road.
'In search of my Love.'
2. Here the soul makes it known that to find God it is not enough
to pray with the heart and the tongue, or to have recourse to the
help of others; we must also work ourselves, according to our
power. God values one effort of our own more than many of others
on our behalf; the soul, therefore, remembering the saying of the
Beloved, 'Seek and you shall find,' [59] is resolved on going
forth, as I said just now, to seek Him actively, and not rest
till it finds Him, as many do who will not that God should cost
them anything but words, and even those carelessly uttered, and
for His sake will do nothing that will cost them anything. Some,
too, will not leave for His sake a place which is to their taste
and liking, expecting to receive all the sweetness of God in
their mouth and in their heart without moving a step, without
mortifying themselves by the abandonment of a single pleasure or
useless comfort.
3. But until they go forth out of themselves to seek Him, however
loudly they may cry they will not find Him; for the bride in the
Canticle sought Him in this way, but she found Him not until she
went out to seek Him: 'In my little bed in the nights I have
sought Him Whom my soul loveth: I have sought Him and have not
found Him. I will rise and will go about the city: by the streets
and highways I will seek Him Whom my soul loveth.' [60] She
afterwards adds that when she had endured Certain trials she
'found Him.' [61]
4. He, therefore, who seeks God, consulting his own ease and
comfort, seeks Him by night, and therefore finds Him not. But he
who seeks Him in the practice of virtue and of good works, casting
aside the comforts of his own bed, seeks Him by day; such an one
shall find Him, for that which is not seen by night is visible by
day. The Bridegroom Himself teaches us this, Saying, 'Wisdom is
clear and never fadeth away, and is easily seen of them that love
her, and is found of them that seek her. She preventeth them that
covet her, that she first may show herself unto them. He that
awaketh early to seek her shall not labour; for he shall find her
sitting at his doors.' [62] The soul that will go out of the house
of its own will, and abandon the bed of its own satisfaction,
will find the divine Wisdom, the Son of God, the Bridegroom
waiting at the door without, and so the soul says:
'I will go over mountains and strands.'
5. Mountains, which are lofty, signify virtues, partly on account
of their height and partly on account of the toil and labour of
ascending them; the soul says it will ascend to them in the
practice of the contemplative life. Strands, which are low,
signify mortifications, penances, and the spiritual exercises, and
the soul will add to the active life that of contemplation; for
both are necessary in seeking after God and in acquiring Virtue.
The soul says, in effect, 'In searching after my Beloved I will
practise great virtue, and abase myself by lowly mortifications
and acts of humility, for the way to seek God is to do good works
in Him, and to mortify the evil in ourselves, as it is said in the
words that follow:
'I will gather no flowers.'
6. He that will seek after God must have his heart detached,
resolute, and free from all evils, and from all goods which are
not simply God; that is the meaning of these words. The words
that follow describe the liberty and courage which the soul must
possess in searching after God. Here it declares that it will
gather no flowers by the way--the flowers are all the delights,
satisfactions, and pleasures which this life offers, and which,
if the soul sought or accepted, would hinder it on the road.
7. These flowers are of three kinds--temporal, sensual, and
spiritual. All of them occupy the heart, and stand in the way of
the spiritual detachment required in the way of Christ, if we
regard them or rest in them. The soul, therefore, says, that it
will not stop to gather any of them, that it may seek after God.
It seems to say, I will not set my heart upon riches or the goods
of this world; I will not indulge in the satisfactions and ease of
the flesh, neither will I consult the taste and comforts of my
spirit, in order that nothing may detain me in my search after my
Love on the toilsome mountains of virtue. This means that it
accepts the counsel of the prophet David to those who travel on
this road: 'If riches abound, set not your heart upon them,' [63]
This is applicable to sensual satisfactions, as well as to
temporal goods and spiritual consolations.
8. From this we learn that not only temporal goods and bodily
pleasures hinder us on the road to God, but spiritual delight and
consolations also, if we attach ourselves to them or seek them;
for these things are hindrances on the way of the cross of Christ,
the Bridegroom. He, therefore, that will go onwards must not only
not stop to gather flowers, but must also have the courage and
resolution to say as follows:
'I will fear no wild beasts and I will go over
the mighty and the frontiers.'
Here we have the three enemies of the soul which make war against
it, and make its way full of difficulties. The wild beasts are the
world; the mighty, the devil; and the frontiers are the flesh.
9. The world is the wild beasts, because in the beginning of the
heavenly journey the imagination pictures the world to the soul as
wild beasts, threatening and fierce, principally in three ways.
The first is, we must forfeit the world's favour, lose friends,
credit, reputation, and property; the second is not less cruel: we
must suffer the perpetual deprivation of all the comforts and
pleasures of the world; and the third is still worse: evil tongues
will rise against us, mock us, and speak of us with contempt. This
strikes some persons so vividly that it becomes most difficult for
them, I do not say to persevere, but even to enter on this road at
all.
10. But there are generous souls who have to encounter wild beasts
of a more interior and spiritual nature--trials, temptations,
tribulations, and afflictions of divers kinds, through which they
must pass. This is what God sends to those whom He is raising
upwards to high perfection, proving them and trying them as gold
in the fire; as David saith: 'Many are the tribulations of the
just; and out of all these our Lord will deliver them.' [64] But
the truly enamoured soul, preferring the Beloved above all things,
and relying on His love and favour, finds no difficulty in saying:
'I will fear no wild beats'
'and pass over the mighty and the frontiers.'
11. Evil spirits, the second enemy of the soul, are called the
mighty, because they strive with all their might to seize on the
passes of the spiritual road; and because the temptations they
suggest are harder to overcome, and the craft they employ more
difficult to detect, than all the seductions of the world and the
flesh; and because, also, they strengthen their own position by
the help of the world and the flesh in order to fight vigorously
against the soul. Hence the Psalmist calls them mighty, saying:
'The mighty have sought after my soul.' [65] The prophet Job also
speaks of their might: 'There is no power upon the earth that may
be compared with him who was made to fear no man.' [66]
12. There is no human power that can be compared with the power of
the devil, and therefore the divine power alone can overcome him,
and the divine light alone can penetrate his devices. No soul
therefore can overcome his might without prayer, or detect his
illusions without humility and mortification. Hence the
exhortation of St. Paul to the faithful: 'Put you on the armour of
God, that you may stand against the deceits of the devil: for our
wrestling is not against flesh and blood.' [67] Blood here is the
world, and the armour of God is prayer and the cross of Christ,
wherein consist the humility and mortification of which I have
spoken.
13. The soul says also that it will cross the frontiers: these
are the natural resistance and rebellion of the flesh against the
spirit, for, as St. Paul saith, the 'flesh lusteth against the
spirit,' [68] and sets itself as a frontier against the soul on
its spiritual road. This frontier the soul must cross,
surmounting difficulties, and trampling underfoot all sensual
appetites and all natural affections with great courage and
resolution of spirit: for while they remain in the soul, the
spirit will be by them hindered from advancing to the true life
and spiritual delight. This is set clearly before us by St. Paul,
saying: 'If by the spirit you mortify the deeds of the flesh, you
shall live.' [69] This, then, is the process which the soul in
this stanza says it becomes it to observe on the way to seek the
Beloved: which briefly is a firm resolution not to stoop to
gather flowers by the way; courage not to fear the wild beasts,
and strength to pass by the mighty and the frontiers; intent
solely on going over the mountains and the strands of the
virtues, in the way just explained.
STANZA IV
O groves and thickets
Planted by the hand of the Beloved;
O verdant meads
Enamelled with flowers,
Tell me, has He passed by you?
THE disposition requisite for entering on the spiritual journey,
abstinence from joys and pleasure, being now described; and the
courage also with which to overcome temptations and trials,
wherein consists the practice of self-knowledge, which is the
first step of the soul to the knowledge of God. Now, in this
stanza the soul begins to advance through consideration and
knowledge of creatures to the knowledge of the Beloved their
Creator. For the consideration of the creature, after the practice
of self-knowledge, is the first in order on the spiritual road to
the knowledge of God, Whose grandeur and magnificence they
declare, as the Apostle saith: 'For His invisible things from the
creation of the world are seen, being understood by these things
that are made.' [70] It is as if he said, 'The invisible things of
God are made known to the soul by created things, visible and
invisible.'
2. The soul, then, in this stanza addresses itself to creatures
inquiring after the Beloved. And we observe, as St. Augustine [71]
says, that the inquiry made of creatures is a meditation on the
Creator, for which they furnish the matter. Thus, in this stanza
the soul meditates on the elements and the rest of the lower
creation; on the heavens, and on the rest of created and material
things which God has made therein; also on the heavenly Spirits,
saying:
'O groves and thickets.'
3. The groves are the elements, earth, water, air, and fire. As
the most pleasant groves are studded with plants and shrubs, so
the elements are thick with creatures, and here are called
thickets because of the number and variety of creatures in each.
The earth contains innumerable varieties of animals and plants,
the water of fish, the air of birds, and fire concurs with all in
animating and sustaining them. Each kind of animal lives in its
proper element, placed and planted there, as in its own grove and
soil where it is born and nourished; and, in truth, God so ordered
it when He made them; He commanded the earth to bring forth herbs
and animals; the waters and the sea, fish; and the air He gave as
an habitation to birds. The soul, therefore, considering that
this is the effect of His commandment, cries out,
'Planted by the hand of the Beloved.'
4. That which the soul considers now is this: the hand of God the
Beloved only could have created and nurtured all these varieties
and wonderful things. The soul says deliberately, 'by the hand of
the Beloved,' because God doeth many things by the hands of
others, as of angels and men; but the work of creation has never
been, and never is, the work of any other hand than His own. Thus
the soul, considering the creation, is profoundly stirred up to
love God the Beloved for it beholds all things to be the work of
His hands, and goes on to say:
'O verdant meads.'
5. These are the heavens; for the things which He hath created in
the heavens are of incorruptible freshness, which neither perish
nor wither with time, where the just are refreshed as in the green
pastures. The present consideration includes all the varieties of
the stars in their beauty, and the other works in the heavens.
6. The Church also applies the term 'verdure' to heavenly things;
for while praying to God for the departing soul, it addresses it
as follows: 'May Christ, the Son of the living God, give thee a
place in the everpleasant verdure of His paradise.' [72] The soul
also says that this verdant mead is
'Enamelled with flowers.'
7. The flowers are the angels and the holy souls who adorn and
beautify that place, as costly and fine enamel on a vase of pure
gold.
'Tell me, has He passed by you?'
8. This inquiry is the consideration of the creature just spoken
of, and is in effect: Tell me, what perfections has He created in
you?
STANZA V
ANSWER OF THE CREATURES
A thousand graces diffusing
He passed through the groves in haste,
And merely regarding them
As He passed,
Clothed them with His beauty.
THIS is the answer of the creatures to the soul which, according
to St. Augustine, in the same place, is the testimony which they
furnish to the majesty and perfections of God, for which it asked
in its meditation on created things. The meaning of this stanza
is, in substance, as follows: God created all things with great
ease and rapidity, and left in them some tokens of Himself, not
only by creating them out of nothing, but also by endowing them
with innumerable graces and qualities, making them beautiful in
admirable order and unceasing mutual dependence. All this He
wrought in wisdom, by which He created them, which is the Word,
His only begotten Son. Then the soul says;
'A thousand graces diffusing.'
2. These graces are the innumerable multitude of His creatures.
The term 'thousand,' which the soul makes use of, denotes not
their number, but the impossibility of numbering them. They are
called grace because of the qualities with which He has endowed
them. He is said to diffuse them because He fills the whole world
with them.
'He passed through the groves in haste.'
3. To pass through the groves is to create the elements; here
called groves, through which He is said to pass, diffusing a
thousand graces, because He adorned them with creatures which are
all beautiful. Moreover, He diffused among them a thousand graces,
giving the power of generation and self-conservation. He is said
to pass through, because the creatures are, as it were, traces of
the passage of God, revealing His majesty, power, and wisdom, and
His other divine attributes. He is said to pass in haste, because
the creatures are the least of the works of God: He made them, as
it were, in passing. His greatest works, wherein He is most
visible and at rest, are the incarnation of the Word and the
mysteries of the Christian faith, in comparison with which all His
other works were works wrought in passing and in haste.
'And thereby regarding them As He passed,
Clothed them with His beauty.'
4. The son of God is, in the words of St. Paul, the brightness of
His glory and the figure of His substance.' [73] God saw all
things only in the face of His Son. This was to give them their
natural being, bestowing upon them many graces and natural gifts,
making them perfect, as it is written in the book of Genesis:
'God saw all the things that He had made: and they were very
good.' [74] To see all things very good was to make them very
good in the Word, His Son. He not only gave them their being and
their natural graces when He beheld them, but He also clothed
them with beauty in the face of His Son, communicating to them a
supernatural being when He made man, and exalted him to the
beauty of God, and, by consequence, all creatures in him, because
He united Himself to the nature of them all in man. For this
cause the Son of God Himself said, 'And I, if I be lifted up from
the earth will draw all things to Myself.' [75] And thus in this
exaltation of the incarnation of His Son, and the glory of His
resurrection according to the flesh, the Father not only made all
things beautiful in part, but also, we may well say, clothed them
wholly with beauty and dignity.
NOTE
BUT beyond all this--speaking now of contemplation as it affects
the soul and makes an impression on it--in the vivid contemplation
and knowledge of created things the soul beholds such a
multiplicity of graces, powers, and beauty wherewith God has
endowed them, that they seem to it to be clothed with admirable
beauty and supernatural virtue derived from the infinite
supernatural beauty of the face of God, whose beholding of them
clothed the heavens and the earth with beauty and joy; as it is
written: 'Thou openest Thy hand and fillest with blessing every
living creature.' [76] Hence the soul wounded with love of that
beauty of the Beloved which it traces in created things, and
anxious to behold that beauty which is the source of this visible
beauty, sings as in the following stanza:
STANZA VI
THE BRIDE
Oh! who can heal me?
Give me perfectly Thyself,
Send me no more
A messenger
Who cannot tell me what I wish.
AS created things furnish to the soul traces of the Beloved, and
exhibit the impress of His beauty and magnificence, the love of
the soul increases, and consequently the pain of His absence: for
the greater the soul's knowledge of God the greater its desire to
see Him, and its pain when it cannot; and as it sees there is no
remedy for this pain except in the presence and vision of the
Beloved, distrustful of every other remedy, it prays in this
stanza for the fruition of His presence, saying: 'Entertain me no
more with any knowledge or communications or impressions of Thy
grandeur, for these do but increase my longing and the pain of Thy
absence; Thy presence alone can satisfy my will and desire.' The
will cannot be satisfied with anything less than the vision of
God, and therefore the soul prays that He may be pleased to give
Himself to it in truth, in perfect love.
'O! who can heal me?'
2. That is, there is nothing in all the delights of the world,
nothing in the satisfaction of the senses, nothing in the sweet
taste of the spirit that can heal or content me, and therefore it
adds:
'Give me at once Thyself.'
3. No soul that really loves can be satisfied or content short of
the fruition of God. For everything else, as I have just said, not
only does not satisfy the soul, but rather increases the hunger
and thirst of seeing Him as He us. Thus every glimpse of the
Beloved, every knowledge and impression or communication from Him--
these are the messengers suggestive of Him--increase and quicken
the soul's desire after Him, as crumbs of food in hunger stimulate
the appetite. The soul, therefore, mourning over the misery of
being entertained by matters of so little moment, cries out:
'Give me perfectly Thyself.'
4. Now all our knowledge of God in this life, how great soever it
may be, is not a perfectly true knowledge of Him, because it is
partial and incomplete; but to know Him essentially is true
knowledge, and that is it which the soul prays for here, not
satisfied with any other kind. Hence it says:
'Send me no more a messenger.'
5. That is, grant that I may no longer know Thee in this imperfect
way by the messengers of knowledge and impressions, which are so
distant from that which my soul desires; for these messengers, as
Thou well knowest, O my Bridegroom, do but increase the pain of
Thy absence. They renew the wound which Thou hast inflicted by the
knowledge of Thee which they convey, and they seem to delay Thy
coming. Henceforth do Thou send me no more of these inadequate
communications, for if I have been hitherto satisfied with them,
it was owing to the slightness of my knowledge and of my love: now
that my love has become great, I cannot satisfy myself with them;
do Thou, therefore, give me at once Thyself.
6. This, more clearly expressed, is as follows: 'O Lord my
Bridegroom, Who didst give me Thyself partially before, give me
Thyself wholly now. Thou who didst show glimpses of Thyself
before, show Thyself clearly now. Thou who didst communicate
Thyself hitherto by the instrumentality of messengers--it was as
if Thou didst mock me--give Thyself by Thyself now. Sometimes
when Thou didst visit me Thou didst give me the pearl of Thy
possession, and, when I began to examine it, lo, it was gone, for
Thou hadst hidden it Thyself: it was like a mockery. Give me then
Thyself in truth, Thy whole self, that I may have Thee wholly to
myself wholly, and send me no messengers again.'
'Who cannot tell me what I wish.'
7. 'I wish for Thee wholly, and Thy messengers neither know Thee
wholly, nor can they speak of Thee wholly, for there is nothing in
earth or heaven that can furnish that knowledge to the soul which
it longs for. They cannot tell me, therefore, what I wish.
Instead, then, of these messengers, be Thou the messenger and the
message.'
STANZA VII
All they who serve are telling me
Of Thy unnumbered graces;
And all wound me more and more,
And something leaves me dying,
I know not what, of which they are darkly speaking.
THE soul describes itself in the foregoing stanza as wounded, or
sick with love of the Bridegroom, because of the knowledge of Him
which the irrational creation supplies, and in the present, as
wounded with love because of the other and higher knowledge which
it derives from the rational creation, nobler than the former;
that is, angels and men. This is not all, for the soul says also
that it is dying of love, because of that marvellous immensity not
wholly but partially revealed to it through the rational creation.
This it calls 'I know not what,' because it cannot be described,
and because it is such that the soul dies of it.
2. It seems, from this, that there are three kinds of pain in the
soul's love of the Beloved, corresponding to the three kinds of
knowledge that can be had of Him. The first is called a wound; not
deep, but slight, like a wound which heals quickly, because it
comes from its knowledge of the creatures, which are the lowest
works of God. This wounding of the soul, called also sickness, is
thus spoken of by the bride in the Canticle: 'I adjure you, O
daughters of Jerusalem, if you find my Beloved, that you tell Him
that I languish with love.' [77] The daughters of Jerusalem are
the creatures.
3. The second is called a sore which enters deeper than a wound
into the soul, and is, therefore, of longer continuance, because
it is as a wound festering, on account of which the soul feels
that it is really dying of love. This sore is the effect of the
knowledge of the works of God, the incarnation of the Word, and
the mysteries of the faith. These being the greatest works of God,
and involving a greater love than those of creation, produce a
greater effect of love in the soul. If the first kind of pain be
as a wound, this must be like a festering, continuous sore. Of
this speaks the Bridegroom, addressing Himself to the bride,
saying: 'Thou hast wounded My heart, My sister, My bride; thou
hast wounded My heart with one of thy eyes, and with one hair of
thy neck.' [78] The eye signifies faith in the incarnation of the
Bridegroom, and the one hair is the love of the same.
4. The third kind of pain is like dying; it is as if the whole
soul were festering because of its wound. It is dying a living
death until love, having slain it, shall make it live the life of
love, transforming it in love. This dying of love is affected by a
single touch of the knowledge of the Divinity; it is the 'I know
not what,' of which the creatures, as in the stanza is said, are
speaking indistinctly. This touch is not continuous nor great,--
for then soul and body would part--but soon over, and thus the
soul is dying of love, and dying the more when it sees that it
cannot die of love. [79] This is called impatient love, which is
spoken of in the book of Genesis, where the Scripture saith that
Rachel's love of children was so great that she said to Jacob her
husband, 'Give me children, otherwise I shall die.' [80] And the
prophet Job said, 'Who will grant that . . . He that hath begun
the same would cut me off.' [81]
5. These two-fold pains of love--that is, the wound and the dying--
are in the stanza said to be merely the rational creation. The
wound, when it speaks of the unnumbered graces of the Beloved in
the mysteries and wisdom of God taught by the faith. The dying,
when it is said that the rational creation speaks indistinctly.
This is a sense and knowledge of the Divinity sometimes revealed
when the soul hears God spoken of. Therefore it says:
'All they who serve.'
6. That is, the rational creation, angels and men; for these alone
are they who serve God, understanding by that word intelligent
service; that is to say, all they who serve God. Some serve Him by
contemplation and fruition in heaven--these are the angels; others
by loving and longing for Him on earth--these are men. And because
the soul learns to know God more distinctly through the rational
creation, whether by considering its superiority over the rest of
creation, or by what it teaches us of God--the angels interiorly
by secret inspirations, and men exteriorly by the truths of
Scripture--it says:
'Telling me of Thy unnumbered graces.'
7. That is, they speak of the wonders of Thy grace and mercy in
the Incarnation, and in the truths of the faith which they show
forth and are ever telling more distinctly; for the more they say,
the more do they reveal Thy graces.
'And all wound me more and more.'
8. The more the angels inspire me, the more men teach me, the more
do I love Thee; and thus all wound me more and more with love.
'And something leaves me dying,
I know not what, of which they are darkly speaking.'
9. It is as if it said: 'But beside the wound which the creatures
inflict when they tell me of Thy unnumbered graces, there is yet
something which remains to be told, one thing unknown to be
uttered, a most clear trace of the footsteps of God revealed to
the soul, which it should follow, a most profound knowledge of
God, which is ineffable, and therefore spoken of as 'I know not
what.' If that which I comprehend inflicts the wound and festering
sore of love, that which I cannot comprehend but yet feel
profoundly, kills me.
10. This happens occasionally to souls advanced, whom God favours
in what they hear, or see, or understand--and sometimes without
these or other means--with a certain profound knowledge, in which
they feel or apprehend the greatness and majesty of God. In this
state they think so highly of God as to see clearly that they know
Him not, and in their perception of His greatness they recognise
that not to comprehend Him is the highest comprehension. And thus,
one of the greatest favours of God, bestowed transiently on the
soul in this life, is to enable it to see so distinctly, and to
feel so profoundly, that it clearly understands it cannot
comprehend Him at all. These souls are herein, in some degree,
like the saints in heaven, where they who know Him most perfectly
perceive most clearly that He is infinitely incomprehensible,
for those who have the less clear vision, do not perceive so
distinctly as the others, how greatly He transends their vision.
This is clear to none who have not had experience of it. But the
experienced soul, comprehending that there is something further of
which it is profoundly sensible, calls it, 'I know not what.' As
that cannot be understood, so neither can it be described, though
it be felt, as I have said. Hence the soul says that the creatures
speak indistinctly, because they cannot distinctly utter that
which they would say: it is the speech of infants, who cannot
explain distinctly or speak intelligibly that which they would
convey to others.
11. The other creatures, also, are in some measure a revelation to
the soul in this way, but not of an order so high, whenever it is
the good pleasure of God to manifest to it their spiritual sense
and significance; they are seemingly on the point of making us
understand the perfections of God, and cannot compass it; it is as
if one were about to explain a matter and the explanation is not
given; and thus they stammer 'I know not what.' The soul continues
to complain, and addresses its own life, saying, in the stanza
that follows:
STANZA VIII
But how thou perseverest, O life!
Not living where thou livest;
The arrows bring death
Which thou receivest
From thy conceptions of the Beloved.
THE soul, perceiving itself to be dying of love, as it has just
said, and yet not dying so as to have the free enjoyment of its
love, complains of the continuance of its bodily life, by which
the spiritual life is delayed. Here the soul addresses itself to
the life it is living upon earth, magnifying the sorrows of it.
The meaning of the stanza therefore is as follows: 'O life of my
soul, how canst thou persevere in this life of the flesh, seeing
that it is thy death and the privation of the true spiritual life
in God, in Whom thou livest in substance, love, and desire, more
truly than in the body? And if this were not reason enough to
depart, and free thyself from the body of this death, so as to
live and enjoy the life of God, how canst thou still remain in a
body so frail? Besides, these wounds of love made by the Beloved
in the revelation of His majesty are by themselves alone
sufficient to put an end to thy life, for they are very deep; and
thus all thy feelings towards Him, and all thou knowest of Him,
are so many touches and wounds of love that kill,
'But how thou perseverest, O life!
Not living where thou livest.'
2. We must keep in mind, for the better understanding of this,
that the soul lives there where it loves, rather than in the body
which it animates. The soul does not live by the body, but, on the
contrary, gives it life, and lives by love in that which it loves.
For beside this life of love which it lives in God Who loves it,
the soul has its radical and natural life in God, like all created
things, according to the saying of St. Paul: 'In Him we live, and
move, and are;' [82] that is, our life, motion, and being is in
God. St. John also says that all that was made was life in God:
'That which was made, in Him was life.' [83]
3. When the soul sees that its natural life is in God through the
being He has given it, and its spiritual life also because of the
love it bears Him, it breaks forth into lamentations, complaining
that so frail a life in a mortal body should have the power to
hinder it from the fruition of the true, real, and delicious life,
which it lives in God by nature and by love. Earnestly, therefore,
does the soul insist upon this: it tells us that it suffers
between two contradictions--its natural life in the body, and its
spiritual life in God; contrary the one to the other, because of
their mutual repugnance. The soul living this double life is of
necessity in great pain; for the painful life hinders the
delicious, so that the natural life is as death, seeing that it
deprives the soul of its spiritual life, wherein is its whole
being and life by nature, and all its operations and feelings by
love. The soul, therefore, to depict more vividly the hardships
of this fragile life, says:
'The arrows bring death
which thou receivest.'
4. That is to say: 'Besides, how canst thou continue in the
body, seeing that the touches of love--these are the arrows--with
which the Beloved pierces thy heart, are alone sufficient to
deprive thee of life?' These touches of love make the soul and
heart so fruitful of the knowledge and love of God, that they may
well be called conceptions of God, as in the words that follow:
'From thy conceptions of the Beloved.'
5. That is, of the majesty, beauty, wisdom, grace, and power,
which thou knowest to be His.
NOTE
AS the hart wounded with a poisoned arrow cannot be easy and at
rest, but seeks relief on all sides, plunging into the waters here
and again there, whilst the poison spreads notwithstanding all
attempts at relief, till it reaches the heart, and occasions
death; so the soul, pierced by the arrow of love, never ceases
from seeking to alleviate its pains. Not only does it not
succeed, but its pains increase, let it think, and say, and do
what it may; and knowing this, and that there is no other remedy
but the resignation of itself into the hands of Him Who wounded
it, that He may relieve it, and effectually slay it through the
violence of its love; it turns towards the Bridegroom, Who is the
cause of all, and says:
STANZA IX
Why, after wounding
This heart, hast Thou not healed it?
And why, after stealing it,
Hast Thou thus abandoned it,
And not carried away the stolen prey?
HERE the soul returns to the Beloved, still complaining of its
pain; for that impatient love which the soul now exhibits admits
of no rest or cessation from pain; so it sets forth its griefs in
all manner of ways until it finds relief. The soul seeing itself
wounded and lonely, and as no one can heal it but the Beloved Who
has wounded it, asks why He, having wounded its heart with that
love which the knowledge of Him brings, does not heal it in the
vision of His presence; and why He thus abandons the heart which
He has stolen through the love Which inflames it, after having
deprived the soul of all power over it. The soul has now no power
over its heart--for he who loves has none--because it is
surrendered to the Beloved, and yet He has not taken it to
Himself in the pure and perfect transformation of love in glory.
'Why, after wounding this heart,
hast Thou not healed it?'
2. The enamoured soul is complaining not because it is wounded,
for the deeper the wound the greater the joy, but because, being
wounded, it is not healed by being wounded unto death. The wounds
of love are so deliciously sweet, that if they do not kill, they
cannot satisfy the soul. They are so sweet that it desires to die
of them, and hence it is that it says, 'Why, after wounding this
heart, hast Thou not healed it?' That is, 'Why hast Thou struck it
so sharply as to wound it so deeply, and yet not healed it by
killing it utterly with love? As Thou art the cause of its pain in
the affliction of love, be Thou also the cause of its health by a
death from love; so the heart, wounded by the pain of Thy absence,
shall be healed in the delight and glory of Thy Sweet presence.'
Therefore it goes on:
'And why, after stealing it,
hast Thou thus abandoned it?'
3. Stealing is nothing else but the act of a robber in
dispossessing the owner of his goods, and possessing them himself.
Here the soul complains to the Beloved that He has robbed it of
its heart lovingly, and taken it out of its power and possession,
and then abandoned it, without taking it into His own power and
possession as the thief does with the goods he steals, carrying
them away with him. He who is in love is said to have lost his
heart, or to have it stolen by the object of his love; because it
is no longer in his own possession, but in the power of the object
of his love, and so his heart is not his own, but the property of
the person he loves.
4. This consideration will enable the soul to determine whether it
loves God simply or not. If it loves Him it will have no heart for
itself, nor for its own pleasure or profit, but for the honour,
glory, and pleasure of God; because the more the heart is occupied
with self, the less is it occupied with God. Whether God has
really stolen the heart, the soul may ascertain by either of these
two signs: Is it anxiously seeking after God? and has it no
pleasure in anything but in Him, as the soul here says? The reason
of this is that the heart cannot rest in peace without the
possession of something; and when its affections are once placed,
it has neither the possession of itself nor of anything else;
neither does it perfectly possess what it loves. In this state its
weariness is in proportion to its loss, until it shall enter into
possession and be satisfied; for until then the soul is as an
empty vessel waiting to be filled, as a hungry man eager for food,
as a sick man sighing for health, and as a man suspended in the
air.
'And not carried away the stolen prey?'
5. 'Why dost Thou not carry away the heart which Thy love has
stolen, to fill it, to heal it, and to satiate it giving it
perfect rest in Thyself?'
6. The loving soul, for the sake of greater conformity with the
Beloved, cannot cease to desire the recompense and reward of its
love for the sake of which it serves the Beloved, otherwise it
could not be true love, for the recompense of love is nothing
else, and the soul seeks nothing else, but greater love, until it
reaches the perfection of love; for the sole reward of love is
love, as we learn from the prophet Job, who, speaking of his own
distress, which is that of the soul now referred to, says: 'As a
servant longeth for the shade, as the hireling looketh for the end
of his work; so I also have had empty months, and have numbered to
myself wearisome nights. If I sleep, I say, When shall I arise?
and again, I shall look for the evening, and shall be filled with
sorrows even till darkness.' [84]
7. Thus, then, the soul on fire with the love of God longs for the
perfection and consummation of its love, that it may be completely
refreshed. As the servant wearied by the heat of the day longs for
the cooling shade, and as the hireling looks for the end of his
work, so the soul for the end of its own. Observe, Job does not
say that the hireling looks for the end of his labour, but only
for the end of his work. He teaches us that the soul which loves
looks not for the end of its labour, but for the end of its work;
because its work is to love, and it is the end of this work, which
is love, that it hopes for, namely, the perfect love of God. Until
it attains to this, the words of Job will be always true of it--
its months will be empty, and its nights wearisome and tedious.
It is clear, then, that the soul which loves God seeks and looks
for no other reward of its services than to love God perfectly.
NOTE
THE soul, having reached this degree of love, resembles a sick man
exceedingly wearied, whose appetite is gone, and to whom his food
is loathsome, and all things annoyance and trouble. Amidst all
things that present themselves to his thoughts, or feelings, or
sight, his only wish and desire is health; and everything that
does not contribute thereto is weariness and oppressive. The soul,
therefore, in pain because of its love of God, has three
peculiarities. Under all circumstances, and in all affairs, the
thought of its health--that is, the Beloved--is ever present to
it; and though it is obliged to attend to them because it cannot
help it, its heart is ever with Him. The second peculiarity,
namely, a loss of pleasure in everything, arises from the first.
The third also, a consequence of the second, is that all things
become wearisome, and all affairs full of vexation and annoyance.
2. The reason is that the palate of the will having touched and
tasted of the food of the love of God, the will instantly, under
all circumstances, regardless of every other consideration, seeks
the fruition of the Beloved. It is with the soul now as it was
with Mary Magdalene, when in her burning love she sought Him in
the garden. She, thinking Him to be the gardener, spoke to Him
without further reflection, saying: 'If thou hast taken Him hence,
tell me where thou hast laid Him, and I will take Him away.' [85]
The soul is under the influence of a like anxiety to find Him in
all things, and not finding Him immediately, as it desires--but
rather the very reverse--not only has no pleasure in them, but is
even tormented by them, and sometimes exceedingly so: for such
souls suffer greatly in their intercourse with men and in the
transactions of the world, because these things hinder rather than
help them in their search.
3. The bride in the Canticle shows us that she had these three
peculiarities when seeking the Bridegroom. 'I sought Him and found
Him not; the keepers that go about the city found me, they struck
me and wounded me: the keepers of the walls took away my cloak.'
[86] The keepers that go about the city are the affairs of this
world, which, when they 'find' a soul seeking after God, inflict
upon it much pain, and grief, and loathing; for the soul not only
does not find in them what it seeks, but rather a hindrance. They
who keep the wall of contemplation, that the soul may not enter--
that is, evil spirits and worldly affairs--take away the cloak of
peace and the quiet of loving contemplation. All this inflicts
infinite vexation on the soul enamoured of God; and while it
remains on earth without the vision of God, there is no relief,
great or small, from these afflictions, and the soul therefore
continues to complain to the Beloved, saying:
STANZA X
Quench Thou my troubles,
For no one else can soothe them;
And let mine eyes behold Thee,
For thou art their light,
And I will keep them for Thee alone.
HERE the soul continues to beseech the Beloved to put an end to
its anxieties and distress--none other than He can do so--and that
in such a way that its eyes may behold Him; for He alone is the
light by which they see, and there is none other but He on whom it
will look.
'Quench Thou my troubles.'
2. The desire of love has this property, that everything said or
done which does not become that which the will loves, wearies and
annoys it, and makes it peevish when it sees itself disappointed
in its desires. This and its weary longing after the vision of God
is here called 'troubles.' These troubles nothing can remove
except the possession of the Beloved; hence the soul prays Him to
quench them with His presence, to cool their feverishness, as the
cooling water him who is wearied by the heat. The soul makes use
of the expression 'quench,' to denote its sufferings from the fire
of love.
'For no one else can soothe them.'
3. The soul, in order to move and persuade the Beloved to grant
its petition, says, 'As none other but Thou can satisfy my needs,
do Thou quench my troubles.' Remember here that God is then close
at hand, to comfort the soul and to satisfy its wants, when it has
and seeks no satisfaction or comfort out of Him. The soul that
finds no pleasure out of God cannot be long unvisited by the
Beloved.
'And let mine eyes behold Thee.'
4. Let me see Thee face to face with the eyes of the soul,
'For thou art their light.'
5. God is the supernatural light of the soul, without which it
abides in darkness. And now, in the excess of its affection, it
calls Him the light of its eyes, as an earthly lover, to express
his affection, calls the object of his love the light of his eyes.
The soul says in effect in the foregoing terms, 'Since my eyes
have no other light, either of nature or of love, but Thee, let
them behold Thee, Who in every way art their light.' David was
regretting this light when he said in his trouble, 'The light of
mine eyes, and the same is not with me;' [87] and Tobias, when he
said, 'What manner of joy shall be to me who sit in darkness, and
see not the light of heaven?' [88] He was longing for the clear
vision of God; for the light of heaven is the Son of God; as St.
John saith in the Apocalypse: 'And the city needeth not sun, nor
moon to shine in it; for the glory of God hath illuminated it, and
the Lamb is the lamp thereof.' [89]
'And I will keep them for Thee alone.'
6. The soul seeks to constrain the Bridegroom to let it see the
light of its eyes, not only because it would be in darkness
without it, but also because it will not look upon anything but on
Him. For as that soul is justly deprived of this divine light if
it fixes the eyes of the will on any other light, proceeding from
anything that is not God, for then its vision is confined to that
object; so also the soul, by a certain fitness, deserves the
divine light, if it shuts its eyes against all objects whatever,
to open them only for the vision of God.
NOTE
BUT the loving Bridegroom of souls cannot bear to see them suffer
long in the isolation of which I am speaking, for, as He saith by
the mouth of Zacharias, 'He that shall touch you, toucheth the
apple of Mine eye;' [90] especially when their sufferings, as
those of this soul, proceed from their love for Him. Therefore
doth He speak through Isaias, 'It shall be before they call, I
will hear; as they are yet speaking, I will hear.' [91] And the
wise man saith that the soul that seeketh Him as treasure shall
find Him. [92] God grants a certain spiritual presence of Himself
to the fervent prayers of the loving soul which seeks Him more
earnestly than treasure, seeing that it has abandoned all things,
and even itself, for His sake.
