A Reasonable Mystic

Posts Tagged ‘Sin’

A Short and Easy Method of Prayer – Chapter 23

Saturday, December 6th, 2008

To Pastors and Teachers

If all who laboured for the conversion of others were to introduce them immediately into Prayer and the Interior Life, and make it their main design to gain and win over the heart, numberless as well as permanent conversions would certainly ensue. On the contrary, few and transient fruits must attend that labour which is confined to outward matters; such as burdening the disciple with a thousand precepts for external exercises, instead of leaving the soul to Christ by the occupation of the heart in Him.

If ministers were solicitous thus to instruct their parishioners; shepherds, while they watched their flocks, might have the Spirit of the primitive Christians, and the husbandman at the plough maintain a blessed intercourse with his God; the manufacturer, while he exhausts his outward man with labour, would be renewed in internal strength; and every species of vice would shortly disappear and every parishioner become a true follower of the Good Shepherd.

O when once the heart is gained, how easily is all moral evil corrected! it is, therefore, that God, above all things, requires the heart. It is the conquest of the heart alone that can extirpate those dreadful vices which are so predominant, such as drunkenness, blasphemy, lewdness, envy, and theft. Jesus Christ would become the universal and peaceful Sovereign, and the face of the Church would be wholly renewed.

The decay of internal piety is unquestionably the source of the various errors that have arisen in the Church; all which would speedily be sapped and overthrown should inward religion be re-established. Errors are only so far prejudicial to the soul as they tend to weaken faith and deter from prayer; and if, instead of engaging our wandering brethren in vain disputes, we could but teach them simply to believe and diligently to pray, we should lead them sweetly unto God.

O how inexpressibly great is the loss sustained by mankind from the neglect of the Interior Life! And how tremendous must the great day of retribution be to those who are entrusted with the care of souls, for not having discovered and dispensed to their flock this hidden treasure.

Some excuse themselves by saying that this is a dangerous way; pleading the incapacity of simple persons to comprehend spiritual matters. But the Oracles of Truth affirm the contrary: “The Lord loveth those who walk simply” (Prov. xii. 22). And where can be the danger of walking in the only true way, which is Jesus Christ? of giving up ourselves to Him, fixing our eye continually upon Him, placing all our confidence in His grace, and tending with all the strength of our soul to His pure Love?

The simple ones, so far from being incapable of this perfection, are, by their docility, innocence, and humility, peculiarly adapted and qualified for its attainment; and as they are not accustomed to reasoning, they are less employed in speculations, less tenacious of their own opinions. Even from their want of learning, they submit more freely to the teachings of the Divine Spirit: whereas others, who are blinded by self-sufficiency and enslaved by prejudice, give great resistance to the operations of Grace.

We are told in Scripture “that unto the simple God giveth the understanding of his law” (Ps. cxviii. 130); and we are also assured that God loveth to commune freely with them: “The Lord careth for the simple; I was reduced to extremity, and he saved me” (Ps. cxiv. 6). To warn Spiritual Fathers against preventing the little ones from coming to Christ, He Himself said to His Apostles, “Suffer little children to come unto me, for of such is the kingdom of Heaven” (Matt. xix. 14). It was the endeavor of the Apostles to prevent children from going to our Lord, which occasioned this gracious charge. Man frequently applies a remedy to the outward body, whilst the disease lies at the heart.

The cause of our being so unsuccessful in reforming mankind, especially those of the lower class, is our beginning with external matters; all our labours in this field do but produce such fruit as endures not: but if the key of the interior be first given, the exterior would be naturally and easily reformed. To teach man to seek God in his heart, to think of Him, to return to Him whenever he finds that he has wandered from Him, and to do and to suffer all things with a single eye to please Him, is the natural and ready process; it is leading the soul to the very source of Grace, wherein is to be found all that is necessary for sanctification.

