Sermon: "[You were taught] to be renewed in the spirit of your minds"

Sermon for the Nineteenth Sunday after Trinity

[You were taught] to be renewed in the spirit of your minds (Ep 4, 23-24)

5. Saint Paul then says: “You must be renewed in the spirit of your innermost will.” The spirit of man is called by different names according to its various kinds of activity and its different aspects. Sometimes the spirit is called soul inasmuch as it gives life to the body, and in this sense, it is present in each of our members, giving them life and movement. Sometimes it is called spirit, and this is when it has such an intimate kinship with God that it surpasses all measure; for God is spirit, and the soul is spirit, and, consequently, it has a perpetual inclination and gaze turned toward the depth of its origin. And because of this compatibility in spirituality, the spirit inclines and bends back toward its origin, in harmony. This inclination toward the source never ceases, not even in the damned. The soul also bears the name of innermost will. The innermost will is a delightful thing. In it are gathered all the faculties: reason, will, yet it itself is superior to them; it has something more. Beyond the activity of the faculties, it has an inner and essential object, and when the innermost will is in order and perfectly oriented, all else goes well. And when the innermost will is corrupted, all is corrupted, whether one realizes it or not. Finally, the soul is also called mind.

My children! This is the depth in which the true image of the Holy Trinity lies hidden. And this depth is so noble that no proper name can be given to it: sometimes it is called the depth, and sometimes the summit of the soul. But it is no more possible to name it than it is to name God, and whoever could see how God dwells in this depth would be greatly blessed by this vision. The proximity and kinship that exist in this depth between the soul and God are so ineffably great that one dares not and cannot speak of it much.

Saint Paul thus says: you must be renewed in the spirit of your innermost will; if the innermost will is in perfect disposition, it has an inclination to return to the depth where the image elevated above all faculties rests; and the activity of the innermost will surpasses the faculties in nobility and loftiness, more than a cask of wine surpasses a single drop. It is in this innermost will that one must be renewed, by continually recollecting oneself in the depth, turning fully toward God, without any intermediary, with active charity and fixing one’s attention upon Him. This power indeed resides in the innermost will, which can maintain its attachment to God without interruption and keep its intention steady, while the faculties lack the power to remain constant in their attachment.

6. Here is how renewal in the spirit of the innermost will must occur. Since God is spirit, the created spirit must focus on Him, rise up, and then plunge into the uncreated spirit of God with a liberated innermost will. Before his creation, man was eternally God in God; now he must also fully return to Him with all his created nature.

There is a debated question among scholars as to whether, when man deliberately turns toward perishable things, the spirit perishes as well. They commonly answer: yes. But a great and noble doctor says: “As soon as man turns back with his innermost will and his full intention and directs his spirit into the spirit of God beyond time, at that very instant, all that was lost is restored.” If man could do this a thousand times a day, each time would be a true renewal, and it is in this inner operation that the truest and purest renewal occurs. “Today I have begotten you anew.” If the spirit fully plunges and merges, with its innermost being, into the innermost depths of God, it will be recreated and renewed there. The more regularly and purely the spirit follows this path and focuses exclusively on God, the more it is flooded and enriched by the spirit of God. God then pours Himself into it, as the natural sun pours its light into the air. The air becomes entirely filled with light, and no gaze can discern where the air ends, and the light begins. And who could establish a separation in this divine and supernatural unity of union, through which the spirit is drawn and absorbed into the abyss of its source? Know this: if it were possible to see the spirit in this state within the [uncreated] spirit, it would undoubtedly be taken for God Himself.

My children! In this renewal and conversion, the spirit rises at all times above itself, as no eagle has ever flown to meet the physical sun, as no flame has ever risen toward the heavens. Here, the spirit rushes to meet the divine darkness, according to the words of Job: “The way is hidden from man and surrounded by darkness.” Thus, the spirit advances into the darkness of the divine unknown, where God is beyond all attributes that can be ascribed to Him, nameless, formless, unrepresentable, beyond all limited modes of being, beyond all essences.

This, my children, is what true conversions are. To these conversions, the time of night and its silence are highly conducive and greatly helpful. Therefore, when a man has had a good rest before matins, he must afterward dismiss all his senses and all his sensitive faculties. After matins, he should deeply immerse himself within, rise above all images and forms, above all his faculties. In his smallness, he must not think of approaching those noble darknesses of which a saint wrote: “God is a darkness beyond all light.” But, because of the obscurity of His impenetrable mystery, let him abandon himself to God in all simplicity, ask for nothing, demand nothing, be content to have God in his intention and to love Him. Then cast all things into this unknown God; cast even your faults and sins and all that you can project, all with active love; cast all this into the obscure and unknown will of God. Outside of this will, such a man should never seek or desire anything, in any way, whether rest or activity, this or that, any particular state or another, but simply abandon himself to the unknown will of God.

7. If, then, a man engaged in this inner work were asked by God to abandon such a noble and elevated practice to go and serve a sick person, to prepare them a tisane, the man should do so in great peace. And if I were such a man and had to leave this exercise to go and preach or carry out some similar ministry, it could very well be that God would be more present to me and do greater good in this external work than perhaps in deep contemplation.

Thus, these noble men, after having practiced this inner conversion well during the night and also a little in the morning, must go about their affairs in peace, according to what God has arranged for each, maintaining their attention to God in this activity. For one can be certain: at times, more good may come to you in this outward action than in the earlier contemplation. Saint Paul himself indicates that we must work with our hands, for it is good for a man to work both for himself and for his neighbor, as the need arises.