21. "If your eye is single, your whole body will be full of light." What is this single eye of which the Master speaks but this "simplicity of intention" which "gathers into unity all the scattered forces of the soul and unites the spirit itself to God. It is the simplicity which gives God honor and praise; it is simplicity which presents and offers the virtues to Him. Then permeating and penetrating all creatures, it finds God in its depths. It is the principle and end of virtues, their splendor and their glory. I call simplicity of intention that which seeks only God and refers all things to Him." This is what places man in the presence of God: it is simplicity that gives him light and courage: it is simplicity that empties and frees the soul from all fears today and on the day of judgment. It is the interior slope and the fountain of the whole spiritual life. It crushes evil nature underfoot, it gives peace, it imposes silence on the useless noises within us. It is simplicity that hourly increases our divine likeness. And then, without the aid of intermediaries, it is simplicity again that will transport us into the depths where God dwells and will give us the repose of the abyss. The inheritance which eternity has prepared for us will be given us by simplicity. All the life of the spirits, all their virtue, consists, with the divine likeness, in simplicity, and their final rest is spent on the heights in simplicity also. And according to the measure of its love, each spirit possesses a more or less profound search for God in its own depths. The simple soul, rising by virtue of its interior gaze, enters into itself and contemplates in its own abyss the sanctuary where it is touched by the touch of the Holy Trinity. Thus it has penetrated into its depths "to the very foundation which is the gate of life eternal."
No comments:
Post a Comment