No, poor foolish creatures, the simple soul fears ye not. Rather, she compassionates you. It is to God she speaks when she seems to address you; it is with Him she treats; she regards you only as His slaves, or rather as shadows which veil Him. Therefore, the more overbearing you are, the more humble she becomes; and when you think to entrap her you find yourselves the dupes. Your diplomacy, your violence, are to her, but favors of Providence. Yes, the proud are still an enigma which the simple soul enlightened by faith clearly reads.
This recognition of the divine will in all that transpires each moment within us and about us is the true science of the spiritual life; it is a continual revelation of truth; it is a communication with God incessantly renewed; it is the enjoyment of the Bridegroom, not covertly, secretly, in the “clefts of the rock,” in the “vineyard,” but openly, publicly, without fear of creatures. It is a depth of peace, joy, love, and contentment with God, whom we see, or rather behold, through faith, living and working the perfection of each event. It is the eternal paradise, now tasted, it is true, only in things incomplete and veiled in obscurity; but the Spirit of God disposes all the events of this life by the fruitful omnipresence of His action, and on the last day He will say, Let there be light (Fiat lux); and then shall be revealed the treasures of that abyss of peace and contentment with God which each action, each cross, conceals.
When God thus gives Himself to a soul, all that is ordinary becomes extraordinary; therefore it is that nothing appears of the great work which is going on in the soul; the way itself is so marvellous that it needs not the embellishment of marvels which belong not to it. It is a miracle, a revelation, a continuous enjoyment of God, interrupted only by little faults; but in itself it is characterized by the absence of anything sensible or marvellous, while it renders marvellous all ordinary and sensible things.
[CHAPTER XII.]
God assures to Faithful Souls a Glorious Victory over the Powers of Earth and Hell.
If the divine action is veiled here below by an exterior of weakness, it is that the merit of faithful souls may be increased; but its triumph is no less sure. The history of the world is simply the history of the struggle maintained from the beginning by the powers of the world and hell with souls humbly submissive to the divine action. In the conflict all the advantage seems to be on the side of the proud; yet humility is always victorious.
This world is represented to us under the form of a statue of gold, brass, iron, and clay. This mystery of iniquity which was shown in a dream to Nebuchadnezzar is but the confused assemblage of all the acts, interior and exterior, of the children of darkness. These are again represented by the beast coming up out of the abyss from the beginning of all ages, to make war upon the interior and spiritual man; and this war still continues. The monsters succeed one another; the abyss swallows them and vomits them forth again, while unceasingly emitting new and strange vapors. The combat begun in heaven between Lucifer and St. Michael still wages. The heart of that proud and envious spirit has become an inexhaustible abyss of every kind of evil; and his only aim since the creation of the world has been to ever raise up among men new workers of iniquity to replace those swallowed up in the abyss. Lucifer is the chieftain of those who refuse obedience to the Almighty; this mystery of iniquity is but the inversion of the order of God. It is the order, or rather the disorder, of Satan. This disorder is a mystery, for beneath a fair exterior it hides irremediable infinite evils. All the wicked who have declared war against God, from Cain to those who now lay waste the earth, have been seemingly great and powerful princes, famous in the world and worshipped of men. But their apparent splendor is a portion of the mystery; they are but the beasts which, one after another, rise from the abyss to subvert the order of God. But this order, which is another mystery, resists them with men truly powerful and great, who give the death-blow to these monsters; and even as hell vomits forth new monsters, heaven raises up new heroes to battle with them. Ancient history, sacred and profane, is but the record of this war. The will of God always triumphs. His followers share His victories and reap a happy eternity. But iniquity can never protect its followers, and the deserters from God’s cause reap death, eternal death.
The wicked ever believe themselves invincible; but oh, my God, who shall resist Thee! Were the powers of earth and hell ranged against one single soul, she would have naught to fear in abandoning herself to the will of God. That apparent might and irresistible power of iniquity, that head of gold, that body of silver, brass, and iron, is but a phantom of glittering dust. A pebble overthrows it and makes it the sport of the winds.
How admirable is the work of the Holy Spirit throughout all ages! The revolutions which irresistibly carry men along with them, the brilliant heroes heralded with so much pomp, who shine like stars above the rest of mankind, the marvels of the age, are all but as the dream of Nebuchadnezzar, which at his awakening fled with all its terrors.
All these things are only sent to exercise the courage of the children of God; and when their virtue is proved and confirmed, He permits them to overcome these monsters, and continues to send new warriors into the field. So that this life is a continual warfare which exercises the courage of the saints on earth, and causes joy in heaven and confusion in hell.