The night of the soul’s powers. A.
The gateway and the emerald; B. The altar of burnt offerings and
the sardonyx; C. The bronze laver and the sardius; D. The entrance into
the Holy and the chrysolite; E. The golden table of loaves and the
beryl; F. The lamp stand and the topaz; G. The golden altar and the
chrysophrasus; H. The curtain into the Holy of Holies and the jacinth.
Meditation 67
From Becoming to Being
This
is how His Majesty reveals His power by this “superimposition,”
“overshadowing” or “fusion” in this state of the prayer of union.King Jesus Christ shows the soul in an authentic way that He is King of
Life and Son of a God who “stretches out the heaven like a cloth” (Is
40. 22 ). Or by the words of Teresa of Avila,
God desires to manifest clearly that He is “God, Lords of Hosts, the only One who has power over every breath and every soul, the One who only can cure us,” as the bride has begged Him to do in the Tabernacle prayer: “Abba, Father, you are Almighty.” When the soul meets such a God it means involuntarily complete consent on behalf of the soul.
John of the Cross emphasized this “complete consent” in humility, that the soul must be passive or pasivo in this stage. Numerous souls in our own times don’t like such a God at all and avoid by all means to encounter Him, just as Adam and Eve when they hid themselves among the trees in the wood. The reason is simple: He can conflict with their plans and even go as far as change them. That is in no conformity to the presumptuousness of such souls. At most they are ready to belief in a god they can keep in a safe cage as a parrot and run to for consolation when their pride is hurt, or by the words of Meister Eckhart: belief in a milk cow god to their own satisfaction. But the Living God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob is “ganz andres”. The consent is actually the mystery of the co-operative grace which God gives the soul abundantly share in when she is humble and the divine knowledge streams to her uninterrupted,
When Pope Pius XI proclaimed John of the Cross as a Doctor of the Church he wrote in his apostolic letter that he “points out to souls the way of perfection as though illumined by light from on high“ and so well adapted to those who study his teachings “that they can rightly be called a guide and handbook for the man of faith who proposes to embrace a life of perfection.” [3]
Teresa of Avila did also emphasize the importance of co-operative graceas a prerequisite for true contemplation, a co-operative grace as passivity,
The Light of Glory which now streams to the soul in its influx is so subtle, clear and super mundane that the faculties of the soul would only be a hindrance and thus she must follow the impulses of love and suspensions. The bridge of communication is built by this passivity when the soul is drawn to her essence where she attains a being which is untouched by time and space and streams forth from the Spirit where she dwells in the Spirit and gradually transforms her into a pure theological being. And God is not unknown because of His obscurity, but because of His brightness. It is this overwhelming and radiant brightness which now overshadows the soul in her passivity and now we can draw another diagram in order to complete our cartographical refinement of this super mundane reality of love, beauty and truth.
As a matter of fact it is a direct continuation of Fig. 43 above displaying the Mount of sensuous purification marked by the letter (C) on the diagram above. Now in the illumination of the chrysophrasus (G) the soul reaches another peak in its straining forward in love because of the brightness of the Uncreated Light of God’s glory and it is thus how the Spirit of life teaches the soul to seek refuge in the silence of the Sacrificial Hill of the Cross,
From the human standpoint of view this appears as the darkest phase of the Night of the spirit or of the soul’s powers. The formation of the soul in this dark and tranquil night can be explained in terms of modern neurology. At birth the brain of a child is provided with 100 billion nerve cells. Nerve contacts which form paths or a net in the brain are very sparse at birth but increase rapidly and reach culmination in density in a six years old child. Later their number is drastically cut down when superfluous contacts are eliminated, but they can again increase in adults when the individual use his brain to apprehend something new. These contacts form thus a network in the brain, almost comparable with the internet! As a matter of fact they are actually an internal network of the function of the human brain.
In its former life before the soul began to practice the prayer her attention and awareness was concentrated on exterior incidents and her nerve channels had adjusted themselves to such sense perceptions. But in the prayer of inner recollection the soul begins so to say to adjust herself to a new reality and thus the brain begins to form a new net of nerve contacts or channels appropriate for this new experience. The formation of this new mean of apprehending the reality in the live of grace is what is called the spiritual senses in mystical theology. The formation of these new channels in the brain is a question of time before the soul has been “formatted” good enough in order to become seeing in this super mundane world of light, truth and love.
