24. Egotism and God, and the Effects of Union

It is impossible to arrive at divine union by the way of meditation only, or even by the affections; or by any illuminations and distinctly comprehended prayer whatsoever. There are several reasons for it; note here the principal ones.

Union with God and Egotism—Incompatible

In the first place, according to the Scriptures, no man shall see God so long as he is living. Exodus. 33:20. Now all the exercises of discursive prayer, or even active contemplation (considered as an end in itself, and not as a disposition to be passive) are living exercises, whereby we cannot see God, that is to say, be united to Him. It is necessary that whatever is of man and of his own industry, however noble and exalted it may be, must die. John reports that “in heaven there was a great silence.” Revelation 8:1. Heaven represents the ground and the center of the soul, where all must be in silence before the majesty of God can appear therein. All the efforts of our own egotism, and all our own self-sufficiency must be destroyed, because nothing is more contrary to God than egotism; all the wickedness of man is in this egotism, it being the source of his wickedness—so that the more any soul loses its egotism, the more pure it becomes; and what was a defect in a soul living to itself is no longer so (by reason of the purity and innocence which it has obtained) once it has lost the egotism which caused the severance between God and the soul.

How Union is Effected

Secondly, in order to unite two such contrary entities as the purity of God and the impurity of the creature, the simplicity of God and the multiplicity of man, it is needful that God alone operate. For this can never be effected by the effort of the creature, since two things cannot be united which have no harmony or similarity to each other; just as an impure metal will never be fully united with pure, solid gold.

What does God do in this case? He sends His own wisdom before Him, even as the fire shall be sent upon the earth to consume whatever is impure therein. The fire consumes all things, and nothing resists it. It is the same with wisdom; it consumes every impurity in the creature, to prepare it for divine union.

This impurity, which is so contrary to divine union, is egotism and self-activity. Egotism, because it is the source of impurity, which can never be joined with essential purity, even as the rays of the sun may indeed touch the dirt, but cannot unite with it. Activity, because God is in an infinite rest; thus, the soul, which is being made capable of union with Him, must partake of His rest. Without rest He cannot be united with it by reason of the contrast between rest and activity. For these two things to be united, it is necessary that they be in a proportionate rest.

And it is for this reason that the soul cannot arrive at divine union, except by the resting of its will; and it cannot be united unto God until it be in a central rest, and in the purity of its creation.

As Gold Tried in the Fire

To purify the soul, God makes use of wisdom, as fire is used to purify gold. It is certain that gold cannot be purified except by fire, which consumes little by little all that is earthly and of a contrary nature therein, and separates it from the gold. It is not enough for gold ore, in order to be used by the goldsmith, to be extracted from the ground; it is necessary further that the fire melt and dissolve it in order to draw out of its substance whatever remains in it of a foreign or earthly nature: and this gold is cast often into the fire, till it loses all impurity, and every disposition that is capable of being purified.

When the goldsmith can find no more foreign substance, because it has come to its perfect purity and simplicity, the fire can no more act upon the gold; and it could remain there for centuries without being made thereby more pure, and without the least diminution of its substance. Then it is fit for the most excellent works. And if this gold becomes impure at any time afterwards, this impurity is merely external, coming from contact with foreign bodies, and does not make it unfit for use; whereas the other impurity was hidden in its very being and, as it were, interwoven with its nature. Nevertheless, persons who are unacquainted with this, seeing a piece of pure gold that is truly refined yet covered outwardly with filth, would not value it so much as they would a piece of coarse gold that is very impure, when its outside is polished.

Moreover you may observe that the goldsmith will never mix fine gold with coarse, because the fine gold would necessarily contract the impurity of the other. What will he do, then? He will cause all the earthly mixture of the impure gold to be destroyed by the fire, to the end that he may be able to unite it with the purity of the first. And this is what Paul said—namely, that our works shall be tried as by fire, that what is combustible may be burnt. 1 Corinthians 3:13-15. He adds that those works which shall be found fuel for the fire shall be burnt, although he himself (the worker) shall be saved, yet so as by fire. The meaning is that there are certain works which are accepted and approved; but for him who has wrought them to be pure as well, it is needful that they pass through the fire, so that the egotism may be taken from them; and it is in this sense that God will “judge our righteousness” (Psalm 75:2), because “man shall never be sanctified* by the works of the law, but by the righteousness of the faith which comes of God.” Romans 3:20-22 (*Vulgate?).

The Sum of the Matter

Leaving this parable I say, to the end man may be united to his God, it is necessary that His wisdom, accompanied with the divine justice as a pitiless and consuming fire, should root out of the soul every last bit of earthly, carnal, and self-centered egotism; that, having cleansed and purified the soul from all this, God may unite Himself to it.

This can never be done by the efforts of the creature; on the contrary, the creature submits to it with regret; because, as I have said, man loves his egotism so strongly and dreads its destruction so much, that if God did not do it Himself, and with authority, man would never consent to it.

