XVIII
I KNOW A MAN IN CHRIST
Scio
hominem in Christo ante annos quatuordecim etc. (2 Cor 122).
St Paul declares: ' I know a man who fourteen years ago was caught up into the
third heaven; whether in the body or no I cannot tell: God knoweth.' Now
granting Paul was there at any time, then either body and soul both turned to
spirit or else his soul took wing out of his body. It is certain that his
soul left not his body, for she was giving life unto himself; she must then have
seen God in her and herself in him.
The soul had three powers: mind, will
and rage. These three powers are in league with deity. Will cleaving
unto God can do all things. God seized of his divinity bestows upon her
power and fecundity. Mind cleaving to the Son knows with the Son; it knows
with the Son when it is void of knowledge. The third power is the power of
attack, which is connected with the Holy Ghost. This power is every making
for the source whence it proceeded forth and the Holy Ghost is its initiator
into the eternal nature: it floods the secret chamber of the soul, and lo! she
loses time and place in the eternal, in time transcending time. But for the soul
this is not enough: had she enough she would have time in lieu of her
eternity. Let us not flag. Not ours the blame if, being ready and
atoned in will, God hides himself so that we cannot do all things with him
although he plays his part just as the sun gives out its light and fire gives
out its heat. Woodapples cannot check the letting of their gall, but God
contrives from time to time to reach out to the longing soul if he is very near
to her. So let her, never doubting, with hearty longing, hail God
frequently: 'O Friend of me, how long am I to wait for thee?'
He says, to Christ was given a new
name: one by the angel another by St Paul, a third by his heavenly Father. The
angel gave him the name Jesus Christ. Joseph and Mary called him by this name
which signifies Weal of the World . The name is given to the wounded soul.
Alas, we are too frail! We should be well of our infirmities being raised up and
gotten in; we should be raised if we were destitute and unattached. For
the exalted spark wherein we see the light divine, that never parts from God nor
is there anything between. What matter then if good and ill and pain
betide, they do but touch the lower faculties.
St Paul gave him three names and called him
the reflection of the Father. He says, the wounded soul is given the
mystic heavenly bread. Whence comes her wound? -- From longing. What
is longing? -- It is love. What is nobler than longing? What we pray God
for humbly and with longing he durst not refuse: desire ablush with modesty he
leads into the triple chamber of the Holy Trinity.
Paul called him also the fecundity of
the Father and the image in the Father, working with the Father to bring forth
his Person. Verily I say, the soul will bring forth Person if God laughs
into her and she laughs back to him. To speak in parable, the Father
laughs into the Son and the Son laughs back to the Father; and this laughter
breeds liking, and liking breeds joy, and joy begets love, and love begets
Person, and Person begets the Holy Ghost. In this wise does he travail with his
Father.
The third name he gave was, The
Majesty of the Substance of God. Majesty is the essence of his divine
substance, this substance being the elemental matter of the three Persons.
The soul is called majesty when she gives up mode: then she knows the Father and
paternity, the Son and filiation, and the Persons of them twain and she
comprehends in unity. The Father gave him five names, ineffable. God
keeps us every whit in him. So help us God. Amen.