THE SPIRITUAL LIFE

Three Stages of the Spiritual Life

By Brother Joseph of Mary,

God exists beyond time. One gift from God is Time. By definition and observation, where time exists, change is present as an observable phenomena. In fact to have change as we understand it, time is necessary to achieve it. St. John of the Cross tells us that God has one desire for souls. That desire is to exalt souls. This exaltation necessarily involves change and thus involves time. Beyond the grave, where time ceases to exist, change as we know it is not possible. When a soul dies with its will intact and placed in an orientation on the good which we know as God, that soul has achieved salvation if not perfection. When a soul dies with its will placed and oriented not on God but evil, that soul at the point of death is frozen in that orientation and destined to live that way for eternity, separated by its own choice, from God.

The Church Militant exists in time. This Mystical Body of Christ has its’ life, knowledge and love. The life of the Church consists of the corporeal and spiritual. The knowledge of the Church, for our purpose, consists of three divisions or theologies: dogmatic (what to believe), moral (how to act), and mystical (how to act perfectly). The love of the Church consists of the several degrees of agape love. The potential love of individuals consists of storge (affection), philia (friendship), eros (marital), and potentially the God-like love of agape.

God expects man to participate in His essence and operations both in and out of time. This expectation or desire is what propels the soul to God. It is why Christ died. It is the fruit of the Good News of Christ’s resurrection. The soul is invited and actually pursued by God to change its’ essence and operation from the imperfect and low life of affection for what is not God, to perfect love and affection for God. The spiritual life is embraced to effect this transition.

The wisdom of the Church explains that there exist three (3) stages/ways of the spiritual life to effect this change in a soul’s essence and operations. They are the purgative way, the illuminative way and the unitive way. These three ways have been generally accepted by all schools of spirituality. They may exist under different names but the truth they convey is consistent and has produced many saints. This three-fold division illustrates how a soul begins, advances and reaches its’ goal in the spiritual life.

The purgative way is the initial stage where the soul begins its’ journey to God. Here it turns from evil and all that is not God. To illustrate, if the soul were a green log, it is here that the soul is purged of moisture and made ready for combustion when the fire is applied.

The illuminative way is for those advancing and it is where the soul begins to do good and practice virtue. Here the soul, if it were that log, would catch fire and begin to burn, albeit with hesitancy and hissing and much smoke since the soul’s love is still impure, and lowly human love not yet divinized and motivated more by comfort and consolation than love for God.

The unitive way is that of proficients and those destined for ultimate intimate union or marriage to God. Here the soul seeks that peace, and pursues that peace beyond all understanding. Here the soul is transformed into fire like the log once wet, now dry, once hissing and sputtering, now consumed by the flame and reduced to white hot coals, so hot at the center that at times the coals seem indistinguishable from the flame. This is the place that the soul in its’ deepest union becomes as if it were a living flame of love. It is this deep union that consumes those saints that die in ecstasy; the simultaneous joy of union and pain of separation felt only this side of the grave. It is of these souls that is can be observed that where love is perfected, there is no fear. Here love has cast out all fear of death or otherwise. The Catholic Church has a monopoly on this type of phenomena. Even Socrates although condemned to a death he did not fear, certainly did not embrace it like a lover destined for consummation and the eternal union with the Beloved.

The goal of any soul is to become as St. John of the Cross best describes it…transformed in God’s image and likeness to such a degree that the soul becomes a “living flame of love”, such that God uses the soul to torch the world that that soul inhabits with greater love and truth such that God is glorified and made more known, thus expanding in time and out of time the created universe. It is here that God comes full circle allowing a creature to be like its’ creator and participate in creation. This is God’s ultimate gift of His image and likeness in essence and operations.

A separate article will be devoted to each of these three stages of the spiritual life that have for their goal the elevation of the soul’s heart and mind to God.