Divine Intimacy: Meditations on the Interior Life for Everyday of the Year

[Stone]

308. FRATERNAL UNION
SEVENTEENTH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST

PRESENCE OF GOD - O my God, give me the grace to preserve union with my neighbor by the bonds of charity and peace.


MEDITATION

1. As Jesus during His earthly life never ceased to recommend fraternal charity and union, so the Church in the Sunday Masses continually preaches this virtue. She does it today by making use of a passage in St. Paul’s Epistle to the Ephesians (4,1-3). “I, therefore...beseech you, that you walk worthy of the vocation in which you are called, with all humility and mildness, with patience, supporting one another in charity, careful to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.” The call which we have received is the vocation to Christianity, which is to say, the vocation to love. God, infinite Charity, adopts us as His children, that we may so emulate His charity that love becomes the bond which unites us all in one heart, as the Father and Son are united in one Godhead by the bond of the Holy Spirit. “As Thou, Father, in Me, and I in Thee; that they also may be one in Us” (Jn 17,21), was the prayer of Jesus for us.

To “keep unity in the bond of peace” is easy and difficult at the same time. It is easy because when the heart is truly humble, meek, and patient, it bears everything with love, carefully trying to adapt itself to the feelings and desires of others, rather than asserting its own. It is difficult because, as long as we are here below, self-love, even when mortified, always tends to rise and assert its rights, thus creating continual occasions of clashes, the avoidance of which calls for much self-renunciation and much delicacy toward others.
We should be persuaded that all that disturbs, weakens, or worse still, destroys fraternal union, does not please God; it does not please Him even if done under pretext of zeal. We should always prefer to renounce our own ideas—although they be good—rather than dispute with our neighbor, except when it is a question of fulfillment of duty or respect for the law of God. An act of humble renunciation for the sake of union and peace among our brethren gives much more glory to God than a glorious deed which might cause discord or disagreement.


2. Very often the cause of division among good people is excessive self-assertion: the desire to do things one’s own way. Given our limitations, there can be nothing so absolute in our ideas that it cannot give way to the ideas of others. If our ideas are good, upright, and brilliant, those of others may be equally good, or even better. Therefore, it is much wiser, more humble and charitable to accept the views of others and to try to reconcile our views with theirs, rather than to reject them, lest we be obliged to give up our personal ways and views. This individualism is the enemy of union; it is a hindrance to good works as well as to spiritual progress.

In today’s Epistle, St. Paul puts before us all the reasons why we should preserve union with our neighbor. Be “one body and one spirit; as you are called in one hope of your calling. One Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all.” If God has willed to save and sanctify us all in Christ, uniting us in Him in one body, giving us one same vocation, one faith, and one hope, and being Himself the Father of all, how shall we pretend to save and sanctify ourselves if we are not united with one another? If we do not wish to frustrate God’s plan and endanger our salvation and sanctification, we should be ready to make any personal sacrifice whatsoever in order to maintain and strengthen union. Let us bear in mind that Jesus has asked for us not
only union, but perfect union: “That they may be made perfect in one” (Jn 17,23).

Today’s Gospel (Mt 22,34-46) also strengthens this exhortation to union, since in it Jesus repeats that the
commandment to love our neighbor is, together with the commandment to love God, the basis of “the whole law,”
that is, of all Christianity. Let us not turn a deaf ear to these repeated appeals for charity and union; the Church insists on these points because Jesus has insisted on them, and because charity is “ the precept of the Lord; if this only is done, it is enough ” (St. John the Evangelist).


COLLOQUY


“O Word, Son of God, You look with more complacency on one work done in fraternal union and charity than on a
thousand done in discord; one tiny little act, like the closing of an eye, performed in union and charity, pleases You more than if I were to suffer martyrdom in disunion and without charity. Where there is union, You are present, for You call Yourself charity: ‘Deus caritas est,’ God is charity. You call Yourself the God of peace and union: ‘Deus pacis,’ God of peace. You are the source of all peace, and without
You there can be neither true peace nor union. False is the peace and union among sinners; it cannot last long, because as their hearts are dominated by the tyranny of sin and of passions, the bond which unites them quickly breaks; it is a weak bond no stronger than a thread of tow. Therefore, from You alone, O God, comes perfect union, and where there is disunion, confusion reigns because of sin and the devil. With what great desire should we seek this union and love it with all our heart! Where there is union, there is all good, there is an abundance of all things, of all celestial and terrestrial riches.

