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CHAPTER II

HOW A MAN MAY DESPISE ALL THINGS AND CLEAVE TO CHRIST ALONE

Whosoever thou art who longest to enter upon this happy state or seekest to direct thither thy steps, thus it behoveth thee to act.

First, close, as it were, thine eyes, and bar the doors of thy senses. Suffer not anything to entangle thy soul, nor permit any care or trouble to penetrate within it.

Shake off all earthly things, counting them useless, noxious, and hurtful to thee.8

When thou hast done this, enter wholly within thyself, and fix thy gaze upon thy wounded Jesus, and upon Him alone. Strive with all thy powers, unwearyingly, to reach God through Himself, that is, through God made Man, that thou mayest attain to the knowledge of His Divinity through the wounds of His Sacred Humanity.

In all simplicity and confidence abandon thyself and whatever concerns thee without reserve to God’s unfailing Providence, according to the teaching of St. Peter: “Casting all your care upon Him,”9 Who can do all things. And again it is written: “Be nothing solicitous”:10 “Cast thy care upon the Lord and He shall sustain thee”;11 “It is good for me to adhere to my God”;12 “I set the Lord always in my sight”;13 “I found Him Whom my soul loveth”;14 and “Now all good things came to me”15 together with Him. This is the hidden and heavenly treasure, the precious pearl, which is to be preferred before all. This it is that we must seek with humble confidence and untiring effort, yet in silence and peace.

It must be sought with a brave heart, even though its price be the loss of bodily comfort, of esteem, and of honour.

Lacking this, what doth it profit a religious if he “gain the whole world, and suffer the loss of his own soul?”.16 Of what value are the religious state, the holiness of our profession, the shaven head, the outward signs of a life of abnegation, if we lack the spirit of humility and truth, in which Christ dwells by faith and love? St. Luke says: “The kingdom of God,” that is, Christ, “is within you.:17

8 When Albert the Great and the other mystics warn us against solicitude with regard to creatures, they refer to that solicitude which is felt for creatures in themselves; they do not mean that we ought not to occupy ourselves with them in any way for God’s sake. The great doctor explains his meaning in clear terms later on in this work.

9 1 Pet. v. 7.

10 Phil. iv. 6.

11 Ps. liv. 23.

12 Ps. lxxii. 28.

13 Ps. xv. 8.

14 Cant. iii. 4.

15 Wis. vii. 11.

16 Matt. xvi. 26.

17 Luke xvii. 21.