VI SANCTIFICATION
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ST Luke x. 42.--"One thing is needful."
I HAVE read many writings both of heathen philosophers and inspired prophets, ancient
and modern, and have sought earnestly to discover what is the best and highest quality
whereby man may approach most nearly to union with God, and whereby he may most
resemble the ideal of himself which existed in God, before God created men. And after
having thoroughly searched these writings as far as my reason may penetrate, I find no
higher quality than sanctification or separation from all creatures. Therefore said our
Lord to Martha, "One thing is necessary," as if to say, "whoso wishes to be untroubled
and content, must have one thing, that is sanctification."
Various teachers have praised love greatly, as St Paul does, when he saith, "to whatever
height I may attain, if I have not love, I am nothing." But I set sanctification even above
love; in the first place because the best thing in love is that it compels me to love God.
Now it is a greater thing that I compel God to come to me, than that I compel myself to
go to God. Sanctification compels God to come to me, and I prove this as follows:--
Everything settles in its own appropriate place; now God's proper place is that of oneness
and holiness; these come from sanctification; therefore God must of necessity give
Himself to a sanctified heart.
In the second place I set sanctification above love, because love compels me to suffer all
things for the sake of God; sanctification compels me to be the recipient of nothing but
God; now, it is a higher state to be the recipient of nothing but God than to suffer all
things for God, because in suffering one must have some regard to the person who inflicts
the suffering, but sanctification is independent of all creatures.
Many teachers also praise humility as a virtue. But I set sanctification above humility for
the following reason. Although humility may exist without sanctification, perfect
sanctification cannot exist without perfect humility. Perfect humility tends to the
annihilation of self; sanctification also is so close to self-annihilation that nothing can
come between them. Therefore perfect sanctification cannot exist without humility, and
to have both of these virtues is better than to have only one of them.
The second reason why I set sanctification above humility is that humility stoops to be
under all creatures, and in doing so goes out of itself. But sanctification remains self-contained. But to remain contained within oneself is nobler than to go out of oneself for
any purpose whatever; therefore saith the Psalmist, "The King's daughter is all glorious
within," that is, all her glory is from her inwardness. Perfect sanctification has no
inclination nor going-out towards any creature; it wishes neither to be above or below,
neither to be like nor unlike any creature, but only to be one. Whosoever wishes to be this
or that wishes to be somewhat; but sanctification wishes to be nothing.
But some one may say: "All virtues must have existed in fullness in Our Lady, therefore
perfect sanctification must have been in her. If sanctification is higher than humility, why
did Our Lady speak of her humility, and not of her sanctification, when she said, "For He
hath regarded the lowliness of His handmaiden?" To this I answer that God possesses
both sanctification and humility, so far as we may attribute virtues to God. Now thou
shouldest know that His humility brought God to stoop down to human nature, and our
Lady knew that He wished for the same quality in her, and in that matter had regard to
her humility alone. Therefore she made mention of her humility and not of her
sanctification, in which she remained unmoved and unaffected. If she had said, "He hath
regarded the sanctification of His handmaiden," her sanctification would have been
disturbed, for, so to speak, would have been a going out of herself. Therefore the Psalmist
said, "I will hear what the Lord God will say in me," as if to say, "If God will Speak to
me, let Him come in, for I will not come out." And Boethius saith, "Men, why seek ye
outside you what is inside you--salvation?"
I set also sanctification above pity, for pity is only going out of oneself to sympathize
with one's fellow-creature's sorrows. From such an out-going sanctification is free and
abides in itself, and does not let itself be troubled. To speak briefly: when I consider all
the virtues I find none so entirely without flaw and so conducive to union with God as
sanctification.
The philosopher Avicenna says, "The spirit which is truly sanctified attains to so lofty a
degree that all which it sees is real, all which it desires is granted, and in all which it
commands, it is obeyed." When the free spirit is stablished in true sanctification, it draws
God to itself, and were it placed beyond the reach of contingencies, it would assume the
properties of God. But God cannot part with those to anyone; all that He can do for the
sanctified spirit is to impart Himself to it. The man who is wholly sanctified is so drawn
towards the Eternal, that no transitory thing may move him, no corporeal thing affect
him, no earthly thing attract him. This was the meaning of St Paul when he said, "I live;
yet not I; Christ liveth in me."