“O Most Holy Trinity, give us, then, the grace to live always united with one another, preserving union of spirit, having one will and opinion, imitating the indivisible unity which exists among the three divine Persons ” (St. Mary Magdalen dei Pazzi).

“Where charity and love are, You are there also, O Lord! Your love, O Christ, has united us in one body
and one heart; grant, then, that we may love one another with a sincere heart. Keep far from us all quarrels and contentions; grant that our hearts may be always united in You, and do You dwell always in our midst” (The
Liturgy).

309. THE GIFT OF KNOWLEDGE

PRESENCE OF GOD - O Holy Spirit, teach me the nothingness of earthly things.


MEDITATION

1. By the gifts of fear, fortitude, piety, and counsel, the Holy Spirit regulates our moral life; whereas, by the other gifts—knowledge, understanding, and wisdom—He governs our theological life more directly, that is, our relations with God. The first four gifts perfect the moral virtues especially; the last three perfect the theological virtues. They are the so-called gifts of the contemplative life, that is, of the life of prayer and union with God.

In our ascent toward God we find one great obstacle: creatures which impress and allure us by their attractions, tempting us to stop at them and thus drawing us away from God, the infinite good, who transcends human experience. It is not easy for us who live in the realm of sense to believe that God is all, that He is the only good, the only happiness, and to place our hope in Him alone, while He is veiled from sight. We find it difficult to believe that creatures are nothing, to be convinced of their vanity, while they present themselves to us so alluringly. It is true that faith comes to our aid, and in its light we have often reflected on these truths, yet in practice, our reasonings have often failed. Confronted with the attractions of creatures, we forget and perhaps even betray our Creator.

Therefore we need more powerful help, a divine light, which illumines from within, without the need of passing through our reasonings, so limited and rude: it is this light that the Holy Spirit infuses into our soul by means of the gift of knowledge. This gift does not make us reason on the vanity of things; but it gives us a living, concrete experience of them, an intuition so clear that it admits no doubt. Under the influence of this gift, Francis of Assisi suddenly left his merry companions to espouse Lady Poverty, and when his
indignant father drove him out of his house, he exclaimed in the fervor of his spirit, “ Henceforth I will not call Peter Bernardone my father, but our Father who is in heaven!” Under the impulse of this gift, Teresa of Avila wrote these words: “All things pass, God never changes. He who has God, finds he lacks nothing: God alone suffices”; and the dying words of Blessed Maria Bertilla were: “One must work only for Jesus. All else is nothing.”


2. Inspired by the gift of knowledge, St. John of the Cross traced the famous way of the “nothing,” the way
which, leaving aside all created goods, goes quickly and directly up the mount of perfection, on whose summit the soul finds God. “Nothing, nothing,” the saint repeats, “neither this, nor that, neither the goods of earth, nor the goods of heaven, ” that is, not even spiritual joys and consolations, but God alone. So much renunciation, so much sacrifice, so much stripping of self terrifies poor human nature. But the soul illumined by the Holy Spirit understands: nothing at all, because “all is vanity, except to love God and serve Him alone” (Imit. I, 1,3). In the measure that the gift of knowledge develops in the soul, it understands and tastes the “nothingness” of creatures, which makes it relish the “all” of God and feel the need of escaping from creatures to plunge into Him. This is the first step toward contemplation.

“All the being of creation, then, compared with the infinite Being of God, is nothing” (J.C. AS J, 4,4). The
wonders of creation are nothing, the most marvelous works of human genius are nothing, the knowledge possessed by the most learned men is nothing: God is the only reality, and it is He who gives value to all things, either because they are the works of His hand, or because they are works done by man for His glory.

In the midst of our most beautiful undertakings and our solicitude for earthly things, the Holy Spirit reminds us of the words of Jesus: “For what shall profit it a man, if he gain the whole world, and suffer the loss of his soul?” (Mk 8,36). And again, “Thou art careful and art troubled about many things: but one thing is necessary” (Lk 10,41.42). Thus He teaches that our adherence to God is what is essential; all the rest is accessory and very often fruitless.

In evaluating the beauty of created things, the gift of knowledge, while revealing the essential nothingness of these things, does not deny the relative perfections to be found in them, but shows them only as vestiges, reflections of the infinite perfection of God. It is this light that changes creatures from an obstacle into a ladder leading us to God, because “the soul is strongly moved to love her Beloved, her God, by the consideration of the creatures, seeing that these are things that have been made by His own hand” (J.C. SC, 4,3).

When a soul is profoundly enlightened by the gift of knowledge, creatures no longer hinder its ascent to God, for whether considering their nothingness or the beauty with which God has endowed them, whether in giving them up or in using them through necessity, they always urge the soul on to God, inspiring it to seek Him and love Him, the one infinitely beautiful Being.


