Christian Mysticism Explored
Christian Mysticism Explored
I have become very interested in this subject because in 2015, a friend of mine asked me if I was one, I had never heard of the word before. But I felt I might be one.
So, a few years back I started researching just what is a Christian Mystic. What does mysticism have to do with Christianity?
To get an accurate understanding you need to go back through Chrisitan History. You will find it there, with the saints from the Catholic and Orthodox Church.
I am going to share with you, some facts of what it means to be a Christian Mystic. This is some solid information I found online; it helps bring things into perspective.
Truly a Christian Mystic is a Christian who has a special connection to Father God. And it is a lifestyle. " Such a life requires great humility, discipline, and commitment to prayer, and in many cases, such as those of St. Theresa of Avila1 and St. John of the Cross,2 it is a call to mystical surrender."
I will let you read from this article, I think it sums it up well, this is a deep subject with a lot of information. This artical by Robett J. Spitzer, covers it very well.
"The Stages of Christian Mysticism – a Summary
© Robert J. Spitzer, S.J., Ph.D. May 2016
The Lord calls some people to a special life of
contemplation that frequently includes mystical encounters with Him. Much
of the time this takes the form of a call to monastic life – though not
necessarily. Such a life requires great humility, discipline, and commitment to
prayer, and in many cases, such as those of St. Theresa of Avila1
and St. John of the Cross,2 it is a call to mystical
surrender. The three major stages of mystical life – the purgative,
illuminative, and unitive – are described in detail by these two authors
as well as contemporary mystics and scholars of mystical life3.
If one is called to a life of mystical union (i.e.
mystical surrender to the unconditionally loving Absolute Being), it will
entail dedicating several hours per day to contemplative prayer. This
generally involves joining a contemplative monastery 4or living in a
hermitage.5 In this
1 St. Teresa of Avila was a 16th
century Carmelite mystic responsible for the reform of the Carmelite
order. She was a spiritual colleague of St. John of the Cross, and wrote
extensively about the spiritual and mystical life – though in simpler and
more autobiographical terms than he. Her most influential book which
describes the stages toward mystical surrender-perfection-union is Interior
Castle. In it, she describes seven mansions, the first three of which
concern the stages of preparation from prayer and meditation to humility,
openness to God’s will, and the repudiation of sin in all its forms. The final
four mansions describe perfection in the spiritual and mystical life –
giving guidance on how to proceed from the purgative to the illuminative
and unitive stages of prayer. Her emphasis on the beauty, transformative
power, and ecstasy of divine love is among the most lucid in the history of
spiritual writing. Her autobiography is a remarkably humble and captivating
story about her call to the Carmelites and her personal progression
through the seven mansions detailed in the Interior Castle. Novices may
want to begin with the autobiography, and then proceed to the Interior Castle
which is a more didactic approach to the seven stages of spiritual
development. See St. Teresa of Avila 1976 The Collected Works of St.
Teresa of Avila, (Vol 1 and 2), trans. by Kieran Kavanaugh (Wash, D.C.:
Institute of Carmelite Studies).
2 The well-known 16th century
Carmelite mystic, St. John of the Cross, writes in a more poetic style
making recourse to scholastic philosophy and the Church fathers. Though more
difficult to comprehend than St. Theresa of Avila on initial readings,
his works are at once practical, analytical, poetic, literary -- and of course,
deeply biblical and spiritual. He gives a systematic progression from the
purgative to the illuminative and to the unitive stage of mystical
surrender (perfection) in his classic work, The Ascent of Mount Carmel.
In other works he concentrates on the illuminative and unitive way – e.g.
Spiritual Canticle and Living Flame of Love. He also spends considerable
time on an intermediary stage – the dark night of the soul which occurs
before final union-surrender-perfection -- in a work by the same name.
See St. John of the Cross 2000 The Collected Works of St. John of the Cross
trans. by Kieran Kavanaugh and Otilio Rodriguez (Wash, D.C.: Institute of
Carmelite Studies).
3 See Evelyn Underhill 2002 Mysticism: A Study in
the Nature…. See also Benedict Groeschel 1984 Spiritual Passages: The
Psychology of Spiritual Development (Valley, NY: Crossroads Publishing
Company). See also Bernard McGinn 2006 The Essential Writings of Christian
Mysticism (New York: Random House/Modern Library).
4 These would include men’s and women’s
monasteries in the following religious orders – the Cistercians,
Trappists, Carthusians, and Discalced Carmelites. There are additional
monasteries of religious women beyond those mentioned above, such as the
Colettine Poor Clares, the Capuchin Poor Clares, and other monastic
branches of women’s religious orders.