Now the question arises what is sanctification, since it has so lofty a rank. Thou shouldest
know that real sanctification consists in this that the spirit remain as immovable and
unaffected by all impact of love or hate, joy or sorrow, honour or shame, as a huge
mountain is unstirred by a gentle breeze. This immovable sanctification causes man to
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attain the nearest likeness to God that he is capable of. God's very essence consists of His
immovable sanctity; thence springs His glory and unity and impassibility. If a man is to
become as like God as a creature may, that must be by sanctification. It is this which
draws men upward to glory, and from glory to unity, and from unity to impassibility, and
effects a resemblance between God and men. The chief agent in this is grace, because
grace draws men from the transitory and purifies them from the earthly. And thou
shouldest know that to be empty of all creature's love is to be full of God, and to be full
of creature-love is to be empty of God.
God has remained from everlasting in immovable sanctity, and still remains so. When He
created heaven and earth and all creatures, His sanctity was as little affected thereby as
though He had created nothing. I say further: God's sanctity is as little affected by men's
good works and prayers, as though they had accomplished none, and He is by those
means no more favourably inclined towards men than if they ceased praying and
working. I say even more: when the Divine Son became man and suffered that affected
the sanctity of God as little as though He had never become man at all.
Here some one may make the objection: "Are then all good works and prayers thrown
away, since God is unmoved by them, and at the same time we are told to pray to Him for
everything?" In answer to this I say that God from all eternity saw everything that would
happen, and also when, and how He would make all creatures: He foresaw also all the
prayers which would be offered, and which of them He would hear: He saw the earnest
prayers which thou wilt offer tomorrow, but He will not listen to them tomorrow, because
He heard them in eternity, before thou wast a man at all. If, however, thy prayer is half-hearted and not in earnest, God will not deny it now, seeing that He has denied it in
eternity. Thus God remains always in His immovable sanctity, but sincere prayer and
good works are not lost, for whoso doeth well, will be well rewarded.
When God appears to be angry or to do us a kindness, it is we who are altered, while He
remains unchangeable, as the same sunshine is injurious to weak eyes and beneficial to
strong ones, remaining in itself the same. Regarding this Isidorus in his book concerning
the highest good says, "People ask what was God doing before He created heaven and
earth, or whence came the new desire in God to create?" To this he answers, "No new
desire arose in God, seeing that creation was everlastingly present in Him, and in His
intelligence." Moses said to God, "When Pharaoh asks me who Thou art, what shall I
answer?" God said, "Say, I AM hath sent me unto you," that is to say, "He Who is
unchangeable hath sent me."
Perhaps some one may ask, "Was Christ then also unchangeable, when He said, 'My soul
is troubled even unto death,' or Mary when she stood under the Cross and lamented?"
Here, thou shouldest know that in every man are two kinds of men, the outer and the
inner man. Every man, who loves God, only uses his outer senses so far as is absolutely
necessary; he takes care that they do not drag him down to the level of the beasts, as they
do some who might rather he termed beasts than men. The soul of the spiritual man
whom God moves to love Him with all his powers concentrates all its forces on the inner
man. Therefore He saith, "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart." Now,
there are some who waste the powers of the soul for the use of the outer man; these are
they who turn all their thoughts and desires towards transitory things, and know nothing
of the inner life. But a good man sometimes deprives his outer man of all power that it may have a higher object, while sensualists deprive the inner man of all power to use it
for the outer man.
The outer man may go through various experiences, while the inner man is quite free and
immovable. Now both in Christ and in Our Lady there was an inner and an outer man;
when they spoke of outward things, they did so with the outward man, while the inner
man remained immovable.
It may be asked: "What is the object of this immovable sanctity?" I answer, "Nothing":
that is, so far as God has His way with a man, for He has not His way with all men.
Although God is Almighty, He can only work in a heart when He finds readiness or
makes it. He works differently in men than in stones. For this we may take the following
illustration: if we bake in one oven three loaves of barley-bread, of rye-bread, and of
wheat, we shall find the same heat of the oven affects them differently; when one is well-baked, another will be still raw, and another yet more raw. That is not due to the heat, but
to the variety of the materials. Similarly God works in all hearts not alike but in
proportion as He finds them prepared and susceptible. If the heart is to be ready for the
highest, it must he vacant of all other things. If I wish to write on a white tablet, whatever
else is written on the tablet, however noble its purport, is a hindrance to me. If I am to
write, I must wipe the tablet clean of everything, and the tablet is most suitable for my
purpose when it is blank. Similarly, if God is to write on my heart, everything else must
come out of it till it is really sanctified. Only so can God work His highest will, and so
the sanctified heart has no outward object at all.
