Meanwhile the Community of Groenendael grew and flourished. The holy
Prior continued to make progress in the practice of heroic virtue, his
gifts of contemplation became ever more sublime, and still his reputation
for sanctity increased. His contemporary biographers, after the fashion
of their day, catalogue the Christian virtues, and one by one show how
they excelled in him. Let it suffice here to remark that those virtues
which he the most earnestly commends and the most highly exalts in his
writings, he the most constantly exercised in his own person. Chief of
these was humility, which he terms everywhere the foundation of
perfection; then obedience to men and resignation to the will of God, a
most tender devotion towards Jesus Christ in the Blessed Sacrament of the
Altar, and, in fine, an ardent love of God and the neighbour. A few
instances may be given in illustration.
On one occasion Blessed John was seriously ill; consumed by fever and
tortured by an intense thirst, he begged the Brother Infirmarian for a
drink of water. The Provost, who happened to be present, forbade the
draught, fearing it might do him harm. He was literally dying of thirst,
and his lips were cracking, they were so parched, yet Ruysbroeck humbly
acquiesced. But later, reflecting how great would be the grief and
remorse of his friend and superior if he actually died of his agony, he
quietly remarked: "Father Provost, if I have not a drink of water now I
shall certainly not recover from this malady." Thereupon, in great alarm,
Dom Francis immediately bade him drink. And from that moment the holy man
began to regain his strength.
Another and a continual proof of his humility was the willingness with
which he took part in the heavy manual labour of the Community. His
dignity, his advanced age, his inexperience in such work, the many other
calls upon his time and strength--all this and the like the brethren
urged as motives wherefore he should be exempt; but he refused to listen.
Truth to tell, the material advantage from his toil was but little: his
frame was enfeebled by years and austerities, and in his ignorance he was
liable, for instance, to root up seedlings in the garden instead of
weeds! But the spiritual gain to the Brethren was incalculable; there was
not only the example of his humility, but of his unfailing recollection
too. In the midst of his labour he never lost his sense of the nearness
of God's presence. Indeed he was wont to say that it was easier for him
to raise his soul to God than to lift his hand to his forehead.
His humility also and his zeal for the regular observance prevented him
ever seeking dispensation from the customary exercises of the community
life, or exemption from any of the monastic austerities, vigils, or
fasts.
His love for the neighbour was shown by the readiness and affability with
which he received and welcomed innumerable claimants on his sympathy,
help, and counsel. No soul ever left his presence dissatisfied; every one
went back from a visit to Groenendael greatly edified and inwardly
refreshed. On one occasion the Brethren were distressed for the moment by
an apparent exception. Two Parisian clerics had visited the holy old man
and had demanded some word or motto for their guidance and encouragement.
Ruysbroeck merely observed: "You are as holy as you wish to be."
Suspecting him of sarcasm, the strangers retired deeply mortified, and
they complained to the Canons that they were much disappointed in the
Prior, who evidently was not so saintly a man as rumour had led them to
believe. Learning the cause of their chagrin, some of the Brethren led
the clerics back to Blessed John and begged him to explain his meaning.
"But is it not simple?" he cried. "Is it not quite true? You are as holy
as you wish. Your good-will is the measure of your sanctity. Look into
yourselves and see what good-will you have, and you will behold also the
standard of your holiness." And then the visitors retired appeased and
edified.
Naturally his own Brethren were the first and chief to benefit by the
holy Prior's charity and zeal. He denied himself to none; he made himself
all to all. Sometimes he gave a spiritual conference after Compline, and
then perhaps he would be so carried away as he enlarged upon the goodness
of God and the bliss of heaven, for instance, that neither he nor his
listeners would note the passage of time. The midnight Office bell would
surprise them still hanging upon his words. But such was the fervour
infused by his burning eloquence that not one felt the loss of the three
or four hours' accustomed sleep.
Ruysbroeck always spoke without any immediate preparation; but it was
characteristic of the man that when requested by the Canons or by
strangers for a Conference, he would sometimes confess in all simplicity
that inspiration was lacking, that he had nothing to say. It was the same
with his written treatises: at the close of his life he was able to
declare that he had never committed anything to writing save under the
immediate motion of the Holy Spirit.
As so often happens with the Saints, Blessed John's love for the
neighbour overflowed in tenderness for his brothers and sisters of the
lower creation also. Knowing this trait, the Canons would remark to him
on the approach of winter: "See, Father Prior, it is snowing already.
What will the poor little birds do now?" And with expressions of
heartfelt compassion this sublime mystic, who was habitually lost in
dizziest heights of contemplation, would give instructions that the
feathered choristers outside the cloister should not be abandoned to
perish of hunger.
Very frequently in his works Blessed Ruysbroeck takes occasion to treat
of the Holy Sacrament of the Altar, and ever he speaks of this sacred
mystery in terms of the most vivid faith and intense devotion, discussing
it as a supreme proof of God's love for men, on a par with the gifts of
Creation, the Incarnation, and Redemption. His biographers tell us of his
personal love for the Blessed Eucharist, and especially of his ecstatic
devotion in offering the great Sacrifice. To the close of his long life,
even when his failing sight could no longer distinguish the figure of the
Crucified stamped upon the Host, nothing but grave sickness could hold
him back from daily celebration. Sometimes he swooned from the excess of
the sweetness with which his soul was inundated during the canon of the
Mass.
On one such occasion not only did he faint, but he seemed on the point of
expiring, so that the terrified server reported the matter to the
Provost. Attributing the faintness to advancing age and weakness, the
Superior was about to forbid the holy old man to celebrate any more, when
Blessed John humbly besought him to forbear, assuring him that the swoon
was due not to the failing of years but to the overpowering of divine
grace, _non propter senium sed divinae gratiae collatum xenium_. "Even
to-day," he added, "Jesus Christ appeared to me, and filling my soul with
a deliciousness all divine, He said to my heart, _Thou art Mine and I am
thine_."
Such heavenly favours seem to have been by no means rare with our Saint.
He was frequently ravished with a vision of Our Divine Lord in His sacred
Humanity. Christ appeared to him, accompanied by His Blessed Mother and a
numerous retinue of Saints, and conversed familiarly with him. On one
such occasion, penetrating his whole being with a sense of wondrous
sweetness, He greeted him with ineffable condescension thus: "Thou art My
dear son, in whom I am well pleased." Then Jesus Christ embraced him and
presented him to Our Lady and the attendant Saints with the words:
"Behold My chosen servant!"