Vincent Scully

“ Ruysbroeck merely observed: “You are as holy as you wish to be.” Suspecting him of sarcasm, the strangers retired deeply mortified, and they complained to the Canons that they were much disappointed in the Prior, who evidently was not so saintly a man as rumour had led them to believe. Learning the cause of their chagrin, some of the Brethren led the clerics back to Blessed John and begged him to explain his meaning. “But is it not simple?” he cried. “Is it not quite true? You are as holy as you wish. Your good-will is the measure of your sanctity. ”

“ Above the interior life there is the superessential contemplative life; above the faithful friends there are the Intimate Sons of God. This third stage of perfection can never be acquired by any act of the intelligence or will; and so sublime is it that he only who has experienced it can attempt its description, and then in terms the most halting and imperfect. This contemplation consists in an absolute purity and simplicity of the understanding ”

“ On the part of God, there must be a yet stronger movement of divine grace, and on the part of man, an absolute recollection, with freedom from sensible images, attachments, and cares, and then the gathering [98] together of all the powers in the unity of the Spirit. Christ, then, the Eternal Sun, enkindles in the soul thus duly prepared a divine fire, which engenders a warm, sensible love, a devotion full of ardent desires, with thankfulness for the divine mercies and affliction at one’s own unworthiness. ”

“ For himself and for his followers he took as a rule of life the motto of Ruysbroeck, to make it a chief study to meditate upon the life of Jesus Christ. “Let the fountain-head of thy [59] study and thy mirror of life be first the Gospel of Christ, for there is the life of Christ.” The Scriptures should be read rather than the Fathers, and the New Testament more than the Old, for there is the life of Christ. And herein again what is profitable for a devout and spiritual life is to be sought rather than the subtleties of theology and the schools. ”

“ Man, he says, must become deiform as far as that is possible for the creature; in the union with God it is not the difference of personality which is destroyed, it is only the difference of will and of thought, the desire to be anything apart in oneself which must disappear. He declares: “There where I assert that we are one in God, I must be understood in this sense that we are one in love, not in essence or in nature.” ”

“ Let none excuse himself from reading this book on the plea of the inaccessible sublimity of Ruysbroeck. The great man has accommodated himself to all, and the most abandoned soul on earth may find again on reading him the path of salvation. Arrows dart from the pages of Ruysbroeck, aimed by no hand of man, but by the hand of God; and deeply they embed [111] themselves in the soul of the reader who is a sinner. Innocent reader, reader of unstained robe, Ruysbroeck is at once most lowly and most sublime. In his description of the Spiritual Espousals he surpasses admiration, he surpasses praise ”

“ Meanwhile the Community of Groenendael grew and flourished. The holy Prior continued to make progress in the practice of heroic virtue, his gifts of contemplation became ever more sublime, and still his reputation for sanctity increased. His contemporary biographers, after the fashion of their day, catalogue the Christian virtues, and one by one show how they excelled in him. Let it suffice here to remark that those virtues which he the most earnestly commends and the most highly exalts in his writings, he the most constantly exercised in his own person. ”

“ Humility is the foundation of the whole building, and it is exercised chiefly in obedience, which engenders the abdication of our own will, and patience, or submission in all things to the holy will of God. When a man has arrived so far, he can exercise charity, shown at this stage chiefly by compassion for Christ suffering on the Cross for all men, and [97] bringing with her the four cardinal virtues of prudence, temperance, fortitude, and justice, whereby also the Christian is enabled to fight and conquer his three deadly enemies, the devil, the world, and the flesh. ”

“ The love of God for us, and all the blessings, spiritual and temporal, which flow from it, are cast into one pan of the balance, and we must weigh down the other pan with our virtues; and there follows a long disquisition on the virtues we should practise, prominent among which, as usual, he ranks humility. Here, further, he finds occasion to work out his distinction between the spirit and the reasonable soul ”