5 Some hermitages welcome long term visitors such
as the Camaldolese Hermitage in Big Sur, California, the Mt. Carmel
Hermitage in Christoval, Texas, the Franciscan Contemplative Sisters in
Toronto, Ohio, and the Benedictine Transfiguration Hermitage in
Thorndike, Maine. There are many other contemplative
setting of silence and separation, a person in a state of
grace makes a long-term interior journey with the Lord through three
“states of the soul:”6
• the purgative state (in which the person begins building
habits of charity7 enabling him to resist sin and vice8),
• the illuminative state (in which a person has sufficient
habits of charity and virtue to resist major temptations enabling the
Lord to come to him with significant beauty, grace, and affective
consolation),
• the unitive state in which, after a period of final
detachment from self – called “the dark night” (that enables near perfect
charity and purity of heart – see below), a person enters into the
fullness of divine love causing a state of unsurpassed ecstasy and union with
the Absolute.
St. Teresa of Avila describes the unitive state as
follows:
The loving exchange that takes place between the soul and
God is so sweet that I beg Him in His goodness to give a taste of this
love to anyone who thinks I am lying. On the days this lasted I went
about as though stupefied. I desired neither to see nor to speak…. [I]t
seems the Lord carries the soul away and places it in ecstasy; thus there
is no room for pain or suffering, because joy soon enters in.9
The mystical life is a special call to dedicated
contemplation given to individuals seeking near perfect authenticity,
purity of heart, and charity through surrender to the unconditionally
loving God. The mystic identifies true freedom – that is, the freedom of
authentic love – with surrender to the heart of God. In a secular
context, freedom is rarely identified with surrender, but in the
spiritual or mystical life, it is – for the only way we can reach near perfect
authenticity and love is through the guidance and influence of the
unconditionally loving Lord.
hermitages throughout the U.S. and Canada that can be
located by a web search. Those seeking a long term stay at a hermitage
must speak directly with the superior of the house. Serious commitment to
this kind of life may best be accomplished by joining a specific
cloistered contemplative religious order. 6 These three states
were initially articulated by Pseudo Dionysius the Areopagite in 525 A.D. See
The Divine Names, I, 2; IV, 12 f.; VII, 13. See also Mystical Theology,
I, 3; II. St. Thomas Aquinas commented on these states of surrender/perfection
(Summa Theologica II-II, Q. 183A:4). Since that time these states of
perfection have been used by mystical theologians to articulate the journey to
complete union with God (see the citations from St. Teresa of Avila and
St. John of the Cross above). 7 “Caritas” is the Latin
translation for “Agapē” -- the distinctive word selected by early Christians to
refer to Jesus’ unique notion of “self-sacrificial love for the good of
the unique intrinsically lovable other.” This love is defined by Jesus
himself in the beatitudes – “poor in spirit” (“humble-hearted”), “meek”
(“gentle hearted”), “hungering for righteousness” (“zealous for our and others’
salvation”), “mercy” (which includes both “forgiveness” and “compassion
for the neglected and marginalized”), “purity of heart,” “being a
peacemaker,” and “sacrificing oneself for the faith.” An extensive definition
of this is given in Spitzer 2016 God So Loved the World (Chapter 1) and
also in Chapter 6 of this volume. 8 See the extensive
treatment of the 7 Deadly Sins in Chapter 4 of this volume.
9 Saint Teresa of Avila, 1976 “The Book of Her
Life.” In The Collected Works of St. Teresa of Avila, Vol. 1.
Trans. by Kieran Kavanaugh and Otilio Rodriguez (Washington, D.C.: ICS
Publications), p.194.
Most of us living active lives (away from a monastery
or hermitage) experience our purification process by meeting the
challenges of the world around us trying to maintain the teachings of
Christ with our spouses, children, colleagues and supervisors at work, and even
our best friends and fellow church members. Though contemplatives
certainly work in the monastery, they have a different kind of
purification which occurs sometimes in community and work life, but also
in times of contemplation and prayer. The contemplative is sensitive to
states and feelings of consolation and desolation which occur both inside
and outside of prayer (see Chapter 15, First Topic),10 and the
Lord uses these consolations and desolations to guide the contemplative
on the journey to near perfect authenticity and charity. Though the end of
the journey is the life of ecstasy (recounted above by St. Teresa of
Avila), the journey itself is punctuated by desolation, unfulfilled
desire, and darkness. These painful experiences are not punishments from
God, but instruments of God to guide the contemplative to greater
detachment from self and “things of the world,” which leads to greater
authenticity, greater freedom to love, and greater freedom to surrender
ultimately to Him in spiritual union.
