Here, as a re-gifted Christmas prezzie for you, is an extract from Divine Intimacy by Fr Gabriel of St Mary Magdalen which goes straight to the crux of the mystical life.
'The infallible
word of Jesus resounds continually in the heart of every Christian: “If a man
loves me . . . we will come to him and make our home with him”(Jn 14:23).
Just
the same there still remains a great question: if God abides in every person who
lives in the state of grace, why does such a person have such difficulty in
finding him and in recognizing his presence?
John of the Cross answers: “It
should be known that the Word, the Son of God, together with the Father and the
Holy Spirit is hidden by his essence and his presence in the innermost being of
the soul. A person who wants to find him must leave all things through affection
and will, enter into himself in deepest recollection and regard things as though
they were nonexistent”(Sp C 1:6).
The answer is clear: God is within us, but he
is hidden. In order to find him we must go forth from everything as regards
affection and will That means to detach ourselves, to renounce ourselves,
annihilate ourselves, to die spiritually to ourselves and to all things, not so
much, or only, by a physical withdrawal, but especially by detachment of the
affections and the will. It is the path of the “nothing,”or complete detachment;
it is the death of the old man, the indispensable condition for putting on
Christ, for life in God.
St. Paul, too, has said: “You have died, and your life
is hid with Christ in God”(Col. 3:3). The loving search for God present in our
heart goes hand in hand with this dying to the world and to ourselves. In this
sense, the more we die to ourselves, the more we find God.
The soul. . . “in
order to speak to its eternal Father and to find its delight in him has no need
to go to heaven . . . neither is there any need for wings to go to find him. All
one need do is to go into solitude and look at him within us”(St. Teresa, The Way of Perfection
28:2).
But in actual fact, Christians, even those consecrated to God, are very
often satisfied with a superficial life, pretty much an exterior one, which
makes them incapable of recollecting themselves interiorly in order to come into
contact with God. We have in us a host of inclinations, ideas, and strong
passions which make us turn toward creatures and induce us to give them our
heart, to build our hopes on them and find consolation in their presence and
remembrance.
All this can make us go so far as to forget, or at least neglect the
great treasure that we carry within us: God, living and present, who urges us on
to a life that is deeper and truer, a life of intimate communion with him. The
Lord awaits us there, in the depths of our soul, where he has set up his abode;
but we find it very difficult to recollect ourselves at such a depth, and
continue to let ourselves be taken up with a thousand external matters to which
we give all our interest.
“Anyone who is to find a hidden treasure,”warns St.
John of the Cross, “must enter the hiding place secretly, and once he has
discovered it, he will also be hidden just as the treasure is hidden. Since,
then, your beloved Bridegroom is the treasure hidden in a field, for which the
wise merchant sold all his possessions (Mt 13:44). . . in order to find him you
should forget all your possessions and all creatures and hide in the interior,
secret chamber of your spirit”.
Without a certain avoidance of the
outer world, of the superficial life, it is impossible to reach God who is
present, but hidden, in us; it is impossible to live in communion with him who
never abandons us unless we first abandon him.'
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