truth of all things. How far above our illusions are the designs of
God! How is it that though continually reminded that all that passes
in the world is but a shadow, a figure, a mystery of faith, we are
guided by human feelings, by the natural sense of things, which after
all is but an enigma? We foolishly fall into snares instead of lifting
our eyes and rising to the principle, the source, the origin of all;
where all things bear other names and other qualities; where all is
supernatural, divine, sanctifying; where all is part of the fulness of
Jesus Christ; where everything forms a stone of the heavenly Jerusalem,
where everything leads to this marvellous edifice and enters therein.
We live by the things of sight and hearing, neglecting that light of
faith which would safely guide us through the labyrinth of shadows and
images through which we foolishly wander. He, on the contrary, who
walks by faith seeks but God alone, and all things from God; he lives
in God; unheeding and rising above the figures of sense.
_CHAPTER II._
The Divine Action is all the more Visible to the Eye of Faith when
hidden under Appearances most Repugnant to the Senses.
The soul enlightened by faith is far from judging of created things,
like those who measure them by their senses, and ignore the inestimable
treasure they contain. He who recognizes the king in disguise treats
him very differently from him who, judging by appearances alone, fails
to recognize his royalty. So the soul that sees the will of God in the
smallest things, and in the most desolating and fatal events, receives
all with equal joy, exultation, and respect. That which others fear and
fly from with horror she opens all her doors to receive with honor.
The retinue is poor, the senses despise it; but the heart, under these
humble appearances, discerns and does homage to the royal majesty; and
the more this majesty abases itself, coming secretly with modest suite,
the deeper is the love it inspires in the heart.
I have no words with which to portray the feelings of the heart when
it receives this divine will in the guise of humiliation, poverty,
annihilation. Ah! how moved was the beautiful heart of Mary at sight of
that poverty of a God, that annihilation which brought Him to lodge in
a manger, to repose on a handful of straw a trembling, weeping infant!
Ask the people of Bethlehem what they think of this child: were He in
a palace with royal surroundings they would do Him homage. But ask
Mary, Joseph, the Magi, the shepherds: they will tell you that in this
extreme poverty they find that which manifests God to them more sublime
and adorable. By just that which the senses lack is faith heightened,
increased, and nourished; the less there is to human eyes, the more
there is to the soul. The faith which adores Jesus on Thabor, which
loves the will of God in extraordinary events, is not that lively
faith which loves the will of God in common events and adores Jesus on
the cross. For the perfection of faith is seen only when visible and
material things contradict it and seek to destroy it. Through this war
of the senses faith comes out gloriously victorious.
It is not an ordinary but a grand and extraordinary faith which finds
God equally adorable in the simplest and commonest things as in the
greatest events of life.
To content ones’ self with the present moment is to love and adore
the divine will in all that comes to us to do or suffer through the
things which successively form the duties of the present moment.
Souls thus disposed adore God with redoubled ardor and respect in the
greatest humiliations; nothing hides Him from the piercing eye of their
faith. The more vehemently the senses exclaim, This is not from God!
the closer do they press this bundle of myrrh from the hand of the
Bridegroom; nothing disturbs them, nothing repels them.
Mary sees the Apostles fly, but she remains constant at the foot of
the cross; she recognizes her Son in that face spat upon and bruised.
These disfiguring wounds only render Him more adorable and worthy of
love in the eyes of this tender mother; and the blasphemies poured
forth against Him only serve to increase her profound veneration. In
like manner, a life of faith is but a continual pursuit of God through
all which disguises and disfigures Him; through all which, so to speak,
destroys and annihilates Him. It is truly a reproduction of the life
of Mary, who from the manger to Calvary remained constant to a God
whom the world despised, persecuted, and abandoned. So faithful souls,
despite a continual succession of deaths, veils, shadows, semblances
which disguise the will of God, perseveringly pursue it, and love it
unto death on the cross. They know that, unheeding all disguises, they
must follow this holy will; for, beyond the heaviest shadows, beyond
the darkest clouds, the divine Sun is shining to enlighten, enflame,
and vivify those constant hearts who bless, praise, and contemplate Him
from all points of this mysterious horizon.
