A MAN will here observe humbly that he has nothing but his distress, and he will say in his resignation and self-abnegation the words of holy Job: "The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; He hath done what seemed good to Him; blessed be the name of the Lord." And he will leave himself in everything, and will say and think in his heart: "Lord, I am as willing to be poor, lacking all that Thou hast taken from me, as I should be to be rich, if such were Thy will, and if it were for Thine honour. It is not my will according to nature which must be accomplished, but Thy will, and my will according to my spirit, O Lord; for I belong to Thee, and I should love as well to be Thine in hell as in heaven, if that could serve Thy glory; and therefore, O Lord, accomplish in me the excellence of Thy will." From all these pains and acts of resignation, a man will derive an inward joy, and he will offer himself into the hands of God, and will rejoice to be able to suffer in His honour. And if he so perseveres, he will taste inward pleasures such as he has never had before; for nothing so rejoices the lover of God as to feel that he is His beloved. And if he is truly exalted as far as this mode, in the path of virtue, it is not necessary for him to have passed through all the states which we have described above; for he feels within himself in action, in humble obedience, in patience, and in resignation, the source of all the virtues. It is thus that this mode is eternally sure.
At this season the sun in the sky enters the sign of the Scales, for the day and night are equal, and the sun balances the light and the darkness. In the same way Jesus Christ is in the sign of the Scales for the resigned man; and whether He grants sweetness or bitterness, darkness or light, whatever He chooses to send him, the man keeps his balance, all things are equal to him except sin, which has been driven away once for all. When every consolation has been thus withdrawn from these resigned men, when they believe that they have lost all their virtues and that they are abandoned by God and all the creatures, if they then know how to reap the divers fruits, their corn and wine are ready and ripe. That is to say, that all that the bodily virtues can suffer will be offered by them to God with joy, without resistance to His supreme will. All the exterior and interior virtues, which they formerly practised with joy in the light of love, they will now practise courageously and laboriously, and will offer them to God, and never will they have so much merit in His eyes. Never will they have been more noble or more beautiful. All the consolations which God formerly granted, they will allow to be stripped from them with joy, since it is for the glory of God. It is thus that the virtues become perfect, and that sadness is transformed into an eternal vintage. These men—their life and their patience—improve and teach all who know and live near them, and thus it is that the wheat of their virtues is sown and multiplied for the good of all just men.
This is the fourth kind of coming which, according to the bodily faculties and the lower part of his being, adorns and perfects a man in interior exercises.
HOW THESE FOUR MODES ARE FOUND IN JESUS CHRIST
WE must needs walk in the light if we wish not to lose our way, and we must observe Jesus Christ, who has taught us these four modes, and has preceded us in them. Christ, the bright sun, rises in the heaven of the sublime Trinity and in the dawn of His glorious mother the virgin Mary, who was and is the dawn of all the graces. Now observe. Christ had and still has the first mode, for He was unique and united. In Him were and are collected and united all the virtues which have ever been practised, and which ever will be, and besides this, all the creatures who will cultivate these virtues. He was thus in an unique sense the Son of the Father, and united to human nature. And He was equally full of inwardness, for it was He who brought upon earth the fire which has consumed all the saints and all good men. And He had a sensible and faithful love for His Father, and for all who will have joy in Him eternally, and His pitiful and loving heart sighed and glowed with love for all men, before His Father. All His life and all His actions, within and without, and all His words, were praises of His Father. This is the first mode.
Christ, the sun of love, blazed and shone yet more brightly and warmly, for in Him was and is the fullness of all gifts. This is why the heart of Christ, and His character, and His habits and His service, overflowed with pity, sweetness, humility, and generosity. So gracious was He and so loving, that His manners and His personality attracted all whose nature was good. He was the pure lily in the midst of the flowers of the field, from which the good were to draw the honey of eternal sweetness and eternal consolations. According to His humanity He thanked His eternal Father for all the gifts which were ever granted to humanity, and praised Him, for His Father is the Father of all gifts, and He rested on Him, according to the highest faculties of His soul, above all gifts, in the sublime unity of God from which all the gifts flow; thus He had the second mode.
Christ, the glorious sun, blazed and shone yet higher, and more brightly and warmly; for during all His days on earth, all His bodily faculties were invited and pressed to the sublime glory and bliss which He now experiences in His senses and body. And He was inclined thereto Himself, according to His desires; and nevertheless He willed to remain in this exile, till the time which the Father had foreseen and fixed from all eternity. Thus He had the third mode. When the time came at which Christ was to reap and carry away to the eternal kingdom the fruits of all the virtues which ever have been and ever will be practised, the eternal sun began to descend; for Christ humbled Himself, and gave up His bodily life into the hands of His enemies. And he was misunderstood and deserted by His friends in so great a distress; and all consolation, within and without, was withdrawn from His nature; and it was overwhelmed with misery, pain, and contempt, and paid all the debt which our sins justly incurred. All this He suffered in humble patience, and He accomplished the greatest works of love in this resignation, whereby He received and purchased our eternal inheritance. It is thus that the lower part of His noble humanity was adorned, for it was in it that He suffered this pain for our sins. It is on this account that He is called the Saviour of the world, and that He is glorified and raised up and seated on the right hand of His Father, and that He reigns in power. And every creature, on the earth, above the earth, and under the earth, bends the knee for ever before His glorious name.
HOW A MAN SHOULD LIVE IF HE DESIRES TO BE ENLIGHTENED
THE man who, in true obedience to the commandments of God, lives in the moral virtues, and moreover exercises himself in the interior virtues, after the direction and impulse of the Holy Spirit, acting and speaking according to righteousness, and who seeks not his own interests in time or in eternity, and who supports with true patience obscurity and affliction and every kind of misery, and who thanks God for everything, and offers himself in humble resignation, has received the first coming of Jesus Christ according to interior exercises. When this man is purified and pacified, and turns back upon himself according to his lower nature, he may be internally enlightened, if he asks it, and if God judges that the right time has come. It may also happen that he is enlightened from the beginning of his conversion, so that he may offer himself entirely to the will of God and give up all possession of himself, which is the supreme end. But if he is to follow any further the road which I have shown, in the exterior and at the same time in the interior life, it will be much easier for him than for the man who has been raised straight from the bottom, for the former will have more light than the latter.