As Dominicans we are bound daily to recognize it to be our primary duty
to think of God with love, and to apply ourselves heart and soul to the
consideration of one or other of the mysteries of Jesus, and all available means
must converge towards that end theological studies, liturgical offices, spiritual
reading, and meditations properly so called.
But as we proceed with our efforts we are apt to be
woefully astonished at the meagre results we achieve. How paltry and dim is the
thought that faith strives to fix upon God, and how quickly our spirit is distracted
and drawn down to inferior objects!
Actually we have no cause for astonishment. It is
difficult even to rise from the tangible world to the world of ideas, and very few
human beings can breathe the rarefied air of those heights long enough to dwell
there. When we pass from philosophical knowledge to supernatural truths, it is only
natural that the effort should be greater and the success very poor. But a dim light
upon such subjects is worth more than knowing all the contents of the daily paper,
and seeing all the busy world which throngs the streets.
Let us not be discouraged; let us go on trying, in
the hope that the Holy Spirit will reward us by bestowing upon us a loftier form
of contemplation than any we can acquire for ourselves.
It is not presumption to entertain such hopes. What
we can do through our friends, says a Greek philosopher whom St. Thomas quotes in
this very connection, we do in a certain sense through ourselves. Now God actually
dwells in our soul as a friend. Tu in
nobis es Domine. . . . Thou art in us, Lord, Thou to Whom St. Paul addressed
his petition on behalf of the faithful in Ephesus asking Him to give them the spirit
of wisdom and of revelation in the perfect knowledge of Himself and to illuminate
the eyes of their heart.
Has a Christian, then, eyes in his heart for seeing
God? Yes, in addition to faith which St. Paul associates with hearing, fides ex auditu (the faith based on the word
heard from the divine mouth to give us conviction of the reality of the invisible
world, argumentum non apparentium), our
hearts possess a certain possibility of vision, thanks to the intellectual gifts
of the Holy Spirit which have been granted to us since our Baptism.
Only we cannot exert
those capabilities at will, as we can open our eyes upon the world of sense, or
as we apply our intelligence supernaturalized by the virtue of faith. It rests with
us to exercise our supernatural virtues as well as our natural faculties. Grace
co-operates with us, undoubtedly, but the initiative must be ours. In the case of
the gifts of the Holy Spirit, especially those which enable us to contemplate God,
the initiative belongs to the Holy Spirit Himself. His intervention depends upon
His good pleasure.
Nevertheless, seeing that He has deposited within
us spiritual organs which await this intervention, are we not justified in assuming
that He will use them when
the right time comes? And will not that time have arrived when we have
done all we possibly can in our human way? After we have exerted ourselves to the
utmost to practise the moral virtues so as to be in a fit state to apply ourselves
to contemplation; and after we have proceeded to make sufficient efforts in contemplative
meditation; then the Holy Spirit will supervene to prolong our effort and to open
the eyes of our heart on God in a knowledge of Himself which will be as an intimate
and personal revelation.
If we cannot, properly speaking, merit this illumination,
we can certainly merit the perfecting of the organs that await it, and welcome it
within us. For they develop and become better and better fitted for their function
in proportion to our progress in the state of grace. And it also lies in our power
to add to our insufficient merit the efficacy which prayer possesses to hasten
within us the advent of infused contemplation. St. Thomas advises those who give
themselves to contemplative meditation to pray for the spirit of wisdom. , He quotes
the words of Holy Scripture: I prayed and the spirit of wisdom came into me.
(1) St. Paul, as we have seen, made the same petition for the Corinthians.
Let us pray humbly, trustfully and perseveringly,
continuing untiringly the efforts that depend upon ourselves. Let us practise such
self-denial as may enable our spirit to rule over all our passions and to develop
unhindered. In the over-agitated life of our spirit itself, let us secure pauses
in which we may recollect ourselves and fix a quiet glance upon God. And then do
not let us form exaggerated ideas about infused contemplation. It begins in a small
way, and the boundary is not easily determined between the intuition one arrives
at through a well-ordered meditation and one which emanates from the Holy Spirit's
initiative. However much it may grow, this infused contemplation does not lift us
out of the shadows of faith; it remains always dim as well as mysterious, and that
is why it is called mystical contemplation.
Like active contemplation, it proceeds from the love
of God. But in its working it is very different. Whereas formerly, in a resolution
of love, one forced oneself to think about God, now in a movement of love God forces
Himself upon our thought. Love is no longer the fruit of our effort, we do not stir
it up in our heart by a deliberate act. We seem to receive it ready made; one might
almost say that it rises within us automatically, like a spring which wells up from
the very depths in which the Holy Spirit dwells. This infused love is the principle
of mystical contemplation, and constitutes its permanent basis in the different
phases of its evolution. Whether we be at the initial stage of reaching anxiously
after God Who conceals Himself, or whether we attain finally to the sensation of
enjoying His presence, we have always, in the midst of this fervour of
spontaneous love, at least the vivid consciousness that God is the great reality.
"In spiritual things," says St. Thomas
in reference to the words gustate et videte
which occur in a psalm, "one begins by
tasting and afterwards one sees." Lights accordingly emanate, under the
influence of the Holy Spirit, from that loving relish which is at the base of mystical
wisdom. At first, experience thus tasted comes to complete our speculative knowledge
of the divine mystery. But certain positive lights may also be given us upon God,
and the truths He has taught us. Especially shall we have a vivid intuition of
His absolute transcendence. Ah, yes ! He does indeed surpass all that we can think
of Him; all the poor ideas, we can conceive can never truly represent that living
God Whose all-powerful attraction our heart feels, and Whom it seeks to embrace
with all the force of its love. (2)
NOTES:
(1) Ila Ilae, q. 180, a. 3, ad 4
(2) These pages are but a summary of the author's book: La Contemplation
mystique d’pres St. Thomas d'Aquin.
Source: Joret, F-D, O.P. Dominican Life. London:
Sands & Co. Limited, 1937
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