2. In that presence He shows certain profound glimpses of His
divinity and beauty, whereby He still increases the soul's anxious
desire to behold Him. For as men throw water on the coals of the
forge to cause intenser heat, so our Lord in His dealings with
certain souls, in the intermission of their love, makes some
revelations of His majesty, to quicken their fervour, and to
prepare them more and more for those graces which He will give
them afterwards. Thus the soul, in that obscure presence of God,
beholding and feeling the supreme good and beauty hidden there, is
dying in desire of the vision, saying in the stanza that follows:
STANZA XI
Reveal Thy presence,
And let the vision and Thy beauty kill me,
Behold the malady
Of love is incurable
Except in Thy presence and before Thy face.
THE soul, anxious to be possessed by God, Who is so great, Whose
love has wounded and stolen its heart, and unable to suffer more,
beseeches Him directly, in this stanza, to reveal His beauty--that
is, the divine Essence--and to slay it in that vision, separating
it from the body, in which it can neither see nor possess Him as
it desires. And further, setting before Him the distress and
sorrow of heart, in which it continues, suffering it because of
its love, and unable to find any other remedy than the glorious
vision of the divine essence, cries out: 'Reveal Thy presence.'
2. To understand this clearly we must remember that there are
three ways in which God is present in the soul. The first is His
presence in essence, not in holy souls only, but in wretched and
sinful souls as well, and also in all created things; for it is by
this presence that He gives life and being, and were it once
withdrawn all things would return to nothing. [93] This presence
never fails in the soul.
3. The second is His presence by grace, whereby He dwells in the
soul, pleased and satisfied with it. This presence is not in all
souls; for those who fall into mortal sin lose it, and no soul can
know in a natural way whether it has it or not. The third is His
presence by spiritual affection. God is wont to show His presence
in many devout souls in divers ways, in refreshment, joy, and
gladness; yet this, like the others, is all secret, for He does
not show Himself as He is, because the condition of our mortal
life does not admit of it. Thus this prayer of the soul may be
understood of any one of them.
'Reveal Thy presence.'
4. Inasmuch as it is certain that God is ever present in the soul,
at least in the first way, the soul does not say, 'Be Thou
present'; but, 'Reveal and manifest Thy hidden presence, whether
natural, spiritual, or affective, in such a way that I may behold
Thee in Thy divine essence and beauty.' The soul prays Him that as
He by His essential presence gives it its natural being, and
perfects it by His presence of grace, so also He would glorify it
by the manifestation of His glory. But as the soul is now loving
God with fervent affections, the presence, for the revelation of
which it prays the Beloved to manifest, is to be understood
chiefly of the affective presence of the Beloved. Such is the
nature of this presence that the soul felt there was an infinite
being hidden there, out of which God communicated to it certain
obscure visions of His own divine beauty. Such was the effect of
these visions that the soul longed and fainted away with the
desire of that which is hidden in that presence.
5. This is in harmony with the experience of David, when he said:
'My soul longeth and fainteth for the courts of our Lord.' [94]
The soul now faints with desire of being absorbed in the
Sovereign Good which it feels to be present and hidden; for
though it be hidden, the soul is most profoundly conscious of the
good and delight which are there. The soul is therefore attracted
to this good with more violence than matter is to its centre, and
is unable to contain itself, by reason of the force of this
attraction, from saying:
'Reveal Thy presence.'
6. Moses, on Mount Sinai in the presence of God, saw such glimpses
of the majesty and beauty of His hidden Divinity, that, unable to
endure it, he prayed twice for the vision of His glory saying:
'Whereas Thou hast said: I know thee by name, and thou hast found
grace in my sight. If, therefore, I have found grace in Thy sight,
shew me Thy face, that I may know Thee and may find grace before
Thine eyes;' [95] that is, the grace which he longed for--to
attain to the perfect love of the glory of God. The answer of our
Lord was: 'Thou canst not see My face, for man shall not see Me
and live.' [96] It is as if God had said: 'Moses, thy prayer is
difficult to grant; the beauty of My face, and the joy in seeing
Me is so great, as to be more than thy soul can bear in a mortal
body that is so weak.' The soul accordingly, conscious of this
truth, either because of the answer made to Moses or also because
of that which I spoke of before, [97] namely, the feeling that
there is something still in the presence of God here which it
could not see in its beauty in the life it is now living,
because, as I said before, [98] it faints when it sees but a
glimpse of it. Hence it comes that it anticipates the answer
that may be given to it, as it was to Moses, and says:
'Let the vision and Thy beauty kill me.'
7. That is, 'Since the vision of Thee and Thy beauty is so full of
delight that I cannot endure, but must die in the act of beholding
them, let the vision and Thy beauty kill me.'
8. Two visions are said to be fatal to man, because he cannot bear
them and live. One, that of the basilisk, at the sight of which
men are said to die at once. The other is the vision of God; but
there is a great difference between them. The former kills by
poison, the other with infinite health and bliss. It is,
therefore, nothing strange for the soul to desire to die by
beholding the beauty of God in order to enjoy Him for ever. If the
soul had but one single glimpse of the majesty and beauty of God,
not only would it desire to die once in order to see Him for ever,
as it desires now, but would most joyfully undergo a thousand most
bitter deaths to see Him even for a moment, and having seen Him
would suffer as many deaths again to see Him for another moment.
9. It is necessary to observe for the better explanation of this
line, that the soul is now speaking conditionally, when it prays
that the vision and beauty may slay it; it assumes that the vision
must be preceded by death, for if it were possible before death,
the soul would not pray for death, because the desire of death is
a natural imperfection. The soul, therefore, takes it for granted
that this corruptible life cannot coexist with the incorruptible
life of God, and says:
'Let the vision and Thy beauty kill me.'
10. St. Paul teaches this doctrine to the Corinthians when he
says: 'We would not be spoiled, but overclothed, that that which
is mortal may be swallowed up of life,' [99] That is, 'we would
not be divested of the flesh, but invested with glory.' But
reflecting that he could not live in glory and in a mortal body
at the same time, he says to the Philippians: 'having a desire to
be dissolved and to be with Christ.' [100]
11. Here arises this question, Why did the people of Israel of old
dread and avoid the vision of God, that they might not die, as it
appears they did from the words of Manue to his wife, 'We shall
die because we have seen God,' [101] when the soul desires to die
of that vision? To this question two answers may be given.
12. In those days men could not see God, though dying in the state
of grace, because Christ had not come, It was therefore more
profitable for them to live in the flesh, increasing in merit, and
enjoying their natural life, than to be in Limbus, incapable of
meriting, suffering in the darkness and in the spiritual absence
of God. They therefore considered it a great grace and blessing to
live long upon earth.
13. The second answer is founded on considerations drawn from the
love of God. They in those days, not being so confirmed in love,
nor so near to God by love, were afraid of the vision: but, now,
under the law of grace, when, on the death of the body, the soul
may behold God, it is more profitable to live but a short time,
and then to die in order to see Him. And even if the vision were
withheld, the soul that really loves God will not be afraid to die
at the sight of Him; for true love accepts with perfect
resignation, and in the same spirit, and even with joy, whatever
comes to it from the hands of the Beloved, whether prosperity or
adversity--yea, and even chastisements such as He shall be pleased
to send, for, as St. John saith, 'perfect charity casteth out
fear.' [102]
14. Thus, then, there is no bitterness in death to the soul that
loves, when it brings with it all the sweetness and delights of
love; there is no sadness in the remembrance of it when it opens
the door to all joy; nor can it be painful and oppressive, when it
is the end of all unhappiness and sorrow, and the beginning of all
good. Yea, the soul looks upon it as a friend and its bride, and
exults in the recollection of it as the day of espousals; it
yearns for the day and hour of death more than the kings of the
earth for principalities and kingdoms.
15. It was of this kind of death that the wise man said, 'O death,
thy judgment is good to the needy man.' [103] If it be good to the
needy man, though it does not supply his wants, but on the
contrary deprives him even of what he hath, how much more good
will it be to the soul in need of love and which is crying for
more, when it will not only not rob it of the love it hath
already, but will be the occasion of that fulness of love which it
yearns for, and is the supply of all its necessities. It is not
without reason, then, that the soul ventures to say:
'Let the vision and Thy beauty kill me.'
16. The soul knows well that in the instant of that vision it will
be itself absorbed and transformed into that beauty, and be made
beautiful like it, enriched, and abounding in beauty as that
beauty itself. This is why David said, 'Precious in the sight of
the Lord is the death of His saints,' [104] but that could not be
if they did not become partakers of His glory, for there is
nothing precious in the eyes of God except that which He is
Himself, and therefore, the soul, when it loves, fears not death,
but rather desires it. But the sinner is always afraid to die,
because he suspects that death will deprive him of all good, and
inflict upon him all evil; for in the words of David, 'the death
of the wicked is very evil,' [105] and therefore, as the wise man
saith, the very thought of it is bitter: 'O death, how bitter is
thy memory to a man that hath peace in his riches!' [106] The
wicked love this life greatly, and the next but little, and are
therefore afraid of death; but the soul that loves God lives more
in the next life than in this, because it lives rather where it
loves than where it dwells, and therefore esteeming but lightly
its present bodily life, cries out: 'Let the vision and Thy beauty
kill me.'
'Behold, the malady of love is incurable,
except in Thy presence and before Thy face.'
17. The reason why the malady of love admits of no other remedy
than the presence and countenance of the Beloved is, that the
malady of love differs from every other sickness, and therefore
requires a different remedy. In other diseases, according to sound
philosophy, contraries are cured by contraries; but love is not
cured but by that which is in harmony with itself. The reason is
that the health of the soul consists in the love of God; and so
when that love is not perfect, its health is not perfect, and the
soul is therefore sick, for sickness is nothing else but a failure
of health. Thus, that soul which loves not at all is dead; but
when it loves a little, how little soever that may be, it is then
alive, though exceedingly weak and sick because it loves God so
little. But the more its love increases, the greater will be its
health, and when its love is perfect, then, too, its health also
is perfect. Love is not perfect until the lovers become so on an
equality as to be mutually transformed into one another; then love
is wholly perfect.
18. And because the soul is now conscious of a certain adumbration
of love, which is the malady of which it here speaks, yearning to
be made like to Him of whom it is a shadow, that is the
Bridegroom, the Word, the Son of God, Who, as St. Paul saith, is
the 'splendour of His glory, and the figure of His substance;'
[107] and because it is into this figure it desires to be
transformed by love, cries out, 'Behold, the malady of love is
incurable except in Thy presence, and in the light of Thy
Countenance.' The love that is imperfect is rightly called a
malady, because as a sick man is enfeebled and cannot work, so the
soul that is weak in love is also enfeebled and cannot practise
heroic virtue.
19. Another explanation of these words is this: he who feels this
malady of love--that is, a failure of it--has an evidence in
himself that he has some love, because he ascertains what is
deficient in him by that which he possesses. But he who is not
conscious of this malady has evidence therein that he has no love
at all, or that he has already attained to perfect love.
NOTE
THE soul now conscious of a vehement longing after God, like a
stone rushing to its centre, and like wax which has begun to
receive the impression of the seal which it cannot perfectly
represent, and knowing, moreover, that it is like a picture
lightly sketched, crying for the artist to finish his work, and
having its faith so clear as to trace most distinctly certain
divine glimpses of the majesty of God, knows not what else to do
but to turn inward to that faith--as involving and veiling the
face and beauty of the Beloved--from which it hath received those
impressions and pledges of love, and which it thus addresses:
STANZA XII
O crystal well!
O that on Thy silvered surface
Thou wouldest mirror forth at once
Those desired eyes
Which are outlined in my heart.
THE soul vehemently desiring to be united to the Bridegroom, and
seeing that there is no help or succour in created things, turns
towards the faith, as to that which gives it the most vivid vision
of the Beloved, and adopts it as the means to that end. And,
indeed, there is no other way of attaining to true union, to the
spiritual betrothal of God, according to the words of Osee: 'I
will betrothe thee to Me in faith.' [108] In this fervent desire
it cries out in the words of this stanza, which are in effect
this: 'O faith of Christ, my Bridegroom! Oh that thou wouldest
manifest clearly those truths concerning the Beloved, secretly and
obscurely infused--for faith is, as theologians say, an obscure
habit--so that thy informal and obscure communications may be in a
moment clear; Oh that thou wouldest withdraw thyself formally and
completely from these truths--for faith is a veil over the truths
of God--and reveal them perfectly in glory.' Accordingly it says:
'O crystal well!'
2. Faith is called crystal for two reasons: because it is of
Christ the Bridegroom; because it has the property of crystal,
pure in its truths, a limpid well clear of error, and of natural
forms. It is a well because the waters of all spiritual goodness
flow from it into the soul. Christ our Lord, speaking to the woman
of Samaria, calls faith a well, saying, 'The water that I will
give him shall become in him a well of water springing up into
life everlasting.' [109] This water is the Spirit which they who
believe shall receive by faith in Him. �Now this He said of the
Spirit which they who believed in Him should receive.' [110]
'Oh that on thy silvered surface.'
3. The articles and definitions of the faith are called silvered
surfaces. In order to understand these words and those that
follow, we must know that faith is compared to silver because of
the propositions it teaches us, the truth and substance it
involves being compared to gold. This very substance which we now
believe, hidden behind the silver veil of faith, we shall clearly
behold and enjoy hereafter; the gold of faith shall be made
manifest. Hence the Psalmist, speaking of this, saith: �If ye sleep
amidst the lots, the wings of the dove are laid over with silver,
and the hinder parts of the back in the paleness of gold.' [111]
That means if we shall keep the eyes of the understanding from
regarding the things of heaven and of earth--this the Psalmist
calls sleeping in the midst--we shall be firm in the faith, here
called dove, the wings of which are the truths laid over with
silver, because in this life the faith puts these truths before us
obscurely beneath a veil. This is the reason why the soul calls
them silvered surface. But when faith shall have been consummated
in the clear vision of God, then the substance of faith, the
silver veil removed, will shine as gold.
4. As the faith gives and communicates to us God Himself, but
hidden beneath the silver of faith, yet it reveals Him none the
less. So if a man gives us a vessel made of gold, but covered with
silver, he gives us in reality a vessel of gold, though the gold
be covered over. Thus, when the bride in the Canticle was longing
for the fruition of God, He promised it to her so far as the state
of this life admitted of it, saying: 'We will make thee chains of
gold inlaid with silver.' [112] He thus promised to give Himself
to her under the veil of faith. Hence the soul addresses the
faith, saying: 'Oh that on thy silvered surface'--the definitions
of faith--'in which thou hidest' the gold of the divine rays--
which are the desired eyes,--instantly adding:
'Thou wouldest mirror forth at once those desired eyes!'
5. By the eyes are understood, as I have said, the rays and truths
of God, which are set before us hidden and informal in the
definitions of the faith. Thus the words say in substance: 'Oh
that thou wouldest formally and explicitly reveal to me those
hidden truths which Thou teachest implicitly and obscurely in the
definitions of the faith; according to my earnest desire.' Those
truths are called eyes, because of the special presence of the
Beloved, of which the soul is conscious, believing Him to be
perpetually regarding it; and so it says:
'Which are outlined in my heart.'
6. The soul here says that these truths are outlined in the heart--
that is, in the understanding and the will. It is through the
understanding that these truths are infused into the soul by
faith. They are said to be outlined because the knowledge of them
is not perfect. As a sketch is not a perfect picture, so the
knowledge that comes by faith is not a perfect understanding. The
truths, therefore, infused into the soul by faith are as it were
in outline, and when the clear vision shall be granted, then they
will be as a perfect and finished picture, according to the words
of the Apostle: 'When that shall come which is perfect, that shall
be made void which is in part.' [113] 'That which is perfect' is
the clear vision, and 'that which is in part' is the knowledge
that comes by faith.
7. Besides this outline which comes by faith, there is another by
love in the soul that loves--that is, in the will--in which the
face of the Beloved is so deeply and vividly pictured, when the
union of love occurs, that it may be truly said the Beloved lives
in the loving soul, and the loving soul in the Beloved. Love
produces such a resemblance by the transformation of those who
love that one may be said to be the other, and both but one. The
reason is, that in the union and transformation of love one gives
himself up to the other as his possession, and each resigns,
abandons, and exchanges himself for the other, and both become but
one in the transformation wrought by love.
8. This is the meaning of St. Paul when he said, 'I live, now, not
I, but Christ liveth in me.' [114] In that He saith, 'I live, now,
not I,' his meaning is, that though he lived, yet the life he
lived was not his own, because he was transformed in Christ: that
his life was divine rather than human; and for that reason, he
said it was not he that lived, but Christ Who lived in him. We may
therefore say, according to this likeness of transformation, that
his life and the life of Christ were one by the union of love.
This will be perfect in heaven in the divine life of all those who
shall merit the beatific vision; for, transformed in God, they
will live the life of God and not their own, since the life of God
will be theirs. Then they will say in truth. 'We live, but not
we ourselves, for God liveth in us.'
9. Now, this may take place in this life, as in the case of St.
Paul, but not perfectly and completely, though the soul should
attain to such a transformation of love as shall be spiritual
marriage, which is the highest state it can reach in this life;
because all this is but an outline of love compared with the
perfect image of transformation in glory. Yet, when this outline
of transformation is attained in this life, it is a grand
blessing, because the Beloved is so greatly pleased therewith. He
desires, therefore, that the bride should have Him thus delineated
in her soul, and saith unto her, 'Put Me as a seal upon thy heart,
as a seal upon thy arm.' [115] The heart here signifies the soul,
wherein God in this life dwells as an impression of the seal of
faith, and the arm is the resolute will, where He is as the
impressed token of love.
10. Such is the state of the soul at that time. I speak but
little of it, not willing to leave it altogether untouched, though
no language can describe it.
11. The very substance of soul and body seems to be dried up by
thirst after this living well of God, for the thirst resembles
that of David when he cried out, 'As the hart longeth for the
fountains of waters, so my soul longeth for Thee, O God. My soul
hath thirsted after the strong living God; when shall I come and
appear before the face of God?' [116] So oppressive is this thirst
to the soul, that it counts it as nothing to break through the
camp of the Philistines, like the valiant men of David, to fill
its pitcher with 'water out of the cisterns of Bethlehem,' [117]
which is Christ. The trials of this world, the rage of the devil,
and the pains of hell are nothing to pass through, in order to
plunge into this fathomless fountain of love.
12. To this we may apply those words in the Canticle: 'Love is
strong as death, jealousy is hard as hell.' [118] It is incredible
how vehement are the longings and sufferings of the soul when it
sees itself on the point of testing this good, and at the same
time sees it withheld; for the nearer the object desired, the
greater the pangs of its denial: 'Before I eat,' saith Job, 'I
sigh, and as it were overflowing waters so my roaring' [119] and
hunger for food. God is meant here by food; for in proportion to
the soul's longing for food, and its knowledge of God, is the pain
it suffers now.
NOTE
THE source of the grievous sufferings of the soul at this time is
the consciousness of its own emptiness of God--while it is drawing
nearer and nearer to Him--and also, the thick darkness with the
spiritual fire, which dry and purify it, that, its purification
ended, it may be united with God. For when God sends not forth a
ray of supernatural light into the soul, He is to it intolerable
darkness when He is even near to it in spirit, for the
supernatural light by its very brightness obscures the mere
natural light. David referred to this when he said: 'Cloud and
mist round about Him . . . a fire shall go before Him.' [120] And
again: 'He put darkness His covert; His tabernacle is round about
Him, darksome waters in the clouds of the air. Because of the
brightness in His sight the clouds passed, hail and coals of
fire.' [121] The soul that approaches God feels Him to be all this
more and more the further it advances, until He shall cause it to
enter within His divine brightness through the transformation of
love. But the comfort and consolations of God are, by His infinite
goodness, proportional to the darkness and emptiness of the soul,
as it is written, 'As the darkness thereof, so also the light
thereof.' [122] And because He humbles souls and wearies them,
while He is exalting them and making them glorious, He sends into
the soul, in the midst of its weariness, certain divine rays from
Himself, in such gloriousness and strength of love as to stir it
up from its very depths, and to change its whole natural
condition. Thus, the soul, in great fear and natural awe,
addresses the Beloved in the first words of the following stanza,
the remainder of which is His answer:
STANZA XIII
Turn them away, O my Beloved!
I am on the Wing.
THE BRIDEGROOM
Return, My Dove!
The wounded hart
Looms on the hill
In the air of thy flight and is refreshed.
EXPLANATION
AMID those fervent affections of love, such as the soul has shown
in the preceding stanzas, the Beloved is wont to visit His bride,
tenderly, lovingly, and with great strength of love; for
ordinarily the graces and visits of God are great in proportion to
the greatness of those fervours and longings of love which have
gone before. And, as the soul has so anxiously longed for the
divine eyes--as in the foregoing stanza--the Beloved reveals to it
some glimpses of His majesty and Godhead, according to its
desires. These divine rays strike the soul so profoundly and so
vividly that it is rapt into an ecstasy which in the beginning is
attended with great suffering and natural fear. Hence the soul,
unable to bear the ecstasies in a body so frail, cries out, 'Turn
away thine eyes from me.'
'Turn them away, O my Beloved!'
2. That is, 'Thy divine eyes, for they make me fly away out of
myself to the heights of contemplation, and my natural force
cannot bear it.' This the soul says because it thinks it has
escaped from the burden of the flesh, which was the object of its
desires; it therefore prays the Beloved to turn away His eyes;
that is, not to show them in the body where it cannot bear and
enjoy them as it would, but to show them to it in its flight from
the body. The Bridegroom at once denies the request and hinders
the flight, saying, 'Return, My Dove! for the communications I
make to thee now are not those of the state of glory wherein thou
desirest to be; but return to Me, for I am He Whom thou, wounded
with love, art seeking, and I, too, as the hart, wounded with thy
love, begin to show Myself to thee on the heights of
contemplation, and am refreshed and delighted by the love which
thy contemplation involves.' The soul then says to the Bridegroom:
'Turn them away, O my Beloved!'
3. The soul, because of its intense longing after the divine eyes--
that is, the Godhead--receives interiorly from the Beloved such
communications and knowledge of God as compel it to cry out, 'Turn
them away, O my Beloved!' For such is the wretchedness of our
mortal nature, that we cannot bear--even when it is offered to us--
but at the cost of our life, that which is the very life of the
soul, and the object of its earnest desires, namely, the knowledge
of the Beloved. Thus the soul is compelled to say, with regard to
the eyes so earnestly, so anxiously sought for, and in so many
ways--when they become visible--'Turn them away.'
4. So great, at times, is the suffering of the soul during these
ecstatic visitations--and there is no other pain which so wrenches
the very bones, and which so oppresses our natural forces--that,
were it not for the special interference of God, death would
ensue. And, in truth, such is it to the soul, the subject of these
visitations, for it feels as if it were released from the body and
a stranger to the flesh. Such graces cannot be perfectly received
in the body, because the spirit of man is lifted up to the
communion of the Spirit of God, Who visits the soul, and must
therefore of necessity be in some measure a stranger to the body.
Hence it is that the flesh has to suffer, and consequently the
soul in it, by reason of their union in one person. The great
agony of the soul, therefore, in these visitations, and the great
fear that overwhelms it when God deals with it in the supernatural
way, [123] force it to cry out, 'Turn them away, O my Beloved!'
5. But it is not to be supposed, however, that the soul really
wishes Him to turn away His eyes; for this is nothing else but the
expression of natural awe, as I said before. [124] Yea, rather,
cost they what they may, the soul would not willingly miss these
visitations and favours of the Beloved; for though nature may
suffer, the spirit flies to this supernatural recollection in
order to enjoy the spirit of the Beloved, the object of its
prayers and desires. The soul is unwilling to receive these
visitations in the body, when it cannot have the perfect fruition
of them, and only in a slight degree and in pain; but it covets
them in the flight of the disembodied spirit when it can enjoy
them freely. Hence it says, 'Turn them away, my Beloved'--that is,
Do not visit me in the flesh.
'I am on the wing.'
6. It is as if it said, 'I am taking my flight out of the body,
that Thou mayest show them when I shall have left it; they being
the cause of my flight out of the body.' For the better
understanding of the nature of this flight we should consider that
which I said just now. [125] In this visitation of the divine
Spirit the spirit of the soul is with great violence borne upwards
into communion with the divine, the body is abandoned, all its
acts and senses are suspended, because they are absorbed in God.
Thus the Apostle, St. Paul, speaking of his own ecstasy, saith,
'Whether in the body or out of the body, I cannot tell.' [126] But
we are not to suppose that the soul abandons the body, and that
the natural life is destroyed, but only that its actions have then
ceased.
7. This is the reason why the body remains insensible in raptures
and ecstasies, and unconscious of the most painful inflictions.
These are not like the swoons and faintings of the natural life,
which cease when pain begins. They who have not arrived at
perfection are liable to these visitations, for they happen to
those who are walking in the way of proficients. They who are
already perfect receive these visitations in peace and in the
sweetness of love: ecstasies cease, for they were only graces to
prepare them for this greater grace.
8. This is a fitting place for discussing the difference between
raptures, ecstasies, other elevations and subtile flights of the
spirit, to which spiritual persons are liable; but, as I intend to
do nothing more than explain briefly this canticle, as I undertook
in the prologue, I leave the subject for those who are better
qualified than I am. I do this the more readily, because our
mother, the blessed Teresa of Jesus, has written admirably on this
matter, [127] whose writings I hope in God to see published soon.
The flight of the soul in this place, then, is to be understood of
ecstasy, and elevation of spirit in God. The Beloved immediately
says:
'Return, My Dove.'
9. The soul was joyfully quitting the body in its spiritual
flight, thinking that its natural life was over, and that it was
about to enter into the everlasting fruition of the Bridegroom,
and remain with Him without a veil between them. He, however,
restrains it in its flight, saying:
'Return, My Dove.'
10. It is as if He said, 'O My Dove, in thy high and rapid flight
of contemplation, in the love wherewith thou art inflamed, in the
simplicity of thy regard'--these are three characteristics of the
dove--'return from that flight in which thou aimest at the true
fruition of Myself--the time is not yet come for knowledge so
high--return, and submit thyself to that lower degree of it which
I communicate in this thy rapture.'
'The wounded hart.'
11. The Bridegroom likens Himself to a hart, for by the hart here
He means Himself. The hart by nature climbs up to high places, and
when wounded hastens to seek relief in the cooling waters. If he
hears his consort moan and sees that she is wounded, he runs to
her at once, comforts, and caresses her. So the Bridegroom now;
for, seeing the bride wounded with His love, He, too, hearing her
moaning, is wounded Himself with her love; for with lovers the
wound of one is the wound of the other, and they have the same
feelings in common. The Bridegroom, therefore, saith in effect:
'Return, my bride, to Me; for as thou art wounded with the love of
Me, I too, like the hart, am wounded by love for thee. I am like
the hart, looming on the top of the hill.' Therefore He says:
'Looms on the hill.'
12. That is, 'on the heights of contemplation, to which thou hast
ascended in thy flight.' Contemplation is a lofty eminence where
God, in this life, begins to communicate Himself to the soul, and
to show Himself, but not distinctly. Hence it is said, 'Looms on
the hill,' because He does not appear clearly. However profound
the knowledge of Himself which God may grant to the soul in this
life, it is, after all, but an indistinct vision. We now come to
the third property of the hart, the subject of the line that
follows:
'In the air of thy flight, and is refreshed.'
13. The flight is contemplation in the ecstasy spoken of before,
[128] and the air is the spirit of love produced in the soul by
this flight of contemplation, and this love produced by the flight
is here with great propriety called 'air,' for the Holy Ghost also
is likened to air in the Sacred Writings, because He is the breath
of the Father and the Son. And so as He is there the air of the
flight--that is, that He proceeds by the will from the
contemplation and wisdom of the Father and the Son, and is
breathed--so here the love of the soul is called air by the
Bridegroom, because it proceeds from the contemplation of God and
the knowledge of Him which at this time is possessed by the soul.
14. We must observe here that the Bridegroom does not say that He
cometh at the flight, but at the air of the flight, because
properly speaking God does not communicate Himself to the soul
because of that flight, which is, as I have said, the knowledge it
has of God, but because of the love which is the fruit of that
knowledge. For as love is the union of the Father and the Son, so
is it also of God and the soul.
15. Hence it is that notwithstanding the most profound knowledge
of God, and contemplation itself, together with the knowledge of
all mysteries, the soul without love is nothing worth, and can do
nothing, as the Apostle saith, towards its union with God. [129]
In another place he saith, 'Have charity, which is the bond of
perfection.' [130] This charity then and love of the soul make the
Bridegroom run to drink of the fountain of the Bride's love, as
the cooling waters attract the thirsty and the wounded hart, to be
refreshed therein.
'And is refreshed.'
16. As the air cools and refreshes him who is wearied with the
heat, so the air of love refreshes and comforts him who burns with
the fire of love. The fire of love hath this property, the air
which cools and refreshes it is an increase of the fire itself. To
him who loves, love is a flame that burns with the desire of
burning more and more, like the flame of material fire. The
consummation of this desire of burning more and more, with the
love of the bride, which is the air of her flight, is here called
refreshment. The Bridegroom says in substance, 'I burn more and
more because of the ardour of thy flight, for love kindles love.'
17. God does not establish His grace and love in the soul but in
proportion to the good will of that soul's love. He, therefore,
that truly loves God must strive that his love fail not; for so,
if we may thus speak, will he move God to show him greater love,
and to take greater delight in his soul. In order to attain to
such a degree of love, he must practise those things of which the
Apostle speaks, saying: 'Charity is patient, is benign: charity
envieth not, dealeth not perversely; is not puffed up, is not
ambitious, seeketh not her own, is not provoked to anger, thinketh
not evil, rejoiceth not upon iniquity, but rejoiceth with the
truth; beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all
things, endureth all things.' [131]
NOTE
WHEN the dove--that is the soul--was flying on the gale of love
over the waters of the deluge of the weariness and longing of its
love, 'not finding where her foot might rest,' [132] the
compassionate father Noe, in this last flight, put forth the hand
of his mercy, caught her, and brought her into the ark of his
charity and love. That took place when the Bridegroom, as in the
stanza now explained, said, 'Return, My Dove.' In the shelter
within the ark, the soul, finding all it desired, and more than it
can ever express, begins to sing the praises of the Beloved,
celebrating the magnificence which it feels and enjoys in that
union, saying:
STANZAS XIV, XV
THE BRIDE
My Beloved is the mountains,
The solitary wooded valleys,
The strange islands,
The roaring torrents,
The whisper of the amorous gales;
The tranquil night
At the approaches of the dawn,
The silent music,
The murmuring solitude,
The supper which revives, and enkindles love.
BEFORE I begin to explain these stanzas, I must observe, in order
that they and those which follow may be better understood, that
this spiritual flight signifies a certain high estate and union of
love, whereunto, after many spiritual exercises, God is wont to
elevate the soul: it is called the spiritual betrothal of the
Word, the Son of God. In the beginning, when this occurs the first
time, God reveals to it great things of Himself, makes it
beautiful in majesty and grandeur, adorns it with graces and
gifts, and endows it with honour, and with the knowledge of
Himself, as a bride is adorned on the day of her betrothal. On
this happy day the soul not only ceases from its anxieties and
loving complaints, but is, moreover, adorned with all grace,
entering into a state of peace and delight, and of the sweetness
of love, as it appears from these stanzas, in which it does
nothing else but recount and praise the magnificence of the
Beloved, which it recognises in Him, and enjoys in the union of
the betrothal.
2. In the stanzas that follow, the soul speaks no more of its
anxieties and sufferings, as before, but of the sweet and peaceful
intercourse of love with the Beloved; for now all its troubles are
over. These two stanzas, which I am about to explain, contain all
that God is wont at this time to bestow upon the soul; but we are
not to suppose that all souls, thus far advanced, receive all that
is here described, either in the same way or in the same degree of
knowledge and of consciousness. Some souls receive more, others
less; some in one way, some in another; and yet all may be in the
state of spiritual betrothal. But in this stanza the highest
possible is spoken of, because that embraces all.
EXPLANATION
3. As in the ark of Noe there were many chambers for the different
kinds of animals, as the Sacred Writings tell us, and 'all food
that may be eaten,' [133] so the soul, in its flight to the divine
ark of the bosom of God, sees therein not only the many mansions
of which our Lord speaks, but also all the food, that is, all the
magnificence in which the soul may rejoice, and which are here
referred to by the common terms of these stanzas. These are
substantially as follows:
4. In this divine union the soul has a vision and foretaste of
abundant and inestimable riches, and finds there all the repose
and refreshment it desired; it attains to the secrets of God, and
to a strange knowledge of Him, which is the food of those who know
Him most; it is conscious of the awful power of God beyond all
other power and might, tastes of the wonderful sweetness and
delight of the Spirit, finds its true rest and divine light,
drinks deeply of the wisdom of God, which shines forth in the
harmony of the creatures and works of God; it feels itself filled
with all good, emptied, and delivered from all evil, and, above
all, rejoices consciously in the inestimable banquet of love which
confirms it in love. This is the substance of these two stanzas.
5. The bride here says that her Beloved in Himself and to her is
all the objects she enumerates; for in the ecstatic communications
of God the soul feels and understands the truth of the saying of
St. Francis: 'God is mine and all things are mine.' And because
God is all, and the soul, and the good of all, the communication
in this ecstasy is explained by the consideration that the
goodness of the creatures referred to in these stanzas is a
reflection of His goodness, as will appear from every line
thereof. All that is here set forth is in God eminently in an
infinite way, or rather, every one of these grandeurs is God, and
all of them together are God. Inasmuch as the soul is one with
God, it feels all things to be God according to the words of St.
John: 'What was made, in Him was life.' [134]
6. But we are not to understand this consciousness of the soul as
if it saw the creatures in God as we see material objects in the
light, but that it feels all things to be God in this fruition of
Him; neither are we to imagine that the soul sees God essentially
and clearly because it has so deep a sense of Him; for this is
only a strong and abundant communication from Him, a glimmering
light of what He is in Himself, by which the soul discerns this
goodness of all things, as I proceed to explain.
'My Beloved is the mountains.'
7. Mountains are high fertile, extensive, beautiful, lovely,
flowery, and odorous. These mountains my Beloved is to me.
'The solitary wooded valleys.'
8. Solitary valleys are tranquil, pleasant, cooling, shady,
abounding in sweet waters, and by the variety of trees growing in
them, and by the melody of the birds that frequent them, enliven
and delight the senses; their solitude and silence procure us a
refreshing rest. These valleys my Beloved is to me.
'The strange islands.'
9. Strange islands are girt by the sea; they are also, because of
the sea, distant and unknown to the commerce of men. They produce
things very different from those with which we are conversant, in
strange ways, and with qualities hitherto unknown, so as to
surprise those who behold them, and fill them with wonder. Thus,
then, by reason of the great and marvellous wonders, and the
strange things that come to our knowledge, far beyond the common
notions of men, which the soul beholds in God, it calls Him the
strange islands. We say of a man that he is strange for one of two
reasons: either because he withdraws himself from the society of
his fellows, or because he is singular or distinguished in his
life and conduct. For these two reasons together God is called
strange by the soul. He is not only all that is strange in
undiscovered islands, but His ways, judgments, and works are also
strange, new, and marvellous to men.
10. It is nothing wonderful that God should be strange to men who
have never seen Him, seeing that He is also strange to the holy
angels and the souls who see Him; for they neither can nor shall
ever see Him perfectly. Yea, even to the day of the last judgment
they will see in Him so much that is new in His deep judgments, in
His acts of mercy and justice, as to excite their wonder more and
more. Thus God is the strange islands not to men only, but to the
angels also; only to Himself is He neither strange nor new.
'The roaring torrents.'
11. Torrents have three properties. 1. They overflow all that is
in their course. 2. They fill all hollows. 3. They overpower all
other sounds by their own. And hence the soul, feeling most
sweetly that these three properties belong to God, says, 'My
Beloved is the roaring torrents.'
12. As to the first property of which the soul is conscious, it
feels itself to be so overwhelmed with the torrent of the Spirit
of God, and so violently overpowered by it, that all the waters in
the world seem to it to have surrounded it, and to have drowned
all its former actions and passions. Though all this be violent,
yet there is nothing painful in it, for these rivers are rivers of
peace, as it is written, God, speaking through Isaias, saying, 'I
will decline upon her, as it were, a flood of peace, and as a
torrent overflowing glory.' [135] That is, 'I will bring upon the
soul, as it were, a river of peace, and a torrent overflowing with
glory.' Thus this divine overflowing, like roaring torrents, fills
the soul with peace and glory. The second property the soul feels
is that this divine water is now filling the vessels of its
humility and the emptiness of its desires, as it is written: 'He
hath exalted the humble, and filled the hungry with good.' [136]
The third property of which the soul is now conscious in the
roaring torrents of the Beloved is a spiritual sound and voice
overpowering all other sounds and voices in the world. The
explanation of this will take a little time.