COLLOQUY

“My God, here on earth all is vanity. What can I seek and desire to find here below where nothing is pure? All is vain, uncertain, and deceptive, except to love You, O Lord, and do good works. But I cannot love You perfectly unless I despise myself and the world.

“O my soul, do not think it hard to leave your friends and acquaintances; they often stand in the way of divine consolations. Where are the companions with whom you played and laughed? I do not know; they went away and abandoned me. And where are the things you were interested in yesterday? They have vanished. Everything has gone. Then only he who serves You, O Lord, is wise, because he despises the earthly life with all its charms.

“Keep me, O my God, from seeking the joys of the world. I conjure you, remove from my heart every attachment to earthly vanities. Lift me up to the height of the Cross; grant that I may follow You wherever You precede me. Poor and stripped of all, an exile on earth, and unknown, I willingly remain with You” (Thomas 4 Kempis).

“Remove from me, O my God, everything that leads me away from You; give me everything that will bring me
nearer to You. Enrapture me, so that I will live wholly and always for You” (St. Nicholas of Fliie).

“O Lord, grant that the sweet, burning power of Your love may draw my heart away from all earthly delights,
so that I may die for love of You as You deigned to die for love of me ” (St. Francis of Assisi).

310. BLESSED ARE THEY THAT MOURN

PRESENCE OF GOD - Grant, O Lord, that I may shed only such tears as are pleasing to You and that will help me to grow in Your love.


MEDITATION

1. The Beatitude: “Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted” (Mt 5,5), corresponds to the gift of knowledge. Blessed are they who, thoroughly enlightened by the Holy Spirit as to the nothingness of creatures, weep for the time they have spent seeking them, and mourn over the energy and affection they have wasted on the vanities of the world. These are the burning tears of St. Augustine who, in his Confessions, continually laments: “Late have I loved Thee, O Beauty ever ancient, ever new, late have I loved Thee.... Thou wert with me, but I was not with Thee; creatures kept me far from Thee.” ‘These are the tears of the penitent Magdalen, and of St. Peter weeping over his fall; blessed tears, cleansing souls from sin and disposing them for friendship with God. These are the tears of souls determined to seek God in preference to all creatures, but who still, because of their frailty, have to reproach themselves daily for some weakness, some slight return to futile earthly satisfactions. The gift of knowledge does not permit us to close our eyes to our infidelities, however slight, but it makes us hate them and weep for them with tears of compunction.

One who lives under the influence of this gift will never be careless or superficial in his examinations of conscience; his confessions, though peaceful, will always be sorrowful and accompanied by true contrition. Such were the confessions of the saints, who with the most lively sorrow accused themselves of their slightest imperfections. The Holy Spirit does not want us to be scrupulous, but He does want us to be very delicate in our fidelity to God. He is not satisfied that we despise the vanities of the world in general, but He wants us to despise them in their most subtle manifestations, such as slight retaliations of self-love, little self-complacencies, or concern for the affection and esteem of others. Blessed the soul who knows how to recognize all its miseries and weep for them, not with tears of discouragement or anxiety, but with tears of profound sorrow, which instead of contracting its heart in fear, will dilate it in repentant love, and cast it into God’s arms, with a heart renewed by love and sorrow.


2. The gift of knowledge, making us clearly realize the vanity of creatures, convinces us that they are perishable and full of defects; hence, it incites us to place all our hope in God. In this sense, the gift of knowledge perfects and strengthens the virtue of hope so that, without further hesitation, our heart anchors itself in God, recognizing in Him our only strength and support, our only happiness.

The more we hope in God and the beatific possession of Him which awaits us in eternal life, so much the more are we disposed, not only to renounce the happiness and satisfaction which creatures can offer us, but also to
embrace all the sacrifices necessary to reach eternal life. Many sacrifices are necessary because we cannot go to God except by following the path traced by the Son of God to lead us to Him: the way of the Cross. But even though it suffers, the soul who lives by hope can repeat the words of St. Paul: “We faint not...for that which is at present momentary and light of our tribulation, worketh for us above measure exceedingly an eternal weight of glory” (2 Cor 4, 16.17). The gift of knowledge helps us judge our present sorrows as light when compared with eternal beatitude, in view of which it incites us to bless them, even should they cost us our blood. This is why the Apostle rejoiced and gloried in his tribulations (cf. Rom 5,3), and St. Francis of
Assisi sang, “The joys I hope for are so great that all pain is dear to me.”

