Lectures in November reflected on 21st Century Masters of the Spiritual Life as proposed by Fr. Aidan Nichols. I have stressed in these the theology of hope and Peguy's insight that the basis of our hope (and therefore our prayerful yearning) is found in God: We hope in God and yearn for him because he hopes and yearns for us even more. Spiritual formation begins with an encounter with Christ that opens up an experience of God's love and hope for us. More recently we have been applying this concept to the various states of life in the Church. A state in life is a stable and committed way of life that does not easily changed and is sealed by some kind of consecration: matrimony, holy orders and religious consecration. Many of the faithful do not live in a state of life - but preparing for or living in a state of life is the normal means of growing in holiness for most of the mystical body.
Lay faithful whose spirituality has a secular character grow in holiness through ordering the good things of the world to God - helping to build a civilization of love. Engagement with the world and participation in human affairs and relationships are key to realizing this vocation. The work world, the political world, the culture all must be ordered to God. G.K. Chesterton provides a vision for this. Spouses order the greatest created good of this visible world to God through giving themselves to one another in nuptial friendship open to life and exclusive faithfulness to one another. Parents grow in holiness as the primary educators and catechists of their children when they impart not only the content of the faith and the truth about what it means to be human, but when they teach how to love, how to give oneself in service to God and through God to the world.
On the other hand, those consecrated by Holy Orders have a spirituality with an ecclesial and ministerial character. They grow in holiness by ordering the Church to Christ, the mystical body to the head. This is especially true of the bishop but analogously of the priest and the deacon. The priest, by faithfulness to his ministry and prayer, is a living icon of priesthood of Christ just as the deacon is a living icon of Christ the servant. The liturgical ministry is primary here in a manner it is not for any of the other faithful. Dom Marmion points in this direction. Although the liturgy is the source and summit of the Christian life for all the faithful, liturgical ministry is a special means of holiness for the clergy.
Finally, those consecrated through poverty, chastity and obedience are a living image of the holiness of God for the Church. Their discipline of life in some sense separates them from the world and by adhering to this 'anachoresis', they signify by their lives the holiness God has called us all too. This is curious because anachoresis does not mean that they are disengaged from the plight of the world or indifferent to suffering. On the contrary, precisely because they have withdrawn from the fight and fury, flight and flurry of the visible world, they see the spiritual values at stake that those of us who are overly engaged in temporal affairs can easily lose sight of. Edith Stein and St. Therese are witnesses to this. By their love of wisdom and simplicity, they help the Church refocus its activities and keep its eye on the ball - the love of Christ.
As laity or clergy or religious, we are all called to the same holiness, but the means for each is different - not so much in kind as in degree. Engagement with the world or the ministry or separation from the world is something everyone is involved with in every state in life. But for the laity the note is on engagement, for the clergy ministry, and for religious separation. Despite this difference, when we consider the signs of the time, there is a special image or ideal that can be applied to each state of life that could help each one realize its vocation in a more compellling way for our contemporaries. This is the ideal of Nazareth, a favorite theme of contemplatives in the 20th Century, it may provide insight into how to live in the 21st Century. Below is an article I have been working on that seeks to apply this to priestly formation.
Reflection on Nazareth
As the Concrete Historical Ideal of the Seminary
We need a concrete historical ideal for a seminary that is biblically based and compelling for our post-modern era. Jacques Maritain once suggested that The Holy Roman Empire served as the unrealized but always sought after concrete historical ideal for culture and civilization in the Middle Ages. Similarly, the Modern Seminary, conceived after Trent, seems to have utilized a Medieval Monastic model. But in the post-modern era, is this ideal still compelling? The insights of mystics and the founders of new religious movements of the 20th Century point to a new ideal, one that recovers the biblical basis of monasticism while addressing the deep questions of young men at the beginning of the 21st Century.
That the modern seminary drew its inspiration from medieval monasticism but this ideal has become idealized: awareness of human nuances and supernatural subtleties once realized in that loving communion have fallen out of collective consciousness because the ideal does not have a living concrete expression, or, at the very least, such expressions are very rare today. Thus, the ‘medieval monk’ is used as a ‘straw man’ to belittle contemplation as opposed to pastoral charity or else reduce apostolic effort as a servile activism. Ironically, the genius of medieval monasticism is found in its ability to constantly combine in ever renewing ways prayer and work, contemplation and apostolate. In true monasticism, contemplation is not opposed to pastoral charity, any more than work could oppose prayer. Rather, as in every authentic expression of Christianity, in the monastic community the liturgy is dynamically woven into an industrious tapestry of life through which the splendor of God’s plan shines forth in a host of holy friendships, in staggering cultural achievements, and in countless acts of love hidden in the ordinary stuff of life.But it is precisely because we no longer see monasticism in this way that the Medieval Monastery is not able to provide a compelling ideal.
The mystics of our time, like the medieval monks, promote the idea that Christians, and priests in particular, must be both contemplative and apostolic. To express this ideal, they tend to refer to the image of Nazareth, the home where Jesus grew into manhood. Their observations suggest that Nazareth may provide a better concrete historical ideal, a more compelling reference point for inspiring Christian formation in general, and diocesan clergy for the 3rd Millennium specifically.
If Nazareth is to inspire christian formation, before it can be applied as an ideal, the reality it conveys needs to be contemplated. But how do you contemplate something hidden? For, indeed, Nazareth is a hidden mystery, accessible only by faith, faith informed by friendship love of God, faith for the sake of God. Therefore, contemplation of Nazareth begins with an act of faith: an ascent of the mind to ineffable realities and a loving leap into the mystery of Christ himself.
If the contemplation of Nazareth begins with a prayer, a petition of the heart, mystics have associated this petition with consecration to Jesus through Mary.[1] That is because consecration, as a petition, appeals to the Heart of Christ who holds and is held in the heart of Mary. Since Christ has given himself over to his Church completely, his memories, the memories of his mother that also belong to him, are a gift for those who ask. As a gift, these memories, especially the memories of Nazareth, should be seen as part of the inexhaustible riches of Christ in the heart of the Church. The experience of mystics suggests that petitionary character of consecration potentially impetrates access to this gift.[2] .
When pondered in faith, Nazareth as a glimpse of Christ before his public ministry is both the place where he is first loved, humanly formed, and divinely forming and loving others. When contemplated as the first place where Jesus was known and loved, Nazareth opens up the possibility of a more profound intimacy with Christ. As a place where Jesus formed Mary (and Joseph), and was formed by them, Nazareth also reveals stages of growth in hope filled living faith as well as a principle for integrating a communion of Christian love with preparation for a sacrificial mission.
Nazareth as a place of profound intimacy with Christ is a key insight of Catherine de Hueck Doherty and Bl. Charles de Foucauld. For both of them, the contemplative outlook that Nazareth evokes inspired their desire to seek to serve Christ not in great deeds but hidden, ordinary ones. Catherine emphasized loving attention to small details of ordinary life and Charles understood this principally in terms of embracing the obscurity of a life of silence in the actual city of Nazareth itself. But for both of these mystics, loving Christ in ordinary activities and loving Christ in prayer were two sides of the same coin.
Catherine understood that, like Mary in Nazareth, we realize the joy of living with Christ by serving him in the ordinary things of life. She used this insight to form her staff to see sorting buttons, preparing meals and folding laundry in terms of serving Christ. She used this insight to exhort the staff to do everything for love of Christ. In this way, everything becomes a prayer, an expression of love.
Charles saw (at first for himself while actually living in Nazareth, and then for the new community he dreamed of forming while he lived with muslims in deserts of Morrocco) that the Lord calls those he loves for periods of loving contemplation in their life so that they can become radically dependant on the providence of God the Father. Learning to love the Lord in this sort of hidden contemplative life, one is prepared for radical apostolic endeavors because he has learned to surrender completely to the loving will of the Father. Nazareth for those who want to follow Christ is the place where surrender to the Father’s will begins, where it is learned, just as Christ learned.
The experience of these two mystics is validated by the theological reflections on this same reality by Father Philippe. He develops these ideas by considering Nazareth as a place of progressive surrender to the will of God. First he considers Nazareth after the sojourn from Egypt as a place where the sanctification of ordinary work and prayer began to be realized. After the finding of Jesus in the temple, Mary ponders the mystery of the Father in a new way that evokes a deeper surrender. The value of her humble working the household is even more obscured by the service to the Father in worship (ministry) that Christ must be about in the temple. Finally, there is the death of Joseph, a loss that occasions an even more radical and total surrender to the loving providence of the Father.
Pastores Dabo Vobis and the Program of Priestly Formation provide a picture of the seminary formation not inconsistent with what mystics attempted to present with their reflections on Nazareth. Placing the relationships in priestly formation on the matrix of the communion of love in the Trinity is the best way to prepare men to give themselves in the ministry. At least, Gaudiem et Spes, 24 seems to validate this insight:
"The Lord Jesus, when praying to the Father that they may be one . . . even as we are one has opened up new horizons closed to human reason by implying that there is a certain parallel between the union existing among the divine persons and the union of he sons of God in truth and love. It follows, then, that if man is the only creature on earth that God has wanted for its own sake, man can fully discover his true self only in a sincere gift of giving himself."
This passage asserts that the Trinity as a communion of love is the standard, pattern and the source of power by which all relationships should be established and measured. When this principle is applied to priestly formation, it clarifies for us that the identity of each seminarian can only be revealed in communion of love of the Church. Formators and peers ought to serve as the visible and concrete sign of this communio in the here and now for the men entrusted to them for formation. But how do we know whether these relationships have been properly ordered, conformed to the communion of life of the Trinity, a real participation in the communio of the Church? The link is the eternal plan of the Father, the divine design. Unstated and assumed but worthy of mention is the fact that a formation design that orders the mutual relations in priestly formation in the right way, according to the plan of God, makes this visible and concrete sign of the Church more compelling and effective.
Relationships: the Context for Formation
If effective priestly formation is to advance, it is important to clarify who the chief agents of spiritual formation are and how their complementary roles work together. It is also important to identify objective and measurable criteria for each of these agents so that their effectiveness can be seen. Again, the task here is to discern the divine design, the Father’s plan for spiritual formation. We must ask, “How does the Father desire to order those being formed in relationship to their formators and their tasks?”
The list of formators should be considered in its broadest sense. It is important to note that the PPF and PDV already offer a broad description of these when it comes to addressing overall formation in all its aspects. Unfortunately, there is a tendency in many institutions to take a narrow view of the scope of spiritual formation in terms of its criteria and agents. Such a view inhibits a more dynamic implementation of Pastores Dabo Vobis. By building on and expanding the material on the agents of spiritual formation contained in PPF and PDV, a future Spiritual Formation Design will provide an invaluable resource to bishops and other formators.
Identity for Mission
Standing between the men God entrusts to us to become priests and their ability to answer this call is not only immaturity but deep wounded-ness. We must not assume that fit candidates for the seminary are those who have it all together. The men who come to seminary should be assumed to be broken and very in need of healing. Prevalent and widespread abuse of the the Internet and other media are simply symptoms of the deep, profound wounds to be healed. Often times disobedience or lack of docility are brought up as major formation problems. But aren’t timidity and lack of initiative even worse problems in formation? And what about matters of intimacy, chastity and friendship? What kind of obedience or docility is it when men do not know how to act like men, when they do not know what it is to be fathers, when they are not able to be present to one another?
When it comes to addressing the wounds, we have made frequent recourse to psychological counseling. The healing they need is not merely psychological (although it might include that). It is the healing of salvation that transforms wounds into intercession and compassion for others, especially for enemies and those who hurt us (see CCC 2843). Therefore, we should not place too much confidence in psychological resources. They will help to some extent. But spiritual healing requires spiritual means.
When this healing (a healing in the sense of salvation) is not afforded men, many of them are not able to deal adequately with a fear of rejection. This screws up their discernment and openness to progress. They are so afraid of rejection that a culture of love and healing is not possible in the seminary. Fear of rejection can only be healed through encouragement and prayer: praying over and with men, men praying over and with each other.
Nazareth symbolizes a household of healing, encouragement and prayer. If there was ever admonishment (My child, why have you done this?), it was came in the context of love and prayer. Such a context can dispose seminarians to imitate the Lord in Nazareth: Jesus "went down with them" and "lived under their authority" (Luke 2:51). The way Madonna House addresses this is in Chambers of Her Heart, a book on their “presem” program, is compelling. It proposes that the seminary needs to be an experience of Nazareth: a home of love and prayer where obedience can be learned just as Christ first began to learn obedience by what he suffered (see Heb. 5:7-8).
Teaching, Practicing and Evaluating:
There is a prevailing assumption that human formation precedes spiritual formation. While grace builds on nature, it is also true that nature is healed and perfected by grace. Therefore, human and spiritual formation do not precede each other but go hand in hand. As one is healed spiritually, he becomes more capable of human maturity. As one grows in human maturity, he becomes more open to grace.
But this insight is lost today. It must be said that emphasis is placed on human formation above and beyond spiritual formation. Human formation is believed to be an area for the external forum. In human formation, clinical psychology offers something that at least appears objective and measurable. (ie. Does he exhibit avoidant behavior? Does he disassociate? To what degree is he narcistic? etc.) With objective benchmarks and flags to watch for, human formation is easy to understand and to apply.
Spiritual formation is reduced to the internal forum. Consigned to the realm of spiritual direction, judgments concerning someone’s spiritual growth appear to be subjective and the criteria for spiritual progress undefined. In spiritual formation the sorry state of spiritual theology has not arrived at agreed upon and objective criteria. This does not mean spiritual criteria do not exist (in fact, they are abundant in tradition), but that important work in this area is yet to be done.
With only vaguely discerned criteria, explaining to an individual seminarian specifically what to work on spiritually and how to measure his progress is a tentative enterprise. This is only compounded when spiritual directors adopt a model of spiritual direction that does not aid spiritual formation. When a spiritual director views his primary role as giving feedback (or worse, airing his own problems) rather than as part of a total formation team whose goal is to form a priest, he is not directing with the end in mind. Further, the obscurity around criteria and the presumption that spirituality is a matter strictly for the internal forum limits spiritual growth as a real consideration in evaluation of readiness for ordination.
