The power in the soul that time cannot touch

Adolescens, tibi dico: surge (Luke 7:14), "Young man, I say to you, arise." We read in St Luke's gospel about a youth who was dead. And our Lord came and took compassion on him and touched him and said, 'Young man, I say to you, I command you. Arise!'

Now you must know that in all good people God is present all at once, and there is something in the soul where God lives, and something in the soul where the soul lives in God. If the soul turns outward toward external things, she dies, and God dies also in the soul. But he does not die in himself at all, and he is alive to himself. Just as, when the soul leaves the body, the body dies and the soul lives on in herself, so God may be dead to the soul and alive to himself. And know this: there is one power in the soul wider than the wide heaven, so vast that we cannot define it, and yet this power is far greater still.

Notice this. In this exalted power the Father is saying to his only begotten Son, 'Young man, arise!' It is God, and the closeness of its union with the soul is beyond belief, for God is so high in himself that nothing at all can reach him by understanding. It is wider than the heavens, wider even than all the angels, though one angelic spark is the cause of all life on earth. Desire reaches far, without limit. All that the mind can conceive, all that the heart can desire, that is not God. Where desire and understanding come to an end, in the darkness, there God shines.

Our Lord says, 'Young man, I say to you. Arise!' If I am to hear God speaking in me, I must be wholly estranged from everything that is mine, as foreign to it as I am to things under the sea, and especially estranged from time. The soul is as young in herself as when she was made, for age, as it relates to her, is a matter of the body, affecting her use of its senses. As one philosopher observes, an old man with the eyes of youth would see just as well as a boy. I said yesterday something that seems almost impossible to believe: that Jerusalem is as near to my soul as the ground I am standing on right now. Indeed, in truth, a thousand leagues beyond Jerusalem is every bit as near to my soul as my own body is. Of that I am as certain as that I am a man, and for any learned scholar it is not hard to understand. Know then that my soul is as young as when I was created, indeed much younger. And I tell you, I would be ashamed if she were not younger tomorrow than she is today.

The soul has two powers that have nothing at all to do with the body, namely intellect and will, which work above time. Oh, if only the soul's eyes were opened so that her understanding could see the truth! Then it would be as easy for a man to give up everything as to give up peas and lentils, indeed, upon my soul, to him all things would be mere vanity. There are some who give things up for love while still greatly prizing what they leave behind. But to the one who truly knows, it matters nothing at all to leave himself and everything, for whoever takes this path has all things truly for his own.

There is one power in the soul to which all things are equally sweet. The very worst and the very best are all the same to this power, which takes things above here and now, now meaning time and here meaning place. This place I am in now, suppose I went out of myself and became entirely empty, then I believe the heavenly Father would bear his only Son within my mind so clearly that my spirit would bear him back again. Truly, if my spirit were as ready as the soul of our Lord Jesus Christ, then the Father would work in me as perfectly as in his only begotten Son, no less, since he loves me with the very same love with which he loves himself.

St John said, 'In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God.' Now to hear this Word in the Father, where it is utterly silent, a person must be entirely quiet and wholly free of images, and of forms as well. A person must be so true to God that nothing at all can make him glad or sad. He must see all things in God, as they are there.

He says, 'Young man, I say to you, Arise!' meaning that he himself will bring this about. If someone tells me to carry one stone, he may as well tell me to carry a hundred, if he is the one who will do the carrying. If he orders a hundredweight load, he may just as well make it a thousand, if it is for his own back. And God will do this work himself, if only we will wait and not resist. If the soul would only stay within, she would have everything there. There is one power in the soul, a power that is itself a kind of being, and that being radiates life, and is so pure, so high, and so innately noble that creatures cannot live in it. None but God can dwell there. No, even God himself is barred from it, insofar as he is subject to any condition. God cannot enter there in any guise. God is only there in his absolute divinity.

Then there is the fact of his speaking these words: 'Young man, I say to you.' What is God's speaking? It is his working, and God's work is so noble, so high, that God alone can do it. You must understand, then, that our whole perfection, our entire happiness, lies in passing through and beyond all createdness, all time, and all limitation, and entering the cause that is without cause. We pray to you, O Lord, that we may be one and dwelling within. So help us God. Amen.