13. This voice, or this murmuring sound of the waters, is an
overflowing so abundant as to fill the soul with good, and a power
so mighty seizing upon it as to seem not only the sound of many
waters, but a most loud roaring of thunder. But the voice is a
spiritual voice, unattended by material sounds or the pain and
torment of them, but rather with majesty, power, might, delight,
and glory: it is, as it were, a voice, an infinite interior sound
which endows the soul with power and might. The Apostles heard in
spirit this voice when the Holy Ghost descended upon them in the
sound 'as of a mighty wind,' [137] as we read in the Acts of the
Apostles. In order to manifest this spiritual voice, interiorly
spoken, the sound was heard exteriorly, as of a rushing wind, by
all those who were in Jerusalem. This exterior manifestation
reveals what the Apostles interiorly received, namely, fulness of
power and might.
14. So also when our Lord Jesus prayed to the Father because of
His distress and the rage of His enemies, He heard an interior
voice from heaven, comforting Him in His Sacred Humanity. The
sound, solemn and grave, was heard exteriorly by the Jews, some of
whom said that it thundered: others said, 'An angel hath spoken to
Him.' [138] The voice outwardly heard was the outward sign and
expression of that strength and power which Christ then inwardly
received in His human nature. We are not to suppose that the soul
does not hear in spirit the spiritual voice because it is also
outwardly heard. The spiritual voice is the effect on the soul of
the audible voice, as material sounds strike the ear, and impress
the meaning of it on the mind. This we learn from David when he
said, 'He will give to His voice the voice of strength;' [139]
this strength is the interior voice. He will give to His voice--
that is, the outward voice, audibly heard--the voice of strength
which is felt within. God is an infinite voice, and communicating
Himself thus to the soul produces the effect of an infinite voice.
15. This voice was heard by St. John, saying in the Apocalypse, 'I
heard a voice from heaven as the voice of many waters, and as the
voice of great thunder.' And, lest it should be supposed that a
voice so strong was distressing and harsh, he adds immediately,
'The voice which I heard was as the voice of harpers harping on
their harps.' [140] Ezechiel says that this sound as of many
waters was 'as it were the sound of the High God,' [141]
profoundly and sweetly communicated in it. This voice is infinite,
because, as I have said, it is God Who communicates Himself,
speaking in the soul; but He adapts Himself to each soul, uttering
the voice of strength according to its capacity, in majesty and
joy. And so the bride sings in the Canticle: 'Let Thy voice sound
in my ears, for Thy voice is sweet.' [142]
'The whisper of the amorous gales.'
16. Two things are to be considered here--gales and whisper. The
amorous gales are the virtues and graces of the Beloved, which,
because of its union with the Bridegroom, play around the soul,
and, most lovingly sent forth, touch it in their own substance.
The whisper of the gales is a most sublime and sweet knowledge of
God and of His attributes, which overflows into the understanding
from the contact of the attributes of God with the substance of
the soul. This is the highest delight of which the soul is capable
in this life.
17. That we may understand this the better, we must keep in mind
that as in a gale two things are observable--the touch of it, and
the whisper or sound--so there are two things observable also in
the communications of the Bridegroom--the sense of delight, and
the understanding of it. As the touch of the air is felt in the
sense of touch, and the whisper of it heard in the ear, so also
the contact of the perfections of the Beloved is felt and enjoyed
in the touch of the soul--that is, in the substance thereof,
through the instrumentality of the will; and the knowledge of the
attributes of God felt in the hearing of the soul--that is, in the
understanding.
18. The gale is said to blow amorously when it strikes
deliciously, satisfying his desire who is longing for the
refreshing which it ministers; for it then revives and soothes the
sense of touch, and while the sense of touch is thus soothed, that
of hearing also rejoices and delights in the sound and whisper of
the gale more than the touch in the contact of the air, because
the sense of hearing is more spiritual, or, to speak with greater
correctness, is more nearly connected with the spiritual than is
that of touch, and the delight thereof is more spiritual than is
that of the touch. So also, inasmuch as this touch of God greatly
satisfies and comforts the substance of the soul, sweetly
fulfilling its longing to be received into union; this union, or
touch, is called amorous gales, because, as I said before, the
perfections of the Beloved are by it communicated to the soul
lovingly and sweetly, and through it the whisper of knowledge to
the understanding. It is called whisper, because, as the whisper
of the air penetrates subtiley into the organ of hearing, so this
most subtile and delicate knowledge enters with marvellous
sweetness and delight into the inmost substance of the soul, which
is the highest of all delights.
19. The reason is that substantial knowledge is now communicated
intelligibly, and stripped of all accidents and images, to the
understanding, which philosophers call passive or passible,
because inactive without any natural efforts of its own during
this communication. This is the highest delight of the soul,
because it is in the understanding, which is the seat of fruition,
as theologians teach, and fruition is the vision of God. Some
theologians think, inasmuch as this whisper signifies the
substantial intelligence, that our father Elias had a vision of
God in the delicate whisper of the air, which he heard on the
mount at the mouth of the cave. The Holy Scripture calls it 'the
whistling of a gentle wind,' [143] because knowledge is begotten
in the understanding by the subtile and delicate communication of
the Spirit. The soul calls it here the whisper of the amorous
gales, because it flows into the understanding from the loving
communication of the perfections of the Beloved. This is why it
is called the whisper of the amorous gales.
20. This divine whisper which enters in by the ear of the soul is
not only substantial knowledge, but a manifestation also of the
truths of the Divinity, and a revelation of the secret mysteries
thereof. For in general, in the Holy Scriptures, every
communication of God said to enter in by the ear is a
manifestation of pure truths to the understanding, or a revelation
of the secrets of God. These are revelations on purely spiritual
visions, and are communicated directly to the soul without the
intervention of the senses, and thus, what God communicates
through the spiritual ear is most profound and most certain. When
St. Paul would express the greatness of the revelations made to
him, he did not say, 'I saw or I perceived secret words,' but 'I
heard secret words which it is not granted to man to utter.' [144]
It is thought that St. Paul also saw God, as our father Elias, in
the whisper of a gentle air. For as 'faith cometh by hearing'--so
the Apostle teaches--that is, by the hearing of the material ear,
so also that which the faith teaches, the intelligible truth,
cometh by spiritual hearing.
21. The prophet Job, speaking to God, when He revealed Himself
unto him, teaches the same doctrine, saying, 'With the hearing of
the ear I have heard Thee, but now my eye seeth Thee.' [145] It is
clear, from this, that to hear with the ear of the soul is to see
with the eye of the passive understanding. He does not say, 'I
heard with the hearing of my ears,' but 'with the hearing of my
ear'; nor, 'with the seeing of my eyes,' but 'with the eye of my
understanding'; the hearing of the soul is, therefore, the vision
of the understanding.
22. Still, we are not to think that what the soul perceives,
though pure truth, can be the perfect and clear fruition of
Heaven. For though it be free from accidents, as I said before,
[146] it is dim and not clear, because it is contemplation, which
in this life, as St. Dionysius saith, 'is a ray of darkness,'
[147] and thus we may say that it is a ray and an image of
fruition, because it is in the understanding, which is the seat of
fruition. This substantial truth, called here a whisper, is the
'eyes desired' which the Beloved showed to the bride, who, unable
to bear the vision, cried, 'Turn them away, O my Beloved.' [148]
23. There is a passage in the book of Job which greatly confirms
what I have said of rapture and betrothal, and, because I consider
it to be much to the purpose, I will give it here, though it may
delay us a little, and explain those portions of it which belong
to my subject. The explanation shall be short, and when I shall
have made it, I shall go on to explain the other stanza. The
passage is as follows: 'To me there was spoken a secret word,'
said Eliphaz the Themanite, 'and, as it were, my ear by stealth
received the veins of its whisper. In the horror of a vision by
night, when deep sleep is wont to hold men, fear held me and
trembling, and all my bones were made sore afraid: and when the
spirit passed before me the hair of my flesh stood upright. There
stood one whose countenance I knew not, an image before mine eyes,
and I heard the voice, as it were, of a gentle wind.' [149]
24. This passage contains almost all I said about rapture in the
thirteenth stanza, where the bride says: 'Turn them away, O my
Beloved.' The 'word spoken in secret' to Eliphaz is that secret
communication which by reason of its greatness the soul was not
able to endure, and, therefore, cried out: 'Turn them away, O my
Beloved.' Eliphaz says that his 'ear as it were by stealth
received the veins of its whisper.' By that is meant the pure
substance which the understanding receives, for the 'veins' here
denote the interior substance. The whisper is that communication
and touch of the virtues whereby the said substance is
communicated to the understanding. It is called a whisper because
of its great gentleness. And the soul calls it the amorous gales
because it is lovingly communicated. It is said to be received as
it were by stealth, for as that which is stolen is alienated, so
this secret is alien to man, speaking in the order of nature,
because that which he received does not appertain to him
naturally, and thus it was not lawful for him to receive it;
neither was it lawful for St. Paul to repeat what he heard. For
this reason the prophet saith twice, 'My secret to myself, my
secret to myself.' [150]
25. When Eliphaz speaks of the horror of the vision by night, and
of the fear and trembling that seized upon him, he refers to the
awe and dread that comes upon the soul naturally in rapture,
because in its natural strength it is unable, as I said before,
[151] to endure the communication of the Spirit of God. The
prophet gives us to understand that, as when sleep is about to
fall upon men, a certain vision which they call a nightmare is
wont to oppress and terrify them in the interval between sleeping
and waking, which is the moment of the approach of sleep, so in
the spiritual passage between the sleep of natural ignorance and
the waking of the supernatural understanding, which is the
beginning of an ecstasy or rapture, the spiritual vision then
revealed makes the soul fear and tremble.
26. 'All my bones were affrighted'; that is, were shaken and
disturbed. By this he meant a certain dislocation of the bones
which takes place when the soul falls into an ecstasy. This is
clearly expressed by Daniel when he saw the angel, saying, 'O my
lord, at the sight of thee my joints are loosed.' [152] 'When the
spirit passed before me'--that is, 'When my spirit was made to
transcend the ways and limitations of nature in ecstasies and
raptures'--'the hair of my flesh stood upright'; that is, �my body
was chilled, and the flesh contracted, like that of a dead man.'
27. 'There stood One'--that is God, Who reveals Himself after this
manner--'Whose countenance knew not': in these communications or
visions, however high they may be, the soul neither knows nor
beholds the face and being of God. 'An image before my eyes'; that
is, the knowledge of the secret words was most deep, as it were
the image and face of God; but still this is not the essential
vision of God. 'I heard the voice, as it were, of a gentle wind';
this is the whisper of the amorous gales--that is, of the Beloved
of the soul.
28. But it is not to be supposed that these visits of God are
always attended by such terrors and distress of nature: that
happens to them only who are entering the state of illumination
and perfection, and in this kind of communication; for in others
they come with great sweetness.
STANZA XV
'THE tranquil night.' In this spiritual sleep in the bosom of the
Beloved the soul is in possession and fruition of all the calm,
repose, and quiet of a peaceful night, and receives at the same
time in God a certain dim, unfathomable divine intelligence. This
is the reason why it says that the Beloved is to it the tranquil
night.
2. 'At the approaches of the dawn.' This tranquil night is not
like a night of darkness, but rather like the night when the
sunrise is drawing nigh. This tranquillity and repose in God is
not all darkness to the soul, as the dark night is, but rather
tranquillity and repose in the divine light and in a new knowledge
of God, whereby the mind, most sweetly tranquil, is raised to a
divine light.
3. This divine light is here very appropriately called the
approaches of the dawn, that is, the twilight; for as the twilight
of the morn disperses the darkness of the night and reveals the
light of day, so the mind, tranquil and reposing in God, is raised
up from the darkness of natural knowledge to the morning light of
the supernatural knowledge of God; not clear, indeed, as I have
said, but dim, like the night at the approaches of the dawn. For
as it is then neither wholly night nor wholly day, but, as they
say, twilight, so this solitude and divine repose is neither
perfectly illumined by the divine light nor yet perfectly alien
from it.
4. In this tranquillity the understanding is lifted up in a
strange way above its natural comprehension to the divine light:
it is like a man who, after a profound sleep, opens his eyes to
unexpected light. This knowledge is referred to by David when he
says, 'I have watched, and am become as the lonely sparrow on the
housetop'; [153] that is, 'I opened the eyes of my understanding
and was raised up above all natural comprehension, lonely, without
them, on the housetop, lifted up above all earthly
considerations.' He says that he was 'become as the lonely
sparrow,' because in this kind of contemplation, the spirit has
the properties of the sparrow. These are five in number:
i. It frequents in general high places; and the spirit, in
this state, rises to the highest contemplation.
ii. It is ever turning its face in the direction of the wind,
and the spirit turns its affections thither whence comes the
spirit of love, which is God.
iii. It is in general solitary, abstaining from the
companionship of others, and flying away when any approach it: so
the spirit, in contemplation, is far away from all worldly
thoughts, lonely in its avoidance of them; neither does it consent
to anything except to this solitude in God.
iv. It sings most sweetly, and so also does the spirit at
this time sing unto God; for the praises which it offers up
proceed from the sweetest love, most pleasing to itself, and most
precious in the sight of God.
v. It is of no definite colour; so also is the perfect
spirit, which in this ecstasy is not only without any tinge of
sensual affection or self-love, but also without any particular
consideration of the things of heaven or earth; neither can it
give any account whatever of them, because it has entered into the
abyss of the knowledge of God.
'The silent music.'
5. In this silence and tranquillity of the night, and in this
knowledge of the divine light, the soul discerns a marvellous
arrangement and disposition of God's wisdom in the diversities of
His creatures and operations. All these, and each one of them,
have a certain correspondence with God, whereby each, by a voice
peculiar to itself, proclaims what there is in itself of God, so
as to form a concert of sublimest melody, transcending all the
harmonies of the world. This is the silent music, because it is
knowledge tranquil and calm, without audible voice; and thus the
sweetness of music and the repose of silence are enjoyed in it.
The soul says that the Beloved is silent music, because this
harmony of spiritual music is in Him understood and felt. He is
not this only, He is also--
'The murmuring solitude.'
6. This is almost the same as the silent music. For though the
music is inaudible to the senses and the natural powers, it is a
solitude most full of sound to the spiritual powers. These powers
being in solitude, emptied of all forms and natural apprehensions,
may well receive in spirit, like a resounding voice, the spiritual
impression of the majesty of God in Himself and in His creatures;
as it happened to St. John, who heard in spirit as it were 'the
voice of harpers harping on their harps.' [154] St. John heard
this in spirit: it was not material harps that he heard, but a
certain knowledge that he had of the praises of the blessed, which
every one of them, each in his own degree of glory, is continually
singing before God. It is as it were music. For as every one of
the saints had the gifts of God in a different way, so every one
of them sings His praises in a different way, and yet all
harmonise in one concert of love, as in music.
7. In the same way, in this tranquil contemplation, the soul
beholds all creatures, not only the highest, but the lowest also,
each one according to the gift of God to it, sending forth the
voice of its witness to what God is. It beholds each one
magnifying Him in its own way, and possessing Him according to its
particular capacity; and thus all these voices together unite in
one strain in praise of God's greatness, wisdom, and marvellous
knowledge. This is the meaning of those words of the Holy Ghost in
the Book of Wisdom: 'The Spirit of our Lord hath replenished the
whole world, and that which containeth all things hath the
knowledge of the voice.' [155] 'The voice' is the murmuring
solitude, which the soul is said to know, namely, the witness
which all things bear to God. Inasmuch as the soul hears this
music only in solitude and in estrangement from all outward
things, it calls it silent music and murmuring solitude. These are
the Beloved.
'The supper which revives, and enkindles love.'
8. Lovers find recreation, satisfaction, and love in feasts.
And because the Beloved in this sweet communication produces these
three effects in the soul, He is here said to be the supper that
revives, and enkindles love. In Holy Scripture supper signifies
the divine vision, for as supper is the conclusion of the day's
labours, and the beginning of the night's repose, so the soul in
this tranquil knowledge is made to feel that its trials are over,
the possession of good begun, and its love of God increased.
Hence, then, the Beloved is to the soul the supper that revives,
in being the end of its trials, and that enkindles love, in being
the beginning of the fruition of all good.
9. That we may see more clearly how the Bridegroom is the supper
of the soul, we must refer to those words of the Beloved in the
Apocalypse: 'Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If any man
shall hear My voice, and open to Me the gate, I will enter in to
him, and will sup with him, and he with Me.' [156] It is evident
from these words that He brings the supper with Him, which is
nothing else but His own sweetness and delights, wherein He
rejoiceth Himself, and which He, uniting Himself to the soul,
communicates to it, making it a partaker of His joy: for this is
the meaning of 'I will sup with him, and he with Me.' These words
describe the effect of the divine union of the soul with God,
wherein it shares the very goods of God Himself, Who communicates
them graciously and abundantly to it. Thus the Beloved is Himself
the supper which revives, and enkindles love, refreshing the soul
with His abundance, and enkindling its love in His graciousness.
10. But before I proceed to explain the stanzas which follow, I
must observe that, in the state of betrothal, wherein the soul
enjoys this tranquillity, and wherein it receives all that it can
receive in this life, we are not to suppose its tranquillity to be
perfect, but that the higher part of it is tranquil; for the
sensual part, except in the state of spiritual marriage, never
loses all its imperfect habits, and its powers are never wholly
subdued, as I shall show hereafter. [157] What the soul receives
now is all that it can receive in the state of betrothal, for in
that of the marriage the blessings are greater. Though the bride-
soul has great joy in these visits of the Beloved in the state of
betrothal, still it has to suffer from His absence, to endure
trouble and afflictions in the lower part, and at the hands of the
devil. But all this ceases in the state of spiritual marriage.
NOTE
THE bride now in possession of the virtues in their perfection,
whereby she is ordinarily rejoicing in peace when the Beloved
visits her, is now and then in the fruition of the fragrance and
sweetness of those virtues in the highest degree, because the
Beloved touches them within her, just as the sweetness and beauty
of the lilies and other flowers when in their bloom are perceived
when we handle them. For in many of these visits the soul discerns
within itself all its virtues which God has given it; He shedding
light upon them. The soul now, with marvellous joy and sweetness
of love, binds them together and presents them to the Beloved as a
nosegay of beautiful flowers, and the Beloved in accepting them--
for He truly accepts them then--accepts thereby a great service.
All this takes place within the soul, feeling that the Beloved is
within it as on His own couch, for the soul presents itself with
the virtues which is the greatest service it can render Him, and
thus this is one of the greatest joys which in its interior
converse with God the soul is wont to receive in presents of this
kind made to the Beloved.
2. The devil, beholding this prosperity of the soul, and in his
great malice envying all the good he sees in it, now uses all his
power, and has recourse to all his devices, in order to thwart it,
if possible, even in the slightest degree. He thinks it of more
consequence to keep back the soul, even for an instant, from this
abundance, bliss, and delight, than to make others fall into many
and mortal sins. Other souls have little or nothing to lose, while
this soul has much, having gained many and great treasures; for
the loss of one grain of refined gold is greater than the loss of
many of the baser metals.
3. The devil here has recourse to the sensual appetites, though
now they can give him generally but little or no help because they
are mortified, and because he cannot turn them to any great
account in distracting the imagination. Sometimes he stirs up many
movements in the sensitive part of the soul, and causes other
vexations, spiritual as well as sensual, from which the soul is
unable to deliver itself until our Lord shall send His angel, as
it is written, 'The angel of the Lord shall put in himself about
them that fear Him, and shall deliver them;' [158] and so
establish peace, both in the spiritual and sensitive parts of the
soul. With a view to show forth this truth, and to ask this
favour, the soul, apprehensive by experience of the craft which
the devil makes use of to thwart this good, addressing itself to
the angels, whose function it is to succour it at this time by
putting the evil spirits to flight, speaks as in the following
stanza:
STANZA XVI
Catch us the foxes,
For our vineyard hath flourished;
While of roses
We make a nosegay,
And let no one appear on the hill.
THE soul, anxious that this interior delight of love, which is the
flowers of the vineyard, should not be interrupted, either by
envious and malicious devils, or the raging desires of sensuality,
or the various comings and goings of the imagination, or any other
consciousness or presence of created things, calls upon the angels
to seize and hinder all these from interrupting its practice of
interior love, in the joy and sweetness of which the soul and the
Son of God communicate and delight in the virtues and graces.
'Catch us the foxes, for our vineyard hath flourished.'
2. The vineyard is the plantation in this holy soul of all the
virtues which minister to it the wine of sweet taste. The vineyard
of the soul is then flourishing when it is united in will to the
Bridegroom, and delights itself in Him in all the virtues.
Sometimes, as I have just said, the memory and the fancy are
assailed by various forms and imaginings, and divers motions and
desires trouble the sensual part. The great variety and diversity
of these made David say, when he felt the inconvenience and the
trouble of them as he was drinking of the sweet wine of the
spirit, thirsting greatly after God: 'For Thee my soul hath
thirsted, for Thee my flesh, O how many ways.' [159]
3. Here the soul calls the whole troop of desires and stirrings
of sense, foxes, because of the great resemblance between them at
this time. As foxes pretend to be asleep that they may pounce upon
their prey when it comes in their way, so all the desires and
powers of sense in the soul are asleep until the flowers of virtue
grow, flourish, and bloom. Then the desires and powers of sense
awake to resist the Spirit and domineer. 'The flesh lusteth
against the spirit,' [160] and as the inclination of it is towards
the sensual desires, it is disgusted as soon as it tastes of the
Spirit, and herein the desires prove extremely troublesome to
spiritual sweetness.
'Catch us the foxes.'
4. The evil spirits now molest the soul in two ways. They
vehemently excite the desires, and employ them with other
imaginations to assail the peaceful and flourishing kingdom of the
soul. Then--and this is much worse--when they do not succeed in
stirring up the desires, they assail the soul with bodily pains
and noises in order to distract it. And, what is still more
serious, they fight with spiritual horror and dread, and sometimes
with fearful torments, which, at this time, if God permits them,
they can most effectually bring about, for inasmuch as the soul is
now spiritually detached, so as to perform its spiritual
exercises, the devil being himself a spirit presents himself
before it with great ease.
5. At other times the evil spirit assails the soul with other
horrors, before it begins to have the fruition of the sweet
flowers, when God is beginning to draw it forth out of the house
of sense that it may enter on the interior exercises in the garden
of the Bridegroom, for he knows well that once entered into this
state of recollection it is there so protected that,
notwithstanding all he can do, he cannot hurt it. Very often, too,
when the devil goes forth to meet the soul, the soul becomes
quickly recollected in the secret depths of its interior, where it
finds great sweetness and protection; then those terrors of Satan
are so far off that they not only produce no fear, but are even
the occasion of peace and joy. The bride, in the Canticle, speaks
of these terrors, saying, 'My soul troubled me for the chariots of
Aminadab.' [161] Aminadab is the evil spirit, and his chariots are
his assaults upon the soul, which he makes with great violence,
noise, and confusion.
6. The bride also says what the soul says here, namely: 'Catch us
the little foxes that destroy the vineyards; for our vineyard hath
flourished.' [162] She does not say, 'Catch me' but 'Catch us,'
because she is speaking of herself and the Beloved; for they are
one, and enjoy the flourishing of the vineyard together.
7. The reason why the vineyard is said to be flourishing and not
bearing fruit is this: the soul in this life has the fruition of
virtues, however perfect they may be, only in their flower,
because the fruit of them is reserved for the life to come.
'While of roses we make a nosegay.'
8. Now, at this time, while the soul is rejoicing in the
flourishing of the vineyard, and delighting itself in the bosom of
the Beloved, all its virtues are perfect, exhibiting themselves to
the soul, and sending forth great sweetness and delight. The soul
feels them to be in itself and in God so as to seem to be one
vineyard most flourishing and pleasing belonging to both, wherein
they feed and delight. Then the soul binds all its virtues
together, makes acts of love in each of them separately, and in
all together, and then offers them all to the Beloved, with great
tenderness of love and sweetness, and in this the Beloved helps
it, for without His help and favour it cannot make this union and
oblation of virtue to the Beloved. Hence it says, 'We make a
nosegay'--that is 'the Beloved and myself.'
9. This union of the virtues is called a nosegay; for as a nosegay
is cone-like in form, and a cone is strong, containing and
embracing many pieces firmly joined together, so this cone-like
nosegay of the virtues which the soul makes for the Beloved is the
uniform perfection of the soul which firmly and solidly contains
and embraces many perfections, great virtues, and rich endowments;
for all the perfections and virtues of the soul unite together to
form but one. And while this perfection is being accomplished, and
when accomplished, offered to the Beloved on the part of the soul,
it becomes necessary to catch the foxes that they may not hinder
this mutual interior communication. The soul prays not only that
this nosegay may be carefully made, but also adds, 'And let no one
appear on the hill.'
10. This divine interior exercise requires solitude and detachment
from all things, whether in the lower part of the soul, which is
that of sense, or in the higher, which is the rational. These two
divisions comprise all the faculties and senses of man, and are
here called the hill; because all our natural notions and desires
being in them, as quarry on a hill, the devil lies in wait among
these notions and desires, in order that he may injure the soul.
'And let no one appear on the hill.'
11. That is, let no representation or image of any object
whatever, appertaining to any of these faculties or senses, appear
in the presence of the soul and the Bridegroom: in other words,
let the spiritual powers of the soul, memory, understanding, and
will, be divested of all notions, particular inclinations, or
considerations whatsoever; and let all the senses and faculties of
the body, interior as well as exterior, the imagination, the
fancy, the sight and hearing, and the rest, be divested of all
occasions of distractions, of all forms, images, and
representations, and of all other natural operations.
12. The soul speaks in this way because it is necessary for the
perfect fruition of this communication of God, that all the senses
and powers, both interior and exterior, should be disencumbered
and emptied of their proper objects and operations; for the more
active they are, the greater will be the hindrance which they will
occasion. The soul having attained to a certain interior union of
love, the spiritual faculties of it are no longer active, and
still less those of the body; for now that the union of love is
actually wrought in love, the faculties of the soul cease from
their exertions, because now that the goal is reached all
employment of means is at an end. What the soul at this time has
to do is to wait lovingly upon God, and this waiting is love in a
continuation of unitive love. Let no one, therefore, appear on the
hill, but the will only waiting on the Beloved in the offering up
of self and of all the virtues in the way described.
NOTE
FOR the clearer understanding of the following stanza, we must
keep in mind that the absence of the Beloved, from which the soul
suffers in the state of spiritual betrothal, is an exceedingly
great affliction, and at times greater than all other trials
whatever. The reason is this: the love of the soul for God is now
so vehement and deep that the pain of His absence is vehement and
deep also. This pain is increased also by the annoyance which
comes from intercourse with creatures, which is very great; for
the soul, under the pressure of its quickened desire of union with
God, finds all other conversation most painful and difficult to
endure. It is like a stone in its flight to the place whither it
is rapidly tending; every obstacle it meets with occasions a
violent shock. And as the soul has tasted of the sweetness of the
Beloved's visits, which are more desirable than gold and all that
is beautiful, it therefore dreads even a momentary absence, and
addresses itself as follows to aridities, and to the Spirit of the
Bridegroom:--
STANZA XVII
O killing north wind, cease!
Come, south wind, that awakenest love!
Blow through my garden,
And let its odours flow,
And the Beloved shall feed among the flowers.
BESIDE the causes mentioned in the foregoing stanza, spiritual
dryness also hinders the fruition of this interior sweetness of
which I have been speaking, and afraid of it the soul had recourse
to two expedients, to which it refers in the present stanza. The
first is to shut the door against it by unceasing prayer and
devotion. The second, to invoke the Holy Ghost; it is He Who
drives away dryness from the soul, maintains and increases its
love of the Bridegroom--that He may establish in it the practice
of virtue, and all this to the end that the Son of God, its
Bridegroom, may rejoice and delight in it more and more, for its
only aim is to please the Beloved.
'Killing north wind, cease.'
2. The north wind is exceedingly cold; it dries up and parches
flowers and plants, and at the least, when it blows, causes them
to draw in and shrink. So, dryness of spirit and the sensible
absence of the Beloved, because they produce the same effect on
the soul, exhausting the sweetness and fragrance of virtue, are
here called the killing north wind; for all the virtues and
affective devotions of the soul are then dead. Hence the soul
addresses itself to it, saying, 'Killing north wind, cease.' These
words mean that the soul applies itself to spiritual exercise, in
order to escape aridity. But the communications of God are now so
interior that by no exertion of its faculties can the soul attain
to them if the Spirit of the Bridegroom do not cause these
movements of love. The soul, therefore, addresses Him, saying:
'Come, south wind, that awakenest love.'
3. The south wind is another wind commonly called the south-west
wind. It is soft, and brings rain; it makes the grass and plants
grow, flowers to blossom and scatter their perfume abroad; in
short, it is the very opposite in its effects of the north wind.
By it is meant here the Holy Ghost, Who awakeneth love; for when
this divine Breath breathes on the soul, it so inflames and
refreshes it, so quickens the will, and stirs up the desires,
which were before low and asleep as to the love of God, that we
may well say of it that it quickens the love between Him and the
soul. The prayer of the soul to the Holy Ghost is thus expressed,
'Blow through my garden.'
4. This garden is the soul itself. For as the soul said of itself
before, that it was a flourishing vineyard, because the flowers of
virtue which are in it give forth the wine of sweetness, so here
it says of itself that it is a garden, because the flowers of
perfection and the virtues are planted in it, flourish, and grow.
5. Observe, too, that the expression is 'blow through my garden,'
not blow in it. There is a great difference between God's
breathing into the soul and through it. To breathe into the soul
is to infuse into it graces, gifts, and virtues; to breathe
through it is, on the part of God, to touch and move its virtues
and perfections now possessed, renewing them and stirring them in
such a way that they send forth their marvellous fragrance and
sweetness. Thus aromatic spices, when shaken or touched, give
forth the abundant odours which are not otherwise so distinctly
perceived. The soul is not always in the conscious fruition of its
acquired and infused virtues, because, in this life, they are like
flowers in seed, or in bud, or like aromatic spices covered over,
the perfume of which is not perceived till they are exposed and
shaken.
6. But God sometimes is so merciful to the bride-soul, as--the
Holy Ghost breathing meanwhile through the flourishing garden--to
open these buds of virtue and expose the aromatic herbs of the
soul's gifts, perfections, and riches, to manifest to it its
interior treasures and to reveal to it all its beauty. It is then
marvellous to behold, and sweet to feel, the abundance of the
gifts now revealed in the soul, and the beauty of the flowers of
virtue now flourishing in it. No language can describe the
fragrance which every one of them diffuses, each according to its
kind. This state of the soul is referred to in the words, 'Let its
odours flow.'
7. So abundant are these odours at times, that the soul seems
enveloped in delight and bathed in inestimable bliss. Not only is
it conscious itself of them, but they even overflow it, so that
those who know how to discern these things can perceive them. The
soul in this state seems to them as a delectable garden, full of
the joys and riches of God. This is observable in holy souls, not
only when the flowers open, but almost always; for they have a
certain air of grandeur and dignity which inspires the beholders
with awe and reverence, because of the supernatural effects of
their close and familiar converse with God. We have an
illustration of this in the life of Moses, the sight of whose face
the people could not bear, by reason of the glory that rested upon
it--the effect of his speaking to God face to face. [163]
8. While the Holy Ghost is breathing through the garden--this is
His visitation of the soul--the Bridegroom Son of God communicates
Himself to it in a profound way, enamoured of it. It is for this
that He sends the Holy Spirit before Him--as He sent the
Apostles [164]--to make ready the chamber of the soul His bride,
comforting it with delight, setting its garden in order, opening
its flowers, revealing its gifts, and adorning it with the
tapestry of graces. The bride-soul longs for this with all its
might, and therefore bids the north wind not to blow, and invokes
the south wind to blow through the garden, because she gains much
here at once.
9. The bride now gains the fruition of all her virtues in their
sweetest exercise. She gains the fruition of her Beloved in them,
because it is through them that He converses with her in most
intimate love, and grants her favours greater than any of the
past. She gains, too, that her Beloved delights more in her
because of the actual exercise of virtue, which is what pleases
her most, namely, that her Beloved should be pleased with her. She
gains also the permanent continuance of the sweet fragrance which
remains in the soul while the Bridegroom is present, and the bride
entertains Him with the sweetness of her virtues, as it is
written: 'While the King was at His repose,' that is, in the soul,
'my spikenard sent forth its odour.' [165] The spikenard is the
soul, which from the flowers of its virtues sends forth sweet
odours to the Beloved, Who dwells within it in the union of love.
10. It is therefore very much to be desired that every soul should
pray the Holy Ghost to blow through its garden, that the divine
odours of God may flow. And as this is so necessary, so blissful
and profitable to the soul, the bride desires it, and prays for
it, in the words of the Canticle, saying, 'Arise, north wind, and
come, south wind; blow through my garden, and let the aromatical
spices thereof flow.' [166] The soul prays for this, not because
of the delight and bliss consequent upon it, but because of the
delight it ministers to the Beloved, and because it prepares the
way and announces the presence of the Son of God, Who cometh to
rejoice in it. Hence the soul adds:
'And my Beloved shall feed among the flowers.'
11. The delight which the Son of God finds now in the soul is
described as pasture. This word expresses most forcibly the truth,
because pasture not only gladdeneth, but also sustaineth. Thus the
Son of God delights in the soul, in the delights thereof, and is
sustained in them--that is, He abides within it as in a place
which pleases Him exceedingly, because the place itself really
delights in Him. This, I believe, is the meaning of those words
recorded in the proverbs of Solomon: 'My delights were to be with
the children of men;' [167] that is, when they delight to be with
Me, Who am the Son of God.
12. Observe, here, that it is not said that the Beloved shall feed
on the flowers, but that He shall feed among the flowers. For, as
the communications of the Beloved are in the soul itself, through
the adornment of the virtues, it follows that what He feeds on is
the soul which He transformed into Himself, now that it is
prepared and adorned with these flowers of virtues, graces, and
perfections, which are the things whereby, and among which, He
feeds. These, by the power of the Holy Ghost, are sending forth in
the soul the odours of sweetness to the Son of God, that He may
feed there the more in the love thereof; for this is the love of
the Bridegroom, to be united to the soul amid the fragrance of the
flowers.
13. The bride in the Canticle has observed this, for she had
experience of it, saying: 'My Beloved is gone down into His
garden, to the bed of aromatical spices,to feed in the gardens,
and to gather lilies. I to my Beloved, and my Beloved to me, Who
feedeth among the lilies' [168] That is, 'Who feedeth and
delighteth in my soul, which is His garden, among the lilies of my
virtues, perfections, and graces.'
NOTE
IN the state of spiritual espousals the soul contemplating its
great riches and excellence, but unable to enter into the
possession and fruition of them as it desires, because it is still
in the flesh, often suffers exceedingly, and then more
particularly when its knowledge of them becomes more profound. It
then sees itself in the body, like a prince in prison, subject to
all misery, whose authority is disregarded, whose territories and
wealth are confiscated, and who of his former substance receives
but a miserable dole. How greatly he suffers any one may see,
especially when his household is no longer obedient, and his
slaves and servants, forgetting all respect, plunder him of the
scanty provisions of his table. Thus is it with the soul in the
body, for when God mercifully admits it to a foretaste of the good
things which He has prepared for it, the wicked servants of desire
in the sensual part, now a slave of disorderly motions, now other
rebellious movements, rise up against it in order to rob it of its
good.
2. The soul feels itself as if it were in the land of enemies,
tyrannised over by the stranger, like the dead among the dead. Its
feelings are those which the prophet Baruch gave vent to when he
described the misery of Jacob's captivity: 'How happeneth it, O
Israel, that thou art in thy enemies' land? thou art grown old in
a strange country, thou art defiled with the dead: thou art
counted with them that go down into hell.' [169] This misery of
the soul, in the captivity of the body, is thus spoken of by
Jeremias, saying: 'Is Israel a bondman or a home-born slave? Why
then is he become a prey? The lions have roared upon him, and have
made a noise.' [170] The lions are the desires and the rebellious
motions of the tyrant king of sensuality. In order to express the
trouble which this tyrant occasions, and the desire of the soul to
see this kingdom of sensuality with all its hosts destroyed, or
wholly subject to the spirit, the soul lifting up its eyes to the
Bridegroom, as to one who can effect it, speaks against those
rebellious motions in the words of the next stanza.
STANZA XVIII
O nymphs of Judea!
While amid the flowers and the rose-trees
The amber sends forth its perfume,
Tarry in the suburbs,
And touch not our thresholds.