Since the criteria provided by clinical psychology provide human formation with clearer objective criteria, we cannot be too critical of the tendency of formators to see these as more reliable than criteria used in spiritual formation, and thus, to focus on human maturity in determining whether someone is ready for ordination. But the result is that a spiritually immature individual can be recommended for ordination simply because he has some acceptable good human virtues, obeys the rules and externally demonstrates some sort of docility. Is it possible for someone to exhibit all these measurable behaviors and still not be ready for the ministry?
The results of not addressing spiritual formation in a systematic way have had a devastating effect on priestly formation. Men are able to get through six to seven years of formation without really having been formed in a priestly spirituality. Consequently, the value of contemplation, Liturgy of the Hours, and popular piety are not appreciated by many in the ministry. Instead, many priests today are privy to a superficial activism in the ministry which distracts them from greater intimacy with the Lord. This in turn undermines the discipline of simplicity, obedience and celibacy in priestly life. For without intimacy with the Lord, why should such discipline be embraced?
Principles at Work in Teaching, Practicing and Evaluating
A communion of love patterned in some manner after the Trinity should provide the basis for formation, especially spiritual formation. The ordering of formators among themselves, their complementary duties and their relationships to those they form should conform to the divine design of the Father, the pattern the communion of love in the Trinity. This sounds so theologically abstract until we direct our attention to where this was first realized, namely, Nazareth. It is more than the work of pious imagination to assert that the Holy Family is where our Lord was formed by Mary and Joseph. It derives from the logic of revealed truth that this is where the Son of God first learned to do and teach all the things that he does and teaches in his public ministry. Great mystics and founders of communities of the 20th Century have grasped this insight. It is an insight for our time.
This place of the “hidden mysteries” as the Catechism calls them (see 531-534) provides a model for the overall formation, and especially for ordering and discerning the spiritual formation of men for the priesthood. Catherine of Madonna House and Charles de Foucauld both focus on the importance of Nazareth in their own spiritualities. For both, Nazareth is a place where the duty of the moment is learned and practiced, and through this where hidden intimacy with the Lord is found.
Jesus learned to feed the hungry, welcome the stranger, and clothe the naked at home with Mary and Joseph. The Holy Family entails an invitation to journey into a greater love in a hidden way where there is no room for fear of rejection but instead a culture of trust. The Holy Family is also a place where true masculine values are learned: those of perseverance in unappreciated hard work, taking initiative, courage in the face of evil, gentle compassion for the down trod, fighting for what is just, generously accepting responsibility, using authority wisely, and providing for others.
Formators need to look to the love shared by the Holy Family as a model for how they perform their work, as a standard to discern the seminary culture. Not only formators, but also seminarians need to be able to contemplate this model with their formators. There is a need in formation for spiritual paternity and maternity to be exercised and received in the lives of those being formed. Rather than a clinical or institutional model that envisions formation as something done to someone, a family model speaks of the forbearance and commitment to deal with someone as they are.
The family model means blessing, instructing and admonishing with the model of Nazareth as a school of love. This model extends to praying with, for and over one another for healing and encouragement among formation faculty, among seminarians and between seminarians and formation staff. As stated earlier, formators need to be in touch with the wounds their men bear. This means that they more deeply commit themselves to submitting to God their own wounds and even allowing their own weaknesses to be used by God to instruct seminarians, like a father might wisely do with his son in family life.
Establishing Nazareth as a model for formation in this way will require a greater vulnerability, something like the vulnerability parents and children share with one another in families. When we had strong families, this was not necessary. Today, however, some of the lessons of a truly Catholic family life need to be learned over. Seminaries and other places of formation need to be attentive and open to this.
Again, Madonna House has adopted this under the direction of Venerable Catherine Doherty de Heuck. As explained in Chambers of her Heart, the whole life of the seminary community becomes formative when it is ordered to the divine plan and when seminarians are taught faithfulness to the duty of the moment. The kitchen is not a place where we “help the cooks” but rather a where we learn to feed the hungry, the laundry where we clothe the naked, et cetera.
My point is that the image of Nazareth offers a vision for a formation in a culture of love that speaks to the principles at work in teaching, practicing and evaluating the subcommittee needs to develop. Looking at how Charles de Foucauld and Catherine Doherty de Hueck used this image in forming their communities spiritually in the 20th Century offers a good standard for us as we discern a design for spiritual formation.
[1] Cardinal Berulle introduced the practice and theological understanding of Consecration to Jesus through Mary in an attempt to help contemplatives realize a deeper conversion. St. Louis de Montefort developed the theological basis for this practice. In the 20th Century, the usefulness of this practice for a deeply apostolic life was promoted by Maximillian Kolbe and Catherine de Hueck Doherty.
[2] Simply put, this means that anyone who humbly asks to love Christ more and serve the Church has the possibility of seeing Nazareth with the eyes of Jesus and Mary. If anyone has any qualms that such a method is not sophisticated enough, then they would also have problems with both the Ignatian and Franciscan traditions whose ways of prayer are both founded on the notion that a graced filled imagination can allow us to see salvation history through the eyes of those who participated in it. I do not have the space to provide the detailed analysis required to illustrate this assertion but invite a review of the observations of Maximilian Kolbe, Catherine de Hueck Doherty, and John Paul II on this point
Tuesday, November 15, 2005
Wednesday, October 12, 2005
Study Guide - Mid Term
6105 Spiritual Theology
Mid-Term Study Guide
Wednesday, October 12, 2005
Dr. Anthony Lilles
Please note: There have been some modifications to the study guide and to the mid-term exam instructions. This superceeds my instructions in our class today.
Choose One of Three Essay Questions (500 words to be written before the exam -16 points and due on Thursday, October 20):
1. How do the specifc means that dispose to the gift of wisdom related to precepts and counsels?
2. How is Christ the life of the soul?
3. How can the Scriptures be used effectively to promote the spiritual life?
12 selected questions from the following 18 (responses not to exceed four sentences or six lines handwritten - 7 points apiece and tested on Tuesday, October 18):
1. What is the nature of spiritual theology?
2. How is the ultimate end of the divine economy anticipated in this life?
3. What does it mean to participate in the glory of God?
4. What is the nature of Christian Perfection?
5. Theologically, why is charity the primary element of Christian perfection?
6. How does the Father send the Son and the Spirit spiritually to the soul?
7. What does St. Paul mean by “the renewal of the mind”?
8. What is the mystical life?
9. What is purity of heart and how is it attained?
10. How should a soul conduct itself in the face of diabolical temptation?
11. What is the difference from venial sin and an imperfection?
12. Concerning temptations of the flesh, how are counsels directed towards desire for pleasure related to those directed to horror over suffering?
13. What is the purpose of the Gifts of the Spirit in the spiritual life?
14. What are the counsels for entering the active night of the senses?
15. What distinguishes the stages of spiritual growth?
16. How are prayer, fasting and almsgiving related to the means of spiritual growth listed by Jordan Aumann?
17. What does the purification of the internal senses involve?
18. What are three things someone can do that specifically dispose to fear of the Lord?
Mid-Term Study Guide
Wednesday, October 12, 2005
Dr. Anthony Lilles
Please note: There have been some modifications to the study guide and to the mid-term exam instructions. This superceeds my instructions in our class today.
Choose One of Three Essay Questions (500 words to be written before the exam -16 points and due on Thursday, October 20):
1. How do the specifc means that dispose to the gift of wisdom related to precepts and counsels?
2. How is Christ the life of the soul?
3. How can the Scriptures be used effectively to promote the spiritual life?
12 selected questions from the following 18 (responses not to exceed four sentences or six lines handwritten - 7 points apiece and tested on Tuesday, October 18):
1. What is the nature of spiritual theology?
2. How is the ultimate end of the divine economy anticipated in this life?
3. What does it mean to participate in the glory of God?
4. What is the nature of Christian Perfection?
5. Theologically, why is charity the primary element of Christian perfection?
6. How does the Father send the Son and the Spirit spiritually to the soul?
7. What does St. Paul mean by “the renewal of the mind”?
8. What is the mystical life?
9. What is purity of heart and how is it attained?
10. How should a soul conduct itself in the face of diabolical temptation?
11. What is the difference from venial sin and an imperfection?
12. Concerning temptations of the flesh, how are counsels directed towards desire for pleasure related to those directed to horror over suffering?
13. What is the purpose of the Gifts of the Spirit in the spiritual life?
14. What are the counsels for entering the active night of the senses?
15. What distinguishes the stages of spiritual growth?
16. How are prayer, fasting and almsgiving related to the means of spiritual growth listed by Jordan Aumann?
17. What does the purification of the internal senses involve?
18. What are three things someone can do that specifically dispose to fear of the Lord?
Tuesday, October 04, 2005
Oct. 4 Conversion and Purification
Conversion, Purification and Growth
In recent lectures we have considered conversion, purgation, and the stages of growth. Below shows reading assignments and discussions leading up to the exam.
Date: Thursday, September 29 Stages of Growth
Learning Objective: Identify the major stages of spiritual growth and explain the defining characteristics of each stage.
Teaching Strategy: Lecture and Discussion
Evaluation Technique: Class participation, EBB, Blog and Mid-term
Assignment due Oct. 4: Spiritual Theology, chapter 9, Blog and EBB,
Date: Tuesday, October 4 Topic: Means of Growth
Learning Objective: Explain how the sacraments, good works, and prayer as means to spiritual maturity.
Teaching Strategy: Lecture and Discussion
Evaluation Technique: Class participation, EBB, Blog and Mid-term
Assignment due Oct. 6: Spiritual Theology, chapters 10 and 11.
Date: Thursday, October 6 Topic: Growth of the Gifts of the Spirit and the Virtues
Learning Objective: Describe the growth of the virtues and the gifts of the Spirit
Teaching Strategy: Lecture and Discussion
Evaluation Technique: Class participation, EBB, Blog, and Mid-term
Assignment due Oct. 25: Spiritual Theology, chapter 12, suggested reading for Midterm Roots of Christian Mysticism, 309-380
Date: October 11 Topic: Review
Regarding Conversion
Although we looked briefly at temperament and factors effecting character, the key is the struggle against sin. The distinction between mortal and venial sin is understood in terms of charity. Mortal sin acts directly against friendship love of God with full knowledge and freedom in a very grave matter so that divine love not longer lives in the soul. Only the (operative) grace of conversion can restore such a soul to love. With venial sin, love is there virtually but not actually. An act of love (cooperative or operative) is all it takes to actualize the power of divine love the soul possesses. With imperfections, there is still actual divine love in the soul but it is there at a lesser degree than it could be. These imperfections like venial sin are sometimes voluntary and other times not.
Conversion (whether in the face of mortal sin, venial sin or imperfections) presumes repentance; or rather repentance is the beginning of conversion. To repent is “to think again.” To convert means “to turn around.” What I propose is that one cannot turn one’s life around unless one acquires a “fresh, spiritual way of thinking”, “the renewed mind,” “the mind of Christ.” We sin and are imperfect because of ignorance, weakness, indifference and malice. These flaws live in us because of the power of sin and death. Fear of death causes these things. Precisely because we are afraid of losing ourselves, our egos, we cling to them. Only when we see ourselves and the world with the resurrected eyes of Jesus of Nazareth, do we see new possibilities that are the source of courage. Such a mind does not see death (or mortification in general – which means death to self, death to the big fat ego) as the end but rather as a pathway to a greater hope. Freed of fear we are free to offer ourselves in love, free to love with God’s love. Only as the mind is purified and transformed (rather than merely enlightened) do we really see with the eyes of the Risen one.
As we live converted lives, lives in which we offer our bodies as a living sacrifice, we come to know the will of God, what is good, pleasing and perfect. This kind of knowledge helps us in our struggle against temptation. The world, the flesh and the devil tempt us. The sources for the theology of diabolical temptation are found in the temptation of Eve, the temptation of Cain and the temptation of Christ. By appealing to our gut, head and heart to abuse our relationship with nature, others and God, the Evil One attempts to impede obedience to God. Pride, envy, anger, lust and gluttony as well as the sloth and despair they cause are tendencies he plays upon. The diabolic logic of temptation involves first engaging the soul in a general way by questioning God’s will. Once this has been achieved, an enchanting possibility is offered. If this possibility is entertained, then some apparent goodness, pleasure or advantage can seduce a soul to act against God’s will. Vigilance and prayer beforehand, flight or fight during, and thanksgiving and repentance after temptation are the means by which we overcome the Evil One.
The world is a source of temptation not as created by God but rather insofar as it is taken up in structures of sin, under the influence of Satan and subject to futility. The spirit of the world (Zeitgeist?) is not the Spirit of God. Thus, the worldly spirit presents (1) maxims opposed to the Gospel of Christ (e.g. happiness is found in material possession and not in spiritual values), (2) ridicule and persecution of those who live honestly (e.g. the self-controlled and responsible members of society are mocked as “square”), (3) the exultation sexual pleasure and diversion through exciting lust and gluttony (e.g. well, examples from the entertainment industry are too numerous, can you identify a popular sitcom that doesn’t resort this?), (4) the scandalous example of others, especially Catholic leaders (e.g. pedophiles in the ministry). All these things flow from the spirit of the world, the worldly spirit, that we all live under. Knowing the truth about the world, God, and ourselves frees us from this spirit. That is why the contemplation of living faith (seeing with the eyes of the Risen One), thinking about how silly the world really is in the face of God (the vanity of the world), indifference to the mockery and scandal of the world (ignoring what the world thinks) – these are the means to overcome the spirit of the world.
Our flesh is the source of temptation because Adam and Eve were seduced through the envy of the devil to be disobedient to God. The consequence of this disobedience is the law of sin and death sewn into the fiber of our humanity. Humanity lives with a death wish and inclines itself to its own destruction. This is so in both experiences of pleasure and suffering. The law of grace takes up the strands of nature and sin and makes a new harmony. The weakness of sin become the occasion of grace, a grace that purifies and perfects our primordial goodness. Through grace we control our base desire for pleasure which if uncontrolled would destroy us. Through grace we patiently endure the sorrow of suffering which if uncontrolled would also destroy us. For this to be realized a soul must be aware if its dignity, the ugliness of sin and foster a preference for suffering over pleasure. Because flesh is driven by selfishness, the spiritual person must practice custody, self-denial and mortification to put the big fat ego to death (mors tuo grandi pingui egoismo). It must make sacrifices in terms of acceptance of duties and resignation to crosses. Since the flesh is weak in this regard it needs recourse to frequent reception of the Sacraments, devotion to Mary, prayer, and wholesome hobbies and undertakings. Most of all, all of these means of overcoming the flesh must lead to and draw from a living encounter and awareness of the Passion of Christ. Whether in suffering or in pleasure, the Passion of Christ heals our humanity and stirs us out of fallen nature’s death wish. The Cross of Christ evokes a response of love that is stronger than death. By keeping one’s eyes fixed on the love revealed there, the spiritual person finds the desire to return love for love, “I would not have it any other way because of what love crucified has done for me.” Such a person enters into the mystical reality of becoming a victim soul, a soul in whom the whole redemptive mystery of Christ is renewed.