In his lucid and poetic work, The Spiritual Canticle,11
St. John of the Cross describes the consolations and desolations involved
in the purgative state, the illuminative state, the dark night of the soul, the
dark night of the spirit, and the unitive state. This work is autobiographical,
and so it describes the states of the soul in terms of St. John’s
progressively developing relationship
with the Lord who is at times drawing him, leaving him,
leading him, and fulfilling him. He uses the terms “the soul,” “the
Bride,” and “she” to refer to the contemplative on his interior journey
with the Lord, and uses the terms “the beloved,” “The Bridegroom,” and “He” to
refer to Christ – the Son of the unconditionally loving Lord who lies at
the interior of the soul, guiding, enticing, and influencing it toward
discovery, surrender, perfection in love, union, beauty, and
ecstasy.
St. John does not speak about the states of soul as
achievements of an individual (which would be a solitary venture and a
stoic victory). Rather, he sees it as a relationship between an
individual and the Lord, which as it progresses in intimacy and union with the
beloved, transforms the soul in authenticity and the capacity for charity
(agapē). For St. John, we do not bring ourselves to the higher
states of soul; rather, the Lord leads us by consolations and
desolations, love and absence, and light and darkness to the state of
perfection commensurate with union with Him. Yes—we must exert our will--and
be disciplined, trusting, and persistent— to follow the bridegroom’s lead, but
in the end, it is not we who conquer ourselves, but the Lord who leads us
into a love that is self-perfecting. We may now look at some of the
poetic descriptions that St. John uses to describe progressive growth in
love—which is at once perfection and surrender—in the stages along the
contemplative’s way.
The first or purgative stage (stanzas 1-21 in the poem
and commentary of The Spiritual Canticle) is not the beginning of
a life of faith. It assumes that an individual already has a vibrant
faith life and is trying to purify the capacity for authenticity and charity by
contending with the
10 See Spitzer 2015, Finding True Happiness,
Chapter 8, Section II.
11 Using the imagery of the biblical book
Canticle of Canticles (Song of Songs), St. John of the Cross describes
the major states of the soul in an allegory about the changing and
progressive relationship between the soul (“the bride”) and the Lord.
(“The Bridegroom”). See St. John of the Cross 1979 Spiritual Canticle in
The collected Works of St. John of the Cross I ed. by Kieran Kavanaugh,
Otilio Rodriguez, O.C.D. (Wash. DC: Institute of Carmelite Studies pp 405-465.
seven deadly sins—gluttony/drunkenness, sloth, lust, greed,
anger, envy and pride. Notice that these “sins” do not describe behaviors
but rather interior attitudes that undermine authenticity and
charity--thereby undermining progress in faith and relationship with the Lord.
Thus an individual in the purgative state must already have a living
faith, a desire to love and serve the Lord more deeply, and a commitment
to resist the attitudes (deadly sins) that undermine this faith and
desire.
In a word, an individual in the purgative state must
already be on the road to salvation through virtue, faith, and prayer.
This is precisely what allows the relationship between him and the
Beloved (Christ) to develop and flourish in progressive states of surrender and
perfection.
The Lord calls some individuals in this state to an
intense longing for Him in the innermost depth of their spirit. This
leads to a search for Him. He sees glimmers of the Beloved in the natural
world – the majesty of mountains, sea, and forests – as well as signs of His
love in the littlest of things – leaves, birds, and other creatures. When
the contemplative walks through a forest or a garden, he does not simply
see trees and leaves—he does not simply hear birds and the wind. The Lord
makes his presence known, in these natural objects, and when the
contemplative’s soul becomes attuned to the presence of his beloved in natural
beauty and the voice of his beloved in wind and birds—his desire is
awakened even more intensely. He is so filled with love that he speaks
poetically—even without this literary capacity. It is almost as if the
poetry that comes from him is assisted by the one whom he loves. In such
states, his heart is filled with the awareness of being loved, and he
cannot help himself -- he loves the One who has loved him first—out of
sheer excitement, fulfillment, and gratitude.12 After this
intense experience, the Beloved fades away, and the contemplative is once
again filled with desire and longing for the Beloved.
The purgative way may last for years – with the
contemplative trying to remain vigilant in virtue, faith, and prayer
despite temptations coming from the senses, egocentricity, and even the
devil. Inasmuch as the contemplative perseveres in his deepening of virtue,
faith, and prayer, he is gradually purified of the desire to give into
temptations which enkindles his desire to experience the love of his
Beloved (Christ). If the Beloved does not respond with at least momentary
glimmers of loving consolation, the absence is acutely felt which causes
spiritual heartache. Yet if he perseveres in trust, hope, and love –
perseveres on the path to deeper virtue, faith, and prayer – this
heartache will have the effect of even deeper purification.