IT is the bride that speaks; for seeing herself, as to the higher
part of the soul, adorned with the rich endowments of her Beloved,
and seeing Him delighting in her, she desires to preserve herself
in security, and in the continued fruition of them. Seeing also
that hindrances will arise, as in fact they do, from the sensual
part of the soul, which will disturb so great a good, she bids the
operations and motions of the soul's lower nature to cease, in the
senses and faculties of it, and sensuality not to overstep its
boundaries to trouble and disquiet the higher and spiritual
portion of the soul: not to hinder even for a moment the sweetness
she enjoys. The motions of the lower part, and their powers, if
they show themselves during the enjoyment of the spirit, are so
much more troublesome and disturbing, the more active they are.
'O nymphs of Judea.'
2. The lower, that is the sensual part of the soul, is called
Judea. It is called Judea because it is weak, and carnal, and
blind, like the Jewish people. All the imaginations, fancies,
motions, and inclinations of the lower part of the soul are called
nymphs, for as nymphs with their beauty and attractions entice men
to love them, so the operations and motions of sensuality softly
and earnestly strive to entice the will from the rational part, in
order to withdraw it from that which is interior, and to fix it on
that which is exterior, to which they are prone themselves. They
also strive to influence the understanding to join with them in
their low views, and to bring down reason to the level of sense by
the attractions of the latter. The soul, therefore, says in
effect: 'O sensual operations and motions.'
'While amid the flowers and the rose-trees.'
3. The flowers, as I have said, are the virtues of the soul, and
the rose-trees are its powers, memory, understanding, and will,
which produce and nurture the flowers of divine conceptions, acts
of love and the virtues, while the amber sends forth its perfume
in the virtues and powers of the soul.
'The amber sends forth its perfume.'
4. The amber is the divine spirit of the Bridegroom Who dwells in
the soul. To send forth the perfume among the flowers and the
rose-trees, is to diffuse and communicate Himself most sweetly in
the powers and virtues of the soul, thereby filling it with the
perfume of divine sweetness. Meanwhile, then, when the Divine
Spirit is filling my soul with spiritual sweetness,
'Tarry in the suburbs.'
5. In the suburbs of Judea, which is the inferior or sensual part
of the soul. The suburbs are the interior senses, namely, memory,
fancy, and imagination, where forms and images of things collect,
by the help of which sensuality stirs up concupiscence and
desires. These forms are the nymphs, and while they are quiet and
tranquil the desires are also asleep. They enter into the suburbs
of the interior senses by the gates of the outward senses, of
sight, hearing, smell, etc. We can thus give the name of suburbs
to all the powers and interior or exterior senses of the sensual
part of the soul, because they are outside the walls of the city.
6. That part of the soul which may be called the city is that
which is most interior, the rational part, which is capable of
converse with God, the operations of which are contrary to those
of sensuality. But there is a natural intercourse between those
who dwell in the suburbs of the sensual part--that is, the nymphs--
and those who dwell in the higher part, which is the city itself;
and, therefore, what takes place in the lower part is ordinarily
felt in the higher, and consequently compels attention to itself
and disturbs the spiritual operation which is conversant with God.
Hence the soul bids the nymphs tarry in the suburbs--that is, to
remain at rest in the exterior and interior senses of the sensual
part,
'And touch not our thresholds.'
7. Let not even your first movements touch the higher part, for
the first movements of the soul are the entrance and thresholds of
it. When the first movements have passed into the reason, they
have crossed the threshold, but when they remain as first
movements only they are then said merely to touch the threshold,
or to cry at the gate, which is the case when reason and sense
contend over an unreasonable act. The soul here not only bids
these not to touch it, but also charges all considerations
whatever which do not minister to its repose and the good it
enjoys to keep far away.
NOTE
THE soul in this state is become so great an enemy of the lower
part, and its operations, that it would have God communicate
nothing to it when He communicates with the higher. If He will
communicate with the lower, it must be in a slight degree, or the
soul, because of its natural weakness, will be unable to endure it
without fainting, and consequently the spirit cannot rejoice in
peace, because it is then troubled. 'For,' as the wise man says,
'the body that is corrupted burdeneth the soul.' [171] And as the
soul longs for the highest and noblest converse with God, which is
impossible in the company of the sensual part, it begs of God to
deal with it without the intervention of the senses. That sublime
vision of St. Paul in the third heaven, wherein, he says, he saw
God, but yet knew not whether he was in the body or out of the
body, must have been, be it what it may, independent of the body:
for if the body had any share in it, he must have known it, and
the vision could not have been what it was, seeing that he 'heard
secret words which it is not lawful for a man to speak.' [172] The
soul, therefore, knowing well that graces so great cannot be
received in a vessel so mean, and longing to receive them out of
the body,--or at least without it, addresses the Bridegroom in the
words that follow:
STANZA XIX
Hide thyself, O my Beloved!
Turn Thy face to the mountains,
Do not speak,
But regard the companions
Of her who is travelling amidst strange islands.
HERE the bride presents four petitions to the Bridegroom. She
prays that He would be pleased to converse with her most
interiorly in the secret chamber of the soul. The second, that He
would invest and inform her faculties with the glory and
excellence of His Divinity. The third, that He would converse with
her so profoundly as to surpass all knowledge and expression, and
in such a way that the exterior and sensual part may not perceive
it. The fourth, that He would love the many virtues and graces
which He has implanted in her, adorned with which she is ascending
upwards to God in the highest knowledge of the Divinity, and in
transports of love most strange and singular, surpassing those of
ordinary experience.
'Hide Thyself, O my Beloved!'
2. 'O my Bridegroom, most beloved, hide Thyself in the inmost
depths of my soul, communicating Thyself to it in secret, and
manifesting Thy hidden wonders which no mortal eyes may see.
'Turn Thy face to the mountains.'
3. The face of God is His divinity. The mountains are the powers
of the soul, memory, understanding, and will. Thus the meaning of
these words is: Enlighten my understanding with Thy Divinity, and
give it the divine intelligence, fill my will with divine love,
and my memory with divine possession of glory. The bride here
prays for all that may be prayed for; for she is not content with
that knowledge of God once granted to Moses [173]--the knowledge
of Him by His works--for she prays to see the face of God, which
is the essential communication of His Divinity to the soul,
without any intervening medium, by a certain knowledge thereof in
the Divinity. This is something beyond sense, and divested of
accidents, inasmuch as it is the contact of pure substances--that
is, of the soul and the Divinity.
'Do not speak.'
4. That is, do not speak as before, when Thy converse with me was
known to the outward senses, for it was once such as to be
comprehended by them; it was not so profound but they could fathom
it. Now let Thy converse with me be so deep and so substantial,
and so interior, as to be above the reach of the senses; for the
substance of the spirit is incommunicable to sense, and the
communication made through the senses, especially in this life,
cannot be purely spiritual, because the senses are not capable of
it. The soul, therefore, longing for that substantial and
essential communication of God, of which sense cannot be
cognizant, prays the Bridegroom not to speak: that is to say, let
the deep secret of the spiritual union be such as to escape the
notice of the senses, like the secret which St. Paul heard, and
which it is not lawful for a man to speak. [174]
'But regard the companions.'
5. The regard of God is love and grace. The companions here are
the many virtues of the soul, its gifts, perfections, and other
spiritual graces with which God has endowed it; pledges, tokens,
and presents of its betrothal. Thus the meaning of the words seems
to be this: 'Turn Thou Thy face to the interior of my soul, O my
Beloved; be enamoured of the treasures which Thou hast laid up
there, so that, enamoured of them, Thou mayest hide Thyself among
them and there dwell; for in truth, though they are Thine, they
are mine also, because Thou hast given them.'
'Of her who travels amidst strange islands.'
6. That is, 'Of my soul tending towards Thee through strange
knowledge of Thee, by strange ways'--strange to sense and to the
ordinary perceptions of nature. It is as if the bride said, by way
of constraining Him to yield: 'Seeing that my soul is tending
towards Thee through knowledge which is spiritual, strange,
unknown to sense, do Thou also communicate Thyself to it so
interiorly and so profoundly that the senses may not observe it.'
NOTE
IN order to the attainment of a state of perfection so high as
this of the spiritual marriage, the soul that aims at it must not
only be purified and cleansed from all the imperfections,
rebellions, and imperfect habits of the inferior part, which is
now--the old man being put away--subject and obedient to the
higher, but it must also have great courage and most exalted love
for so strong and close an embrace of God. For in this state the
soul not only attains to exceeding pureness and beauty, but also
acquires a terrible strength by reason of that strict and close
bond which in this union binds it to God. The soul, therefore, in
order to reach this state must have purity, strength, and adequate
love. The Holy Ghost, the author of this spiritual union, desirous
that the soul should attain thus far in order to merit it,
addresses Himself to the Father and the Son, saying: 'Our sister
is little, and hath no breasts. What shall we do to our sister in
the day when she is to be spoken to? If she be a wall, let us
build upon it bulwarks of silver; if she be a door, let us join it
together with boards of cedar.' [175]
2. The 'bulwarks of silver' are the strong heroic virtues
comprised in the faith, which is signified by silver, and these
heroic virtues are those of the spiritual marriage, which are
built upon the soul, signified by the wall, relying on the
strength of which, the peaceful Bridegroom reposes undisturbed by
any infirmities. The 'boards of cedar' are the affections and
accessories of this deep love which is signified by the cedar-
tree, and this is the love of the spiritual marriage. In order 'to
join it together,' that is, to adorn the bride, it is necessary
she should be the door for the Bridegroom to enter through,
keeping the door of the will open in a perfect and true consent of
love, which is the consent of the betrothal given previous to the
spiritual marriage. The breasts of the bride are also this perfect
love which she must have in order to appear in the presence of
Christ her Bridegroom for the perfection of such a state.
3. It is written in the Canticle that the bride in her longing for
this presence immediately replied, saying: 'I am a wall: and my
breasts are as a tower'--that is, 'My soul is strong, and my love
most deep'--that He may not fail her on that ground. The bride,
too, had expressed as much in the preceding stanzas, out of the
fulness of her longing for the perfect union and transformation,
and particularly in the last, wherein she set before the
Bridegroom all the virtues, graces, and good dispositions with
which she was adorned by Him, and that with the object of making
Him the prisoner of her love.
4. Now the Bridegroom, to bring this matter to a close, replies in
the two stanzas that follow, which describe Him as perfectly
purifying the soul, strengthening and disposing it, both as to its
sensual and spiritual part, for this state, and charging all
resistance and rebellion, both of the flesh and of the devil, to
cease, saying:
STANZAS XX, XXI
THE BRIDEGROOM
Light-winged birds,
Lions, fawns, bounding does,
Mountains, valleys, strands,
Waters, winds, heat,
And the terrors that keep watch by night;
By the soft lyres
And the siren strains, I adjure you,
Let your fury cease,
And touch not the wall,
That the bride may sleep in greater security.
HERE the Son of God, the Bridegroom, leads the bride into the
enjoyment of peace and tranquillity in the conformity of her lower
to her higher nature, purging away all her imperfections,
subjecting the natural powers of the soul to reason, and
mortifying all her desires, as it is expressed in these two
stanzas, the meaning of which is as follows. In the first place
the Bridegroom adjures and commands all vain distractions of the
fancy and imagination from henceforth to cease, and controls the
irascible and concupiscible faculties which were hitherto the
sources of so much affliction. He brings, so far as it is possible
in this life, the three powers of memory, understanding, and will
to the perfection of their objects, and then adjures and commands
the four passions of the soul, joy, hope, grief, and fear, to be
still, and bids them from henceforth be moderate and calm.
2. All these passions and faculties are comprehended under the
expressions employed in the first stanza, the operations of which,
full of trouble, the Bridegroom subdues by that great sweetness,
joy, and courage which the bride enjoys in the spiritual surrender
of Himself to her which God makes at this time; under the
influence of which, because God transforms the soul effectually in
Himself, all the faculties, desires, and movements of the soul
lose their natural imperfection and become divine.
'Light-winged birds.'
3. These are the distractions of the imagination, light and rapid
in their flight from one subject to another. When the will is
tranquilly enjoying the sweet converse of the Beloved, these
distractions produce weariness, and in their swift flight quench
its joy. The Bridegroom adjures them by the soft lyres. That is,
now that the sweetness of the soul is so abundant and so
continuous that they cannot interfere with it, as they did before
when it had not reached this state, He adjures them, and bids them
cease from their disquieting violence. The same explanation is to
be given of the rest of the stanza.
'Lions, fawns, bounding does.'
4. By the lions is meant the raging violence of the irascible
faculty, which in its acts is bold and daring as a lion. The
'fawns and bounding does' are the concupiscible faculty--that is,
the power of desire, the qualities of which are two, timidity and
rashness. Timidity betrays itself when things do not turn out
according to our wishes, for then the mind retires within itself
discouraged, and in this respect the soul resembles the fawns. For
as fawns have the concupiscible faculty stronger than many other
animals, so are they more retiring and more timid. Rashness
betrays itself when we have our own way, for the mind is then
neither retiring nor timid, but desires boldly, and gratifies all
its inclinations. This quality of rashness is compared to the
does, who so eagerly seek what they desire that they not only run,
but even leap after it; hence they are described as bounding does.
5. Thus the Bridegroom, in adjuring the lions, restrains the
violence and controls the fury of rage; in adjuring the fawns, He
strengthens the concupiscible faculty against timidity and
irresolution; and in adjuring the does He satisfies and subdues
the desires which were restless before, leaping, like deer, from
one object to another, to satisfy that concupiscence which is now
satisfied by the soft lyres, the sweetness of which it enjoys, and
by the siren strains, in the delight of which it revels.
6. But the Bridegroom does not adjure anger and concupiscence
themselves, because these passions never cease from the soul--but
their vexations and disorderly acts, signified by the 'lions,
fawns, and bounding does,' for it is necessary that these
disorderly acts should cease in this state.
'Mountains, valleys, strands.'
7. These are the vicious and disorderly actions of the three
faculties of the soul--memory, understanding, and will. These
actions are disorderly and vicious when they are in extremes, or,
if not in extreme, tending to one extreme or other. Thus the
mountains signify those actions which are vicious in excess,
mountains being high; the valleys, being low, signify those which
are vicious in the extreme of defect. Strands, which are neither
high nor low, but, inasmuch as they are not perfectly level, tend
to one extreme or other, signify those acts of the three powers of
the soul which depart slightly in either direction from the true
mean and equality of justice. These actions, though not disorderly
in the extreme, as they would be if they amounted to mortal sin,
are nevertheless disorderly in part, tending towards venial sin or
imperfection, however slight that tendency may be, in the
understanding, memory, and will. He adjures also all these actions
which depart from the true mean, and bids them cease before the
soft lyres and the siren strains, which so effectually charm the
powers of the soul as to occupy them completely in their true and
proper functions, so that they avoid not only all extremes, but
also the slightest tendency to them.
'Waters, winds, heat, and the terrors
that keep watch by night.'
8. These are the affections of the four passions, grief, hope,
joy, and fear. The waters are the affections of grief which
afflict the soul, for they rush into it like water. 'Save me, O
God,' saith the Psalmist, 'for the waters are come in even unto my
soul.' [176] The winds are the affections of hope, for they rush
forth like wind, desiring what which is not present but hoped for,
as the Psalmist saith: 'I opened my mouth and drew breath: because
I longed for Thy commandments.' [177] That is, 'I opened the mouth
of my hope, and drew in the wind of desire, because I hoped and
longed for Thy commandments.' Heat is the affections of joy which,
like fire, inflame the heart, as it is written: 'My heart waxed
hot within me; and in my meditation a fire shall burn'; [178] that
is, 'while I meditate I shall have joy.'
9. The 'terrors that keep watch by night' are the affections of
fear, which in spiritual persons who have not attained to the
state of spiritual marriage are usually exceedingly strong. They
come sometimes from God when He is going to bestow certain great
graces upon souls, as I said before; [179] He is wont then to fill
the mind with dread, to make the flesh tremble and the senses
numb, because nature is not made strong and perfect and prepared
for these graces. They come also at times from the evil spirit,
who, out of envy and malignity, when he sees a soul sweetly
recollected in God, labours to disturb its tranquillity by
exciting horror and dread, in order to destroy so great a
blessing, and sometimes utters his threats, as it were in the
interior of the soul. But when he finds that he cannot penetrate
within the soul, because it is so recollected, and so united with
God, he strives at least in the province of sense to produce
exterior distractions and inconstancy, sensible pains and horrors,
if perchance he may in this way disturb the soul in the bridal
chamber.
10. These are called terrors of the night, because they are the
work of evil spirits, and because Satan labours, by the help
thereof, to involve the soul in darkness, and to obscure the
divine light wherein it rejoiceth. These terrors are called
watchers, because they awaken the soul and rouse it from its sweet
interior slumber, and also because Satan, their author, is ever on
the watch to produce them. These terrors strike the soul of
persons who are already spiritual, passively, and come either from
God or the evil spirit. I do not refer to temporal or natural
terrors, because spiritual men are not subject to these, as they
are to those of which I am speaking.
11. The Beloved adjures the affections of these four passions,
compels them to cease and to be at rest, because He supplies the
bride now with force, and courage, and satisfaction, by the soft
lyres of His sweetness and the siren strains of His delight, so
that not only they shall not domineer over the soul, but shall not
occasion it any distaste whatever. Such is the grandeur and
stability of the soul in this state, that, although formerly the
waters of grief overwhelmed it, because of its own or other men's
sins--which is what spiritual persons most feel--the consideration
of them now excites neither pain nor annoyance; even the sensible
feeling of compassion exists not now, though the effects of it
continue in perfection. The weaknesses of its virtues are no
longer in the soul, for they are now constant, strong, and
perfect. As the angels perfectly appreciate all sorrowful things
without the sense of pain, and perform acts of mercy without the
sentiment of pity, so the soul in this transformation of love.
God, however, dispenses sometimes, on certain occasions, with the
soul in this matter, allowing it to feel and suffer, that it may
become more fervent in love, and grow in merit, or for some other
reasons, as He dispensed with His Virgin Mother, St. Paul, and
others. This, however, is not the ordinary condition of this
state.
12. Neither do the desires of hope afflict the soul now, because,
satisfied in its union with God, so far as it is possible in this
life, it has nothing of this world to hope for, and nothing
spiritual to desire, seeing that it feels itself to be full of the
riches of God, though it may grow in charity, and thus, whether
living or dying, it is conformed to the will of God, saying with
the sense and spirit, 'Thy will be done,' free from the violence
of inclination and desires; and accordingly even its longing for
the beatific vision is without pain.
13. The affections of joy, also, which were wont to move the soul
with more or less vehemence, are not sensibly diminished; neither
does their abundance occasion any surprise. The joy of the soul is
now so abundant that it is like the sea, which is not diminished
by the rivers that flow out of it, nor increased by those that
empty themselves into it; for the soul is now that fountain of
which our Lord said that it is 'springing up into life
everlasting.' [180]
14. I have said that the soul receives nothing new or unusual in
this state of transformation; it seems to lose all accidental joy,
which is not withheld even from the glorified. That is, accidental
joys and sweetness are indeed no strangers to this soul; yea,
rather, those which it ordinarily has cannot be numbered; yet, for
all this, as to the substantial communication of the spirit, there
is no increase of joy, for that which may occur anew the soul
possesses already, and thus what the soul has already within
itself is greater than anything that comes anew. Hence, then,
whenever any subject of joy and gladness, whether exterior or
spiritually interior, presents itself to the soul, the soul
betakes itself forthwith to rejoicing in the riches it possesses
already within itself, and the joy it has in them is far greater
than any which these new accessions minister, because, in a
certain sense, God is become its possession, Who, though He
delights in all things, yet in nothing so much as in Himself,
seeing that He has all good eminently in Himself. Thus all
accessions of joy serve to remind the soul that its real joy is in
its interior possessions, rather than in these accidental causes,
because, as I have said, the former are greater than the latter.
15. It is very natural for the soul, even when a particular matter
gives it pleasure, that, possessing another of greater worth and
gladness, it should remember it at once and take its pleasure in
it. The accidental character of these spiritual accessions, and
the new impressions they make on the soul, may be said to be as
nothing in comparison with that substantial source which it has
within itself: for the soul which has attained to the perfect
transformation, and is full-grown, grows no more in this state by
means of these spiritual accessions, as those souls do who have
not yet advanced so far. It is a marvellous thing that the soul,
while it receives no accessions of delight, should still seem to
do so and also to have been in possession of them. The reason is
that it is always tasting them anew, because they are ever
renewed; and thus it seems to be continually the recipient of new
accessions, while it has no need of them whatever.
16. But if we speak of that light of glory which in this, the
soul's embrace, God sometimes produces within it, and which is a
certain spiritual communion wherein He causes it to behold and
enjoy at the same time the abyss of delight and riches which He
has laid up within it, there is no language to express any degree
of it. As the sun when it shines upon the sea illumines its great
depths, and reveals the pearls, and gold, and precious stones
therein, so the divine sun of the Bridegroom, turning towards the
bride, reveals in a way the riches of her soul, so that even the
angels behold her with amazement and say: 'Who is she that cometh
forth as the morning rising, fair as the moon, bright as the sun,
terrible as the army of a camp set in array.' [181] This
illumination adds nothing to the grandeur of the soul,
notwithstanding its greatness, because it merely reveals that
which the soul already possessed in order that it might rejoice in
it.
17. Finally, the terrors that keep watch by night do not come nigh
unto her, because of her pureness, courage, and confident trust in
God; the evil spirits cannot shroud her in darkness, nor alarm her
with terrors, nor disturb her with their violent assaults. Thus
nothing can approach her, nothing can molest her, for she has
escaped from all created things and entered in to God, to the
fruition of perfect peace, sweetness, and delight, so far as that
is possible in this life. It is to this state that the words of
Solomon are applicable: 'A secure mind is as it were a continual
feast.' [182] As in a feast we have the savour of all meat, and
the sweetness of all music, so in this feast, which the bride
keeps in the bosom of her Beloved, the soul rejoices in all
delight, and has the taste of all sweetness. All that I have said,
and all that may be said, on this subject, will always fall short
of that which passeth in the soul which has attained to this
blessed state. For when it shall have attained to the peace of
God, 'which,' in the words of the Apostle, 'surpasseth all
understanding,' [183] no description of its state is possible.
'By the soft lyres and the siren strains I adjure you.'
18. The soft lyres are the sweetness which the Bridegroom
communicates to the soul in this state, and by which He makes all
its troubles to cease. As the music of lyres fills the soul with
sweetness and delight, carries it rapturously out of itself, so
that it forgets all its weariness and grief, so in like manner
this sweetness so absorbs the soul that nothing painful can reach
it. The Bridegroom says, in substance: 'By that sweetness which I
give thee, let all thy bitterness cease.' The siren strains are
the ordinary joys of the soul. These are called siren strains
because, as it is said, the music of the sirens is so sweet and
delicious that he who hears it is so rapt and so carried out of
himself that he forgets everything. In the same way the soul is so
absorbed in, and refreshed by, the delight of this union that it
becomes, as it were, charmed against all the vexations and
troubles that may assail it; it is to these the next words of the
stanza refer:
'Let your fury cease.'
19. This is the troubles and anxieties which flow from unruly acts
and affections. As anger is a certain violence which disturbs
peace, overlapping its bounds, so also all these affections in
their motions transgress the bounds of the peace and tranquillity
of the soul, disturbing it whenever they touch it. Hence the
Bridegroom says:
'And touch not the wall.'
20. The wall is the territory of peace and the fortress of virtue
and perfections, which are the defences and protection of the
soul. The soul is the garden wherein the Beloved feeds among the
flowers, defended and guarded for Him alone. Hence it is called in
the Canticle 'a garden enclosed.' [184] The Bridegroom bids all
disorderly emotions not to touch the territory and wall of His
garden.
21. 'That the bride may sleep in greater security.' That is, that
she is delighting herself with more sweetness in the tranquillity
and sweetness she has in the Beloved. That is to say, that now no
door is shut against the soul, and that it is in its power to
abandon itself whenever it wills to this sweet sleep of love,
according to the words of the Bridegroom in the Canticle, 'I
adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem, by the roes and the harts of
the fields, that you raise not up nor make the beloved to awake
till herself will.' [185]
NOTE
THE Bridegroom was so anxious to rescue His bride from the power
of the flesh and the devil and to set her free, that, having done
so, He rejoices over her like the good shepherd who, having found
the sheep that was lost, laid it upon his shoulders rejoicing;
like the woman who, having found the money she had lost, after
lighting a candle and sweeping the house, called 'together her
friends and neighbours, saying, Rejoice with me.' [186] So this
loving Shepherd and Bridegroom of souls shows a marvellous joy and
delight when He beholds a soul gained to perfection lying on His
shoulders, and by His hands held fast in the longed-for embrace
and union. He is not alone in His joy, for He makes the angels and
the souls of the blessed partakers of His glory, saying, as in the
Canticle, 'Go forth, ye daughters of Sion, and see king Solomon in
the diadem wherewith his mother crowned him in the day of his
betrothal, and in the day of the joy of his heart.' [187] He calls
the soul His crown, His bride, and the joy of His heart: He
carries it in His arms, and as a bridegroom leads it into His
bridal chamber, as we shall see in the following stanza:
STANZA XXII
The bride has entered
The pleasant and desirable garden,
And there reposes to her heart's content;
Her neck reclining
On the sweet arms of the Beloved.
THE bride having done what she could in order that the foxes may
be caught, the north wind cease, the nymphs, hindrances to the
desired joy of the state of spiritual marriage, forgo their
troublesome importunities, and having also invoked and obtained
the favourable wind of the Holy Ghost, which is the right
disposition and means for the perfection of this state, it remains
for me now to speak of it in the stanza in which the Bridegroom
calls the soul His bride, and speaks of two things: (1) He says
that the soul, having gone forth victoriously, has entered the
delectable state of spiritual marriage, which they had both so
earnestly desired. (2) He enumerates the properties of that state,
into the fruition of which the soul has entered, namely, perfect
repose, and the resting of the neck on the arms of the Beloved.
'The bride has entered.'
2. For the better understanding of the arrangement of these
stanzas, and of the way by which the soul advances till it reaches
the state of spiritual marriage, which is the very highest, and of
which, by the grace of God, I am now about to treat, we must keep
in mind that the soul, before it enters it, must be tried in
tribulations, in sharp mortifications, and in meditation on
spiritual things. This is the subject of this canticle till we
come to the fifth stanza, beginning with the words, 'A thousand
graces diffusing.' Then the soul enters on the contemplative life,
passing through those ways and straits of love which are described
in the course of the canticle, till we come to the thirteenth,
beginning with 'Turn them away, O my Beloved!' This is the moment
of the spiritual betrothal; and then the soul advances by the
unitive way, the recipient of many and very great communications,
jewels and gifts from the Bridegroom as to one betrothed, and
grows into perfect love, as appears from the stanzas which follow
that beginning with 'Turn them away, O my Beloved!' (the moment of
betrothal), to the present, beginning with the words:
'The bride has entered.'
3. The spiritual marriage of the soul and the Son of God now
remains to be accomplished. This is, beyond all comparison, a far
higher state than that of betrothal, because it is a complete
transformation into the Beloved; whereby they surrender each to
the other the entire possession of themselves in the perfect union
of love, wherein the soul becomes divine, and, by participation,
God, so far as it is in this life. I believe that no soul ever
attains to this state without being confirmed in grace, for the
faithfulness of both is confirmed; that of God being confirmed in
the soul. Hence it follows, that this is the very highest state
possible in this life. As by natural marriage there are 'two in
one flesh,' [188] so also in the spiritual marriage between God
and the soul there are two natures in one spirit and love, as we
learn from St. Paul, who made use of the same metaphor, saying,
'He that cleaveth to the Lord is one spirit.' [189] So, when the
light of a star, or of a candle, is united to that of the sun, the
light is not that of the star, nor of the candle, but of the sun
itself, which absorbs all other light in its own.
4. It is of this state that the Bridegroom is now speaking,
saying, 'The bride has entered'; that is, out of all temporal and
natural things, out of all spiritual affections, ways, and
methods, having left on one side, and forgotten, all temptations,
trials, sorrows, anxieties and cares, transformed in this embrace.
'The pleasant and desirable garden.'
5. That is, the soul is transformed in God, Who is here called the
pleasant garden because of the delicious and sweet repose which
the soul finds in Him. But the soul does not enter the garden of
perfect transformation, the glory and the joy of the spiritual
marriage, without passing first through the spiritual betrothal,
the mutual faithful love of the betrothed. When the soul has lived
for some time as the bride of the Son, in perfect and sweet love,
God calls it and leads it into His flourishing garden for the
celebration of the spiritual marriage. Then the two natures are so
united, what is divine is so communicated to what is human, that,
without undergoing any essential change, each seems to be God--yet
not perfectly so in this life, though still in a manner which can
neither be described nor conceived.
6. We learn this truth very clearly from the Bridegroom Himself in
the Canticle, where He invites the soul, now His bride, to enter
this state, saying: 'I am come into my garden, O My sister, My
bride: I have gathered My myrrh with My aromatical spices.' [190]
He calls the soul His sister, His bride, for it is such in love by
that surrender which it has made of itself before He had called it
to the state of spiritual marriage, when, as He says, He gathered
His myrrh with His aromatical spices; that is, the fruits of
flowers now ripe and made ready for the soul, which are the
delights and grandeurs communicated to it by Himself in this
state, that is Himself, and for which He is the pleasant and
desirable garden.
7. The whole aim and desire of the soul and of God, in all this,
is the accomplishment and perfection of this state, and the soul
is therefore never weary till it reaches it; because it finds
there a much greater abundance and fulness in God, a more secure
and lasting peace, and a sweetness incomparably more perfect than
in the spiritual betrothal, seeing that it reposes between the
arms of such a Bridegroom, Whose spiritual embraces are so real
that it, through them, lives the life of God. Now is fulfilled
what St. Paul referred to when he said: 'I live; now not I, but
Christ liveth in me.' [191] And now that the soul lives a life so
happy and so glorious as this life of God, consider what a sweet
life it must be--a life where God sees nothing displeasing, and
where the soul finds nothing irksome, but rather the glory and
delight of God in the very substance of itself, now transformed in
Him.
'And there reposes to her heart's content;
her neck reclining on the sweet arms of the Beloved.'
8. The neck is the soul's strength, by means of which its union
with the Beloved is wrought; for the soul could not endure so
close an embrace if it had not been very strong. And as the soul
has laboured in this strength, practised virtue, overcome vice, it
is fitting that it should rest there from its labours, 'her neck
reclining on the sweet arms of the Beloved.'
9. This reclining of the neck on the arms of God is the union of
the soul's strength, or, rather, of the soul's weakness, with the
strength of God, in Whom our weakness, resting and transformed,
puts on the strength of God Himself. The state of spiritual
matrimony is therefore most fitly designated by the reclining of
the neck on the sweet arms of the Beloved; seeing that God is the
strength and sweetness of the soul, Who guards and defends it from
all evil and gives it to taste of all good.
10. Hence the bride in the Canticle, longing for this state, saith
to the Bridegroom: 'Who shall give to me Thee my brother, sucking
the breast of my mother, that I may find Thee without, and kiss
Thee, and now no man may despise me.' [192] By addressing Him as
her Brother she shows the equality between them in the betrothal
of love, before she entered the state of spiritual marriage.
'Sucking the breast of my mother' signifies the drying up of the
passions and desires, which are the breasts and milk of our mother
Eve in our flesh, which are a bar to this state. The 'finding Him
without' is to find Him in detachment from all things and from
self when the bride is in solitude, spiritually detached, which
takes place when all the desires are quenched. 'And kiss Thee'--
that is, be united with the Bridegroom, alone with Him alone.
11. This is the union of the nature of the soul, in solitude,
cleansed from all impurity, natural, temporal, and spiritual, with
the Bridegroom alone, with His nature, by love only--that of love
which is the only love of the spiritual marriage, wherein the
soul, as it were, kisses God when none despises it nor makes it
afraid. For in this state the soul is no longer molested, either
by the devil, or the flesh, or the world, or the desires, seeing
that here is fulfilled what is written in the Canticle: 'Winter is
now past, the rain is over and gone. The flowers have appeared in
our land.' [193]
NOTE
WHEN the soul has been raised to the high state of spiritual
marriage, the Bridegroom reveals to it, as His faithful consort,
His own marvellous secrets most readily and most frequently, for
he who truly and sincerely loves hides nothing from the object of
his affections. The chief matter of His communications are the
sweet mysteries of His incarnation, the ways and means of
redemption, which is one of the highest works of God, and so is to
the soul one of the sweetest. Though He communicates many other
mysteries, He speaks in the following stanza of His incarnation
only, as being the chief; and thus addresses the soul in the words
that follow:
STANZA XXIII
Beneath the apple-tree
There wert thou betrothed;
There I gave thee My hand,
And thou wert redeemed
Where thy mother was corrupted.
THE Bridegroom tells the soul of the wondrous way of its
redemption and betrothal to Himself, by referring to the way in
which the human race was lost. As it was by the forbidden tree of
paradise that our nature was corrupted in Adam and lost, so it was
by the tree of the Cross that it was redeemed and restored. The
Bridegroom there stretched forth the hand of His grace and mercy,
in His death and passion, 'making void the law of commandments'
[194] which original sin had placed between us and God.
'Beneath the apple-tree,'
2. That is the wood of the Cross, where the Son of God was
conqueror, and where He betrothed our human nature to Himself,
and, by consequence, every soul of man. There, on the Cross, He
gave us grace and pledges of His love.
'There wert thou betrothed,
there I gave thee My hand.'
3. 'Help and grace, lifting thee up out of thy base and miserable
condition to be My companion and My bride.'
'And thou wert redeemed
where thy mother was corrupted.'
4. 'Thy mother, human nature, was corrupted in her first parents
beneath the forbidden tree, and thou wert redeemed beneath the
tree of the Cross. If thy mother at that tree sentenced thee to
die, I from the Cross have given thee life.' It is thus that God
reveals the order and dispositions of His wisdom: eliciting good
from evil, and turning that which has its origin in evil to be an
instrument of greater good. This stanza is nearly word for word
what the Bridegroom in the Canticle saith to the bride: 'Under the
apple-tree I raised thee up: there thy mother was corrupted; there
she was defloured that bare thee.' [195]
5. It is not the betrothal of the Cross that I am speaking of now--
that takes place, once for all, when God gives the first grace to
the soul in baptism. I am speaking of the betrothal in the way of
perfection, which is a progressive work. And though both are but
one, yet there is a difference between them. The latter is
effected in the way of the soul, and therefore slowly: the former
in the way of God, and therefore at once.
6. The betrothal of which I am speaking is that of which God
speaks Himself by the mouth of the prophet Ezechiel, saying: 'Thou
wert cast out upon the face of the earth in the abjection of thy
soul, in the day that thou wert born. And passing by thee, I saw
that thou wert trodden under foot in thy blood; and I said to thee
when thou wert in thy blood: Live: I said to thee, I say; in thy
blood live. Multiplied as the spring of the field have I made
thee; and thou wert multiplied and made great, and thou wentest
in, and camest to the ornaments of woman; thy breasts swelled and
thy hair budded: and thou wert naked and full of confusion. And I
passed by thee and saw thee, and behold, thy time, the time of
lovers; and I spread My garment over thee and covered thy
ignominy. And I swore to thee; and I entered a covenant with thee,
saith the Lord God; and thou wert made Mine. And I washed thee
with water, and made clean thy blood from off thee: and I anointed
thee with oil. And I clothed thee with divers colours, and shod
thee with hyacinth, and I girded thee with silk and clothed thee
with fine garments. And I adorned thee with ornaments, and put
bracelets on thy hands, and a chain about thy neck. And I put a
jewel upon thy forehead and rings in thy ears, and a crown of
beauty on thy head. And thou wert adorned with gold and silver,
and wert clothed with silk, and embroidered work, and many
colours: thou didst eat fine flour, and honey, and oil, and wert
made beautiful exceedingly, and advanced to be a queen. And thy
name went forth among the nations because of thy beauty.' [196]
These are the words of Ezechiel, and this is the state of that
soul of which I am now speaking.
NOTE
AFTER the mutual surrender to each other of the bride and the
Beloved, comes their bed. Thereon the bride enters into the joy of
Christ. Thus the present stanza refers to the bed, which is pure
and chaste, and divine, and in which the bride is pure, divine,
and chaste. The bed is nothing else but the Bridegroom Himself,
the Word, the Son of God, in Whom, through the union of love, the
bride reposes. This bed is said to be of flowers, for the
Bridegroom is not only that, but, as He says Himself of Himself,
'I am the flower of the field and the lily of the valleys.' [197]
The soul reposes not only on the bed of flowers, but on that very
flower which is the Son of God, and which contains in itself the
divine odour, fragrance, grace, and beauty, as He saith by the
mouth of David, 'With me is the beauty of the field.' [198] The
soul, therefore, in the stanza that follows, celebrates the
properties and beauties of its bed, saying:
STANZA XXIV
THE BRIDE
Our bed is of flowers
By dens of lions encompassed,
Hung with purple,
Made in peace,
And crowned with a thousand shields of gold.