I, therefore, conjure you all, O ye who have the care of souls, to put them at once into this way, which is Jesus Christ; nay, it is He Himself who conjures you, by the Precious Blood He hath shed for those entrusted to you, “to speak to the heart of Jerusalem” (Isa. xl. 2). O ye Dispensers of His Grace, ye Preachers of His Word, ye Ministers of His Sacraments, establish His Kingdom! – and that it may indeed be established, make Him Ruler over the hearts of His subjects! For as it is the heart alone that can oppose His Sovereignty, it is by the subjection of the heart that His Sovereignty is most highly exalted: “Give glory to the holiness of God, and he shall become your sanctification” (Isa. viii. 13). Compose catechisms particularly to teach prayer, not by reasoning nor by method, for the simple are incapable thereof; but to teach the prayer of the heart, not of the understanding; the prayer of God’s Spirit, not of man’s invention.

Alas! by wanting them to pray in elaborate forms, and to be curiously critical therein, you create their chief obstacles. The children have been led astray from the best of Fathers, by your endeavouring to teach them too refined, too polished a language. Go then, ye poor children, to your Heavenly Father; speak to Him in your natural language; and though it be ever so rude and barbarous in the opinion of men, it is not so to Him. A Father is much better pleased with an address which love and respect in the child throws into disorder, because He knows it proceeds from the heart, than by a formal and barren harangue, though ever so elaborate in the composition. The simple and undisguised emotions of filial love are infinitely more expressive than all language and all reasoning.

By forming instructions how to love by rule and method the Essential Love, men have in a great measure estranged themselves from Him. O how unnecessary is it to teach an art of loving! The language of Love, though natural to the lover, is nonsense and barbarism to him who loveth not. The best way to learn the love of God is to love Him. The ignorant and simple, because they proceed with more cordiality and simplicity, often become most perfect therein. The Spirit of God needs none of our arrangements and methods; when it pleaseth Him, He turns shepherds into prophets: and, so far from excluding any from the Temple of Prayer, He throws wide the gates, that all may enter; while Wisdom cries aloud in the highways, “Whoso is simple let him turn in hither” (Prov. ix. 4); and to the Fools she saith, “Come eat of my bread, and drink of the wine which I have mingled” (Prov. ix. 5). And doth not Jesus Christ Himself thank His Father for having hid the secrets of his kingdom from the wise and prudent and revealed them unto babes? (Matt. xi. 25).

Tags: blood, body, Books, bread, Christianity, evil, grace, heart, interior life, Jeanne Guyon, Jesus Christ, love, Madame Guyon, Mysticism, Mystics, piety, Prayer, reform, Sin, Soul, spiritual fathers, Spiritual Practices, truth, wine
Posted in Books, Jesus Christ, Lectio Divina, Mysticism, Prayer, Sacraments, Sin, Soul, Spiritual Practices | No Comments »

A Short and Easy Method of Prayer – Chapter 15

Wednesday, November 21st, 2007

Of Confession and Self-examination

Self-examination should always precede Confession, and in the nature and manner of it should be conformable to the state of the soul: the business of those that are advanced to the degree of which we now treat, is to lay their whole souls open before God, who will not fail to enlighten them, and enable them to see the peculiar nature of their faults. This examination, however, should be peaceful and tranquil, and we should depend on God for the discovery and knowledge of our sins, rather than, on the diligence of our own scrutiny.

When we examine with constraint, and in the strength of our own endeavours, we are easily deceived and betrayed by self-love into error; “we believe the evil good, and the good evil” (Isa. v. 20); but when we lie in full exposure before the Sun of Righteousness, His Divine beams render the smallest atoms visible. It follows from hence that we must forsake self, and abandon our souls to God as well in examination as Confession.

When souls have attained to this species of prayer no fault escapes reprehension; on every commission they are instantly rebuked by an inward burning and tender confusion. Such is the scrutiny of Him who suffers no evil to be concealed; and under His purifying influence the one way is to turn affectionately to our Judge, and bear with meekness the pain and correction He inflicts. He becomes the incessant Examiner of the soul; it can now, indeed, no longer examine itself, and if it be faithful in its resignation, experience will convince the soul that it is a thousand times more effectually examined by His Divine Light than by the most active and vigorous self-inspection.

Those who tread these paths should be informed of a matter respecting their Confession in which they are apt to err. When they begin to give an account of their sins, instead of the regret and contrition they had been accustomed to feel, they find that love and tranquillity sweetly pervade and take possession of their souls: now those who are not properly instructed are desirous of withdrawing from this sensation, to form an act of contrition, because they have heard, and with truth, that it is requisite: but they are not aware that they lose thereby the genuine contrition, which is this Intuitive Love, infinitely surpassing any effect produced by self-exertion, and comprehending the other acts in itself as in one principal act, in much higher perfection than if they were distinctly perceived, and varied in their sensation. Be not then troubled about other things when God acts so excellently in you and for you.