Hasten, then, happy, faithful, untiring souls; hasten to follow this
dear Spouse who with giant strides traverses the heavens and from whom
nothing can be hidden. He passes over the smallest blade of grass as
above the loftiest cedars. The grains of sand are under His feet no
less than the mountains. Wherever your foot may rest He has passed, and
you have only to follow Him faithfully to find Him wherever you go.
Oh, the ineffable peace that is ours when faith has taught us thus
to see God through all creatures as through a transparent veil! Then
darkness becomes light, and bitter turns to sweet. Faith, manifesting
all things in their true light, changes their deformity into beauty,
and their malice into virtue. Faith is the mother of meekness,
confidence, and joy; she can feel naught but tenderness and compassion
for her enemies who so abundantly enrich her at their own expense. The
more malignant the action of the creature, the more profitable does God
render it to the soul. While the human instrument seeks to injure us,
the divine Artisan in whose hand it lies makes use of its very malice
to remove what is prejudicial to the soul.
The will of God has only consolations, graces, treasures, for
submissive souls; our confidence in it cannot be too great, nor our
abandonment thereto be too absolute. It always wills and effects that
which contributes most to our sanctification, provided meanwhile we
yield ourselves to its divine action. Faith never doubts it; the more
unbelieving, rebellious, despondent, and wavering the senses, the
louder Faith cries, “This is God! All is well!”
There is nothing Faith does not penetrate and overcome; it passes
beyond all shadows and through the darkest clouds to reach Truth;
clasps it in a firm embrace, and is never parted from it.
_CHAPTER III._
The Divine Action offers us at each Moment Infinite Blessings, which
we receive in proportion to our Faith and Love.
If we knew how to greet each moment as the manifestation of the divine
will, we would find in it all the heart could desire. For what indeed
is more reasonable, more perfect, more divine than the will of God?
Can its infinite value be increased by the paltry difference of time,
place, or circumstance? Were you given the secret of finding it at all
times and in all places, you would possess a gift most precious, most
worthy of your desires. What seek ye, holy souls? Give free scope to
your longings; place no limit to your aspirations; expand your heart to
the measure of the infinite. I have that wherewith to satisfy it: there
is no moment in which I may not cause you to find all you can desire.
The present moment is always filled with infinite treasures: it
contains more than you are capable of receiving. Faith is the measure
of these blessings: in proportion to your faith will you receive. By
love also are they measured: the more your heart loves the more it
desires, and the more it desires the more it receives. The will of
God is constantly before you as an unfathomable sea, which the heart
cannot exhaust: only in proportion as the heart is expanded by faith,
confidence, and love can it receive of its fulness. All created things
could not fill your heart, for its capacity is greater than anything
which is not God.
The mountains which affright the eye are but atoms to the heart. The
divine will is an abyss, of which the present moment is the entrance;
plunge fearlessly therein and you will find it more boundless than your
desires. Offer no homage to creatures; adore not phantoms: they can
give you nothing, they can take nothing from you. The will of God alone
shall be your fulness, and it shall leave no void in your soul. Adore
it; go direct to it, penetrating all appearances, casting aside all
impediments. The spoliation, the destruction, the death of the senses
is the reign of faith. The senses adore creatures; faith adores the
divine will. Wrest from the senses their idols, they will weep like
disconsolate children; but faith will triumph, for nothing can take
from her the will of God. When all the senses are famished, affrighted,
despoiled, then does the will of God nourish, enrich, and fortify
faith, which smiles at these apparent losses, as the commander of an
impregnable fortress smiles at the futile attacks of an enemy.
When the will of God reveals itself to a soul manifesting a desire
to wholly possess her, if the soul freely give herself in return she
experiences most powerful assistance in all difficulties; she then
tastes by experience the happiness of that coming of the Lord, and
her enjoyment is in proportion to the degree in which she learned to
practise that self abandonment which must bring her at all moments face
to face with this ever adorable will.
