Chapter X - Supernatural Wisdom & Christian Perfection

 
Like the young man spoken of at the end of the last chapter, where he was hesitant to go and sell all he had to follow Jesus, many souls desire perfection but are hesitant also and go away. Teresa laments saying, “Truly, such misery is to be pitied”.  Hence, we are at the stage of prayer where there is a parting of the ways for those who would really want perfection and those who become hesitant of what is asked of them. The saints of Carmel accept the words of Christ at their full meaning. “If you want to be perfect, sell all you have.” A soul is on the way to perfection only when it has made this first renouncement or detachment.
A. Folly and Perfection
It seems that with the words of Our Lord and the Carmelite saints, St. Teresa and St. John, we would be left with no other alternative but to give up all that we have. But, Blessed Fr. Marie Eugene states that this would seem to make perfection of the gospel impossible for all those whose position in life could not admit of such absolute poverty. He talks of this renouncement or detachment for laymen in this chapter. Complete detachment from possessions is imposed only on certain souls; but it is the sign of a more intimate and more general renouncement within the reach of all, adapted to each one, and crucifying all equally that he talks about.

1. Examining St. Teresa’s reproaches to the souls in the third Mansions; lack of humility and of detachment, together with excessive distress and sadness over little trials is what Blessed Fr. Marie Eugene uses to make his point to us laymen. He starts with a quote of St. Teresa’s, “They are eminently reasonable folk! Their love is not yet ardent enough to overwhelm their reason…” She goes further in saying, “ How I wish our reason would make us dissatisfied with this habit of always serving God at a snail’s pace! As long as we do that, we shall never get to the end of the road. And as we seem to be walking along and getting fatigued all the time – for, believe me, it is an exhausting road – we shall be very lucky if we escape getting lost… Would it not be better to get the journey over and done with? … When we proceed with all this caution, we find stumbling blocks everywhere; for we are afraid of everything, and so dare not go farther… For the love of the Lord, let us make a real effort; let us leave our reason and our fears in His hands and let us forget the weakness of our nature which is apt to cause us so much worry…Our task is only to journey with good speed so that we may see the Lord.” III Mansions, p. 226

Blessed Father Marie Eugene states that this is plain enough – the souls whose reason has so well regulated their life, are now too reasonable to go farther. A little trust and a love which will lead us to love Our Lord to folly is required for sanctity.
      2. He states that St. Paul clearly affirms this in the Epistle to the Corinthians – “Now when they heard of a resurrection of the dead, some began to sneer, but others said, “We will hear thee again on this matter.” So Paul went forth from among them. Certain persons however joined him and became believers.” (Acts 17:32-3) Also is quoted, “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the prudence of the prudent I will reject.”  Also – “ And I, brethren, when I came to you, came not in loftiness of speech or of wisdom, declaring unto you the testimony of Christ. [2] For I judged not myself to know anything among you, but Jesus Christ, and him crucified. [3] And I was with you in weakness, and in fear, and in much trembling. [4] And my speech and my preaching was not in the persuasive words of human wisdom, but in shewing of the Spirit and power; [5] That your faith might not stand on the wisdom of men, but on the power of God.” (I Cor. 2:1-5)In these quotations, a radical opposition is evident between the wisdom of the world in which St. Paul is living, and the wisdom of God who is guiding him in his apostolate and presiding over the development of Christianity. Like St. Teresa who admonishes a soul that bases everything on reason and wishes us to love to the point of folly, St. Paul underlines that the wisdom of Christ is folly to the eyes of the world.
         3.  Blessed Fr. Marie-Eugene uses examples of saints who, in the eyes of the world, loved God to folly. It is obvious that it is all the saints, but he uses the examples of St. Francis of Assisi, St. Lawrence, St. John of the Cross and the Cure of Ars.  They are examples of a kind of sanctity which embraces the folly of the cross leading to supernatural fruits. He then goes further by posing questions about this folly such as: In what does this folly of the cross consist? Is sanctity really in opposition to human reason? In what measure must one be foolish in the eyes of men in order to be a saint? He answers by pointing out that there are several distinctions concerning the three wisdoms which are at the foundation of the moral and the spiritual order that will shed light on this problem.
B. The Three Wisdoms
First, Divine Wisdom directs all things sweetly to their final end by subjecting them to laws in conformity with their nature, and so establishes order in the universe. Divine Wisdom leads man to his supernatural perfection by manifestations of the divine will that appear in three different modes.

