Divine endowment : considerations of the gifts of the Holy Ghost

Front matter

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BY THE SAME AUTHOR

Preface

In the following pages an attempt has been made to present the spiritual life as it may be developed under the guidance of the Holy Spirit Whose gifts we have received. It is felt that the attempt will be justified if it be the means of awakening any souls to a true sense of the power possessed by them. In an age when spiritual power is challenged persistently it is of the greatest importance that Catholics should _know within themselves the blessing and richness of the supernatural gifts with which they are endowed. That they are being recognized and valued is perhaps the best reason for this little book; for Catholics are not impatient of instruction in spiritual things.

The writer begs the prayers of his readers.

J.B.

Til.

Introduction

THE GIFT THE GIFT THE GIFT THE GIFT THE GIFT THE GIFT THE GIFT

OF HOLY FEAR

OF GODLINESS

OF KNOWLEDGE .

OF STRENGTH

OF COUNSEL .

OF UNDERSTANDING OF WISDOM

Vil

105 117

I Fntroduction

THE Christian soul is divinely dowered. This is a simply stated fact; but seeing that man is a spiritual being, and that he has an eternal future, it is of stupendous consequence. It is the central truth of the doctrine of grace; and so of the sacramental life. The Sacraments are something more than beautiful forms. They are “ effectual signs of grace.”?! They are the divinely ordered means of sanctifying grace. Their effects in our sanctification are sufficient evidence of the nature and origin of grace. It is of God. It is Divine. God thus reveals His Personal concern in our sanctification. He is faithful to His Own implied promise. When He calls us to Himself; bids us “‘ come ”’;2 declares the truth of sacramental union; * promises a special indwelling of Himself; 4

there is an assurance of grace contingent upon our effort and obedience. Sanctification is effected through the union of the soul with God by grace. Each of the three Persons in the Divine Trinity is concerned in this work of grace in the human soul. There is no absolute separation, although we recognize a distinction, between the operations of the Three Divine Persons; and we may contemplate the action proper to each. But contemplation of the mystery of the Divine Nature confirms our faith. We adore each Person as God and Lord; but we adore but One Love, One Being. The Divine Persons are so revealed to the faithful soul that They can never be confused; but neither can They be separated. We adore the Father, the Eternal Source of all being; the Son, the Eternal Word, the Incarnate Lord, the memorial of Whose sacrifice and death is presented continually before our eyes ; the Holy Spirit, the Life-giver, giving power by His Gifts to men. But because of the Eternal Unity we may perceive only unity of purpose in all that God does for us. This Divine love is conveyed to us immediately, breathed forth, by the Holy Spirit, Who in His eternal procession from the Father and the Son is Himself Love. His gifts are rich through love. While they make the Divine love most evident, they also empower the soul and make it capable of loving the most High God. Every consideration of His

Gifts should both quicken our love, and move us to admiration—yea, to adoration.

We have set ourselves to consider the endowment of the human soul by the Holy Spirit. In order to understand our place and calling within the Church, we are venturing within the realm of sacred mysteries, to contemplate that which existed in God before the world was, and we pray that same Holy Spirit to guide us to the understanding of that which is revealed. There is one manifestation of the Holy Spirit which bears directly upon our subject. When Moses was instructed as to the arrangement of the Tabernacle, and directed as to the ceremonial to be observed, he was admonished to be faithful to that which had been shown him on the Mount.! Of the golden candlestick with its seven lamps, it is particularly stated that it was made “‘ according to the pattern which the Lord had shewed Moses.’’? Is there no connection here with that which S. John saw in his great vision, the “ seven lamps of fire burning before the throne, which are the seven Spirits of God” ?® Did Moses contemplate that same heavenly vision? Was it given him to perceive that the ordered earthly symbols were in some way necessary to the preservation among his people of certain great truths, some essential features of the Divine life? Had they for

