THE SPIRITUAL LIFE

Three Stages of the Spiritual Life

The Illuminative Stage: Part Two

By Brother Joseph of Mary,

Because God is diffusive, a deeper experience of God will be achieved in some souls. This deeper experience is not simply a wider experience. To receive God is the sole occupation of such souls. It is God alone who moves such a soul and does His work in its depths. More on this in the unitive stage.

God, wherever there is room, diffuses Himself. The “Father of lights” (Jas. 1:17), who is not close-fisted but diffuses Himself abundantly, as the sun does its rays, without being a respecter of persons (cf. Acts 10:34), wherever there is room…and does not hesitate or consider it of little import to find his “delights with the children of men” at a common table in the world (Prv. 8:31), JC LF 15 [John of the Cross, Living Flame].

As there was no room at the inn for Mary, who was pregnant with Jesus (love itself), so it is with some souls who fail to make room for God in their interior life. Souls do this intentionally, negligently or because of their failure to recognize God. They mistakenly choose lesser things for God. It is at this point in mystical theology (illumination) that the Church’s teaching regarding redemption from God’s point of view becomes abundantly clear. It was easier for God to create man than to redeem man. Why is this so? Because man was created out of nothing and had no will to resist God. A rock, a plant or an animal contains no free will to resist God. Only the soul can be judged as good or evil for failing to make room for God.

God will dwell with anyone who loves Him (cf. Jn. 14:23). The Blessed Trinity inhabits the soul by divinely illuminating its intellect with wisdom of the Son, delighting its will in the Holy Spirit, and by absorbing it powerfully and mightily in the delightful embrace of the Father’s sweetness. (Jc Lf 15).

We are discussing the illuminative stage, where the soul affirmatively walks with God, being clothed with virtue, gifts and graces. It is helpful here to briefly discuss the organs of the soul. There are three – the intellect, the will and the memory. For our purpose we will discuss the intellect in terms that will assist those who love God. So it is clear that all souls can test for themselves the existence of these three organs; consider for a moment the last time the reader was thirsty. That thirst exists in your memory. Now consider how your neighbor could be thirsty next week. That thirst is your intellect. Now reread this article when you are actually thirsty. That thirst exists in your will. Your thirst for God can be likewise considered as existing in all three organs, or faculties, of the soul.

Saint John of the Cross understood the intellect as having two spheres of influence, which are the theoretical and practical; which spheres can be understood to have three functional divisions. That being, for our purpose, knowing or understanding, judging and choosing. Now consider how the soul has the capacity to know what is true, judge what is true and choose what is true. Additionally consider how the soul can know and understand what is good, judge what is good and choose what is good. The true and good stand for God. God made the soul this way. The dark angel also knows this and herein lies the problem.

According to Saint John of the Cross, deceit is Satan’s principle weapon against souls. He is known as the great deceiver. There is hope; the soul should not be afraid. The Church takes serious this threat of deception against souls and understands well how to disarm it. First, this deception is limited. Herein lies the relevance of the four great passions.

The four great passions are fear, sorrow, hope and joy. Souls are to fear only the loss of God, take sorrow only in the loss of God, hope only in God, and take joy only in God. Scripture says, where love is perfected there is no fear…(cf. Jn. 4:18). For our purpose, God includes His essence and His operations (these concepts were defined and discussed in earlier articles). That means if God gives you His Son you take joy in Christ, if in God’s operative will He grants a marriage you take ordinate joy in that operation of God. Nowhere does this teaching require souls to abandon their spouses, children or empty their bank accounts. It is beyond the scope of this article to fully develop this, but the class of created goods contains by definition spouses, children and wealth, and created goods can be possessed properly in the will of God without harm to souls and for the glory of God, if done according to His will. Simply put, God’s operation put Christ in the womb of Mary, and Joseph and the angels rejoiced at this. Their joy was in God as it operated in Mary.

Imitate the Church in your use of creation. The Church takes simple grapes and profits from them by converting them to wine. From the wine the Church, uniting with the will of God, converts creation into the uncreated God (the body, blood, soul and divinity of God). The Church constantly elevates creation to God, thereby diffusing God in time and space. In the unitive stage the soul, like wine, is converted into God, not by essence but by participation. More on this later.

Souls at this advanced stage of the spiritual life are committed to God, and will not ordinarily knowingly walk away from God or intentionally reject God. Lucifer knows this too. When he attempts to derail such a soul from its direct path to God and union with God’s will, the four passions are invoked. Satan cloaks that which is true and good with the appearance of evil so the soul is tricked into fearing that which it should not fear. Satan then cloaks evil with the appearance of the true and good so that souls will be attracted to that which they should fear and sorrow over. Because souls are advancing towards God and the four great passions can be used against the soul, spiritual discernment and direction become relevant.

According to St. John of the Cross, a desire that is from God will grow as the soul draws closer to God. Likewise as the soul draws closer to God other desires not of God will dissipate.

Preparatory to discussing simple discernment, it is wise to consider the four fields of knowledge. They are knowledge of self, the world, and the knowledge of how your neighbor views you and the world.

Simple discernment requires some recollection in God and an examination of self. Does the intellect reveal light showing a way is clear? Does the intellect tell its owner that the raw material, ability and knowledge exist to complete the contemplated journey? For instance, if one were contemplating a vocation, does the intellect reveal that one has the ability to do what is contemplated? One who is blind cannot consider some vocations based on intellect alone.

Does the will reveal a desire to do or act in a certain capacity? Does the will spark at considering certain options or vocations? Are such desires closely referable to God or thought about in the context of God?

Does the memory hope and take joy in certain options or vocations? Does the memory easily refer to God when considering such vocation or option?

Consider the three organs as pistons. Do all three spark with desire at considering an option or vocation? Do only one or two spark? For instance, if one were considering space travel and the will had great desire, is the memory frequently turned with joy to activity on board a spaceship, with thoughts of valor in serving God and country? At first blush, it would appear a call from God were certain; but consider the intellect and its constant nagging at how would one be able to be absent from Mass for the several years in space voyage. Consider also in this soul there exists recognition that God has previously called this soul to weekly Mass. Here the intellect trumps all feelings in the face of such commitment to weekly Mass, recognizable as a supervening duty that admits in this soul no acceptable impairment.

In such a case, it would seem God’s call is elsewhere for this soul in these circumstances. Obviously, other facts and circumstances would admit of the possibility of God’s call to space travel. Such discussion of human conscience is beyond the scope of this article.

In conclusion, to discern if you have a call and assuming you desire it in the will, hope in it through the memory, you still must use the intellect in the ordinary way to God. The intellect presents to your heart your duties of life that cannot be abandoned or compromised such as in the above example – a duty by that soul of weekly Mass; which duty this soul in the example admits for itself, cannot be compromised. It also is presented in this article that the Church nowhere teaches that this occupation with receiving God is limited to religious. Lay people are called to receive God too. Only at man’s level of being is this occupation complete. A rock, a plant, a bird all receive their existence from God, but none can be called a child of God or ever hope to be the spouse of God by receiving God’s superabundance to such an extent that they become like God. This entire article simply exposes the soul’s use of two great powers given by God to all souls: the power to know and the power to love. At this stage of the spiritual life these powers are being oriented to God in a special way.