Regarding Purification
In these lectures, we discussed the purification the external and internal senses, the passions, the intellect and the will. It is noteworthy that what can actively be accomplished is not substantially different no matter the faculty discussed. I suggested that for spiritual direction, to master one faculty around which to organize the counsels that apply to all efforts to purify oneself. One who is more intellectual should understand the counsels and organize them around the intellect, or if more passionate, the passions, or more imaginative, the imagination and memory. Finally, purification or purgation occurs not only actively in terms of what we choose but also and primarily in terms of what God does. Thus purgation is active and passive. John of the Cross identifies two principle kinds of purgations – one that is predominately active but has a passive phase and primarily involves the senses (he calls this the dark night of the senses), and the other that is predominately passive but not exclusively and primarily involves the intellect and the will (he calls this the dark night of the spirit – the memory is a spiritual faculty in his anthropology so he includes this here too). The night of the senses concerns the transition from being a beginner to becoming proficient and the night of the spirit concerns the movement to perfection in the Christian life.
In recent lectures we have considered conversion, purgation, and the stages of growth. Below shows reading assignments and discussions leading up to the exam.
Date: Thursday, September 29 Stages of Growth
Learning Objective: Identify the major stages of spiritual growth and explain the defining characteristics of each stage.
Teaching Strategy: Lecture and Discussion
Evaluation Technique: Class participation, EBB, Blog and Mid-term
Assignment due Oct. 4: Spiritual Theology, chapter 9, Blog and EBB,
Date: Tuesday, October 4 Topic: Means of Growth
Learning Objective: Explain how the sacraments, good works, and prayer as means to spiritual maturity.
Teaching Strategy: Lecture and Discussion
Evaluation Technique: Class participation, EBB, Blog and Mid-term
Assignment due Oct. 6: Spiritual Theology, chapters 10 and 11.
Date: Thursday, October 6 Topic: Growth of the Gifts of the Spirit and the Virtues
Learning Objective: Describe the growth of the virtues and the gifts of the Spirit
Teaching Strategy: Lecture and Discussion
Evaluation Technique: Class participation, EBB, Blog, and Mid-term
Assignment due Oct. 25: Spiritual Theology, chapter 12, suggested reading for Midterm Roots of Christian Mysticism, 309-380
Date: October 11 Topic: Review
Regarding Conversion
Although we looked briefly at temperament and factors effecting character, the key is the struggle against sin. The distinction between mortal and venial sin is understood in terms of charity. Mortal sin acts directly against friendship love of God with full knowledge and freedom in a very grave matter so that divine love not longer lives in the soul. Only the (operative) grace of conversion can restore such a soul to love. With venial sin, love is there virtually but not actually. An act of love (cooperative or operative) is all it takes to actualize the power of divine love the soul possesses. With imperfections, there is still actual divine love in the soul but it is there at a lesser degree than it could be. These imperfections like venial sin are sometimes voluntary and other times not.
Conversion (whether in the face of mortal sin, venial sin or imperfections) presumes repentance; or rather repentance is the beginning of conversion. To repent is “to think again.” To convert means “to turn around.” What I propose is that one cannot turn one’s life around unless one acquires a “fresh, spiritual way of thinking”, “the renewed mind,” “the mind of Christ.” We sin and are imperfect because of ignorance, weakness, indifference and malice. These flaws live in us because of the power of sin and death. Fear of death causes these things. Precisely because we are afraid of losing ourselves, our egos, we cling to them. Only when we see ourselves and the world with the resurrected eyes of Jesus of Nazareth, do we see new possibilities that are the source of courage. Such a mind does not see death (or mortification in general – which means death to self, death to the big fat ego) as the end but rather as a pathway to a greater hope. Freed of fear we are free to offer ourselves in love, free to love with God’s love. Only as the mind is purified and transformed (rather than merely enlightened) do we really see with the eyes of the Risen one.
As we live converted lives, lives in which we offer our bodies as a living sacrifice, we come to know the will of God, what is good, pleasing and perfect. This kind of knowledge helps us in our struggle against temptation. The world, the flesh and the devil tempt us. The sources for the theology of diabolical temptation are found in the temptation of Eve, the temptation of Cain and the temptation of Christ. By appealing to our gut, head and heart to abuse our relationship with nature, others and God, the Evil One attempts to impede obedience to God. Pride, envy, anger, lust and gluttony as well as the sloth and despair they cause are tendencies he plays upon. The diabolic logic of temptation involves first engaging the soul in a general way by questioning God’s will. Once this has been achieved, an enchanting possibility is offered. If this possibility is entertained, then some apparent goodness, pleasure or advantage can seduce a soul to act against God’s will. Vigilance and prayer beforehand, flight or fight during, and thanksgiving and repentance after temptation are the means by which we overcome the Evil One.
The world is a source of temptation not as created by God but rather insofar as it is taken up in structures of sin, under the influence of Satan and subject to futility. The spirit of the world (Zeitgeist?) is not the Spirit of God. Thus, the worldly spirit presents (1) maxims opposed to the Gospel of Christ (e.g. happiness is found in material possession and not in spiritual values), (2) ridicule and persecution of those who live honestly (e.g. the self-controlled and responsible members of society are mocked as “square”), (3) the exultation sexual pleasure and diversion through exciting lust and gluttony (e.g. well, examples from the entertainment industry are too numerous, can you identify a popular sitcom that doesn’t resort this?), (4) the scandalous example of others, especially Catholic leaders (e.g. pedophiles in the ministry). All these things flow from the spirit of the world, the worldly spirit, that we all live under. Knowing the truth about the world, God, and ourselves frees us from this spirit. That is why the contemplation of living faith (seeing with the eyes of the Risen One), thinking about how silly the world really is in the face of God (the vanity of the world), indifference to the mockery and scandal of the world (ignoring what the world thinks) – these are the means to overcome the spirit of the world.
Our flesh is the source of temptation because Adam and Eve were seduced through the envy of the devil to be disobedient to God. The consequence of this disobedience is the law of sin and death sewn into the fiber of our humanity. Humanity lives with a death wish and inclines itself to its own destruction. This is so in both experiences of pleasure and suffering. The law of grace takes up the strands of nature and sin and makes a new harmony. The weakness of sin become the occasion of grace, a grace that purifies and perfects our primordial goodness. Through grace we control our base desire for pleasure which if uncontrolled would destroy us. Through grace we patiently endure the sorrow of suffering which if uncontrolled would also destroy us. For this to be realized a soul must be aware if its dignity, the ugliness of sin and foster a preference for suffering over pleasure. Because flesh is driven by selfishness, the spiritual person must practice custody, self-denial and mortification to put the big fat ego to death (mors tuo grandi pingui egoismo). It must make sacrifices in terms of acceptance of duties and resignation to crosses. Since the flesh is weak in this regard it needs recourse to frequent reception of the Sacraments, devotion to Mary, prayer, and wholesome hobbies and undertakings. Most of all, all of these means of overcoming the flesh must lead to and draw from a living encounter and awareness of the Passion of Christ. Whether in suffering or in pleasure, the Passion of Christ heals our humanity and stirs us out of fallen nature’s death wish. The Cross of Christ evokes a response of love that is stronger than death. By keeping one’s eyes fixed on the love revealed there, the spiritual person finds the desire to return love for love, “I would not have it any other way because of what love crucified has done for me.” Such a person enters into the mystical reality of becoming a victim soul, a soul in whom the whole redemptive mystery of Christ is renewed.
Regarding Purification
In these lectures, we discussed the purification the external and internal senses, the passions, the intellect and the will. It is noteworthy that what can actively be accomplished is not substantially different no matter the faculty discussed. I suggested that for spiritual direction, to master one faculty around which to organize the counsels that apply to all efforts to purify oneself. One who is more intellectual should understand the counsels and organize them around the intellect, or if more passionate, the passions, or more imaginative, the imagination and memory. Finally, purification or purgation occurs not only actively in terms of what we choose but also and primarily in terms of what God does. Thus purgation is active and passive. John of the Cross identifies two principle kinds of purgations – one that is predominately active but has a passive phase and primarily involves the senses (he calls this the dark night of the senses), and the other that is predominately passive but not exclusively and primarily involves the intellect and the will (he calls this the dark night of the spirit – the memory is a spiritual faculty in his anthropology so he includes this here too). The night of the senses concerns the transition from being a beginner to becoming proficient and the night of the spirit concerns the movement to perfection in the Christian life.
Wednesday, September 14, 2005
Sept. 15 Lecture
Lecture Notes for September 15
Date Tuesday, September 13, 2005 Topic: Life in Christ and The Monasticism
Learning Objective: Distinguish how Christ is the way the truth and the life and describe how early monks understood monasticism as a following of Christ.
Teaching Strategy: Lecture and Discussion.
Evaluation Technique: Class participation, EBB, Blog and Midterm.
Assignment due Sept. 15: Spiritual Theology, Chapter 4, Christian Spirituality, Chapter 6
Date: Thursday, September 15, 2005 Topic: The Supernatural Organism and the Scholastics
Learning Objectives: Provide an explanation of the supernatural organism. Describe the relation of the different kinds of grace, virtues, gifts, fruits and beatitudes. Provide understanding of why the scholastics began to develop teachings on the supernatural organism and the divine indwelling.
Teaching Strategy: Lecture and Discussion
Evaluation Technique: Class participation, EBB, Blog, and Midterm.
Assignment due Sept. 20 : Spiritual Theology, chapter 5 and 6, Christian Spirituality, chapter 8 and Blog and EBB.
Date: Tuesday, September 20, 2005 Topic: Christian Perfection and The Catholic Reformers
Learning Objective: Define the nature of Christian Perfection and explain mystical experience in relation to it. Identify the basic teachings of John of the Cross and Teresa of Avila in relation to Christian Perfection.
Teaching Strategy: Lecture and Discussion
Evaluation Technique: Class participation, EBB, Blog, and Midterm.
Assignment due Sept. 22: Spiritual Theology, chapter 7
Review
In our last lecture we considered how Christ is the Way, the Truth and the Life (Spiritual Theology, pp 49-65). We ran out of time to properly review Christ our life. Under this aspect, Christ is the meritorious, efficient, and ecclesial cause of our spiritual life.
By meritorious cause, we mean that Christ merited our redemption through his obedience to the Father in his passion and death in such a way that our weakness serves as the basis of appealing to God’s mercy. This, along with Christ as the exemplar cause of the spiritual life, is foundational to the theology of St. Maximus the Confessor – we grow to spiritual maturity principally because the Word did not deem equality with God something to be grasped at but rather emptied himself; thus, the work by which we were redeemed is the pattern we must follow: we must imitate Christ (See Christian Spirituality, p. 56).
By efficient cause, we mean that all grace comes through him; his divinity is the source of the power that saves (sanctifying grace) and his humanity is the instrument through which that power acts. This means that if we are to become holy, we must have some kind of contact with Christ involving his sacred humanity.
As ecclesial cause of the Spiritual life, Christ leads us to see that nothing created can separate us from “the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord” because the reality of what the Church is. Christ is the head of the mystical body, meaning that he has primacy of order (everything ordered to him), he has primacy of perfection (in him is the fullness of grace and truth), and he has primacy of power (the whole Body and each of its members draws its life from his fullness). The primacy of Christ’s perfection and power in the Church are the most important aspects to consider for the spiritual life because they touch on the life of grace. Christ communicates his power chiefly but not exclusively through the sacraments – the visible signs of grace that when received with the right disposition effect contact with Christ. This kind of contact is that which is given through a faith vivified by charity. St. Thomas teaches that “by faith Christ’s power is united to us” (ST III, q62, a5, ad 2).
Jordan Aumann also discusses the role of Mary as mother and mediatrix of graces. This is the proper subject of our Mariology course but for now we will simply observe that her maternal role is related to Christ as efficient cause in terms of her maternal relationship to him and to Christ’s ecclesial causality because of her unique relationship to the Church.
As we go into the next subject, we will see that imitation of Christ involves on the one hand the life of grace and on the other the cooperation of our freewill. How does God’s grace and our free will work together towards spiritual growth? The monastic and scholastic movements of the West explored this question and developed a theological understanding of this question that became identified under the term, “supernatural organism.”
Western Monasticism
Cassian
His contribution was to stress the importance of one’s freewill in spiritual growth. By renunciation of the everything that leads from Christ, we imitate Christ in his self-emptying love. For him, what we choose determines whether we will grow. As we choose well, we become capable of deeper prayer.
Three phases of asceticism:
1. reject all pleasures and vices
2. renounce one=s very self B bad habits, unruly affections
3. withdraw from all things present and visible, apply self to eternal and invisible
Four kinds of prayer
1. Prayer for Mercy - or Prayer of Compunction (beginners)
2. Prayer of Good Resolutions (Proficient)
3. Prayer for the Salvation of souls (spiritually mature)
4. Thanksgiving (contemplatives engaged in the prayer of fire)
These kinds of prayer ultimately lead to what Cassian calls the Prayer of Fire, scriptural contemplation. This prayer begins by reading the Scriptures and leads back to it.
St. Augustine: From the Confessions, we know that Augustine was drawn to the communal life even before his conversion. He came to realize that apart from the grace of Christ, fraternal fellowship based on the pursuit of the truth was subject to futility. He saw that true fellowship was to be realized through a pursuit of Christ. His contribution to spiritual theology lies in his attempts to formulate a rule for the common life, a theology of grace, a theology of prayer, and a theology of the active and contemplative life. We will not be able to discuss his thoughts on the common life, but his theology of grace, prayer and modes of life deserve attention.
