The birth of God in the ground of the soul

Ubi est qui natus est rex Judaeorum? (Matthew 2:2). Where is he who is born King of the Jews? Now concerning this birth, mark where it happens. I say again, as I have often said before, that this birth happens in the soul exactly as it happens in eternity, neither more nor less, for it is the same birth: this birth happens in the ground and essence of the soul.

Certain questions arise. Granting that God is in all things as intelligence, or mind, and is more present in things than they are in themselves and more natural to them; and granting that God, wherever he is, is in operation, knowing himself and speaking his Word, then mark in what respects the soul is better fitted for this divine operation than other rational creatures in which God exists.

God is in all things as being, as activity, as power. But he is procreative in the soul alone, for though every creature is a trace of God, the soul is the natural image of God. This image is perfected and adorned in this birth. No creature but the soul is open to this birth, this act. Whatever perfection enters the soul, whether divine light, grace or bliss, must enter the soul in this birth and in no other way. Only nurture this birth in yourself and you will experience all good and all comfort, all happiness, all being and all truth. What comes to you in this birth brings you true being and stability, and whatever you might seek or grasp apart from it perishes, however you take it. This alone gives life; everything else decays. Moreover, in this birth you share in the divine inflow and its gifts. This is not received by creatures in whom God's image is not found: the soul-idea belongs to the eternal birth alone, and this happens only and solely in the soul, begotten of the Father in the ground and innermost depths of the soul, into which no image has ever shone nor soul-power ever looked.

Another question is this: if this birth happens in the ground and essence of the soul, then it happens alike in sinner and in saint, so what use or good is it to me? The ground of nature is the same in both; indeed even in hell the nobility of nature lasts forever. It is characteristic of this birth that it always comes with fresh light. It always brings great enlightenment to the soul because it is the nature of good to spread itself. In this birth God pours into the soul such an abundance of light that the ground and essence of the soul are flooded with it, and it overflows into her powers and into the outward man as well. So it happened with Paul, when on his journey God touched him with his light and spoke to him: the reflection of this light showed outwardly, so that his companions saw it surrounding Paul like the saints. The overflow of light in the ground of the soul wells over into the body, which is filled with radiance. No sinner can receive this light, nor is he worthy to, being full of sin and wickedness, or darkness. As John says, 'The darkness neither receives nor comprehends the light.' This is because the paths by which the light would enter are blocked and choked with deceit and darkness. Light and darkness cannot mix, like God and creatures. When God enters, creatures leave. A person is quite aware of this light. As soon as he turns to God, this light begins to glint and sparkle in him, telling him what to do and what to leave undone, with many a shrewd hint besides of things he had not noticed before and knew nothing of. How do you know this? Suppose your heart is strongly moved to withdraw from the world. How could that be, if not by this light? It is so appealing, so delightful, that it makes other things seem tiresome, if they are not God or of God. It draws you toward God, and you feel many a virtuous impulse, though uncertain where it comes from. This inward movement owes nothing to creatures, nor is it brought about at their bidding, for whatever creatures bring about or direct comes in from outside. But your ground alone is stirred by this force, and the freer you keep it, the more truth and discernment are yours. No one was ever lost except for the reason that, once having left his ground, he let himself settle too permanently outside it. St Augustine says: Many have sought light and truth, but only outside, where it is not. They finally go out so far that they never find their way back in again. Nor have these found the truth, for the truth is within, in their ground, not outside. So whoever means to see this light and discover the whole truth must nurture the awareness of this birth within himself, in his ground, and then all his powers will be lit up, and his outer man as well. As soon as God inwardly stirs his ground with the truth, its light darts into his powers, and then that person knows more than anyone could teach him. As the prophet says, 'I know more than I was ever taught.' It is because this light cannot shine and give light in sinners that this birth cannot happen in them. This birth has nothing to do with darkness and sin, and so it happens not in the powers but in the ground and essence of the soul.

Then comes the question: if God the Father labors only in the ground and essence of the soul, and not in her powers, what do the powers have to do with it? How do they help by being idle and taking a holiday? What use is it, if this birth does not happen in the powers? It is well asked. But consider. Every creature works toward some end. The end is always first in intention and last in realization. And God too works for a wholly blessed end, namely himself: to bring the soul and all her powers into that end, into himself. For this God's works are done, for this the Father brings his Son to birth in the soul, so that all the powers of the soul may come to rest in this. He waits for everything the soul contains; all are invited to his royal feast. Here, the soul is scattered abroad among her powers and spread thin in each act: the power of seeing in the eye, the power of hearing in the ear, the power of tasting in the tongue, and her powers are weakened in this way for their inward work, since scattered forces are never whole. It follows that for her inward work to be effective, she must call in all her powers, gathering them back from outward things into one inward act. St Augustine says, 'The soul is where she loves, rather than where she gives life to the body.' Once there was a pagan philosopher who studied mathematics. He was sitting by the embers working out calculations for his art when a man came along brandishing a sword, who, not knowing it was the master, cried out, 'Quick, tell me your name, or I will kill you!' The master was too absorbed to see or hear his enemy and failed to catch the threat. So after calling out to him several times, the enemy cut off his head. And this for the sake of a mere natural science! How much more fitting it is for us to withdraw from things in order to gather our powers to perceive and know the one infinite and immortal truth! For this, gather your whole mind and memory; turn them into the ground where your treasure lies hidden. But for this you must drop all other activities; you must come to unknowing in order to find it.