We might specify the dimensions of the purgative way –
using Saint John’s vocabulary and concepts -- as follows. When a
contemplative enters the purgative way, he has already decided to
dedicate himself to the pursuit of holiness in order to make himself a perfect
offering to the one he loves – the unconditionally loving Lord who has
loved him first. He is filled with an awareness that his true dignity,
fulfillment, and destiny are to be found in this loving God, and is
grateful for all that God has given him – not only family, talents, his
immortal soul, and many blessings throughout life, but also for being led
to faith, awareness, and understanding of Jesus Christ and His Father.
Moved by this need for and gratitude to God, the contemplative
embarks
12 St. John of the Cross Spiritual Canticle pp.
432-437. This corresponds to the commentary on stanzas 4- 6 of the poem.
on the path to greater holiness – authenticity and purity of
love through the pursuit of virtue and the purification of the senses,
the imagination, and the mind.
This pursuit of deeper holiness and purification
includes what John calls “dark nights”. There are four dark nights – the
active dark night of the senses, the passive dark night of the senses,
then the active dark night of the spirit, and the passive dark night of the
spirit. The first two (the active and passive dark nights of the senses)
are part of the purgative way that prepare the contemplative to move to
the illuminative way13 -- while the second two (the active and
passive dark nights of the spirit) are part of the illuminative
way—preparing the contemplative to move toward the unitive way.14
We will restrict ourselves to the first two dark nights here, and then
address the others when we explain the illuminative way below.
An active dark night is one that is actively pursued
by the contemplative seeking greater holiness while a passive dark night
is one that God initiates by withdrawing consolations, depriving the soul
or the spirit of even the ordinary sense of divine love, peace, and
beauty.
In the purgative way, the contemplative moved by need,
gratitude and love, pursues the path of virtue, first, by a purification
of the senses. This entails greatly simplifying life – restricting food, drink,
and “creature comforts”. He also significantly limits television, radio,
other forms of media, and even convivial, but unnecessary talking. He does this
not because there is anything wrong with them per se, but because they
distract him from his true intention which is to open himself to the love
of God alone – and to discipline himself in simplicity and modesty,
putting prayer, study, and spiritual work before comfort. The objective is to
become detached or free from desires of the senses, particularly excesses
leading toward the deadly sins of gluttony/drunkenness, lust, and
sloth.
Though St. John indicates that he wrote The Ascent
of Mount Carmel for some of his Carmelite brothers and
sisters—tailoring many of his suggestions for them and other
contemplatives—he states explicitly that he intends to give others important
advice on how to pursue perfectly loving union with the Lord. This does
not mean that all non-contemplatives seeking mystical union with God in
this life should follow all of his suggestions, but only those that they
can reasonably accomplish with the responsibilities they have in life. The main
point John is trying to make for all of us is that simplicity of life --
e.g. simplicity of goods and sensory stimulation (and the discipline
necessary to restrain the desires for them) – is necessary for detachment
or freedom from creature comforts – and detachment or freedom from
creature comforts is necessary to open oneself ever more deeply to loving
union with the Lord. Thus, if we really desire deeply consoling and
loving union with God through prayer, we will have to
13 These dark nights are described in detail—with
instructions for moving through them—in The Ascent of Mount Carmel. See
St. John of the Cross, 1979 “The Ascent of Mount Carmel” in The Collected Works
of St. John of the Cross, ed and trans by Kieran Kavanaugh and Otilio
Rodriguez, Wash DC: ICS Publications pp 73-292
14 St. John speaks of the active and passive dark
night of the spirit particularly in the Dark Night of the Soul which is
an extension of The Ascent of Mount Carmel. Most scholars believe that the two
books should be considered a single work with two parts--the former (The
Ascent of Mount Carmel) which emphasizes the purification of the senses, and
the latter (The Dark Night of the Soul) which emphasizes the purification of
the spirit (the mind, memory, and will). See St. John of the Cross 1979 “The
Dark night of the Soul” in the Collected Works of St. John of the Cross
pp 293-389.
detach ourselves from creature comforts, and this, in turn,
requires simplicity, self-discipline, and even voluntary deprivation from
these stimuli.15
The active night of the senses is also concerned with
resistance to three deadly sins of the body (gluttony/drunkenness, lust and
sloth) and the cultivation of virtues (good habits of the will) to
actively oppose these deadly sins and the temptations that initiate them in the
long term. St. John recommends a three-fold process to do
this:
1. Training the mind to recognize when temptation toward the
three deadly bodily sins is beginning to occur (originating either from
within the self or from the devil), and then training the will to “nip
them in the bud” – that is to choose the love of God before the temptation
begins to gain momentum. This is a difficult and long road, but continued
practice builds virtue.