But this formation is not only question of time, but also sufferings. It is thus how the Holy Spirit fills the heart with compassion for other human beings in order to make the soul a good intercessor as a true high priest in the Royal Priesthood of the New Covenant. These sufferings are creative sufferings as Father Henry Boulad calls them. Besides being a theologian he studied formerly neurology at the University of Chicago. In one of his letters he gave me an account of an experiment they made over in USA as to the sensitivity limits of various animals against pains.
These researches were made by the US Army as the doctors on the battle grounds in the Second World War had discovered that the pain sensitivity among soldiers varied and seemed to be dependent on their place of origin. Thus soldiers who belonged to the natives – as Indians and Inuits – needed far lesser portion of anesthetic when wounded, than soldiers say of Italian origin.
The conclusions of these researches were in as few words as possible that the mental and psychological disposition of the soldiers themselves was the decisive factor. Extensive experiments were made regarding the sensitivity limits of various animals. The results were unexpected. Animals which had suffered much for a long period of time made a higher score in intelligence tests! When they were autopsied it became clear that the grooves in the brains of these same animals were deeper than in other animals of the same species.
When father Boulad returned to Egypt he began to investigate these unexpected results still further and discovered what he calls the creative power of suffering, a power which appeared in an authentic way in the lives of individuals who had “won” victory over their sufferings. He gave an account of a former officer in the Egyptian army who had lost his sight in riots. The first years after the accident he suffered from severe psychological depression. But as time went on a miracle happened. When he had reconciled himself to his disability he began to fight for the rights of the blinds and their welfare. He founded and became a director of the largest establishment for the blind in whole of Egypt!
Father Boulad mentioned also a French lady who was so severely handicapped from birth that almost whole of her body was lame. Her disability was so extensive that only the head functioned properly so to say and it became her weapon in her struggle for the right of the handicapped in French. By speaking over the radio and TV she had finally built seven health centers for the handicapped An artist was so utterly handicapped that her only way to paint was by holding the brush between her teeth and thus she gave others a share in the beauties of life and became world famous for her arts.
By these and numerous others incidents father Boulad became convinced of the creative power of sufferings, of people who succeeded in using this power for the advantage of their fellow human beings and worked miracles, individuals who were far more productive and competent than those generally considered “healthy”. He explained this great change that took place in their lives by the fact that these individuals had learnt to live in the center of their being – had so to say given their consent and oriented their lives in conformity to their surrounding and state in live – became reconciled with God and in continuation of this had become a thoroughfare of grace streaming forth as a river of life from the essence of their inmost being having molding effects on all their actions and conducts.
In this context I just want to add to this list above the case of blessed eldress Matrona or Matrona Dimitrievna born in the village of Sebino in the Tula Province of Russia the 9th of November, 1885. She was born blind but descending from simple people she walked whole of her life in the light of God and was glorified by holy deeds. Actually she became the pillar of the Church in Russia during the years of the Communist Regime. All her life Matushka Matrona championed the cause of every soul who came to her and ached for others in holiness. During the tyranny of Stalin she was a secure refuge for all performing miracles and sustaining religious as well as laymen and fulfilled thus the prophecy of father John of Kronstadt, “Here is one to take my place! The eight pillar of Russia!” She had a clear eye (see Lk 11. 34-36).
In this creative sufferings in the darkest phase of the Night of the spirit the soul is sustained by the most sublime sufferings that a human being has ever undergone in this earthly tabernacle where we are stationed for the time being. IT IS THE PASSION OF A GOD WHO SUFFERED AS A MAN ON THE TREE OF THE CROSS. When He gives the soul a participation in His own sufferings the soul is bound to become a good intercessor, as God has rendered her heart into His own, given her a charitable heart. “What is a charitable heart” – asks St. Isaac the Syrian,
Such a soul has been crucified with her Redeemer on the Cross in this night of the spirit and thus she repeats His own prayer in the darkest hour of His passion on the Tree of Life,
Rather, whether or not we wish, we
see that there is one who is superior, that these favors are given by
Him, and that of ourselves we can do absolutely nothing; deep humility
is impressed upon the soul.” [1]
God desires to manifest clearly that He is “God, Lords of Hosts, the only One who has power over every breath and every soul, the One who only can cure us,” as the bride has begged Him to do in the Tabernacle prayer: “Abba, Father, you are Almighty.” When the soul meets such a God it means involuntarily complete consent on behalf of the soul.