IN two of the foregoing stanzas--the fourteenth and the fifteenth--
the bride-soul celebrated the grace and magnificence of the
Beloved, the Son of God. In the present stanza she not only
pursues the same subject, but also sings of her high and blessed
state, and her own security in it. She then proceeds to the
virtues and rich gifts with which she is endowed and adorned in
the chamber of the Bridegroom; for she says that she is in union
with Him, and is strong in virtue. Next she says that she has
attained to the perfection of love, and then that she enjoys
perfect spiritual peace, endowed and adorned with gifts and
graces, so far as it is possible to have them in this life. The
first subject of the stanza is the joy which the bride feels in
her union with the Beloved, saying:
'Our bed is of flowers.'
2. I have already said that this bed of the soul is the bosom and
love of the Son of God, full of flowers to the soul, which now
united to God and reposing in Him, as His bride, shares the bosom
and love of the Beloved. That is, the soul is admitted to a
knowledge of the wisdom, secrets and graces, and gifts and powers
of God, whereby it is made so beautiful, so rich, so abounding in
delights that it seems to be lying on a bed of many-coloured
divine flowers, the touch of which makes it thrill with joy, and
the odours of which refresh it.
3. This union of love with God is therefore most appropriately
called a bed of flowers, and is so called by the bride in the
Canticle, saying to the Beloved, 'Our bed is of flowers.' [199]
She speaks of it as ours, because the virtues and the love, one
and the same, of the Beloved are common to both together, and the
delight of both is one and the same; as it is written: 'My
delights were to be with the children of men.' [200] The bed is
said to be of flowers, because in this state the virtues in the
soul are perfect and heroic, which they could not be until the bed
had flowered in perfect union with God.
'By dens of lions encompassed.'
4. The dens of lions signify the virtues with which the soul is
endowed in the state of union. The dens of lions are safe
retreats, protected from all other animals, who, afraid of the
boldness and strength of the lion within, are afraid not only to
enter, but even to appear in sight. So each virtue of the soul in
the state of perfection is like a den of lions where Christ dwells
united to the soul in that virtue; and in every one of them as a
strong lion. The soul also, united to Him in those very virtues,
is as a strong lion, because it then partakes of the perfections
of God.
5. Thus, then, the perfect soul is so defended, so strong in
virtue, and in all virtues together, reposing on the flowery bed
of its union with God, that the evil spirits are not only afraid
to assault it, but even dare not appear before it; such is their
dread of it, when they behold it strong, courageous, and mature in
its perfect virtues, on the bed of the Beloved. The evil spirits
fear a soul transformed in the union of love as much as they fear
the Beloved Himself, and they dare not look upon it, for Satan is
in great fear of that soul which has attained to perfection.
6. The soul's bed is encompassed by virtues: they are the dens,
for when the soul has advanced to perfection, its virtues are so
perfectly ordered, and so joined together and bound up one with
another, each supporting the other, that no part of it is weak or
exposed. Not only is Satan unable to penetrate within it, but even
worldly things, whether great or little, fail to disturb or annoy
it, or even move it; for being now free from all molestation of
natural affections, and a stranger to the worry of temporal
anxieties, it enjoys in security and peace the participation of
God.
7. This is that for which the bride longed when she said, 'Who
shall give to me Thee my brother, sucking the breast of my mother,
that I may find Thee without, and kiss Thee, and now no man may
despise me?' [201] The 'kiss' here is the union of which I am
speaking, whereby the soul, by love, becomes in a sense the equal
of God. This is the object it desires when it says, 'Who shall
give to me Thee my brother?' That means and makes equality.
'Sucking the breast of my mother'; that is, destroying all the
imperfections and desires of nature which the soul inherits from
its mother Eve. 'That I may find Thee without'; that is, 'be
united to Thee alone, away from all things, in detachment of the
will and desires.' 'And now no man may despise me'; that is, the
world, the devil, and the flesh will not venture to assail it, for
being free and purified, and also united to God, none of these can
molest it. Thus, then, the soul is in the enjoyment now of
habitual sweetness and tranquillity that never fail it.
8. But beside this habitual contentment and peace, the flowers of
the virtues of this garden so open in the soul and diffuse their
odours that it seems to be, and is, full of the delights of God.
I say that the flowers open; because the soul, though filled with
the virtues in perfection, is not always in the actual fruition of
them, notwithstanding its habitual perception of the peace and
tranquillity which they produce. We may say of these virtues that
they are in this life like the budding flowers of a garden; they
offer a most beautiful sight--opening under the inspirations of
the Holy Ghost--and diffuse most marvellous perfumes in great
variety.
9. Sometimes the soul will discern in itself the mountain flowers--
the fulness, grandeur, and beauty of God--intermingled with the
lilies of the valley--rest, refreshment, and defence; and again
among them, the fragrant roses of the strange islands--the strange
knowledge of God; and further, the perfume of the water lilies of
the roaring torrents--the majesty of God filling the whole soul.
And amid all this, it enjoys the exquisite fragrance of the
jasmine, and the whisper of the amorous gales, the fruition of
which is granted to the soul in the estate of union, and in the
same way all the other virtues and graces, the calm knowledge,
silent music, murmuring solitude, and the sweet supper of love;
and the joy of all this is such as to make the soul say in truth,
'Our bed is of flowers, by dens of lions encompassed.' Blessed is
that soul which in this life deserves at times to enjoy the
perfume of these divine flowers.
'Hung with purple.'
10. Purple in Holy Scripture means charity, and kings are clad in
it, and for that reason the soul says that the bed of flowers is
hung with purple, because all the virtues, riches, and blessings
of it are sustained, flourish, and are delighted only in charity
and love of the King of heaven; without that love the soul can
never delight in the bed nor in the flowers thereof. All these
virtues, therefore, are, in the soul, as if hung on the love of
God, as on that which preserves them, and they are, as it were,
bathed in love; for all and each of them always make the soul love
God, and on all occasions and in all actions they advance in love
to a greater love of God. That is what is meant by saying that the
bed is hung with purple.
11. This is well expressed in the sacred Canticle: 'King Solomon
hath made himself a litter of the wood of Libanus; the pillars
thereof he hath made of silver, the seat of gold, the going up of
purple; the midst he hath paved with charity.' [202] The virtues
and graces which God lays in the bed of the soul are signified by
the wood of Libanus: the pillars of silver and the seat of gold
are love, for, as I have said, the virtues are maintained by love,
and by the love of God and of the soul are ordered and bring forth
fruit.
'Made in peace.'
12. This is the fourth excellence of the bed, and depends on the
third, of which I have just spoken. For the third is perfect
charity, the property of which is, as the Apostle saith, to cast
out fear; [203] hence the perfect peace of the soul, which is the
fourth excellence of this bed. For the clearer understanding of
this we must keep in mind that each virtue is in itself peaceful,
gentle, and strong, and consequently, in the soul which possesses
them, produces peace, gentleness, and fortitude. Now, as the bed
is of flowers, formed of the flowers of virtues, all of which are
peaceful, gentle, and strong, it follows that the bed is wrought
in peace, and the soul is peaceful, gentle, and strong, which are
three qualities unassailable by the world, Satan, and the flesh.
The virtues preserve the soul in such peace and security that it
seems to be wholly built up in peace. The fifth property of this
bed of flowers is explained in the following words:
'Crowned with a thousand shields of gold.'
13. The shields are the virtues and graces of the soul, which,
though they are also the flowers, serve for its crown, and the
reward of the toil by which they are acquired. They serve also,
like strong shields, as a protection against the vices, which it
overcame by the practice of them; and the bridal bed of flowers
therefore--that is, the virtues, the crown and defence--is adorned
with them by way of reward, and protected by them as with a
shield. The shields are said to be of gold, to show the great
worth of the virtues. The bride in the Canticle sets forth the
same truth, saying: 'Three score valiant men of the most valiant
of Israel surround the little bed of Solomon, all holding swords;
. . . every man's sword upon his thigh, because of fears in the
night.' [204]
14. Thus in this stanza the bride speaks of a thousand shields, to
express the variety of the virtues, gifts, and graces wherewith
God has endowed the soul in this state. The Bridegroom also in the
Canticle has employed the same expression, in order to show forth
the innumerable virtues of the soul, saying: 'Thy neck is as the
tower of David, which is built with bulwarks; a thousand shields
hang upon it, all the armour of valiant men.' [205]
NOTE
THE soul, having attained to perfection, is not satisfied with
magnifying and extolling the excellencies of the Beloved, the Son
of God, nor with recounting and giving thanks for the graces
received at His hands and the joy into which it has entered, but
recounts also the graces conferred on other souls. In this blessed
union of love the soul is able to contemplate both its own and
others' graces; thus praising Him and giving Him thanks for the
many graces bestowed upon others, it sings as in the following
stanza:
STANZA XXV
In Thy footsteps
The young ones run Thy way;
At the touch of the fire
And by the spiced wine,
The divine balsam flows.
HERE the bride gives thanks to her Beloved for three graces which
devout souls receive from Him, by which they encourage and excite
themselves to love God more and more. She speaks of them here
because she has had experience of them herself in this state of
union. The first is sweetness, which He gives them, and which is
so efficacious that it makes them run swiftly on the road of
perfection. The second is a visit of love, by which they are
suddenly set on fire with love. The third is overflowing charity
infused into them, with which He so inebriates them that they are
as much excited by it as by the visit of love, to utter the
praises of God, and to love Him with all sweetness.
'In Thy footsteps.'
2. These are the marks on the ground by which we trace the course
of one we seek. The sweetness and knowledge of Himself which God
communicates to the soul that seeks Him are the footsteps by which
it traces and recognises Him. Thus the soul says to the Word, the
Bridegroom, 'In Thy footsteps'--'in the traces of Thy sweetness
which Thou diffusest, and the odours which Thou scatterest.'
'The young ones run Thy way.'
3. 'Devout souls run with youthful vigour in the sweetness which
Thy footsteps communicate.' They run in many ways and in various
directions--each according to the spirit which God bestows and the
vocation He has given--in the diversified forms of spiritual
service on the road of everlasting life, which is evangelical
perfection, where they meet the Beloved in the union of love, in
spiritual detachment from all things.
4. This sweetness and impression of Himself which God leaves in
the soul render it light and active in running after Him; for the
soul then does little or nothing in its own strength towards
running along this road, being rather attracted by the divine
footsteps, so that it not only advances, but even runs, as I said
before, in many ways. The bride in the Canticle, therefore, prays
for the divine attraction, saying, 'Draw me, we will run after
Thee to the odour of Thy ointments'; [206] and David saith, 'I
have run the way of Thy commandments, when Thou didst dilate my
heart.' [207]
'At the touch of the fire, and by the spiced wine,
the divine balsam flows.'
5. I said, while explaining the previous lines, that souls run in
His footsteps in the way of exterior works. But the three lines I
have just quoted refer to the interior acts of the will, when
souls are under the influence of the other two graces, and
interior visits of the Beloved. These are the touch of fire, and
spiced wine; and the interior act of the will, which is the result
of these visits, is the flowing of the divine balsam. The contact
of the fire is that most delicate touch of the Beloved which the
soul feels at times even when least expecting it, and which sets
the heart on fire with love, as if a spark of fire had fallen upon
it and made it burn. Then the will, in an instant, like one roused
from sleep, burns with the fire of love, longs for God, praises
Him and gives Him thanks, worships and honours Him, and prays to
Him in the sweetness of love.
6. This is the flowing of the divine balsam, which obeys the touch
of the fire that issues forth from the consuming love of God which
that fire kindled; the divine balsam which comforts the soul and
heals it with its odour and its substance.
7. The bride in the Canticle speaks of this divine touch, saying,
'My Beloved put His hand through the opening, and my belly
trembled at His touch.' [208] The touch of the Beloved is the
touch of love, and His hand is the grace He bestows upon the soul,
and the opening through which He puts His hand is the vocation and
the perfection, at least the degree of perfection of the soul; for
according thereto will His touch be heavier or lighter, in
proportion to its spiritual state. The belly that trembled is the
will, in which the touch is effected, and the trembling is the
stirring up of the desires and affections to love, long for, and
praise God, which is the flowing of the balsam from this touch.
8. 'The spiced wine' is that exceeding great grace which God
sometimes bestows upon advanced souls, when the Holy Spirit
inebriates them with the sweet, luscious, and strong wine of love.
Hence it is here called spiced wine, for as such wine is prepared
by fermentation with many and divers aromatic and strengthening
herbs; so this love, the gift of God to the perfect, is in the
soul prepared and seasoned with the virtues already acquired. This
love, seasoned with the precious spices, communicates to the soul
such a strong, abundant inebriation when God visits it that it
pours forth with great effect and force those acts of rapturous
praise, love, and worship which I referred to before, and that
with a marvellous longing to labour and to suffer for Him.
9. This sweet inebriation and grace, however, do not pass quickly
away, like the touch of the fire, for they are of longer
continuance. The fire touches and passes, but the effects abide
often; and sometimes the spiced wine continues for a considerable
time, and its effects also; this is the sweet love of the soul,
and continues occasionally a day or two, sometimes even many days
together, though not always in the same degree of intensity,
because it is not in the power of the soul to control it.
Sometimes the soul, without any effort of its own, is conscious of
a most sweet interior inebriation, and of the divine love burning
within, as David saith, 'My heart waxed hot within me, and in my
meditation a fire shall burn.' [209]
10. The outpourings of this inebriation last sometimes as long as
the inebriation itself. At other times there are no outpourings;
and they are more or less intense when they occur, in proportion
to the greater or less intensity of the inebriation itself. But
the outpourings, or effects of the fire, generally last longer
than the fire which caused them; yea, rather the fire leaves them
behind in the soul, and they are more vehement than those which
proceed from the inebriation, for sometimes this divine fire burns
up and consumes the soul in love.
11. As I have mentioned fermented wine, it will be well to touch
briefly upon the difference between it, when it is old, and new
wine; the difference between old wine and new wine is the same,
and will furnish a little instruction for spiritual men. New wine
has not settled on the lees, and is therefore fermenting; we
cannot ascertain its quality or worth before it has settled, and
the fermentation has ceased, for until then there is great risk of
its corruption. The taste of it is rough and sharp, and an
immoderate draught of it intoxicates. Old wine has settled on the
lees, and ferments no more like new wine; the quality of it is
easily ascertained and it is now very safe from corruption, for
all fermentation which might have proved pernicious has entirely
ceased. Well-fermented wine is very rarely spoiled, the taste of
it is pleasant, and its strength is in its own substance, not in
the taste, and the drinking thereof produces health and a sound
constitution.
12. New lovers are compared to new wine; these are beginners in
the service of God, because the fervour of their love manifests
itself outwardly in the senses; because they have not settled on
the lees of sense, frail and imperfect; and because they measure
the strength of love by the sweetness of it, for it is sensible
sweetness that ordinarily gives them their strength for good
works, and it is by this they are influenced; we must, therefore,
place no confidence in this love till the fermentation has
subsided, with the coarse satisfaction of sense.
13. For as these fervours and sensible warmth may incline men to
good and perfect love, and serve as an excellent means thereto,
when the lees of imperfections are cleared; so also is it very
easy at first, when sensible sweetness is fresh, for the wine of
love to fail, and the sweetness of the new to vanish. New lovers
are always anxious, sensibly tormented by their love; it is
necessary for them to put some restraint upon themselves, for if
they are very active in the strength of this wine, their natural
powers will be ruined with these anxieties and fatigues of the new
wine, which is rough and sharp, and not made sweet in the perfect
fermentation, which then takes place when the anxieties of love
are over, as I shall show immediately.
14. The Wise Man employs the same illustration; saying, 'A new
friend is as new wine; it shall grow old, and thou shalt drink it
with pleasure.' [210] Old lovers, therefore, who have been tried
and proved in the service of the Bridegroom, are like old wine
settled on the lees; they have no sensible emotions, nor outbursts
of exterior zeal, but they taste the sweetness of the wine of
love, now thoroughly fermented, not sweet to the senses as was
that of the love of beginners, but rather settled within the soul
in the substance and sweetness of the spirit, and in perfect good
works. Such souls as these do not seek after sensible sweetness
and fervours, neither do they wish for them, lest they should
suffer from loathing and weariness; for he who gives the reins to
his desires in matters of sense must of necessity suffer pain and
loathing, both in mind and body.
15. Old lovers, therefore, free from that spiritual sweetness
which has its roots in the senses, suffer neither in sense nor
spirit from the anxieties of love, and thus scarcely ever prove
faithless to God, because they have risen above that which might
be an occasion of falling, namely, the flesh. These now drink of
the wine of love, which is not only fermented and free from the
lees, but spiced also with the aromatic herbs of perfect virtues,
which will not allow it to corrupt, as may happen to new wine.
16. For this cause an old friend is of great price in the eyes of
God: 'Forsake not an old friend, for the new will not be like to
him.' [211] It is through this wine of love, tried and spiced,
that the divine Beloved produces in the soul that divine
inebriation, under the influence of which it sends forth to God
the sweet and delicious outpourings. The meaning of these three
lines, therefore, is as follows: 'At the touch of the fire, by
which Thou stirrest up the soul, and by the spiced wine with which
Thou dost so lovingly inebriate it, the soul pours forth the acts
and movements of love which are Thy work within it.'
NOTE
SUCH, then, is the state of the blessed soul in the bed of
flowers, where all these blessings, and many more, are granted it.
The seat of that bed is the Son of God, and the hangings of it are
the charity and love of the Bridegroom Himself. The soul now may
say, with the bride, 'His left hand is under my head,' [212] and
we may therefore say, in truth, that such a soul is clothed in
God, and bathed in the Divinity, and that, not as it were on the
surface, but in the interior spirit, and filled with the divine
delights in the abundance of the spiritual waters of life; for it
experiences that which David says of those who have drawn near
unto God: 'They shall be inebriated with the plenty of Thy house,
and Thou shalt make them drink of the torrent of Thy pleasure, for
with Thee is the fountain of life.' [213]
2. This fulness will be in the very being of the soul, seeing that
its drink is nothing else but the torrent of delights, and that
torrent the Holy Spirit, as it is written: 'And he showed me a
river of living water, clear as crystal, proceeding from the
throne of God and the Lamb.� [214] This water, being the very love
itself of God, flows into the soul, so that it drinks of the
torrent of love, which is the spirit of the Bridegroom infused
into the soul in union. Thence the soul in the overflowing of its
love sings the following stanza:
STANZA XXVI
In the inner cellar
Of my Beloved have I drunk; and when I went forth
Over all the plain
I knew nothing,
And lost the flock I followed before.
HERE the soul speaks of that sovereign grace of God in taking it
to Himself into the house of His love, which is the union, or
transformation of love in God. It describes two effects proceeding
therefrom: forgetfulness of, and detachment from, all the things
of this world, and the mortification of its tastes and desires.
'In the inner cellar.'
2. In order to explain in any degree the meaning of this, I have
need of the special help of the Holy Ghost to direct my hand and
guide my pen. The cellar is the highest degree of love to which
the soul may attain in this life, and is therefore said to be the
inner. It follows from this that there are other cellars not so
interior; that is, the degrees of love by which souls reach this,
the last. These cellars are seven in number, and the soul has
entered into them all when it has in perfection the seven gifts of
the Holy Ghost, so far as it is possible for it. When the soul has
the spirit of fear in perfection, it has in perfection also the
spirit of love, inasmuch as this fear, the last of the seven
gifts, is filial fear, and the perfect fear of a son proceeds from
his perfect love of his father. Thus when the Holy Scripture
speaks of one as having perfect charity, it says of him that he
fears God. So the prophet Isaias, announcing the perfections of
Christ, saith of Him, 'The spirit of the fear of the Lord shall
replenish him.' [215] Holy Simeon also is spoken of by the
Evangelist as a 'just man full of fear,' [216] and the same
applies to many others.
3. Many souls reach and enter the first cellar, each according to
the perfection of its love, but the last and inmost cellar is
entered by few in this world, because therein is wrought the
perfect union with God, the union of the spiritual marriage, of
which the soul is now speaking. What God communicates to the soul
in this intimate union is utterly ineffable, beyond the reach of
all possible words--just as it is impossible to speak of God
Himself so as to convey any idea of what He is--because it is God
Himself who communicates Himself to the soul now in the marvellous
bliss of its transformation. In this state God and the soul are
united, as the window is with the light, or coal with the fire, or
the light of the stars with that of the sun, yet, however, not so
essentially and completely as it will be in the life to come. The
soul, therefore, to show what it received from the hands of God in
the cellar of wine, says nothing else, and I do not believe that
anything could be said but the words which follow:
'Of my Beloved have I drunk.'
4. As a draught diffuses itself through all the members and veins
of the body, so this communication of God diffuses itself
substantially in the whole soul, or rather, the soul is
transformed in God. In this transformation the soul drinks of God
in its very substance and its spiritual powers. In the
understanding it drinks wisdom and knowledge, in the will the
sweetest love, in the memory refreshment and delight in the
thought and sense of its bliss. That the soul receives and drinks
delight in its very substance, appears from the words of the bride
in the Canticle: 'My soul melted as He spoke' [217]--that is, when
the Bridegroom communicated Himself to the soul.
5. That the understanding drinks wisdom is evident from the words
of the bride longing and praying for the kiss of union: 'There
Thou shalt teach me, and I will give thee a cup of spiced wine.'
[218] 'Thou shalt teach me wisdom and knowledge in love, and I
will give Thee a cup of spiced wine--that is, my love mingled with
Thine.' The bride says that the will also drinks of love, saying:
'He brought me into the cellar of wine; He hath ordered in me
charity,' [219]--that is, 'He gave me His love, embracing me, to
drink of love'; or, to speak more clearly, 'He ordered in me His
charity, tempering His charity and to the purpose making it mine.'
This is to give the soul to drink of the very love of its Beloved,
which the Beloved infuses into it.
6. There is a common saying that the will cannot love that of
which the understanding has no knowledge. This, however, is to be
understood in the order of nature, it being impossible, in a
natural way, to love anything unless we first know what it is we
love. But in a supernatural way God can certainly infuse love and
increase it without infusing and increasing distinct knowledge, as
is evident from the texts already quoted. Yea, many spiritual
persons have experience of this; their love of God burns more and
more, while their knowledge does not grow. Men may know little and
love much, and on the other hand, know much and love but little.
7. In general, those spiritual persons whose knowledge of God is
not very great are usually very rich in all that belongs to the
will, and infused faith suffices them for this knowledge, by means
of which God infuses and increases charity in them and the acts
thereof, which are to love Him more and more though knowledge is
not increased. Thus the will may drink of love while the
understanding drinks in no fresh knowledge. In the present
instance, however, all the powers of the soul together, because of
the union in the inner cellar, drink of the Beloved.
8. As to the memory, it is clear that the soul drinks of the
Beloved in it, because it is enlightened with the light of the
understanding in remembering the blessings it possesses and enjoys
in union with the Beloved.
'And when I went forth.'
9. That is, after this grace: the divine draught having so deified
the soul, exalted it, and inebriated it in God. Though the soul be
always in the high estate of marriage ever since God has placed it
there, nevertheless actual union in all its powers is not
continuous, though the substantial union is. In this substantial
union the powers of the soul are most frequently in union, and
drink of His cellar, the understanding by knowledge, the will by
love, etc. We are not, therefore, to suppose that the soul, when
saying that it went out, has ceased from its substantial or
essential union with God, but only from the union of its
faculties, which is not, and cannot be, permanent in this life; it
is from this union, then, it went forth when it wandered over all
the plain--that is, through the whole breadth of the world.
'I knew nothing.'
10. This draught of God's most deep wisdom makes the soul forget
all the things of this world, and consider all its previous
knowledge, and the knowledge of the whole world besides, as pure
ignorance in comparison with this knowledge.
11. For a clearer understanding of this, we must remember that the
most regular cause of the soul's ignoring the things of the world,
when it has ascended to this high state, is that it is informed by
a supernatural knowledge, in the presence of which all natural and
worldly knowledge is ignorance rather than knowledge. For the soul
in possession of this knowledge, which is most profound, learns
from it that all other knowledge not included in this knowledge is
not knowledge, but ignorance, and worthless. We have this truth in
the words of the Apostle when he said that 'the wisdom of this
world is foolishness with God.' [220]
12. This is the reason why the soul says it knows nothing, now
that it has drunk of the divine wisdom. The truth is that the
wisdom of men and of the whole world is mere ignorance, and not
deserving any attention, but it is a truth that can be learned
only in that truth of the presence of God in the soul
communicating to it His wisdom and making it strong by this
draught of love that it may see it distinctly. This is taught us
by Solomon, saying: 'The vision that the man spake, with whom God
is, and who being strengthened by God abiding with him, said: I am
the most foolish of men, and the wisdom of men is not with me.'
[221]
13. When the soul is raised to this high wisdom of God, the wisdom
of man is in its eyes the lowest ignorance: all natural science
and the works of God, if accompanied by ignorance of Him, are as
ignorance; for where He is not known, there nothing is known. 'The
deep things of God are foolishness to men.' [222] Thus the
divinely wise and the worldly wise are fools in the estimation of
each other; for the latter cannot understand the wisdom and
science of God, nor the former those of the world, for the wisdom
of the world is ignorance in comparison with the wisdom of God;
and the wisdom of God is ignorance with respect to that of the
world.
14. Moreover, this deification and elevation of the spirit in God,
whereby the soul is, as it were, rapt and absorbed in love, one
with God, suffer it not to dwell upon any worldly matter. The soul
is now detached, not only from all outward things, but even from
itself: it is, as it were, undone, assumed by, and dissolved in,
love--that is, it passes out of itself into the Beloved. Thus the
bride, in the Canticle, after speaking of her own transformation
by love into the Beloved, expresses her state of ignorance by the
words 'I knew not.' [223] The soul is now, in a certain sense,
like Adam in paradise, who knew no evil. It is so innocent that it
sees no evil; neither does it consider anything to be amiss. It
will hear much that is evil, and will see it with its eyes, and
yet it shall not be able to understand it, because it has no evil
habits whereby to judge of it. God has rooted out of it those
imperfect habits and that ignorance resulting from the evil of
sin, by the perfect habit of true wisdom. Thus, also, the soul
knows nothing on this subject.
15. Such a soul will scarcely intermeddle with the affairs of
others, because it forgets even its own; for the work of the
Spirit of God in the soul in which He dwells is to incline it to
ignore those things which do not concern it, especially such as do
not minister to edification. The Spirit of God abides within the
soul to withdraw it from outward things rather than to lead it
among them; and thus the soul knows nothing as it knew it
formerly. We are not, however, to suppose that it loses the habits
of knowledge previously acquired, for those habits are improved by
the more perfect habit of supernatural knowledge infused, though
these habits be not so powerful as to necessitate knowledge
through them, and yet there is no reason why they should not do so
occasionally.
16. In this union of the divine wisdom, these habits are united
with the higher wisdom of other knowledge, as a little light with
another which is great; it is the great light that shines,
overwhelming the less, yet the latter is not therefore lost, but
rather perfected, though it be not the light which shines pre-
eminently. Thus, I imagine, will it be in heaven; the acquired
habits of knowledge in the just will not be destroyed, though they
will be of no great importance there, seeing that the just will
know more in the divine wisdom than by the habits acquired on
earth.
17. But the particular notions and forms of things, acts of the
imagination, and every other apprehension having form and figure
are all lost and ignored in this absorbing love, and this for two
reasons. First, the soul cannot actually attend to anything of the
kind, because it is actually absorbed by this draught of love.
Secondly, and this is the principal reason, its transformation in
God so conforms it to His purity and simplicity--for there is no
form or imaginary figure in Him--as to render it pure, cleansed
and empty of all the forms and figures it entertained before,
being now purified and enlightened in simple contemplation. All
spots and stains in the glass become invisible when the sun shines
upon it, but they appear again as soon as the light of the sun is
withheld.
18. So is it with the soul; while the effects of this act of love
continue, this ignorance continues also, so that it cannot observe
anything in particular until these effects have ceased. Love has
set the soul on fire and transmuted it into love, has annihilated
it and destroyed it as to all that is not love, according to the
words of David: 'My heart hath been inflamed, and my reins have
been changed; and I am brought to nothing, and I knew not.' [224]
The changing of the reins, because the heart is inflamed, is the
changing of the soul, in all its desires and actions, in God, into
a new manner of life, the utter undoing and annihilation of the
old man, and therefore the prophet said that he was brought to
nothing and knew not.
19. These are the two effects of drinking the wine of the cellar
of God; not only is all previous knowledge brought to nothing and
made to vanish, but the old life also with its imperfections is
destroyed, and into the new man renewed; this is the second of the
two effects described in the words that follow:
'And lost the flock I followed before.'
20. Until the soul reaches the state of perfection, however
spiritual it may be, there always remains a troop of desires,
likings, and other imperfections, sometimes natural, sometimes
spiritual, after which it runs, and which it tries to feed while
following and satisfying them. With regard to the understanding,
there are certain imperfections of the desire of knowledge. With
regard to the will, certain likings and peculiar desires, at times
in temporal things, as the wish to possess certain trifles, and
attachment to some things more than to others, certain prejudices,
considerations, and punctilios, with other vanities, still
savouring of the world: and again in natural things, such as
eating and drinking, the preference of one kind of food over
another, and the choice of the best: at another time, in spiritual
things, such as seeking for sweetness, and other follies of
spiritual persons not yet perfect, too numerous to recount here.
As to the memory, there are many inconsistencies, anxieties,
unseemly reminiscences, which drag the soul captive after them.
21. The four passions of the soul also involve it in many useless
hopes, joys, griefs, and fears, after which it runs. As to this
flock, some men are more influenced by it than others; they run
after and follow it, until they enter the inner cellar, where they
lose it altogether, being then transformed in love. In that cellar
the flock of imperfections is easily destroyed, as rust and mould
on metal in the fire. Then the soul feels itself free from the
pettiness of self-likings and the vanities after which it ran
before, and may well say, 'I have lost the flock which I followed
before.'
NOTE
GOD communicates Himself to the soul in this interior union with a
love so intense that the love of a mother, who so tenderly
caresses her child, the love of a brother, or the affection of a
friend bear no likeness to it, for so great is the tenderness, and
so deep is the love with which the Infinite Father comforts and
exalts the humble and loving soul. O wonders worthy of all awe and
reverence! He humbles Himself in reality before that soul that He
may exalt it, as if He were its servant, and the soul His lord. He
is as anxious to comfort it as if He were a slave, and the soul
God. So great is the humility and tenderness of God. In this
communion of love He renders in a certain way those services to
the soul which He says in the Gospel He will perform for the elect
in heaven. 'Amen, I say to you, that He will gird Himself and make
them sit down to meat, and passing will minister unto them.' [225]
2. This very service He renders now to the soul, comforting and
cherishing it, as a mother her child whom she nurtures in her
bosom. And the soul recognisesherein the truth of the words of
Isaias, 'You shall be carried at the breasts, and upon the knees
they shall caress you.' [226] What must the feelings of the soul
be amid these sovereign graces? How it will melt away in love,
beholding the bosom of God opened for it with such overflowing
love. When the soul perceives itself in the midst of these
delights, it surrenders itself wholly to God, gives to Him the
breasts of its own will and love, and under the influence thereof
addresses the Beloved in the words of the bride in the Canticle,
saying: 'I to my Beloved, and His turning is towards me. Come, my
Beloved, let us go forth into the field, let us abide in the
villages. Let us rise early to the vineyards, let us see if the
vineyard flourish, if the flowers be ready to bring forth fruits,
if the pomegranates flourish; there will I give Thee my breasts'
[227]--that is, 'I will employ all the joy and strength of my will
in the service of Thy love.' This mutual surrender in this union
of the soul and God is the subject of the stanza which follows:
STANZA XXVII
There He gave me His breasts,
There He taught me the science full of sweetness.
And there I gave to Him
Myself without reserve;
There I promised to be His bride.
HERE the soul speaks of the two contracting parties in this
spiritual betrothal, itself and God. In the inner cellar of love
they both met together, God giving to the soul the breasts of His
love freely, whereby He instructs it in His mysteries and wisdom,
and the soul also actually surrendering itself, making no
reservation whatever either in its own favour or in that of
others, promising to be His for ever.
'There He gave me His breasts.'
2. To give the breast to another is to love and cherish him and
communicate one's secrets to him as a friend. The soul says here
that God gave it His breasts--that is, He gave it His love and
communicated His secrets to it. It is thus that God deals with the
soul in this state, and more, too, as it appears from the words
that follow:
'There He taught me the science full of sweetness.'
3. This science is mystical theology, which is the secret science
of God, and which spiritual men call contemplation. It is most
full of sweetness because it is knowledge by love, love is the
master of it, and it is love that renders it all so sweet.
Inasmuch as this science and knowledge are communicated to the
soul in that love with which God communicates Himself, it is sweet
to the understanding, because knowledge belongs to it, and sweet
to the will, because it comes by love which belongs to the will.
'There I gave to Him myself without reserve'
4. The soul in this sweet draught of God, surrenders itself wholly
to Him most willingly and with great sweetness; it desires to be
wholly His, and never to retain anything which is unbecoming His
Majesty. God is the author of this union, and of the purity and
perfection requisite for it; and as the transformation of the soul
in Himself makes it His, He empties it of all that is alien to
Himself. Thus it comes to pass that, not in will only, but in act
as well, the whole soul is entirely given to God without any
reserve whatever, as God has given Himself freely unto it. The
will of God and of the soul are both satisfied, each given up to
the other, in mutual delight, so that neither fails the other in
the faith and constancy of the betrothal; therefore the soul says:
'There I promised to be His bride.'
5. As a bride does not give her love to another, and as all her
thoughts and actions are directed to her bridegroom only, so the
soul now has no affections of the will, no acts of the
understanding, neither object nor occupation of any kind which it
does not wholly refer unto God, together with all its desires. The
soul is, as it were, absorbed in God, and even its first movements
have nothing in them--so far as it can comprehend them--which is
at variance with the will of God. The first movements of an
imperfect soul in general are, at least, inclined to evil, in the
understanding, the memory, the will, the desires and
imperfections; but those of the soul which has attained to the
spiritual state of which I am speaking are ordinarily directed to
God, because of the great help and courage it derives from Him,
and its perfect conversion to goodness. This is set forth with
great clearness by David, when he saith: 'Shall not my soul be
subject to God? For from Him is my salvation. For He is my God and
my Saviour; He is my protector, I shall be moved no more.' [228]
'He is my protector' means that the soul, being now received under
the protection of God and united to Him, is no longer subject to
any movements contrary to God.
6. It is quite clear from this that the soul which has attained
the spiritual betrothal knows nothing else but the love of the
Bridegroom and the delights thereof, because it has arrived at
perfection, the form and substance of which is love, according to
St. Paul. [229] The more a soul loves, the more perfect it is in
its love, and hence it follows that the soul which is already
perfect is, if we may say so, all love, all its actions are love,
all its energies and strength are occupied in love. It gives up
all it has, like the wise merchant, [230] for this treasure of
love which it finds hidden in God, and which is so precious in His
sight, and the Beloved cares for nothing else but love; the soul,
therefore, anxious to please Him perfectly, occupies itself wholly
in pure love for God, not only because love does so occupy it, but
also because the love wherein it is united influences it towards
love of God in and through all things. As the bee draws honey from
all plants, and makes use of them only for that end, so the soul
most easily draws the sweetness of love from all that happens to
it; makes all things subserve it towards loving God, whether they
be sweet or bitter; and being animated and protected by love, has
no sense, feeling, or knowledge, because, as I have said, it knows
nothing but love, and in all its occupations, its joy is its love
of God. This is explained by the following stanza.
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
property 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 friendship 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.' [231]
STANZA XXVIII
My soul is occupied,
And 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 Himself 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.'
2. 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 considering 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.'
3. 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.
4. The whole substance of the soul is now so occupied with God, so
intent upon Him, that its very first movements, 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.'
5. '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.'
6. 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 occupations, 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.
7. 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, compliments, 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.'
8. '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 sweetness of love.' This is the meaning of David
when he said, 'I will keep my strength to Thee.' [232]
9. 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' [233] '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.
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 concerns the active life, and
other exterior duties, that it may apply in earnest to the one
thing which the Bridegroom has pronounced necessary; [234] 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.' [235]
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 preaching 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 herself 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, if we were to
occupy it, were it only for a moment, in exterior or active
duties, however important 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 occasionally even
mischief; for God may give up such persons to vanity, so that they
may seem to have done something, 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.