1 Ex. xxv. 9,40; xxvi. 30; Heb. viii. 5; ix. 23. 2 Numb. viii. 4. 3 Rev. iv. 5. Cf. alsoi. 4; iii. 1.

him, as he set them in their places, a significance which only that vision could explain? Surely there was nothing within the Tabernacle, as there was nothing in the details of its construction, which to him did not speak of the mystic glory of the vision wherein he learned the pattern of the things to be made. But, we think, there was more than vision, or rather that the vision itself drew him until he contemplated the mystery of the Divine nature, led deeper and deeper as he became purer in spirit through the operation of Divine love. Intuitions of Divine glory must have exalted him in knowledge above all men of his time; and with reference to the seven lamps of the sanctuary, it would appear that he had some understanding of the eternal procession of the Holy Ghost, and of His gifts in relation to man in his approach to God, that is, in the life of prayer. The Holy Spirit Himself revealed to him the mystery of His Own Eternal Procession, that the nature of His Gifts might be known. They are given forth by Him from out of the exhaustless treasure of the Divine life; and by means of them, when faithfully used, we may apprehend God, and become united to Him. Every gift of the Holy Ghost is ameans tounion. Union is effected by love; but love itself is perfected through the use of His gifts. When later the Prophet Isaiah foretold the spiritual endowment of the Incarnate Word, the sevenfold revelation of the Holy Ghost was made more articulate. “‘ And there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a Branch shall grow out of his roots: And the spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord; and shall make him of quick understanding in the fear of ihe Lord.” 1 We are instructed in the gifts which correspond, as we now consider them, with the Seven Lamps of the Sanctuary, and the Seven Lamps of S. John’s vision. This declaration comes midway between the two visions. So, on earth, we have the lamps of the Tabernacle; in the prophecy a meaning; in the vision of S. John, which is a revelation to the Church, the Seven Lamps before the Throne which show the perfect operation of the Spirit, and confirm us in our veneration of His gifts.

Let us contemplate this as Divine truth, inseparable from the eternity of God, a revelation of His essential love, ever going forth with purpose and power. It is not an effect of the Divine life, or love; but the very life itself, the very love in its essential movement. It is so sublime that we cannot reach its height; for who can attain to the contemplation of the eternity of God in those mysteries which are beyond the reach of created intelligence, wherein He can be known only to Himself? And yet we know it concerns us most intimately; for there is nothing in God that may be known by us, which is not in some way necessary to us. Even those attributes of His Being and Majesty which are beyond our knowledge, give force and beauty to all that we may know of Him; and will be found necessary to the human soul in its perfect state hereafter. All our perceptions of God here, ‘all holy intuitions, are necessary to the advancing soul. They are more than simple attractions of His beauty, more than impressions of Divine reality; they are gifts of knowledge from Him, in some way contributing to our sanctity. There is given with every degree of this knowledge a certain elevating grace which raises the soul above the characteristic likings and attractions of the lower nature. Hence in the Saints we remark an almost complete absence of baser desires. To contemplate the eternity of God is to lose the taste for that which cannot live upon the heights of His love. If we know this, how can we excuse to ourselves our impoverished religious ideals? Of course, -no valid excuse can be found. If we turn away from the vision, we alone suffer. The vision itself is not obscured; but our own souls are darkened. We who by nature are fitted to reflect the Divine light, are blinded as soon as we turn to the darkening shadows of the world.

Oh, that souls created for God would keep their powers for Him, and consistently follow His leading, and in contemplation of the Vision attain to the pure conception of life as it ought to be lived in Him !

I

Meditation upon the Divine life leads us to a larger view of human life. All that we are, and know ourselves to be, all that life holds or promises, is taken up into, and made one with, the glorious purpose of God. A wide and wondrously inspiring vision reveals the purpose of life and our own place in the eternal scheme of things. The life of the Church, the life of the individual, are seen more clearly. Each is beheld as ideally beautiful, because the Spirit of God _ rests upon it. To rise up in faithfulness to the ideal is the work of the Christian. But the same Spirit Who clothes the ideal with His Own glory, is also the enabling Spirit. The ideal for us is the perfection of His Own work in us.

