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I have strayed far from any intention, for
I was trying to give the reasons why this kind of vision cannot be the
work of the imagination. How could we picture Christ's Humanity by merely
studying the subject or form any impression of His great beauty by means
of the imagination? No little time would be necessary if such a
reproduction was to be in the least like the original. One can indeed make
such a picture with one's imagination, and spend time in regarding it, and
considering the form and the brilliance of it; little by little one may
even learn to perfect such an image and store it up in the memory. Who can
prevent this? Such a picture can undoubtedly be fashioned with the
understanding. But with regard to the vision which we are discussing there
is no way of doing this: we have to look at it when the Lord is pleased to
reveal it to us -- to look as He wills and at whatever He wills. And there
is no possibility of our subtracting from it or adding to it, or any way
in which we can obtain it, whatever we may do, or look at it when we like
or refrain from looking at it. If we try to look at any particular part of
it, we at once lose Christ.
For two years and a half things went on
like this and it was quite usual for God to grant me this favour. It must
now be more than three years since He took it from me as a continually
recurring favour,[225] by
giving me something else of a higher kind, which I shall describe later.
Though I saw that He was speaking to me, and though I was looking upon
that great beauty of His, and experiencing the sweetness with which He
uttered those words -- sometimes stern words -- with that most lovely and
Divine mouth, and though, too, I was extremely desirous of observing the
colour of His eyes, or His height, so that I should be able to describe
it, I have never been sufficiently worthy to see this, nor has it been of
any use for me to attempt to do so; if I tried, I lost the vision
altogether. Though I sometimes see Him looking at me compassionately, His
gaze has such power that my soul cannot endure it and remains in so
sublime a rapture that it loses this beauteous vision in order to have the
greater fruition of it all. So there is no question here of our wanting or
not wanting to see the vision. It is clear that the Lord wants of us only
humility and shame, our acceptance of what is given us and our praise of
its Giver.
This refers to all visions, none excepted.
There is nothing that we can do about them; we cannot see more or less of
them at will; and we can neither call them up nor banish them by our own
efforts. The Lord's will is that we shall see quite clearly that they are
produced, not by us but by His Majesty. Still less can we be proud of
them: on the contrary, they make us humble and fearful, when we find that,
just as the Lord takes from us the power of seeing what we desire, so He
can also take from us these favours and His grace, with the result that we
are completely lost. So while we live in this exile let us always walk
with fear.
Almost invariably the Lord showed Himself
to me in His resurrection body, and it was thus, too, that I saw Him in
the Host. Only occasionally, to strengthen me when I was in tribulation,
did He show me His wounds, and then He would appear sometimes as He was on
the Cross and sometimes as in the Garden. On a few occasions I saw Him
wearing the crown of thorns and sometimes He would also be carrying the
Cross -- because of my necessities, as I say, and those of others -- but
always in His glorified flesh. Many are the affronts and trials that I
have suffered through telling this and many are the fears and persecutions
that it has brought me. So sure were those whom I told of it that I had a
devil that some of them wanted to exorcize me. This troubled me very
little, but I was sorry when I found that my confessors were afraid to
hear my confessions or when I heard that people were saying things to them
against me. None the less, I could never regret having seen these heavenly
visions and I would not exchange them for all the good things and delights
of this world. I always considered them a great favour from the Lord, and
I think they were the greatest of treasures; often the Lord Himself would
reassure me about them. I found my love for Him growing exceedingly: I
used to go to Him and tell Him about all these trials and I always came
away from prayer comforted and with new strength. I did not dare to argue
with my critics, because I saw that that made things worse, as they
thought me lacking in humility. With my confessor, however, I did discuss
these matters; and whenever he saw that I was troubled he would comfort me
greatly.
As the visions became more numerous, one
of those who had previously been in the habit of helping me and who used
sometimes to hear my confessions when the minister was unable to do so,
began to say that it was clear I was being deceived by the devil. So, as I
was quite unable to resist it, they commanded me to make the sign of the
Cross whenever I had a vision, and to snap my fingers at it[226]
so as to convince myself that it came from the devil, whereupon it would
not come again: I was not to be afraid, they said, and God would protect
me and take the vision away. This caused me great distress: as I could not
help believing that my visions came from God, it was a terrible thing to
have to do; and, as I have said, I could not possibly wish them to be
taken from me. However, I did as they commanded me. I besought God often
to set me free from deception; indeed, I was continually doing so and with
many tears. I would also invoke Saint Peter and Saint Paul, for the Lord
had told me (it was on their festival that He had first appeared to me)[227]
that they would prevent me from being deluded; and I used often to see
them very clearly on my left hand, though not in an imaginary vision.