Theology of Grace and Spiritual Growth
This is his most controversial contribution, but perhaps the most important, at least for the development of the theology of grace in the West. In fact, Cassian reacts in his writings to what he perceives as an over-emphasis on grace in the writings of St. Augustine, an emphasis that seems to obscure the role of freewill. But it can be argued that St. Augustine actually presents a more balanced picture because he distinguishes between different kinds of grace. In his theology, grace is divided between sanctifying (a disposition of soul) and actual (a moment of action). Actual graces precede, aid and increase good choices. For Augustine, spiritual growth is primarily growth in grace. Grace grows in us through:
1) docility to the Holy Spirit in prayer
2) doing everything out of love for God, the imperation of charity (perfect charity is perfect justice), charity transforming natural virtues
Charity leads to union, union is the source of wisdom and spiritual maturity. He proposed 7 stages of growth:
(1) vegetive, (2) sensitive and (3) rational levels of life
(4) virtue and purification
(5) tranquility B control of the passions
(6) ingresso in lucem
(7) indwelling (mansions of the Soul)
Theology of Prayer
In his Letter to Proba, a widow whom he was advising, he discusses ceaseless prayer. Prayer without ceasing can be achieved by cultivating holy desires. This insight helped scholastic doctors understand that holy desires produced by the Holy Spirit as the cause of prayer.
Modes of Life
He also begins to work out a theology of the active and contemplative life. He uses Scriptural exemplars: Peter/Martha active (makes progress) John/Mary contemplative (attains goal)
But he never insists that these be completed separate expressions of the Christian life. The ideal is integration. Thus, he presents three modes or states of life: Active, Contemplative and both together.
St. Benedict: His contribution was to popularize monastic discipline in the West by producing a rule noted for its prudential balance in terms of discipline and human needs. He observed that there were four kinds of monks and of these only the first kind who lived in community were closest to the ideal of the Early Church: (1) cenobites B live with rule, (2) hermits B from cenobites ready to live in desert, (3) sarabaites B self-willed monks, and (4) gyrovagues B no stability, on the move.
The way to grow in holiness for Benedict is through obedience, practice of silence, and humility. The practice of humility unfolded in stages of maturity he envisioned in terms of twelve degrees and he described these in very practical terms.
Twelve Degrees of Humility:
(1) fear of God B no forgetting
(2) love not own will
(3) submit your superior
(4) obedeince under tough circumstances
(5) does not conceal from abbbot thought os heart confesses these
(6) content with bad treatment
(7) believes he is inferior to others
(8) does common rule
(9) controls tongue and keeps silence
(10) not given to laughter
(11) speaks gently and seriously
(12) heart and actions the same
The Middle Ages and Scholasticism
A priestly spirituality emerges first with the Norbertines and eventually with the Domincans in response to the reforms initiated by Gregory VII and the call to renewal of Innocent III. Along with the emergence of these clerical forms of spirituality, there were also lay movements, some of which were organized by St. Francis and his followers into new forms of religious life. For the purposes of our discussion, we note that Dominican and Franciscan scholars rose up with the development of the University. Their scholastic teaching was different than the monastic tradition in that they attempted to better organize and systematize the great theological questions monastic schools left unresolved. They did this by carefully integrated philosophy with theology and by returning to patristic and scriptural sources for theology. Concerns about how following Christ is both a matter of grace and freewill were organized into a body of teaching that would be called the supernatural organism.
The Supernatural Organism
This body of teaching utilized the gifts of the spirit, the fruits of the spirit, the beatitudes, and virtues derived from Greek philosophy to explain how grace and freewil were related to man's happiness, the perfection of all his powers. It presumes that man is called to a perfection of his powers which he is naturally not capable of. His natural life needs supernatural life to realize its destiny.
The Seven Gifts of the Spirit, The Virtues, The Fruits
Types of Life
Contemplative Life (Union)
Active Life (Illumination)
Life of Pleasure (Purification)
Messianic Gifts of the Spirit:
Wisdom
Understanding
Knowledge
Counsel
Fortitude
Piety
Fear of the Lord
Virtues
Charity
Faith
Faith
Prudence
Fortitude
justice
Hope
The Fruits of the Spirit from Galations
Love, Joy Peace
Faith
generosity
kindness
Patient Endurance
gentleness
chastity
Beatitudes of Matthew and Luke
the Peacemaker
the pure of heart
the merciful
hunger and thirst for justice
Blessed are the meek
the sorrowful
poverty of spirit
1. The whole moral life is oriented to union with God and is impossible without the life of grace.
2. The Life of Grace consists of the (1) its formal principal, sanctifying grace, the grace that makes us holy (2) infused virtues and gifts (3) the indwelling of the Spirit. (4) actual graces which spur is into action at specific moments.
3. Sanctifying grace gives physical, formal, analogous, and accidental participation in the divine nature the chief effects of which include chiefly divine adoption, rights to merit and the beginning of glory, and rights to the paternal blessing of the Father to the Son.
4. Secondary effects of sanctifying grace include the communication of supernatural life, Justification and sanctification, the capacity for supernatural merit, degrees of intensity of intimate union with God, and the indwelling of the Holy Trinity.
5. The purpose of the Indwelling is the mutual possession in love of the Trinity and the Soul, and its consequence is great joy and the power to do great things for God.
6. The power God provides comes in the form of infused virtues and gifts, [and other gifts freely given (charismatica) that are not properly part of the supernatural organism but for the building up of the Body of Christ].
7. Gifts are disposition to act under the impetus of the Holy Spirit. With this disposition, actual operative grace when freely sanctioned moves us from the possibility of acting (virtue) to action (the good act).
8. Actual grace can be operative or cooperative. Human effort aided by the life of grace allows us to fulfill the precepts of the law but not perfectly. This aid to human action is called cooperative grace and prepares for special operative graces when the soul chooses to cooperate with the gift that has been given.
9. This perfection is only possible through the divine mode of existence conferred through the gifts of the Holy Spirit. We are divinized to the degree we more continually operate under the Holy Spirit=s impetus.
10. The purpose of these gifts is to (a) purify, (b) illumine and (c) unite us to God and to our neighbor.
Command of Christ to Perfection
We will lecture on this on September 20
Review
St Thomas “Beatitude constitutes mans ultimate perfection” see I-II q 3 a 2 and 4; I, q 26
Christ is the efficient cause, meritorious cause, and mystical head of the spiritual life: That is life in union with Christ by which we enter into beatitude.
The glory of God is the ultimate end, our sanctification is the proximate end and incorporation in Christ is the only way of attaining both ends. Everything depends on living the mystery of Christ with ever increasing intensity because Christian spirituality is nothing other than an intimate participation in the mystery of Christ.
In this context we know that Christ commanded us to be perfect in this life. Given our sinfulness is this really possible? To answer this question we must consider the nature of Christian perfection.
Lecture The Perfection of the Christian Life
Perfection is the condition of being completed or finished without excess or defect – the end of a process, a totality and plenitude, a fullness of being – sense these words have many meanings depending whether we are speaking about specific or a totality of acts, the term perfection is analogous.
Perfection is absolute and relative – absolute perfection is found only in God, creatures are relatively perfect (in relation to him)
Relative Perfection can be
(1)essential (a perfection of the very substance of the soul),
(2)operative (a perfection of the psychological actions of a soul),
This is transitory in the life, permanent in the life to come.
(3) final (a permanent state, the beatific vision), instrumental, primary
(pertaining directly to charity) and secondary (pertaining to other virtues formed by charity).
In Christian perfection, it consists primarily, but not exclusively in charity, in charity friendship love of God. Essentially sanctifying grace and operatively charity either in itself or through other virtues. The acts of other virtues attain to a secondary perfection that serves the union with God that charity establishes. Instrumental perfection is expressed through the evangelical councils – they are instruments that aid in the pursuit of perfection.
St. Thomas explains that Christian perfection consists especially in charity because charity alone unites us with God while the other virtues initiate or prepare for this union. Summa II-II, 184 a 1.
How do we attain this perfect love – is it really possible in this life? Summa II-II, 184, a. 2
Not in terms of the object loved, that is God, we can’t love God perfectly as he deserves – this is absolute perfection possible only to him.
Not in terms of the lover, that is the soul in relation to God, we can’t always have our affections turned toward him – this is a final perfection possible only in the beatific vision.
However, on the part of the lover in relation to things impeding a perfect love, perfect love is possible in two ways:
1) By removing anything contrary to charity like mortal sin
2) By removing any desire that hinders one’s affection for God – these would not be sinful desires, but desires for otherwise good things that distract us from loving God.
Date Tuesday, September 13, 2005 Topic: Life in Christ and The Monasticism
Learning Objective: Distinguish how Christ is the way the truth and the life and describe how early monks understood monasticism as a following of Christ.
Teaching Strategy: Lecture and Discussion.
Evaluation Technique: Class participation, EBB, Blog and Midterm.
Assignment due Sept. 15: Spiritual Theology, Chapter 4, Christian Spirituality, Chapter 6
Date: Thursday, September 15, 2005 Topic: The Supernatural Organism and the Scholastics
Learning Objectives: Provide an explanation of the supernatural organism. Describe the relation of the different kinds of grace, virtues, gifts, fruits and beatitudes. Provide understanding of why the scholastics began to develop teachings on the supernatural organism and the divine indwelling.
Teaching Strategy: Lecture and Discussion
Evaluation Technique: Class participation, EBB, Blog, and Midterm.
Assignment due Sept. 20 : Spiritual Theology, chapter 5 and 6, Christian Spirituality, chapter 8 and Blog and EBB.
Date: Tuesday, September 20, 2005 Topic: Christian Perfection and The Catholic Reformers
Learning Objective: Define the nature of Christian Perfection and explain mystical experience in relation to it. Identify the basic teachings of John of the Cross and Teresa of Avila in relation to Christian Perfection.
Teaching Strategy: Lecture and Discussion
Evaluation Technique: Class participation, EBB, Blog, and Midterm.
Assignment due Sept. 22: Spiritual Theology, chapter 7
Review
In our last lecture we considered how Christ is the Way, the Truth and the Life (Spiritual Theology, pp 49-65). We ran out of time to properly review Christ our life. Under this aspect, Christ is the meritorious, efficient, and ecclesial cause of our spiritual life.
By meritorious cause, we mean that Christ merited our redemption through his obedience to the Father in his passion and death in such a way that our weakness serves as the basis of appealing to God’s mercy. This, along with Christ as the exemplar cause of the spiritual life, is foundational to the theology of St. Maximus the Confessor – we grow to spiritual maturity principally because the Word did not deem equality with God something to be grasped at but rather emptied himself; thus, the work by which we were redeemed is the pattern we must follow: we must imitate Christ (See Christian Spirituality, p. 56).
By efficient cause, we mean that all grace comes through him; his divinity is the source of the power that saves (sanctifying grace) and his humanity is the instrument through which that power acts. This means that if we are to become holy, we must have some kind of contact with Christ involving his sacred humanity.
As ecclesial cause of the Spiritual life, Christ leads us to see that nothing created can separate us from “the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord” because the reality of what the Church is. Christ is the head of the mystical body, meaning that he has primacy of order (everything ordered to him), he has primacy of perfection (in him is the fullness of grace and truth), and he has primacy of power (the whole Body and each of its members draws its life from his fullness). The primacy of Christ’s perfection and power in the Church are the most important aspects to consider for the spiritual life because they touch on the life of grace. Christ communicates his power chiefly but not exclusively through the sacraments – the visible signs of grace that when received with the right disposition effect contact with Christ. This kind of contact is that which is given through a faith vivified by charity. St. Thomas teaches that “by faith Christ’s power is united to us” (ST III, q62, a5, ad 2).
Jordan Aumann also discusses the role of Mary as mother and mediatrix of graces. This is the proper subject of our Mariology course but for now we will simply observe that her maternal role is related to Christ as efficient cause in terms of her maternal relationship to him and to Christ’s ecclesial causality because of her unique relationship to the Church.
As we go into the next subject, we will see that imitation of Christ involves on the one hand the life of grace and on the other the cooperation of our freewill. How does God’s grace and our free will work together towards spiritual growth? The monastic and scholastic movements of the West explored this question and developed a theological understanding of this question that became identified under the term, “supernatural organism.”
Western Monasticism
Cassian
His contribution was to stress the importance of one’s freewill in spiritual growth. By renunciation of the everything that leads from Christ, we imitate Christ in his self-emptying love. For him, what we choose determines whether we will grow. As we choose well, we become capable of deeper prayer.
Three phases of asceticism:
1. reject all pleasures and vices
2. renounce one=s very self B bad habits, unruly affections
3. withdraw from all things present and visible, apply self to eternal and invisible
Four kinds of prayer
1. Prayer for Mercy - or Prayer of Compunction (beginners)
2. Prayer of Good Resolutions (Proficient)
3. Prayer for the Salvation of souls (spiritually mature)
4. Thanksgiving (contemplatives engaged in the prayer of fire)
These kinds of prayer ultimately lead to what Cassian calls the Prayer of Fire, scriptural contemplation. This prayer begins by reading the Scriptures and leads back to it.
St. Augustine: From the Confessions, we know that Augustine was drawn to the communal life even before his conversion. He came to realize that apart from the grace of Christ, fraternal fellowship based on the pursuit of the truth was subject to futility. He saw that true fellowship was to be realized through a pursuit of Christ. His contribution to spiritual theology lies in his attempts to formulate a rule for the common life, a theology of grace, a theology of prayer, and a theology of the active and contemplative life. We will not be able to discuss his thoughts on the common life, but his theology of grace, prayer and modes of life deserve attention.
Theology of Grace and Spiritual Growth
This is his most controversial contribution, but perhaps the most important, at least for the development of the theology of grace in the West. In fact, Cassian reacts in his writings to what he perceives as an over-emphasis on grace in the writings of St. Augustine, an emphasis that seems to obscure the role of freewill. But it can be argued that St. Augustine actually presents a more balanced picture because he distinguishes between different kinds of grace. In his theology, grace is divided between sanctifying (a disposition of soul) and actual (a moment of action). Actual graces precede, aid and increase good choices. For Augustine, spiritual growth is primarily growth in grace. Grace grows in us through:
1) docility to the Holy Spirit in prayer
2) doing everything out of love for God, the imperation of charity (perfect charity is perfect justice), charity transforming natural virtues
Charity leads to union, union is the source of wisdom and spiritual maturity. He proposed 7 stages of growth:
(1) vegetive, (2) sensitive and (3) rational levels of life
(4) virtue and purification
(5) tranquility B control of the passions
(6) ingresso in lucem
(7) indwelling (mansions of the Soul)
Theology of Prayer
In his Letter to Proba, a widow whom he was advising, he discusses ceaseless prayer. Prayer without ceasing can be achieved by cultivating holy desires. This insight helped scholastic doctors understand that holy desires produced by the Holy Spirit as the cause of prayer.
