Almost three hundred years after St Thomas defined contemplation, as used by the first apostles and other apostles who tried to emulate them, another definition of contemplation caused great confusion. True contemplation is a pure gift of God to which we respond in the simplest of prayers that express our current relationship with him.
However, after the rise of humanism, another definition of contemplation became popular that could be attained by human endeavour without an extra special gift of God. This ‘contemplation’ was identical with the new form of preparation for contemplation taught by the first apostles in the early Church that was simply called ‘meditation’. It became popular with the new activity-centred congregations who began to thrive in the Church before and after the sixteenth century when the humanism that arose in the secular world began to infiltrate into the spiritual world.
When True Contemplation begins
In their hurry to change the world, the new activity-centred congregations had no time for the deep personal spiritual preparation that is always necessary for true and effective apostles, as can always be verified in the lives of the saints. Believing that they themselves could become the architects of their own sanctity, many religious and laity came under the influence of the new activity-centred congregations.
They were led to believe that through practising this new ‘Acquired Contemplation’ they could attain by themselves the heights of the spiritual life and the destination of their spiritual journey in this life. Furthermore, they taught others to believe likewise. Although by all accounts St Ignatius for instance, was a mystic himself, his use of the word ‘contemplation’ to describe what is in effect ‘meditation’ in his Exercises has led innumerable travellers to believe, and falsely believe, that they have reached the heights of the spiritual life.
All that is left for them to do therefore is to dash out to share what they have received with others. The truth of the matter is they have in effect only reached the heights of spiritual adolescence through meditation, where the real journey into true contemplation begins.
Beware of Pseudo-Spiritual Directors
When therefore, they have been taught to generate emotional fulfillment from ‘Acquired Contemplation’ they are deemed ready and able to go out immediately to ‘set the world on fire’, returning when the fire dies down to be rekindled by the sort of emotional shot in the arm that fired them in the first place. However, serious and even permanent spiritual harm can be done when a person cannot derive the expected fervour from what they call ‘contemplation’.
If that individual has already passed through the initial stage of adolescent prayer and is being purified in the Mystic Way, serious harm can be done by ‘Spiritual Directors’ trained in the post-Renaissance ‘do it yourself spiritualties’. Hundreds of thousands, if not millions of the faithful have been given disastrous advice in the last few centuries.
As those who have already been led by the Holy Spirit into genuine mystical contemplation can no longer find emotional fervour in their particular version of ‘contemplation’, they are informed that they are in serious spiritual error, if not in the hands of ‘the evil one’.
The Consequences of Spiritual Ignorance
With no understanding of the mystic way themselves, they tell those who are, that they are either suffering from unresolved moral problems or sins or from serious psychological disorders from which they must be delivered. When these blockages to grace have been removed then they can return to the fervour experienced in their particular misunderstanding of ‘contemplation’, without any difficulty.
Their utter ignorance of the spiritual life and in particular of the mystic way that, as we shall see, should coincide with the greater part of any serious Catholic’s spiritual journey as it did in the early Church, is sadly not just abysmal but dangerous.
Wisdom from St Thomas Aquinas
St Thomas Aquinas never used a word out of place and to make sure there was no misunderstanding about what he said, he defined every important word he used. He defined what he meant by prayer and what he meant by meditation. He did not say that it was by ‘praying’ or ‘meditating’ and sharing the fruits of these religious practices that apostles would achieve their objective, but only and more specifically by contemplation.
Just in case there could be any misunderstanding as to what he meant, he defined contemplation. Let me paraphrase his definition in English: ‘Contemplation means to gaze in awe and wonder upon the glory of God’. In that very act we receive in return the fruits of contemplation that includes the infused virtues and gifts of the Holy Spirit.
Above all else we receive the theological virtue of Love, in which, and through which, all the other infused virtues are given, together with the gifts and fruits of the Holy Spirit. How could a pagan world be replaced by a Christian world in such a short time without the otherworldly quality of love that contained within it all the fruits of contemplation. Without it the foundation of God’s Kingdom on earth will remain no more than a pipe-dream.
Acquired Contemplation,
Now let me try to explain why contemplation immediately follows after several years when a beginner has been practising meditation. In a very subtle and indefinable way, the yearning for God which contains within it the birth of contemplation, is in fact preceded by meditation. It already manifested itself in the restless hearts that St Augustine said would never rest until they rested in God.
In fact it was this heart’s desire that drew them onward, as it drew St Augustine onward to search out Jesus Christ and to come to know and love him more deeply in the meditation that always leads to contemplation for those who persevere. After many months of this meditation, if practised regularly and if specifically centred on Christ himself, and not just on the scriptures in general, would lead the traveller on.
It would lead them to the highest point of meditation that came to be called ‘Acquired Contemplation’, because unlike true mystical contemplation it can be acquired by human endeavour with the ordinary grace of God.
All Genuine Love Yearns for Union
In ‘Acquired Contemplation’ all a person’s interior faculties, heart and mind, are united in what can become a deeply emotional and even passionate love of the Christ who gave his all for them from the moment he was placed in a wooden cradle to the moment he was nailed to a wooden cross. The experience can be so enthralling that an unpurified beginner can, and often does, believe they have reached the pinnacle of the spiritual life.
Like all love, and this is genuine love, it makes a person want to be united with the one whom they love. But as we have seen, it is not possible to be united with someone who once lived, so the love that drives this desire for union with the Christ who once lived on earth is redirected to Christ as he is now in heaven.
Into the Sacred Heart of Jesus
The desire itself is the same desire that preceded meditation but is now strengthened by the love that it has offered to, and received, from the person of Christ who has been the object of their meditation. But now this desire is drawn toward God alone. Although the Christ on whom they had been meditating before is no longer in view, it is not because he has gone away, but because the traveller is now in him, and in, with, and through him, is yearning to be united with the Father.
As I will shortly explain, the journey in what has been called the ‘mystic way’ now begins and lasts for the rest of our lives. It is in this lifelong journey that we are united ever more deeply with the Sacred Heart that burns within our Risen Lord, purifying the mind for the ever deeper and ever full union with him and with his Father, that is the consummation of ‘The Way’ upon which we have embarked.
David Torkington’s latest book, The Primacy of Loving, the Spirituality of the Heart is now available. I would be grateful for a review on Amazon or any preferred outlet
Dear David – thank you. I am humbled by what you wrote and have come to realization that I am still taking baby steps on the Mystic Way. I just got your book ‘The Primacy of Loving’ but am still to open it. I have moved to country side; was not welcomed by the local church [long story – best forgotten and all forgiven] and now worshipping in the local Anglican Church. God has given us a lovely place to live and I am still alive – just.
With love from Laidley, Anneli
Dear Anneli, You are an example to me with your faithfulness. Good to know you are safely settled in your new home.
David