2. By recalling the peace, consolation and love experienced
from the Divine Beloved – causing true gratitude for His blessings -- and
by giving more time to contemplative prayer, our desire for union with
God becomes more intense-- which can be compared to and levered against
our aberrant desires for sins of the body (gluttony/drunkenness, sloth,
and lust).
3. By repeatedly nipping aberrant desires in the bud
(self-discipline), by recalling the consolations of the Lord, and by
intensifying our contemplative prayer, we conscientiously cultivate
virtues opposed to the three deadly sins of the body—temperance to oppose
gluttony/drunkenness, fortitude to oppose sloth, and chastity (viewed through
the examples of Jesus and Mary) to oppose lust.
This pursuit is not pure asceticism because God
rewards the contemplative with an increased sense of His presence, peace,
consolation, and joy. Though this increased sense of peace, love,
consolation, and joy is not continuously present, the Lord provides it
frequently during times of prayer and also unexpectedly throughout the
day.
Though the active dark night of the senses brings
peace, consolation, and confidence—as well as an alleviation of guilt--
the contemplative may begin to develop a sense of pride (e.g., “I have
really accomplished so much in the spiritual life”) or vanity (“I am
making greater progress than Joe and Tom”) or a belief that he has
reached the objective of the spiritual life because God has given him a
sense of peace, consolation, and confidence. At this juncture, for the
contemplative’s own good, the Lord begins to withdraw the above consolations
and spiritual gifts, causing the contemplative to feel a sense of aridity
(dryness), spiritual emptiness, or even a renewed sense of guilt. The
contemplative may believe that he has done something wrong, and as a
result intensify his efforts at restraining his senses. However, this is
frequently not the problem—or the solution. A good spiritual director
will help him to see that the Lord is withholding His consolation and
felt presence to prevent him from falling into spiritual problems – and
so the true solution is to become more humble about spiritual progress,
more respectful of others’ relationship with the Lord, and more desirous
of being in union with God (instead of
15 St. Ignatius of Loyola sets this same
principal up for more active people in the very first part of his
Spiritual Exercises called “The First Principle and Foundation.” See Ignatius
of Loyola Spiritual Exercises San Francisco: Ignatius Press, pp XX
desiring the consolation of God). These last points concern
the transition from the dark night of the senses (in the purgative way)
to the dark night of the spirit (in the illuminative way).
As the contemplative moves from the purgative way into
the illuminative way—having purified his senses in a spirit of humility,
respect for others, and desire for the Divine Beloved Himself, he will
experience freedom from the deadly sins of gluttony/drunkenness, lust and
sloth and detachment from the sensorial world in order to be open to the
Divine Beloved. The Lord rewards him with the fruits of this freedom and
detachment with abundant consolation and intense joy. St. John describes
this consolation in The Spiritual Canticle using metaphor and
poetic language. Recall that “she” and “the bride” refer to the contemplative,
and that “he” and “the Beloved” refer to the Lord of Love
(Christ):
Since she desires the divine eyes with such yearnings, the
Beloved
reveals to her some rays of His grandeur and divinity, which
cause her to go out of herself in rapture and ecstasy.
This flight in which the soul is placed after much
spiritual activity is called spiritual espousal. God communicates great
things about Himself, beautifies her and adorns her with gifts and
virtues. Her vehement longings and complaints of love cease, and a state
of peace, delight, and gentleness of love commences. 16
The contemplative then pursues the active dark night
of the spirit in which he moves beyond the purification of his senses and
imagination, to the purification of his spirit. For John, the spirit is
the domain in which God connects directly with the contemplative. Thus it is
the psychic domain through which we become aware of God Himself as well
as His perfection in truth, love, goodness and beauty, and is also the
ground of mind, memory, and will. The mind is not the imagination
(picture-thinking), but rather the agency through which conceptual ideas,
abstraction, and syntactically meaningful language occurs. The memory is the
ability to remember and recall, and the will is the capacity to choose –
between egocentricity or love, self aggrandizement or self-surrender,
self-idolatry or worship of God, domination or respect—to choose between
two fundamental directions—“toward the self” or “away from the self
toward God and others.”
When we spoke of the purification of the senses, we
addressed freedom from gluttony/drunkenness, lust, and sloth. Now as we
address the purification of the spirit, we are concerned with freedom
from the other four deadly sins—greed, anger, envy, and pride—which are
sins of the spirit in which ego-centricity and self- aggrandizement are
emphasized above the love of God and neighbor. The contemplative, who has
moved from the purgative way is not in danger of overtly and directly
choosing himself over God and others, but he is in danger of implicitly,
indirectly and subtly doing so. There are many subtle and “rationalizable” ways
of placing the self above God and others through greed, anger, envy, and
pride (which includes both vanity and the lust for power), and as the
contemplative moves into the illuminative way, he
16 St. John of the Cross 1979 “The Spiritual
Canticle” in The Collected Works of St. John of the Cross, p 406
finds himself besieged and hindered by them – and so he
pursues the purification of his spirit in the active dark night of the
spirit.