Modes of Life
He also begins to work out a theology of the active and contemplative life. He uses Scriptural exemplars: Peter/Martha active (makes progress) John/Mary contemplative (attains goal)
But he never insists that these be completed separate expressions of the Christian life. The ideal is integration. Thus, he presents three modes or states of life: Active, Contemplative and both together.
St. Benedict: His contribution was to popularize monastic discipline in the West by producing a rule noted for its prudential balance in terms of discipline and human needs. He observed that there were four kinds of monks and of these only the first kind who lived in community were closest to the ideal of the Early Church: (1) cenobites B live with rule, (2) hermits B from cenobites ready to live in desert, (3) sarabaites B self-willed monks, and (4) gyrovagues B no stability, on the move.
The way to grow in holiness for Benedict is through obedience, practice of silence, and humility. The practice of humility unfolded in stages of maturity he envisioned in terms of twelve degrees and he described these in very practical terms.
Twelve Degrees of Humility:
(1) fear of God B no forgetting
(2) love not own will
(3) submit your superior
(4) obedeince under tough circumstances
(5) does not conceal from abbbot thought os heart confesses these
(6) content with bad treatment
(7) believes he is inferior to others
(8) does common rule
(9) controls tongue and keeps silence
(10) not given to laughter
(11) speaks gently and seriously
(12) heart and actions the same
The Middle Ages and Scholasticism
A priestly spirituality emerges first with the Norbertines and eventually with the Domincans in response to the reforms initiated by Gregory VII and the call to renewal of Innocent III. Along with the emergence of these clerical forms of spirituality, there were also lay movements, some of which were organized by St. Francis and his followers into new forms of religious life. For the purposes of our discussion, we note that Dominican and Franciscan scholars rose up with the development of the University. Their scholastic teaching was different than the monastic tradition in that they attempted to better organize and systematize the great theological questions monastic schools left unresolved. They did this by carefully integrated philosophy with theology and by returning to patristic and scriptural sources for theology. Concerns about how following Christ is both a matter of grace and freewill were organized into a body of teaching that would be called the supernatural organism.
The Supernatural Organism
This body of teaching utilized the gifts of the spirit, the fruits of the spirit, the beatitudes, and virtues derived from Greek philosophy to explain how grace and freewil were related to man's happiness, the perfection of all his powers. It presumes that man is called to a perfection of his powers which he is naturally not capable of. His natural life needs supernatural life to realize its destiny.
The Seven Gifts of the Spirit, The Virtues, The Fruits
Types of Life
Contemplative Life (Union)
Active Life (Illumination)
Life of Pleasure (Purification)
Messianic Gifts of the Spirit:
Wisdom
Understanding
Knowledge
Counsel
Fortitude
Piety
Fear of the Lord
Virtues
Charity
Faith
Faith
Prudence
Fortitude
justice
Hope
The Fruits of the Spirit from Galations
Love, Joy Peace
Faith
generosity
kindness
Patient Endurance
gentleness
chastity
Beatitudes of Matthew and Luke
the Peacemaker
the pure of heart
the merciful
hunger and thirst for justice
Blessed are the meek
the sorrowful
poverty of spirit
1. The whole moral life is oriented to union with God and is impossible without the life of grace.
2. The Life of Grace consists of the (1) its formal principal, sanctifying grace, the grace that makes us holy (2) infused virtues and gifts (3) the indwelling of the Spirit. (4) actual graces which spur is into action at specific moments.
3. Sanctifying grace gives physical, formal, analogous, and accidental participation in the divine nature the chief effects of which include chiefly divine adoption, rights to merit and the beginning of glory, and rights to the paternal blessing of the Father to the Son.
4. Secondary effects of sanctifying grace include the communication of supernatural life, Justification and sanctification, the capacity for supernatural merit, degrees of intensity of intimate union with God, and the indwelling of the Holy Trinity.
5. The purpose of the Indwelling is the mutual possession in love of the Trinity and the Soul, and its consequence is great joy and the power to do great things for God.
6. The power God provides comes in the form of infused virtues and gifts, [and other gifts freely given (charismatica) that are not properly part of the supernatural organism but for the building up of the Body of Christ].
7. Gifts are disposition to act under the impetus of the Holy Spirit. With this disposition, actual operative grace when freely sanctioned moves us from the possibility of acting (virtue) to action (the good act).
8. Actual grace can be operative or cooperative. Human effort aided by the life of grace allows us to fulfill the precepts of the law but not perfectly. This aid to human action is called cooperative grace and prepares for special operative graces when the soul chooses to cooperate with the gift that has been given.
9. This perfection is only possible through the divine mode of existence conferred through the gifts of the Holy Spirit. We are divinized to the degree we more continually operate under the Holy Spirit=s impetus.
10. The purpose of these gifts is to (a) purify, (b) illumine and (c) unite us to God and to our neighbor.
Command of Christ to Perfection
We will lecture on this on September 20
Review
St Thomas “Beatitude constitutes mans ultimate perfection” see I-II q 3 a 2 and 4; I, q 26
Christ is the efficient cause, meritorious cause, and mystical head of the spiritual life: That is life in union with Christ by which we enter into beatitude.
The glory of God is the ultimate end, our sanctification is the proximate end and incorporation in Christ is the only way of attaining both ends. Everything depends on living the mystery of Christ with ever increasing intensity because Christian spirituality is nothing other than an intimate participation in the mystery of Christ.
In this context we know that Christ commanded us to be perfect in this life. Given our sinfulness is this really possible? To answer this question we must consider the nature of Christian perfection.
Lecture The Perfection of the Christian Life
Perfection is the condition of being completed or finished without excess or defect – the end of a process, a totality and plenitude, a fullness of being – sense these words have many meanings depending whether we are speaking about specific or a totality of acts, the term perfection is analogous.
Perfection is absolute and relative – absolute perfection is found only in God, creatures are relatively perfect (in relation to him)
Relative Perfection can be
(1)essential (a perfection of the very substance of the soul),
(2)operative (a perfection of the psychological actions of a soul),
This is transitory in the life, permanent in the life to come.
(3) final (a permanent state, the beatific vision), instrumental, primary
(pertaining directly to charity) and secondary (pertaining to other virtues formed by charity).
In Christian perfection, it consists primarily, but not exclusively in charity, in charity friendship love of God. Essentially sanctifying grace and operatively charity either in itself or through other virtues. The acts of other virtues attain to a secondary perfection that serves the union with God that charity establishes. Instrumental perfection is expressed through the evangelical councils – they are instruments that aid in the pursuit of perfection.
St. Thomas explains that Christian perfection consists especially in charity because charity alone unites us with God while the other virtues initiate or prepare for this union. Summa II-II, 184 a 1.
How do we attain this perfect love – is it really possible in this life? Summa II-II, 184, a. 2
Not in terms of the object loved, that is God, we can’t love God perfectly as he deserves – this is absolute perfection possible only to him.
Not in terms of the lover, that is the soul in relation to God, we can’t always have our affections turned toward him – this is a final perfection possible only in the beatific vision.
However, on the part of the lover in relation to things impeding a perfect love, perfect love is possible in two ways:
1) By removing anything contrary to charity like mortal sin
2) By removing any desire that hinders one’s affection for God – these would not be sinful desires, but desires for otherwise good things that distract us from loving God.
Tuesday, September 13, 2005
September 13 Lecture
Our Life in Christ and Mary
Introduction
We began by reviewing biblical and gnostic Christian Spiritualities and a common thread emerged. Both kinds of spiritualities - one from semitic culture and the other from hellenic culture - are built around an imitation of Christ that is made possible by an experience of him: Jesus of Nazareth, the Risen One, the Logos. We could claim that Christian spiritualities are build around the idea that Jesus is the Way, the Truth and the Life.
Spiritual Theology: Biblical and Early Church Spirituality
Biblical Spirituality - a life changing encounter with the Word of God
Spiritual experience is understood as an encounter with the Messiah, Jesus of Nazareth, risen from the dead, in the power of the Holy Spirit. Christ’s presence in creation and salvation history, the incarnation of the Word, the Community and its teachings, Scripture and Tradition, the sacraments and especially the Eucharistic banquet, the divine indwelling and prayer, and the desire for his return in glory were all means by which early Christians encountered the Word of God in a transformative way. All were called to take up their Cross and follow in the footsteps of the crucified God, imitating the pattern of self-emptying love revealed in God’s Word. The Christ, the apostles and the sacred authors used different kinds of anthropologies and cosmologies that, while appearing primitive to the hellenic society, were culturally current for both the Jews living in the Land, those in the diaspora, and the God-fearers (Gentiles who believed in the Lord God). At the heart of this spirituality was a cry for mercy, a humble and filial bold petition to the Father, through which alone opened up the possibility of following Christ’s teaching and following his example as handed on by the apostles.
Gnostic Christian Spirituality - the pursuit of true spiritual knowledge
Because of how they worked out philosophical questions surrounding ‘the one and the many’, Greeks tended to look at concrete particulars as lesser realities. As the Gospel was received by Greek culture, the historical concrete experience of Christ revealed in the scriptures became understood as something not really involving ‘lesser realities’ but actually transcendentals of truth and goodness. Thus, there was a shift from devotion to the Risen One from Nazareth to a devotion to the eternal Word of the Father who is Thought-Reason of God, true Relation (ratio), and Rational Truth. With this shift in devotion, there was a shift in the practice of prayer where petitionary prayer is subordinated in importance to contemplation, a beholding of the Truth who is Christ.
Clement of Alexandria
Stages of Perfection – mansions of the soul:
Holy Fear, Faith, Hope (stages of ordinary faith) and Love (the stage of gnostic faith)
Gnostic Faith or Perfect Faith is characterized by contemplation, obedience to precepts, and the instruction of good men.
The summit of gnosis is
1) contemplation - the beholding of God – and so he understands prayer in terms of contemplation
2) charity - love establishes or roots gnosis, true spiritual knowledge
Spiritual maturity consists in realizing a rational life. Irrational passions and desires are the chief threats to realizing this maturity.
The fruit of mature charity is a peace and unity of soul that Clement calls "B"2,4" (from which our English word apathy derives). This is a disposition of soul towards a healthy detachment from created goods so that desires for ‘things’ and the passions do not distract from Reason, the Logos. The insight is that being detached from the things of the world makes the soul holy, ‘sets the soul apart,’ frees it from distractions and other efforts that dissipate its energy. By a holy indifference the soul has more energy to attend to God, to contemplate and enjoy union with him. The Word can only be contemplated by rational souls, souls who live in relation (ratio) to the truth rather than living by irrational passions. As irrational movements are eliminated, the pathos of Christ’s self-emptying love takes over the soul. With this movement of love, the saints are logikos, rational - beings in relation to the Word, to Reason.
Origen - disciple of Clement sees growth not so much in terms of the acquisition of various dispositions of soul, like apatheia, but more in terms of the ultimate end of the divine economy, perfect unity with the Holy Trinity realized even in this life by a deifying participation in God’s life opened up through Christ. Imitation of Christ and participation in his mystery are the keys to growth. Thus, some of the hellenic prejudice against the body and the material world is put in better perspective. Origen originates the idea of prayer being the rising of the mind to God so that it is possible to pray without ceasing if in all your activities you are continually aware of God. It could be said that he sees contemplation and prayer as essentially the same activities. This way of looking at prayer is different from the biblical inclination to see prayer in terms of petition, an asking for the blessing of God.
Three stages:
Beginners
-imitate Christ, fight against self by detachment from the world and consistent examination of self
Proficient
-imitate Christ who battled against the devil and overcome his deceptions.
Perfect -through participation in the Word are formed in wisdom, are divinized by contemplation of the Trinity that union with Christ makes possible. This union is termed a mystical marriage, meaning a total mutual possession of God and the soul, a communion of wills in love.
Christ is the way, the truth and the life:
How can this be if Christ’s life and death are in the past? The 16th Century reformer Cardinal Berulle (and after him the many inheritors of the French School of Spirituality) started explain that what Jesus of Nazareth did in time redounds to the divine Person of the Word forever, or in other words, because the hypostatic union of the human and divine natures in Christ divinize every human action of the Son of God, the events of his human life remain as eternal states to which we have access. Thus, the power of the Messiah’s saving actions in history continues in mystery and it is available through faith in the Risen One who at the Right hand of the Father continues to sanctify us. This power is opened up to us in faith because of the infinite merits of his life, passion and death, and by means of this powerful grace we identify with Christ just as Christ has identified with us. On this basis, Christ’s proclamation that he is the way, the truth and the life can be explained.
Christ the Way “The life I live now is not my own; Christ is living in me.” (Gal. 2:20)
Only to the degree that we are configured to Christ, participate in his mystery by imitation, do we have access to the Father, our beatitude. This is why Origen insisted on moving beyond the contemplative gnosis of Clement of Alexandria to actual imitation of the Logos. Preoccupation with imitating Christ becomes the mainstay of the Desert Fathers and Monasticism in the East. How do we attain this imitation of Christ? Not by simply following his moral example, but by truly encountering him. Gregory of Nanzianzen explains, “I must be buried with Christ, rise with him, inherit heaven with him, become son of God, become God ... this is what is the great mystery for us; this is what God incarnate is for us.” (Christian Spirituality, p. 46)
To truly encounter Christ includes radically following him to the point of joining him. Thus, the counter cultural witness of Antony of the Desert begins with a radical response to the very dynamism of Christ’s person that calls out through the Scriptures and the Liturgy, “Go, sell all you have” and “Come, follow me.” Joining Christ is incorporation and this begins with Baptism. But this encounter is manifold: although principally sacramental and liturgical, it is also personal, interpersonal, scriptural, and ecclesial - all of these are powerful dimension of the experience Christ. This is why Jordan Aumann teaches that all conclusions pertaining to Christian spirituality flow from the dogma of our incorporation in Christ. He calls this “the basis of our sanctification and the very substance of our spiritual life.” (Spiritual Theology, p. 53)
Christ the Truth Gaudiem et Spes #22
As we advance in prayer, Gregory of Nyssa explains that there is a transformation in our knowing. In doing so, he advances a teaching set forth by Evagrius Ponticus. Namely, since the battle for the heart is waged in the mind, in the mind logismoi (fantasy) must be put to death so that the logoi (the true ideas) can be contemplated. What they are getting at is that we normally live in a myth, an imagined worldview, that helps us navigate through life (e.g. the two car garage of the American Dream). This fantasy is not the truth and we can only live if we are transformed to know the truth. We might call this transformation a pilgrimage from the senses to the intellect and from the intellect to the heart. In his Life of Moses as well as Homily XI on the Song of Songs, St. Gregory describes three progressive stages of encountering Christ - the burning bush which represents the cosmos through which God’s glory shines without destroying it (this gives us the sense that there is something more to life than the myth we are living in), the cloud covers what can be known through the senses to prepare the soul for what is hidden from the senses (here we let go of what we think we understand about God’s plan for us and abandon the comfort of this life’s fantasies), the darkness shrouding Mt. Sinai, the very sanctuary of God in which the human way of knowing gives way to a divine knowledge, theognosis, true theology(we are enveloped in the mystery of God’s love that surpasses understanding). (Spirituality, p. 49)
A. Reveals the Truths about Man
Primarily, the exemplary cause of our divine sonship
Secondarily, the exemplary cause of our holiness
B. Reveals the Truth about the Father
The Desert Fathers and Origen
Teacher of Truth from the Father
All his words are from the Father - the authority of his word
All his words lead to the Father - the content of his word
Christ the Life - We introduced this theme and will come back to it in our next lecture.