These glorious Saints were in a very real sense my lords.
To be obliged to snap my fingers at a
vision in which I saw the Lord caused me the sorest distress. For, when I
saw Him before me, I could not have believed that the vision had come from
the devil even if the alternative were my being cut to pieces. So this was
a kind of penance to me, and a heavy one. In order not to have to be so
continually crossing myself, I would carry a cross in my hand. This I did
almost invariably; but I was not so particular about snapping my fingers
at the vision, for it hurt me too much to do that. It reminded me of the
way the Jews had insulted Him, and I would beseech Him to forgive me,
since I did it out of obedience to him who was in His own place, and not
to blame me, since he was one of the ministers whom He had placed in His
Church. He told me not to worry about it and said I was quite right to
obey, but He would see that my confessor learned the truth. When they made
me stop my prayer He seemed to me to have become angry, and He told me to
tell them that this was tyranny. He used to show me ways of knowing that
the visions were not of the devil; some of these I shall describe later.
Once, when I was holding in my hand the
cross of a rosary, He put out His own hand and took it from me, and, when
He gave it back to me, it had become four large stones, much more precious
than diamonds -- incomparably more so, for it is impossible, of course, to
make comparisons with what is supernatural, and diamonds seem imperfect
counterfeits beside the precious stones which I saw in that vision. On the
cross, with exquisite workmanship, were portrayed the five wounds.[228]
He told me that henceforward it would always look to me like that, and so
it did: I could never see the wood of which it was made, but only these
stones. To nobody, however, did it look like this except to myself. As
soon as they had begun to order me to test my visions in this way, and to
resist them, the favours became more and more numerous. In my efforts to
divert my attention from them, I never ceased from prayer; even when
asleep I used to seem to be praying, for this made me grow in love. I
would address my complaints to the Lord, telling Him I could not bear it.
Desire and strive to cease thinking of Him as I would, it was not in my
power to do so. In every respect I was as obedient as I could be, but
about this I could do little or nothing, and the Lord never gave me leave
to disobey. But, though He told me to do as I was bidden, He reassured me
in another way, by teaching me what I was to say to my critics; and this
He does still. The arguments with which He provided me were so conclusive
that they made me feel perfectly secure.
Shortly after this, His Majesty began to
give me clearer signs of His presence, as He had promised me to do. There
grew within me so strong a love of God that I did not know who was
inspiring me with it, for it was entirely supernatural and I had made no
efforts to obtain it. I found myself dying with the desire to see God and
I knew no way of seeking that life save through death. This love came to
me in vehement impulses, which, though less unbearable, and of less worth,
than those of which I have spoken previously, took from me all power of
action. For nothing afforded me satisfaction and I was incapable of
containing myself: it really seemed as though my soul were being torn from
me. O sovereign artifice of the Lord, with what subtle diligence dost Thou
work upon Thy miserable slave! Thou didst hide Thyself from me, and out of
Thy love didst oppress me with a death so delectable that my soul's desire
was never to escape from it.
No one who has not experienced these
vehement impulses can possibly understand this: it is no question of
physical restlessness within the breast, or of uncontrollable devotional
feelings which occur frequently and seem to stifle the spirit. That is
prayer of a much lower kind, and we should check such quickenings of
emotion by endeavouring gently to turn them into inward recollection and
to keep the soul hushed and still. Such prayer is like the violent sobbing
of children: they seem as if they are going to choke, but if they are
given something to drink their superabundant emotion is checked
immediately. So it is here: reason must step in and take the reins, for it
may be that this is partly accountable for by the temperament. On
reflection comes a fear that there is some imperfection, which may in
great part be due to the senses. So this child must be hushed with a
loving caress which will move it to a gentle kind of love; it must not, as
they say, be driven at the point of the fist. Its love must find an outlet
in interior recollection and not be allowed to boil right over like a pot
to which fuel has been applied indiscriminately. The fire must be
controlled at its source and an endeavour must be made to quench the flame
with gentle tears, not with tears caused by affliction, for these proceed
from the emotions already referred to and do a great deal of harm. I used
at first to shed tears of this kind, which left my brain so distracted and
my spirit so wearied that for a day or more I was not fit to return to
prayer. Great discretion, then, is necessary at first so that everything
may proceed gently and the operations of the spirit may express themselves
interiorly; great care should be taken to prevent operations of an
exterior kind.
