Happiness and joy can be a very subjective experience. I recall one of my brother priests sharing what a big impression visiting a dump in a poor town in Nicaragua had left on him. There was a six year old girl who, with a big smile and a sense of pride, was showing the visitors the place where she lived and where her family would go to pick up things they needed. She was even eager to show him her river. She was proud of her river, the place where other kids would use to bathe and swim. It happened to be the contaminated river right by the dump.
It is not difficult to understand that happiness does not consist in material possessions. However, it is difficult to fathom what the inner experience of God is like that makes our life here on earth already an experience of tremendous joy and happiness in the midst of the normal and sometimes difficult circumstances of life.
In spiritual theology, we talk about the gifts of the Holy Spirit in such terms. The gift of wisdom, for example, can provide us with a capacity to judge the world from the point of view of God not so much because we are capable of understanding such things but because of an inner connaturality with the judgement of God. We get to taste the sweetness of the Lord with such an intensity that we naturally come to see the relativity of all created things. This intense experience of God and of the beauty of God is already a foreshadowing of Heaven itself. Yes, the sweetness, the joy, the intimate love of God can be experienced with intensity here in this world. It is a gift from God. Prayer turns more affective and less rational, it becomes a loving gaze with God, much more simple. With some people, it eventually leads them to deep spiritual ecstasy.
I remember as a teenager learning about the gifts of the Holy Spirit: wisdom, science, understanding, counsel, fortitude, piety, fear of the Lord. They all seemed so ethereal realities very distant from my own experience. However, I see these realities very much more close to us and available to anyone who seriously wants to experience them. We do not strive enough to grow in our spiritual live because we do not know what we are missing.
Ultimately, growth is going to require these two conditions, in the following logical order: the desire for perfection and then detachment and renunciation. If we knew what we are missing and what we could be experience here in this world, we would make more of an effort to grow closer to Our Lord. Imagine a miner who gets tired of digging. If he knew that he was going to hit gold only after penetrating into the mine a few more feet, he would redouble his efforts to make it.
The experience of the gifts of the Holy Spirit and of the Infused Virtues, what experts call the Illuminative Way, is not that very far off. One thing is required: DETACHMENT. I think of it as the layers of an onion. We are to continue peeling off layers of attachment. We would be surprised that the experience of the Illuminative Way is not that deep into the onion. We will hit gold sooner than we realize it if we do not give up. As we explained in the previous insight, soon we will have to deal with detachment from support structures of our personality. We will be dealing with very sensitive defense mechanisms. We are knocking at the wall that separates us from these experiences of the Illuminative Way. This experience is expressed by Fr. Benedict Groeschel in these terms:
While the word “illumination” suggests a passing experience of enlightenment, a “peak” experience, the illuminative way is not like that at all. It is a sustained state in which it is easier to pray, give up things that are superfluous or obstruct progress, and work to accomplish more for the Kingdom of God. Doing good becomes easier…
The illuminative way is not a cloudless summer day. It is a spring morning after a bad storm. Even though everything is washed clean and the sky is filled with clouds and sunlight, there are many fallen trees and an occasional live wire blocking the road.
Many experts in Spiritual Theology from different schools of spirituality in the Catholic Church call this state the Mystical life and they agree that it is available to all of us and that we are all called to it.
Do you believe it? Do you really believe that you could enjoy that experience already here on earth? We will continue discussing Illuminative Way in our next insight.
Questions for pondering:
1. Do you believe that you could achieve the mystical state in spiritual progress?
2. What are the most difficult things that you cannot detach your heart from?
3. Would you at least ask the Lord to help you see the world from his point of view?
Fr Lino Otero, LC: Originally from Nicaragua, my family moved to Miami, Florida when I was a teenager. Soon afterwards I experienced the call to serve God without reservations. Since then, I have had experience in hospital ministry, working as a middle school teacher, leading a parish school, organizing soccer tournaments for kids, starting a radio station, training priests in leadership formation, organizing a parish community from maintenance to mission, and much more. I love spiritual direction and preaching. Years of philosophy, psychology and theological training have enriched my personal life and have shaped my message of hope. For more go to linootero.me