To do this, the contemplative focuses his mental
activity on the single purpose of being united with God. Bolstered by the
peace and consolations of God, he pursues virtue and prayer to purify his
mind, memory, and will from the temptation toward greed, anger, envy, and
pride (including vanity and the lust for power). Once again, a
contemplative can implement the three
techniques discussed above concerning the active night of
the senses. This time, he takes the emphasis off of the sins of the
senses and puts it on the sins of the spirit – greed, envy, anger, and
pride.
1. Training the mind to recognize when temptation toward
egocentricity and its four deadly sins (originating either from within
the self or from the devil) is starting to occur, and then training the
will to “nip them in the bud” – that is to choose God and/or others above
the self before these temptations begin to gain momentum. This is a difficult
and long road, but continued practice builds virtue.
2. By recalling the peace, consolation and love experienced
from the Divine Beloved— causing deep gratitude to Him—and by giving more time
to contemplative prayer, our desire for union with God becomes more
intense-- which can be compared to and levered against our desires for
egocentric, dominating, self-aggrandizing and self-idolatrous desires
(the aberrant desires of the spirit).
3. By repeatedly nipping aberrant desires in the bud
(self-discipline), by recalling the consolations of the Lord, and by
intensifying our contemplative prayer, we conscientiously cultivate
virtues opposed to the four sins of the spirit – generosity to oppose
greed, gentle-heartedness and forgiveness to oppose anger, gratitude to oppose
envy, and humility and charity to oppose pride, vanity, and lust for
power.
As the contemplative continues in his efforts to discipline
the sins of the spirit – as well as continued temptations to the sins of
the senses – he will once again find himself experiencing increased
peace, sacredness, love, and joy. These experiences will lead him gradually to
shift from meditation to contemplation. Meditation, for St. John, uses
imagination and reason to move into prayer – reflecting on a particular passage
of scripture, thinking about a theological truth, meditating on the
mysteries of the rosary, reflecting on the beatitudes or reflecting on
the imitation of Christ. Contemplation is passive from the vantage point
of the contemplative, because God is responsible for the action. As the
contemplative opens himself to the Lord in prayer, the Lord brings
consolation – peace, joy, unity, sacredness, and love – to the
contemplative. In order to do this, the contemplative must stop meditating –
stop actively reflecting, imagining, and reasoning so that his soul will
be clear to receive the consolations that the Lord is waiting to bestow
on him.17
17 St. John of the Cross elucidates the signs
that mark when a contemplative should stop meditating to clear his mind
for the coming of the Lord in contemplation. See the Ascent of Mount Carmel,
Chapter 13, Book 2.
A brief consideration of active thought versus passive
thought may help to clarify this. There is no mystery about “active
thought” (referred to as reason, or in Latin, “ratio”), because it is
what we do every day—reflecting on the many disciplines of the arts and
sciences (active theoretical thought) and studying and planning
for practical activities we are about to perform (active practical thought).
However, passive thought (contemplation -- or in Latin “intellectus”) is
much more mysterious for contemporary culture.18 So what is passive
thought? It is not assembling data, logically analyzing it, and
anticipating results (the domain of active thoughts). Rather, it is
opening oneself to the Divine Presence – first in the beauty of the natural
world, then in the goodness and love of human beings (made in the image
of God) then in the contemplation of Jesus Christ (the Incarnate Son of God)
and then in the mystical presence of the Divine Beloved in prayer. The
point of passive thought is not to gain an insight or to increase worldly
knowledge, but rather to behold, and appreciate, and be filled with the Divine
presence, beauty, goodness and love offered by the Divine Beloved—and to
naturally respond to Him with an outpouring of love. As one progresses in
the beholding, appreciating, and being filled with the presence, beauty
and love of God in nature, in human beings, in Jesus Christ, and in the
Divine Beloved Himself, one is simultaneously filled with a sense of joy,
sacredness, and unity.
Contemplation can have an even purer form that goes beyond
our openness and appreciation of the presence of God in nature, human
beings, and Jesus Christ – it can be completely initiated by God Himself.
This can occur by surprise – when God simply comes to the contemplative
who is not praying or catching “sight” of Him in nature, people, or Jesus
– or when the contemplative -- who is in the illuminative way (or
progressing through the purgative way) -- enters into prayer with very
little active thought. When the Lord comes in this purer form, He overwhelms
the
contemplative with His loving, sacred, unifying, consoling
presence, and places him in a state of what St. Teresa of Avila calls
“ecstasy.” The contemplative, as John notes above, loses the sense of
time and worldly concern caught up in a state of loving rapture.
