In no one work, as already remarked, does Blessed John Ruysbroeck give a
complete outline of his doctrines; the elements rather are to be found
dispersed among the various treatises.
In common with most of the German mystics, Ruysbroeck starts from God and
comes down to man, and thence rises again to God, showing how the two are
so closely united as to become one. In His essence God is simple unity,
the one supremely pure and supernatural being, devoid of all mode, in
Himself still and immovable, and yet at the same time the first cause and
active principle of all things. This principle is the divine _nature_,
which does not in reality differ from the essence, and which is fruitful
in the Trinity. The Father is the essential principle, and yet He is
consubstantial with the other two Persons. The Son, the uncreated Image
of the Father, is the Eternal Wisdom. The Holy Ghost, proceeding from the
other two, and returning unto them, is the eternal Love, which unites
Father and Son. As regards Persons, God is eternally active: as regards
essence, He abides in unbroken repose. Creatures have been existing as
ideas in God from all eternity.
In man, whose body is merely a perishable instrument, there is a
spiritual, immortal principle, like unto God, though less than He. In
this principle Ruysbroeck distinguishes, with a distinction of the
reason, soul and spirit; the former is the principle of the merely human
life, uniting together the lower powers; the other is the principle of
man's supernatural life in God, gathering together his higher faculties.
The soul has four inferior powers: the _irascible_, and the
_concupiscible_, which two become bestial when not under the ruling of a
virtuous will; _reason_, by which man is distinguished from the brute,
and _freedom of choice_, an exercise of the higher faculty of the will.
The spirit has the three superior faculties, memory, understanding, and
will. In every man likewise there is a triple unity, or oneness: the
unity of the lower faculties in the soul, the unity of the higher in the
spirit, and the unity of the whole being in God, on Whom all things
essentially depend for their being.
Blessed John delivers the accepted teaching of the Church on the Fall,
the Incarnation and Redemption, on the need and on the means of divine
grace, the institution of the Sacraments, the establishment of the
Church, the gifts of the Holy Ghost, etc.
But coming now to his more purely mystical doctrine, we find that
Ruysbroeck distinguishes three degrees, or states--the active life, the
interior life, and the contemplative life. The active life consists of
the effort to conquer sin and to draw nigh to God by exterior works. Here
in Christ is the Divine Exemplar, for in His life He practised the three
fundamental virtues of humility, charity, and patience. Humility is the
foundation of the whole building, and it is exercised chiefly in
obedience, which engenders the abdication of our own will, and patience,
or submission in all things to the holy will of God. When a man has
arrived so far, he can exercise charity, shown at this stage chiefly by
compassion for Christ suffering on the Cross for all men, and bringing
with her the four cardinal virtues of prudence, temperance, fortitude,
and justice, whereby also the Christian is enabled to fight and conquer
his three deadly enemies, the devil, the world, and the flesh.
Perseverance in this active life is crowned by union with God, a union
wherein God alone is regarded as the exemplar and the final end, wherein
He alone is sought and loved. Thus does a man become a _Faithful
Servant_.
As yet, however, there is only an imperfect knowledge of God, and to
become more closely united with God, as an _Intimate Friend_, one must
strive to attain the second stage of the mystic way, namely the _interior
life_. For this three preliminary conditions are requisite. On the part
of God, there must be a yet stronger movement of divine grace, and on the
part of man, an absolute recollection, with freedom from sensible images,
attachments, and cares, and then the gathering together of all the powers
in the unity of the Spirit. Christ, then, the Eternal Sun, enkindles in
the soul thus duly prepared a divine fire, which engenders a warm,
sensible love, a devotion full of ardent desires, with thankfulness for
the divine mercies and affliction at one's own unworthiness. Then, as the
action of the sun draws up the moisture in the form of vapour, to fall
back again in refreshing and fertilising showers of rain, so if the soul
persevere Christ sends down a fresh shower of consolations, which fill
the whole being with a chaste pleasure and an indescribable sweetness
superior to all the delights of the earth, rising even to a species of
spiritual intoxication, which may manifest itself in outward acts. As yet
there are no severe trials for the soul, but she must beware of pride and
presumption, and of leaning too much on these sensible delights instead
of on the Divine Giver. Meanwhile the Sun of Justice is reaching its
apogee in the heavens, and Christ draws up all the powers of the soul, so
that the heart is enlarged and fit to burst with love, and at the same
time it begins to suffer from the wound of love, because of the urgency
of the power drawing upward and its own impotency to follow; whence also
a spiritual languishing, a very madness and impatience, or fever of love,
capable even of wasting the bodily strength. Love is liable to be so
intense at this stage, that visions and ecstacies are granted; but at the
same time care must be taken against the delusions of the evil one.
