Two Inseparable Cells
The Secret of "Instasis" and "Ekstasis"
One day when Catherine’s of Siena
biographer – Raymond – was exhausted and crushed under his burden of
duties, this
saintly woman said to him, “Build yourself a cell within your heart,
and never put a foot outside.” [1]
Catherine had made the Sanctuary of
the Tabernacle her fortress as the Holy Spirit urges us all to do (Med. 8). And in one of her numerous
letters Catherine wrote to a friend that we should enter the inner
dwelling the way we enter our own rooms when we are tired. Wanting only
sleep, we do not linger at the door but go straight to bed. We who come
to the inner cell must do the same; we are not to stop at the door of
our weakness but run into the bed of God’s mercy within our hearts. [2]
When she walked to the bronze laver of her own miseries in this Tabernacle of her heart she looked beyond her own reflection to God, “Like the one who sees her image in a fountain, we who live in the inner cell [tabernacle] must see not simply our defects but, beyond them, the image of our beauty in the fountain of God’s love. We are then drawn to fall in love not with the image, but with the fountain itself [3]. She spoke of the Tabernacle of her heart as the dwelling of self knowledge and compared it to the sepulcher which held the Lord. I have referred to this mystery in (Med. 54) above when the soul dwells at the golden table and contemplates its shining and pure plate. “Magdalene was unable to push away the rock by herself; but as soon as she acknowledged her weakness, the huge stone was no longer an obstacle, and the Lord himself was present to her. Like the immense rock, our sin weight heavily upon us, yet if we wait trustfully in the sepulcher of self knowledge the burden of our sin recedes and we find Christ himself risen and radiant within us.” [4]
Just as the world’s sins brought down our Savior and Redeemer as to enkindle the fire of love in human hearts, this same weakness draws this same Redeemer to the needs of His creation “whose power alone can heal and restore” [5] the soul in her humbleness. It was in this mystery where Catherine discovered her strength. Experience shows that of ourselves we “are not.” nothing apart from the Lord (Jn 15. 5) The Lord says to her, “Do you know, daughter, who you are and who I am? If you know these two things you have beatitude in your grasp. You are she who is not, and I AM WHO IS.” Let this truth “fill your entire being.” [6] Thus Catherine learnt to draw the power of Christ to her miserable weakness, to glory in the weakness which draws the power of Christ to us (2 Cor 12. 9), just as St. Paul. You are not your own; you have been bought with a price. So glorify God in your body (1 Cor 6. 20).
And this body is nothing but the earthly tabernacle, the reflection of the Celestial Tabernacle in human souls. Catherine spoke of this mystery as “two inseparable cells.” “I don’t think it is possible to have virtue or the fullness of grace without dwelling within the cell of our heart and soul, where we find the treasure that is life for us . . . THE HOLY ABYSS . . . knowledge of ourselves and of God.” [7] Catherine’s “holy abyss” is the immanence of the All Holy Trinity in the heart in its transcendence– where the earthly tabernacle and the Celestial City confront each other. At first this secret place of this sibling of God’s love was a place of refuge for Catherine from the hectic activity of the outer world, but as her self knowledge increased it became a fountain of God’s immeasurable love that drew her both inward to His love and outward to her brothers and sisters. This is the “spannungskraft” of a true Christian prayer. A praying Christian has nothing in common with the mysticism of the Orient where the “holy man” sits in the dust of the roadside and doesn’t see the need of his fellow human beings behind the darkness of closed eyes of a nirvana or zatari hypnotism. A Christian is involuntarily drawn to the abyss within as to be flung outside again as a working hand for God to meet the need of his brothers and sisters. I think that no one has shed as good light upon this mystery as the Dutch contemplative, blessed Jan van Ruysbroeck. I quote,
God showed St. Catherine as all other siblings of His Sacred Heart this wealth hidden within in His furnace of love, that ”God’s love is this fire, we, the sparks; we have come from love and cannot help being drawn back to our source in God’s love.” [9].
And this is the mystery of the earthly tabernacle as a reflection of the Heavenly Abode when the soul is flung between the immanence of God in eternal rest to enter the fruition of continuous works. This is the “spannungskraft” of a true contemplation and it is here where saintly souls receive their strength: IN GOD’S POWER in the holy abyss of divine knowledge.
Recently I listened to an interview with a lady in a Pentecostal congregation. She had obviously been touched by this Divine sparkle within. She had obviously learnt St. Catherine’s secret, “to let the fire and warmth of this inner dwelling draw her simultaneously into God’s embrace and outward into the arms of her brothers and sisters.” [10] She had spent the prime of her years among the poorest of the poor in India. She returned home on a holiday and gave her fellow Christians a lesson. Actually she scolded them for not having renewed themselves “both in the rest and the work.” Sometimes God desires that some of His children were a little bit faster in their works. It is no fruition just to warm the benches in a church on sundays. God needs workers.
