Mysticism

MYSTICISM. - A name that today generally designates either the state of mind of one who immerses himself in spiritual reality through religious contemplation (often called mysticism) or the doctrine relating to it (also called mystical theology).

I. DIFFERENT MEANINGS OF THE TERM

Deriving from the verb μύειν, "to close," especially "to close the eyes," the adjective μυστικός in the language of the mystery religions was used in the time of the Greeks to signify not so much a doctrine (this meaning being purely Christian) as the secret itself that permitted that type of religiosity.

Like many others, the word mystikós passed into the Christian language, yet without any dependence as regards the doctrine or the new realities it came to signify, as Bouver has well demonstrated on the basis of a very careful semantic investigation (Mystique. Essai sur l'histoire d'un mot, in La vie spirituelle, Supplément, May 1949).

The Fathers subsequently used the word in three different, though related, meanings (cf. ibid., and J. de Guibert, Etudes de théol. myst., Toulouse 1930, ch. 1, § 1). At first, chiefly by Clement of Alexandria and Origen, the allegorical meaning of the Bible is called mystical, especially of the Old Testament, in reference to Jesus Christ, whose "mystery," according to St. Paul himself, is the fulfillment of the Law and the Prophets; this interpretation is called by Clement ἡ μυστικὴ ἐμμενεία (Stromata, V, 6: PG 9, 64). Then the sense slides toward the meaning of a "sacramental" reality, of what is present but hidden beneath the veils of the Sacraments, for example of Baptism, called by Eusebius "mystical regeneration" (C. Marcellum: ibid., 24, 728), and above all of the Eucharist, called the "mystical Passover" (Hesychius of Jerusalem, Quaest. Evang. 34: ibid., 93, 14, 1), "mystical sacrifice of his body and his blood" (Const. Apost., VI, 23, 4: ibid., 1, 974), while the body of Christ present there is to be called "the Mystical Body."

Finally, already prefigured by Origen, but more explicitly in Pseudo-Dionysius, there is found the concept of an experimental or quasi-experimental knowledge of divine realities, which proceeds from a ἕνωσις or intimate "union" with God; such was the "mystical theology" of Isroteus, who was "non solum discens sed et patiens divina," according to the formula often cited thereafter (De Div. Nominib., 2, 9: PG 3, 648 B; cf. Sum. Theol., 1ᵃ-2ᵃᵉ, q. 68, a. 2); a knowledge which, moreover, is realized predominantly, according to Pseudo-Dionysius, through the Eucharistic liturgy, as the term of the "Mystery of Christ" of which St. Paul speaks (Eph. 3, 4), thus revealing its essential connections with the meanings indicated above. This third meaning, which prevailed throughout the Middle Ages, is the only one in use in Christianity today.

II. CHRISTIAN MYSTICISM ITS NATURE

M., in the precise theological sense intended here, is a state of higher spiritual life, in which the soul, enriched by sanctifying Grace, usually already purified not only from grave sins but also in large part from vicious tendencies and natural inclinations, trained in the practice of the Christian virtues, arrives at an intimate union with God, which is not the fruit of its own supernatural activity, but an infused gift of God, often accompanied by spiritual delights. Enlightened by the Holy Spirit, the soul there contemplates the truths of faith, no longer by discursive meditation, but with a simple and fixed gaze full of love, with a sense of savory experience and often of contact with God.

Jesus promised to his own this intimate manifestation of God to the soul, though always in the darkness of faith: "If any one loves me, he will be loved by the Father, and I will love him and will manifest myself to him" (Jo. 14, 21). Of it St. Augustine spoke, commenting on the evangelical beatitudes in relation to the gifts of the Holy Spirit, where, arriving at the last, he says: "The 7th is wisdom, that is, the contemplation of truth, which pacifies the whole man and gives him divine likeness" (cf. DSp, fasc. IV, col. 1113). To this infused wisdom St. Augustine refers his contemplation at Ostia with St. Monica, in which, all created things being silent, "he alone speaks who has made them... so that we hear his word, not expressed by a carnal tongue, nor by the voice of an angel, but in such a way that we hear him himself whom in these things we love... with a swift flight of thought reaching eternal wisdom": a fleeting anticipation of eternal life "which ravishes the beholder to intimate joys and in them absorbs him and raises him up" (Confess., IX, 10: PL 32, 774).

Of this mystical wisdom an ample description is found in Pseudo-Dionysius, and among many others in St. Gregory the Great and St. Bernard; with the school of St. Victor, especially with Hugh and Richard, a more systematic exposition of m. begins, continued later by St. Albert the Great and St. Thomas, by St. Bonaventure and the Franciscan school. But it was reserved to the Carmelite Order to give to mystical doctrine at once a more detailed and ordered description and a more methodical interpretation, with the writings of St. Teresa of Jesus (Cast. Inter., IV Mans., chap. 2) and of St. John of the Cross (Living Flame, stanza 3).