These other impulses are very different.
It is not we who put on the fuel; it seems rather as if the fire is
already kindled and it is we who are suddenly thrown into it to be burned
up. The soul does not try to feel the pain of the wound caused by the
Lord's absence. Rather an arrow is driven into the very depths of the
entrails, and sometimes into the heart, so that the soul does not know
either what is the matter with it or what it desires. It knows quite well
that it desires God and that the arrow seems to have been dipped in some
drug which leads it to hate itself for the love of this Lord so that it
would gladly lose its life for Him. No words will suffice to describe the
way in which God wounds the soul and the sore distress which He causes it,
so that it hardly knows what it is doing. Yet so delectable is this
distress that life holds no delight which can give greater satisfaction.
As I have said, the soul would gladly be dying of this ill.
This distress and this bliss between them
bewildered me so much that I was never able to understand how such a thing
could be. Oh, what it is to see a wounded soul -- I mean when it
understands its condition sufficiently to be able to describe itself as
wounded for so excellent a cause! It sees clearly that this love has come
to it through no act of its own, but that, from the exceeding great love
which the Lord bears it, a spark seems suddenly to have fallen upon it and
to have set it wholly on fire. Oh, how often, when in this state, do I
remember that verse of David: Quemadmodum desiderat cervus ad fontes
aquarum,[229] which I
seem to see fulfilled literally in myself!
When these impulses are not very strong
they appear to calm down a little, or, at any rate, the soul seeks some
relief from them because it knows not what to do. It performs certain
penances, but is quite unable to feel them, while the shedding of its
blood causes it no more distress than if its body were dead. It seeks ways
and means whereby it may express something of what it feels for the love
of God; but its initial pain is so great that I know of no physical
torture which can drown it. There is no relief to be found in these
medicines: they are quite inadequate for so sublime an ill.[230]
A certain alleviation of the pain is possible, which may cause some of it
to pass away, if the soul begs God to grant it relief from its ill, though
it sees none save death, by means of which it believes it can have
complete fruition of its Good. At other times the impulses are so strong
that the soul is unable to do either this or anything else. The entire
body contracts and neither arm nor foot can be moved. If the subject is on
his feet, he remains as though transported and cannot even breathe: all he
does is to moan -- not aloud, for that is impossible, but inwardly, out of
pain.
It pleased the Lord that I should
sometimes see the following vision. I would see beside me, on my left
hand, an angel in bodily form -- a type of vision which I am not in the
habit of seeing, except very rarely. Though I often see representations of
angels, my visions of them are of the type which I first mentioned. It
pleased the Lord that I should see this angel in the following way. He was
not tall, but short, and very beautiful, his face so aflame that he
appeared to be one of the highest types of angel who seem to be all afire.
They must be those who are called cherubim:[231]
they do not tell me their names but I am well aware that there is a great
difference between certain angels and others, and between these and others
still, of a kind that I could not possibly explain. In his hands I saw a
long golden spear and at the end of the iron tip I seemed to see a point
of fire. With this he seemed to pierce my heart several times so that it
penetrated to my entrails. When he drew it out, I thought he was drawing
them out with it and he left me completely afire with a great love for
God. The pain was so sharp that it made me utter several moans; and so
excessive was the sweetness caused me by this intense pain that one can
never wish to lose it, nor will one's soul be content with anything less
than God. It is not bodily pain, but spiritual, though the body has a
share in it -- indeed, a great share. So sweet are the colloquies of love
which pass between the soul and God that if anyone thinks I am lying I
beseech God, in His goodness, to give him the same experience.[232]
During the days that this continued, I
went about as if in a stupor. I had no wish to see or speak with anyone,
but only to hug my pain, which caused me greater bliss than any that can
come from the whole of creation. I was like this on several occasions,
when the Lord was pleased to send me these raptures, and so deep were they
that, even when I was with other people, I could not resist them; so,
greatly to my distress, they began to be talked about. Since I have had
them, I do not feel this pain so much, but only the pain of which I spake
somewhere before -- I do not remember in what chapter.[233]
The latter is, in many respects, very different from this, and of greater
worth. But, when this pain of which I am now speaking begins, the Lord
seems to transport the soul and to send it into an ecstasy, so that it
cannot possibly suffer or have any pain because it immediately begins to
experience fruition. May He be blessed for ever, Who bestows so many
favours on one who so ill requites such great benefits.
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