John of the Cross emphasized this “complete consent” in humility, that the soul must be passive or pasivo in this stage. Numerous souls in our own times don’t like such a God at all and avoid by all means to encounter Him, just as Adam and Eve when they hid themselves among the trees in the wood. The reason is simple: He can conflict with their plans and even go as far as change them. That is in no conformity to the presumptuousness of such souls. At most they are ready to belief in a god they can keep in a safe cage as a parrot and run to for consolation when their pride is hurt, or by the words of Meister Eckhart: belief in a milk cow god to their own satisfaction. But the Living God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob is “ganz andres”. The consent is actually the mystery of the co-operative grace which God gives the soul abundantly share in when she is humble and the divine knowledge streams to her uninterrupted,
And, since these manifestations of
knowledge come to the soul suddenly, and independently of its own free
will, it must neither desire to have them, nor desire not to have them;
but must merely be humble and resigned concerning them, and God will
perform His work how and when He wills. [2]
When Pope Pius XI proclaimed John of the Cross as a Doctor of the Church he wrote in his apostolic letter that he “points out to souls the way of perfection as though illumined by light from on high“ and so well adapted to those who study his teachings “that they can rightly be called a guide and handbook for the man of faith who proposes to embrace a life of perfection.” [3]
Teresa of Avila did also emphasize the importance of co-operative graceas a prerequisite for true contemplation, a co-operative grace as passivity,
But if the candle is burning,
blowing on it will in my opinion serve no other purpose than to put it
out. I say that the blowing should be gentle lest the will be
distracted by the intellect itself with many words. [4]
The Light of Glory which now streams to the soul in its influx is so subtle, clear and super mundane that the faculties of the soul would only be a hindrance and thus she must follow the impulses of love and suspensions. The bridge of communication is built by this passivity when the soul is drawn to her essence where she attains a being which is untouched by time and space and streams forth from the Spirit where she dwells in the Spirit and gradually transforms her into a pure theological being. And God is not unknown because of His obscurity, but because of His brightness. It is this overwhelming and radiant brightness which now overshadows the soul in her passivity and now we can draw another diagram in order to complete our cartographical refinement of this super mundane reality of love, beauty and truth.
As a matter of fact it is a direct continuation of Fig. 43 above displaying the Mount of sensuous purification marked by the letter (C) on the diagram above. Now in the illumination of the chrysophrasus (G) the soul reaches another peak in its straining forward in love because of the brightness of the Uncreated Light of God’s glory and it is thus how the Spirit of life teaches the soul to seek refuge in the silence of the Sacrificial Hill of the Cross,
Your salvation lay in conversion
and tranquility, your strength in serenity and trust (Is 30. 15).
From the human standpoint of view this appears as the darkest phase of the Night of the spirit or of the soul’s powers. The formation of the soul in this dark and tranquil night can be explained in terms of modern neurology. At birth the brain of a child is provided with 100 billion nerve cells. Nerve contacts which form paths or a net in the brain are very sparse at birth but increase rapidly and reach culmination in density in a six years old child. Later their number is drastically cut down when superfluous contacts are eliminated, but they can again increase in adults when the individual use his brain to apprehend something new. These contacts form thus a network in the brain, almost comparable with the internet! As a matter of fact they are actually an internal network of the function of the human brain.
In its former life before the soul began to practice the prayer her attention and awareness was concentrated on exterior incidents and her nerve channels had adjusted themselves to such sense perceptions. But in the prayer of inner recollection the soul begins so to say to adjust herself to a new reality and thus the brain begins to form a new net of nerve contacts or channels appropriate for this new experience. The formation of this new mean of apprehending the reality in the live of grace is what is called the spiritual senses in mystical theology. The formation of these new channels in the brain is a question of time before the soul has been “formatted” good enough in order to become seeing in this super mundane world of light, truth and love.
But this formation is not only question of time, but also sufferings. It is thus how the Holy Spirit fills the heart with compassion for other human beings in order to make the soul a good intercessor as a true high priest in the Royal Priesthood of the New Covenant. These sufferings are creative sufferings as Father Henry Boulad calls them. Besides being a theologian he studied formerly neurology at the University of Chicago. In one of his letters he gave me an account of an experiment they made over in USA as to the sensitivity limits of various animals against pains.
These researches were made by the US Army as the doctors on the battle grounds in the Second World War had discovered that the pain sensitivity among soldiers varied and seemed to be dependent on their place of origin. Thus soldiers who belonged to the natives – as Indians and Inuits – needed far lesser portion of anesthetic when wounded, than soldiers say of Italian origin.