From this doctrine of the saints are deduced the characteristics of the mystical life. Mystical will be every operation, prayer, knowledge or form of union with God that does not proceed from our activity, aided by common Grace, but that is the fruit of a divine initiative, of a "special" Grace, which renders us passive under the impulse of the Holy Spirit. Twofold characteristic of the mystical life are therefore: passivity and simplicity.

1. Passivity

The mystical operations, though proceeding from the human vital faculties divinized by Grace and being free and meritorious, are produced in the soul by a special intervention of the Holy Spirit. While pre-mystical supernatural activity depends on human deliberation by means of the infused virtues (Sum. Theol., 1ᵃ-2ᵃᵉ, q. 68, a. 2), the mystical one proceeds from the gifts of the Holy Spirit, who through them takes possession of the soul with strength and gentleness and reduces it to a blessed passivity, superior in merit and efficacy to every human operation.

St. Teresa calls "supernatural," with a restrictive sense of the word, that being passive under the hand of God: "This prayer is already a supernatural thing, and by ourselves we could not procure it, despite all our diligence" (Way of Perfection, X, 31).

In what does this mystical passivity consist? Negatively, in the fact that "it is not in our power to produce such an act when we wish, as an ordinary act of faith"

(R. Garrigou-Lagrange, Perfection, cited in bibl., chap. 4, art. 11, 1). Human activity, though aided by ordinary Grace, cannot raise itself so high. In a positive sense the passivity of the mystics comes from a special Grace of God, which takes over the direction of human action, takes possession of the soul, governs its activity, so as to realize in a manifest manner the word of the Apostle: "Quicunque Spiritu Dei aguntur ii sunt filii Dei" (Rom. 8, 17).

Intimately connected with the dominating action of God that renders the soul passive, there is, as an element prior to the divine union, the painful, complete stripping away of whatever is natural and imperfect in the soul, and which authors call the passive purifications (v.).

2. Simplicity

It consists in the exclusion of the discursive process with multiple successive acts, which is the proper mode of natural reason and of the infused virtues, to replace it with an almost single act, instinctive, spontaneous and direct (St. John of the Cross, Dark Night, l. I, chap. 9).

A characteristic diversity that St. Thomas designates with the terms human mode, proper to the virtues, and super-human or divine mode, specific to the gifts of the Holy Spirit (III Sent., dist. XXXIV, q. 1, a. 3; Sum. Theol., 1ᵃ-2ᵃ, q. 68, a. 2). A simplicity that is encountered both in the mystical prayer called contemplation (v.), and in exterior mystical action. Treating of the former, St. Thomas defines contemplation: "Simplex intuitus veritatis" (ibid., 2ᵃ-2ᵃ, q. 180, a. 3, ad 1); a simple and loving gaze of faith which, under the impulse of the gift of wisdom, fixes its divine object and tastes its sweetness (ibid., q. 45, a. 2). If instead it is considered in exterior activity, which can also be mystical, passive, infused, the simplicity will be that instinctive judgment of the gift of counsel, which shortens the multiple investigations and necessary deliberations of the virtue of prudence, and immediately intuits, under the light of God, what is to be done in the most delicate situations. Examples of this abound in the lives of the saints, which often confound ordinary prudence.

From that twofold character of m. often comes that most vivid sense of the presence of God, who with his dominating action invading the soul outside its normal psychology, makes it feel and as it were touch his beneficent presence. Often, but not always, as is seen in certain forms of arid and painful contemplation; therefore it does not appear that that feeling of the presence of God, or that awareness of his infused supernatural [action], can be held as a characteristic and universal criterion of m., as some have thought (cf. J. de Guibert, op. cit. in bibl., chap. 2).

III. THE PRINCIPLES OF MYSTICISM

Although produced in the soul by God himself apart from human initiative, the mystical life properly so called is not to be conceived as a charismatic, miraculous phenomenon, such as prophecy, levitation, etc., which are "gratis datæ" graces. "It is difficult to imagine a greater confusion than that which has led certain Catholic authors to make the word m. the synonym of miracle. Let the two concepts be compared; it will leap to the eyes that they are the contradiction of one another" (S. Luismet, Miracle et mystique, chap. 2).