4. 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.
STANZA XXIX
If 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 themselves up in earnest to
God, regarding them as extravagant, 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
everything 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.
2. 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 delusion, 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.'
3. 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.'
4. 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.' [236] 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.
5. 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 themselves 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.'
6. The soul remembers well the words of the Bridegroom in the
Gospel: 'No man can serve two masters; for either he will hate the
one and love the other,' [237] 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.
7. 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' [238]--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.' [239]
8. 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.
NOTE
THE soul being thus gained, all its works are gain, for all its
powers are exerted in the spiritual intercourse of most sweet
interior love with the Beloved. The interior communications
between God and the soul are now so delicious, so full of
sweetness, that no mortal tongue can describe them, nor human
understanding comprehend them. As a bride on the day of her
betrothal attends to nothing but to the joyous festival of her
love, and brings forth all her jewels and ornaments for the
pleasure of the bridegroom, and as he too in the same way exhibits
his own magnificence and riches for the pleasure of his bride, so
is it in the spiritual betrothal where the soul feels that which
the bride says in the Canticle, 'I to my Beloved and my Beloved to
me.' [240] The virtues and graces of the bride-soul, the grandeur
and magnificence of the Bridegroom, the Son of God, come forth
into the light, for the celebration of the bridal feast,
communicating each to the other the goods and joys with the wine
of sweet love in the Holy Ghost. The present stanza, addressed to
the Bridegroom by the soul, has this for its subject.
STANZA XXX
Of emeralds, and of flowers
In the early morning gathered,
We will make the garlands,
Flowering in Thy love,
And bound together with one hair of my head.
THE bride now turns to the Bridegroom and addresses Him in the
intercourse and comfort of love; the subject of the stanza being
the solace and delight which the bride-soul and the Son of God
find in the possession of the virtues and gifts of each other, and
in the exercise thereof, both rejoicing in their mutual love.
Thus the soul, addressing the Beloved, says that they will make
garlands rich in graces and acquired virtues, obtained at the
fitting and convenient season, beautiful and lovely in the love He
bears the soul, and kept together by the love which it itself has
for Him. This rejoicing in virtue is what is meant by making
garlands, for the soul and God rejoice together in these virtues
bound up as flowers in a garland, in the common love which each
bears the other.
'Of emeralds, and of flowers.'
2. The flowers are the virtues of the soul; the emeralds are the
gifts it has received from God. Then of these flowers and emeralds
'In the early morning gathered.'
3. That is, acquired in youth, which is the early morning of life.
They are said to be gathered because the virtues which we acquire
in youth are most pleasing unto God; because youth is the season
when our vices most resist the acquisition of them, and when our
natural inclinations are most prone to lose them. Those virtues
also are more perfect which we acquire in early youth. This time
of our life is the early morning; for as the freshness of the
spring morning is more agreeable than any other part of the day,
so also are the virtues acquired in our youth more pleasing in the
sight of God.
4. By the fresh morning we may understand those acts of love by
which we acquire virtue, and which are more pleasing unto God than
the fresh morning is to the sons of men; good works also, wrought
in the season of spiritual dryness and hardness; this is the
freshness of the winter morning, and what we then do for God in
dryness of spirit is most precious in His eyes. Then it is that we
acquire virtues and graces abundantly; and what we then acquire
with toil and labour is for the most part better, more perfect and
lasting than what we acquire in comfort and spiritual sweetness;
for virtue sends forth its roots in the season of dryness, toil,
and trial: as it is written, 'Virtue is made perfect in
infirmity.' [241] It is with a view to show forth the excellence
of these virtues, of which the garland is wrought for the Beloved,
that the soul says of them that they have been gathered in the
early morning; because it is these flowers alone, with the
emeralds of virtue, the choice and perfect graces, and not the
imperfect, which are pleasing to the Beloved, and so the bride
says:
'We will make the garlands.'
5. All the virtues and graces which the soul, and God in it,
acquire are as a garland of divers flowers wherewith the soul is
marvellously adorned as with a vesture of rich embroidery. As
material flowers are gathered, and then formed into a garland, so
the spiritual flowers of virtues and graces are acquired and set
in order in the soul: and when the acquisition is complete, the
garland of perfection is complete also. The soul and the
Bridegroom rejoice in it, both beautiful, adorned with the
garland, as in the state of perfection.
6. These are the garlands which the soul says they will make. That
is, it will wreathe itself with this variety of flowers, with the
emeralds of virtues and perfect gifts, that it may present itself
worthily before the face of the King, and be on an equality with
Him, sitting as a queen on His right hand; for it has merited this
by its beauty. Thus David saith, addressing himself to Christ:
'The queen stood on Thy right hand in vestments of gold, girt with
variety.' [242] That is, at His right hand, clad in perfect love,
girt with the variety of graces and perfect virtues.
7. The soul does not say, 'I will make garlands,' nor 'Thou wilt
make them,' but, 'We will make them,' not separately, but both
together; because the soul cannot practise virtues alone, nor
acquire them alone, without the help of God; neither does God
alone create virtue in the soul without the soul's concurrence.
Though it be true, as the Apostle saith, that 'every best gift,
and every perfect gift, is from above, descending from the Father
of lights,' [243] still they enter into no soul without that
soul's concurrence and consent. Thus the bride in the Canticle
saith to the Bridegroom; 'Draw me; we will run after thee.' [244]
Every inclination to good comes from God alone, as we learn here;
but as to running, that is, good works, they proceed from God and
the soul together, and it is therefore written, 'We will run'--
that is, both together, but not God nor the soul alone.
8. These words may also be fittingly applied to Christ and His
Church, which, as His bride, says unto Him, 'We will make the
garlands.' In this application of the words the garlands are the
holy souls born to Christ in the Church. Every such soul is by
itself a garland adorned with the flowers of virtues and graces,
and all of them together a garland for the head of Christ the
Bridegroom.
9. We may also understand by these beautiful garlands the crowns
formed by Christ and the Church, of which there are three kinds.
The first is formed of the beauty and white flowers of the
virgins, each one with her virginal crown, and forming altogether
one crown for the head of the Bridegroom Christ. The second, of
the brilliant flowers of the holy doctors, each with his crown of
doctor, and all together forming one crown above that of the
virgins on the head of Christ. The third is composed of the purple
flowers of the martyrs, each with his own crown of martyrdom, and
all united into one, perfecting that on the head of Christ.
Adorned with these garlands He will be so beautiful, and so lovely
to behold, that heaven itself will repeat the words of the bride
in the Canticle, saying: 'Go forth, ye daughters of Sion, and see
king Solomon in the diadem wherewith his mother crowned him in the
day of his betrothal, and in the day of the joy of his heart.'
[245] The soul then says we will make garlands.
'Flowering in Thy love.'
10. The flowering of good works and virtues is the grace and power
which they derive from the love of God, without which they not
only flower not, but become even dry, and worthless in the eyes of
God, though they may be humanly perfect. But if He gives His grace
and love they flourish in His love.
'And bound together with one hair of my head.'
11. The hair is the will of the soul, and the love it bears the
Beloved. This love performs the function of the thread that keeps
the garland together. For as a thread binds the flowers of a
garland, so loves knits together and sustains virtues in the soul.
'Charity'--that is, love--saith the Apostle, 'is the bond of
perfection.' [246] Love, in the same way, binds the virtues and
supernatural gifts together, so that when love fails by our
departure from God, all our virtue perishes also, just as the
flowers drop from the garland when the thread that bound them
together is broken. It is not enough for God's gift of virtues
that He should love us, but we too must love Him in order to
receive them, and preserve them.
12. The soul speaks of one hair, not of many, to show that the
will by itself is fixed on God, detached from all other hairs;
that is, from strange love. This points out the great price and
worth of these garlands of virtues; for when love is single,
firmly fixed on God, as here described, the virtues also are
entire, perfect, and flowering in the love of God; for the love He
bears the soul is beyond all price, and the soul also knows it
well.
13. Were I to attempt a description of the beauty of that binding
of the flowers and emeralds together, or of the strength and
majesty which their harmonious arrangement furnishes to the soul,
or the beauty and grace of its embroidered vesture, expressions
and words would fail me; for if God says of the evil spirit, 'His
body is like molten shields, shut close up with scales pressing
upon one another, one is joined to another, and not so much as any
air can come between them'; [247] if the evil spirit be so strong,
clad in malice thus compacted together--for the scales that cover
his body like molten shields are malice, and malice is in itself
but weakness--what must be the strength of the soul that is
clothed in virtues so compacted and united together that no
impurity or imperfection can penetrate between them; each virtue
severally adding strength to strength, beauty to beauty, wealth to
wealth, and to majesty, dominion and grandeur?
14. What a marvellous vision will be that of the bride-soul, when
it shall sit on the right hand of the Bridegroom-King, crowned
with graces! 'How beautiful are thy steps in shoes, O prince's
daughter!' [248] The soul is called a prince's daughter because of
the power it has; and if the beauty of the steps in shoes be
great, what must be that of the whole vesture? Not only is the
beauty of the soul crowned with admirable flowers, but its
strength also, flowing from the harmonious order of the flowers,
intertwined with the emeralds of its inumerable graces, is
terrible: 'Terrible as the army of a camp set in array.' [249]
For, as these virtues and gifts of God refresh the soul with their
spiritual perfume, so also, when united in it, do they, out of
their substance, minister strength. Thus, in the Canticle, when
the bride was weak, languishing with love--because she had not
been able to bind together the flowers and the emeralds with the
hair of her love--and anxious to strengthen herself by that union
of them, cries out: 'Stay me with flowers, compass me about with
apples; because I languish with love.' [250] The flowers are the
virtues, and the apples are the other graces.
NOTE
I BELIEVE I have now shown how the intertwining of the garlands
and their lasting presence in the soul explain the divine union of
love which now exists between the soul and God. The Bridegroom, as
He saith Himself, is the �flower of the field and the lily of the
valleys,' [251] and the soul's love is the hair that unites to
itself this flower of flowers. Love is the most precious of all
things, because it is the 'bond of perfection,' as the Apostle
saith, [252] and perfection is union with God. The soul is, as it
were, a sheaf of garlands, for it is the subject of this glory, no
longer what it was before, but the very perfect flower of flowers
in the perfection and beauty of all; for the thread of love binds
so closely God and the soul, and so unites them, that it
transforms them and makes them one by love; so that, though in
essence different, yet in glory and appearance the soul seems God
and God the soul. Such is this marvellous union, baffling all
description.
2. We may form some conception of it from the love of David and
Jonathan, whose 'soul was knit with the soul of David.' [253] If
the love of one man for another can be thus strong, so as to knit
two souls together, what must that love of God be which can knit
the soul of man to God the Bridegroom? God Himself is here the
suitor Who in the omnipotence of His unfathomable love absorbs the
soul with greater violence and efficacy than a torrent of fire a
single drop of the morning dew which resolves itself into air.
The hair, therefore, which accomplishes such a union must, of
necessity, be most strong and subtile, seeing that it penetrates
and binds together so effectually the soul and God. In the present
stanza the soul declares the qualities of this hair.
STANZA XXXI
By that one hair
Thou hast observed fluttering on my neck,
And on my neck regarded,
Thou wert captivated;
And wounded by one of my eyes.
THERE are three things mentioned here. The first is, that the love
by which the virtues are bound together is nothing less than a
strong love; for in truth it need be so in order to preserve them.
The second is, that God is greatly taken by this hair of love,
seeing it to be alone and strong. The third is, that God is deeply
enamoured of the soul, beholding the purity and integrity of its
faith.
'By that one hair
Thou hast observed fluttering on my neck.'
2. The neck signifies that strength in which, it is said,
fluttered the hair of love, strong love, which bound the virtues
together. It is not sufficient for the preservation of virtues
that love be alone, it must be also strong so that no contrary
vice may anywhere destroy the perfection of the garland; for the
virtues so are bound up together in the soul by the hair, that if
the thread be once broken, all the virtues are lost; for where one
virtue is, all are, and where one fails, all fail also. The hair
is said to flutter on the neck, because its love of God, without
any hindrance whatever, flutters strongly and lightly in the
strength of the soul.
3. As the air causes hair to wave and flutter on the neck, so the
breath of the Holy Ghost stirs the strong love that it may fly
upwards to God; for without this divine wind, which excites the
powers of the soul to the practice of divine love, all the virtues
the soul may possess become ineffectual and fruitless. The Beloved
observed the hair fluttering on the neck--that is, He considered
it with particular attention and regard; because strong love is a
great attraction for the eyes of God.
'And on my neck regarded.'
4. This shows us that God not only esteems this love, seeing it
alone, but also loves it, seeing it strong; for to say that God
regards is to say that He loves, and to say that He observes is to
say that He esteems what He observes. The word 'neck' is repeated
in this line, because it, being strong, is the cause why God loves
it so much. It is as if the soul said, 'Thou hast loved it, seeing
it strong without weakness or fear, and without any other love,
and flying upwards swiftly and fervently.'
5. Until now God had not looked upon this hair so as to be
captivated by it, because He had not seen it alone, separate from
the others, withdrawn from other loves, feelings, and affections,
which hindered it from fluttering alone on the neck of strength.
Afterwards, however, when mortifications and trials temptations
and penance had detached it, and made it strong, so that nothing
whatever could break it, then God beholds it, and is taken by it,
and binds the flowers of the garlands with it; for it is now so
strong that it can keep the virtues united together in the soul.
6. But what these temptations and trials are, how they come, and
how far they reach, that the soul may attain to that strength of
love in which God unites it to Himself, I have described in the
'Dark Night,' [254] and in the explanation of the four stanzas
[255] which begin with the words, 'O living flame of love!' The
soul having passed through these trials has reached a degree of
love so high that it has merited the divine union.
'Thou wert captivated.'
7. O joyful wonder! God captive to a hair. The reason of this
capture so precious is that God was pleased to observe the
fluttering of the hair on the soul's neck; for where God regards
He loves. If He in His grace and mercy had not first looked upon
us and loved us, [256] as St. John saith, and humbled Himself, He
never could have been taken by the fluttering of the hair of our
miserable love. His flight is not so low as that our love could
lay hold of the divine bird, attract His attention, and fly so
high with a strength worthy of His regard, if He had not first
looked upon us. He, however, is taken by the fluttering of the
hair; He makes it worthy and pleasing to Himself, and then is
captivated by it. 'Thou hast seen it on my neck, Thou wert
captivated by it.' This renders it credible that a bird which
flies low may capture the royal eagle in its flight, if the eagle
should fly so low and be taken by it willingly.
'And wounded by one of my eyes.'
8. The eye is faith. The soul speaks of but one, and that this has
wounded the Beloved. If the faith and trust of the soul in God
were not one, without admixture of other considerations, God never
could have been Wounded by love. Thus the eye that wounds, and the
hair that binds, must be one. So strong is the love of the
Bridegroom for the bride, because of her simple faith, that, if
the hair of her love binds Him, the eye of her faith imprisons Him
so closely as to wound Him through that most tender affection He
bears her, which is to the bride a further progrees in His love.
9. The Bridegroom Himself speaks in the Canticle of the hair and
the eyes, saying to the bride, 'Thou hast wounded My heart, My
sister, My bride; thou hast wounded My heart with one of thy eyes,
and with one hair of thy neck.' [257] He says twice that His heart
is wounded, that is, with the eye and the hair, and therefore the
soul in this stanza speaks of them both, because they signify its
union with God in the understanding and the will; for the
understanding is subdued by faith, signified by the eye, and the
will by love. Here the soul exults in this union, and gives thanks
to the Bridegroom for it, it being His gift; accounting it a great
matter that He has been pleased to requite its love, and to become
captive to it. We may also observe here the joy, happiness, and
delight of the soul with its prisoner, having been for a long time
His prisoner, enamoured of Him.
NOTE
GREAT is the power and courage of love, for God is its prisoner.
Blessed is the soul that loves, for it has made a captive of God
Who obeys its good pleasure. Such is the nature of love that it
makes those who love do what is asked of them, and, on the other
hand, without love the utmost efforts will be fruitless, but one
hair will bind those that love. The soul, knowing this, and
conscious of blessings beyond its merits, in being raised up to so
high a degree of love, through the rich endowments of graces and
virtues, attributes all to the Beloved, saying:
STANZA XXXII
When Thou didst regard me,
Thine eyes imprinted in me Thy grace:
For this didst Thou love me again,
And thereby mine eyes did merit
To adore what in Thee they saw.
IT is the nature of perfect love to seek or accept nothing for
itself, to attribute nothing to itself, but to refer all to the
Beloved. If this be true of earthly love, how much more so of the
love of God, the reason of which is so constraining. In the two
foregoing stanzas the bride seemed to attribute something to
herself; for she said that she would make garlands with her
Beloved, and bind them with a hair of her head; that is a great
work, and of no slight importance and worth: afterwards she said
that she exulted in having captivated Him by a hair, and wounded
Him with one of her eyes. All this seems as if she attributed
great merits to herself. Now, however, she explains her meaning,
and removes the wrong impression with great care and fear, lest
any merit should be attributed to herself, and therefore less to
God than His due, and less also than she desired. She now refers
all to Him, and at the same time gives Him thanks, saying that the
cause of His being the captive of the hair of her love, and of His
being wounded by the eye of her faith, was His mercy in looking
lovingly upon her, thereby rendering her lovely and pleasing in
His sight; and that the loveliness and worth she received from Him
merited His love, and made her worthy to adore her Beloved, and to
bring forth good works worthy of His love and favour.
'When Thou didst regard me.'
2. That is, with loving affection, for I have already said, that
where God regards there He loves.
'Thine eyes imprinted in me Thy grace.'
3. The eyes of the Bridegroom signify here His merciful divinity,
which, mercifuly inclined to the soul, imprints or infuses in it
the love and grace by which He makes it beautiful, and so elevates
it that He makes it the partaker of His divinity. When the soul
sees to what height of dignity God has raised it, it says:
'For this didst Thou love me again.'
4. To love again is to love much; it is more than simple love, it
is a twofold love, and for two reasons. Here the soul explains the
two motives of the Bridegroom's love; He not only loved it because
captivated by the hair, but He loved it again, because He was
wounded with one of its eyes. The reason why He loved it so deeply
is that He would, when He looked upon it, give it the grace to
please Him, endowing it with the hair of love, and animating with
His charity the faith of the eye. And therefore the soul saith:
'For this didst Thou love me again.'
5. To say that God shows favour to the soul is to say that He
renders it worthy and capable of His love. It is therefore as if
the soul said, 'Having shown Thy favour to me, worthy pledges of
Thy love, Thou hast therefore loved me again'; that is, 'Thou hast
given me grace upon grace'; or, in the words of St. John, 'grace
for grace'; [258] grace for the grace He has given, that is more
grace, for without grace we cannot merit His grace.
6. If we could clearly understand this truth, we must keep in mind
that, as God loves nothing beside Himself, so loves He nothing
more than Himself, because He loves all things with reference to
Himself. Thus love is the final cause, and God loves nothing for
what it is in itself. Consequently, when we say that God loves
such a soul, we say, in effect, that He brings it in a manner to
Himself, making it His equal, and thus it is He loves that soul in
Himself with that very love with which He loves Himself. Every
good work, therefore, of the soul in God is meritorious of God's
love, because the soul in His favour, thus exalted, merits God
Himself in every act.
'And thereby mine eyes did merit.'
7. That is, 'By the grace and favour which the eyes of Thy
compassion have wrought, when Thou didst look upon me, rendering
me pleasing in Thy sight and worthy of Thy regard.'
'To adore what in Thee they saw.'
8. That is: 'The powers of my soul, O my Bridegroom, the eyes by
which I can see Thee, although once fallen and miserable in the
vileness of their mean occupations, have merited to look upon
Thee.' To look upon God is to do good works in His grace. Thus
the powers of the soul merit in adoring because they adore in the
grace of God, in which every act is meritorious. Enlightened and
exalted by grace, they adored what in Him they saw, and what they
saw not before, because of their blindness and meanness. What,
then, have they now seen? The greatness of His power, His
overflowing sweetness, infinite goodness, love, and compassion,
innumerable benefits received at His hands, as well now when so
near Him as before when far away. The eyes of the soul now merit
to adore, and by adoring merit, for they are beautiful and
pleasing to the Bridegroom. Before they were unworthy, not only to
adore or behold Him, but even to look upon Him at all: great
indeed is the stupidity and blindness of a soul without the grace
of God.
9. It is a melancholy thing to see how far a soul departs from its
duty when it is not enlightened by the love of God. For being
bound to acknowledge these and other innumerable favours which it
has every moment received at His hands, temporal as well as
spiritual, and to worship and serve Him unceasingly with all its
faculties, it not only does not do so, but is unworthy even to
think of Him; nor does it make any account of Him whatever. Such
is the misery of those who are living, or rather who are dead, in
sin.
NOTE
FOR the better understanding of this and of what follows, we must
keep in mind that the regard of God benefits the soul in four
ways: it cleanses, adorns, enriches, and enlightens it, as the
sun, when it shines, dries, warms, beautifies, and brightens the
earth. When God has visited the soul in the three latter ways,
whereby He renders it pleasing to Himself, He remembers its former
uncleanness and sin no more: as it is written, 'All the iniquities
that he hath wrought, I will not remember.' [259]
God having once done away with our sin and uncleanness, He will
look upon them no more; nor will He withhold His mercy because of
them, for He never punishes twice for the same sin, according to
the words of the prophet: 'There shall not rise a double
affliction.' [260]
Still, though God forgets the sin He has once forgiven, we are not
for that reason to forget it ourselves; for the Wise Man saith,
'Be not without fear about sin forgiven.' [261] There are three
reasons for this. We should always remember our sin, that we may
not presume, that we may have a subject of perpetual thanksgiving,
and because it serves to give us more confidence that we shall
receive greater favours; for if, when we were in sin, God showed
Himself unto us so merciful and forgiving, how much greater
mercies may we not hope for when we are clean from sin, and in His
love?
The soul, therefore, calling to mind all the mercies it has
received, and seeing itself united to the Bridegroom in such
dignity, rejoices greatly with joy, thanksgiving, and love. In
this it is helped exceedingly by the recollection of its former
condition, which was so mean and filthy that it not only did not
deserve that God should look upon it, but was unworthy that He
should even utter its name, as He saith by the mouth of the
prophet David: 'Nor will I be mindful of their names by My
lips.' [262] Thus the soul, seeing that there was, and that there
can be, nothing in itself to attract the eyes of God, but that all
comes from Him of pure grace and goodwill, attributes its misery
to itself, and all the blessings it enjoys to the Beloved; and
seeing further that because of these blessings it can merit now
what it could not merit before, it becomes bold with God, and
prays for the divine spiritual union, wherein its mercies are
multiplied. This is the subject of the following stanza:
STANZA XXXIII
Despise me not,
For if I was swarthy once,
Thou canst regard me now;
Since Thou hast regarded me,
Grace and beauty hast Thou given me.
THE soul now is becoming bold, and respects itself, because of the
gifts and endowments which the Beloved has bestowed upon it. It
recognises that these things, while itself is worthless and
underserving, are at least means of merit, and consequently it
ventures to say to the Beloved, 'Do not disregard me now, or
despise me'; for if before it deserved contempt because of the
filthiness of its sin, and the meanness of its nature, now that He
has once looked upon it, and thereby adorned it with grace and
beauty, He may well look upon it a second time and increase its
grace and beauty. That He has once done so, when the soul deserved
it not, and had no attractions for Him, is reason enough why He
should do so again and again.
'Despise me not.'
2. The soul does not say this because it desires in any way to be
esteemed--for contempt and insult are of great price, and
occasions of joy to the soul that truly loves God--but because it
acknowledges that in itself it merits nothing else, were it not
for the gifts and graces it has received from God, as it appears
from the words that follow.
'For if I was swarthy once.'
3. �If, before Thou didst graciously look upon me Thou didst find
me in my filthiness, black with imperfections and sins, and
naturally mean and vile,'
'Thou canst regard me now; since Thou hast regarded me.�
4. After once looking upon me, and taking away my swarthy
complexion, defiled by sin and disagreeable to look upon, when
Thou didst render me lovely for the first time, Thou mayest well
look upon me now--that is, now I may be looked on and deserve to
be regarded, and thereby to receive further favours at Thy hands.
For Thine eyes, when they first looked upon me, did not only take
away my swarthy complexion, but rendered me also worthy of Thy
regard; for in Thy look of love,--
'Grace and beauty hast Thou given me.'
5. The two preceding lines are a commentary on the words of St.
John, 'grace for grace,' [263] for when God beholds a soul that is
lovely in His eyes He is moved to bestow more grace upon it
because He dwells well-pleased within it. Moses knew this, and
prayed for further grace: he would, as it were, constrain God to
grant it because he had already received so much 'Thou hast said:
I know thee by name, and thou hast found favour in My sight: if
therefore I have found favour in Thy sight, show me Thy face, that
I may know Thee, and may find grace before Thine eyes.' [264]
6. Now a soul which in the eyes of God is thus exalted in grace,
honourable and lovely, is for that reason an object of His
unutterable love. If He loved that soul before it was in a state
of grace, for His own sake, He loves it now, when in a state of
grace, not only for His own sake, but also for itself. Thus
enamoured of its beauty, through its affections and good works,
now that it is never without them, He bestows upon it continually
further grace and love, and the more honourable and exalted He
renders that soul, the more is He captivated by it, and the
greater His love for it.
7. God Himself sets this truth before us, saying to His people, by
the mouth of the prophet, 'since thou becamest honourable in My
eyes, and glorious, I have loved thee.' [265] That is, 'Since I
have cast Mine eyes upon thee, and thereby showed thee favour, and
made thee glorious and honourable in My sight, thou hast merited
other and further favours'; for to say that God loves, is to say
that He multiplies His grace. The bride in the Canticle speaks to
the same effect, saying, 'I am black, but beautiful, O ye
daughters of Jerusalem.' [266] and the Church adds, [267] saying,
'Therefore hath the King loved me, and brought me into His secret
chamber.' This is as much as saying: 'O ye souls who have no
knowledge nor understanding of these favours, marvel not that the
heavenly King has shown such mercy unto me as to plunge me in the
depths of His love, for, though I am swarthy, He has so regarded
me, after once looking upon me, that He could not be satisfied
without betrothing me to Himself, and calling me into the inner
chamber of His love.'
8. Who can measure the greatness of the soul's exaltation when God
is pleased with it? No language, no imagination is sufficient for
this; for in truth God doeth this as God, to show that it is He
who does it. The dealings of God with such a soul may in some
degree be understood; but only in this way, namely, that He gives
more to him who has more, and that His gifts are multiplied in
proportion to the previous endowments of the soul. This is what
He teaches us Himself in the Gospel, saying; 'He that hath to him
shall be given, and he shall abound: but he that hath not, from
him shall be taken away even that which he hath.' [268]
9. Thus the talent of that servant, not then in favour with his
lord, was taken from him and given to another who had gained
others, so that the latter might have all, together with the
favour of his lord. [269] God heaps the noblest and the greatest
favours of His house, which is the Church militant as well as the
Church triumphant, upon him who is most His friend, ordaining it
thus for His greater honour and glory, as a great light absorbs
many little lights. This is the spiritual sense of those words,
already cited, [270] the prophet Isaias addressed to the people of
Israel: 'I am the Lord thy God, the Holy One of Israel, thy
Saviour: I have given Egypt for thy atonement and Saba for thee.
I will give men for thee, and people for thy life.' [271]
10. Well mayest Thou then, O God, gaze upon and prize that soul
which Thou regardest, for Thou hast made it precious by looking
upon it, and given it graces which in Thy sight are precious, and
by which Thou art captivated. That soul, therefore, deserves that
Thou shouldest regard it not only once, but often, seeing that
Thou hast once looked upon it; for so is it written in the book of
Esther by the Holy Ghost: 'This honour is he worthy of, whom the
king hath a mind to honour.' [272]
NOTE
THE gifts of love which the Bridegroom bestows on the soul in this
state are inestimable; the praises and endearing expressions of
divine love which pass so frequently between them are beyond all
utterance. The soul is occupied in praising Him, and in giving Him
thanks; and He in exalting, praising, and thanking the soul, as we
see in the Canticle, where He thus speaks to the bride: 'Behold,
thou art fair, O My love, behold, thou art fair; thy eyes are as
those of doves.' The bride replies: 'Behold, thou art fair, my
Beloved, and comely.' [273] These, and other like expressions,
are addressed by them each to the other.
2. In the previous stanza the soul despised itself, and said it
was swarthy and unclean, praising Him for His beauty and grace,
Who, by looking upon the soul, rendered it gracious and beautiful.
He, Whose way it is to exalt the humble, fixing His eyes upon the
soul, as He was entreated to do, praises it in the following
stanza. He does not call it swarthy, as the soul calls itself,
but He addresses it as His white dove, praising it for its good
dispositions, those of a dove and a turtle-dove.
STANZA XXXIV
THE BRIDEGROOM
The little white dove
Has returned to the ark with the bough;
And now the turtle-dove
Its desired mate
On the green banks has found.
IT is the Bridegroom Himself who now speaks. He celebrates the
purity of the soul in its present state, the rich rewards it has
gained, in having prepared itself, and laboured to come to Him. He
also speaks of its blessedness in having found the Bridegroom in
this union, and of the fulfilment of all its desires, the delight
and joy it has in Him now that all the trials of life and time are
over.
'The little white dove.'
2. He calls the soul, on account of its whiteness and purity--
effects of the grace it has received at the hands of God--a dove,
'the little white dove,' for this is the term He applies to it in
the Canticle, to mark its simplicity, its natural gentleness, and
its loving contemplation. The dove is not only simple, and gentle
without gall, but its eyes are also clear, full of love. The
Bridegroom, therefore, to point out in it this character or loving
contemplation, wherein it looks upon God, says of it that its eyes
are those of a dove: 'Thy eyes are dove's eyes.' [274]
'Has returned to the ark with the bough.'
3. Here the Bridegroom compares the soul to the dove of Noe's ark,
the going and returning of which is a figure of what befalls the
soul. For as the dove went forth from the ark, and returned
because it found no rest for its feet on account of the waters of
the deluge, until the time when it returned with the olive branch
in its mouth--a sign of the mercy of God in drying the waters
which had covered the earth--so the soul went forth at its
creation out of the ark of God's omnipotence, and having traversed
the deluge of its sins and imperfections, and finding no rest for
its desires, flew and returned on the air of the longings of its
love to the ark of its Creator's bosom; but it only effected an
entrance when God had dried the waters of its imperfections. Then
it returned with the olive branch, that is, the victory over all
things by His merciful compassion, to this blessed and perfect
recollection in the bosom of the Beloved, not only triumphant over
all its enemies, but also rewarded for its merits; for both the
one and the other are symbolised by the olive bough. Thus the
dove-soul returns to the ark of God not only white and pure as it
went forth when He created it, but with the olive branch of reward
and peace obtained by the conquest of itself.
'And now the turtle dove its desired mate
on the green banks has found.'
4. The Bridegroom calls the soul the turtle-dove, because when it
is seeking after the Beloved it is like the turtle-dove when it
cannot find its desired mate. It is said of the turtle-dove, when
it cannot find its mate, that it sitteth not on the green boughs,
nor drinketh of the cool refreshing waters, nor retireth to the
shade, nor mingleth with companions; but when it finds its mate
then it doeth all this.
5. Such, too, is the condition of the soul, and necessarily, if it
is to attain to union with the Bridegroom. The soul's love and
anxiety must be such that it cannot rest on the green boughs of
any joy, nor drink of the waters of this world's honour and glory,
nor recreate itself with any temporal consolation, nor shelter
itself in the shade of created help and protection: it must repose
nowhere, it must avoid the society of all its inclinations, mourn
in its loneliness, until it shall find the Bridegroom to its
perfect contentment.
6. And because the soul, before it attained to this estate, sought
the Beloved in great love, and was satisfied with nothing short of
Him, the Bridegroom here speaks of the end of its labours, and the
fulfilment of its desires, saying: 'Now the turtle-dove its
desired mate on the green banks has found.' That is: Now the
bride-soul sits on the green bough, rejoicing in her Beloved,
drinks of the clear waters of the highest contemplation and of the
wisdom of God; is refreshed by the consolations it finds in Him,
and is also sheltered under the shadow of His favour and
protection, which she had so earnestly desired. There is she
deliciously and divinely comforted, refreshed and nourished, as
she saith in the, Canticle: 'I sat down under His shadow Whom I
desired, and His fruit was sweet to my palate.' [275]
NOTE
THE Bridegroom proceeds to speak of the satisfaction which He
derives from the happiness which the bride has found in that
solitude wherein she desired to live--a stable peace and
unchangeable good. For when the bride is confirmed in the
tranquillity of her soul and solitary love of the Bridegroom, she
reposes so sweetly in the love of God, and God also in her, that
she requires no other means or masters to guide her in the way of
God; for God Himself is now her light and guide, fulfilling in her
what He promised by the mouth of Oseas, saying: 'I will lead her
into the wilderness, and I will speak to her heart.' [276] That
is, it is in solitude that He communicates Himself, and unites
Himself, to the soul, for to speak to the heart is to satisfy the
heart, and no heart can be satisfied with less than God. And so
the Bridegroom Says:
STANZA XXXV
In solitude she lived,
And in solitude built her nest;
And in solitude, alone
Hath the Beloved guided her,
In solitude also wounded with love.
IN this stanza the Bridegroom is doing two things: one is, He is
praising the solitude in which the soul once lived, for it was the
means whereby it found the Beloved, and rejoiced in Him, away from
all its former anxieties and troubles. For, as the soul abode in
solitude, abandoning all created help and consolation, in order to
obtain the fellowship and union of the Beloved, it deserved
thereby possession of the peace of solitude in the Beloved, in
Whom it reposes alone, undisturbed by any anxieties.
2. The second is this: the Bridegroom is saying that, inasmuch as
the soul has desired to be alone, far away, for His sake, from all
created things, He has been enamoured of it because of its
loneliness, has taken care of it, held it in His arms, fed it with
all good things, and guided it to the deep things of God. He does
not merely say that He is now the soul's guide, but that He is its
only guide, without any intermediate help, either of angels or of
men, either of forms or of figures; for the soul in this solitude
has attained to true liberty of spirit, and is wholly detached
from all subordinate means.
'In solitude she lived.'
3. The turtle-dove, that is, the soul, lived in solitude before
she found the Beloved in this state of union; for the soul that
longs after God derives no consolation from any other
companionship,--yea, until it finds Him everything does but
increase its solitude.
'And in solitude built her nest.'
4. The previous solitude of the soul was its voluntary privation
of all the comforts of this world, for the sake of the Bridegroom--
as in the instance of the turtledove--its striving after
perfection, and acquiring that perfect solitude wherein it attains
to union with the Word, and in consequence to complete refreshment
and repose. This is what is meant by 'nest'; and the words of the
stanza may be thus explained: 'In that solitude, wherein the bride
formerly lived, tried by afflictions and troubles, because she was
not perfect, there, in that solitude, hath she found refreshment
and rest, because she has found perfect rest in God.' This, too,
is the spiritual sense of these words of the Psalmist: 'The
sparrow hath found herself a house, and the turtle a nest for
herself, where she may lay her young ones; [277] that is, a sure
stay in God, in Whom all the desires and powers of the soul are
satisfied.'
'And in solitude.'
5. In the solitude of perfect detachment from all things, wherein
it lives alone with God--there He guides it, moves it, and
elevates it to divine things. He guides the understanding in the
perception of divine things, because it is now detached from all
strange and contrary knowledge, and is alone. He moves the will
freely to love Himself, because it is now alone, disencumbered
from all other affections. He fills the memory with divine
knowledge, because that also is now alone, emptied of all
imaginations and fancies. For the instant the soul clears and
empties its faculties of all earthly objects, and from attachments
to higher things, keeping them in solitude, God immediately fills
them with the invisible and divine; it being God Himself Who
guides it in this solitude. St. Paul says of the perfect, that
they 'are led by the Spirit of God,' [278] and that is the same as
saying 'In solitude hath He guided her.'
'Alone hath the Beloved guided her.'
6. That is, the Beloved not only guides the soul in its solitude,
but it is He alone Who works in it directly and immediately. It
is of the nature of the soul's union with God in the spiritual
marriage that God works directly, and communicates Himself
immediately, not by the ministry of angels or by the help of
natural capacities. For the exterior and interior senses, all
created things, and even the soul itself, contribute very little
towards the reception of those great supernatural favours which
God bestows in this state; yea, rather, inasmuch as they do not
fall within the cognizance of natural efforts, ability and
application, God effects them alone.
7. The reason is, that He finds the soul alone in its solitude,
and therefore will not give it another companion, nor will He
entrust His work to any other than
Himself.