_CHAPTER IV._
God reveals Himself to us as Mysteriously, as Adorably, and with as
much Reality in the most Ordinary Events as in the great Events of
History and the Holy Scriptures.
The written word of God is full of mystery; His word expressed in the
events of the world is no less so. These two books are truly sealed;
the letter of both killeth.
God is the centre of faith which is an abyss from whose depths
shadows rise which encompass all that comes forth from it. God is
incomprehensible; so also are His works, which require our faith.
All these words, all these works, are but obscure rays, so to speak,
of a sun still more obscure. In vain do we strive to gaze upon this
sun and its rays with the eyes of our body; the eyes of the soul
itself, through which we behold God and His works, are no less closed.
Obscurity here takes the place of light; knowledge is ignorance, and
we see though not seeing. Holy Scripture is the mysterious language
of a still more mysterious God. The events of the world are the
mysterious utterances of this same hidden and inscrutable God. They
are drops of the ocean, but an ocean of shadows. Every rivulet, every
drop of the stream, bears the impress of its origin. The fall of the
angels, the fall of man, the wickedness and idolatry of men before and
after the deluge, in the time of the Patriarchs who knew the history
of creation, with its recent preservation, and related it to their
children,--these are the truly mysterious words of Holy Scripture. A
handful of men preserved from idolatry amid the general corruption of
the whole world until the coming of the Messias; evil always dominant,
always powerful; the little band of the defenders of the faith always
ill-treated, always persecuted; the persecution of Christ; the plagues
of the Apocalypse--in these behold the words of God. It is what He has
revealed. It is what He has dictated. And the effects of these terrible
mysteries, which endure till the end of time, are still the living
words of God by which we learn His wisdom, goodness, and power. All
the events in the history of the world show forth these attributes and
glorify Him therein. We must believe it blindly, for, alas! we cannot
see.
What does God teach us by Turks, heretics, and all the enemies of
His Church? They preach forcibly. They all show forth His infinite
perfections. So do Pharao and all the impious hosts who followed him
and will still follow him; though truly, to the evidence of our senses,
the end of all these is most contrary to the divine glory. We must
close our corporal eyes and cease to reason if we would read the divine
mysteries in all this.
Thou speakest, Lord, to all mankind by general events. All revolutions
are but the tides of Thy Providence, which excite storms and tempests
in the minds of the curious. Thou speakest to each one in particular
by the events of his every moment. But instead of respecting the
mystery and obscurity of Thy words, and hearing Thy voice in all the
occurrences of life, they only see therein chance, the acts, the
caprice of men; they find fault in everything; they would add to,
diminish, reform--in fact, they indulge in liberties with these living
words of God, while they would consider it a sacrilege to alter a
comma of the Holy Scriptures. The Scriptures they revere: they are the
word of God, they tell you; they are true and holy. Though they may
comprehend them little, their veneration for them is no less great, and
they justly give honor and glory to God for the depth of His wisdom.
But, dear souls, have you no respect for the words God addresses you
each moment,--words which are not conveyed to you by means of ink
and paper, but by what you have to do and suffer from moment to
moment,--do these words merit nothing from you? Why do you not revere
the truth and will of God in all things? There is nothing which fully
satisfies you; you criticise and cavil at all that happens. Do you not
see that you try to measure by the senses and reason that which can be
measured by faith alone? And that while reading the word of God in the
Holy Scriptures with the eyes of faith, you gravely err when you read
this same word with other eyes in His works?
_CHAPTER V._
The Divine Action continues in our Hearts the Revelation begun in Holy
Scripture; but the Characters in which it is written will be Visible
only at the Last Day.
“Jesus Christ,” says the Apostle, “is the same yesterday, to-day, and
forever.” From the beginning of the world He was, as God, the principle
of the life of just souls. From the first moment of His incarnation His
humanity shared this prerogative of His divinity. Throughout our whole
lives He is working within us. The time of this world is but a day,
and this day is full of Him. Jesus Christ lived, and He still lives.