How often the life both of the Church and of the Christian is narrowed and cramped. But a cramped and narrowed life is a life without vision. And “where there is no vision the people nerish. 9 * TE religion is soulless, if Christians live aimlessly, if spiritual life is dull and unprogressive, what is the cause if it be not this—there is no vision? And why

1 Proy. xxix. 18, no vision? Surely because there is little understanding of the reality of spiritual gifts, and therefore little use of them. Catholics may not need to be reminded of this; but there are multitudes to whom the catholic conception of the Holy Spirit’s gifts is a strange thing. But short of this there can be no vision as the Saints have understood it. We need the power and illumination of the Spirit, to be realized through every one of His gifts, if we would look out upon the expanse of the Divine eternity, and understand the true worth of life.

But it must be through patience that we attain to the open vision. Desultory devotion, faintheartedness in prayer, and love of the world, are the chief hindrances. But patient love will bear the soul onward to the unfolding of the vision. And let us not force our way beyond the power of our love. We shall have cause to repent if we do. If this be difficult to understand, it will become plain to us if we consider how pride may enter in, and we may desire even spiritual attainments for our own selfpleasing. Love forbids this over-reaching in spiritual things; for its sole object is God, not the self. Love +s content to explore the depths of the soul’s life, while the vision inspires its action in order that the very purpose of Divine love may be fulfilled. We have a duty in respect of the present work of love. Suffering and discipline are not perhaps what we desire naturally; but there is a work of love to be accomplished by means of them, and until we have done our best we shall have no higher vision. But faithfulness will be rewarded by vision. Love that is generously active towards God will be rewarded with intuitions of glory, not yet manifested, but ready to be revealed when the soul is fitly prepared in love. So Moses was given the vision on Sinai, so wonderful in all its details that we might have thought of him as more than satisfied. But the Saints know well that each manifested glory may be but the hiding of God. ‘The communication and sense of His presence, however great they may be, and the most sublime and profound knowledge of. God which the soul may have in this life, are not God essentially, neither have they any affinity with Him, for in very truth He is still hidden from the soul.” 2. The more perfect the love of any soul, the more certainly will that one know that beyond all present conceptions of God lie the essential truths of His Being. Thus Moses knew by intuition, as his love increased, that the essential glory lay beyond all that he saw, and although he had seen and experienced so much, he cried out: “‘ I beseech Thee shew me Thy glory.”*® There was a further grace to be desired, and he prayed for it, because, having received 1 Cf. Isa. xlv. 15. 2 8. John of the Cross, Sptl. Cant.-i. 2, 3.

® Exod. xxxiii. 18, B

> k8 DIVINE ENDOWMENT already so much, he was constrained by love to ask for more.!_ So we ourselves are not beyond the outer circle of His glory; but we know that within all we may contemplate there is what He is to Himself. There within the glory unfolding to us is the Divine reality which allures us, love assures us of it, and faith substantiates it.

How does this bear upon the desirability of vision on the part of the Christian? How does it assist us in the practice of the spiritual life? Precisely in proportion to our faithfulness in love. The vision is that which we apprehend of God by love. The more we contemplate His perfections with admiration and adoration, the more there is revealed to love. We are led from thought to thought of all that He is, to that which is beyond thought, where we must remain in mute worship, knowing because we love, but powerless before that exceeding glory wherein God abides in the essential joy of love beyond even a seraph’s power of sight. When the common duties of the day recall us to action, we shall perform them with care because of the vision. They will not appear, as is sometimes assumed, as hindrances to spiritual life, because we shall neither over-estimate nor despise them. All rightful occupation, and intercourse with others, become to the faithful soul means for its self-expression. When,

1 Cf. 8. John of the Cross, Sptl. Cant. xxxiii. 5.

therefore, the soul bears within itself the reflection of some Divine light, its self-expression becomes, in some sort, divine. What would be the effect if every Christian were to bring into everyday life that supernatural beam? And yet it is for that we are empowered by the Holy Ghost. If we used His gifts always according to His purpose in bestowing them, there would be for all a clearer vision, and great mutual encouragement and assistance.

