THE BEATIFIC VISION. (CONTINUED.)
In the Beatific Vision our will is also to be glorified, and then we
shall be happy in loving and being loved.
We have seen in the foregoing chapter that our intellectual faculties
are glorified, and that our natural thirst for knowledge is forever
quenched. But we have another faculty, called the will, or the loving
power of the soul. This faculty is also to be glorified in the
Beatific Vision. Then our continual desire for happiness, which we
vainly sought in creatures, will be completely gratified. We shall
now see that, in the Beatific Vision, our will or moral nature is
elevated, ennobled, and made like God by a participation of His
sanctity, beatitude, and love. But let us first cast a glance at
ourselves, as we now are in our fallen state.
When our first parents revolted against God, they abandoned the
eternal rule of rectitude, which is God's Will. Their passions, which
heretofore had been under the control of reason, revolted against
them, and their will was turned away from God. We, their children,
have inherited all the consequences of their fall. We seek ourselves
inordinately--follow our own capricious will, which leads us into
excesses, at which we blush, in our sober moments. We stubbornly
persist in seeking our happiness in creatures, though reason itself
loudly proclaims that in them it cannot be found. Evidently, then,
our will has been sadly perverted in the fall of our first parents.
One of the objects of the Christian religion was to bring back our
will to a conformity with the Divine Will, and to cause it to love
God above all things. Yet, in spite of its manifold teachings, in
spite too of the sacraments, and the many graces we daily receive, in
spite of prayer, meditation, and other spiritual exercises, this
grand object is but partially attained in this world. For we find our
perverse will again and again rising in rebellion against God. When a
command is imposed upon us which does not chime in with our wishes,
private interests, views, or natural inclination, we not unfrequently
must drag ourselves by main force to perform what is commanded. And
if we do obey, it is often only after doing all in our power, by
excuse or pretext, to escape the obligation of obeying. Indeed, we
all can say with the apostle: "I am delighted with the law of God,
according to the inward man; but I see another law in my members,
fighting against the law of my mind, and captivating me under the law
of sin that is in my members."*
* Rom. vii. 22.
What a tyranny this law of sin exercises over the will, even of holy
persons! How often do they discover, on close examination, that their
will has departed from the eternal rule, which is the will of God!
How often do they find that they had been seeking their own, instead
of God's glory! After doing really great things, which they fancied
were done purely for God, they find, to their grief, that, to a great
extent, they had been secretly and artfully seeking themselves, and
their own glory. And they have reason to fear that they have already
received their reward in that human applause which they sought, or in
which they took such complacency when it came unsought.
It is said that persons who have been bitten by a viper, and who have
nevertheless recovered by the application of timely remedies, are
never again the same in health as they were before. At times they are
swollen, or feel acute pains, or have a morbid and depraved appetite
for what they should not eat. At other times they feel a general
languor, which takes away all their energy, so that whatever they do
requires a most painful effort. Evidently, some of the poison is
still lurking in their system, and so long as it remains there these
infirmities will never be entirely healed.
So it is with us, in a moral point of view. Our human nature was
bitten and poisoned by the infernal serpent, in the earthly paradise,
and although a powerful antidote was given us in the Redemption, some
of the venom remained in us; and as long as we live here below, we
shall feel its effects. We shall always feel the sting of
concupiscence, and retain an inclination to evil, to seek ourselves
inordinately, and to follow our own will. We shall always experience
a certain languor in the practice of virtue, which involves a
continual effort and struggle.
What an exquisite consolation it is to us to be assured that none of
this poison will follow us into heaven! Yes, the day will
come--blessed and glorious day!--when all that perversity of will,
all that inclination to evil, and all the passions of our depraved
nature will be no more! All these will die in our temporal death, and
be buried--never to rise again in our glorified bodies. The Beatific
Vision will glorify our will, and change us, as it were, into new
creatures.
Then shall we find ourselves joyfully willing to do what God wills,
as He wills it, and because he so wills it--without the hast
repugnance on our part. We shall no longer have peculiar views,
private interests, or natural inclinations to clash with the will and
interests of God. His divine will and ours shall become so totally
one, that we shall seem to have no will of our own, so completely,
and, at the same time, so sweetly, shall it be identified with the
will and good pleasure of God. In a word, as our intellect is
elevated by the Light of glory, and filled with the purest knowledge
in the Beatific Vision, so also our will is purified, sanctified, and
made like God's will, in rectitude and perfect sanctity.
But not only shall our will become holy and conformed to God's will:
we shall also love God above all things, purely, unselfishly,
ardently, and for His own blessed sake; and in that love shall we, at
last, find the perfect happiness we vainly sought in the love of
creatures.