“ The fourth and the most formidable is the so-called liberty of spirit, the error and heresy of those who, casting aside all interior effort, pretend to acquire contemplation by ludicrous mortifications, by extravagant bodily posturing, and by a senseless quietism. ”

“ Spiritual brightness gives the intelligence a sure discernment of the virtues. And a spiritual fervour arouses the will to a boundless love for God and men.
There is yet a third coming, which affects the supreme union of the spirit with God. It is a species of intimate contact with God in the very depths of the soul. The intellect [101] cannot comprehend the manner of this union, it can only witness its effects upon the reason and the will. The power of loving increases with the intimacy of this union, and the intimacy increases the power of love ”

“ In no one work, as already remarked, does Blessed John Ruysbroeck give a complete outline of his doctrines; the elements rather are to be found dispersed among the various treatises.
In common with most of the German mystics, Ruysbroeck starts from God and comes down to man, and thence rises again to God, showing how the two are so closely united as to become one. In His essence God is simple unity, the one supremely pure [94] and supernatural being, devoid of all mode, in Himself still and immovable, and yet at the same time the first cause and active principle of all things. ”

“ After this again there is even a yet closer union, whereby the Eternal Father and man become one, not indeed with oneness of substantial unity, but in a oneness of love and bliss. It is evident that language here fails the holy author to express the sublimity of his concept and his experience; in his endeavour to show the intimacy of this last method of union he is driven to use expressions which, taken as they stand, have that pantheistic ring which it is his first object here to disclaim. ”

“ John Ruysbroeck [129] preaches to the world its utter need of God.
For the Catholic he enforces his lesson in a special manner. Unlike false mystics, who invariably pretend to dispense themselves and their adherents from the chief normal means of grace, namely the Sacraments, Ruysbroeck insists upon frequent recourse to the Sacraments, but more especially to the Blessed Eucharist, as the speediest and most efficacious means of bringing each soul into true union with God. ”

“ It so happened that contemporary with our Saint in Brussels was a prominent leader of the heretics of the Free Spirit, a woman whose name is given as Bloemardinne, a good type, to judge by the description of Ruysbroeck’s biographer, of the whole genus of such teachers in those days and in our own. [2] So great was this creature’s reputation for sanctity that it was commonly reported that two Seraphim accompanied her to the altar when she approached to receive Holy Communion. She always delivered her teachings, whether by word or in writing, seated on a throne of silver. ”

“ For twenty-six years in all Blessed John lived as a secular priest in Brussels. Content with his modest chaplaincy in the Church of St. Gudule, and with his holy companions Hinckaert and van Coudenberg [8] continuing happily in apostolic simplicity and poverty the Common Life on which he had entered a mere child, Ruysbroeck passed his days in peaceful retirement and almost uninterrupted prayer and contemplation.
A characteristic episode of this period reveals to us the man as in a flash, his mean garb, his emaciated figure, his absorbed demeanour, his utter abandonment in God. ”

“ Among these Ruysbroeck proceeds to distinguish four kinds of errors or heresies: (1) Errors against the Holy Ghost and His Grace; (2) Errors against God the Father and His power; (3) Errors against God the Son and His Sacred Humanity; and finally errors against God and all that makes up Christendom, namely, the Scriptures, the Church, and the Sacraments. On the other hand, the good Christian is one who loves God with all his heart and mind and soul and strength.
Blessed John then goes on to discourse of the Divine Nature in Unity and Trinity. ”

“ Justice is reaching its apogee in the heavens, and Christ draws up all the powers of the soul, so that the heart is enlarged and fit to burst with love, and at the same time it begins to suffer from the wound of love, because of the urgency of the power drawing upward and its own impotency to follow ”

