Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 4.djvu/376

 CONTEMPLATION

326

CONTEMPLATION

quiet as supernatural recollection. As regards trans- forming union, or spiritual marriage, it is here suffi- cient to say that it consists in the habitual conscious- ness of a mysterious grace which all shall possess in heaven: the participation of the Divine nature. The soul is conscious of the Divine assistance in its supe- rior supernatural operations, those of the intellect and the will. Spiritual marriage differs from spiritual espousals inasmuch as the first of these states is per- manent and the second only transitory.

Character.s of Mystical Union. — The different states of mystical union possess twelve characters. The first two are the most important; the first be- cause it denotes the basis of this grace, the other be- cause it represents its physiognomy.

First character: the presence felt. — (a) The real dif- ference between mystical imion and the recollection of ordinary prayer is that, in the former, God is not sat- isfied with helping us to think of Him and reminding us of His presence; He gives us an intellectual ex- perimental knowledge of that presence, (b) How- ever, in the lower degrees (spiritual quiet) God does this in a rather obscure way. The more elevated the order of the union the clearer the manifestation. The obscurity just mentioned is a source of interior suffer- ing to beginners. During the period of spiritual quiet they instinctively believe in the preceding doctrine, but afterwards, because of their preconceived ideas, they begin to reason and relapse into hesitation and the fear of going astray. The remedy lies in provid- ing them with a learned director or a book that treats these matters clearly. By experimental knowledge is understood that which comes from the object itself and makes it known not only as possible but as exist- ing, and in such and such conditions. This is the case with mystical union: God is therein perceived as well as conceived. Hence, in mystical union, we have experimental knowledge of God and of His presence, but it does not at all follow that this knowledge is of the same nature as the Beatific Vision. The angels, the souls of the departed, and devils know one another experimentally but in an inferior way to that in which God will be manifested to us in heaven. Theologians express this principle by saying that it is a knowledge by impressed or intelligible species.

Second character: interior possession. — (a) In states inferior to ecstasy one cannot say that he sees God, unless indeed in exceptional cases. Nor is one in- stinctively led to use the word sec. (b) On the con- trary, what constitutes the common basis of all the degrees of mystical union is that the spiritual imjires- sion by which God manifests His presence makes that presence felt in the way of an interior something with which the soul is penetrated; it is a sen.salinn of ab- sorption, of fusion, of immersion, (c) For the sake of greater clearness the sensation one experiences may be designated as interior touch. This very clear expres- sion of spiritual sensation is used by Scaramelli (Direc- toire mystique, Tr. iii, no. 26) and had already been resorted to by Father de la Reguera (Praxis tlK-ologia" mysticas, vol. I, no. 735). The following comparison will aid us in forming an exact idea of the physiogno- my of mystical union. We may say that it is in a precisely similar way that we feel the presence of our body when we remain perfectly inmiobile and close our eyes. If we know th.at our body is present, it is not because we see it or have been told of tlie fact. It is the result of a special sensation (ciena'sthesis), an interior impression, very simple and yet impossible to analyse. Thus it is that in mystical union we feel God within us and in a very simple way. The soul absorbed in mystical vmion that is not too elevated may be saiil to resemble a man placed near one of his friends in an impenetrably dark place and in utter si- lence, lie neither sees nor hears his friend whose hand he holds within his own, but through means of touch, ho feels his presence. He thus remains think-

ing of his friend and loving him, although amid d tractions.

The foregoing statements concerning the first t characters always appear uni|uestionably true those who have received mystical graces, but, on 1 contrary, they are often a source of amazement to t profane. For those who will admit them, at le provisionally, the difficulties of mystical union i overcome and what is to follow will not be very m; terious. The ten characters remaining are the con quences or concomitants of the first two.

Third character. — Mystical union cannot be p duced at will. It is this character that was use above in defining all mystical states. It may also added that these states cannot be augmented nor th manner of being changed. By remaining immoh and being content with interior acts of the will c cannot cause these graces to cease. It ■n'ill be se farther on that the only means to this end lies in suming bodily activity.

Fourth character. — The knowledge of God in mys cal union is obscure and confused ; hence the expr sion to enter into Divine obscurity or into Divi darkness. In ecstasy one has intellectual visions the Divinity, and the loftier these become, the m< they surpass our understanding. Then is readi blinding contemplation, a mi.xture of light and dai ness. The great darkness is the name given to t contemplation of such Divine attributes as are uei shared by any creature, for instance, infinity, eterni' immutability, etc.

Fifth character. — Like all else that borders on t Di\-ine nature this mode of communication is oi half comprehensible and it is called mystical becai it indicates a mystery. This character and the p ceding one are a source of anxiety to beginners, as th imagine that no state is Di\ine and certain imless th understand it perfectly and without anyone's help.

»Six(/i. character. — In mystical union the contemp tion of God is produced neither by rea.soning nor the consideration of creatures nor still by inter images of the sensible order. We have seen that has an altogether different cause. In the natu state our thinking is always accompanied by imag and it is the same in ordinary prayer, because sup natural operations of an ordinary character reseml those of nature. But in mystical contemplation change takes place. St. John of the Cross is cc stantly reverting to this point. It has been said tl the acts of the imagination are not the cause of cc templation; however, they may at least accompa it. Most frequently it is in distractions that t imagination manifests itself, and St. Teresa declar that for this evil she found no remedy (Life, ch. xv: We shall designate as constitutive acts of mystii union those which necessarily belong to this state, su as thinking of God, relishing Him and loving Hi and by way of distinction we shall denote as ad tional acts such acts, other than distractions, as : not proper to mystical imion, that is to say, are neiti its cause nor its consequences. This term intlica that an addition, whether voluntary or not, is made! Divine action. Thus, to recite a Hail Mary dur^ spiritual quiet or to give oneself up to a considerat! of death would be to perform additional acts, becai they arc not es.sential to the existence of spirit quiet. These definitions will prove useful later But even now they will permit us to explain cert abbreviations of language, often indulged in by no tics, of which many erroneous interpretations h been made, misinidcrstanding having resulted ft what was left imexpressed. Tluis it has been em "Often in supernatural prayer there are no q| acts"; or, "One nuist not fc;ir therein to suppreM acts"; whereas wliat should have been said was t" "There are no more additional acts". Taken li r ally, these abridged phrases do not differ from thos )