Under the influence of the gift of knowledge, the soul understands the blessedness of tears, that is, the blessedness of suffering embraced for the love of God. This gift does not make us insensible to physical and moral pain; so true is this that the beatitude speaks expressly of “tears,” but although it does not keep us from weeping, it does sanctify our weeping and makes us more resigned to God’s will, preferring these tears to the vain joys of the world and regarding them as a means of becoming more like unto Christ crucified. What a difference between such tears and those shed through pride, because we will not submit to God’s will, or because of the capricious resentments of self-love. When a soul has reached the point where it prefers blessed tears shed at the foot of the Cross to the joys of earth, it can hope in the beatitude promised by Jesus: “Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted.”


COLLOQUY


“O Lord, the peace You give us in this world is full of anxieties, tribulations, and persecutions; but then You bring us to a quiet, tranquil peace. I can even say that in the midst of these difficulties You give us Your peace, because the Spirit attests in this way that we are Your children. This means, ‘ Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted.’ Not only will You comfort us in the future, but You turn our very tears into consolation, and war itself into peace. He who loves You, O Lord, finds in the most burning fire of tribulation the cool breeze and the dew of heavenly consolation” (St. Mary Magdalen dei Pazzi).

“Blessed are You, O my God, because You have not demanded from us as the price of Your kingdom, a long period of suffering, but a very brief one, as brief as life, a moment compared with an eternity of happiness! Truly,
if for love of You, we had to endure for hundreds of thousands of years, sufferings a thousand times harder, more painful and severe, we should have accepted Your decree with immense joy and longing, and thanked You on our knees with our hands joined. How much more then, should we thank You now that, in Your mercy, You have deigned to give us the shortest time possible of suffering, a time as short as life! Short as an instant, as nothing, because life is nothing compared with eternity.

“Come then, come, O children of God; let us hasten to the Cross of Christ, to sorrow, contempt, and poverty!
Grant, O Lord, that I may love You as You have loved me, with that absolute fidelity, purity, and love which reserves nothing for self, which gives itself wholly and therefore runs to pain and suffering, seeing and feeling in all things nothing but love” (St. Angela of Foligno).

311. THE GIFT OF UNDERSTANDING

PRESENCE OF GOD - Come, O Spirit of understanding, and enlighten me!


MEDITATION

1. As we advance toward God, we encounter many difficulties, not only because of creatures obstructing our path, but also because of the impenetrability of the divine mysteries. To enable us to surmount the former, the Holy Spirit comes to our aid with the gift of knowledge; to overcome the latter, He comes to our aid with the gift of understanding.

Our intellect is incapable of seizing the infinite. Although gifted with faith, its manner of understanding
is always human, proceeding by means of ideas and limited concepts, which are totally inadequate to express the divine realities. Revelation itself comes to us in human language; therefore, it cannot tell us what God is in Himself, nor manifest to us the intimate essence of revealed truths. Proceeding with the virtue of faith alone, we are constrained to stop, so to speak, at the surface of the divine mysteries. We know with certitude that they have been revealed by God; we adhere to them with all our strength and yet we do not succeed in penetrating them. However, what faith alone cannot do, it is able to do with the help of the gift of understanding. This gift surpasses our human way of comprehension and enlightens us in a divine way; it makes us “intus legere,” that is, “ read within” the divine mysteries, with the light, with the understanding of the Holy Spirit Himself.

It is a swift, deep penetration which, while adding nothing new to what we already know from revelation,
does make us understand the inner meaning of the revealed truth. The gift of understanding tears off, so to say, the outer coverings of the propositions and human concepts, allowing us to see the substance of the divine mysteries. Faith tells us that God is Trinity; the gift of understanding tells us nothing more, it does not make us see, nor does it explain this mystery to us, but it does make us penetrate it. Under the influence of this gift, the soul not only believes that God is One and Three, but it has the intuition that the mystery of the Trinity is essential to the divine nature and that it reveals better than anything else the perfection,
the power, and the infinite love of God.