Oh, that the vision were more desired, more clearly seen, more loved! Great would be the progress of souls in personal holiness, and marvellous the effect upon the world. What appears to be needed is a general quickening of souls in loving desire after God, and steadfastness of purpose in the spiritual life. If we will do our part, God will give the vision. And our part is not merely to exercise ourselves in the understanding of all that God reveals concerning Himself, but to follow on with distinct and definite acts of the will. To know is not sufficient for sanctification; we must will to do; we must aspire to such perfection of being as shall consist in a true inward correspondence of soul to the revealed perfection of God. To him who through the grace of the Holy Spirit wills both to be and to do, there is given a consciousness of power through the abounding increase of Divine love within the soul. And that love is of the Holy Spirit.

II

Wheresoever we are, we are in the presence of Divine mysteries. We cannot shut ourselves away from the presence of God. “‘ Whither shall I go from Thy Spirit? or whither shall I flee from Thy presence’’?1 If we recollect ourselves in that presence, we may immediately give attention to any one of those mysteries, and adore God in that revelation of Himself. No one should remain content in ignorance of God, seeing that His Self-revelation is at all times ready for our contemplation. We need but the will directed in love. He rewards the will to know Him, because that will is the soul’s response to the impulse of the Holy Spirit. The omnipresence of God, which we acknowledge so unthinkingly, is the first and most gracious movement in His Self-revelation. He is near, with us, at all times and in all places, ready to answer to every desire we may cherish towards Him; for as every desire is inspired by Him we may understand His readiness to satisfy them. If we have any love for God our hearts must go out to Him with increasing desire to know Him. His response is always in accordance with that revelation of Himself which the Church has received. The surest way to know Him is to seek Him in the

1 Ps. cxxxix. 7.

light of that revelation; and there is no mystery that remains long concealed from love.

Knowledge and love must go together. Mystics sometimes assume a certain independent action of love whereby it ascends beyond the knowledge which a soul may possess. But in this assumption too little account is taken of that spiritual illumination which is often granted to quite simple souls. So our Lord Himself has taught us, “‘ Thow hast hid these things from the wise and prudent and hast revealed them unto babes.” 1 Of this L’Abbé Lejeune writes, “In spite of the exterior simplicity of these souls they may be most brilliantly illuminated by God, and if they love in an unusual way, I conclude, without any hesitation, that the nature of their knowledge is as far removed from the commonplace as is their love.” 2 To such souls the understanding of Divine mysteries becomes the simple and natural joy of devotion as they exercise themselves according to the degree of their knowledge and love. It may be they will not trouble to distinguish between the two gifts or powers, because being mutually dependent they may appear to operate as one; and they will take the characteristics of love. This is really the simplicity of the Saints which we should desire for ourselves when we meditate upon the mysteries of God.

1 §. Matt. xi. 25. 2 A Manual of Mystical Theology,

The most profound mystery of the Divine Nature is that of the Trinity. We cannot separate any part of the Divine manifestation from that primary truth. It is the mystery behind even the simplest proofs of His love and care. The moment we reflect upon God we are led by our own spiritual act into the presence of the Divine Trinity. We contemplate the action of the Three Divine Persons separately, but the unity is perceived through the singleness of love. Although we rightly assign to each His distinctive function or operation, yet all Three are concerned in the same act. This is most evident in the work of the Holy Ghost. ‘‘ The Holy Ghost is of the Father. But also He is ‘“‘ of the Son,”’ not mediately, as of one coming between; not conjointly, as of the Father and Son together; but primarily of the Father, secondarily of the Son, and by the same mode of procession, except that what the Father has He has of Himself, and what the Son has He has from the Father. Therefore the procession is derivatively from the Son, a part of that property of the Son which He has derivatively from the Father—‘‘ The Holy Ghost proceeding from the Father and the Son.” 2 |