The conclusions of these researches were in as few words as possible that the mental and psychological disposition of the soldiers themselves was the decisive factor. Extensive experiments were made regarding the sensitivity limits of various animals. The results were unexpected. Animals which had suffered much for a long period of time made a higher score in intelligence tests! When they were autopsied it became clear that the grooves in the brains of these same animals were deeper than in other animals of the same species.
When father Boulad returned to Egypt he began to investigate these unexpected results still further and discovered what he calls the creative power of suffering, a power which appeared in an authentic way in the lives of individuals who had “won” victory over their sufferings. He gave an account of a former officer in the Egyptian army who had lost his sight in riots. The first years after the accident he suffered from severe psychological depression. But as time went on a miracle happened. When he had reconciled himself to his disability he began to fight for the rights of the blinds and their welfare. He founded and became a director of the largest establishment for the blind in whole of Egypt!
Father Boulad mentioned also a French lady who was so severely handicapped from birth that almost whole of her body was lame. Her disability was so extensive that only the head functioned properly so to say and it became her weapon in her struggle for the right of the handicapped in French. By speaking over the radio and TV she had finally built seven health centers for the handicapped An artist was so utterly handicapped that her only way to paint was by holding the brush between her teeth and thus she gave others a share in the beauties of life and became world famous for her arts.
By these and numerous others incidents father Boulad became convinced of the creative power of sufferings, of people who succeeded in using this power for the advantage of their fellow human beings and worked miracles, individuals who were far more productive and competent than those generally considered “healthy”. He explained this great change that took place in their lives by the fact that these individuals had learnt to live in the center of their being – had so to say given their consent and oriented their lives in conformity to their surrounding and state in live – became reconciled with God and in continuation of this had become a thoroughfare of grace streaming forth as a river of life from the essence of their inmost being having molding effects on all their actions and conducts.
In this context I just want to add to this list above the case of blessed eldress Matrona or Matrona Dimitrievna born in the village of Sebino in the Tula Province of Russia the 9th of November, 1885. She was born blind but descending from simple people she walked whole of her life in the light of God and was glorified by holy deeds. Actually she became the pillar of the Church in Russia during the years of the Communist Regime. All her life Matushka Matrona championed the cause of every soul who came to her and ached for others in holiness. During the tyranny of Stalin she was a secure refuge for all performing miracles and sustaining religious as well as laymen and fulfilled thus the prophecy of father John of Kronstadt, “Here is one to take my place! The eight pillar of Russia!” She had a clear eye (see Lk 11. 34-36).
In this creative sufferings in the darkest phase of the Night of the spirit the soul is sustained by the most sublime sufferings that a human being has ever undergone in this earthly tabernacle where we are stationed for the time being. IT IS THE PASSION OF A GOD WHO SUFFERED AS A MAN ON THE TREE OF THE CROSS. When He gives the soul a participation in His own sufferings the soul is bound to become a good intercessor, as God has rendered her heart into His own, given her a charitable heart. “What is a charitable heart” – asks St. Isaac the Syrian,
He who has such a heart cannot see
or call to mind a creature without his eyes become filled with tears by
the immense compassion which seize his heart; a heart which is softened
and can no longer bear to see or learn from others of any sufferings,
even the smallest pain, being inflected upon a creature. This is why
such a man never ceases to pray, also for the animals, for the enemies
of the Truth, and for those who do him evil, that they may be
persevered and purified. He will pray even for the reptiles, moved by
the infinite pity which reigns in the hearts of those who are becoming
united with God. [5]
Such a soul has been crucified with her Redeemer on the Cross in this night of the spirit and thus she repeats His own prayer in the darkest hour of His passion on the Tree of Life,
FATHER, FORGIVE THEM; THEY DO NOT
KNOW WHAT THEY ARE DOING (Lk 23. 34).
[1]. Life, 20, 7.
[2]. The Ascend of Mount Carmel, II. 26, 9.
[3]. Prologue to E. Ellison Peer’s translation of The Ascend of Mount Carmel.
[4]. The Way of Perfection, 31, 7.
[5]. Mystical Theology of the Eastern Church, p. 111.
[2]. The Ascend of Mount Carmel, II. 26, 9.
[3]. Prologue to E. Ellison Peer’s translation of The Ascend of Mount Carmel.
[4]. The Way of Perfection, 31, 7.
[5]. Mystical Theology of the Eastern Church, p. 111.