2. Only the Holy Spirit, who is God, can make us penetrate the divine mysteries. St. Paul expressly says so:
That which “eye hath not seen nor ear heard...to us God hath revealed...by His Spirit. For the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God.... So the things also that are of God, no man knoweth, but the Spirit of God. Now we have received not the spirit of this world, but the Spirit that is of God; that we may know the things that are given us from God” (1 Cor 2,9-12). And this is the wonderful work that the Holy Spirit performs in us by the gift of understanding. He communicates a share of His knowledge of the divine mysteries to souls united to Him by love. Therefore, it is clear that the more closely united we are to the Holy Spirit by perfect charity, the more capable we shall be of receiving this precious communication. Then the gift of understanding will not be inactive in us, but will intervene with its light to illumine our studies and our meditations on divine things, making us penetrate into their depths, making us “see” the intimate sense of the sacred texts and giving us a correct understanding of God’s commandments and counsels. In this way, the Holy Spirit introduces the soul to a form of prayer more simple and profound: the mind no longer needs to reason or to look for convincing motives; under the illuminating touch of the Holy Spirit, the soul’s gaze is arrested and fixed on truth. This simple contemplative gaze reveals God to the soul better than any theological study; it feels itself engulfed in God; it senses a bottomless abyss into which it is glad to
plunge. It does not see, does not distinguish, cannot describe anything with precision, but it feels God, feels that it is in contact with Him. What a difference in our comprehension of the same mystery when we meditate on it by the light of faith only and when, on the contrary, we have the grace to penetrate it by the light derived from the gift of understanding! Then we no longer look at the exterior, but at the interior; we no longer stop at the words which express it, but we penetrate the secret meaning hidden within the words.


COLLOQUY

Come, Holy Spirit, come light divine!

“O light that sees no other light, light that obscures all other light, light which is the source of all other light, brightness compared with which all other brightness is darkness, and all other light obscurity; supreme light, not darkened by blindness, not clouded by darkness, not obscured by shadows; light that no obstacle impedes, no shade divides; light illuminating all things together and forever, absorb me in the ocean of your brilliance, that I may see You in Yourself, and myself in You, and all things beneath You” (St. Augustine).

“How can I approach You, O Holy Spirit? You dwell in inaccessible light, and are Yourself all light, knowledge and splendor, while I dwell in a place of darkness and am nothing but ignorance and rudeness.

“Meanwhile, O divine Spirit, I beg You with confidence to illumine me. Reveal to me the divine greatness and the divine mysteries, so that I may adore and acknowledge them. Disclose the wiles of the devil and of the world, that I may avoid them and never fall again; reveal to me my miseries and my weaknesses, my errors, my prejudices, my obstinacies, the artifices of my self-love, so that I may hate and correct them. But, O beneficent light, above all illumine my soul, that it may know what You wish of me: make me understand well the charm of Your attractions and of Your grace, and all that I must do to merit the beneficent influence of Your goodness, so that I may correspond with complete fidelity; O loving Spirit, sustain me in this fidelity unto death” (Fr. Aurillon).

312. BLESSED ARE THE CLEAN OF HEART

PRESENCE OF GOD - O Lord, purify my heart and my mind, that I may learn to know You better.


MEDITATION

1. The beatitude: “Blessed are the clean of heart, for they shall see God” (Mt 5,8), corresponds to the gift of understanding. There isa purity of heart which is the indispensable condition for receiving an abundant inflowing of the gift of understanding; it is the purity that results, not only from the absence of sin, but also from the absence of the slightest earthly affection. In fact, God does not communicate Himself fully to a creature whose heart is not absolutely pure; that is, one whose entire capacity for affection is not reserved for Him. As long as we have any attachment to creatures, any seeking for the affection of others, any complacency in feeling that we are loved by them, our heart is not pure enough to enjoy the divine communications. Therefore, before allowing a soul to penetrate His divine mysteries, God subjects it to a purification of the affections by means of detachments and sacrifices, sometimes at the cost of blood, but which, if generously accepted, will eventually detach the heart from creatures and leave it entirely free
for its Creator. If God makes us pass through this trial, let us not draw back or try to evade His action, but let us cooperate with it, being fully persuaded that He reserves the fullness of His gifts and of His light for those souls alone who are free from any shadow of creatures, those hearts which belong entirely to Him. In this sense it may well be said that the sight of God is the reward promised to the pure of heart.

In fact, if the heart retains any attachment, even slight, to creatures, the intellect remains clouded, and
“has no more capacity for receiving enlightenment from the wisdom of God than has the air, when it is dark, for receiving enlightenment from the sun.... Oh!” exclaims St. John of the Cross, “if men but knew how great is the blessing of divine light whereof they are deprived by this blindness which proceeds from their affections and desires!” (AS J, 8,2.6). Indeed, when the heart is pure, then the intellect, like a clear glass, can be completely penetrated by the light of the Holy Spirit.


2. There is another purity of heart which is not just a disposition to receive the gift of understanding, but is the fruit of this gift. Here the word “heart” is used in its broader meaning of spirit and mind, which is its usual meaning in Holy Scripture.