So we contemplate the eternal and ceaseless activity

of the Holy Trinity, the eternal energy of Divine | love. That energy is manifested in the procession of the Holy Ghost Who Himself enriches and endows our souls with His Own gifts. And all this rests upon other movements of that same energy. of love within the Divine Trinity. We think of the Holy Ghost glorifying the Body of the Lord Jesus, the Incarnate Word, and not of His Human Body only. His Mystical Body shares in that glory. Every member of the Church—‘“‘ His Body ’’—is to know by experience that glorifying energy of Divine love through the power and working of the Holy Ghost.

1. In Prayer.—Howsoever we regard the prayer of the Christian it is in some way an assertion of sonship. The Christian is

‘a member of Christ, a child of God,” and all true prayer is an occupation of the soul within that relationship. At the time of prayer there should be a flowing in upon the soul of the very light of that glory of the Holy Ghost which invests the Sacred Humanity of our Lord. And this we understand as the truth concerning all experiences in prayer which increase our knowledge of God and our love for Him, and encourage spiritual effort, and inspire to holiness. If we are amazed at the experience of the Saints in prayer, we need only reflect that in them we see examples, higher than our own, of the-manifest working of the Holy Ghost. What

He does in certain great souls He is ready to accomplish in countless others the moment they are prepared for Him. It is our faulty weakness in prayer that is the cause of our failure. If we persevered in prayer as the noblest spiritual work, we should know far more than we do of the Spirit’s power.

2. In Communion.—The joy of the devout communicant may be considered as that which he experiences through the procession of the Holy Ghost within his soul. The Holy Ghost extends within the soul of the faithful communicant the eternal joy of the Divine Word, for He is the Spirit of love proceeding from the Father and the Son. That which our Lord realized for His Own comfort during the thirty-three years of His earthly life, is to be realized by the soul in union with Him. Into the joy of the Hypostatic Union there must have entered somewhat of that eternal ecstasy of the Divine Trinity, the essential love of the Holy Ghost. Our Lord must have known in His Human Nature the gladness through the power of the Holy Ghost Whose procession was even within that nature which He shares with us. As, therefore, He takes the soul into Sacramental union with Himself there is in a corresponding degree the procession of the Holy Ghost within it. This opens out a vast field of spiritual development for the soul that can realize it. If it is an investment of the soul with a supernatural

INTRODUCTION 25 glory, it is the glory of power bestowed, of life spiritualized, and not of something transient, how- _ ever joyful. We begin to understand how the Divine ~ endowment of the soul, the gifts of the Holy Ghost, may become more and more the means of attainment to those who use them. The very thought is one to inspire, and if it seems too great to be true, we have but to use the gifts in order to prove how wonderful is the indwelling of the Holy Ghost. It is better to have some clear conception of His love and power than to go on with only the vaguest ideas of His coming and work. Can we not in this way understand a little more fully our Lord’s Own prayer that His Own might have His joy fulfilled in themselves ? }

3. In every advancing work of love within the soul.— The Divine love operates within the soul in manifold ways as the Holy Ghost directs it in the path of sanctification. He guides the soul according to His Divine knowledge both of its state and its end. His work within us is to be understood not from our limited self-knowledge, but from His perfect knowledge and the directness of His purpose towards us. There is no spiritual experience, whether of joy or pain, which is not immediately related to that eternal purpose which the Holy Ghost wills to fulfil in us. We need to remember this in days when shadow and