Good workers are baked in the furnace of God’s Divine Love in this Recycling Plant of the Holy Spirit which the Sanctuary of the Tabernacle really is. That is why God the Holy Spirit desires to raise it in as many human hearts as possible,
When she walked to the bronze laver of her own miseries in this Tabernacle of her heart she looked beyond her own reflection to God, “Like the one who sees her image in a fountain, we who live in the inner cell [tabernacle] must see not simply our defects but, beyond them, the image of our beauty in the fountain of God’s love. We are then drawn to fall in love not with the image, but with the fountain itself [3]. She spoke of the Tabernacle of her heart as the dwelling of self knowledge and compared it to the sepulcher which held the Lord. I have referred to this mystery in (Med. 54) above when the soul dwells at the golden table and contemplates its shining and pure plate. “Magdalene was unable to push away the rock by herself; but as soon as she acknowledged her weakness, the huge stone was no longer an obstacle, and the Lord himself was present to her. Like the immense rock, our sin weight heavily upon us, yet if we wait trustfully in the sepulcher of self knowledge the burden of our sin recedes and we find Christ himself risen and radiant within us.” [4]
Just as the world’s sins brought down our Savior and Redeemer as to enkindle the fire of love in human hearts, this same weakness draws this same Redeemer to the needs of His creation “whose power alone can heal and restore” [5] the soul in her humbleness. It was in this mystery where Catherine discovered her strength. Experience shows that of ourselves we “are not.” nothing apart from the Lord (Jn 15. 5) The Lord says to her, “Do you know, daughter, who you are and who I am? If you know these two things you have beatitude in your grasp. You are she who is not, and I AM WHO IS.” Let this truth “fill your entire being.” [6] Thus Catherine learnt to draw the power of Christ to her miserable weakness, to glory in the weakness which draws the power of Christ to us (2 Cor 12. 9), just as St. Paul. You are not your own; you have been bought with a price. So glorify God in your body (1 Cor 6. 20).
And this body is nothing but the earthly tabernacle, the reflection of the Celestial Tabernacle in human souls. Catherine spoke of this mystery as “two inseparable cells.” “I don’t think it is possible to have virtue or the fullness of grace without dwelling within the cell of our heart and soul, where we find the treasure that is life for us . . . THE HOLY ABYSS . . . knowledge of ourselves and of God.” [7] Catherine’s “holy abyss” is the immanence of the All Holy Trinity in the heart in its transcendence– where the earthly tabernacle and the Celestial City confront each other. At first this secret place of this sibling of God’s love was a place of refuge for Catherine from the hectic activity of the outer world, but as her self knowledge increased it became a fountain of God’s immeasurable love that drew her both inward to His love and outward to her brothers and sisters. This is the “spannungskraft” of a true Christian prayer. A praying Christian has nothing in common with the mysticism of the Orient where the “holy man” sits in the dust of the roadside and doesn’t see the need of his fellow human beings behind the darkness of closed eyes of a nirvana or zatari hypnotism. A Christian is involuntarily drawn to the abyss within as to be flung outside again as a working hand for God to meet the need of his brothers and sisters. I think that no one has shed as good light upon this mystery as the Dutch contemplative, blessed Jan van Ruysbroeck. I quote,
Now understand this: God comes to us
without ceasing both with means and without means, and demands of us
both action and fruition, in such a way that the one never impedes, but
always strengthens, the other. And therefore the most inward man lives
his life in these two ways: namely, in work and in rest. And in each he
is whole and undivided; for he is wholly in God because he rests in
fruition, and he is wholly in himself because he loves in activity: and
he is perpetually called and urged by God to renew both the rest and
the work. [8]
God showed St. Catherine as all other siblings of His Sacred Heart this wealth hidden within in His furnace of love, that ”God’s love is this fire, we, the sparks; we have come from love and cannot help being drawn back to our source in God’s love.” [9].
And this is the mystery of the earthly tabernacle as a reflection of the Heavenly Abode when the soul is flung between the immanence of God in eternal rest to enter the fruition of continuous works. This is the “spannungskraft” of a true contemplation and it is here where saintly souls receive their strength: IN GOD’S POWER in the holy abyss of divine knowledge.
Recently I listened to an interview with a lady in a Pentecostal congregation. She had obviously been touched by this Divine sparkle within. She had obviously learnt St. Catherine’s secret, “to let the fire and warmth of this inner dwelling draw her simultaneously into God’s embrace and outward into the arms of her brothers and sisters.” [10] She had spent the prime of her years among the poorest of the poor in India. She returned home on a holiday and gave her fellow Christians a lesson. Actually she scolded them for not having renewed themselves “both in the rest and the work.” Sometimes God desires that some of His children were a little bit faster in their works. It is no fruition just to warm the benches in a church on sundays. God needs workers.
Good workers are baked in the furnace of God’s Divine Love in this Recycling Plant of the Holy Spirit which the Sanctuary of the Tabernacle really is. That is why God the Holy Spirit desires to raise it in as many human hearts as possible,
Extend the curtains of
your home, do not
hold back.
Lengthen your ropes, make your Tent pegs firm (Is 54. 2).
Lengthen your ropes, make your Tent pegs firm (Is 54. 2).
[1]. Catherine of
Siena’s Way, p. 77.
[2]. Ibid, p. 88.
[3]. Ibid, p. 88.
[4]. Ibid, p. 89.
[5]. Ibid, p. 191.
[6]. Ibid, p. 79.
[7]. Ibid, p. 81.
[8]. The Adornment of the Spiritual Marriage, lxv.
[9]. Catherine of Siena’s Way, p. 82.
[10]. Ibid, p. 77.
[2]. Ibid, p. 88.
[3]. Ibid, p. 88.
[4]. Ibid, p. 89.
[5]. Ibid, p. 191.
[6]. Ibid, p. 79.
[7]. Ibid, p. 81.
[8]. The Adornment of the Spiritual Marriage, lxv.
[9]. Catherine of Siena’s Way, p. 82.
[10]. Ibid, p. 77.