M. is a gratum faciens Grace, ordained by God to the good proper to the one who receives it, and tending to the full development of that supernatural life whose promising germ was deposited in man by Baptism. Of the principles infused then it is the ripe fruit. Now these principles are sanctifying Grace, with the correlative habits, theological virtues and gifts of the Holy Spirit. All have as their purpose, immediate or remote, the union of the soul with God, the progressive transformation into God, which perfectly realizes that being "divinae consortes naturae" of St. Peter (II Pt. 1, 4). The radical principle of this union and transformation is sanctifying Grace itself, which, besides formally sanctifying the soul and making it deiform, procures for it the substantial presence of the Most Holy Trinity, as teaches, after St. Paul (I Cor. 3, 16; II Cor. 6, 16), the Angelic Doctor: "Above the common presence of God in all things, there is a special one that belongs to the rational creature, in which God is said to be present as the known in the knower and the loved in the lover. And since, by knowing and loving the rational creature, through its operation, it reaches God himself, in this way God is said not only to be in the rational creature, but also to dwell in it, as in his temple" (Sum. Theol., 1ᵃ, q. 43, a. 3). This difference is to be noted between "being" in a place and "dwelling" there. The second adds to the first relations of living together or of friendship, which simple presence does not imply. God is present in every created being, in the flower, in the animal and also in man, infusing as efficient cause existence and life. But he dwells only in the sanctified soul, as "most sweet guest," fostering there that friendly commerce of mutual knowledge and love which proceeds first from faith and charity (cf. A. Cardell, Structure de l'âme, part 3ᵃ; R. Garrigou-Lagrange, L'habitation de la Ste Trinité et l'expérience mystique, in Revue thomiste, 33 [1928], pp. 439-74). However, for such a purpose the obscure knowledge of faith is not enough, and therefore the gifts of the Holy Spirit come in, or better, with St. Thomas, the Holy Spirit in person comes in to move and direct, through his gifts, the Christian soul to a knowledge and a love less disproportionate to their divine object. The gifts are distinguished from the virtues, according to the Angelic Doctor (Sum. Theol., 1ᵃ-2ᵃ, q. 68, a. 1) in that the virtues are first of all "active," making one act according to the direction of reason elevated by Grace, while the gifts are dispositions first of all "passive" that render one docile to the impulse of the Holy Spirit. This is the "passivity" proper to mystics who feel themselves as it were invaded by the Spirit of God.

These gifts intervene now one, now another, according to the field of application of the divine influence. In mystical prayer or contemplation the gift of wisdom prevails, which, utilizing the effect of filial love that it produces in us" (St. Thomas, In Rom., VIII, 16), produces in the soul a quasi-experience of God.

St. John of the Cross often establishes a causal connection between contemplation and love (Notte osc., l. II, chap. 17). The profound reason for this lies in the fact that love creates a "connaturality" or sympathy of the soul with divine things (Sum. Theol., 2ᵃ-2ᵃ, q. 45, a. 2), which makes one judge of them as by a spontaneous instinct. The gift of wisdom, resting on this divine sympathy, with special illumination manifests to the soul the perfections of God, often with an intimate sense of his friendly presence. Love becomes as it were the medium obiectivum of the scholastics for knowing God himself with a savory knowledge from which "wisdom" draws its name. At other times the gift of understanding intervenes in mystical prayer, making the soul penetrate into the divine mysteries to discern their wonderful connections and fitnesses (ibid., q. 8), or that of knowledge which judges created things with rectitude in relation to God (ibid., q. 9, a. 2). There is also an exterior activity of a mystical nature, as is revealed, for example, in the ven. Mary of the Incarnation, first Ursuline missionary of Canada, whose apostolic work often proceeded from a mystical impulse of God: such activity depends especially on the gift of counsel, far superior to the suggestions of even infused prudence. "He who unceasingly directs them puts into their mind in a moment what they must say or do" (Mary of the Incarnation, Letter of Sept. 1666). In other cases, in the exercise of charity, the gift of piety will intervene, as appears in the life of St. Elizabeth of Hungary or of St. Vincent de Paul. There exists then a mystical suffering, communion in the sufferings of the divine Redeemer, the soul suffering, says St. Paul of the Cross, "the pain of its Spouse infused into it" (cf. J. Lebreton, Tu solus Sanctus, Paris 1948, p. 222). There the gift of fortitude is discerned in an eminent way, which, uniting the soul to Christ in his work of redemption, makes it sustain with courage the hard struggle against sin and hell.

An essential principle of every true m. in the present order of Providence is union with Christ, recourse to the mediation of Christ. The saying of Jesus has universal value: "No one comes to the Father except through me" (Io. 14, 6). He is the way; the Incarnate Word is the necessary mediator of union with God as of salvation.