“ What was she to do? “You can do nothing more pleasing [49] to God, my dear child,” responded the Saint, “than simply and utterly to submit to His holy will. Strive to forsake your own desires and to give Him thanks for all things.” Such unction accompanied these simple and characteristic words that the good lady felt deeply consoled, and she repined no more.
Among the more famous to frequent Groenendael, there to sit and learn at the feet of Ruysbroeck, is mentioned the well-known German mystic Tauler. ”

“ Redemption, on the need and on the means of divine grace, the institution of the Sacraments, the establishment of the Church, the gifts of the Holy Ghost, etc.
But coming now to his more purely mystical doctrine, we find that Ruysbroeck distinguishes three degrees, or states—the active life, the interior life, and the contemplative life. The active life consists of the effort to conquer sin and to draw nigh to God by exterior works. Here in Christ is the Divine Exemplar, for in His life He practised the three fundamental virtues of humility, charity, and patience. ”

“ The Son, the uncreated Image of the Father, is the Eternal Wisdom. The Holy Ghost, proceeding from the other two, and returning unto them, is the eternal Love, which unites Father and Son. As regards Persons, God is eternally active: as regards essence, He abides in unbroken repose. Creatures have been existing as ideas in God from all eternity.
In man, whose body is merely a perishable instrument, there is a spiritual, immortal principle, like unto God, though less than He. In this principle Ruysbroeck distinguishes, [95] with a distinction of the reason, soul and spirit ”

“ Others sincerely endeavour to conquer nature and unruly desires, they have true faith in God, and God is the only motive of their actions; these are the faithful servants. However, these still suffer many impediments from the exterior life which they lead, and a more intimate union is attained by the intimate friends, who [74] observe the counsels as well as the precepts. Finally, the highest degree of union and contemplation is attained by the hidden sons, who are utterly divested of all self-love and self-seeking, and whose life is hidden with Christ in God. ”

“ Perseverance in this active life is crowned by union with God, a union wherein God alone is regarded as the exemplar and the final end, wherein He alone is sought and loved. Thus does a man become a Faithful Servant. ”

“ Among those who, soaring beyond the realms of human light, have sought refuge in the shadow of the great altar, the grandest, according to Denys the Carthusian, are St. Denys the Areopagyte and John Ruysbroeck the Admirable. St. Denys lays down the general laws of mystic theology, John Ruysbroeck applies them. St. Denys presents the lamp, John Ruysbroeck kindles the flame. Both are blind with excess of light, both immovable with excess of motion. Speech with them is a visit paid to men from motives of charity. Silence is their native land. ”

“ At this date John Ruysbroeck was fifty-six years of age, and Francis van Coudenberg was several years his senior. They must certainly have been men of great zeal and courage to [29] undertake the full rigour and discipline of the Canonical Life, as they understood it, at so advanced an age. Hinckaert, again, was much older than either. And for fear lest out of consideration for his failing powers the others should be induced to temper in any degree the austerity of their observance, the good old man resolved to forgo for himself the happiness of joining them in the profession of the vows. ”

“ Very frequently in his works Blessed Ruysbroeck takes occasion to treat of the Holy [40] Sacrament of the Altar, and ever he speaks of this sacred mystery in terms of the most vivid faith and intense devotion, discussing it as a supreme proof of God’s love for men, on a par with the gifts of Creation, the Incarnation, and Redemption. His biographers tell us of his personal love for the Blessed Eucharist, and especially of his ecstatic devotion in offering the great Sacrifice. ”

“ The soul has four inferior powers: the irascible, and the concupiscible, which two become bestial when not under the ruling of a virtuous will; reason, by which man is distinguished from the brute, and freedom of choice, an exercise of the higher faculty of the will. ”

“ In a simile familiar to spiritual writers of all ages, Ruysbroeck compares life to a ladder, or stairway of seven steps, leading up to perfection and union with God. These stages are respectively: (1) Conformity with the holy will of God; (2) Voluntary poverty; (3) Purity of soul and chastity of body; (4) Humility, with her four daughters, obedience, gentleness, patience, and the forsaking of self-will ”