Our minds are so dull that we can always err in understanding divine things, either by imagining them in a material way, measuring them by worldly standards, or by interpreting them according to our personal views, considering only one aspect, and ignoring others which are essential, and so on. This dullness of mind, unfortunately, has been the source of many heresies in the Church. The gift of understanding, giving us the light of the Holy Spirit Himself, purifies our minds from these errors and frees them from the illusions of the imagination, as well as from other false interpretations. By means of this purity of mind, the gift of understanding insures the integrity of our faith, enabling us to penetrate the objective reality of the divine mysteries, and giving us the real meaning of God’s law, of the commandments, and the counsels. On the other hand, this gift, which allows us to penetrate the divine mysteries by the infused light of the Holy Spirit, makes us clearly understand that God cannot be enclosed in our dull imaginations nor in our limited ideas,
but that He is infinitely superior to anything we can think or imagine about Him. St. John of the Cross says, “Since God is inaccessible, see that thou concern not thyself with how much thy faculties can comprehend and thy senses can perceive, that thou be not satisfied with less and that thy soul lose not the agility that is needful for one that would attain to Him” (SM J, 52).

If we wish to respond to the motions of the gift of understanding, we must be detached from our own ideas and ready to renounce them even though very dear to us; we must not be too sure about our way of understanding the things of God, but must seek the guidance of the Church. Above all, we must humbly pray for the gift of understanding because it will free us from errors and give us a right understanding of divine things. If the Holy Spirit finds us pure in heart, He will enlighten us more and more; greater purity will lead to greater light, and vice versa; thus, from clarity to clarity, we shall arrive at a more profound penetration of the divine mysteries, which will give us a kind of foretaste of the beatific vision. “Blessed are the clean of heart, for they shall see God!”


COLLOQUY

“O Lord, give me right sentiments about You and grant that I may seek You with simplicity of heart. My heart
says to You, ‘I will seek Your face.’ When my heart seeks You, O Lord, it is Your presence it is seeking. Your home is where You dwell, and where do You dwell, if not in Your temple? My heart is Your temple : teach me how to welcome You there. You are spirit, and I must adore You in spirit and in truth. Come into my heart, and all the idols shall fall.

“Now I shall listen to Your voice and learn to long for You and to prepare myself to see You. Blessed are all who see You! And if they do see You, it is not because, while they were on earth, they were poor in spirit, or because they were meek or merciful, or because they mourned or hungered and thirsted after justice, but because they were clean of heart. Humility is good for attaining the kingdom of heaven; meekness is good for possessing the land; tears are good for receiving consolation; hunger and thirst after justice, for being
filled; mercy is good for obtaining mercy, but only purity of heart permits us to see You.

“My desire is to see You; what I desire is great, but it is You who tell me to wish for it. Help me to purify my heart, because what I desire to see is pure but my means of seeing it, impure. Come to me, O God, and purify me by Your grace; purify my heart with Your aid and strength. If I receive You into my heart during this present life, after my death You will admit me into Your presence” (St. Augustine).

“Come, Holy Spirit, speak to my heart; or at least, if You wish to remain silent, may Your very silence speak
to me, because without You I am always in danger of following my own errors and confusing them with Your teachings” (cf. St. Bernard).

313. THE GIFT OF WISDOM

PRESENCE OF GOD - Come, O Spirit of Wisdom, draw me!


MEDITATION

1. The gift of understanding enables us to penetrate God’s mysteries; the gift of wisdom takes us further : it lets us taste them and gives us a delightful knowledge of them. This is the savory knowledge of which St. Bernard speaks, the untranslatable “dulce sapere” invoked by St. Thomas in the Adoro Te Devote; it is the precious gift which the Holy Spirit offers us in the words: “Gustate et videte quam bonus sit Dominus” (Ps 33,9). “Taste and see that the Lord is sweet.” It is not by chance that it is first said taste, and then see, for by the gift of wisdom we know God by the experience of the heart which “tastes” the object loved.

There are two ways of knowing: a speculative, intellectual way, and an experimental way, resulting from a kind of “connaturality” with the object of our knowledge. The latter is not so clear, but it is much deeper than the former, and grasps the inner substance of things. Thus, for example, because of the affinity of thought and affection that binds a mother to her child, she knows its heart much better than any other person. Similar to this is the knowledge of divine subjects which we acquire by means of the gift of wisdom. Between God and us there is a certain “connaturality,” a certain similarity, produced by the love which unites us to Him and in some way assimilates us to Him; even more, St. Paul does not hesitate to say that “He who is joined to the Lord, is one spirit” (1 Cor 6,17).

