Fire Within by Fr. Thomas Dubay

Author:Fr. Thomas Dubay
Format: mobi
Tags: Spiritual & Religion
ISBN: 9780898702637
Publisher: Ignatius Press
Published: 2010-02-16T08:51:41+00:00

CHAPTER TEN

THE TRANSFORMING SUMMIT

When the theme is such a lofty one, human language can be stretched to its furthest expanse and yet rather poorly represent the wider-reaching reality. Even so, in writing of sublime realities, despite endeavoring to portray them precisely as they are, one risks appearing to indulge in mere hyperbole. Because of the dulling effects of the mass media and the gross exaggerations we find in advertising and political oratory, our contemporaries are understandably suspicious of inflated language and extravagant claims. Our problem in this chapter is that the teresian and sanjuanist descriptions of the culminating apex of contemplative communion with the indwelling Trinity press even poetic song to its outer boundaries—perhaps one should say its inner limits as well.

The two Carmelites were not the first to wrestle with this problem, and they will not be the last. St. Paul pushed his Greek to its furthest frontier when he attempted to explain to the Ephesians what a profound immersion in God is like. Referring to the love of Christ that surpasses all human knowing, the apostle longed for the recipients of his letter to be “filled with the utter fullness of God”. This staggering statement is incapable of exaggeration. Yet he goes on to remark that God’s working in us “can do infinitely more than we can ask or imagine”.1 Infinitely more! If anyone is tempted to think either that later mystics are overstating what occurs in the transforming union or that this summit is not for everyone, I would simply invite the doubter to stop, to reread Ephesians 3:19-20, and then to think about it seriously for five uninterrupted minutes.

From the outset it is well for us to recall that the whole of prayer development from the first to the last of St. Teresa’s seven mansions is one continuous evolution from seed to blossom. The transforming union isdn its basic essence neither vision nor revelation. It is communion come to maturity, a communion that brings along with it the culmination of a slow growth in holiness that has been taking place all through the development of infused prayer. At this summit the unforced divine invasion reaches its fullness; the knowing-loving-delighting fusion between God and man reaches its nonpantheistic consummation. This new creation2 is found not only in prayerful solitude but also in the multiplicities of daily life: there is in both action and contemplation a remarkable newness of goodness, strength, freedom and delight.3

St. John’s descriptive organization of prayer growth differs from the sevenfold scheme of St. Teresa. While the two saints agree in all essentials (except the confirmation in grace), they approach the issue of development from two diverse points of view. We have studied Teresa’s treatment in Chapter 6. John begins with our need for purification, for only the pure can commune deeply with the all-pure One. The two basic liberations from faults and imperfections we have considered in Chapters 7 (St. Teresa) and 8 and 9 (St. John). As we are freed progressively more and

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