The birth of the eternal Word in the soul

THE BIRTH OF THE ETERNAL WORD IN THE SOUL

Now we will speak of the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ as he is born to-day at this holy season of the Virgin Mary his blessed mother and again as he is born of grace in the perfect soul for that is the whole end of Christ's work on earth, and we shall ask nine questions from which any pious man may tell whether the eternal Word is born in him or no.

The first question is, how to prepare for the interior speaking of the eternal Word? -- Several things are needed. First, purity of life and mind. Next, the peace and freedom of a still and silent heart which is speaking to no creature and is spoken to by none, whether of the senses or the spirit. And now for a hard saying which few will understand: while the soul is speaking her own word and her noble word, the Father cannot speak his Word in her; while the soul is begetting her own son, the noblest work of her own understanding, the Father is not able to beget his Son in her to her best advantage. Thirdly, the soul must forsake herself in order to conceive the eternal Word like St Paul and Mary, God's mother, in whom the eternal Word was uttered perfectly. The mind must die to itself, disowning itself and becoming God's own. Fourthly, the mind must lift up its intellect and see, for seeing is the lustiest work and noblest of which the soul is capable. Mark how eagerly he comes; he says, Behold I stand at the door and knock!' Fifthly, it behoves us greatly to desire this birth, for desire is the root of all virtue and goodness.

The second question is, what is God's birth in the soul? God's birth in the soul is nothing else than a special divine motion in a special heavenly mode whereby God wrests the spirit from the tumult of creaturely unrest into his motionless unity where God can communicate himself to the soul in his divinity. There man enjoys his Word in the Father in its first discriminate emanation and with the Father as essential Person and in the Holy Ghost as the limit set to their eternal bliss, and it is in the soul as the reflection of her intellectual prototype and in all creatures as the preserver of their being. For God speaks his Word in every creature, but no creature is aware of it save rational creatures only. The soul is reborn into God when she turns to God and pursues his eternal Word right into his paternal heart where God makes naked revelation of his birth to the soul. The soul falls upon this birth which is revealed to her, with love and knowledge. As the Father comes into the soul in his Word so in the Word the soul is returned into the Father. That we may eternally play this game in God, God help us.

^ See also Greith, pp. 102, 103.

The third question is, can any man be so well prepared that God is obliged to speak his eternal Word in him? We know that God must fulfil two obligations. First, when God is pledged and bound to the soul by the bonds of mutual love. Then God never fails the soul provided she is ready; he is obliged of mutual necessity to give himself to her, as Christ said to Zacchaeus, This day I must abide with thee in thine house.' There is another word that must be spoken. Every good thing communicates itself to whatever is able to receive it; it would therefore be contrary to God's goodness to withhold himself from us if we can take him in. And there is a third compulsory utterance, that of some cause or force which is inadmissible in God. Theologians tell us that works wrought by the soul with God and in his grace God rewards or not just as he chooses, for such works are creature and finite and befall in time. They are too insignificant and vile to deserve reward from God at all. But the work God does in us without our co-operation, where the soul's work fails and God's activity prevails, in that the soul is merely passive and God is the only one who works. Works wrought thus by God in the soul it is his bounden duty to requite with his own self, for these works are so divine, so eternal, so immense and so nearly touch God's honour, he has no guerdon for them but himself. These souls are the noblest product of this life and it is of them St John declares, Blessed are the dead that die in the Lord.' The outward world is dead to them as they are also to the world. Their outward man can no more clash with their inner man than the dead can with the living and this is due to the gift of God and interior prayer and profound humility. Which God grant us.

The fourth question is, what particular place or power of the soul the eternal Word is born in? The philosophers and saints have many fine sayings about this. Some say, in the intellect for that is most like God. Some say, in the will for that is the free power of the soul. A third school teaches, in the soul-spark because that is most nigh to God. A fourth, in the arcanum of the mind for it is there that God is most at home. A fifth school says (and it is with this one that I hold), that it is born in the innermost being of the soul and all her powers are made aware of it in a divine savour, each power in its own mode but intellect is the highest power of the soul and therewith the soul grasps the divine good. Free will is the power of relishing the divine good which intellect makes known to it. The spark of the soul is the light of God's reflection, which is always looking back to God. The arcanum of the mind is the sum-total, as it were, of all the divine good and divine gifts in the innermost essence of the soul, which is as a bottomless well of divine goodness. Which may God grant us.

The fifth question is, what part does the mind play in this birth? It enters a condition of complete passivity leaving God to work his will in perfect liberty. Perhaps it may be asked, Is the mind aware that God is working in it? I answer: Virtue, all good works wrought by God in man, fervour and devotion for example, a man will be aware of, for with works of this kind there is very often the evidence of the senses. But when the divine good overwhelms with its riches the appetitive faculty and the light of God raises the intellect to a higher power, coercing or carrying the mind into his divine countenance, then the mind pays no more attention to creatures: she is standing face to face with the highest truth. Which may God give us.