8. There is a certain fitness in this; for the soul having
abandoned all things, and passed through all the ordinary means,
rising above them unto God, God Himself becomes the guide, and the
way to Himself. The soul in solitude, detached from all things,
having now ascended above all things, nothing now can profit or
help it to ascend higher except the Bridegroom Word Himself, Who,
because enamoured of the bride, will Himself alone bestow these
graces on the soul. And so He says:
'In solitude also wounded with love.'
9. That is, the love of the bride; for the Bridegroom not only
loves greatly the solitude of the soul, but is also wounded with
love of her, because the soul would abide in solitude and
detachment, on account of its being itself wounded with love of
Him. He will not, therefore, leave it alone; for being wounded
with love because of the soul's solitude on His account, and
seeing that nothing else can satisfy it, He comes Himself to be
alone its guide, drawing it to, and absorbing it in, Himself. But
He would not have done so if He had not found it in this spiritual
solitude.
NOTE
IT is a strange characteristic of persons in love that they take a
much greater pleasure in their loneliness than in the company of
others. For if they meet together in the presence of others with
whom they need have no intercourse, and from whom they have
nothing to conceal, and if those others neither address them nor
interfere with them, yet the very fact of their presence is
sufficient to rob the lovers of all pleasure in their meeting.
The cause of this lies in the fact that love is the union of two
persons, who will not communicate with each other if they are not
alone. And now the soul, having reached the summit of perfection,
and liberty of spirit in God, all the resistance and
contradictions of the flesh being subdued, has no other occupation
or employment than indulgence in the joys of its intimate love of
the Bridegroom. It is written of holy Tobias, after the trials of
his life were over, that God restored his sight, and that 'the
rest of his life was in joy.' [279] So is it with the perfect
soul, it rejoices in the blessings that surround it.
2. The prophet Isaias says of the soul which, having been tried in
the works of perfection has arrived at the goal desired: 'Thy
light shall arise up in darkness, and thy darkness shall be as the
noonday. And the Lord will give thee rest always, and will fill
thy soul with brightness, and deliver thy bones, and thou shalt be
as a watered garden and as a fountain of water whose waters shall
not fail. And the deserts of the world shall be builded in thee:
thou shalt raise up the foundations of generation and generation;
and thou shalt be called the builder of the hedges, turning the
paths into rest. If thou turn away thy foot from the Sabbath, from
doing thy will in My holy day, and call the Sabbath delicate, and
the Holy of our Lord glorious, and glorify Him while thou doest
not thine own ways, and thy will be not found, to speak a word:
then shalt thou be delighted in the Lord, and I will lift thee up
above the heights of the earth, and will feed thee with the
inheritance of Jacob thy father,' [280] Who is God Himself. The
soul, therefore, has nothing else to do now but to rejoice in the
delights of this pasture, and one thing only to desire--the
perfect fruition of it in everlasting life. Thus, in the next and
the following stanzas it implores the Beloved to admit it into
this beatific pasture in the clear vision of God, and says:
STANZA XXXVI
THE BRIDE
Let us rejoice, O my Beloved,
Let us go forth to see ourselves in Thy beauty,
To the mountain and the hill,
Where the pure water flows:
Let us enter into the heart of the thicket.
THE perfect union of love between itself and God being now
effected, the soul longs to occupy itself with those things that
belong to love. It is the soul which is now speaking, making three
petitions to the Beloved. In the first place, it asks for the joy
and sweetness of love, saying, 'Let us rejoice.' In the second
place, it prays to be made like Him, saying, 'Let us go forth to
see ourselves in Thy beauty.' In the third place, it begs to be
admitted to the knowledge of His secrets, saying, 'Let us enter
into the heart of the thicket.'
'Let us rejoice, O my Beloved.'
2. That is, in the sweetness of our love; not only in that
sweetness of ordinary union, but also in that which flows from
active and affective love, whether in the will by an act of
affection, or outwardly in good works which tend to the service of
the Beloved. For love, as I have said, where it is firmly rooted,
ever runs after those joys and delights which are the acts of
exterior and interior love. All this the soul does that it may be
made like to the Beloved.
'Let us go forth to see ourselves in Thy beauty.'
3. 'Let us so act, that, by the practice of this love, we may come
to see ourselves in Thy beauty in everlasting life.' That is: 'Let
me be so transformed in Thy beauty, that, being alike in beauty,
we may see ourselves both in Thy beauty; having Thy beauty, so
that, one beholding the other, each may see his own beauty in the
other, the beauty of both being Thine only, and mine absorbed in
it. And thus I shall see Thee in Thy beauty, and myself in Thy
beauty, and Thou shalt see me in Thy beauty; and I shall see
myself in Thee in Thy beauty, and Thou Thyself in me in Thy
beauty; so shall I seem to be Thyself in Thy beauty, and Thou
myself in Thy beauty; my beauty shall be Thine, Thine shall be
mine, and I shall be Thou in it, and Thou myself in Thine own
beauty; for Thy beauty will be my beauty, and so we shall see,
each the other, in Thy beauty.'
4. This is the adoption of the sons of God, who may truly say what
the Son Himself says to the Eternal Father: 'All My things are
Thine, and Thine are Mine,' [281] He by essence, being the Son of
God by nature, we by participation, being sons by adoption. This
He says not for Himself only, Who is the Head, but for the whole
mystical body, which is the Church. For the Church will share in
the very beauty of the Bridegroom in the day of her triumph, when
she shall see God face to face. And this is the vision which the
soul prays that the Bridegroom and itself may go in His beauty to
see.
'To the mountain and the hill.'
5. That is, to the morning and essential knowledge of God, [282]
which is knowledge in the Divine Word, Who, because He is so high,
is here signified by 'the mountain.' Thus Isaias saith, calling
upon men to know the Son of God: 'Come, and let us go up to the
mountain of our Lord'; [283] and before: 'In the last days the
mountain of the house of the Lord shall be prepared.' [284]
'And to the hill.'
6. That is, to the evening knowledge of God, to the knowledge of
Him in His creatures, in His works, and in His marvellous laws.
This is signified by the expression 'hill,' because it is a kind
of knowledge lower than the other. The soul prays for both when it
says 'to the mountain and the hill.'
7. When the soul says, 'Let us go forth to see ourselves in Thy
beauty to the mountain,' its meaning is, 'Transform me, and make
me like the beauty of the Divine Wisdom, the Word, the Son of
God.' When it says 'to the hill,' the meaning is, 'Do Thou
instruct me in the beauty of this lower knowledge, which is
manifest in Thy creatures and mysterious works.' This also is the
beauty of the Son of God, wherewith the soul desires to shine.
8. But the soul cannot see itself in the beauty of God if it be
not transformed in His wisdom, wherein all things are seen and
possessed, whether in heaven or in earth. It was to this mountain
and to this hill the bride longed to come when she said, 'I will
go to the mountain of myrrh, and to the hill of frankincense.'
[285] The mountain of myrrh is the clear vision of God, and the
hill of frankincense the knowledge of Him in His works, for the
myrrh on the mountain is of a higher order than the incense on the
hill.
'Where the pure water flows.'
9. This is the wisdom and knowledge of God, which cleanse the
understanding, and detach it from all accidents and fancies, and
which clear it of the mist of ignorance. The soul is ever
influenced by this desire of perfectly and clearly understanding
the divine verities, and the more it loves the more it desires to
penetrate them, and hence the third petition which it makes:
'Let us enter into the heart of the thicket;'
10. Into the depths of God's marvellous works and profound
judgments. Such is their multitude and variety, that they may be
called a thicket. They are so full of wisdom and mystery, that we
may not only call them a thicket, but we may even apply to them
the words of David: 'The mountain of God is a rich mountain, a
mountain curdled as cheese, a rich mountain.' [286] The thicket
of the wisdom and knowledge of God is so deep, and so immense,
that the soul, how much soever it knows of it, can always
penetrate further within it, because it is so immense and so
incomprehensible. 'O the depth,' cries out the Apostle, 'of
the riches of the wisdom and of the knowledge of God! How
incomprehensible are His judgments, and how unsearchable His
ways!' [287]
11. But the soul longs to enter this thicket and
incomprehensibility of His judgments, for it is moved by that
longing for a deeper knowledge of them. That knowledge is an
inestimable delight, transcending all understanding. David,
speaking of the sweetness of them, saith: 'The judgments of our
Lord are true, justified in themselves, to be desired above gold
and many precious stones, and sweeter than honey and the honey-
comb. For Thy servant keepeth them.' [288] The soul therefore
earnestly longs to be engulfed in His judgments, and to have a
deeper knowledge of them, and for that end would esteem it a joy
and great consolation to endure all sufferings and afflictions in
the world, and whatever else might help it to that end, however
hard and painful it might be; it would gladly pass through the
agonies of death to enter deeper into God.
12. Hence, also, the thicket, which the soul desires to enter, may
be fittingly understood as signifying the great and many trials
and tribulations which the soul longs for, because suffering is
most sweet and most profitable to it, inasmuch as it is the way by
which it enters more and more into the thicket of the delicious
wisdom of God. The most pure suffering leads to the most pure and
the deepest knowledge, and consequently to the purest and highest
joy, for that is the issue of the deepest knowledge. Thus, the
soul, not satisfied with ordinary suffering, says, 'Let us enter
into the heart of the thicket,' even the anguish of death, that I
may see God.
13. Job, desiring to suffer that he might see God, thus speaks
'Who will grant that my request may come, and that God may give me
what I look for? And that He that hath begun may destroy me, that
He may let loose His hand and cut me off? And that this may be my
comfort, that afflicting me with sorrow, He spare not.' [289] O
that men would understand how impossible it is to enter the
thicket, the manifold riches of the wisdom of God, without
entering into the thicket of manifold suffering making it the
desire and consolation of the soul; and how that the soul which
really longs for the divine wisdom longs first of all for the
sufferings of the Cross, that it may enter in.
14. For this cause it was that St. Paul admonished the Ephesians
not to faint in their tribulations, but to take courage: 'That
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 fulness of
God.' [290] The gate by which we enter into the riches of the
knowledge of God is the Cross; and that gate is narrow. They who
desire to enter in that way are few, while those who desire the
joys that come by it are many.
NOTE
ONE of the principal reasons why the soul desires to be released
and to be with Christ, is, that it may see Him face to face, and
penetrate to the depths of His waysand the eternal mysteries of
His incarnation, which is not the least part of its blessedness;
for in the Gospel of St. John He, addressing the Father, said:
'Now this is eternal life: that they may know Thee, the only true
God, and Jesus Christ Whom Thou hast sent.' [291] As the first act
of a person who has taken a long journey is to see and converse
with him whom he was in search of, so the first thing which the
soul desires, when it has attained to the beatific vision, is to
know and enjoy the deep secrets and mysteries of the incarnation
and the ancient ways of God depending on them. Thus the soul,
having said that it longed to see itself in the beauty of God,
sings as in the following stanza:
STANZA XXXVII
We shall go at once
To the deep caverns of the rock
Which are all secret;
There we shall enter in,
And taste of the new wine of the pomegranate.
ONE of the reasons which most influence the soul to desire to
enter into the 'thicket' of the wisdom of God, and to have a more
intimate knowledge of the beauty of the divine wisdom, is, as I
have said, that it may unite the understanding with God in the
knowledge of the mysteries of the Incarnation, as of all His works
the highest and most full of sweetness, and the most delicious
knowledge. And here the bride therefore says, that after she has
entered in within the divine wisdom--that is, the spiritual
marriage, which is now and will be in glory, seeing God face to
face--her soul united with the divine wisdom, the Son of God, she
will then understand the deep mysteries of God and Man, which are
the highest wisdom hidden in God. They, that is, the bride and the
Bridegroom, will enter in--the soul ingulfed and absorbed--and
both together will have the fruition of the joy which springs from
the knowledge of mysteries, and attributes and power of God which
are revealed in those mysteries, such as His justice, His mercy,
wisdom, power, and love.
'We shall go at once to the deep caverns of the rock.'
2. 'This rock is Christ,' as we learn from St. Paul. [292] The
deep caverns of the rock are the deep mysteries of the wisdom of
God in Christ, in the hypostatical union of the human nature with
the Divine Word, and in the correspondence with it of the union of
man with God, and in the agreement of God's justice and mercy in
the salvation of mankind, in the manifestation of His judgments.
And because His judgments are so high and so deep, they are here
fittingly called 'deep caverns'; deep because of the depth of His
mysteries, and caverns because of the depth of His wisdom in them.
For as caverns are deep, with many windings, so each mystery of
Christ is of deepest wisdom, and has many windings of His secret
judgments of predestination and foreknowledge with respect to men.
3. Notwithstanding the marvellous mysteries which holy doctors
have discovered, and holy souls have understood in this life, many
more remain behind. There are in Christ great depths to be
fathomed, for He is a rich mine, with many recesses full of
treasures, and however deeply we may descend we shall never reach
the end, for in every recess new veins of new treasures abound in
all directions: 'In Whom,' according to the Apostle, 'are hid all
the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.' [293] But the soul cannot
reach these hidden treasures unless it first passes through the
thicket of interior and exterior suffering: for even such
knowledge of the mysteries of Christ as is possible in this life
cannot be had without great sufferings, and without many
intellectual and moral gifts, and without previous spiritual
exercises; for all these gifts are far inferior to this knowledge
of the mysteries of Christ, being only a preparation for it.
4. Thus God said to Moses, when he asked to see His glory, 'Man
shall not see Me and live.' God, however, said that He would show
him all that could be revealed in this life; and so He set Moses
'in a hole of the rock,' which is Christ, where he might see His
'back parts'; [294] that is, He made him understand the mysteries
of the Sacred Humanity.
5. The soul longs to enter in earnest into these caverns of
Christ, that it may be absorbed, transformed, and inebriated in
the love and knowledge of His mysteries, hiding itself in the
bosom of the Beloved. It is into these caverns that He invites the
bride, in the Canticle, to enter, saying: 'Arise, My love, My
beautiful one, and come; My dove in the clefts of the rock, in the
hollow places of the wall.' [295] These clefts of the rock are the
caverns of which we are here speaking, and to which the bride
refers, saying:
'And there we shall enter in.'
6. That is, in the knowledge of the divine mysteries. The bride
says not 'I will enter' alone, which seems the most fitting--
seeing that the Bridegroom has no need to enter in again--but 'we
will enter,' that is, the Bridegroom and the bride, to show that
this is not the work of the bride, but of the Bridegroom with her.
Moreover, inasmuch as God and the soul are now united in the state
of spiritual marriage, the soul doeth nothing of itself without
God. To say 'we will enter,' is as much as to say, 'there shall we
transform ourselves'--that is, 'I shall be transformed in Thee
through the love of Thy divine and sweet judgments': for in the
knowledge of the predestination of the just and in the foresight
of the wicked, wherein the Father prevented the just in the
benedictions of His sweetness in Jesus Christ His Son, the soul is
transformed in a most exalted and perfect way in the love of God
according to this knowledge, giving thanks to the Father, and
loving Him again and again with great sweetness and delight, for
the sake of Jesus Christ His Son. This the soul does in union with
Christ and together with Him. The delight flowing from this act of
praise is ineffably sweet, and the soul speaks of it in the words
that follow:
'And taste of the new wine of the pomegranates.'
7. The pomegranates here are the mysteries of Christ and the
judgments of the wisdom of God; His power and attributes, the
knowledge of which we have from these mysteries; and they are
infinite. For as pomegranates have many grains in their round orb,
so in each one of the attributes and judgments and power of God is
a multitude of admirable arrangements and marvellous works
contained within the sphere of power and mystery, appertaining to
those works. Consider the round form of the pomegranate; for each
pomegranate signifies some one power and attribute of God, which
power or attribute is God Himself, symbolised here by the circular
figure, which has neither beginning not end. It was in the
contemplation of the judgments and mysteries of the wisdom of God,
which are infinite, that the bride said, 'His belly is of ivory
set with sapphires.' [296] The sapphires are the mysteries and
judgments of the divine Wisdom, which is here signified by the
'belly'--the sapphire being a precious stone of the colour of the
heavens when clear and serene.
8. The wine of the pomegranates which the bride says that she and
the Bridegroom will taste is the fruition and joy of the love of
God which overflows the soul in the understanding and knowledge of
His mysteries. For as the many grains of the pomegranate pressed
together give forth but one wine, so all the marvels and
magnificence of God, infused into the soul, issue in but one
fruition and joy of love, which is the drink of the Holy Ghost,
and which the soul offers at once to God the Word, its Bridegroom,
with great tenderness of love.
9. This divine drink the bride promised to the Bridegroom if He
would lead her into this deep knowledge: 'There Thou shalt teach
me,' saith the bride, 'and I will give Thee a cup of spiced wine,
and new wine of my pomegranates.' [297] The soul calls them 'my
pomegranates,' though they are God's Who had given them to it, and
the soul offers them to God as if they were its own, saying, 'We
will taste of the wine of the pomegranates'; for when He states it
He gives it to the soul to taste, and when the soul tastes it, the
soul gives it back to Him, and thus it is that both taste it
together.
NOTE
IN the two previous stanzas the bride sung of those good things
which the Bridegroom is to give her in everlasting bliss, namely,
her transformation in the beauty of created and uncreated wisdom,
and also in the beauty of the union of the Word with flesh,
wherein she shall behold His face as well as His back. Accordingly
two things are set before us in the following stanza. The first is
the way in which the soul tastes of the divine wine of the
pomegranates; the second is the soul's putting before the
Bridegroom the glory of its predestination. And though these two
things are spoken of separately, one after the other, they are
both involved in the one essential glory of the soul.
STANZA XXXVIII
There thou wilt show me
That which my soul desired;
And there Thou wilt give at once,
O Thou, my life,
That which Thou gavest me the other day.
THE reason why the soul longed to enter the caverns was that it
might attain to the consummation of the love of God, the object of
its continual desires; that is, that it might love God with the
pureness and perfection wherewith He has loved it, so that it
might thereby requite His love. Hence in the present stanza the
bride saith to the Bridegroom that He will there show her what she
had always aimed at in all her actions, namely, that He would show
her how to love Him perfectly, as He has loved her. And, secondly,
that He will give her that essential glory for which He has
predestined her from the day of His eternity.
'There Thou wilt show me
That which my soul desired.'
2. That which the soul aims at is equality in love with God, the
object of its natural and supernatural desire. He who loves cannot
be satisfied if he does not feel that he loves as much as he is
loved. And when the soul sees that in the transformation in God,
such as is possible in this life, notwithstanding the immensity of
its love, it cannot equal the perfection of that love wherewith
God loves it, it desires the clear transformation of glory wherein
it shall equal the perfection of love wherewith it is itself
beloved of God; it desires, I say, the clear transformation of
glory wherein it shall equal His love.
3. For though in this high state, which the soul reaches on earth,
there is a real union of the will, yet it cannot reach that
perfection and strength of love which it will possess in the union
of glory; seeing that then, according to the Apostle, the soul
will know God as it is known of Him: 'Then I shall know even as I
am known.' [298] That is, 'I shall then love God even as I am
loved by Him.' For as the understanding of the soul will then be
the understanding of God, and its will the will of God, so its
love will also be His love. Though in heaven the will of the soul
is not destroyed, it is so intimately united with the power of the
will of God, Who loves it, that it loves Him as strongly and as
perfectly as it is loved of Him; both wills being united in one
sole will and one sole love of God.
4. Thus the soul loves God with the will and strength of God
Himself, being made one with that very strength of love wherewith
itself is loved of God. This strength is of the Holy Ghost, in
Whom the soul is there transformed. He is given to the soul to
strengthen its love; ministering to it, and supplying in it,
because of its transformation in glory, that which is defective in
it. In the perfect transformation, also, of the state of spiritual
marriage, such as is possible on earth, in which the soul is all
clothed in grace, the soul loves in a certain way in the Holy
Ghost, Who is given to it in that transformation.
5. We are to observe here that the bride does not say, 'There wilt
Thou give me Thy love,' though that be true--for that means only
that God will love her--but that He will there show her how she is
to love Him with that perfection at which she aims, because there
in giving her His love He will at the same time show her how to
love Him as He loves her. For God not only teaches the soul to
love Himself purely, with a disinterested love, as He hath loved
us, but He also enables it to love Him with that strength with
which He loves the soul, transforming it in His love, wherein He
bestows upon it His own power, so that it may love Him. It is as
if He put an instrument in its hand, taught it the use thereof,
and played upon it together with the soul. This is showing the
soul how it is to love, and at the same time endowing it with the
capacity of loving.
6. The soul is not satisfied until it reaches this point, neither
would it be satisfied even in heaven, unless it felt, as St.
Thomas teaches, [299] that it loved God as much as it is loved of
Him. And as I said of the state of spiritual marriage of which I
am speaking, there is now at this time, though it cannot be that
perfect love in glory, a certain vivid vision and likeness of that
perfection, which is wholly indescribable.
'And there Thou wilt give me at once, O Thou my life,
that which Thou gavest me the other day.'
7. What He will give is the essential glory which consists in the
vision of God. Before proceeding further it is requisite to solve
a question which arises here, namely, Why is it, seeing that
essential glory consists in the vision of God, and not in loving
Him, the soul says that its longing is for His love, and not for
the essential glory? Why is it that the soul begins the stanza
with referring to His love, and then introduces the subject of the
essential glory afterwards, as if it were something of less
importance?
8. There are two reasons for this. The first is this: As the whole
aim of the soul is love, the seat of which is in the will, the
property of which is to give and not to receive--the property of
the understanding, the subject of essential glory, being to
receive and not to give--to the soul inebriated with love the
first consideration is not the essential glory which God will
bestow upon it, but the entire surrender of itself to Him in true
love, without any regard to its own advantage.
9. The second reason is that the second object is included in the
first, and has been taken for granted in the previous stanzas, it
being impossible to attain to the perfect love of God without the
perfect vision of Him. The question is solved by the first reason,
for the soul renders to God by love that which is His due, but
with the understanding it receives from Him and does not give.
10. I now resume the explanation of the stanza, and inquire what
day is meant by the 'other day,' and what is it that God then gave
the soul, and what that is which it prays to receive afterwards in
glory? By 'other day' is meant the day of the eternity of God,
which is other than the day of time. In that day of eternity God
predestined the soul unto glory, and determined the degree of
glory which He would give it and freely gave from the beginning
before He created it. This now, in a manner, so truly belongs to
the soul that no event or accident, high or low, can ever take it
away, for the soul will enjoy for ever that for which God had
predestined it from all eternity.
11. This is that which He gave it 'the other day'; that which the
soul longs now to possess visibly in glory. And what is that which
He gave it? That what 'eye hath not seen nor ear hath heard,
neither hath it ascended into the heart of man.' [300] 'The eye
hath not seen,' saith Isaias, 'O God, beside Thee, what things
Thou hast prepared for them that expect Thee.' [301] The soul has
no word to describe it, so it says 'what.' It is in truth the
vision of God, and as there is no expression by which we can
explain what it is to see God, the soul says only 'that which Thou
gavest me.'
12. But that I may not leave the subject without saying something
further concerning it, I will repeat what Christ hath said of it
in the Apocalypse of St. John, in many terms, phrases, and
comparisons, because a single word once uttered cannot describe
it, for there is much still unsaid, notwithstanding all that
Christ hath spoken at seven different times. 'To him that
overcometh,' saith He, 'I will give to eat of the tree of life,
which is in the paradise of My God.' [302] But as this does not
perfectly describe it, He says again: 'Be thou faithful unto
death; and I will give thee the crown of life.' [303]
13. This also is insufficient, and so He speaks again more
obscurely, but explaining it more: 'To him that overcometh I will
give the hidden manna, and will give him a white counter, and on
the counter a new name written which no man knoweth but he that
receiveth it.' [304] And as even this is still insufficient, the
Son of God speaks of great power and joy, saying: 'He that shall
overcome and keep My works unto the end, I will give him power
over the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron, and
as a vessel of the potter they shall be broken: as I also have
received of My Father. And I will give him the morning star.'
[305] Not satisfied with these words, He adds: 'He that shall
overcome shall thus be vested in white garments, and I will not
put his name out of the book of life, and I will confess his name
before My Father.' [306]
14. Still, all this falls short. He speaks of it in words of
unutterable majesty and grandeur: 'He that shall overcome I will
make Him a pillar in the temple of My God, and he shall go out no
more; and I will write upon him the name of My God, and the name
of the city of My God, the new Jerusalem which descendeth out of
heaven from My God, and My new name.' [307] The seventh time He
says: 'He that shall overcome I will give unto him to sit with Me
in My throne: as I also have overcome, and sat with My Father in
His throne. He that hath an ear let him hear what the Spirit saith
to the Churches. [308]
15. These are the words of the Son of God; all of which tend to
describe that which was given to the soul. The words correspond
most accurately with it, but still they do not explain it, because
it involves infinite good. The noblest expressions befit it, but
none of them reach it, no, not all together.
16. Let us now see whether David hath said anything of it. In one
of the Psalms he saith, 'O how great is the multitude of thy
sweetness, O Lord, which Thou hast hidden for them that fear
Thee.' [309] In another place he calls it a 'torrent of pleasure,'
saying, 'Thou shalt make them drink of the torrent of Thy
pleasure.' [310] And as he did not consider this enough, he says
again, 'Thou hast prevented him with blessings of sweetness.'
[311] The expression that rightly fits this 'that' of the soul,
namely, its predestined bliss, cannot be found. Let us, therefore,
rest satisfied with what the soul has used in reference to it, and
explain the words as follows:
'That which Thou gavest me.
17. That is, 'That weight of glory to which Thou didst predestine
me, O my Bridegroom, in the day of Thy eternity, when it was Thy
good pleasure to decree my creation, Thou wilt then give me in my
day of my betrothal and of my nuptials, in my day of the joy of my
heart, when, released from the burden of the flesh, led into the
deep caverns of Thy bridal chamber and gloriously transformed in
Thee, we drink the wine of the sweet pomegranates.'
NOTE
BUT inasmuch as the soul, in the state of spiritual marriage, of
which I am now speaking, cannot but know something of this 'that,'
seeing that because of its transformation in God something of it
must be experienced by it, it will not omit to say something on
the subject, the pledges and signs of which it is conscious of in
itself, as it is written: 'Who can withhold the words He hath
conceived?' [312] Hence in the following stanza the soul says
something of the fruition which it shall have in the beatific
vision, explaining so far as it is possible the nature and the
manner of it.
STANZA XXXIX
The breathing of the air,
The song of the sweet nightingale,
The grove and its beauty
In the serene night,
With the flame that consumes, and gives no pain.
THE soul refers here, under five different expressions, to that
which the Bridegroom is to give it in the beatific transformation.
1. The aspiration of the Holy Spirit of God after it, and its own
aspiration after God. 2. Joyous praise of God in the fruition of
Him. 3. The knowledge of creatures and the order of them. 4. The
pure and clear contemplation of the divine essence. 5. Perfect
transformation in the infinite love of God.
'The breathing of the air.'
2. This is a certain faculty which God will there give the soul in
the communication of the Holy Ghost, Who, like one breathing,
raises the soul by His divine aspiration, informs it, strengthens
it, so that it too may breathe in God with the same aspiration of
love which the Father breathes with the Son, and the Son with the
Father, which is the Holy Ghost Himself, Who is breathed into the
soul in the Father and the Son in that transformation so as to
unite it to Himself; for the transformation will not be true and
perfect if the soul is not transformed in the Three Persons of the
Most Holy Trinity in a clear manifest degree. This breathing of
the Holy Ghost in the soul, whereby God transforms it in Himself,
is to the soul a joy so deep, so exquisite, and so grand that no
mortal tongue can describe it, no human understanding, as such,
conceive it in any degree; for even that which passes in the soul
with respect to the communication which takes place in its
transformation wrought in this life cannot be described, because
the soul united with God and transformed in Him breathes in God
that very divine aspiration which God breathes Himself in the soul
when it is transformed in Him.
3. In the transformation which takes place in this life, this
breathing of God in the soul, and of the soul in God, is of most
frequent occurrence, and the source of the most exquisite delight
of love to the soul, but not however in the clear and manifest
degree which it will have in the life to come. This, in my
opinion, is what St. Paul referred to when he said: 'Because you
are sons, God hath sent the Spirit of His Son into your hearts,
crying Abba, Father.' [313] The blessed in the life to come, and
the perfect in this, thus experience it.
4. Nor is it to be thought possible that the soul should be
capable of so great a thing as that it should breathe in God as
God in it, in the way of participation. For granting that God has
bestowed upon it so great a favour as to unite it to the most Holy
Trinity, whereby it becomes like unto God, and God by
participation, is it altogether incredible that it should exercise
the faculties of its understanding, perform its acts of knowledge
and of love, or, to speak more accurately, should have it all done
in the Holy Trinity together with It, as the Holy Trinity itself?
This, however, takes place by communication and participation, God
Himself effecting it in the soul, for this is 'to be transformed
in the Three Persons' in power, wisdom, and love, and herein it is
that the soul becomes like unto God, Who, that it might come to
this, created it to His own image and likeness.
5. How this can be so cannot be explained in any other way than by
showing how the Son of God has raised us to so high a state, and
merited for us the 'power to be made the sons of God.' [314] He
prayed to the Father, saying: 'Father, I will that where I am they
also whom Thou hast given Me may be with Me, that they may see My
glory which Thou hast given Me.' [315] That is, 'that they may do
by participation in Us what I do naturally, namely, breathe the
Holy Ghost.' He says also: 'Not for them only do I pray, but for
them also who through their word shall believe in Me; that they
all may be one, as Thou, Father, in Me, and I in Thee, that they
also may be one in Us: that the world may believe that Thou hast
sent Me. And the glory which Thou hast given Me, I have given to
them: that they may be one as We also are one. I in them and Thou
in Me, that they may be made perfect in one, and the world may
know that Thou hast sent Me, and hast loved them as Thou hast also
loved Me,' [316]--that is, in bestowing upon them that love which
He bestows upon the Son, though not naturally as upon Him, but in
the way I speak of, in the union and transformation of love.
6. We are not to suppose from this that our Lord prayed that the
saints might become one in essence and nature, as the Father and
the Son are; but that they might become one in the union of love
as the Father and the Son are one in the oneness of love. Souls
have by participation that very God which the Son has by nature,
and are therefore really gods by participation like unto God and
of His society.
7. St. Peter speaks of this as follows: 'Grace to you and peace be
accomplished in the knowledge of God, and Christ Jesus our Lord;
as all things of His divine power, which pertain to life and
godliness, are given us by the knowledge of Him Who hath called us
by His own proper glory and virtue, by Whom He hath given us most
great and precious promises: that by these you may be made
partakers of the divine nature.' [317] Thus far St. Peter, who
clearly teaches that the soul will be a partaker of God Himself,
and will do, together with Him, the work of the Most Holy Trinity,
because of the substantial union between the soul and God. And
though this union be perfect only in the life to come, yet even in
this, in the state of perfection, which the soul is said now to
have attained, some anticipation of its sweetness is given it, in
the way I am speaking of, though in a manner wholly ineffable.
8. O souls created for this and called thereto, what are you
doing? What are your occupations? Your aim is meanness, and your
enjoyments misery. Oh, wretched blindness of the children of Adam,
blind to so great a light, and deaf to so clear a voice; you see
not that, while seeking after greatness and glory, you are
miserable and contemptible, ignorant, and unworthy of blessings so
great. I now proceed to the second expression which the soul has
made use of to describe that which He gave it.
'The song of the sweet nightingale.'
9. Out of this 'breathing of the air' comes the sweet voice of the
Beloved addressing Himself to the soul, in which the soul sends
forth its own sweet song of joy to Him. Both are meant by the song
of the nightingale. As the song of the nightingale is heard in the
spring of the year, when the cold, and rain, and changes of winter
are past, filling the ear with melody, and the mind with joy; so,
in the true intercourse and transformation of love, which takes
place in this life, the bride, now protected and delivered from
all trials and changes of the world, detached, and free from the
imperfections, sufferings, and darkness both of mind and body,
becomes conscious of a new spring in liberty, largeness, and joy
of spirit, in which she hears the sweet voice of the Bridegroom,
Who is her sweet nightingale, renewing and refreshing the very
substance of her soul, now prepared for the journey of everlasting
life.
10. That voice is sweet to her ears, and calls her sweetly, as it
is written: 'Arise, make haste, My love, My dove, My beautiful one,
and come. For winter is now past, the rain is over and gone. The
flowers have appeared in our land, the time of pruning is come:
the voice of the turtle is heard in our land.' [318] When the
bride hears the voice of the Bridegroom in her inmost soul, she
feels that her troubles are over and her prosperity begun. In the
refreshing comfort and sweet sense of this voice she, too, like
the nightingale, sends forth a new song of rejoicing unto God, in
unison with Him Who now moves her to do so.
11. It is for this that the Beloved sings, that the bride in
unison with Him may sing unto God; this is the aim and desire of
the Bridegroom, that the soul should sing with the spirit joyously
unto God; and this is what He asks of the bride in the Canticle:
'Arise, my love, my beautiful one, and come; my dove in the clefts
of the rock, in the hollow places of the wall, show me thy face,
let thy voice sound in my ears.' [319]
12. The ears of God signify the desire He hath that the soul
should sing in perfect joy. And that this song may be perfect, the
Bridegroom bids the soul to send it forth, and to let it sound in
the clefts of the rock, that is, in the transformation which is
the fruit of the mysteries of Christ, of which I spoke just now.
[320] And because in this union of the soul with God, the soul
sings unto Him together with Him, in the way I spoke of when I was
speaking of love, [321] the song of praise is most perfect and
pleasing unto God; for the acts of the soul, in the state of
perfection, are most perfect; and thus the song of its rejoicing
is sweet unto God as well as to itself.
13. 'Thy voice is sweet,' [322] saith the Bridegroom, 'not only
to thee, but also to Me, for as we are one, thy voice is also in
unison and one with Mine.' This is the Canticle which the soul
sings in the transformation which takes place in this life, about
which no exaggeration is possible. But as this song is not so
perfect as the new song in the life of glory, the soul, having a
foretaste of that by what it feels on earth, shadows forth by the
grandeur of this the magnificence of that in glory, which is
beyond all comparison nobler, and calls it to mind and says that
what its portion there will be is the song of the sweet
nightingale.
'The grove and its beauty.'
14. This is the third thing which the Bridegroom is to give the
soul. The grove, because it contains many plants and animals,
signifies God as the Creator and Giver of life to all creatures,
which have their being and origin from Him, reveal Him and make
Him known as the Creator. The beauty of the grove, which the soul
prays for, is not only the grace, wisdom, and loveliness which
flow from God over all created things, whether in heaven or on
earth, but also the beauty of the mutual harmony and wise
arrangement of the inferior creation, and the higher also, and of
the mutual relations of both. The knowledge of this gives the soul
great joy and delight. The fourth request is:
'In the serene night.'
15. That is, contemplation, in which the soul desires to behold
the grove. It is called night, because contemplation is dim; and
that is the reason why it is also called mystical theology--that
is, the secret or hidden wisdom of God, where, without the sound
of words, or the intervention of any bodily or spiritual sense, as
it were in silence and in repose, in the darkness of sense and
nature, God teaches the soul--and the soul knows not how--in a
most secret and hidden way.
16. Some spiritual writers call this 'understanding without
understanding,' because it does not take place in what
philosophers call the active understanding which is conversant
with the forms, fancies, and apprehensions of the physical
faculties, but in the understanding as it is possible and passive,
which without receiving such forms receives passively only the
substantial knowledge of them free from all imagery. This occurs
without effort or exertion on its part, and for this reason
contemplation is called night, in which the soul through the
channel of its transformation learns in this life that it already
possesses, in a supreme degree, this divine grove, together with
its beauty.
17. Still, however clear may be its knowledge, it is dark night
in comparison with that of the blessed, for which the soul prays.
Hence, while it prays for the clear contemplation, that is, the
fruition of the grove, and its beauty; with the other objects here
enumerated, it says, let it be in the night now serene; that is,
in the clear beatific contemplation: let the night of dim
contemplation cease here below, and change into the clear
contemplation of the serene vision of God above. Thus the serene
night is the clear and unclouded contemplation of the face of God.
It was to this night of contemplation that David referred when he
said, 'Night shall be my light in my pleasures'; [323] that is,
when I shall have my delight in the essential vision of God, the
night of contemplation will have dawned in the day and light of my
understanding
'With the flame that consumes, and gives no pain.'
18. This flame is the love of the Holy Ghost. 'Consumes' means
absolute perfection. Therefore, when the soul says that the
Beloved will give it all that is mentioned in this stanza, and
that they will be its possession in love absolute and perfect, all
of them and itself with them in perfect love, and that without
pain, its purpose is to show forth the utter perfection of love.
Love, to be perfect, must have these two properties: it must
consume and transform the soul in God; the burning and
transformation wrought in the soul by the flame must give no pain.