He began in Himself, and He continues in His saints, a life which will
never end. O life of Jesus, which embraces and exceeds all ages! Life
which unceasingly worketh new wonders! If the world is incapable of
embracing all that could have been written of the actual life of Jesus,
of all that He said and did upon earth; if the Gospel gives us only a
few traits of it; if so little is known even of that first hidden yet
fruitful hour of Bethlehem,--how many gospels must needs be written
to relate all the moments of that mystic life of Jesus Christ which
multiplies wonders infinitely, multiplies them eternally!--for all
times, properly speaking, are but the history of the divine action.
The Holy Spirit has marked in infallible and incontestable characters
certain moments of this vast duration, and gathered in the Scriptures
some drops of this boundless ocean. We see therein the secret and
hidden ways by which He has manifested Jesus Christ to the world. We
can follow the channels and veins which, amid the confusion of the
children of men, distinguish this Firstborn. The Old Testament is but
a small portion of the innumerable and inscrutable ways of this divine
work; it only contains what is necessary to reach Jesus Christ. The
Holy Spirit held the rest hidden in the treasures of His wisdom. And
from out this vast sea of the divine action but a thread of water
appears which reaches Jesus, loses itself in the Apostles, and is
swallowed up in the Apocalypse. So that by our faith alone can we learn
the history of this divine action which consists in the life which
Jesus Christ leads, and will lead in just souls until the end of time.
To the manifestation of God’s truth by word succeeded the manifestation
of His charity by action. The Holy Spirit continues the work of the
Saviour. While He assists the Church in preaching the gospel of Christ,
He Himself at the same time writes His own gospel in our hearts. Each
moment, each act, of the Saints is the gospel of the Holy Spirit. Holy
souls are the paper; their sufferings, their actions, are the ink. The
Holy Spirit by the pen of His action writes a living gospel; but we can
only read it on the last day, when it will be drawn from the press of
this life and published.
Oh, the glorious history, the beautiful book, which the Holy Spirit is
now writing! It is in press, holy souls; and not a day passes in which
type is not set, ink applied, and sheets of it printed. But we are in
the night of faith: the paper is blacker than the ink; the characters
are confused; it is the language of another world; we understand it
not; we shall only read its gospel in heaven. Oh, if we could but
see this life of God in all creatures, in all things, and learn to
regard them, not in themselves, but as the instruments of His will!
If we could see how the divine action impels them hither and thither,
unites them, disperses them, opposes them, and leads them by contrary
ways to the same end, we should recognize that all things have their
purpose, their reason, their proportion, their relations in this divine
work. But how shall we read this book with its hidden, innumerable,
contradictory, and obscure characters? If the combinations of
twenty-seven letters are incomprehensible to us and suffice to form an
unlimited number of different volumes, each admirable of its kind, who
can express what God does in His universe? Who can read and comprehend
a book so vast, in which there is not a letter which has not its own
significance and does not contain in its littleness profound mysteries?
Mysteries are neither seen nor felt; they are the subjects of faith.
Faith judges their worth and truth only by their source, for they are
so obscure in themselves that all their external appearances only serve
to conceal them, and mislead those who judge by reason alone.
Teach me, O divine Spirit, to read in this book of life! I would become
Thy disciple, and like a little child believe what I cannot see. It
sufficeth that my Master speaks. He tells me this, He proclaims that;
His words are arranged in one form. He interprets them in another:
that sufficeth me; I receive all as He presents it; I see not the
reason thereof, but I know He is the infallible Truth. His words, His
actions, are truth. He wills that these letters should form a word;
such a number, another. They are but three, but six; yet no more are
required, and less would mar the sense. He alone who knows all thought
can combine the characters to express it. Everything is significant;
everything has a perfect meaning. This line purposely ends here; there
is not a comma lacking therein, nor one useless point. I believe it
now; but on that glorious day, when so many mysteries will be revealed
me, I will see what I now only confusedly comprehend; and that which
appears so obscure, so perplexing, so contradictory to reason, so
vague, so visionary, will enrapture and delight me to all eternity with
the beauty, the order, the meaning, the wisdom, and the inconceivable
marvels I shall discover therein.