The gift of wisdom enables us to know God and divine things precisely through this “connaturality,” and therefore gives us a delightful experience of them through the love which is its source. This experience seizes the soul in its very center, that is, in the will, forcibly drawing it to God and at the same time, inundating the intellect with floods of light. The gift of wisdom acts somewhat like the rays of the sun which give heat and light at the same time. Its warmth quickens charity in the soul, and through this enkindling of love, the soul is enlightened concerning the divine realities and is enabled to judge of them, because it knows intuitively their infinite goodness and their absolute superiority over all created things. “ Oh, the depth of the riches of...God!” (Rom 11,33). This is the cry of the soul inflamed and illumined by the gift of wisdom.


2. All the gifts of the Holy Spirit are closely connected with charity, for they abound only in souls who possess charity, and they develop in the measure that charity increases. However, the gift of wisdom has a very special relationship to the love of charity, primarily because it is set in action by means of charity. St. Thomas says, “The cause of the gift of wisdom is found in the will, and it is charity” (IIe II, q.45, a.2, co.); therefore, the more a soul loves God, the more capable it becomes of receiving the motions of this gift. In addition, the delightful knowledge of God derived from the gift of wisdom is a most powerful means of increasing charity. How can we fail to love the Lord more after having tasted His sweetness? In the measure
that the gift of wisdom invades a soul, charity increases and so does its unitive force, by which the soul adheres ever more closely to God.

This gift leads to a more profound prayer than that experienced when the gift of understanding alone intervenes: the soul feels “seized” and drawn by God in an irresistible way; it feels truly united to the Lord and tastes Him in this union—not in a sensible manner but spiritually—and by intuition, it knows Him in the most intimate way possible here below. ‘The soul emerges from this prayer inflamed with love, a love which it expresses above all by the perfect conformity of its will with God’s in all the happenings of life; it comes from this prayer so full of God that, upon returning to its ordinary duties, it sees and considers everything in relation to God. In this way the gift of wisdom extends its influence even into our practical life and teaches us to judge all things in the light of God. In order to receive the actions of the gift of wisdom —the most sublime of all the gifts—we should gently prepare our heart for the plenitude of love, and at the same time apply ourselves to the acquiring of a profound humility, because as Jesus has said: “Thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them to little ones” (Mi 11,25). “And those alone acquire the wisdom of God who are like ignorant children, and, laying aside their knowledge, walk in His service with love” (J.C. AS J, 4,5).


COLLOQUY

“Come, O divine Spirit, and take possession of my heart; dissipate all the darkness that the folly of the world calls wisdom, and grant me in its place the gift of heavenly wisdom. You alone can teach me to despise what the world loves, that is, what delights and flatters. You alone can teach me to enjoy the things of God, the virtue, piety, and love which You came to kindle on earth in order that the world might be inflamed ” (Anonymous).

“O God, who by Your essence are uncreated Love, infinite Love, boundless Love, not only loving, but Love
itself; O God, from whom proceeds the love of all the seraphim and of all creatures, why do I not love You?
Why am I not consumed in this burning furnace of love, which embraces the whole universe?

“O God, essential goodness, You by whom all goodness is good, who are the source of the goodness of all creatures, just as the sea is the source of all waters, You whose goodness is so excellent that nothing in heaven or on earth can be called good in respect to it, why do I not love You, since goodness is the object of love?

“O most holy Father! O most merciful Son! O most loving Holy Spirit! When will You, O Father, be most deeply hidden in the innermost depths of my soul and fully possess me? When shall I be all Yours and You all mine?
When will You be my King? When will that day come? Oh! When? Oh, it will surely come! Do You believe that
I shall see it? Why such delay! How painful this waiting! Hasten, O Jesus, hasten, delay no longer!” (Ven. Louis of Granada).

314. BLESSED ARE THE PEACEMAKERS

PRESENCE OF GOD - O Holy Spirit, help me to establish my heart in peace.


MEDITATION

1. A soul who has tasted God, under the influence of the gift of wisdom, looks at the world with the eyes of God, and therefore is able to judge all things “secundum rationes divinae” (St. Thomas IIe IIe, q.45, a.3, ad 3) by divine principles, according to supernatural motives, and not according to limited human reasoning. These are the truly “wise” judgments that we can never formulate without the help of the Holy Spirit. In fact, “the sensual man {the man of the senses and of natural reason] perceiveth not these things that are of the Spirit of God; for it is foolishness to him, and he cannot understand, because it is spiritually examined. But the spiritual man [the man of faith guided by the Holy Spirit] judgeth all things” (1 Cor 2,14.15). He judges all things in relation to their supreme Cause, God; therefore, he directs all his acts and orders everything in his life according to God.