A Theoretical Objection and a Practical Answer

To this one may reply that God never takes from man his liberty, and that thus he can always resist God; from whence it follows that I ought not to say that God acts like an absolute monarch, and without the consent of man. To show that this may be done, and yet the entire freedom and liberty of the will not be violate, I explain myself and say, the freedom of the will implies the right to surrender it: it is used in its highest exercise when it is given up to God. It suffices then that man give a passive consent, because having given up himself to God at the beginning of his Christian course, that God might do with him and in him whatever He would, he gave then an active and general consent to whatever God should do. But when God destroys, burns, and purifies, the soul sees not that this is advantageous to it, but believes rather the contrary; and even as the fire seems at first to soil the gold, so this operation seems to rob the soul of its purity so that if an active and explicit consent were then needful, the soul would have difficulty giving it, and very often it would not give it at all. The most the soul does is to keep itself in a passive content, suffering as well as it can this operation, which it neither can nor will hinder.

The Action of the Soul is to keep Itself Passive

In this way God purifies the soul from all its own operations, distinct, conscious, and manifold, which makes a great severance between us and Him, so that by fire He makes it little by little conformable to Himself, and finally one with Himself; exalting the passive capacity of the creature, enlarging it, and ennobling it, though after a hidden and unknown manner, which is therefore called “mystical.” But it is necessary that in all these operations the soul submit passively. It is true that in the beginning, before it comes to this, it must be more active; and then, according as the divine operation grows stronger, the soul must gradually and successively yield and give way to God, until it be perfectly absorbed in Him. But this is a long while in coming to pass.

Progress Towards Union

We do not then say, as some have believed, that there is no need to pass through action; on the contrary, this is the very gate. We only say that one must not always dwell there, seeing man ought to aim at the perfection of the goal of his being; but he can never arrive at it without abandoning the first helps and means which, though necessary to introduce him into this way, would greatly retard his progress, and which if obstinately persisted in, would prevent him from arriving at his end. This is what Paul did: “Forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.” Philippians 3:13-14.

Would not they say that a person had lost his senses if, having undertaken a journey, he should remain at the first inn because he was assured that several have passed that way, that some have lodged there, and that the master of the house dwells there? All that we wish for from souls, then, is that they continue on towards their goal; that they take the shortest and easiest way, that they do not remain at the first place they come to; and that following the counsel of Paul, they leave themselves to be moved by the Spirit of Grace, who will conduct them to the end for which they were created, which is to behold and possess God.

The Union of Blessing

None can be ignorant that the sovereign good is God; that essential blessing consists of union with God; that the saints are more or less glorified, according as this union is more or less perfect, and that this union cannot be made in the soul by any activity of its own; since God only communicates Himself to the soul in proportion to its passive capacity. No one can be united to God without passiveness and simplicity; and since this union is the beatitude itself, the way which conducts us into this passiveness cannot be evil; on the contrary, it is preferable to all others, and there is no risk in traveling by the way.

This way is in no wise dangerous; if it were, would Jesus Christ have made it the most perfect and the most necessary of all ways? All can walk in it; and, as all are called to blessedness, all are also called to enjoy God both in this life and in the next, forasmuch as the enjoyment of God constitutes our beatitude (supreme blessedness)—I say, of God Himself, not of His gifts, which could never make the essential beatitude, nor be capable of giving full contentment to the soul. For the soul is so noble and so great that all the gifts of God, even the greatest, could not render it happy, if God did not give Himself to it. Now God’s whole desire is to give Himself to His creature, according to the capacity which He has placed in it; and yet, alas! men are afraid to surrender themselves to God! They are afraid to possess Him, and to dispose themselves for the Divine Union.

Not Unto Us!

Some say that none ought to put themselves into this union of themselves. I agree. And I say also that no creature can ever do this, since there is no creature in the world that is able to unite itself to God by all its own efforts; God alone can unite it to Himself. Men can open the window, but the Sun must itself give light. If, therefore, one cannot be united to God by oneself, then crying out against those who put themselves into this union of themselves is to cry out against a chimera.

These will say that some do feign themselves to be in it. I say that this cannot be feigned; for he who dies of hunger cannot feign, especially for a long time, that he is in perfect satiety. There will escape from him always some desire, or longing, by which he will soon discover that he is very far from his consummation.

Since, therefore, no man can enter into this perfect union except he be placed therein, our concern here is not to bring anyone into it, but to show them the way which leads to it; and at the same time to beseech them not to keep themselves tied up and fixed to any wayside halting places. And would it not be a cruelty that deserves to be punished, to show a spring to a thirsty man, but then keep him bound and hinder him from going to it, leaving him to die of thirst? Yet this is what is usually done today. Let us all agree in the way, as we agree in the consummation, whereof none can doubt without error. The way has its beginning, its development, and its consummation or goal. The more one advances towards the goal, the more, of necessity, he departs from the beginning; and it is impossible to arrive at the goal, or end, except by departing continually further from the beginning, no one being able to go from the gate to a distant place without passing through the intermediate space. This is incontestable. If the end be good, holy, and necessary, and if the gate be good, how shall the way which comes from this gate and leads directly to this end be evil? O the blindness of most men, who value themselves for their learning and wit! O how true it is, my God, that “You hast hidden Your secrets from the great and from the wise, to reveal them to the little ones.” Matthew 11:25.