The question is, would it not be better for each power to go on with its own work, so that none would hinder the others in their work, nor hinder God in his? Can there not be creaturely knowledge in me that is no hindrance, just as God knows all things without hindrance, and so do the saints? I answer: the saints see God in a single image, and in that image they discern all things; and God himself sees himself this way, perceiving all things in himself. He does not need to turn, as we do, from one thing to another. Suppose that in this life we were always faced with a mirror in which we see and recognize all things at a glance, in one single image: then neither action nor knowledge would be a hindrance. As it is, we must turn from one thing to another: we can attend to only one thing at the cost of all the others. And the soul is bound so tightly to her powers that wherever they flow, she must flow with them; the soul must be present at everything they do, and attentive to it too, or nothing would come of their efforts. The drain of attending to outward acts is bound to weaken her inward work. For this birth God wants, and must have, a vacant, free and unencumbered soul, in which there is nothing but himself alone, which waits for nothing and nobody but him. As Christ says: 'Whoever loves anything but me, whoever clings to father or mother, or to many other things, is not worthy of me. I did not come on earth to bring peace but a sword; to cut away all things, to part you from brother, child, mother and friend, who are in truth your enemies.' For truly your comforts are your enemies. If your eye sees everything, and your ear hears everything, and your heart remembers it all, then in these things your soul is destroyed.

A master says, to achieve the inward act one must gather all one's powers as it were into one corner of the soul, where, hidden from images and forms, one is able to work. We must sink into forgetting and unknowing. In this silence, this stillness, the Word is heard. There is no better way to approach this Word than in silence and stillness: we hear it and know it rightly in unknowing. To one who knows nothing, it is clearly revealed.

Perhaps you will object: you put our salvation in ignorance, sir. That seems wrong. God made man to know: 'Lord, make them to know,' says the prophet. Where there is ignorance there is defect and illusion: such a man is brutish, an ape, a fool, and remains so as long as he is ignorant. But this is transformed knowledge, not the ignorance that comes from lack of knowing; it is by knowing that we come to this unknowing. Then we know with a divine knowing, and then our ignorance is ennobled and adorned with knowledge beyond nature. Then in our passivity we are more perfect than in action. According to one authority, the sense of hearing is much nobler than the sense of sight, for we learn wisdom more by ear than by eye, and live this life more wisely through it. We read of a pagan philosopher who was lying at the point of death while his pupils discussed some noble science in his presence, and lifting his dying head to listen, he cried, 'Oh, teach me this art even now, that I may practice it forever!' Hearing draws in more, seeing leads out more, by the very act of seeing. In eternal life we are far happier in our capacity to hear than in our power to see, because the act of hearing the eternal Word is in me, whereas the act of seeing goes out from me: hearing, I am receptive; seeing, I am active. But our happiness does not lie in being active but in being receptive to God. As God excels the creature, so God's work is more excellent than mine. It was out of love that God set our happiness in suffering, for we undergo far more than we do, and receive incomparably more than we give in return; moreover, each divine gift prepares the way for some new and richer gift, each gift increasing our capacity and our desire to receive a still greater one. Some theologians say the soul matches God in this respect. For as God is infinite in giving, so the soul is infinite in receiving or taking in. And the soul is as deep in her capacity to undergo as God is all-powerful to act, and this is why she is transformed by God into God. God must act and the soul must undergo, so that he may know and love himself in her, and she may know with his knowledge and love with his love; and since she is far happier through his work than through her own, it follows that her happiness depends on his work more than on hers.

The pupils of St Dionysius asked him why Timothy outstripped them in perfection. Dionysius said, 'Timothy is a man receptive to God. Whoever is skilled at this outstrips all other men.' In this sense, your unknowing is not a defect but your highest perfection, and suffering is your highest activity. Put an end to your own activities and still your faculties, if you want to realize this birth within you. To find the newborn King within you, everything else you might find must be passed over and left behind. May we outstrip and leave behind whatever does not please the newborn King. So help us he who became the child of man, that we might become the children of God. Amen.