From this order—the only true order—comes peace, the fruit of the wise direction of the gift of wisdom; hence, the man who habitually lives under the influence of this gift is a peaceful man par excellence. His heart is established in peace, there is no longer anything disordered in it; all his affections and desires, all his thoughts and acts, are completely ordered according to God, being wholly submitted and conformed to His laws, to His will, to His good pleasure. One who possesses peace, disseminates peace. A peacemaker, in the etymological sense, is one who makes peace, cultivates peace, and spreads it about him. This is why the gift of wisdom corresponds to the beatitude of peace, “Blessed are the peacemakers.” Only one who lives under the influence of this gift can truly judge and regulate everything according to God, so that nothing, not even suffering, can disturb his interior peace, for he knows that even the most painful happenings are permitted and ordered by God for the good of His elect. “To them that love God, all things work together unto good ” (Rom 8,28). In this way the gift of wisdom gives a note of sweetness, not only to our prayer, but also to our practical life: “Under the influence of this gift,” says St. Thomas, “what is bitter becomes sweet, and weariness becomes repose” (IIe IIe, 4.45, a.3, ad 3).


2. The gift of wisdom leads us to peace: the interior peace of the soul who, having tasted God, gives itself to Him without reserve, in complete surrender to His divine will; the serene peace of one who, seeing God in all things, accepts the hardships of life without being disturbed, adoring God’s providence in all; finally, it is the social peace of him who, considering all men in relation to God, as His creatures and His children, loves them all and wishes to live in peace with all. The more perfect it becomes, the more will this peace bring us to taste the reward promised by Jesus: “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the
children of God” (Mi 5,9).

All Christians are children of God by grace, but here we are considering the special reward which we might call a superabundance of the grace of adoption, an experience by which the soul not only knows, but even feels and tastes that it is a child of God. It is the savory sense of divine filiation which is born in the soul under the influence of the gift of wisdom. “The Spirit Himself giveth testimony to our spirit, that we are the sons of God” (Rom 8,16); these words of St. Paul become a living reality, a delightful experience; the soul feels itself called a child of God, not by men, but by God Himself; no audible voice speaks to it, but the more it feels drawn by God and enjoys Him in intimate union, so much the more does it feel that He is its
Father and that, in very truth, it is His child.

Our God is the God of peace; therefore, it is perfectly right that the peaceful man, he who possesses and diffuses peace, should feel in a very special way that he is God’s child. If men generally do not feel themselves to be children of God, it is because they are so little disposed to peace, so ready for disputes, quarrels and war. They talk about peace but do not make peace, for they do not accept the guidance of the Spirit of wisdom. In their ignorance they prefer to be guided by themselves, and as a result they are dominated by pride, self-interest, and cupidity; they live in disorder and they sow disorder around them. The more our soul becomes firmly established in peace, and the more we become messengers of peace, to that degree will the Holy Spirit infuse into us this delightful sense of our divine sonship, and this will become for us a source of immense happiness, a true prelude of eternal beatitude.


COLLOQUY

“O Holy Spirit, give us Your wisdom to teach and guide us and to bring all things back to You, from whom they came. Oh! if we could really return to You as we came out from You, like waves returning to the ocean whence they came! Oh! If we could only make this complete return to You, we should be in perpetual happiness and perpetual peace!

“Your wisdom is the perfection which orders all things in relation to You who are their end. It considers the past, looks at the present, and scans the future always in relation to You. From this orientation, peace, the sweet fruit of wisdom, is born in our hearts. He who possesses this peace is always serene: he is not troubled by the past or the present, and he looks peacefully toward the future, because he knows that everything is permitted and arranged by Your sovereign goodness.

“O eternal Father, give us light to know this peace, the cause of so many blessings, and without which we fall into so many faults and evils!

“Oh! why can I not communicate this peace to every creature? If I were what I should be, I certainly could
diffuse it everywhere! O Lord, give me Your peace, the peace of a heart which lives united to You, for of myself I can have no good and without You I cannot have peace” (St. Mary Magdalen dei Pazzi).

“O most benign Jesus, give me above all desires the desire to rest in You, and in You let my heart find peace.
You are the true peace of the heart; You are its only refuge; without You all things are difficult and troubled. In this peace, then, that is, in You, the one sovereign eternal Good, I will sleep and take my rest” (Imit. HI, 15,4).