To hate sin in this manner is to hate it as God does. The purest love is that which is of His immediate operation in the soul: why should it then be so eager for action? Let it remain in the state He assigns it, agreeable to the instructions of Solomon: “Put your confidence in God; remain in quiet, where he hath placed you” (Eccles. xi. 22).

The soul will also be amazed at finding a difficulty in calling faults to remembrance: this, however, should cause no uneasiness; first, because this forgetfulness of our faults is some proof of our purification from them; and in this degree of advancement it is best. Secondly, because when Confession is our duty God will not fail to make known to us our greatest faults, for then He Himself examines, and the soul will feel the end of examination more perfectly accomplished than it could possibly have been by the utmost exertion of its own endeavours.

These instructions, however, would be altogether unsuitable to the preceding degrees while the soul continues in its active state, wherein it is right and necessary it should in all things use the utmost industry in proportion to the degree of its advancement. It is those that have arrived at this more advanced state whom I would exhort to follow these instructions, and not to vary their one simple occupation even on approaching the Communion; they should remain in silence, and suffer God to act freely and without limitation. Who can better receive the Body and Blood of Christ than he in whom the Holy Spirit is indwelling?

Tags: blood, Blood of Christ, body, Books, communion, confession, confidence in God, contrition, correction, divine, Divine Light, enlighten, God, hate sin, indwelling, Jeanne Guyon, knowledge, Madame Guyon, Mysticism, Mystics, pain, peace, Perfection, Prayer, purifying, quiet, self-examination, Sin, Soul, Spirit, Spiritual Practices, strength, Sun of Righteousness, tranquility
Posted in Books, Experience, Intimacy with God, Lectio Divina, Mysticism, Mystics, Prayer, Presence of God, Sacraments, Spiritual Practices | No Comments »

A Short and Easy Method of Prayer – Chapter 11

Wednesday, August 29th, 2007

Of Conversion

“Be ye truly converted unto that God from whom ye have so deeply revolted” (Isa. xxxi. 6). To be truly converted is to avert wholly from the creature, and turn wholly unto God.

For the attainment of salvation it is absolutely necessary that we should forsake outward sin and turn unto righteousness: but this alone is not perfect conversion, which consists in a total change of the whole man from an outward to an inward life.

When the soul is once turned to God a wonderful facility is found in continuing steadfast in conversion; and the longer it remains thus converted, the nearer it approaches, and the more firmly it adheres to God; and the nearer it draws to Him, of necessity it is the farther removed from the creature, which is so contrary to Him: so that it is so effectually established and rooted in its conversion that it becomes habitual, and, as it were, natural.

Now we must not suppose that this is effected by a violent exertion of its own powers; for it is not capable of, nor should it attempt any other co-operation with Divine Grace, than that of endeavouring to withdraw itself from external objects and to turn inwards: after which it has nothing farther to do than to continue steadfast in adherence to God.

God has an attractive virtue which draws the soul more and more powerfully to Himself, the nearer it approaches towards Him, and, in attracting, He purifies and refines it; just as with a gross vapour exhaled by the sun, which, as it gradually ascends, is rarified and rendered pure, the vapour, indeed, contributes to its exhalation only by its passiveness; but the soul co-operates with the attractions of God, by a free and affectionate correspondence. This kind of introversion is both easy and efficacious, advancing the soul naturally and without constraint, because God Himself is its centre.

Every centre has a powerfully attractive virtue; and the more pure and exalted it is, the stronger and more irresistible are its attractions. But besides the potent magnetism of the centre itself, there is, in every creature, a correspondent tendency to re-union with its peculiar centre which is vigorous and active in proportion to the spirituality and perfection of the subject.

As soon as anything is turned towards its centre its own gravitation instigates and accelerates it thereto, unless it be withheld by some invincible obstacle: a stone held in the hand is no sooner disengaged than by its own weight it falls to the earth as to its centre; so also water and fire, when unobstructed, tend and flow incessantly to their principle or centre. Now, when the soul, by its efforts to abandon outward objects, and gather itself inwards, is brought into the influence of this central tendency, without any other exertion, it falls gradually by the weight of Divine Love into its proper centre; and the more passive and tranquil it remains, and the freer from self-motion and self-exertion, the more rapidly it advances, because the energy of the central attractive virtue is unobstructed and has full liberty for action.