This loving, joy-filled, unifying, and sacred
consolation is in no way produced by the human psyche. It is not simply a
feeling – it includes a profound awareness of another loving
consciousness who is unmistakable – indeed more present than any human being
could be (except of course, that there is not a sensory image accompanying
the empathetic, interpersonal awareness of the other). Moreover, this
hyper-present Consciousness is clearly transcendent and overwhelming in
its love and beauty. It is not simply the wholly other – it is also the
wholly loving and glorious other – at once completely beyond the
contemplative and intimately present to him. Thus the divine beloved is
not only hyper-present, but also hyper-loving, hyper-beautiful, and
hyper-intimate. When He ceases to be present, the heart is left longing – nay,
yearning – for Him to return which moves the contemplative to seek Him with
even greater simplicity, discipline, and self-sacrifice.
Thus, the illuminative way is marked by consolations
of many kinds – from little appearances of the Divine Beloved in nature,
people, and Jesus – to profound appearances of the Divine Beloved filled with
an overwhelming sense of His sacred, loving, consoling presence. Yet, the
illuminative way is only spiritual espousal – the way of proficiency – it is
not yet “marriage,” unity, or perfection. Thus, the contemplative must work
hard on the active night of
18 Josef Peiper has written an excellent treatise
on passive thought (“intellectus”) and its decline in modern culture in his
essay Leisure, the Basis of Culture.
the spirit – and contend with renewed temptations of the
senses. As he actively disciplines himself, reflects on God’s goodness and
gratitude, and gives himself to contemplative prayer, God graces him not only
with the capacity and gift of virtue (to replace the deadly sins), but also the
light of consolation to assure him of His presence and love.
There is still one more stage of purification required for
the contemplative to move from the illuminative way to the unitive way –
perhaps the most difficult purification of all – the passive dark night of the
spirit. As can be seen, the illuminative way is marked by profound consolation
coming from the loving presence of God, which can lead the contemplative to fix
his desire and attention on this loving consolation. Yet the Lord desires the
contemplative to fix his desire on Him – on His self-sacrificial love
and His complete gift of self. This has often been described as
refocusing the contemplative from the consolations of God to the God of all
consolation. The final dimension of falling in love with God is to share in His
self-sacrificial spirit – His Son’s complete gift of self in His passion and
death – for the final triumph of love over evil. In order to give the
contemplative, the same opportunity to purify his love so that it becomes as
pure as that of Jesus Christ, the Lord calls the contemplative to a period of
self-sacrifice – a period of true death to self and gift of self, requiring
total trust in Him. Here, God withdraws His loving presence from the contemplative
who has formerly experienced it with profound consolation – and the
contemplative finds himself wandering not just in a desert, but in a wasteland
of emptiness, loneliness, and alienation filled with anxiety and even the
darkness of depression. As the contemplative enters into this passive dark
night of the spirit (oftentimes generically referred to as “the dark night of
the soul”), God not only removes His extraordinary consolations -- which
He has lavished on the contemplative – but also His ordinary consolation that
keeps all of us wholly in hope and awareness of God.
Most people of faith do not even notice what might be termed
“ordinary consolation” because it is so omnipresent. When we turn to the Lord
in faith, He gives us a sense of His presence which alleviates our feelings of
cosmic emptiness, alienation, and loneliness (see Chapter 13, Fifth Topic) and
this ordinary consolation continues unabated unless we begin to move off of our
faith journey to a life of overt sin or unbelief. When we first begin our faith
journey, the movement from cosmic emptiness, alienation and loneliness, to one
of peace, hope, and awareness of God’s presence can be quite palpable, and if
we maintain our faith commitment it can become so “normal” that it is like a
radio playing in the background of a household where it is turned on
incessantly. After a while, the only time the residents notice it is when it is
switched off. As noted above, God can “switch off” ordinary consolation when we
are moving out of a life of faith toward a life of darkness, and He uses the
resultant feelings of cosmic emptiness, alienation, and loneliness as a sort of
warning to alert us to our self-destructive course of action. However, He
does not need to do this for a contemplative who is in the illuminative
way – who has reached a state of proficiency in virtue and the spiritual
life.
