The mount of perfection

PRESENCE OF GOD - “Who shall ascend into the mountain of the Lord?” (Ps 23,3). I beg my God to permit me to approach the holy mountain on which He dwells, where His honor and glory alone reign.

MEDITATION

1. St. John of the Cross has left us a drawing which sums up, expresses in synthesis the whole spiritual life. It is the outline of a mountain whose summit, symbolized by a circle, represents the state of perfection. The ascent is symbolized by three paths, all leading toward the summit, but only one of them, the narrowest, reaches it. This is the way of the “ nothing” (nada), the way of total abnegation. It leads directly to the summit of the mount, where there is an inscription: “Only the honor and glory of God remain.”

The soul arrives at this supreme height, when dominated by perfect charity, it adheres totally to the divine will, and moved by that divine will alone, tends solely to the glory of the Most Holy Trinity. On the periphery of the circle are the words: “And here there is no way, as for the just man there is no law...” In fact, the soul which is completely dominated by the love of God no longer needs the stimulus of an external law obliging it to keep on the right road; God’s will has become the one “ principle of activity” which moves and directs it in all its actions. This is why the Saint says that, in this state, the two wills—the will of God and the will of the soul—have become one, and this one will is the divine will which has now become the will of the soul, which, losing itself in this divine will, has abandoned all other choice.

All the infused virtues, together with the gifts and fruits of the Holy Spirit, flourish abundantly in this soul, making it enjoy intimacy with God in a “perpetual banquet, divine silence, and divine wisdom.” Thus, by following the rugged path of the “nada” (nothing) the soul reaches the immense “All” of God, its only treasure, in which it loses itself.

2. The only road that can bring us to the summit of perfection is the rugged path of “nothing” which leaves aside the two easy roads of the “imperfect spirit”; these end half-way up the mountain and go no farther. The imperfect spirit is one that is “ attached” to the things of earth, or even to spiritual goods, using these goods in a disordered way and with a view to personal satisfaction.

In order to leave the “road of the imperfect spirit,” we must no longer love anything, unless it be in perfect conformity with God’s will. In fact, every object which we love for itself and not according to God’s will, becomes for us a source of preoccupation, desires, distress, and anxiety; it moves our hearts and makes us act only for our own satisfaction. In a soul attached to created things, how many principles of action there are which are not conformable to God’s will! Such a soul finds itself on these “ paths of the imperfect,” which will never take it to the goal. This is why next to them is written: “Neither the goods of earth, nor the goods of heaven”; therefore nothing. A few lines inscribed at the foot of the mountain stress this fundamental idea: “In order to enjoy, know, possess, and be everything, desire to enjoy, know, possess, and be nothing. You must continue on the way without enjoying, without knowing, without possessing, you must follow the path on which you are nothing.” It is the arid, desolate path of the purification of the senses and of the spirit, the path which reduces the soul to nothing in order to prepare it for meeting God, for the “ all” of perfect conformity of its will to His.

COLLOQUY

O my God, behold me at the foot of the sublime mountain of perfection! How shall I be able to follow such a long, rugged road?

To encourage my faintheartedness, I must consider that Your beloved Son came down to earth expressly to show us the one way that leads to You, and to walk before us on that way. He said, “If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me” (Mt 16,24). Does this not mean the path of the nothing? When He said, “ Be you therefore perfect, as also your heavenly Father is perfect” (ibid. 5,48), was He not inviting me too, to attain that high perfection in which only God’s honor and glory are sought?

If You, O Lord, call me to sanctity, You are ready to provide me with the graces necessary to reach it. Your divine assistance always goes before me and gently urges me on. With You, even the most difficult things become easy and pleasant. “O my God, how abundantly do You manifest Your power! There is no need to seek reasons for what You will, for You transcend all natural reason and make all things possible, thus showing clearly that we have only to love You truly, and truly to forsake everything for You, and You, my Lord, will make everything easy.

“It is well said with regard to this, that 'You feign labor in Your law’; for I do not see, Lord, and I do not know how the road that leads to You can be narrow. To me it seems a royal road, not a pathway; a road upon which anyone who sets out in earnest will travel securely. Mountain passes and rocks that might fall upon him—I mean occasions of sin—are far distant.... He who truly loves You, my God, travels by a broad and royal road and travels securely. It is far away from any precipice, and hardly has such a man stumbled in the slightest degree when You, Lord, give him Your hand. One fall—and even many falls, if he loves You and not the things of the world—will not be enough to lead him to perdition: he will be traveling along the valley of humility. I cannot understand why it is that people are afraid to set out upon the way of perfection.... Our eyes must be fixed upon You, and we must not be afraid that You, the Sun of Justice, will set, or that You will allow us to travel by night, and so be lost, unless we first forsake You.

“People are not afraid to walk among lions, each of which seems to be trying to tear them to pieces — I mean among honors, delights, and pleasures of that kind...but when it is a question of virtue, the devil frightens us with scarecrows!... How sad this makes me! Fain would I weep ten thousand times!... You, whose goodness is all powerful, open my eyes and never let them become blind again. Amen ” (T.J. Life, 35).