All our care and attention should, therefore, be to acquire inward recollection: nor let us be discouraged by the pains and difficulties we encounter in this exercise, which will soon be recompensed, on the part of our God, by such abundant supplies of grace as will render the exercise perfectly easy, provided we be faithful in meekly withdrawing our hearts from outward distractions and occupations, and returning to our centre with affections full of tenderness and serenity. When at any time the passions are turbulent, a gentle retreat inwards unto a Present God, easily deadens
and pacifies them; and any other way of contending with them rather irritates than appeases them.

Tags: attraction, Books, conversion, converted, divine, Divine Grace, Divine Love, God, grace, gravitation, inward, Isaiah, Jeanne Guyon, life, Madame Guyon, magnetism, Mysticism, Mystics, outwrd, Prayer, Presence of God, purify, righteousness, Salvation, Sin, Soul, Spiritual Practices
Posted in Books, Lectio Divina, Mysticism, Mystics, Prayer, Presence of God, Salvation, Spiritual Practices | No Comments »

What is Perfection?

Wednesday, August 1st, 2007

In the beginning there wasn’t, except for God.

God said “Be!” and there was.

God created, and said it was good, even very good. But it wasn’t yet finished.

Yet, in one sense it was perfect because, after declaring it to be very good, God rested.

The job of furthering that perfection fell to Adam and Eve. They were to subdue it, name it, to have dominion over it, and to increase it by multiplying.

It was perfect but incomplete.

God had mentioned the possibility of good and evil existing in the tree, but until they ate of its fruit they could not know what this meant. They had no concept of sin – just the information that they should not eat of it because doing so would cause them to die, whatever that was. There were no categories of good and evil, right and wrong, sinful and holy in their experience. Just complete and incomplete, and an idea that some things were safe to do and some not.

Perfection is a concept not disimilar in nature to infinity. Georg Cantor and others demonstrated that there can exist different types and degrees of infinity. I believe that God is what might be called a metainfinity – the infinity that enfolds all other infinities. Similarly God’s perfection transcends and embraces all lesser perfections.

Let me give an illustration of one aspect of God’s metaperfection. Imagine three people. On their own each has a degree of completeness we call personhood. If they are remarkably self-adjusted, stable, and self-individuated we might even begin to ascribe some degree of perfection to this personhood. However, separately they might lack something – they might not have relationship. What strong personality has not felt the tension in having to cooperate with others different from yourself?

Now suppose another three people who know each other intimately, with no evidence of selfishness or lack of love between them. Even if each individual was weak or seriously flawed in some way, they might still excell in their ability to relate together, those weaknesses permitting. This is a different degree of perfection. Yet they might not have the ability to function when separate. Each of us in a strong relationships knows the emptiness of being apart.

If, now, we discover that these perfectly relating personalities are also the perfectly functioning individuals of before, then we have not just two separate degrees of perfection, but another even higher perfection – the ability to hold together in common these two aspects which are so often, in humans, inimical to each other. This is a pale reflection of what we see in the Trinity – at the same time one and three, complete and perfect in every aspect, whether considered separately or together.

What are evil and sin? When the knowledge of good and evil entered Adam’s experience, so did death and decay. God had originally taken chaos – the total lack of order, the ultimate incompleteness and lack of perfection – and brought into it order, life, and a direction or purposefulness. This direction is a movement towards completion and the possibility of increased perfection.

At the Fall, the introduction of evil reversed this direction back towards incompleteness and imperfection. It introduced the death we are familiar with, and the decay which physicists identify as entropy – the running down of the mass/energy of the universe from its initial degree of order or structure at creation towards a bland, dead uniformity spread throughout space.

From the time of the fall everything began to die in every sense – physically, morally, emotionally, psychologically, socially and spiritually. Remember, it was never complete, but there is a sense in which it was perfect, just as Johnny Ortix’s little green apple is perfect even though it doesn’t yet taste sweet.

