Meditation 35
The Healing of a Sick Will
A soul who is so blessed that she seeks a refuge under
God's two mighty wings of love in His Sanctuary experiences in an
authentic way the truth of the words of the psalm, “Since he clings to
me I rescue him, I raise him high, since he acknowledges my name” (Ps
91. 15). Thus she is raised above the voluptuous pit of Satan's
darkness like an eagle and from now on her hearts belongs to God as He
lays hold on this soul's heart.
And God is a jealous lover and guards His property and while the soul is not as yet completely freed from the fetters of worldly habits of sensualism this poor wretch must suffer much, or by the words of Simeon the New Theologian,
If this poor wretch becomes entangled in the snares of carnal love its agonies become still greater as her “beloved” discovers sooner or later that her hearts belongs only to God alone. If the soul tries to find satisfaction in the things of this world it brings only with it emptiness. agony and sufferings. It is thus best for the well being of this soul to follow God's guiding signs – His red and green traffic lights – and thus she is on the highway to glory. It is thus how God heals the inclinations of her will in order to love Him with “all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength” (Dt 6. 5).
This is the spiritual message of two among the greatest spiritual masters of the Church, Nicolas Kavasilas and John of the Cross. In his work Life in Christ Kavasilas speaks of the Christification of the will and God has “fashioned it with a view to Himself” in order to make us able “to enjoy Him alone with complete delight.” The will has thus infinitive capacity to love God and is the central moving power in the human being. Kavasilas writes “All that is ours follows the will and moves where the will directs it” [2] and adds, “In short, it is the will which, as far as we are concerned, leads us and carries us. If it is impeded in some way, all things seize up at this point.” [3]
The great contribution of John of the Cross in Mystical Theology is to shed light upon the fact how God heals the four inclinations of the will's movements: the joy, hope, sorrow and fear. By this definition he followed the scholastics reducing Aristotle's 11 passions into these four principle ones,
When the soul puts the wood of her sensuous disposition on the altar in order to allow the fire of God's love to devour it the spirit of prayer is enkindled deep within and becomes gradually and literally speaking a thoroughfare of God's immeasurable and infused love. Thus this blessed soul recites with the Blessed Virgin, “Let it happen to me as you have said” (Lk 1. 38).
Thus it is of utter importance that the soul in question practices daily spiritual communion with our Lord and Redeemer in the prayer and if she is so fettered by her illusious sensualism that she maintains that she has no time for such a communion, she must ask God to be freed from such a disastrous disposition in order to to be able to sacrifice God time enough in order to practice the prayer. Presumptuous souls who have time at leisure to peek at TV four 3-4 hours and even longer daily and take an active part in all the vanities of the glory of the flesh and its social attachments are not at home on this Sacred Way.
What is needed is God's infused love and we only attain it by dwelling in the healing ointments of the Christ's eye. It is only be dwelling before His holy countenance in spiritual communion that the soul is cured of the deep wounds and in rooted vices of the original sin which plagues her as the first protestant souls in human history, Adam and Eve, who refused to be nourished by the Bread from Heaven. Even protestant souls are healed of their injuries and impediments when they dwell before the blessed gaze of the Christ's eye as following quotation from the works of the Swedish Protestant and mystic Hjalmar Ekström bear witness of,
I do not intend at this place to repeat the teachings of Teresa of Avila as to place the importance rather on love than lofty meditations and enormous thinking as she explained in chapters 21-42 in her Way of Perfection when she urged her spiritual daughters simply to dwell with His Majesty and gaze to Him who gazes at us. This is the core of the teachings of the saints of the Western and Eastern Church and thus Silouan the Athonite was freed from the agonies and temptations of evil thoughts when he saw Christ appear in the Royal Gate at Mount Athos. This applies to us all. I quote only the words of Teresa of Avila to emphasize this point,
Thus the soul learns to gaze at Him exteriorly in the prayer of outer recollection just in order to point the inner gaze at Him at the bronze laver which He purifies in the pure water of the laver which we will scrutinize in following meditations.
And God is a jealous lover and guards His property and while the soul is not as yet completely freed from the fetters of worldly habits of sensualism this poor wretch must suffer much, or by the words of Simeon the New Theologian,
A soul which is not
completely freed of worldly habits and attachments to visible things in
the very feelings and disposition of the heart cannot be impervious to
the sorrows, wrongful accusations and temptations which assail it from
demons and from men. Shackled by attachments to human things, it is
vulnerable to loss of money, grieves deeply when deprived of things,
and suffer severely from bodily hurts. [1]
If this poor wretch becomes entangled in the snares of carnal love its agonies become still greater as her “beloved” discovers sooner or later that her hearts belongs only to God alone. If the soul tries to find satisfaction in the things of this world it brings only with it emptiness. agony and sufferings. It is thus best for the well being of this soul to follow God's guiding signs – His red and green traffic lights – and thus she is on the highway to glory. It is thus how God heals the inclinations of her will in order to love Him with “all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength” (Dt 6. 5).