But this can be only in the state of the blessed, where the flame
is sweet love, for in this transformation of the soul therein
there is a blessed agreement and contentment on both sides, and no
change to a greater or less degree gives pain, as before, when the
soul had attained to the state of perfect love.
19. But the soul having attained to this state abides in its love
of God, a love so like His and so sweet, God being, as Moses
saith, [324] a consuming fire--'the Lord thy God is a consuming
fire'--that it perfects and renews it. But this transformation is
not like that which is wrought in this life, which though most
perfect and in love consummate was still in some measure consuming
the soul and wearing it away. It was like fire in burning coals,
for though the coals may be transformed into fire, and made like
it, and ceased from seething, and smoke no longer arises from them
as before they were wholly transformed into fire, still, though
they have become perfect fire, the fire consumes them and reduces
them to ashes.
20. So is it with the soul which in this life is transformed by
perfect love: for though it be wholly conformed, yet it still
suffers, in some measure, both pain and loss. Pain, on account of
the beatific transformation which is still wanting; loss, through
the weakness and corruption of the flesh coming in contact with
love so strong and so deep; for everything that is grand hurts and
pains our natural infirmity, as it is written, 'The corruptible
body is a load upon the soul.' [315] But in the life of bliss
there will be neither loss nor pain, though the sense of the soul
will be most acute, and its love without measure, for God will
give power to the former and strength to the latter, perfecting
the understanding in His wisdom and the will in His love.
21. As, in the foregoing stanzas, and in the one which follows,
the bride prays for the boundless knowledge of God, for which she
requires the strongest and the deepest love that she may love Him
in proportion to the grandeur of His communications, she prays now
that all these things may be bestowed upon her in love
consummated, perfect, and strong.
STANZA XL
None saw it;
Neither did Aminadab appear
The siege was intermitted,
And the cavalry dismounted
At the sight of the waters.
THE bride perceiving that the desire of her will is now detached
from all things, cleaving unto God with most fervent love; that
the sensual part of the soul, with all its powers, faculties, and
desires, is now conformed to the spirit; that all rebellion is
quelled for ever; that Satan is overcome and driven far away in
the varied contest of the spiritual struggle; that her soul is
united and transformed in the rich abundance of the heavenly gifts;
and that she herself is now prepared, strong and apparelled,
'leaning upon her Beloved,' to go up 'by the desert' [326] of
death; full of joy to the glorious throne of her espousals,--she
is longing for the end, and puts before the eyes of her
Bridegroom, in order to influence Him the more, all that is
mentioned in the present stanza, these five considerations:
2. The first is that the soul is detached from all things and a
stranger to them. The second is that the devil is overcome and put
to flight. The third is that the passions are subdued, and the
natural desires mortified. The fourth and the fifth are that the
sensual and lower nature of the soul is changed and purified, and
so conformed to the spiritual, as not only not to hinder spiritual
blessings, but is, on the contrary, prepared for them, for it is
even a partaker already, according to its capacity, of those which
have been bestowed upon it.
'None saw it.'
3. That is, my soul is so detached, so denuded, so lonely, so
estranged from all created things, in heaven and earth; it has
become so recollected in Thee, that nothing whatever can come
within sight of that most intimate joy which I have in Thee. That
is, there is nothing whatever that can cause me pleasure with its
sweetness, or disgust with its vileness; for my soul is so far
removed from all such things, absorbed in such profound delight in
Thee, that nothing can behold me. This is not all, for:
'Neither did Aminadab appear.'
4. Aminadab, in the Holy Writings, signifies the devil; that is
the enemy of the soul, in a spiritual sense, who is ever fighting
against it, and disturbing it with his innumerable artillery, that
it may not enter into the fortress and secret place of interior
recollection with the Bridegroom. There, the soul is so protected,
so strong, so triumphant in virtue which it then practises, so
defended by God's right hand, that the devil not only dares not
approach it, but runs away from it in great fear, and does not
venture to appear. The practice of virtue, and the state of
perfection to which the soul has come, is a victory over Satan,
and causes him such terror that he cannot present himself before
it. Thus Aminadab appeared not with any right to keep the soul
away from the object of its desire.
'The siege was intermitted.'
5. By the siege is meant the passions and desires, which, when not
overcome and mortified, surround the soul and fight against it on
all sides. Hence the term 'siege' is applied to them. This siege
is 'intermitted'--that is, the passions are subject to reason and
the desires mortified. Under these circumstances the soul entreats
the Beloved to communicate to it those graces for which it has
prayed, for now the siege is no hindrance. Until the four passions
of the soul are ordered in reason according to God, and until the
desires are mortified and purified, the soul is incapable of
seeing God.
'The cavalry dismounted at the sight of the waters.'
6. The waters are the spiritual joys and blessings which the soul
now enjoys interiorly with God. The cavalry is the bodily senses
of the sensual part, interior as well as exterior, for they carry
with them the phantasms and figures of their objects. They
dismount now at the sight of the waters, because the sensual and
lower part of the soul in the state of spiritual marriage is
purified, and in a certain way spiritualised, so that the soul
with its powers of sense and natural forces becomes so recollected
as to participate and rejoice, in their way, in the spiritual
grandeurs which God communicates to it in the spirit within. To
this did the Psalmist refer when he said, 'My heart and my flesh
have rejoiced in the living God.' [327]
7. It is to be observed that the cavalry did not dismount to taste
of the waters, but only at the sight of them, because the sensual
part of the soul, with its powers, is incapable of tasting
substantially and properly the spiritual blessings, not merely in
this life, but also in the life to come. Still, because of a
certain overflowing of the spirit, they are sensibly refreshed and
delighted, and this delight attracts them--that is, the senses
with their bodily powers--towards that interior recollection where
the soul is drinking the waters of the spiritual benedictions.
This condition of the senses is rather a dismounting at the sight
of the waters than a dismounting for the purpose of seeing or
tasting them. The soul says of them that they dismounted, not that
they went, or did anything else, and the meaning is that in the
communication of the sensual with the spiritual part of the soul,
when the spiritual waters become its drink, the natural operations
subside and merge into spiritual recollection.
8. All these perfections and dispositions of the soul the bride
sets forth before her Beloved, the Son of God, longing at the same
time to be translated by Him out of the spiritual marriage, to
which God has been pleased to advance her in the Church militant,
to the glorious marriage of the Church triumphant. Whereunto may
He bring of His mercy all those who call upon the most sweet name
of Jesus, the Bridegroom of faithful souls, to Whom be all honour
and glory, together with the Father and the Holy Ghost,
IN SAECULA SAECULORUM.
-------------------
NOTES
[1] 'Los nombres de Cristo.' Introduction.
[2] This exceptionally severe legislation, justified by the dangers
of the time, only held good for Spain and the Spanish colonies,
and has long since been revised. It did not include the Epistles
and Gospels, Psalms, Passion, and other parts of the daily service.
[3] Ann de Lobera, born at Medina del Campo, November 25, I545, was
a deaf-mute until her eighth year. When she applied for admission
to the Carmelite convent at Avila St. Teresa promised to receive
her not so much as a novice, but as her companion and future
successor; she took the habit August 1, 1570, and made her
profession at Salamanca, October 21 1571. She became the first
prioress of Veas, and was entrusted by St. Teresa with the
foundation of Granada (January 1582), where she found St. John of
the Cross, who was prior of the convent of The Martyrs (well known
to visitors of the Alhambra although no longer a convent), St.
John not only became the director and confessor of the convent of
nuns, but remained the most faithful helper and the staunchest
friend of Mother Ann throughout the heavy trials which marred many
years of her life. In 1604 she went to Paris, to found the first
convent of her Order in France, and in 1607 she proceeded to
Brussels, where she remained until her death, March 4, 1621, The
heroic nature of her virtues having been acknowledged, she was
declared 'Venerable' in 1878, and it is hoped that she will soon
be beatified.
[4] See 'Life of St. Teresa': ed. Baker (London, I904), ch. xiv.
12, xvi. 2, xviii. 10.
[5] 'Manuel Serrano y Sanz,' Apuntos para una Biblioteca de
Escritores espa�oles. (1903, p. 399).
[6] Cf. Berthold-Ignace de Sainte Anne, 'Vie de la M�re Anne de
J�sui' (Malines, 1876), I. 343 sqq.
[7] On this subject see Fray Eulogio de San Jos�, 'Doctorado de
Santa Teresa de Jes�s y de San Juan de la Cruz.' C�rdoba, 1896.
[8] (This canticle was made by the Saint when he was in the prison
of the Mitigation, in Toledo. It came into the hands of the
Venerable Anne of Jesus, at whose request he wrote the following
commentary on it, and addressed it to her.)
[9] Wisdom 8:1
[10] Rom. 8:26
[11] Job 14:5
[12] Matt. 7:14
[13] Peter 4:18
[14] 2 Kings 14:14
[15] Matt. 5:26
[16] Sophon, 1. 12.
[17] Matt. 20:6
[18] John 1:18
[19] Is. 45:15
[20] Job 9:11
[21] Eccles. 9:1
[22] Cant. 1:6
[23] 'Soliloq.,' c. 31. Opp. Ed. Ben. tom. vi. app. p. 98.
[24] Luke 17:21
[25] 2 Cor. 6:16
[26] 'Mt. Carmel,' Bk. 2, c. 5. sect. 3.
[27] Matt. 13:44
[28] Matt. 6:6
[29] Is. 26:20
[30] Prov. 4:23
[31] Is. 45:3
[32] 1 Cor. 13:10
[33] Exod. 33:22,23
[34] Sect. 4.
[35] Sect. 2.
[36] Ps. 17:12
[37] John 15:7
[38] Judg. 16:15
[39] Ps. 16:15
[40] Rom. 8:23
[41] Cant. 2:9
[42] Ps. 72:21,22
[43] Cant. 3:2, 5:7
[44] Cant. 5:6,7
[45] Tob. 12:12
[46] Deut. 31:21
[47] Exod. 3:7,8
[48] Luke 1:13
[49] Ps. 9:10
[50] Ps. 34:3
[51] Ps. 35:9
[52] Deut. 30:20
[53] Lam. 3:19
[54] Col. 2:3
[55] Apoc. 10:9
[56] Deut. 32:33
[57] John 2:3
[58] John 11:3
[59] Luke 11:9
[60] Cant. 3:1
[61] Cant. 3:4
[62] Wisd. 6:13
[63] Ps. 61:11
[64] Ps. 33:20
[65] Ps. 53:5
[66] Job 41:24
[67] Eph. 6:11
[68] Gal. 5:17
[69] Rom. 8:13
[70] Rom. 1:20
[71] Conf. 10. 6.
[72] Ordo commendationis animae.
[73] Heb. 1:3
[74] Gen. 1:31
[75] John 12:32
[76] Ps. 144:16
[77] Cant. 5:8
[78] Cant. 4:9
[79] See 'Living Flame,' stanza 3, line 3, sect. 20.
[80] Gen. 30:1
[81] Job 6:8,9
[82] Acts 17:28
[83] John 1:3. The Saint adopts an old punctuation, different from
the usual one. He reads thus: 'Omnia per Ipsum facta sunt, et
sine Ipso factum est nihil: Quod factum est, in Ipso vita erat�
('All things were made by Him, and without Him nothing was made:
What was made in Him was life').
[84] Job 7:2-4
[85] John 20:15
[86] Cant. 5:6,7
[87] Ps. 37:11
[88] Tob. 5:12
[89] Apoc. 21:23
[90] Zach. 2:8
[91] Is. 65:24
[92] Prov. 2:4,5
[93] See 'Ascent of Mount Carmel,' bk. 2, ch. 5, sect. 3.
[94] Ps. 83:3
[95] Exod. 33:12,13
[96] Exod. 33:20
[97] Stan. vii. sect. 10.
[98] Supra, sect. 4.
[99] 2 Cor. 5:4
[100] Phil. 1:23
[101] Judg. 13:22
[102] 1 John 4:18
[103] Ecclus. 41:3
[104] Ps. 115:15
[105] Ps. 33:22
[106] Ecclus. 41:1
[107] Heb. 1:3
[108] Os. 2:20
[109] John 4:14
[110] John 7:39
[111] Ps. 67:14
[112] Cant. 1:10
[113] 1 Cor. 13:10
[114] Gal. 2:20
[115] Cant. 8:6
[116] Ps. 41:1,2
[117] 1 Paral. 11:18
[118] Cant. 8:6
[119] Job 3:24
[120] Ps. 96:2,3
[121] Ps. 17:12,13
[122] Ps. 138:12
[123] See St. Teresa, 'Life,' ch. 20 sect. 16, or 'Las Mordadas,'
6. ch. 11.
[124] Sect. 1. supra.
[125] Sect. 4. supra.
[126] 2 Cor. 12:3
[127] See 'Relation' 8.
[128] Sect. 1.
[129] 1 Cor. 13:2
[130] Col. 3:14
[131] 1 Cor. 13:4-7
[132] Gen. 8:9
[133] Gen. 6:21
[134] John 1:3,4. See Stanza viii.
[135] Isa. 66:12
[136] Luke 1:52
[137] Acts 2:2
[138] John 12:29
[139] Ps. 67:34
[140] Apoc. 14:2
[141] Ezech. 1:24
[142] Cant. 2:14
[143] 1 Kings 19:12
[144] 2 Cor. 12:4
[145] Job 42:5
[146] Sect. 20.
[147] 'De Mystica Theologia,' cap. i.
[148] Cant. 6:4
[149] Job 4:12-16
[150] Is. 24:16
[151] Stan. xiii. sect. 1.
[152] Dan. 10:16
[153] Ps. 101:8
[154] Apoc. 14:2
[155] Wisd. 1:7
[156] Apoc. 3:20
[157] Stanza xxvi.
[158] Ps. 33:8
[159] Ps. 62:2
[160] Gal. 5:17
[161] Cant. 6:11
[162] Cant. 2:15
[163] Exod. 34:30
[164] Luke 22:8
[165] Cant. 1:11
[166] Cant. 4:16
[167] Prov. 8:31
[168] Cant. 6:1,2
[169] Bar. 3:10,11
[170] Jer. 2:14,15
[171] Wisd. 9:15
[172] 2 Cor. 12:2-4
[173] Exod. 33:23
[174] 2 Cor. 12:4
[175] Cant. 8:8
[176] Ps. 68:2
[177] Ps. 118:131
[178] Ps. 38:4
[179] Stanza xiii sect. 4; xiv sect. 26.
[180] John 4:14
[181] Cant. 6:9
[182] Prov. 15:15
[183] Phil. 4:7
[184] Cant. 4:12
[185] Cant. 3:5
[186] Luke 15:5,8,9
[187] Cant. 3:11
[188] Gen. 2:24
[189] 1 Cor 6:17
[190] Cant. 5:1
[191] Gal. 2:20
[192] Cant. 8:1
[193] Cant. 2:11,12
[194] Eph. 2:15
[195] Cant. 8:5
[196] Ezech. 16:5-14
[197] Cant. 2:1
[198] Ps. 49:11
[199] Cant. 1:15
[200] Prov. 8:31
[201] Cant. 8:1
[202] Cant. 3:9,10
[203] 1 John 4:18
[204] Cant. 3:7,8
[205] Cant. 4:4
[206] Cant. 1:3
[207] Ps. 118:32
[208] Cant. 5:4
[209] Ps. 38:4
[210] Ecclus. 9:15
[211] Ecclus. 9:14
[212] Cant. 2:6
[213] Ps. 35:9
[214] Apoc. 22:1
[215] Isa. 11:3
[216] Luke 2:25. Justus et timoratus.
[217] Cant. 5:6
[218] Cant. 8:2
[219] Cant. 2:4
[220] 1 Cor. 3:19
[221] Prov. 30:1,2
[222] 1 Cor. 2:14
[223] Cant. 6:11
[224] Ps. 72:21,22
[225] Luke 12:37
[226] Isa. 66:12
[227] Cant. 7:10-12
[228] Ps. 61:2,3
[229] Col. 3:14
[230] Matt. 13:44
[231] John 15:15
[232] Ps. 58:10
[233] Cant. 7:13
[234] Luke 10:42
[235] Cant. 3:5
[236] Matt. 10:33
[237] Matt. 6:24
[238] Phil. 1:21
[239] Matt. 16:25
[240] Cant. 6:2
[241] 2 Cor 12:9
[242] Ps. 44:10
[243 James 1:17
[244] Cant. 1:3
[245] Cant. 3:11
[246] Col. 3:14
[247] Job 41:6,7
[248] Cant. 7:1
[249] Cant. 6:3
[250] Cant. 2:5
[251] Cant. 2:1
[252] Col. 3:14
[253] 1 Kings 18:1
[254] 'Dark Night,' Bk. 1, ch. 14.
[255] Stanza ii. sect. 26 sqq.
[256] 1 John 4:10
[257] Cant. 4:9
[258] John 1:16
[259] Ezech. 18:22
[260] Nahum 1:9
[261] Ecclus. 5:5
[262] Ps. 15:4
[263] John 1:16
[264] Exod. 33:12,13
[265] Isa. 43:4
[266] Cant. 1:4
[267] Antiphon in Vesper B. M. V.
[268] Matt. 13:12
[269] Matt. 25:28
[270] Sect. 7.
[271] Isa. 43:3
[272] Esth. 6:11
[273] Cant. 4:1, 6:3
[274] Cant. 4:1
[275] Cant. 2:3
[276] Os. 2:14
[277] Ps. 83:4
[278] Rom. 8:14
[279] Tob. 14:4
[280] Isa. 58:10-14
[281] John 17:10
[282] St. Augustine, ' De Genesi ad Litt.' iv., xxiv. (and
elsewhere) and the scholastics (St. Thomas, 'S. Th.' I. lviii. 7)
distinguish between the 'morning knowledge' whereby angels and
saints know created things by seeing the Divine Word, and 'evening
knowledge' where they derive their knowledge from the created
things themselves.
[283] Isa. 2:3
[284] Isa. 2:2
[285] Cant. 4:6
[286] Ps. 67:16
[287] Rom. 11:33
[288] Ps. 18:10-12
[289] Job 6:8-10
[290] Eph. 3:17-19
[291] John 17:3
[292] 1 Cor. 10:4
[293] Col. 2:3
[294] Exod. 33:20-23
[295] Cant. 2:13,14
[296] Cant. 5:14
[297] Cant. 8:2
[298] 1 Cor. 13:12
[299] 'Opusc de Beatitudine,' cap. 2.
[300] 1 Cor. 2:9
[301] Isa. 64:4
[302] Apoc. 2:7
[303] Apoc. 2:10
[304] Apoc. 2:17
[305] Apoc. 2:26-28
[306] Apoc. 3:5
[307] Apoc. 3:12
[308] Apoc. 3:21,22
[309] Ps. 30:20
[310] Ps. 35:9
[311] Ps. 20:4
[312] Job 4:2
[313] Gal. 4:6
[314] John 1:12
[315] John 17:24
[316] John 17:20-23
[317] 2 Pet. 1:2-4
[318] Cant. 2:10-12
[319] Cant. 2:13,14
[320] Stanza xxxvii. sect. 5.
[321] Stanza xxxviii. sect. 6.
[322] Cant. 2:14
[323] Ps. 138:11
[324] Deut. 4:24
[325] Wisd. 9:15
[326] Cant. 3:6; 8:5
[327] Ps. 83:3
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"All joy wants eternity!" —Nietzsche
The essays by the authors included in this blog are in the public domain and are copyright-free.
Upanishads, Psalms, Proverbs and Song of Songs, Buddha (The Lankavatara Sutra, Lotus of the True Law, Maha-Satipatthana Sutra, Awakening of Faith in the Mahayana), Bhagavad Gita, Plato, The Four Gospels, Aurelius, Plotinus, St. Augustine, Ramanuja, Boethius, Pseudo-Dionysius, Shankara, St. Francis, Ruusbroec, Theologia Germanica, Thomas a Kempis, Boehme, Eckhart, Dante, Cloud of Unknowing, St. Teresa, St. John of the Cross, Law, Emerson, Underhill
(Coming: Jacopone da Todi, Angela of Foligno, Mirror of Simple Souls) (Not included because of copyright issues: Jane Roberts/Seth)
"You can only behold that which you are."
Scroll down for note to reader and contents. Regrettably, the order of the contents is restricted by entry date. Sorry for the inconvenience. Use Control/F to search site.
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"All joy wants eternity!" —Nietzsche
Dear Reader:
The purpose of this site is make available, in one place, the major works by some of the great seers of the world—individuals that were able to see and experience the spiritual reality that forms and comprises the physical reality that we normally experience. The great and ancient Indian seers are represented by the Upanishads (c. 1000 BCE) and the Bhagavad Gita (c. 500 BCE), both in their entirety; the poetic expression of the Upanishads is “developed and enriched,” as Aldous Huxley said, “in the Bhagavad Gita.” There are three texts included here that represent the thoughts of the Buddha (c. 563 to 483 BCE). The first is the Dhammapada, verses that were thought to have been delivered by the Buddha on various occasions, most of which deal with ethics. The most important verse, however, is the first, which opens with the line: "All that we are is the result of what we have thought." This is reminescent of the line from Proverbs, "As a man thinketh in his heart," and it is in these lines that one finds the essence of the Buddha's teaching. Next in the collection is the "Lankavatara Sutra," and it is unfortunate that this abridged edition does not contain his sermon on not killing animals and not eating meat, which he was opposed to under any circumstances and which many of the followers of the Buddha conveniently ignore. For him, “Respect for animal life is an integral part of morality. A good Buddhist does not kill animals for pleasure or eat flesh. They are his humble brethren and now lower creatures over whom he has dominion by divine right. Serenity of spirit and love for all sentient creation are enjoined by the Buddha” (Radhakrishnan in his introduction to The Dhammapada). (It is curious that in Thailand, for example, 95 percent of the population profess to be Buddhist, yet they gorge themselves on meat at every meal, and between meals as roasted snacks from roadside stands.) I have also included the complete version, which does contain the chapter on not eating meat. The underlying theme of this work is the fact that mind or consciousness is at the foundation of all reality: "the objects of the world, and the names and forms of experience, are merely manifestations of the mind. It is the erroneous concept of subject/object that ties us to the wheel of rebirth" (Wikipedia). The Lankavatara Sutra and the later The Awakening of Mahayana Faith both emphasize consciousness as the basic substance of all reality, that all things are from consciousness and of consciousness or mind, thus bringing this later form of Buddhism in line with the earlier thought of Plotinus, and it is the act of contemplation that "makes" what it contemplates. As Jane Roberts would later say, "reality [all reality] is idea construction." This particular Sutra had perhaps more influence than any other on the development of Mahayana and Zen Buddhism. Finally there is the Buddha's Maha-satipatthana Sutra, which is perhaps the best Buddhist text on "mindfulness" or awareness, which is necessary for right living and for perceiving reality as it is. It is perhaps the most reproduced of all the Sutras, and in Ceylon, for example, "the Satipatthana ...is reverently wrapped in a clean cloth, and from time to time, in the evening it is read to the members of the family" (Nyanaponika Thera). It can be said, and has been many times, that "mindfulness" is the core of the Buddha's teaching. One last note on Buddhism, or rather on the commentary on Buddhism. The Buddha never spoke directly about man having a soul, although behind all of his teaching is the idea that there is more to reality than our personal self or ego. Life for the Buddha is basically change, and it is our ego that attempts to solidify a self around which we build our lives. He also speaks repeatedly about the essential non-duality of reality, and that it is ethically incumbent upon us to attempt to overcome our grasping after fact and permanence in our experience. Practice in mindfulness is the main road to this realization of the inherent non-dual nature of reality. The commentators on the Buddha's sutras, however, have taken a step that the Buddha refused to take throughout his life in asserting the non-existence of a soul. Because the ego is impermanent, they say, there is no such thing as a soul. It is not the perception of nothingness that the Buddha suggests is the aim of meditation or awareness; it is rather "the highest and purest state of the soul, when it enjoys the untrammeled bliss of its own nature" (Ramakrishnan). As the Buddha put it, it is a "state of love without an object of love," "the spiritual hidden below the sensible appearances" (Radhakrishnan). Twenty-five hundred years later, Jane Roberts/Seth says the same thing: "Love is a biological as well as a spiritual characteristic. Basically, love and creativity are synonymous. Love exists without an object. It is the impetus by which all being becomes manifest." This is what the Dhammapada and the Buddha's entire corpus is about—training the mind and removing the obstacles to the realization of this experience of love and joy, and he admonishes us to see it in all sentient being. Plato’s Republic (428-348 BCE) is offered in a complete version, along with some of his other dialogues that deal most directly with the metaphysical. As Emerson said of him, “No man ever more fully acknowledged the Ineffable”: “the Asia in his mind was first heartily honored,—the ocean of love and power, before form, before will, before knowledge, the Same, the Good, the One; and now, refreshed and empowered by this worship, the instinct of Europe, namely, culture, returns; and he cries, Yet things are knowable!” Included in this collection is the gospel according to John (c. 100), which is considered by many to be the most poetic and mystical of the four gospels. Neither Jesus nor the Buddha did any writing themselves, and the texts that we have representing their thought are far removed from their physical lives, so it is difficult to tell for sure what they actually thought or said—Christian dogmatism notwithstanding. For the other authors included here, we have translations that purport to be close to the original writing. If this blog is a collection of the world’s great seers, then Marcus Aurelius (121-180) probably does not belong here, if he will forgive me. However, he is included for a couple of reasons. For one thing, his writing represents what you might call the culmination of one line or angle of centuries of thought Greek and Roman thought in general and of Stoic thought in particular: he is Stoicism’s best representative. The other reason concerns what the Meditations, and Stoicism, are about. According to Pierre Hadot, “The Stoic philosophical life consists essentially in mastering one’s inner discourse.” We saw above that for the Buddha, reality is essentially mind or consciousness, and his philosophy might be summarized in his injunction: “Be mindful!” By mindful, he may have meant cultivating awareness of your thinking and simultaneously distancing yourself from that thinking; in other words, meditation. It is this “action” of the mind that leads to ultimate liberation into the soul (“true meditation is action,” according to Jane Roberts/Seth. action is not a force from without that acts upon matter. “Action is, instead, the inside vitality of the inner universe—it is the dilemma between inner vitality's desire and impetus to completely materialize itself, and its inability to completely do so.) The Buddha’s aim may have been more metaphysical than that of Marcus Aurelius because of the depth of his own insight into the spiritual dimension at the base of the physical one; nevertheless, the reader will find in Marcus Aurelius a kindred spirit of the Buddha in his honest struggle to master his own mind in the Meditations and for this reason they are included here. The Enneads of Plotinus (204-270) are offered complete. Following his master Plato, Plotinus not only believed but saw that the world that we perceive is an emanation of a spiritual world, which we are able to access through contemplation. For him, “Every soul is, and becomes, that which she contemplates.” Like the Indian seers before him, Plotinus realized the identity of our self with the source of that self, of the Atman with Brahman; hence the similarities between Vedanta and Neo-Platonism. In the Chandogya Upanishad, Svetaketu's father says to him, "Here likewise in this body of yours, my son, you do not perceive the True; but there in fact it is. In that which is the subtle essence, all that exists has its self. That is the True, that is the Self, and thou, Svetaketu, art That." (For an essential overview of Plotinus' thought, read treatises I 6 "On the Beautiful" and VI 9 ""On the Good.") Next is St. John's record of the life and thought of Jesus, which is considered by many to be the most poetic and mystical of the four gospels. I have included the gospel of John with the other three gospels for comparison. The texts representing the thought of the Buddha and Jesus are far removed from the physical lives, and they did no writing themselves, so it is impossible to determine, obviously, what they actually thought and said—Christian dogmatism notwithstanding. For most of the authors included here, however, we have translations of texts that are purported to be close to the originals. Next we move on to the Confessions of St. Augustine (354-430), which draws on both Neo-Platonic and Christian traditions. The complete text is offered. Shankara’s (788-820) Crest-Jewel of Wisdom, a systemization of the earlier tradition of the Upanishads and the Bhagavad Gita, is included. Dante’s (1265-1321) Paradiso is included, as it, as Evelyn Underhill has said with reference to the entire Comedia, is one of “the most sublime visions of the Absolute which has ever been crystallized into speech”…and “apprehends and shows to us a Beatific Vision in which the symbolic systems of all great mystics are included and explained.” Three major works of the 16th c. Spanish nun, St. Teresa of Avila (1515-1582), are offered, as well as the two major works of the 18th c. spiritual writer William Law (1686-1761). Of the three works by St. Teresa, The Interior Castle is her best statement of her perception of inner reality, and her work generally was chosen for the clarity of its writing. Too often Christian writers obscure the meaning of their experience with the heavy use of metaphor both in their interpretation of their experience and in the communication of it to the reader. This is not less so with St. Teresa, however; in The Interior Castle, for example, she uses the idea of seven dwelling places within the “castle” of the mind, representing levels of consciousness or aspects of the soul. It was tempting to include Shakespeare in this collection despite the fact that he is a poet and not a “mystic”—Emerson called him a Platonist in that he belonged to that “well-marked class of souls, namely, those who delight in giving a spiritual, that is, an ethico-intellectual expression to every truth, by exhibiting an ulterior end which is yet legitimate to it.” Emerson’s (1803-1882) essay that catapulted him onto the international stage, Nature, and his Essays: First and Second Series, are included, along with many of his other essays, some of which are difficult to find but which are nevertheless extremely valuable for the typical power of their insight into man’s spiritual relation with himself, nature and God. Mary Oliver said of Emerson that his certainty that we are "spirits that have descended into our bodies" never wavered. The Buddha said the same of all sentient beings; and for Jane Roberts/Seth and don Juan Matus (see below), the entire universe, sentient and non-sentient, physical and non-physical, is alive with consciousness. It could also be said, of Emerson and the other writers collected here, that their certainty of other aspects of reality never wavered: that the universe is an emanation from a spiritual dimension, that this reality or energy pervades everything and yet is separate from any of its manifestations, that you can know it by looking within or by seeing it everywhere, and that among its essential nature are awareness or consciousness, love, goodness, freedom, creativity, eternity (or to use the Dalai Lama’s suggestive phrase borrowed from his tradition, “beginningless time”), beauty ("the form under which the intellect prefers to study the world” —Emerson), and perhaps most descriptive of all, desire in its deepest sense, an aspect of reality so maligned by the Buddhists in their narrow use of the term. The individuals represented here stress that this reality can be described like this in an analytic or intellectual way, but that the reality itself is beyond description and must be personally experienced. "Beauty, Goodness, Splendour, Love, all those shining words which exhilarate the soul, are but the names of aspects of qualities picked out by human intuition as characteristic of this intense and eternal Life in which is the life of men"—Evelyn Underhill According to Jane Roberts, we can experience this greater reality within us or our "Source Self" by experiencing the present moment as fully as possible, and by "momentarily [turning our] attention away from the constant activity that is taking place—turn off the physical sense as it were [easier said than done!—my comment]—and switch [our] attention to those events that have escaped [us] earlier." For many of these authors, the dream state provides us with the best example of the basic nature of reality, where love, purpose, belief and intent form perhaps more immediately and obviously the reality that we perceive. "The dream state can be used...as a psychological or psychic platform to view other realities, and to glimpse the inner mechanics by which nonphysical events become actualized in your world"(Jane Roberts). You can find a brilliant discussion of the nature of reality as it is perceived by the great western mystics in Evelyn Underhill’s (1875-1941) Mysticism. It is a true literary and spiritual gem. Not included here are the works by the great contemporary writers on spiritual reality, Carlos Castaneda (1925-1998), who documented the teachings of Don Juan Matus, who expressed the spiritual traditions of ancient Mexico; and the works by the 20th c. American writer and mystic (although she would likely cringe at the term), Jane Roberts (1929-1984), who automatically dictated, without correction, the works by “the energy-essence personality,” as he characterized himself, called Seth in a trance state. For Jane Roberts/Seth, all dimensions of all realities, physical and non-physical, are composed of “god stuff,” an energy that is both conscious and limitless, just as the seers of the Upanishads 3000 years before her characterized this energy—Brahman—as Sat-Chit-Ananda: Existence, Consciousness, Bliss. These latter works are not included because they are currently under copyright, but they are readily available. Castaneda’s works in order of publication, are: The Teachings of Don Juan: A Yaqui Way of Knowledge, A Separate Reality, Journey to Ixtlan, Tales of Power, The Second Ring of Power, Eagle's Gift, Fire from Within, Power of Silence, The Art of Dreaming, The Active Side of Infinity, The Wheel of Time: The Shamans of Mexico, Their Thoughts About Life, Death and The Universe, The Witch's Dream: A Healer's Way of Knowledge. The major works of Jane Roberts include The Seth Material, Seth Speaks, The Nature of Personal Reality, The Nature of the Psyche, The Individual and the Nature of Mass Events, and The Unknown Reality among others (a limited number of Jane Roberts’ works are available at Amazon.com, but all of her works are available at, for example, http://www.sethcenter.com/). I hope that these texts bring you as much pleasure and understanding as they have me.
A final note on reading, in which you will read things you already know, but this is my blog so I am going to say it anyway, partly to clarify the ideas for myself. All of these great works bear re-reading. I have found that I read a work, and then a few months later read it again or a part of it and see it in the light of knowledge gained from my subsequent reading. That is one thing. Another thing I find fascinating is the parallels that run through these texts, from the most ancient to the most modern. Think of the concepts of Atman and Brahman in the ancient Indian texts; Plato's concept of the Realm of Ideas; Plotinus idea of three hypostases, the One, the Intellect, and the Soul; Emerson's Over-Soul and of the spiritual aspect of Nature; Jane Roberts' Framework 2, which is not included here (see below), to mention just the broad frameworks that have been used by these authors to discuss what they felt to be the real reality. The parallels are endless and include such ideas, for example, as love and creativity being at the heart of the fabric of existence. One trick I have taught myself is to use my imagination in the interpretation of the concepts and ideas used by these authors, always asking myself if by such and such a concept the author might have meant something that another discussed. This flexibility in interpretation has helped me to gain a richer understanding of the texts. Again, this kind of reading is recursive, not to mention enlightening. One final note on reading is something that Jane Roberts/Seth and Emerson, among others, have stressed: that reading is secondary experience. Just as reading about being poor is not the same as being poor, reading these authors' ideas about the spiritual, non-physical reality at the foundation of the one we normally experience is not the same thing as experiencing it for yourself. For that, these authors can be guides, as they say, but they cannot have the experience for us. This is the reason that all of them stress meditation or contemplation (parallels again)—that the truth can only be found within us (Jesus, Tolstoy, and everybody else), and even then, given the basic open-ended, creative nature of reality, our discovery of it will be personal and, if we are to believe what some of these authors say about the subjective nature of reality (in line with the most creative aspects of modern physics), our discovery of reality will always, to an extent, alter it and our perception of it. We will let Jane Roberts have the last word: "There are no limitations or boundaries to the self."
Thank you for visiting the site, and if you actually read this note, thank you for reading this far! If you are attracted to some of these works in particular, you may want to investigate other translations.
Bruce Leeds, Ph.D. (the picture above is of me and my dog Sophia—her mother was rescued from a certain slow death in Thailand and a few days later, Sophia was born!)
Contents
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2009
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October
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- RUYSBROECK: THE ADORNMENT OF THE SPIRITUAL MARRIAG...
- DIONYSIUS THE AREOPAGITE: DIVINE NAMES, MYSTIC THE...
- ST. FRANCIS: THE LITTLE FLOWERS OF ST. FRANCIS
- THOMAS A KEMPIS: THE IMITATION OF CHRIST
- BOEHME: OF TRUE REPENTENCE, OF REGENERATION, OF TR...
- BROTHER LAWRENCE: THE PRACTICE OF THE PRESENCE OF GOD
- ST. JOHN OF THE CROSS; ASCENT OF MOUNT CARMEL
- ST. JOHN OF THE CROSS: DARK NIGHT OF THE SOUL
- ST. JOHN OF THE CROSS: A SPIRITUAL CANTICLE OF THE...
- DANTE: DIVINE COMEDY (COMPLETE)
- ECKHART: SERMONS
- FOUR GOSPELS: MATTHEW, MARK, LUKE, JOHN
- UNDERHILL: MYSTICISM, PART ONE, THE MYSTIC FACT
- UNDERHILL: MYSTICISM, PART TWO, THE MYSTIC WAY
- ANONYMOUS: THEOLOGIA GERMANICA
- ANONYMOUS: THE CLOUD OF UNKNOWING
- HILTON: SCALE OF PERFECTION
- SAINT CATHERINE OF GENOA
- PLATO: SYMPOSIUM
- PLATO: MENO
- BOETHIUS: CONSOLATION OF PHILOSOPHY
- ANONYMOUS: THE AWAKENING OF FAITH IN THE MAHAYANA ...
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October
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