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AND
thus we come back to a humble and
homely realism. For we are brought to the
recognition that there is indeed a finite
created order, truly existing, of which we form part
and with which we are designed to correspond.
Toward this our human responsibility is absolute.
We cannot escape its influence; and may not ignore
the appeal of its imperfection to our interest, our
pity, and our love. Yet none the less we are in
ceaseless contact with an Increate Order, standing
over against us in its solemn stillness, and by its
energetic Charity penetrating and sustaining our life.
With this too we have deep correspondences. It
moulds and stimulates us, and seeks to transform us.
It is at once the inciting cause and final satisfaction
of our metaphysical thirst. The ceaseless creative
action of that Spirit on spirit, reaching and shaping
us 'in and through circumstance, and turning our very
limitations to the purposes of love—this is the efficient
cause of our long purification. The mysterious
intercourse between Creator and created is the origin
and substance of our prayer.
Thus, all that we do and are, whether lofty or
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homely, has a double significance and a double
reference. It is real in its own right, within the
scheme of nature: for the Father and Lover of our
souls is the Father and Lover of all life. And
beyond this, it mediates the august reality of Supernature; in so far as we endure in and through it the
ceaseless transforming action of God-Spirit. For all
our life is sacramental. There is no test, no conflict,
no attraction or delight, nor any vicissitude of circumstance
which does not come to us charged with
Spirit; no point in the chain of succession where the
Eternal cannot be found, served and adored. And
in this double status and the double demand which
it makes on us, abides the tension and the richness
of our mysterious life.
For we are changeful, yet children of the Unchanging; free and yet dependent; carnal, sold
under sin, and yet perpetually drawn to love and
depend on God. We are asked for an utter selfabandonment; and, in proportion to that self-abandonment,
become ever the more vigorous and
creative. The true life of the spirit begins with the
full and glad acceptance of this situation; the
deletion of the possessive case.
'Send out thy light,
and thy truth', says the Psalmist:
'all my fountains
are in thee!' When we know this, we are at peace.
Veni, Sancte Spiritus,
Et emitte coelitus
Lucis tuae radium.
That humble invitation, and that acknowledgement
of our human incompleteness, is the beginning of
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the sequence through which the soul's transformation
is accomplished.
Da perenne gaudium is the end. Come, thou Holy ; pour out in our dim
lives the steadfast radiance of the Living Perfect.
Give the perennial joy of those whose separate action
is lost in the eternal Act of God. Between these
terms lies the whole rounded work of Spirit in and
upon the plastic human soul.