What was needed to reverse this trend? The Perfect entered the world as the Last Adam, and embraced the source of the decay – sin. Yet he remained truly perfect, being without sin and by not sinning (Hebrews 4:15). So, the possibility of ultimate perfection was returned to the creation. Once again the recipients of this grace won for them by Jesus are able to subdue, have dominion over, and multiply the creation. This multiplication is an increase in them – and through them, in the world – of the source of life, like a healing ointment poured into dying tissue, killing the infection and reversing the decay. The Creator has returned within his creatures, and is once again bringing order out of chaos. It is not yet complete, but where he has reign it is perfect.

So, what is the relationship between perfection and sin? Many speak and live as if they believe these two are opposites. This is not so. Sin is not the absence of perfection, although it does bring about a reduction of perfection. Sin is the agent that reverses the trend away from completeness and towards decay. “The wages of sin is death.” (Romans 6:23)

Perfection is more related to completeness than it is to sin. Just as there can be degrees of completeness, so can there be degrees of perfection. There are no degrees of sin – all sin is sin (Matthew 5:27,28), all sin kills!

Our green apple may be perfect for its stage of development. However, it is not yet finished if the goal is a perfectly edible apple, which is a higher form of perfection. Similarly, the green apple may have a blemish, and so be less than perfect, but still be capable of developing into an edible apple, allbeit still blemished. The apple has become more perfect in one sense, while still retaining the fault which makes it less perfect in another. (c.f Luke 13:6-9)

What happens at the transistion from earthly to heavenly life? When we see Jesus face to face we will then know what the ultimate metaperfection looks like. Jesus is totally complete in a way that we are not. However, at that point we will reach another degree of perfection in that sin will have been done away with. The trend towards decay will not exist, only the ‘upward’ or ‘forward’ progress from “one degree of glory to another” (2 Corinthians 3:18). This does not mean we will be complete, nor does it mean that the eventual new heavens and new earth will be complete and totally perfect in the sense that God is. perfect and complete.

We will have the task of stewarding, exploring, and enjoying that eternal progress towards the infinity that is God. Yes, we will be perfect, for our stage of being. But God is so infinitely greater in glory, knowledge, wisdom, love and ability than we will ever be that eternity will not be long enough for us to embrace it all, let alone match him.

I believe the knowledge of good and evil will still be present. It is part of God’s nature, was part of the original creation in the Garden, and since the Fall it is part of all of creation and in our own nature. However, sin has been overcome by Jesus. Sin is not the same as knowing good and evil. Sin is not even just the practice of evil. No, sin is the desire to do evil (James 1:13-15). And this desire will be gone. Sin always causes death and decay. Since there will be no death and decay, there can be no sin.

What there is, however, is incompleteness, in the sense that there will always be something more to do, something to learn or explore or experience, a higher perfection to reach. This is not imperfection. We are so used to thinking in ancient Greek terms, from Plato, through Aristotle and Aquinas – not truly Christian – that we find it hard not to think in terms of perfection in anything than dualistic, absolute terms. The possibility of going from pefection to perfection is a result of God always being more perfect than his creation. That is the nature of an ultimate metainfinity.

Doesn’t trying to explore his depths and the full extent of what he has done sound like an experience fulfilling enough to occupy an eternity?

Tags: Adam, apple, Aquinas, Aristotle, chaos, Christian, complete and incomplete, completeness, Corinthians, death, decay, direction, dualistic, entropy, eternity, Eve, Fall, fruit, Georg cantor, God, Good and Evil, Greek, heaven, Hebrews, in the beginning, incomplete, infinity, intimacy, James, Johnny Ortix, Last Adam, life, little green apple, Luke, Matthew, metainfinity, metaperfection, order, Perfection, personhood, Physics, Plato, purpose, relationship, right and wrong, Romans, Sin, sinful and holy, space, tree, Trinity, uniformity
Posted in Christianity, Experience, Good and Evil, Intimacy with God, Mathematics, Mysticism, Perfection, Philosophy, Physics, Presence of God, Science, Sin, Teaching | No Comments »

A Reasonable Mystic

Posts Tagged ‘Sin’

A Short and Easy Method of Prayer – Chapter 23

A Short and Easy Method of Prayer – Chapter 15

A Short and Easy Method of Prayer – Chapter 11

What is Perfection?

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