THE DIFFERENT DEGREES OF UNION REALIZED IN PRAYER
Sometimes union is made without our cooperation, except for a simple assent. We allow God to unite us to his divine goodness. It is like a little baby longing with love to be in the bosom of its mother. But it is so feeble that it cannot make any movement to be there or to cling itself to her when she is holding it. It is very happy to be picked up, drawn into the arm of its mother and held by her close to her bosom.
Sometimes we cooperate. When we are drawn we run (Song 1:4).[1] We gladly assist the gentle force of divine goodness as it attracts us and claps us to him by his love.
Sometimes we feel that we begin to unite ourselves to God and cling to him before he unites himself to us. It is because we are aware of our action to unite ourselves with him. But we are not aware of what God is doing on his part. Without doubt he always comes before us. Yet we are not always aware of his part. Yet we are not always aware of his anticipated action[2] in us. Unless he united himself to us, we would never unite ourselves to him. He always chooses us and seizes us before we choose him and take hold of him. Following his unseen attractions, we begin to unite ourselves to him. Then he grants progress in our union. God assists our weakness by clinging himself to us sensibly. Thus we feel him enter into and penetrate our heart with unparalleled loving kindness.
Sometimes also, after attracting us without our awareness to union with him, God continues to help and assist us without our feeling it. We know that a great union has taken place. But we know quite well that we are not strong enough to realize it. Hence we conclude that some hidden power has made its unseen action in us. We are like captains of cargo ships carrying iron. Though the wind is very weak, they feel that their ships are sailing very fast. Then they know that they are close to mountains of loadstone which are imperceptibly drawing them. They see in this a knowable and perceivable progress coming from an unknown and unseen source. In the same way we see that our spirit is more and more united to God by the tiny efforts which our will is making. We realize that we have very little wind to sail so fast. So it must be the lover of our souls who attracts us by the secret influence of his grace. He wants it to be unrecognizable to us so that it is all the more wonderful for us. Without delaying on these allurements he wants us to engage ourselves more purely and simply to unite ourselves to him.
At no time this union is made without our awareness in such a way that we do not feel the divine activity in us or our cooperation. We find that only the union is made entirely without our awareness. It is similar to Jacob who without thinking of it finds himself married to Lia. Or rather, it is like another Samson but happier. We find ourselves bound and squeezed by bonds of holy union without ever taking notice of it. At other times we feel being pressed. The union takes place from God’s part as well as ours through actions which are felt.
Sometimes the union takes place by the will alone and in the will alone. At times the intellect has a share in it because the will draws the intellect after it and applies it to its object. It gives a special joy to be concentrated on gazing at it. In fact, we see that love gives a deep and special attention to remain seeing what we love.
Sometimes this union is realized by all the powers of the soul. These powers gather around the will. It is not for uniting themselves with God because they are not all capable of it. But it is for giving more facility to the will to achieve its union. The soul works through these faculties. If they were applied each to its own proper object, the human spirit cannot so perfectly apply itself to the action by which union is made with God. Such is the variety of unions.
See St. Martial. It is said that he was the blessed child who is mentioned in St. Marks Gospel (Mk 9:36). Our Lord took him, lifted him up and held him for a time in his arms. O, beautiful little Martial, how happy you are to be seized, taken, carried, joined to and pressed on the heavenly breast of the Saviour and kissed by his sacred mouth. And you cooperated with it only by making no resistance to receive these divine caresses! On the contrary, St. Simeon embraced and pressed our Lord to his bosom (Lk 2:28). Our Lord did not do anything similar to cooperating with this union. Even then the holy church sings: “The old man was carrying the child but the child was ruling the old man".[3]
St. Bonaventure, moved by holy humility, did not unite himself with our Lord. Instead he withdrew from his real presence. It means from the presence of the holy Eucharist. Then one day he was hearing mass. Then our Lord came to unite himself with him carrying his divine sacrament. Once this union was achieved, O God, Theotimus, imagine with what love this holy soul pressed his Saviour to his heart. At the opposite extreme is St. Catherine of Siena. She passionately desired to receive our Saviour in Holy Communion. She urged and pushed her spirit and affection towards him. He himself came to be united to her with thousands of blessings. Thus our Lord began his union with St. Bonaventure while St. Catherine seemed to begin what she already had with her Savoiur.
The sacred Lover of the Song speaks like one who practised both kinds of union. I am entirely my Beloved’s, she says and his desire is for me. Come, my Beloved (Song 7: 10 11) It is as if she was saying: I am united with my beloved friend. Reciprocally he turns towards me. By uniting more closely with me, he makes himself totally mine: My beloved is to me a bag of myrrh that lies between my breasts (Song 1:13).[4] And I will press him to my bosom as a bouquet of sweetness. My soul, says David, clings to you, O my God, and your right hand has grasped and seized me (Ps 63: 8)[5] But elsewhere she acknowledges by saying that her Spouse came to her first: My beloved is entirely mine and I am entirely his (Song 2:16). We make a holy union by which he unites himself to me and I unite myself to him.
All union is always made by the grace of God who draws us to himself. By his attractions he stirs up our spirit and arouses the movement of our union towards him. To indicate this she cries out powerless: Draw me after you (Song 1:4).[6] She is not drawn like a stone or like a convict. On her part she cooperates and mingles her feeble movements with the powerful attractions of her Beloved. To show this she says: Let us run after the scent of your perfumes. If we are drawn strongly by the will, all the faculties of the human spirit will be drawn to union. To make us aware of it, she says: Draw me and let us run. The Spouse draws only one [the will] and [the faculties] may run to union. The will alone is what God desires. But all the other powers run after it [the will] to be united to God with it.
The divine Shepherd of souls inspired his dear Sulamite to such a union: Set me, he says, as a seal upon your heart, as a seal upon your arm (Song 8:6). To stamp a seal deeply on the wax, we not only apply it but we press it down very tightly. Thus our Saviour wishes that we unite ourselves to him by a very strong and tight union so that we may remain marked by his characteristics.
The holy love of the Saviour urges us (2 Cor 5:14). O God, what an example of lofty union! God was united to our human nature by grace as a vine to its elm to make us share in its fruit. He saw that this union was undone by the sin of Adam. He made a stronger and deeper union in the incarnation. By this the human nature remains for ever bound in unity to the personality of the Divinity. Thus we humans may unite ourselves intimately to his goodness, he established the Sacrament of the most Holy Eucharist. In this sacrament, each one can share in uniting oneself to one’s Saviour really and as our food. Theotimus, this sacramental union urges us and helps us in the spiritual union of which we are speaking.
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[1] NRSV: Draw me after you, let us make haste (Song 1:4)
[2] Prevention. Here this French word is not used in the literal sense, prepossession, prejudice. Instead it is derived from the verb prevenir meaning to precede, come before. It refers to the theology of grace. Any spiritual action needs the grace of God, his inspiration to come in advance and inspire us to act - a grace that comes before action. Hence translated as anticipated action.
[3] Antiphon of the Magnificat at vespers on the Feast of the Purification, 2nd February
[4] NRSV numbering. In the original French text (Song 1:12)
[5] Translation of the French text Ps 62:9. We have given NRSV numbering.
[6] NRSV numbering. In the original (Song 1:3).