A Course in Mystical Theology – Thirty Sixth Episode – From Loving the Christ of History, to Union with Christ in Majesty

My comparative success in my prayer life, and in such a short time,  deceived me as it would deceive many others into believing I had arrived at what the great saints and mystics call the Mystical Marriage or the Transforming Union. I had in fact only arrived at the heights of first enthusiasm or first fervour, and without help in taking the next step in the great adventure that had come to an important crossroads, I could spend months, even years, going around in circles if I did not, as many do, give up the journey altogether.

Just because what I have been describing as first fervour comes to an end when we are called into the mystic way, does not mean that this stage of the spiritual adventure is pointless or of little importance. On the contrary it is of vital importance just as the honeymoon period in human love is of vital importance to the whole journey into perfect love.

The Point and Purpose of Meditation

What happens in meditation is that we first discover God’s love in the person of Jesus Christ. That is why he came and that is why God’s Son was made flesh and dwelt amongst us, so that other human beings of flesh and blood could first discover  God’s loves in the flesh and blood of Jesus Christ.

What happens in meditation is that ideally the yearning for  God, the restless desire to rest in him, the love that we felt for him that was initially so weak and fragile though real, is deepened, sharpened, and brought almost to fever pitch. This is not an artificial love that is totally self-generated in a fantasy world of our own making.   It is inspired by the Holy Spirit who inspired the scriptures in the first place so that they could teach us of the love of God to be found in his Son Jesus Christ.

The weak and tender love that led us into meditation then, grows and deepens, and then finally reaches a climax. In this climax our love for Christ like all genuine love begins to desire not just to be close to him, to be near him, and near him all the time, but to enter into him. All love wants is to be united with the one who is loved, not just for some of the time but for all of  the time.

Acquired Contemplation

This is precisely what happens at the climax of Aquired Contemplation. The love that was once no more than a gentle pull towards God now becomes like an uncontrollable craving for union with Christ and the One who lives in him. But as we have seen before, although it is not impossible to love someone who once lived on this earth, it is impossible to be united with them, no matter how strong that love is. 

Fortunately what I have called the yearning for God, the craving to be one with him that is experienced at the heights of first fervour is rightly understood by the Holy Spirit as a prayer for the union for which God initially created us.  Inevitably then, and in every case, our prayer is answered and the Holy Spirit leads us on out of meditation and into contemplation where something vital and indispensable must take place before our deepest desire and longing for union  can be satisfied.

A Mystical Redirection

Firstly, our love must be redirected to the Christ, not as he once was on earth, but as he is now in heaven in his risen glory  where the union that we desire can take place. Furthermore, it can take place here and now in this life although it will only be in the next life that this union can be brought to perfection. Secondly, and this is why the contemplation that will enable us to be taken up into our Risen Lord is at first so dark, we have to undergo a prolonged and all-consuming purification.

How can we as we are, despite our desire for God that has been set alight in meditation, be united with him until  a long and testing purification sufficiently prepares us for mystical union. In meditation we are inspired to follow Christ and to be united with him, but in contemplation we are purified to make possible what is totally impossible without purification.

True Imitation

In my last years at school I was chosen to take part in a Shakespearean anthology  in which I was to recite the famous speech of Henry V, “Once more unto the breach dear friends once more …”  The rehearsal was a flop and the English master saw it, although he said not a word. Minutes before the curtain went up he took me aside and delivered a speech of his own that so inspired me with love for the man whom I was about to portray, that he turned what would otherwise have been a terrible tragedy into a roaring success.

I no longer floundered around the stage making flamboyant  and fanciful  gestures that I had practised  before a full length mirror believing I was genuinely imitating the man I had been asked to portray.  Suddenly and thanks to the English master I became the greatest warrior king in English history. Why?  Because I was animated from within by the same spirit who had inspired the king who trounced the French at Agincourt.

The Evil Within

This is what gradually happens in contemplation. In meditation we are inspired by Christ, but from the outside, so when we try to imitate him it can seem rather contrived and artificial  as my first attempt to play the part of Henry had been at the rehearsal. But in contemplation we learn how to imitate Christ from the inside, by learning how to open ourselves continually to the self-same love that he received from his Father  during his life on earth.

In order to receive this love that at all times animated him, we, like him, must learn to face up to and turn away from the  same evil that  was hurled against him from the sinners who hated him. But further to this we must face up to the sinner who is within us and through purification enable the love that at all times animated him, to destroy this evil at its source within the nether regions of our personality.

Purification leads to true Contemplation

Only then will God’s love, the Holy Spirit who inspired and animated him throughout his life on earth, begin to do the same for us.  Only the deep purification that takes place in contemplation will enable us to receive the Holy Spirit, as he did, finally enabling us to be united with him, not just symbolically but really, not just in his new and risen body, but in his new and risen body, soul and divinity, and with the love that endlessly rises from his Sacred Heart. 

Then, to the degree and to the measure  that our contemplation is united with his contemplation   we will be able to receive the fruits of contemplation. In this way Christ will be able to live again and love again in the world that he came to  save from the salary of selfishness and sin, through those who choose to receive him and to the end of time.  

David Torkington’s latest book outlining the journey from Vocal prayer, through meditation to Mystical Contemplation can be found at The Primacy of loving – David Torkington