This is the spiritual message of two among the greatest spiritual masters of the Church, Nicolas Kavasilas and John of the Cross. In his work Life in Christ Kavasilas speaks of the Christification of the will and God has “fashioned it with a view to Himself” in order to make us able “to enjoy Him alone with complete delight.” The will has thus infinitive capacity to love God and is the central moving power in the human being. Kavasilas writes “All that is ours follows the will and moves where the will directs it” [2] and adds, “In short, it is the will which, as far as we are concerned, leads us and carries us. If it is impeded in some way, all things seize up at this point.” [3]
The great contribution of John of the Cross in Mystical Theology is to shed light upon the fact how God heals the four inclinations of the will's movements: the joy, hope, sorrow and fear. By this definition he followed the scholastics reducing Aristotle's 11 passions into these four principle ones,
We would have achieved
nothing by purging the intellect and memory in order to ground them in
the virtues of faith and hope had we neglected the purification of the
will through the charity, the third virtue . . . For a treatise on the
active night and denudation of this faculty, with the aim of forming
and perfecting it in this virtue of the charity of God, I have found no
more appropriate passage than the one in chapter 6 of Deuteronomy,
where Moses commands: You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your
heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength [Dt 6. 5].
This passage contains all that spiritual persons must do and all I must
teach them here if they are to reach God by union of the will through
charity [4]
When the soul puts the wood of her sensuous disposition on the altar in order to allow the fire of God's love to devour it the spirit of prayer is enkindled deep within and becomes gradually and literally speaking a thoroughfare of God's immeasurable and infused love. Thus this blessed soul recites with the Blessed Virgin, “Let it happen to me as you have said” (Lk 1. 38).
Thus it is of utter importance that the soul in question practices daily spiritual communion with our Lord and Redeemer in the prayer and if she is so fettered by her illusious sensualism that she maintains that she has no time for such a communion, she must ask God to be freed from such a disastrous disposition in order to to be able to sacrifice God time enough in order to practice the prayer. Presumptuous souls who have time at leisure to peek at TV four 3-4 hours and even longer daily and take an active part in all the vanities of the glory of the flesh and its social attachments are not at home on this Sacred Way.
What is needed is God's infused love and we only attain it by dwelling in the healing ointments of the Christ's eye. It is only be dwelling before His holy countenance in spiritual communion that the soul is cured of the deep wounds and in rooted vices of the original sin which plagues her as the first protestant souls in human history, Adam and Eve, who refused to be nourished by the Bread from Heaven. Even protestant souls are healed of their injuries and impediments when they dwell before the blessed gaze of the Christ's eye as following quotation from the works of the Swedish Protestant and mystic Hjalmar Ekström bear witness of,
Everything becomes
spiritual, everything is endowed with life under this gaze and hand.
What was dead and naught and thus doomed your Spirit renews, and see,
it shoots roots, buds and grows. [5]
I do not intend at this place to repeat the teachings of Teresa of Avila as to place the importance rather on love than lofty meditations and enormous thinking as she explained in chapters 21-42 in her Way of Perfection when she urged her spiritual daughters simply to dwell with His Majesty and gaze to Him who gazes at us. This is the core of the teachings of the saints of the Western and Eastern Church and thus Silouan the Athonite was freed from the agonies and temptations of evil thoughts when he saw Christ appear in the Royal Gate at Mount Athos. This applies to us all. I quote only the words of Teresa of Avila to emphasize this point,
Behold, the Lord
invites all. Since He is the truth itself, there is no reason to doubt.
If this invitation were not a general one, the Lord wouldn't have
called us all. [6]
Thus the soul learns to gaze at Him exteriorly in the prayer of outer recollection just in order to point the inner gaze at Him at the bronze laver which He purifies in the pure water of the laver which we will scrutinize in following meditations.
[1]. Philokalia, On the
Prayer of the Heart, p. 124.
[2]. Life in Christ 708 C.
[3]. Ibid 721 C.
[4]. Ascend of Mount Carmel III. 16, 1.
[5]. Mystikern Hjalmar Ekström, p. 210.
[6]. Way of Perfection 19, 15.
[2]. Life in Christ 708 C.
[3]. Ibid 721 C.
[4]. Ascend of Mount Carmel III. 16, 1.
[5]. Mystikern Hjalmar Ekström, p. 210.
[6]. Way of Perfection 19, 15.