The sixth question is, what part is played by the body in this? It is resting peacefully, incapable of movement in any of its members, for the superior powers have fetched home the lower, and the essence of the soul has absorbed her higher powers so all is at a stand-still while the eternal Word is being born, in the mind and in the body. So help us

The seventh question is, can no power of the soul remain at work while the eternal Word is being supernaturally born in this way in the soul? The answer is this. The soul has two kinds of powers, and of these the outward senses of the body are all at rest and also the powers which move the body have been fetched in so that none of her powers remain active, but the soul is merely the motionless form of the body. As the prophet says, When all things were in mid-silence God spake his silent Word into my soul.' Motionless peace descends upon the body and the mind wherein the eternal birth is to be supernaturally conceived. To attain to this we must be like the shepherds watching in the night wherein Christ was born. So must a man keep watch and ward over his own mind, driving his intelligence up into the heights, to those eternal laws ordained by God for lost and saved. Let us beseech him daily to carry out in us his eternal laws and rules. For

^ Referring to the soul-spark or synteresis, sometimes identified with conscience regarded as the internal repository of the laws of right and wrong.

priests and religious the seven hours are ordained that they may thank God for his death and pray him to accomplish his eternal rules and laws in us. And you who know this truth better than others do should let your minds dwell more upon this birth than other people can who are ignorant about it. God help us to the truth.

The eighth question is, what fruits or gifts are granted to the soul in whom the eternal Word is spoken? Him four things befall. The first is that he is united with God. Next, he becomes God's Son by grace. Thirdly, he is made God's heir. Fourthly, he is loosed from bondage; as St Paul, naming all four perfections, says, 'In Christ is neither male nor female, neither Jew nor Greek, neither bond nor free; but ye are all one in Christ and are sons of God. And if sons of God then heirs of God.' May we being loosed from bondage be God's sons, so help us God.

* Now, taking as my text, 'This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased,' I will set forth the things a man must have in order to be God's Son by grace. First, he must have perfect self-control, as the Lord Christ says, 'I have power to lay down my soul and take it up again.' Meaning, he is not cast down by suffering and adversity nor puffed up by worldly happiness and prosperity. Secondly, he must have his mind ever charged with divine ideas and godly sayings. Thirdly, he must have the highest good ever present to his mind so far as his nature will allow. Fourthly, he must steadfastly abide therein so far as his nature can endure it. Fifthly, if he go out into creatures for the needs of life he must not tarry there longer than is necessary. Sixthly, what his mind conceives of from within of divine mystery or truth he must protect from nature as a rich man guards his treasure from robbers and from thieves. In the seventh place, he must make no attempt to express these things in words until the time is ripe, that is, until he puts them into practice. Eighth, he must know well enough and consider fit any person he reveals these secrets to: the fool confides in all the world but the wise in few. Ninthly, he must be gracious alike to yea and nay. Tenth, he must be indifferent about what God has done to him and is going to do. [Eleventh, it must not concern him what God has done or is to do.] Twelfth, he must behave impartially to those whom God has chosen or not chosen [to those to whom his grace has or has not been given]; and all these things he must offer up to the glory of God, obeying the divine command that what pleases God shall please him also and saying with Christ, 'Father,

* The rest of this tractate occurs also in Hermann von Fritzlar's Das Heiligenleben (see Pfeiffer's Deutsche Mystiker, vol. i, p. 54), from which the words in brackets are added.

thy will not mine be done.' These twelve articles, with the preceding four, set forth the highest life that can be led in time. Of him who has these things may the Father say, 'This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased; hear ye him.' And he who has them not but defaults therein, his defects are what St Augustine calls spiritual sins.

The ninth question is, how to recognise these people in whom the eternal Word is born ghostly and gratuitously? I answer, by the following signs. The first is that these people are dead to flesh and blood and to all natural appetites, as St Paul says, 'Since the eternal Word was born in me I no longer live to flesh and blood.' Secondly the pleasures of the body [the triumphs of the world], are like sour breath unto their soul. As St Gregory declares, 'Worldly joys and glories are nothing but untowardness.' Thirdly, these people are for ever listening for God's voice in them, David says, 'I will hearken to what God the Lord shall say within me.' Fourthly, they are not perturbed by the uncertainty of things: nothing vexes or depresses them, as Christ said to his disciples, 'In your patience possess ye your souls.' Fifthly, these people turn everything to good account so nothing can corrupt them, but they are ever pure in heart; as St Paul says, 'All things work together for good to them that love God.' Sixthly, they have no desire to vie with anyone; they live in the world as though there was no one but themselves and God. Wherefore their heavenly Father begets his Son in them unceasingly and this birth is for all who give their mind thereto.

The Lord Christ calls himself the flower of the field, for this is common property. Even so this birth is the common property of all those who are ready and diligently longing to receive it. May we thus desire this birth and eternally enjoy it. So help us God. Amen.