_CHAPTER VI._
Divine Love is communicated to us through the Veil of Creatures, as
Jesus communicates Himself to us through the Veil of the Eucharistic
Species.
What sublime truths are hidden even from Christians who believe
themselves most enlightened! How many are there who realize that every
cross, every action, every attraction in the order of God gives Him
to us in a manner which cannot be better explained than by comparison
with the august mystery of the Eucharist! Yet what is more certain?
Does not reason, as well as faith, reveal to us the real presence of
divine love in all creatures, in all the events of life, as infallibly
as the word of Christ and His Church reveal to us the presence of the
sacred Body of the Saviour under the Eucharistic species? Do we not
know that the divine love seeks to communicate itself to us through all
creatures and through all events?--that it has effected, ordered, or
permitted all our surroundings, all that befalls us, only in view of
this union which is the sole end of all God’s designs?--that for this
end He makes use of the worst as well as the best creatures, of the
most grievous as well as the most pleasing events?--and that our union
with Him is even the more meritorious that the means which serve to
make the union closer are of a nature repugnant to us? But if all this
be true, why should not each moment be a form of communion in which we
receive divine love; and why should not this communion of every moment
be as profitable to our souls as that in which we receive the Body and
Blood of the Son of God? This latter, it is true, possesses sacramental
grace, which the other does not; but, on the other hand, how much
more frequently may not this first form of communion be repeated,
and how greatly may its merit be increased, by the perfection of the
dispositions with which it is accomplished! Therefore how true it is
that the holiest life is mysterious in its simplicity and apparent
lowliness! O heavenly banquet! O never-ending feast! A God always
given, and always received; not in sublime splendor or glorious light,
but in utter infirmity, weakness, and nothingness! That which the
natural man condemns, and human reason rejects, God chooses, and makes
thereof mysteries, sacraments of love, giving Himself to souls through
that which would seem to injure them most, and in proportion to their
faith which finds Him in all things.
_CHAPTER VII._
The Divine Action, the Will of God, is as unworthily treated and
disregarded in its Daily Manifestation by many Christians as was Jesus
in the Flesh by the Jews.
What infidelity we find in the world! How unworthily men think of God!
They criticise His divine action as they would not dare to criticise
the work of the humblest artisan. They would force Him to act within
the narrow limits of their weak reason and follow its rules. They
pretend to reform all things. They unceasingly complain and murmur.
They are shocked at the treatment Jesus received at the hands of
the Jews. Ah! Divine Love! Adorable Will! Infallible Action! How do
they look upon Thee? Can the divine will err? Can anything it sends
be amiss? But I have this to do; I need such a thing; I have been
deprived of the necessary means; that man thwarts me in such good
works; is not this most unreasonable?--this sickness overtakes me when
I absolutely need my health. No, dear souls, the will of God is all
that is absolutely necessary to you, therefore you do not need what
He withholds from you--you lack nothing. If you could read aright
these things which you call accidents, disappointments, misfortunes,
contradictions, which you find unreasonable, untimely, you would blush
with confusion; you would regard your murmurs as blasphemies: but you
do not reflect that all these things are simply the will of God. This
adorable will is blasphemed by His dear children who fail to recognize
it.
When Thou wert upon earth, O my Jesus! the Jews treated Thee as a
sorcerer, called Thee a Samaritan; and now that Thou livest in all
ages, how do we regard Thy adorable will forever worthy of praise and
blessing? Has there been a moment from the creation to this present
one in which we live, and will there be one to the last day, in which
the holy Name of God is not worthy of praise?--that Name which fills
all time, and all the events of time; that Name which renders all
things salutary!
What! Can that which is called the will of God work me harm? Shall I
fear, shall I fly from the will of God? Ah! where shall I go to find
something more profitable if I fear the divine action and resist the
effect of the divine will?