The question arises: But what then does the sanctified heart pray for? I answer that when
truly sanctified, it prays for nothing, for whosoever prays asks God to give him some
good, or to take some evil from him. But the sanctified heart desires nothing, and
contains nothing that it wishes to be freed from. Therefore it is free of all want except that
it wants to be like God. St Dionysius commenting on the text, "Know ye not that all run,
but one receiveth the prize?" says "this running is nothing else than a turning away from
all creatures and being united to the Uncreated." When the soul gets to this point, it loses
its own distinctiveness, and vanishes in God as the crimson of sunrise disappears in the
sun. To this goal only pure sanctification can arrive.
St Augustine says, "The strong attraction of the soul to the Divine reduces everything to
nothingness": on earth this attraction is manifested as sanctification. When this process has
reached its culminating point, knowledge becomes ignorance, desire indifference and
light darkness. The reason why God desires a sanctified heart more than any other is
apparent when we ask the question,
"What does God seek in all things?" The mouth of Wisdom says to us, "In all things I
seek rest," and rest is to be found only in the sanctified heart; therein therefore God is
more glad to dwell than in any other thing.
Thou shouldest also know that the more a man sets himself to be receptive of divine
influence, the happier he is: who most sets himself so, is the happiest. Now no man can
reach this condition of receptivity except by conformity with God, which comes from
submission to God. This is what Saint Paul means when he says, "Put on the Lord Jesus
Christ," that is "be conformed to Christ." Whosoever wishes to comprehend the lofty rank
and benefit of sanctification must mark Christ's words to His disciples regarding His
humanity, "It is profitable for you, that I go away, for, if I go not away, the Comforter
will not come to you." As if to say, "Ye have so much desire towards my natural outward
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form, that ye cannot fully desire the Holy Spirit." Therefore put away forms and unite
yourselves with formless Being, for God's spiritual comfort is only offered to those who
despise earthly comfort.
Now, all thoughtful folk, mark me! no one can be truly happy, except he who abides in
the strictest sanctification. No bodily and fleshly delight can ever take place with out
spiritual loss, for the flesh lusteth against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh.
Therefore, the more a man fleeth from the created, the more the Creator hastens to him.
And consider this: if the pleasure we take in the outward image of our Lord Jesus Christ
diminishes our capacity for receiving the Holy Spirit, how much more must our unbridled
desire for earthly comforts diminish it!
Therefore sanctification is the best of all things, for it cleanses the soul, and illuminates
the conscience, and kindles the heart, and wakens the spirit, and girds up the loins, and
glorifies virtue and separates us from creatures, and unites us with God. The quickest
means to bring us to perfection is suffering; none enjoy everlasting blessedness more than
those who share with Christ the bitterest pangs. Nothing is sharper than suffering, nothing
is sweeter than to have suffered. The surest foundation in which this perfection may rest
is humility; whatever here crawls in the deepest abjectness, that the Spirit lifts to the very
heights of God, for love brings suffering and suffering brings love. Ways of living are
many; one lives thus, and another thus; but whosoever will reach the highest life, let him
in a few words hear the conclusion of the whole matter: keep thyself clear of all men,
keep thyself from all imaginations that crowd upon the mind, free thyself from all that is
contingent, entangling, and cumbersome and direct thy mind always to gazing upon God
in thy heart with a steadfast look that never wavers: as for other spiritual exercises--
fasting, watching and prayer--direct them all to this one end, and practice them so far as
they may be helpful thereto, so wilt thou win to perfection. Here some one may ask,
"Who can thus gaze always without wavering at a divine object?" I answer: "No one who
now lives." This has only been said to thee that thou mightest know what the highest is,
and that thou mightest have desires after it. But when thou losest sight of the Divine, thou
shouldest feel as if bereft of thine eternal salvation, and shouldest long to recover it, and
watch over thyself at all times, and direct thy aims and longing towards it. May God be
blessed forever. Amen.