The contemplative has need of only one thing – the final
purification of his love into the completely self-sacrificial love of
Christ Himself -- a self-sacrificial love which can be joined to Jesus’,
and offered up for the salvation of all souls and the good of His mystical body
– the Church. Since the contemplative has already experienced the ardor,
rapture, and ecstasy of God’s sacred and loving presence, the removal of
ordinary consolation is incredibly painful – tantamount to a kind of slow
torture – a passion in and of itself. Yet the contemplative will be
aware of why the Lord is doing this – at least mentally –
and will know that the Lord is completing his process of purification and
offering the opportunity to join Him on the cross for the salvation of
the world. Though the contemplative is aware of this, and tries to place his
trust completely in the Lord, it is incredibly painful and lonely and empty –
and he is besieged with temptations to doubt the Lord – and even to doubt
in His very presence. He cannot help but cry out in anguish, and ask the
Lord for relief, but in the end, the Lord will challenge him to be like
Himself – to trust that He is there even if the contemplative cannot feel Him –
to trust that the emptiness and sacrifice will be joined to His sacrifice
even though he cannot sense it – to trust that his sacrifice will lead to
the salvation of the world even though he cannot see how – and to trust
that he will be brought into the full purification of His love, and into a
state of loving perfection so great that it is only exceeded by the
beatific vision which is to come – the unitive way – the state of perfection.
St. John of the Cross, St. Teresa of Avila, St. Paul of the
Cross, St. Thérèse of Lisieux, and St. Teresa of Calcutta are but a few of the
contemplatives who underwent this dark night and came out to the other side in
ecstasy. St. Therese of Lisieux and St. Teresa of Calcutta experienced this
state of ecstasy for a very short time before proceeding to the beatific
vision, but St. Teresa of Avila, St. John, and St. Paul of the Cross, among
others, lived long enough to speak and write extensively about it.
Saint John summarizes the freedom from passions and the
devil, and the blessings of being in unity with the Lord that occurs when the
Lord leads the soul into spiritual marriage:
The bride knows that now her will's desire is detached from
all things and attached to her God in most intimate love; that the
sensory part of her soul, with all its strengths, faculties, and
appetites, is in harmony with the spirit, and its rebelliousness brought
into subjection; that the devil is now conquered and far withdrawn as a
result of her varied and prolonged spiritual activity and combat; that
her soul is united and transformed with an abundance of heavenly riches
and gifts; and that consequently she is now well prepared, disposed, and
strong, leaning on her Beloved, so as to come up from the desert of
death, flowing with delights, to the glorious thrones of her Bridegroom.19
In The living Flame of Love, St. John gives a brief
glimpse of what it is like to come up from the desert of death with spiritual
delights to the throne of the Bridegroom:
And in your sweet breathing,
Filled with good and glory, How tenderly you swell my
heart with love! I do not desire to speak of this spiration, filled for
the soul with good and glory and delicate love of God, for I am aware of
being incapable of doing so; and were I to try, it might seem less than
it is. It is a spiration that God produces in the soul, in which, by that
awakening of lofty knowledge of the Godhead, he breathes the Holy Spirit
in it in the same proportion as its knowledge and understanding of him,
absorbing it most profoundly in the Holy Spirit, rousing its love with a
divine exquisite quality and delicacy according to what it beholds in him.
Since
19 St. John of the Cross Spiritual Canticle
Stanza 40, Section 1.
the breathing is filled with good and glory, the Holy
Spirit, through this breathing, filled the soul with good and glory in
which he enkindled it in love of himself, indescribably and
incomprehensibly, in the depths of God, to whom be honor and glory
forever and ever. Amen.20
Evelyn Underhill, who compiled one of the most deep and
comprehensive studies of mysticism elaborates this final state of unity
or communion with the Lord, and the ecstasy and rapture that accompanies
it:
Since the object of all contemplation is the production of
that state of intimate communion in which the mystics declare that the
self is “in God and God is in her,” it might be supposed that the orison
of union
represented the end of mystical activity, in so far as it is
concerned with the attainment of a transitory but exalted consciousness
of “oneness with the Absolute.” Nearly all the great contemplatives,
however, describe as a distinct, and regard as a more advanced phase of
the spiritual
consciousness, the group of definitely ecstatic states in
which the concentration of interest on the Transcendent is so complete,
the
gathering up and pouring out of life on this one point so
intense, that the subject is more or less entranced, and becomes, for the
time of the ecstasy, unconscious of the external world.21
It must be reiterated that these are not mere feelings of
rapture and ecstasy, but rather an awareness of the consciousness of the
Absolute into whom the mystic is absorbed. Ecstasy and rapture accompany
this relational state with the Absolute, but they are only the result of
being filled by the one who is loving them – the One who is perfect and
unconditional love, goodness, beauty, and being. This union with absolute love
is the culmination of mystical life, and it anticipates only one greater
state – the beatific vision in Heaven.
20 St. John of the Cross Living Flame of Love,
Stanza 17
21 Evelyn Underhill 191 Mysticism (Methuen p.
427).
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