1. God has imposed on all men a natural moral law whose first principles are inscribed in the heart of man and are evident to him; the distinction between good and evil, the obligation to do good, not to do to others what one would not want done to oneself and so on. The natural moral order is the first manifestations of the order established by Wisdom and is the base of the whole moral edifice.
2. Revelation manifests the divine order of Wisdom. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus warns those listening to Him, “Do not think that I have come to destroy the Law of the Prophets. I have not come to destroy but to fulfill.” Matt 5:17 Revelation makes known to man his supernatural end. Through Revelation a light shines for us upon the eternal plan of Wisdom, there is given us the grace that adapts us to live it, and the infused supernatural virtues which permit us to enter into this plan and to work within its sphere. Thus, by revelation and by our participation in the life of the Trinity, we are raised to a new order of morality which requires us to tend towards our supernatural end by the practice of virtues proper to the supernatural order, and of the natural virtues themselves, supernaturalized and enlarged by a new light.
3. The virtues proper to the supernatural order are specially the theological virtues, infused virtues that regulate our supernatural relations with God. Being theological, and as such having God for their object and motive, they tend normally toward liberation from all that is human in order to find in God alone their nourishment and their support.

Reason is, an instrument inadequate to the supernatural and if they rely only on it, the theological virtues will stagnate in imperfect modes of acting. For perfection, a light and help must come to them from that object which is God Himself, to enlighten them and stabilize them in Him. This light and this help come to them actually through the gifts of the Holy Ghost.
Blessed Fr. Marie Eugene uses an analogy of a nurse. A nurse without faith and God’s grace may do her duty with imperfections of impatience, unkindness or sloth. A nurse that does her job with the necessary graces cares for a sick person with a supernatural devotedness inspired by her sense of duty; then suddenly it comes to her in a concrete and living way that this patient is a member of the suffering Christ. From then on, she sees in him only her beloved Christ, and sweetly moved by a love that makes her forgetful of self, she continues her charitable mission with incomparable gentleness and delicacy. He quotes St. John of the Cross, “God alone moves the faculties of these souls…and thus the works and prayers of these souls are always effectual. Such were those of the most glorious Virgin Our Lady.” Ascent Bk III p. 230-1
C.  The Different Wisdoms and Perfection

1. St. Paul declares that the wisdom of the cross is contradictory to that of the world. The Wisdom of Christ on the cross which inspired the development of Christianity in its fervent beginnings, is the highest supernatural wisdom and the most pure. It is that of Christ Jesus, “Who has become for us God-given wisdom and justice, and sanctification, and redemption; so that, just as it is written, ‘Let him who takes pride, take pride in the Lord.’” (I Cor. 1:30-1)  It is of prime importance that the faith rest “not on the wisdom of men, but on the power of God.” Worldly wisdom is a corrupted wisdom which does not remain faithful even to the natural law, and seeks only indulgence in the passions. It loses the sense of those duties that the natural law imposes on every man. There is a radical opposition of the wisdom of the world and the wisdom of Christ crucified. “If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before you. If you were of the world, the world would love what is its own.” (John 15: 18-9)
2. Reason regulates everything in the practice of the virtues. This control of reason from which the virtues cannot free themselves, makes for weakness and hinders their development. In these souls, reason is very much in possession of itself, and love is not sufficiently strong to move them to folly. They fail to make that complete detachment that marks the entrance into the ways of perfection; hence, they remain imperfect.
3. The saint is a person enlightened and moved by the divine Wisdom who assures the perfection of his acts. The saint who is moved by the Holy Ghost may be to all appearances a man like other men; for we know that sanctity can exist without shining out in any superhuman act, but be simply in the perfection of all the things the saint does.

 
In Conclusion:  Perfection according to St. Teresa is not the good exterior order and supernatural virtue that reason illumines and inspires. There must be that love that reduces reason to folly and submits it to the light and rapture of the Holy Ghost. God alone can make His saints. Before coming under His direct action, one has not entered into the way of perfection. This way opens after the third Mansions, and it is by engaging oneself upon it that one merits the name of beginner.
 
The poverty or detachment that Blessed Fr. Marie Eugene points out for laymen is this surrender to God, to not trust in one’s reason or self. To give up on relying on self and turn to God in prayer – turn to God for all things.
 
I will add that all perfection comes from the hands of Our Lady – turn to Her in prayer and ask for this humility of heart to depend solely on God and to surrender to His Will, His time and His grace for your soul. No two souls are alike but we are alike in that God wants us – He wants us to be united to Him. Let us go and not wait – we do not know if we have tomorrow.
 
My God, my God, I love You above all things! Our Lady of Mt. Carmel, pray for us!