The Apostle Saint Paul, in several of his letters, told the first Christians that, by their baptism, they were dead and buried with Jesus Christ; that when they came from the baptismal font they were risen with Him, and obliged to lead a new life, formed on the model of His glorious Resurrection. And this, following the example of Saint Paul, is what is preached to all the faithful on the great Feast of Easter.
As I am now writing for souls not merely dead to sin, but determined to lead a new life entirely dependent on grace, I will propose to them the Resurrection of our Saviour, not only as a model, but as the very end of that life of entire sanctity which they have embraced; and I will say to them, that to rise again like Jesus Christ they must die, as He did. Now, the life of Jesus Christ was a continual death; I mean a mystical death, the last act and consummation of which was His actual death on the cross.
Thus, the new life which they must lead in Jesus Christ is nothing else than a continual death to themselves; they must be dead to the least sins and the slightest imperfections; dead to the world and all exterior things; dead to the senses and all immoderate care of the body; dead to their natural character and natural defects; dead to their own will; dead to the esteem and love of themselves; dead to spiritual consolations; dead to any support of feeling of assurance with regard to the state of their souls; in one word, dead to everything of their own, even in the things which concern their sanctity. It is by these different degrees of death that the mystical life of Jesus Christ is established within us; and when the final blow of death has been borne, Jesus Christ raises us up again, and communicates to us the qualities of His glorified life, even here below, at least as to our soul, and as much as our soul is capable of it in this world. Let us consider in a few words these different degrees of death.
We must be dead to the slightest sins and the least imperfections. The first resolution to be made by a soul which wishes to belong to God alone is, never to commit any fault purposely or with deliberation; never to act in anything whatsoever against his conscience; never to refuse anything to God; never to say, " It is such a little thing; God will take no notice of such a trifle." This resolution is essential, and must be maintained with an inviolable fidelity. It is not that we shall be able to escape altogether from faults of inadvertence, of impulse, and of weakness; but these faults will not hinder us in the way of perfection, because they are not intentional or foreseen.
We must be dead to the world and to all exterior things; that is to say, we must no longer love the world or seek it; we must only grant to the world what we cannot refuse it, on account of the duties of our state, and what God Himself wishes that we should grant to it; we may even go so far as to suffer and groan in our heart over the indispensable intercourse which we must have with the world; we must no longer respect it, or care for its judgments, or fear its contempt, its mockery, or its persecutions; never be ashamed before the world of our religious duties or the practice of the Gospel; never turn away from anything which God and our own conscience dictate to us, for fear of what the world may think or say of it. In an age so corrupt as ours there are many battles to fight, many obstacles to overcome, many customs to despise, many prejudices to trample under foot, in order to triumph completely over human respect. This is one of the subjects of a particular examination of conscience, upon which we must be most strict with ourselves, and never allow ourselves any latitude.
We must be dead to the senses and the immoderate care of the body. We must be on our guard against sloth, the love of our own comfort, and sensuality in all its forms; we must give to our body only what is necessary, in the way of food, sleep, and clothing; we must mortify it from time to time by privations; and if our health permits, and God inspires us with the thought, and our director finds it good for us, we may even afflict our body with some exterior penances. We must above all things watch carefully over our eyes and ears, and avoid as far as possible everything that affects us very strongly.
We must be dead, as to our natural character and our natural defects. And it is not a slight thing to reform our character in such a manner that we only preserve what is good and succeed in correcting what is defective. Even many Saints whom the Church venerates have not been entirely dead to themselves in this matter. All have not been like Saint Augustine and Saint Francis de Sales, in whom natural character was completely conquered and brought into submission to Divine grace. The great means to attain this, without too much study or constraint, is to watch carefully over the heart, to restrain its first motions, neither to act nor speak through ill-humour or satire or impetuosity, and to keep ourselves always in peace and self-possession. Why should we not do for God, and with the assistance of His grace, what so many worldly people do for their own interest and their own fortune?