But thence the Sun enters on the sign of the Virgin and its downward
path, that is, Christ hides Himself and deprives the soul of the warmth
of sensible love and the like. It is the autumn, the time of gathering
the really ripe and lasting fruits; but to the soul a time of seeming
abandonment, aridity, darkness, etc. She must then beg the prayers of
others, be glad to leave herself in God's hands, willing to suffer and to
sacrifice all sweetness. Likewise, she must be careful not to compromise
God's favour by seeking earthly pleasures and delights, the consolations
of human friendship, and so forth.
Then there is a second coming of the Divine Spouse, bringing with Him the
gifts of the Holy Ghost, whereby He adorns the three supreme faculties of
the spirit. Pure simplicity empties the memory of all external images and
renders it stable. Spiritual brightness gives the intelligence a sure
discernment of the virtues. And a spiritual fervour arouses the will to a
boundless love for God and men.
There is yet a third coming, which affects the supreme union of the
spirit with God. It is a species of intimate contact with God in the very
depths of the soul. The intellect cannot comprehend the manner of this
union, it can only witness its effects upon the reason and the will. The
power of loving increases with the intimacy of this union, and the
intimacy increases the power of love; and hence also a kind of loving
strife ensues, each wishing to possess the other and each wishing to give
himself to the other utterly.
This is the apogee of the interior life, the meeting, the union of the
soul with God. It may be brought about in three different ways: (1) Man,
struck by a light coming forth from God, forsakes all images; he is
plunged into the union of fruitive love; he meets God without any medium,
a spirit like unto Him; it is the state of absolute repose in God, utter
emptiness and leisure. (2) At other times man adores God and consumes
himself in continual love, which ceaselessly feeds on the presence of
God; it is the mediate stage, the state of affective love, needful for
the attainment of the preceding. (3) Finally, it is possible to unite
enjoyment with activity: man enjoys a most profound peace and produces
all the acts of love; he receives God; and His gifts in the superior
faculties, images and sensations in the lower powers; it is the most
perfect state, the state of combined activity and repose.
Even so, it is not the most sublime state. Above the interior life there
is the superessential contemplative life; above the _faithful friends_
there are the _Intimate Sons_ of God. This third stage of perfection can
never be acquired by any act of the intelligence or will; and so sublime
is it that he only who has experienced it can attempt its description,
and then in terms the most halting and imperfect. This contemplation
consists in an absolute purity and simplicity of the understanding; it is
a knowledge and possession of God, without modes, without limits, without
medium, without any consciousness of the difference of His qualities.
Nevertheless, it is not God, it is the light by which He is seen. It is
the death and destruction of self to behold only the Being eternal and
absolute. Its essence is union with God, the still contemplation of God,
abandonment to God, so that He alone acts, and not the soul. This repose
of the spirit engenders a supernatural contemplation of the Trinity
without any medium, a feeling of bliss unspeakable, a sublime ignorance;
the last consciousness of the difference between God and the
creature--being and nothingness--disappears.
This is the honeymoon of Christ with the soul, to which the preceding
stages are only a preparation. The spirit is led from brightness to
brightness; and since no medium comes between it and the divine
splendour, since the brightness by which it sees is the light itself
which it sees, in a certain sense itself becomes this brightness; it
attains a consciousness of its own superessential being, of the unity of
its essence in God.