A. As meritorious Cause - he obtained the life of the Spirit for us (instrumentality),
B. As Efficient Cause - the very source of the life of grace (kenosis), and
C. As Head of the Mystical Body - communicates grace to the members through his perfection (kenosis) and power (apophasis).
The Role of Our Lady- We will also review this as part of Catholic spirituality in our next lecture, although it is the proper subject matter of a separate course.
Introduction
We began by reviewing biblical and gnostic Christian Spiritualities and a common thread emerged. Both kinds of spiritualities - one from semitic culture and the other from hellenic culture - are built around an imitation of Christ that is made possible by an experience of him: Jesus of Nazareth, the Risen One, the Logos. We could claim that Christian spiritualities are build around the idea that Jesus is the Way, the Truth and the Life.
Spiritual Theology: Biblical and Early Church Spirituality
Biblical Spirituality - a life changing encounter with the Word of God
Spiritual experience is understood as an encounter with the Messiah, Jesus of Nazareth, risen from the dead, in the power of the Holy Spirit. Christ’s presence in creation and salvation history, the incarnation of the Word, the Community and its teachings, Scripture and Tradition, the sacraments and especially the Eucharistic banquet, the divine indwelling and prayer, and the desire for his return in glory were all means by which early Christians encountered the Word of God in a transformative way. All were called to take up their Cross and follow in the footsteps of the crucified God, imitating the pattern of self-emptying love revealed in God’s Word. The Christ, the apostles and the sacred authors used different kinds of anthropologies and cosmologies that, while appearing primitive to the hellenic society, were culturally current for both the Jews living in the Land, those in the diaspora, and the God-fearers (Gentiles who believed in the Lord God). At the heart of this spirituality was a cry for mercy, a humble and filial bold petition to the Father, through which alone opened up the possibility of following Christ’s teaching and following his example as handed on by the apostles.
Gnostic Christian Spirituality - the pursuit of true spiritual knowledge
Because of how they worked out philosophical questions surrounding ‘the one and the many’, Greeks tended to look at concrete particulars as lesser realities. As the Gospel was received by Greek culture, the historical concrete experience of Christ revealed in the scriptures became understood as something not really involving ‘lesser realities’ but actually transcendentals of truth and goodness. Thus, there was a shift from devotion to the Risen One from Nazareth to a devotion to the eternal Word of the Father who is Thought-Reason of God, true Relation (ratio), and Rational Truth. With this shift in devotion, there was a shift in the practice of prayer where petitionary prayer is subordinated in importance to contemplation, a beholding of the Truth who is Christ.
Clement of Alexandria
Stages of Perfection – mansions of the soul:
Holy Fear, Faith, Hope (stages of ordinary faith) and Love (the stage of gnostic faith)
Gnostic Faith or Perfect Faith is characterized by contemplation, obedience to precepts, and the instruction of good men.
The summit of gnosis is
1) contemplation - the beholding of God – and so he understands prayer in terms of contemplation
2) charity - love establishes or roots gnosis, true spiritual knowledge
Spiritual maturity consists in realizing a rational life. Irrational passions and desires are the chief threats to realizing this maturity.
The fruit of mature charity is a peace and unity of soul that Clement calls "B"2,4" (from which our English word apathy derives). This is a disposition of soul towards a healthy detachment from created goods so that desires for ‘things’ and the passions do not distract from Reason, the Logos. The insight is that being detached from the things of the world makes the soul holy, ‘sets the soul apart,’ frees it from distractions and other efforts that dissipate its energy. By a holy indifference the soul has more energy to attend to God, to contemplate and enjoy union with him. The Word can only be contemplated by rational souls, souls who live in relation (ratio) to the truth rather than living by irrational passions. As irrational movements are eliminated, the pathos of Christ’s self-emptying love takes over the soul. With this movement of love, the saints are logikos, rational - beings in relation to the Word, to Reason.
Origen - disciple of Clement sees growth not so much in terms of the acquisition of various dispositions of soul, like apatheia, but more in terms of the ultimate end of the divine economy, perfect unity with the Holy Trinity realized even in this life by a deifying participation in God’s life opened up through Christ. Imitation of Christ and participation in his mystery are the keys to growth. Thus, some of the hellenic prejudice against the body and the material world is put in better perspective. Origen originates the idea of prayer being the rising of the mind to God so that it is possible to pray without ceasing if in all your activities you are continually aware of God. It could be said that he sees contemplation and prayer as essentially the same activities. This way of looking at prayer is different from the biblical inclination to see prayer in terms of petition, an asking for the blessing of God.
Three stages:
Beginners
-imitate Christ, fight against self by detachment from the world and consistent examination of self
Proficient
-imitate Christ who battled against the devil and overcome his deceptions.
Perfect -through participation in the Word are formed in wisdom, are divinized by contemplation of the Trinity that union with Christ makes possible. This union is termed a mystical marriage, meaning a total mutual possession of God and the soul, a communion of wills in love.
Christ is the way, the truth and the life:
How can this be if Christ’s life and death are in the past? The 16th Century reformer Cardinal Berulle (and after him the many inheritors of the French School of Spirituality) started explain that what Jesus of Nazareth did in time redounds to the divine Person of the Word forever, or in other words, because the hypostatic union of the human and divine natures in Christ divinize every human action of the Son of God, the events of his human life remain as eternal states to which we have access. Thus, the power of the Messiah’s saving actions in history continues in mystery and it is available through faith in the Risen One who at the Right hand of the Father continues to sanctify us. This power is opened up to us in faith because of the infinite merits of his life, passion and death, and by means of this powerful grace we identify with Christ just as Christ has identified with us. On this basis, Christ’s proclamation that he is the way, the truth and the life can be explained.
Christ the Way “The life I live now is not my own; Christ is living in me.” (Gal. 2:20)
Only to the degree that we are configured to Christ, participate in his mystery by imitation, do we have access to the Father, our beatitude. This is why Origen insisted on moving beyond the contemplative gnosis of Clement of Alexandria to actual imitation of the Logos. Preoccupation with imitating Christ becomes the mainstay of the Desert Fathers and Monasticism in the East. How do we attain this imitation of Christ? Not by simply following his moral example, but by truly encountering him. Gregory of Nanzianzen explains, “I must be buried with Christ, rise with him, inherit heaven with him, become son of God, become God ... this is what is the great mystery for us; this is what God incarnate is for us.” (Christian Spirituality, p. 46)
To truly encounter Christ includes radically following him to the point of joining him. Thus, the counter cultural witness of Antony of the Desert begins with a radical response to the very dynamism of Christ’s person that calls out through the Scriptures and the Liturgy, “Go, sell all you have” and “Come, follow me.” Joining Christ is incorporation and this begins with Baptism. But this encounter is manifold: although principally sacramental and liturgical, it is also personal, interpersonal, scriptural, and ecclesial - all of these are powerful dimension of the experience Christ. This is why Jordan Aumann teaches that all conclusions pertaining to Christian spirituality flow from the dogma of our incorporation in Christ. He calls this “the basis of our sanctification and the very substance of our spiritual life.” (Spiritual Theology, p. 53)
Christ the Truth Gaudiem et Spes #22
As we advance in prayer, Gregory of Nyssa explains that there is a transformation in our knowing. In doing so, he advances a teaching set forth by Evagrius Ponticus. Namely, since the battle for the heart is waged in the mind, in the mind logismoi (fantasy) must be put to death so that the logoi (the true ideas) can be contemplated. What they are getting at is that we normally live in a myth, an imagined worldview, that helps us navigate through life (e.g. the two car garage of the American Dream). This fantasy is not the truth and we can only live if we are transformed to know the truth. We might call this transformation a pilgrimage from the senses to the intellect and from the intellect to the heart. In his Life of Moses as well as Homily XI on the Song of Songs, St. Gregory describes three progressive stages of encountering Christ - the burning bush which represents the cosmos through which God’s glory shines without destroying it (this gives us the sense that there is something more to life than the myth we are living in), the cloud covers what can be known through the senses to prepare the soul for what is hidden from the senses (here we let go of what we think we understand about God’s plan for us and abandon the comfort of this life’s fantasies), the darkness shrouding Mt. Sinai, the very sanctuary of God in which the human way of knowing gives way to a divine knowledge, theognosis, true theology(we are enveloped in the mystery of God’s love that surpasses understanding). (Spirituality, p. 49)
A. Reveals the Truths about Man
Primarily, the exemplary cause of our divine sonship
Secondarily, the exemplary cause of our holiness
B. Reveals the Truth about the Father
The Desert Fathers and Origen
Teacher of Truth from the Father
All his words are from the Father - the authority of his word
All his words lead to the Father - the content of his word
Christ the Life - We introduced this theme and will come back to it in our next lecture.
A. As meritorious Cause - he obtained the life of the Spirit for us (instrumentality),
B. As Efficient Cause - the very source of the life of grace (kenosis), and
C. As Head of the Mystical Body - communicates grace to the members through his perfection (kenosis) and power (apophasis).
The Role of Our Lady- We will also review this as part of Catholic spirituality in our next lecture, although it is the proper subject matter of a separate course.
Monday, September 12, 2005
Syllabus -- Where we are going and what we need to do
Date: Thursday, September 8, 2005 Topic: The Spirituality of the Early Church
Learning Objective: Provide insight into Christian perfection as an imitation of Christ and description of development of ascetico-mystico teaching through the 4th Century including the concepts of deification and divinization.
Teaching Strategy: Lecture and Discussion
Evaluation Technique: Class participation, Blog, EBB, and Mid-term Exam.
Assignment due Sept 13: Spiritual Theology, Chapter 3; Christian Spirituality, Chapter 4 and 5; and review class notes on Blog and submit questions (http://theo6105.blogspot.com), and entry into discussion on Electronic Bulletin Board (referred to from here on out as ‘Blog and EBB’).
On Tuesday, we will describe the teaching on deification/divinization that emerges in the 4th century. We will also look at the relation of Christ to the Spiritual provided by Jordan Aumann in Chapter 3 of Spiritual Theology.
Date Tuesday, September 13, 2005 Topic: Life in Christ and The Monasticism
Learning Objective: Distinguish how Christ is the way the truth and the life and describe how early monks understood monasticism as a following of Christ.
Teaching Strategy: Lecture and Discussion.
Evaluation Technique: Class participation, EBB, Blog and Midterm.
Assignment due Sept. 15: Spiritual Theology, Chapter 4, Christian Spirituality, Chapter 6
Lecture notes for Sept. 13 were in a previous posting by I have reproduced them here for reference.
Lecture on Our Life in Christ
The Scriptures are a source of encountering Christ, but they in fact reveal that he is present in more wonderful ways than even the written word. On the level of divine revelation, it is appropriate to say that Christ has come once and for all. There is no new revelation objectively speaking. But subjectively, the coming of Christ is still being realized and in the power of the Holy Spirit this coming is dynamic and continual. This means he is always present to us in the world in new ways. Presences of the Word in the World can be distinguished in seven kinds - the presences are experienced in ever new ways by each and every soul searching for Christ – because Christ is searching for each and every soul. 1. Creation2. Hypostatic union3. Personal, the Grace of Indwelling4. Ecclesial, the holy synaxis gathered in prayer5. Scripture and Tradition6. Eucharist and other Sacraments7. Eschatological, all things are ordered to Christ’s power and authorityOur Life in ChristReasons for the Incarnation – (1) salvation, (2) to reveal Father’s love, (3) to provide example of obedience, and (4)to deify humanityAchieved through the visible and spiritual missionsComing of Christ established his mystical BodyIncorporation-- members of the mystical bodyB the Way (Christ as means of holiness)Through his mystical Body he communicates himself to us:Exemplar of Holiness B the Truth (the following and the imitation of Christ)Efficient, meritorious, mystical head B the Life (union with Christ)Mystical Headorder (hierarchy)perfection (full of grace)Power (all comes from him)How do we receive this?sacraments and living faithEucharistThe glory of God is the ultimate end, our sanctification is the proximate end and incorporation in Christ is the only way of attaining both ends. Everything depends on living the mystery of Christ with ever increasing intensity because Christian spirituality is nothing other than an intimate participation in the mystery of Christ.Spiritual Experience and the Divine IndwellingHow are the invisible missions of the Son and the Spirit distinguished and related to each other? According to St. Thomas (ST I, q. 43) To be sent means to be present in a new way, the Word and the Spirit are present whenever we become more like them in knowledge and love. Hence, the Word comes or is sent with every new knowledge that stirs up love for God, and Spirit comes with the stirring of the affection of our love for God. These missions always go together meaning that with every new increasing in knowledge there is an increase in affection. Through this knowledge and love, the Word and the Spirit avail themselves to the soul to be enjoyed and to be of service. The Father sends his Son and the Spirit so that souls may enjoy union with God and be enabled to accomplish some great work. The Son and the Spirit place themselves at our disposal for this purpose. The missions of the divine persons are the source of the divine communion and personal vocation of each soul.