We must be dead to our own will and the promptings of our own spirit. This point is of great extent and most difficult of practice. At first, and in ordinary things, we must take care to submit our mind and our will to reason; not to allow ourselves to be led away by caprice or fantastic imaginations; not to be obstinate about our own opinions, but to be ready to listen to those of others, and to yield to them if we find them good; to follow the advice and the wishes of others in indifferent things. As to what regards our spiritual conduct, to receive simply from God just what He gives us, and to remain where He places us, without desiring anything else; not to judge with our own judgment, either of our state of life or of the operations of grace; to practice, with regard to our director, obedience of judgment and of will; to repress the activity of our mind, and to keep that, as well as our will, in entire dependence upon God; not to reflect upon ourselves; not to reason upon things beyond our understanding, but to allow ourselves to be guided by a divine instinct, far superior to our own reasoning and intelligence; in our reading, to seek nothing through curiosity, but simply what will feed our heart; not making great efforts to understand and to fathom everything we find in spiritual books, which is a dangerous thing, and might result in filling us with false ideas, in making us presumptuous, and in exposing us to delusions. Let us believe that God will give us, just in the right measure, whatever light is necessary for us; and let us not try to go beyond, but let us receive the spiritual light He does give us, very humbly, and apply ourselves at once to put it in practice.
As a general rule, let us always try to keep our mind and heart "empty and pure," that God may place there what He wishes and do with us as He pleases.
We must be dead to the esteem and love of ourselves. This death, as we see, is always tending to affect something even more interior and closer to ourselves; for if there is one thing more than another most deeply rooted in us, it is pride and self-love. These are the greatest enemies God can have, and consequently nothing can harm us more. God Him- self will attack them and pursue them relentlessly in a soul which has really given itself to Him. Such a soul has only to let God do what He will with it, and co-operate with Him when the occasion comes.
We must be dead to spiritual consolations. A time will come when God Himself will wean the soul from them. Then comes the darkness; the soul has no longer any taste for anything: everything weighs upon her; everything wearies her; everything tries her; she feels no longer the presence of God within her; she may really be in peace, but she does not perceive it; she believes herself to have lost the favour of God; and all is desolation. Now is the time for that soul to be generous; she must freely consent to these privations, she must seek herself in nothing, she must love God with a pure love, and serve Him for His own sake alone, and at whatever cost. Then, naturally, such a service of God is hard to human nature; nature cries out, complains, is angry, is in despair. We must let her cry, and be more faithful than ever; we must drag the victim to the sacrifice, without any regard for natural repugnance.
We must be dead to any support or feeling of assurance with regard to the state of our souls. As long as the soul, in the midst of all her temptations and trials, can still find some support in the depths of conscience, some comfort in the director; as long as she does not feel utterly abandoned by God, it is comparatively easy for her to bear the greatest trials; but when she sees herself suspended, as it were, hell beneath her feet, nothing to support her, and every instant ready to fall into that terrible gulf; in a word, when she feels that God has forsaken her, that she is lost without hope, and when nothing is able to persuade her to the contrary, and everything helps to confirm this dreadful fear, it is then that her agony becomes extreme; it is then she has need of heroic courage to persevere, and to resign herself to whatever it shall please God to ordain for her, for all eternity.
We must be dead to everything of our own, even in the things which concern our sanctity. The soul begins to appropriate to herself the gifts of God, the virtues with which He has enriched her, and to feel a certain complacency in her purity and sanctity. In a moment God despoils her of all; not in reality, but in appearance, and reduces her to an entire poverty and nakedness; she sees in herself neither gifts nor virtues, nor anything supernatural. She knows neither what she is, nor what she has been, nor what she will become. Her sins, her nothingness, her reprobation: this is all she sees in herself, and of which she counts herself worthy. This is the end and consummation of the mystical death in Jesus Christ. The resurrection and the glorified state come afterwards. Let us leave to God His own secrets, and let us say no more on such a subject.
- taken from Manual for Interior Souls, by Father Jean Nicolas Grou