XLIV

SPIRITUAL SWEETNESS

"Mane nobiscum quoniam advesperascit et inclinata est jam dies."

66

Stay with us because it is towards evening, and the day is now far spent." -LUKE xxiv. 29.

HERE are few incidents in the Gospel narrative more beautiful and touching than that of the disciples of Emmaus. In the vivid picture of St. Luke, we see them as they wend their way to the village of Emmaus, dejected in looks and in heart, discussing the particulars of the dread tragedy they had just witnessed. They had been faithful followers of Our Lord; they had been won, like so many more, by the beauty of His teachings, and by His wonderful works. They had believed He was about to accomplish the great things that had been promised to their people. But all their hopes had been dashed to the ground by the happenings of the last few days. Jesus, from whom they had expected so much, had been arrested by the public authorities, tried, condemned, and put

to a cruel and ignominious death. True, a ray of reviving hope had dawned upon them that morning with the reports of the holy women; but it failed to dispel the sadness of their souls; and so they went their way depressed and desponding. It is then that the Lord approaches unrecognized, enters into their thoughts, enlightens their minds, warms their hearts, yields to their entreaties, and finally disappears, leaving behind Him the divine odor of His presence, with the peace which He alone can give.

Besides the picture we have here of all there is of tenderness and love in the heart of the risen Saviour, we find a striking illustration of His habitual dealings with His children through all ages.

The soul, in its relations with God, has usually its alternating periods of brightness and of darkness; times of dryness and seeming insensibility, of hopefulness and of fear; times of unction and heavenly joy. They vary with each individual in power and duration, and form some of the most potent helps or hindrances of the spiritual life. There are souls that live almost constantly in the light; they carry within them a strong sense of the unseen world. Heaven, hell, God's grace, and God's love are almost as real to them as the visible objects that surround them. The thought of Christ, of what He is to them, and will be through all time, is an abiding, an inexhaustible source of joy. There is in them a youthfulness, a hopefulness, a buoyancy of spirits that makes light of hardship, and carries them through temptation almost without an effort.

This is the condition of spiritual consolation and sweetness which the author of the Imitation so

loves to dwell upon. "Veniet ad te Christus ostendens tibi consolationem suam Frequens illi visitatio cum homine interno, dulcis sermocinatio, grata consolatio, multa pax, familiaritas stupenda nimis" (Lib. ii. c. 1). And again (Cap. 8): “Quando Jesus adest, totum bonum est, nec quidquam difficile videtur; Si Jesus tantum verbum loquitur magna consolatio sentitur."

But to feel thus uninterruptedly the presence and love of Christ in the soul is the privilege of very few. There are those to whom it is at all times denied; and yet, though weighed down by the cross, they go through life valiantly with little to sustain them beyond the sense of duty, and of loyalty to God. But with the great majority of souls aspiring to a higher life, there is a succession of opposite moods: of hope and of fear, of courage and of weakness, of success and of failure, of joyful turning to God and to His service, and of coldness and distaste for the practices of devotion.

This latter condition is full not only of sadness, but of danger. It weakens the hold of the soul on the realities of faith; it destroys the sense of Christ's abiding presence; it divests His law of its beauty and commanding power; it begets a condition of discouragement and despondency, which leads in turn to neglect, and, it may be, to the total abandonment of the service of God.

It is then that Christ, in his pity and love, reveals

Himself afresh to the souls thus tried.

He ap

proaches them, hiding Himself under the ordinary operations of their natural powers. He mingles His thoughts with theirs; He brings back the light by which they see things once more under their true aspects, and in their true colors. He fills their hearts, and makes them feel the normal warmth and flow of life within them. Great is their happiness once again, and gladly would they make it abiding. They beg that it may be so. "Mane nobiscum, Domine.' But this cannot be. It is enough that they should have recovered strength to pursue their journey. They know now what to think of the temptations which assailed them, of the darkness which momentarily surrounded them. They must start afresh on the strength of that memory. The occasional flashes of the revolving coast-lights suffice to guide the mariner. Complete happiness, in perfect goodness, is the condition of heaven, not of earth. Here below we have to fight and to win victories. To serve God in the midst of ever-present consolations would imply little sacrifice and little merit. "It is not hard," says the Imitation, "to despise all human consolations when we have divine. But it is much, and very much, to be able to forego all comfort, both human and divine." And therefore it is, that God reserves such trials for his Saints, and tempers for ordinary souls their habitual poverty and weakness by occasional glimpses of Himself, such as He vouchsafed to the disciples of Emmaus.

"Therefore, when God gives spiritual consolation, receive it with thanksgiving; but know that it is God's free gift, and no merit of thine. Be not lifted up, be not overjoyed, nor vainly presume, but rather be the more humble for this gift, more cautious too, and fearful in all thy actions, for that hour will pass away, and temptation follow.

"When consolation shall be taken away from thee do not presently despair, but with humility and patience await the heavenly visitation Even among the

great Saints there has often been this kind of vicissitude."