Date: Thursday, September 15, 2005 Topic: The Supernatural Organism and the Scholastics
Learning Objectives: Provide an explanation of the supernatural organism. Describe the relation of the different kinds of grace, virtues, gifts, fruits and beatitudes. Provide understanding of why the scholastics began to develop teachings on the supernatural organism and the divine indwelling.
Teaching Strategy: Lecture and Discussion
Evaluation Technique: Class participation, EBB, Blog, and Midterm.
Assignment due Sept. 20 : Spiritual Theology, chapter 5 and 6, Christian Spirituality, chapter 8 and Blog and EBB.
Learning Objective: Provide insight into Christian perfection as an imitation of Christ and description of development of ascetico-mystico teaching through the 4th Century including the concepts of deification and divinization.
Teaching Strategy: Lecture and Discussion
Evaluation Technique: Class participation, Blog, EBB, and Mid-term Exam.
Assignment due Sept 13: Spiritual Theology, Chapter 3; Christian Spirituality, Chapter 4 and 5; and review class notes on Blog and submit questions (http://theo6105.blogspot.com), and entry into discussion on Electronic Bulletin Board (referred to from here on out as ‘Blog and EBB’).
On Tuesday, we will describe the teaching on deification/divinization that emerges in the 4th century. We will also look at the relation of Christ to the Spiritual provided by Jordan Aumann in Chapter 3 of Spiritual Theology.
Date Tuesday, September 13, 2005 Topic: Life in Christ and The Monasticism
Learning Objective: Distinguish how Christ is the way the truth and the life and describe how early monks understood monasticism as a following of Christ.
Teaching Strategy: Lecture and Discussion.
Evaluation Technique: Class participation, EBB, Blog and Midterm.
Assignment due Sept. 15: Spiritual Theology, Chapter 4, Christian Spirituality, Chapter 6
Lecture notes for Sept. 13 were in a previous posting by I have reproduced them here for reference.
Lecture on Our Life in Christ
The Scriptures are a source of encountering Christ, but they in fact reveal that he is present in more wonderful ways than even the written word. On the level of divine revelation, it is appropriate to say that Christ has come once and for all. There is no new revelation objectively speaking. But subjectively, the coming of Christ is still being realized and in the power of the Holy Spirit this coming is dynamic and continual. This means he is always present to us in the world in new ways. Presences of the Word in the World can be distinguished in seven kinds - the presences are experienced in ever new ways by each and every soul searching for Christ – because Christ is searching for each and every soul. 1. Creation2. Hypostatic union3. Personal, the Grace of Indwelling4. Ecclesial, the holy synaxis gathered in prayer5. Scripture and Tradition6. Eucharist and other Sacraments7. Eschatological, all things are ordered to Christ’s power and authorityOur Life in ChristReasons for the Incarnation – (1) salvation, (2) to reveal Father’s love, (3) to provide example of obedience, and (4)to deify humanityAchieved through the visible and spiritual missionsComing of Christ established his mystical BodyIncorporation-- members of the mystical bodyB the Way (Christ as means of holiness)Through his mystical Body he communicates himself to us:Exemplar of Holiness B the Truth (the following and the imitation of Christ)Efficient, meritorious, mystical head B the Life (union with Christ)Mystical Headorder (hierarchy)perfection (full of grace)Power (all comes from him)How do we receive this?sacraments and living faithEucharistThe glory of God is the ultimate end, our sanctification is the proximate end and incorporation in Christ is the only way of attaining both ends. Everything depends on living the mystery of Christ with ever increasing intensity because Christian spirituality is nothing other than an intimate participation in the mystery of Christ.Spiritual Experience and the Divine IndwellingHow are the invisible missions of the Son and the Spirit distinguished and related to each other? According to St. Thomas (ST I, q. 43) To be sent means to be present in a new way, the Word and the Spirit are present whenever we become more like them in knowledge and love. Hence, the Word comes or is sent with every new knowledge that stirs up love for God, and Spirit comes with the stirring of the affection of our love for God. These missions always go together meaning that with every new increasing in knowledge there is an increase in affection. Through this knowledge and love, the Word and the Spirit avail themselves to the soul to be enjoyed and to be of service. The Father sends his Son and the Spirit so that souls may enjoy union with God and be enabled to accomplish some great work. The Son and the Spirit place themselves at our disposal for this purpose. The missions of the divine persons are the source of the divine communion and personal vocation of each soul.
Date: Thursday, September 15, 2005 Topic: The Supernatural Organism and the Scholastics
Learning Objectives: Provide an explanation of the supernatural organism. Describe the relation of the different kinds of grace, virtues, gifts, fruits and beatitudes. Provide understanding of why the scholastics began to develop teachings on the supernatural organism and the divine indwelling.
Teaching Strategy: Lecture and Discussion
Evaluation Technique: Class participation, EBB, Blog, and Midterm.
Assignment due Sept. 20 : Spiritual Theology, chapter 5 and 6, Christian Spirituality, chapter 8 and Blog and EBB.
Wednesday, September 07, 2005
The Goal of our Striving
These are my notes for our first lectures on Spiritual Theology in spiritual theology. Feel free to comment.
Spiritual theology is the queen or servant of all theology dogmatic and moral, speculative and applied. It applies the doctrines of the faith to the perfection of the moral life to determine the nature and analyze the parts of Christian perfection, mysticism and asceticism, their specific elements, stages of growth, the means to attain it, aids, the stages of prayer, discernment of spirits, ordinary and extraordinary mystical phenomena. As such, it takes up both the questions of ascetical theology and mystical theology. In the methodology of our class, these questions are taken up from the perspective of the ultimate end of the divine economy.
What is the ultimate end of the divine economy?
Perfect unity of creatures in with the Trinity
What is the mystical life? This is the object of mystical theology.
1. Unity with the mystery of Christ through the mysteries of the Church unto union with the mystery of the Holy Trinity
2. All activity under the impetus of the Holy Spirit that by grace attains union with God.
3. Ordinary operative graces that flow from baptism when not impeded by personal sin.
4. There are also extraordinary operative graces or charisms that do not ordinarily flow from baptism, but are granted to support the normal development of baptismal grace.
What is the ascetical life? This is the object of ascetical theology.
Asceticism means exercises or discipline and includes all human activity that freely cooperates with grace to dispose to God’s actions.
Lecture on Spiritual Experience and the Goal of our Striving
Spiritual Experience is deeper than thought, desire, imagination, memory –
It is of the heart: communal, ecclesial, liturgical, Christological, Trinitarian – as such what characterizes it is always the glory of God.
The Glory of God
Divine Glory is the radiant dynamism of God’s truth and goodness, his beauty that evokes the gift of self in total love. This glory is intrinsic and extrinsic in kind.
Inner life of the Trinity has an intrinsic glory that whose dynamism evokes a response
The response is the extrinsic glory manifest in the Work of the Trinity outside itself.
Greatest glory given by the human person – one’s salvation
Ultimate End: The Glory of God
Proximate Ends: Christian Perfection: Salvation B Beatitude
Means: Pursuit of Holiness: Sanctification B Life of Grace
St Thomas
Beatitude constitutes mans ultimate perfection I-II q3 a 2 and 4
I ,q 26, a1: Final beatitude in glory depends on
1) total perfection
2) knowledge of the good possessed in glory – the beatific vision
How can the intellect see God since it is not proportionate to him?
The encounter of God’s glory in the heart unleashes supernatural power purifying and transforming our faculties – this is only brought to completion in the life to come through the light of glory but it begins now in the life of faith. Spiritual experiences relate to this encounter insofar as they are purifying, transforming and uniting to God. These experiences include operative graces (God’s action that we receive and sanction) and cooperative graces (God’s blessing and aid to human efforts directed to preparing the soul for His action.)
Key Concepts:
Purification - sorrowful experiences by which the soul empties itself or is emptied for life with God
Transformation – yearning experiences by which God prepares the soul for a union of love
Union -- joyful experiences by which the soul enjoys the God’s friendship
Operative Grace - Gifts of God’s operation
Cooperative Grace - Gifts that allow Man’s cooperation
How do we get there?
The kenosis of Christ reveals the dynamism of Gods glory and the pattern of realizing it in our lives. It is the pattern of radical and reckless self-gift, of self-emptying out of a merciful love for the plight of a friend who suffers. This pattern reveals the nature of Christian holiness – friendship love of God. Affectively this is what God gives to each Christian and effectively it is what Christians share with one another and the whole world in response. The response is apophatic – a letting go of this world and a leaping into the love of Christ.
Key Concepts
Kenosis – Christ’s total self emptying love
Apophasis – leaping into the mystery of Christ’s love, an imitation of Christ’s kenosis, purifying inordinate attachments to this world, transforming the heart for a unity with the Trinity of which this life is meant to be an anticipation.
The Scriptures and the Spiritual Life
Why are the Scriptures dynamic for the Spiritual life?
To understand the role of the Scriptures in the spiritual life, we must begin with the premise that these writings are the Word of God, and that this Word is, above all, the divine person who became flesh and dwelt among us. The Scriptures are not static for the spiritual life but dynamic. That is why different saints throughout the centuries have had their lives completely transformed by just one verse: ‘go sell all you have’ for St. Anthony, ‘make no provision of the flesh’ for St. Augustine. The encounter of Christ in the Scriptures evokes apophasis and this is the beginning of the spiritual life.
What is apophasis and how is it related to kenosis?
The human leap into the mystery of God’s love follows the same pattern of the Word made flesh who emptied himself, it is also a response to the dynamism of Christ’s gift of self.
Preaching and the Beginning of the Spiritual Life
How do ministers of the Word lead souls to encounter Christ in the Scriptures, to begin the spiritual life?
This Word is self-emptying, it comes to us through kenosis (he emptied himself) and invites us to leap into the mystery of his reckless love. This is implicit in every word of the Word of God. That is why the Church recognizes that beyond the literal meaning of the text, there is also a spiritual meaning even when the literal meaning does not seem spiritual. We search for this spiritual meaning by asking, not only literal questions, but also allegorical, moral, and anagogical questions:
Allegorically, we can see a given text in relation Christ and the work of redemption, or in relation to the liturgy and the sacraments.
Morally, we can see a given texts in terms of exemplars to imitate or patterns for the Christian life.
Anagogically, we can see a given text in relation to the ultimate end of the divine economy, the final eschaton. Sometimes an anagogical truth calls on us through all the senses of the text: literal, allegorical, and moral. We demonstrated this in terms of the holiness of God revealed Exodus 3 and 4.
Lecture on Our Life in Christ
The Scriptures are a source of encountering Christ, but they in fact reveal that he is present in more wonderful ways than even the written word. On the level of divine revelation, it is appropriate to say that Christ has come once and for all. There is no new revelation objectively speaking. But subjectively, the coming of Christ is still being realized and in the power of the Holy Spirit this coming is dynamic and continual. This means he is always present to us in the world in new ways. Presences of the Word in the World can be distinguished in seven kinds - the presences are experienced in ever new ways by each and every soul searching for Christ – because Christ is searching for each and every soul.
1. Creation
2. Hypostatic union
3. Personal, the Grace of Indwelling
4. Ecclesial, the holy synaxis gathered in prayer
5. Scripture and Tradition
6. Eucharist and other Sacraments
7. Eschatological, all things are ordered to Christ’s power and authority
Our Life in Christ
Reasons for the Incarnation – (1) salvation, (2) to reveal Father’s love, (3) to provide example of obedience, and (4)to deify humanity
Achieved through the visible and spiritual missions
Coming of Christ established his mystical Body
Incorporation-- members of the mystical bodyB the Way (Christ as means of holiness)
Through his mystical Body he communicates himself to us:
Exemplar of Holiness B the Truth (the following and the imitation of Christ)
Efficient, meritorious, mystical head B the Life (union with Christ)
Mystical Head
order (hierarchy)
perfection (full of grace)
Power (all comes from him)
How do we receive this?
sacraments and living faith
Eucharist
The glory of God is the ultimate end, our sanctification is the proximate end and incorporation in Christ is the only way of attaining both ends. Everything depends on living the mystery of Christ with ever increasing intensity because Christian spirituality is nothing other than an intimate participation in the mystery of Christ.
Spiritual Experience and the Divine Indwelling
How are the invisible missions of the Son and the Spirit distinguished and related to each other?
According to St. Thomas (ST I, q. 43) To be sent means to be present in a new way, the Word and the Spirit are present whenever we become more like them in knowledge and love. Hence, the Word comes or is sent with every new knowledge that stirs up love for God, and Spirit comes with the stirring of the affection of our love for God. These missions always go together meaning that with every new increasing in knowledge there is an increase in affection. Through this knowledge and love, the Word and the Spirit avail themselves to the soul to be enjoyed and to be of service. The Father sends his Son and the Spirit so that souls may enjoy union with God and be enabled to accomplish some great work. The Son and the Spirit place themselves at our disposal for this purpose. The missions of the divine persons are the source of the divine communion and personal vocation of each soul.
Spirituality of the Early Church
The spirituality of the Early Church derives from this reflection on how Christ is encountered. Their spirituality was Christ centered, eschatological, ascetical, liturgical and communal. It was based on an imitation of Christ, seeing in his coming, his death and his resurrection a pattern to be imitated and a mystery to plunge into. The community waiting for his coming and in liturgical prayer was vital to this imitation of Christ, it enabled it because it provided the dynamism of His presence.
Accordingly, through imitation of Christ, the early Church understood that it was realizing Christ’s command to perfection and the teaching of the Apostles to imitate Christ.
Key Scripture passages:
Command to perfection
Some pertinent passages:
Be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect Mt. 5:48, Col 3:14, 1 Jn 4:19
Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful Lk 6:36
Enter through the narrow gate Mt 7: 13-14
Be imitators of God. Ephesians 5:1
N.B. Notes for the lecture on the supernatural organism will be provided in a future posting.
Lecture on Command of Christ to Perfection
Review
St Thomas “Beatitude constitutes mans ultimate perfection” see I-II q 3 a 2 and 4; I, q 26
Christ is the efficient cause, meritorious cause, and mystical head of the spiritual life: That is life in union with Christ by which we enter into beatitude.
The glory of God is the ultimate end, our sanctification is the proximate end and incorporation in Christ is the only way of attaining both ends. Everything depends on living the mystery of Christ with ever increasing intensity because Christian spirituality is nothing other than an intimate participation in the mystery of Christ.
