Chapter V

Can the Contemplative Life attain, according to the State of this Present Life, to the Contemplation of the Divine Essence?

S. Gregory says[368]: "As long as we live in this mortal flesh none of us can make such progress in the virtue of contemplation as to fix his mind's gaze on that Infinite Light."

S. Augustine also says[369]: "No one who looks on God lives with that life with which we mortals live in the bodily senses; but unless he be in some sort dead to this life, whether as having wholly departed from the body, or as rapt away from the bodily senses, he is not uplifted to that vision."

A man, then, can be "in this life" in two ways: he can be in it actually--that is, as actually using his bodily senses--and when he is thus "in the body" no contemplation such as belongs to this present life can attain to the vision of the Essence of God; or a man may be "in this life" potentially, and not actually; that is, his soul may be joined to his body as its informing principle, but in such fashion that it neither makes use of the bodily senses nor even of the imagination, and this is what takes place when a man is rapt in ecstasy: in this sense contemplation such as belongs to this life can attain to the vision of the Divine Essence.

Consequently the highest degree of contemplation which is compatible with the present life is that which S. Paul had when he was rapt in ecstasy and stood midway between the state of this present life and the next.

Some, however, say that the contemplative life can, even according to our present state of life, attain to the vision of the Divine Essence, thus:

1. Jacob said: _I have seen God face to face, and my soul hath been saved._[370] But the vision of the face of God is the vision of the Divine Essence. Whence it would seem that a man may by contemplation actually reach, even during this present life, to the vision of the Essence of God.

But S. Denis says[371]: "If anyone saw God and understood what
he saw, then it was not God he saw, but something belonging to
Him." And similarly S. Gregory says[372]: "Almighty God is never
seen in His Glory, but the soul gazes at something derived from
It, and thus refreshed, makes advance, and so ultimately arrives
at the glory of vision." Hence when Jacob said, _I saw God face
to face_, we are not to understand that he saw the Essence of
God, but that he saw some appearance--that is, some imaginary
appearance--in which God spoke to him; or, as the Gloss of S.
Gregory[373] has it, "Since we know people by the face, Jacob
called knowledge of God His face."

2. Further, S. Gregory says[374]: "Contemplative men turn back within upon themselves in that they search into spiritual things, and do not carry with them the shadows of things corporeal; or if perchance they touch them, they drive them away with discreet hands. But when they would look upon the Infinite Light, they put aside all images which limit It, and in striving to arrive at a height superior to themselves, they become conquerors of their nature." But a man is only withheld from the vision of the Divine Essence, which is Infinite Light, by the necessity he is under of turning to corporeal images. From this it would seem that contemplation can, even in this present life, arrive at the sight of the Infinite Essential Light.

But human contemplation according to this present state cannot
exist without recourse to the imagination, for it is in
accordance with man's nature that he should see intelligible
forms through the medium of pictures in the imagination, as also
the Philosopher teaches.[375] Yet intellectual knowledge does
not consist in such images, rather does the intellect
contemplate in them the purity of intelligible truth; and this
is not merely the case in natural knowledge, but also in those
things which we know by revelation. For S. Denis says: "The
Divine Light manifests to us the Angelic hierarchies by means of
symbolical figures by force of which we are restored to the
simple ray," that is, to the simple knowledge of intelligible
truth. It is thus that we ought to understand S. Gregory's words
when he says: "In contemplation men do not carry with them the
shadows of things corporeal," for their contemplation does not
abide in these things but rather in the consideration of
intelligible truth.

3. Lastly, S. Gregory says[376]: "To the soul that looks upon its Creator all created things are but narrow. Consequently the man of God--namely, the Blessed Benedict--who saw in a tower a fiery globe and the Angels mounting up to Heaven, was doubtless only able to see these things by the light of God." But the Blessed Benedict was then still in this life. Consequently contemplation, even in this present life, can attain to the vision of the Essence of God.

But we are not to understand from S. Gregory's words that the
Blessed Benedict saw the Essence of God in that vision; S.
Gregory wishes to show that since "to him who looks upon his
Creator all created things are but as nothing," it follows that
certain things can easily be seen by the illumination afforded
by the Divine Light. Hence he adds: "For, however little of the
Creator's Light he sees, all created things become of small
account."

Veni Sancte Spiritus
Et emitte coelitus
Lucis Tuae radium!

O Lux Beatissima
Reple cordis intima
Tuorum fidelium!

_S. Augustine:_ And thus, the remaining burden of this mortal life being laid aside at death, man's happiness will, in God's own time, be perfected from every point of view--that happiness which is begun in this life, and to the attainment and securing of which at some future time our every effort must now tend (_Of the Sermon on the Mount_, II., ix. 35).

"The old error is passed away; Thou wilt keep peace: peace,
because we have hoped in Thee. You have hoped in the Lord for
evermore, in the Lord God mighty for ever. And in the way of Thy
judgments, O Lord, we have patiently waited for Thee: Thy Name,
and Thy remembrance are the desire of the soul. My soul hath
desired Thee in the night: yea, and with my spirit within me in
the morning early I will watch to Thee."[377]