1 Cf. 8. John xvii. 13.

suffering seem to prevail; when the light of God is obscured by the very condition of the inner life. In so far as this state is not the result of sin, but of Divine action, we should regard it simply in relation to the end set before us—the glory of God and our own sanctification. In every spiritual experience we may recognize the working of the Holy Ghost Who will inspire us, even in our suffering, with deep thoughts of love. He brings to the willing soul the very and immediate thought of love from the Father and the Son. He Himself becomes within the soul the power of love’s response. He moves us to make it according to the Divine thought in the Heart of God. This is one effect in us of His eternal procession. We may be able to do no more than make a simple response of love, but in so doing we perceive, however faintly, the light of that eternal wisdom which shapes our end. The glory of the Divine purpose in our sanctification appears in the distance—or what to us appears as distance. But love making the sacrifice required for an act of submission finds an interior way to certainty and peace. It is a living way defined by the infused thought of God; and that which had oppressed us as something that was not love is found to be but the hiding of love, a way for the Spirit of God. “He made darkness His secret place.” +

1 Ps, xviii. 11.

Il

The operations of the Holy Ghost within the soul -cannot be fully known and understood apart from His gifts. As they are directly gifts from God to men, we must know their nature if we would use them rightly. They are not created gifts. They are gifts to us as spiritual beings from the Spirit of God. They are calculated to empower and raise the human spirit. Rightly used they are means to an end, and that end is union with God. They are essentially love which is itself the means of that union. We cannot use them according to the mind of the Giver except through love. Love finds in them all that can stimulate its own energy. Beginning with the gift of Holy Fear, love moves with reverent steadfastness towards God, and finds fresh lights upon the way, the lights of the succeeding gifts, and gazing through the splendour of the Seven Gifts, as through a sevenfold light, descries its own perfection in the gift of Holy Wisdom.

We shall follow this order in considering the several gifts, taking with us the light of each to guide us to the understanding of that supreme and utterly glorious gift of Wisdom, the crown of sanctity, relying upon the Holy Ghost the Divine Giver.

-The gifts of the Holy Ghost are in character essentially joyous, and should be used joyously. They were bestowed at the moment of our Lord’s joyous exaltation at the right hand of the Father. They are proofs to us of His glory. As the fulfilment of His promise they witness to His exaltation. Each gift in its degree should be understood in this connection. As connected with the Ascension of our Lord, they are gifts which should raise us to the joy of His exaltation. Looking to their spiritual meaning even the gift of Holy Fear has a use pre-eminently joyous, for it is a means of advance towards perfection of life in God. And we ought to rejoice in the prospect of spiritual attainment, and aspire to it with ardour as love is quickened within us.

O Almighty God, Who, that we may truly know both ourselves and Thee, hast endowed us with spiritual gifts; enable us both to understand them and to use them according to Thine Own purpose in bestowing them, that we may attain to the blessedness of Thy perfect light and love. Through Jesus Christ our Lord, Who liveth and reigneth with Thee in the unity of the Holy Ghost, God for ever and ever. Amen.

II

The Gift of holy Fear — I

Let us contemplate the holiness of God, so wonderful, so impenetrable, and yet so attractive: holiness that even the Seraphim cannot perfectly comprehend, even though they cry adoringly, “ Holy, Holy, Holy, is the Lord of Hosts.””+ Ardent spirits, burning with love, they have power through correspondence with Divine love to penetrate the eternal mystery of love; but ever as they adore they are constrained by all that they perceive to declare the holiness of God, of the eternal Trinity. In Himself love is expressed in holiness as an all-embracing attribute of His Divinity. It is not a negative holiness, t.e. holiness which consists in the mere absence of sin. That would be but a poor and inadequate and altogether unworthy conception of that which characterizes God the All-Holy, the Most High. We contemplate His holiness as that which is positive, and active in the Divine willing of every conceivable good; _holiness which in its Divine purposefulness reaches to perfection beyond the intuition of even the highest creature. The Seraphim as they adore Him discern degrees of holiness in God beyond their powers of apprehension. All they can declare is contained in their words “ Holy, Holy, Holy!”