In this context we know that Christ commanded us to be perfect in this life. Given our sinfulness is this really possible? To answer this question we must consider the nature of Christian perfection.
The Perfection of the Christian Life
Perfection is the condition of being completed or finished without excess or defect – the end of a process, a totality and plenitude, a fullness of being – sense these words have many meanings depending whether we are speaking about specific or a totality of acts, the term perfection is analogous.
Perfection is absolute and relative – absolute perfection is found only in God, creatures are relatively perfect (in relation to him)
Relative Perfection can be
(1)essential (a perfection of the very substance of the soul),
(2)operative (a perfection of the psychological actions of a soul),
This is transitory in the life, permanent in the life to come.
(3) final (a permanent state, the beatific vision), instrumental, primary
(pertaining directly to charity) and secondary (pertaining to other virtues formed by charity).
In Christian perfection, it consists primarily, but not exclusively in charity, in charity friendship love of God. Essentially sanctifying grace and operatively charity either in itself or through other virtues. The acts of other virtues attain to a secondary perfection that serves the union with God that charity establishes. Instrumental perfection is expressed through the evangelical councils – they are instruments that aid in the pursuit of perfection.
St. Thomas explains that Christian perfection consists especially in charity because charity alone unites us with God while the other virtues initiate or prepare for this union. Summa II-II, 184 a 1.
How do we attain this perfect love – is it really possible in this life? Summa II-II, 184, a. 2
Not in terms of the object loved, that is God, we can’t love God perfectly as he deserves – this is absolute perfection possible only to him.
Not in terms of the lover, that is the soul in relation to God, we can’t always have our affections turned toward him – this is a final perfection possible only in the beatific vision.
However, on the part of the lover in relation to things impeding a perfect love, perfect love is possible in two ways:
1) By removing anything contrary to charity like mortal sin
2) By removing any desire that hinders one’s affection for God – these would not be sinful desires, but desires for otherwise good things that distract us from loving God.
Spiritual theology is the queen or servant of all theology dogmatic and moral, speculative and applied. It applies the doctrines of the faith to the perfection of the moral life to determine the nature and analyze the parts of Christian perfection, mysticism and asceticism, their specific elements, stages of growth, the means to attain it, aids, the stages of prayer, discernment of spirits, ordinary and extraordinary mystical phenomena. As such, it takes up both the questions of ascetical theology and mystical theology. In the methodology of our class, these questions are taken up from the perspective of the ultimate end of the divine economy.
What is the ultimate end of the divine economy?
Perfect unity of creatures in with the Trinity
What is the mystical life? This is the object of mystical theology.
1. Unity with the mystery of Christ through the mysteries of the Church unto union with the mystery of the Holy Trinity
2. All activity under the impetus of the Holy Spirit that by grace attains union with God.
3. Ordinary operative graces that flow from baptism when not impeded by personal sin.
4. There are also extraordinary operative graces or charisms that do not ordinarily flow from baptism, but are granted to support the normal development of baptismal grace.
What is the ascetical life? This is the object of ascetical theology.
Asceticism means exercises or discipline and includes all human activity that freely cooperates with grace to dispose to God’s actions.
Lecture on Spiritual Experience and the Goal of our Striving
Spiritual Experience is deeper than thought, desire, imagination, memory –
It is of the heart: communal, ecclesial, liturgical, Christological, Trinitarian – as such what characterizes it is always the glory of God.
The Glory of God
Divine Glory is the radiant dynamism of God’s truth and goodness, his beauty that evokes the gift of self in total love. This glory is intrinsic and extrinsic in kind.
Inner life of the Trinity has an intrinsic glory that whose dynamism evokes a response
The response is the extrinsic glory manifest in the Work of the Trinity outside itself.
Greatest glory given by the human person – one’s salvation
Ultimate End: The Glory of God
Proximate Ends: Christian Perfection: Salvation B Beatitude
Means: Pursuit of Holiness: Sanctification B Life of Grace
St Thomas
Beatitude constitutes mans ultimate perfection I-II q3 a 2 and 4
I ,q 26, a1: Final beatitude in glory depends on
1) total perfection
2) knowledge of the good possessed in glory – the beatific vision
How can the intellect see God since it is not proportionate to him?
The encounter of God’s glory in the heart unleashes supernatural power purifying and transforming our faculties – this is only brought to completion in the life to come through the light of glory but it begins now in the life of faith. Spiritual experiences relate to this encounter insofar as they are purifying, transforming and uniting to God. These experiences include operative graces (God’s action that we receive and sanction) and cooperative graces (God’s blessing and aid to human efforts directed to preparing the soul for His action.)
Key Concepts:
Purification - sorrowful experiences by which the soul empties itself or is emptied for life with God
Transformation – yearning experiences by which God prepares the soul for a union of love
Union -- joyful experiences by which the soul enjoys the God’s friendship
Operative Grace - Gifts of God’s operation
Cooperative Grace - Gifts that allow Man’s cooperation
How do we get there?
The kenosis of Christ reveals the dynamism of Gods glory and the pattern of realizing it in our lives. It is the pattern of radical and reckless self-gift, of self-emptying out of a merciful love for the plight of a friend who suffers. This pattern reveals the nature of Christian holiness – friendship love of God. Affectively this is what God gives to each Christian and effectively it is what Christians share with one another and the whole world in response. The response is apophatic – a letting go of this world and a leaping into the love of Christ.
Key Concepts
Kenosis – Christ’s total self emptying love
Apophasis – leaping into the mystery of Christ’s love, an imitation of Christ’s kenosis, purifying inordinate attachments to this world, transforming the heart for a unity with the Trinity of which this life is meant to be an anticipation.
The Scriptures and the Spiritual Life
Why are the Scriptures dynamic for the Spiritual life?
To understand the role of the Scriptures in the spiritual life, we must begin with the premise that these writings are the Word of God, and that this Word is, above all, the divine person who became flesh and dwelt among us. The Scriptures are not static for the spiritual life but dynamic. That is why different saints throughout the centuries have had their lives completely transformed by just one verse: ‘go sell all you have’ for St. Anthony, ‘make no provision of the flesh’ for St. Augustine. The encounter of Christ in the Scriptures evokes apophasis and this is the beginning of the spiritual life.
What is apophasis and how is it related to kenosis?
The human leap into the mystery of God’s love follows the same pattern of the Word made flesh who emptied himself, it is also a response to the dynamism of Christ’s gift of self.
Preaching and the Beginning of the Spiritual Life
How do ministers of the Word lead souls to encounter Christ in the Scriptures, to begin the spiritual life?
This Word is self-emptying, it comes to us through kenosis (he emptied himself) and invites us to leap into the mystery of his reckless love. This is implicit in every word of the Word of God. That is why the Church recognizes that beyond the literal meaning of the text, there is also a spiritual meaning even when the literal meaning does not seem spiritual. We search for this spiritual meaning by asking, not only literal questions, but also allegorical, moral, and anagogical questions:
Allegorically, we can see a given text in relation Christ and the work of redemption, or in relation to the liturgy and the sacraments.
Morally, we can see a given texts in terms of exemplars to imitate or patterns for the Christian life.
Anagogically, we can see a given text in relation to the ultimate end of the divine economy, the final eschaton. Sometimes an anagogical truth calls on us through all the senses of the text: literal, allegorical, and moral. We demonstrated this in terms of the holiness of God revealed Exodus 3 and 4.
Lecture on Our Life in Christ
The Scriptures are a source of encountering Christ, but they in fact reveal that he is present in more wonderful ways than even the written word. On the level of divine revelation, it is appropriate to say that Christ has come once and for all. There is no new revelation objectively speaking. But subjectively, the coming of Christ is still being realized and in the power of the Holy Spirit this coming is dynamic and continual. This means he is always present to us in the world in new ways. Presences of the Word in the World can be distinguished in seven kinds - the presences are experienced in ever new ways by each and every soul searching for Christ – because Christ is searching for each and every soul.
1. Creation
2. Hypostatic union
3. Personal, the Grace of Indwelling
4. Ecclesial, the holy synaxis gathered in prayer
5. Scripture and Tradition
6. Eucharist and other Sacraments
7. Eschatological, all things are ordered to Christ’s power and authority
Our Life in Christ
Reasons for the Incarnation – (1) salvation, (2) to reveal Father’s love, (3) to provide example of obedience, and (4)to deify humanity
Achieved through the visible and spiritual missions
Coming of Christ established his mystical Body
Incorporation-- members of the mystical bodyB the Way (Christ as means of holiness)
Through his mystical Body he communicates himself to us:
Exemplar of Holiness B the Truth (the following and the imitation of Christ)
Efficient, meritorious, mystical head B the Life (union with Christ)
Mystical Head
order (hierarchy)
perfection (full of grace)
Power (all comes from him)
How do we receive this?
sacraments and living faith
Eucharist
The glory of God is the ultimate end, our sanctification is the proximate end and incorporation in Christ is the only way of attaining both ends. Everything depends on living the mystery of Christ with ever increasing intensity because Christian spirituality is nothing other than an intimate participation in the mystery of Christ.
Spiritual Experience and the Divine Indwelling
How are the invisible missions of the Son and the Spirit distinguished and related to each other?
According to St. Thomas (ST I, q. 43) To be sent means to be present in a new way, the Word and the Spirit are present whenever we become more like them in knowledge and love. Hence, the Word comes or is sent with every new knowledge that stirs up love for God, and Spirit comes with the stirring of the affection of our love for God. These missions always go together meaning that with every new increasing in knowledge there is an increase in affection. Through this knowledge and love, the Word and the Spirit avail themselves to the soul to be enjoyed and to be of service. The Father sends his Son and the Spirit so that souls may enjoy union with God and be enabled to accomplish some great work. The Son and the Spirit place themselves at our disposal for this purpose. The missions of the divine persons are the source of the divine communion and personal vocation of each soul.
Spirituality of the Early Church
The spirituality of the Early Church derives from this reflection on how Christ is encountered. Their spirituality was Christ centered, eschatological, ascetical, liturgical and communal. It was based on an imitation of Christ, seeing in his coming, his death and his resurrection a pattern to be imitated and a mystery to plunge into. The community waiting for his coming and in liturgical prayer was vital to this imitation of Christ, it enabled it because it provided the dynamism of His presence.
Accordingly, through imitation of Christ, the early Church understood that it was realizing Christ’s command to perfection and the teaching of the Apostles to imitate Christ.
Key Scripture passages:
Command to perfection
Some pertinent passages:
Be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect Mt. 5:48, Col 3:14, 1 Jn 4:19
Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful Lk 6:36
Enter through the narrow gate Mt 7: 13-14
Be imitators of God. Ephesians 5:1
N.B. Notes for the lecture on the supernatural organism will be provided in a future posting.
Lecture on Command of Christ to Perfection
Review
St Thomas “Beatitude constitutes mans ultimate perfection” see I-II q 3 a 2 and 4; I, q 26
Christ is the efficient cause, meritorious cause, and mystical head of the spiritual life: That is life in union with Christ by which we enter into beatitude.
The glory of God is the ultimate end, our sanctification is the proximate end and incorporation in Christ is the only way of attaining both ends. Everything depends on living the mystery of Christ with ever increasing intensity because Christian spirituality is nothing other than an intimate participation in the mystery of Christ.
In this context we know that Christ commanded us to be perfect in this life. Given our sinfulness is this really possible? To answer this question we must consider the nature of Christian perfection.
The Perfection of the Christian Life
Perfection is the condition of being completed or finished without excess or defect – the end of a process, a totality and plenitude, a fullness of being – sense these words have many meanings depending whether we are speaking about specific or a totality of acts, the term perfection is analogous.
Perfection is absolute and relative – absolute perfection is found only in God, creatures are relatively perfect (in relation to him)
Relative Perfection can be
(1)essential (a perfection of the very substance of the soul),
(2)operative (a perfection of the psychological actions of a soul),
This is transitory in the life, permanent in the life to come.
(3) final (a permanent state, the beatific vision), instrumental, primary
(pertaining directly to charity) and secondary (pertaining to other virtues formed by charity).
In Christian perfection, it consists primarily, but not exclusively in charity, in charity friendship love of God. Essentially sanctifying grace and operatively charity either in itself or through other virtues. The acts of other virtues attain to a secondary perfection that serves the union with God that charity establishes. Instrumental perfection is expressed through the evangelical councils – they are instruments that aid in the pursuit of perfection.
St. Thomas explains that Christian perfection consists especially in charity because charity alone unites us with God while the other virtues initiate or prepare for this union. Summa II-II, 184 a 1.
How do we attain this perfect love – is it really possible in this life? Summa II-II, 184, a. 2
Not in terms of the object loved, that is God, we can’t love God perfectly as he deserves – this is absolute perfection possible only to him.
Not in terms of the lover, that is the soul in relation to God, we can’t always have our affections turned toward him – this is a final perfection possible only in the beatific vision.
However, on the part of the lover in relation to things impeding a perfect love, perfect love is possible in two ways:
1) By removing anything contrary to charity like mortal sin
2) By removing any desire that hinders one’s affection for God – these would not be sinful desires, but desires for otherwise good things that distract us from loving God.
Tuesday, August 16, 2005
Introduction to Spiritual Theology
These postings offer those preparing for the Roman Catholic priesthood information towards a systematic presentation of Spiritual Theology. This information is specifically geared toward preparation for ministry and supplements classroom lectures and reading assignments. Topics cover the nature of spiritual theology in priestly ministry, the history of Christian spirituality, the universal call to holiness, identification with Jesus, the indwelling of the Trinity, the supernatural organism and the Christian life, the nature and stages of spiritual growth in Christian perfection, the kinds and stages of prayer, the means to spiritual maturity appropriate for the various states of life, discernment of spirits, and ordinary and extraordinary mystical phenomena. These subjects are considered in relation to the cultivation of the parish community as “a school of prayer” and provide a significant portion of the minimal content that must be mastered to successfully complete Fall Semester 2005 theo 6105 Spiritual Theology at St. John Vianney Theological Seminary. The course begins on Sept. 1, 2005 and continues until December 16, 2005. The mastery of at least two years of philosophy and three years of graduate level theology in Scripture, Morals and Dogma are presumed in the postings, although I hope that others might benefit from what is posted as well. Your comments and questions are most welcome.
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