Human love is a source of partial happiness in this world, and it is
in this human love, as in a mirror, that we see faint reflections of
the unspeakable happiness which will inebriate our souls in the
Beatific Vision. But they are emphatically faint reflections; for
whether it be conjugal, parental, or fraternal love, or whether it be
the love of pure friendship--whether it be even elevated by grace to
the supernatural virtue of charity, it never did, and never will
bestow perfect happiness in this world. It depends for its existence
and perfection on conditions which can never be completely fulfilled
in our present state of imperfection; and, therefore, the short-lived
happiness to which it gives birth is always mingled with a certain
amount of bitterness.
It is in heaven, and only in heaven, that all the conditions of love
can be fulfilled; and, hence, it is there only that love will produce
pure and perfect happiness, unmingled with the disappointments, cruel
misunderstandings, and insufficiency of human love. First of all, the
love of heaven is essentially mutual. The vision of God not only
reveals to the soul His divine beauty, goodness, wisdom, and
numberless other perfections, which captivate her, and set her on
fire with a seraphic love; but it also reveals the intense and
mysterious love of God for her. The sight of that divine love
produces in her the happiness which the heart of man cannot conceive.
If a great king should speak kindly to a poor peasant, smile upon
him, and even show him a real affection, a happiness which he never
experienced before would take possession of his heart. A thrill of
joy would run through every fibre of his frame. He would be a new
man, and live a new life, simply because a great one of this world
had smiled upon him and condescended to love him.
This is a faint reflection of that undying thrill of joy, of that
unspeakable happiness which the loving smile of God will produce upon
the soul. For, in the Beatific Vision, she sees clearly that, in
spite of her littleness and insignificance, which she never saw as
she now does--in spite, too, of the sins and imperfections which had
stained her beauty while in the flesh, the great and thrice-holy God
loves her infinitely more tenderly and sincerely than either father
or mother, or any other creature ever did. Not only does she see the
intense love of God beaming upon her now, but she sees, moreover,
that He loved her from eternity, when she existed as yet only in the
divine mind. Yes, she sees herself lying in the bosom of the Eternal,
with His mysterious love brooding over her, and giving her existence
in the fulness of time. This is truly and emphatically, for her, a
Beatific Vision. It is vain for us to endeavor to fathom the
exquisite happiness which this vision of God's love produces in the
soul. For, if the mere smile of a king has the power of infusing joy
into the heart of a poor and insignificant person, what shall we say
of the smile of God, who is the King of kings? What shall we say of
this affectionate, paternal embrace? What shall we say of the joy,
the happiness that flow into the soul, when He presses her to his
bosom, gives her the kiss of peace, and calls her his own beloved
child? What shall we say of her exceeding happiness, when He makes
her a partaker of his divine nature, and unites her to himself more
intimately than two creatures ever could be united in this world?
These are all secrets of heaven. They are simply unspeakable, because
they are beyond our present powers of comprehension. Eye hath not
seen them, ear hath not heard them, nor hath it entered into the
heart of man to conceive them. We shall, therefore, make no further
attempt to express what no human tongue can utter. But we may say
that, as a pure and mutual love produces the greatest happiness we
know of in this world, so also the mutual love which exists between
the soul and God in the Beatific Vision, is the source of the most
perfect happiness possible.
But there is another feature of that unspeakable happiness, which we
must now consider. Love must not only be mutual to produce happiness;
there must, besides, be neither fear nor suspicion that either of the
parties will prove false. Every one knows that when a suspicion of
that nature fastens upon the mind of one who loves, his happiness is
at an end; and there is no telling to what extravagant excesses his
jealousy may lead him.
This imperfection, which blasts so much happiness in this world, will
never find its way into our heavenly home. For the soul not only sees
that He who loved her from eternity will continue to do so
everlastingly; she not only sees the utter impossibility of God's
ever despising her; but she, at the same time, sees the impossibility
of her ever proving false to Him. She not only sees God as He is, but
she also sees everything else as it is. However beautiful, therefore,
creatures may be in heaven, she always sees in God a beauty and
perfection so vastly, so infinitely superior, that it is impossible
for her to be captivated by creatures, as she was in this world. She
loves all the companions of her bliss, it is true; but she loves them
all in God, and for God. She loves them because they are His, and
because he loves them. She loves them too, because they are so holy,
so beautiful, and so much like God, and, therefore, deserving of her
love. But her chiefest, her absorbing love is centred in God, and
remains centred there forever. Never can there come a day when she
will see a growing coldness in God for her. Never shall there dawn a
day when she will discover in herself a growing coldness for God;
and, consequently, there never shall be a day when her exceeding
happiness will fade away or be lessened. Rather, she sees the dawn of
a glorious day when her happiness will be increased, perfected, and
completed in the resurrection of the body--a day when other joys and
pleasures will be added to those she now enjoys in the Beatific
Vision.