Carmelite spirituality as a path to a deeper experience of liturgy
Paul Menting
Come to unity
Love leads to unity. This is how Jesus could say: “I and the Father are one” (John 10:30). However, the Father and the Son do not “fall into” each other.1 Rather, it speaks of a process of uniting between the two of them. Christ returns to the Father after his death and resurrection and is then given a name that is greater than any other name (cf. Phil 2:9). He must almost go through the entire journey of incarnation, share our human life, then suffer, die, and rise from the dead, in order to finally sit at the right hand of God (cf. Mark 16:19). At its core, it is a single process of self-giving out of love: “He emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men. He humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross” (Phil 2:7–8). Of love, Jesus says: “Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one's life for his friends” (John 15:13). This selfless love made him a master in love, and therefore he is our example. He tells us: “A new commandment I give to you: Love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another” (John 13:34). Not only the apostles were invited to love as Christ demonstrated through himself, but everyone is invited to follow him into this mystical love. Jesus also prays for all who believe in him: “The glory which You gave Me I have given them, that they may be one, just as We are one: I in them, and You in Me. That they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that You have sent Me, and have loved them as You have loved Me” (John 17:22–23).
The love that leads to the process of unification has its origin in God. God wants to draw everything and everyone into His love and unite them with it. The similarity and growing conformity to God's love produces divine beauty, as St. John of the Cross (1542–1591) very aptly described:2
And so (the soul to the Beloved) further says: And let us look at each other in your beauty.
This means: let us do so that through this already mentioned exercise in love, we may come to the point of looking at each other in your beauty in eternal life; that is, I will be transformed to such an extent in your beauty that I will be similar in beauty and we will see each other both in your beauty, when I will already have your own beauty; so that when one looks at the other, everyone will see in the other their beauty, since both will be only your beauty, when I will already be absorbed in your beauty; and thus I will see you in your beauty, and you will see me in your beauty, and I will see myself in you, in your beauty, and you will see yourself in me, in your beauty; and thus I will look like you in your beauty, and you will look like me in your beauty, and my beauty will be your beauty and your beauty my beauty; and thus I will be you in your beauty, and you will be me in your beauty, for your own beauty will be my beauty; and thus we will see each other in your beauty.
When people are in love, they often highlight the beauty of the one they love. A lover usually finds the one they are connected to by love beautiful and attractive, regardless of common conventions of beauty. Those who truly love comprehend the words of the first epistle of the Apostle Peter (originally addressed to women): “Whose adorning let it not be that outward adorning of plaiting the hair, and of wearing of gold, or of putting on of apparel; but let it be the hidden man of the heart, in that which is not corruptible, even the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God of great price!” (1 Peter 3:3–4.) True beauty of a person must be sought in their innermost being. This innermost being was adorned and beautified by God himself, after all, God has “made us in the image of (His) nature” (Wisdom 2:23).
This inner beauty that a person is endowed with through creation is not always immediately recognizable. Only the eyes of a loving person can see it. The fleeting outline of how we first appear may gradually take on more form as we expose ourselves to the gaze of God's loving eyes, which increasingly transform us into divine beauty. God can draw a person into His beauty only when the person, as God’s counterpart, immerses himself in the intimacy of mutual gazing (one at the other) and allows himself to be led to a meeting, until (then) a spark jumps. Then God in His infinite love calls to us: “How beautiful you are, my friend, how beautiful you are” (Song of Songs 4:1). And whenever He looks at us with a loving gaze, we are deeper transformed into His love and clothed in His beauty. We are cleansed from every stain, and God can whisper to us: “You are all beautiful, my friend, and there is no spot on you” (Song of Songs 4:7). God sees and reveals our inner beauty through His love.
John of the Cross experienced this during his nine months of imprisonment (1577 to 1578). Overwhelmed by this experience, he composed poems that tell of it. One of these poems is Spiritual Song, in which he allows the human soul to sing a love duet with God. This duet, in terms of atmosphere and choice of words, closely relates to the biblical Song of Songs. To this (his) poem, John wrote a commentary in which he explains how a person endowed with a mystical experience and participating in God's love is drawn into unity. For when God sees that a person loves him so much that the beauty of divine love, which the enamored person perceives in encountering God, almost remains visible in their eyes and makes their gaze just as loving, then God’s pleasure in being able to gaze upon the person increases even more. For then He sees His own charm and His own love in the love of the person, and nothing can please Him more. Also, when a person looks at themselves, they no longer see their own shortcomings, but God's beauty, and can meet God in their own innermost being radiantly and without any veil. Normally, we see God as in a mirror and only in enclosures, but when love has become perfect, we look at Him face to face (cf. 1 Cor 13:12). Contemplation is no longer seeing God as a counterpart, but the mystical experience of contemplation becomes seeing with God's eyes in the direction of God's gaze. Thus a person sees themselves, others, and the world around them in the creative way God intends, which gives life and recognizes that it is beautiful.
Maria Petyt (1623–1677) describes how this experience became established in her and attained a certain permanence:3
The Beloved took up residence in me and chose in me a place for His rest. My heart is the place of joy in which the Beloved delights and rejoices. Oh jealous Lover! Oh beloved, maddened by love (one might say)! You do not tolerate even a single idle movement of the eyes; you immediately admonish me: “Look at me, am I not enough for you? I fill you, I cheer you, and I fulfill you; I am entirely and completely yours, and you are entirely and completely mine.”
My soul responds like an echo, indeed like a double echo: Yes, my dearest, I am entirely and completely yours and for you, and you are entirely and completely mine and for me without mixing with creatures. Then it seems that the heart opens in a wondrous way to God and expands, becoming capable of receiving the Beloved and can unite with Him in clear knowledge and undiluted love.
Maria Petyt also connects, through her choice of words, to the biblical Song of Songs, where the bride speaks of the bridegroom: “My beloved has gone down into his garden to the beds of spices, to feed in the gardens and to gather lilies” (Song 6:2). In the tradition of love mysticism, the bride refers to the human soul and the bridegroom to Christ or God. The soul is the place where God can dwell, just as the bridegroom can retreat into a garden that is a delight for all of his senses. A person who loves God is a place of pleasure for God, in which God gladly stays: “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him” (John 14:23). True love establishes itself, secures itself, settles, and never leaves the beloved partner. The awareness of inseparability allows for total self-giving: “I am my beloved’s, and my beloved is mine; he feeds among the lilies” (Song 6:3). Both give themselves in complete surrender and receive the other in complete openness. Both delight in each other and are sufficient for one another.
In the mystical union between God and man, it is not that God mingles with man, but accepting God in one’s heart means: clear knowledge and undiluted love, i.e., contemplation and love then become a single divine-human reality that fills the entire horizon.
Translated from German by Sister Petra of the Risen, OCD.