St. Teresa's insistence on the necessity of never departing from the contemplation of the most holy humanity of Christ is well known (Vita, chap. 22; Castello int., VI Man., chap. 7). Nor is St. John of the Cross less explicit in citing the word of Christ: "Ego sum ostium" (Io. 10, 9; Salita d. C., l. II, chap. 6). In Christ alone is found, in fullness, the revelation of God, object of faith and principle of mystical union.

IV. VOCATION TO THE MYSTICAL LIFE

From the principles that lie at the origin of mystical [life] one must resolve the much-debated question whether mystical [life] is a privilege of the few, an extraordinary grace, or whether it should be considered the normal term of the Christian life. First of all, it should be observed, with R. Garrigou-Lagrange (op. cit., ch. 1, art. 11; cf. also J. Arintero, Cuestiones misticas, Salamanca 1927, p. 45; J. de Guibert, op. cit. in bibl., p. 37), that "ordinary" can be taken in two senses: "in fact," for a thing common to all or to the majority of those concerned, and "by right," for that which lies in the normal course of a certain activity, not at all miraculous or charismatic, although through various circumstances in reality it occurs only in the minority of cases. That the seeds of a plant grow into new plants is an ordinary, normal thing, and yet how many among all the fruits that ripen each year will never be placed in favorable soil to grow there? So too the mystical life will be held "by right" ordinary, even though many Christians either do not live in grace, or, having it, do not cultivate it, or, taking a certain care of their own interior life, do not advance it with the necessary seriousness, above all by not realizing that mortification and purification of the soul which is the indispensable precondition for the divine operation of the mystical order.

The mystical life is to be regarded as ordinary, because it proceeds not from elements foreign to our supernatural life, but from those very principles infused in every baptized soul, namely sanctifying grace, the theological virtues and the gifts of the Holy Spirit. The proper function of the gifts is that receptivity with regard to the impulses of the Holy Spirit which renders the soul passive (cf. R. Garrigou-Lagrange, op. cit., ch. 5). Now this passivity, together with the simplicity proper to the movements that come by way of the gifts, constitutes the mystical state; except that, at the beginning, that influence of the gifts, intermingled with the activity of the infused virtues "in a human manner," is not perceived, and does not yet constitute a mystical "state," but rather more or less frequent mystical "acts." However, it is normal that the soul, attentive not to hinder the action of grace, should arrive through an ever-increasing intervention of the gifts at a lasting state properly mystical. By different paths J. de Guibert reaches the same conclusion, admitting the "normal" character of mystical [life], except for that of the miraculous order (op. cit., ch. 4, § 111). Nor is anything else deduced from the doctrine of the masters, St. Teresa, St. John of the Cross, St. Francis de Sales. And if some passages seem to have a different meaning, they will easily be explained by what was said above about mystical grace which, although it lies in the normal way, encounters in its realization manifold obstacles, some even not imputable, because they depend on temperament or on necessary external circumstances. "Think — writes St. Teresa — that the Lord invites all (to the spring of water that is contemplation).

He is the very truth and his word is beyond doubt. If his banquet were not general, he would not call us all, and even if he invited us, he would not say to us: "I will give you to drink." He could have said: "Come all, in the end you will lose nothing, and I will give to drink to whom I will." But since he set no limit and said "all," I hold it certain that this living water will not be lacking to those who do not stop along the way. May the Lord who promises it to us give us the grace to seek it as we ought" (Cammino di perf., ch. 19, at the end). At the beginning of the following chapter he insists even more, despite the appearance of contradiction that is discerned there with what he said in ch. 17, where he strove to "console the souls that in fact did not reach contemplation." So too St. John of the Cross (Fiamma viva, 2nd stanza, 5).

Summarizing the doctrine of the later mystical authors of the reformed Carmel, Fr. Gabriel of St. Mary Magdalene says: "The Carmelite school taken as a whole has always recognized that the mystical life is the complete development of the supernatural life. Therefore all its more notable authors teach that all interior souls can and indeed must desire infused contemplation" (Letter to Fr. Garrigou-Lagrange, in Garrigou-Lagrange, op. cit., ch. 6, art. v).

V. DIFFERENT DEGREES

Since mysticism is that "pati divina" of the Pseudo-Areopagite, its essential degrees are determined according as the dominating action of the Spirit of God is more or less complete. There have been complete (or perfect) mystics and others incomplete (or imperfect), according as the mystical passivity extends to all the faculties, or only to some, or to one alone.

1. Incomplete mystical states: these are the ones that St. Teresa describes in the Fourth Mansions of her Interior Castle (cf. also Way of Perfection, chaps. 29-32): supernatural recollection, in which the powers are gently drawn into the inner enclosure of the soul to occupy themselves there with God; and above all the prayer of quiet, in which a spark of love rises from the center of the soul, inflaming the will, with profound calm and sweetness, while the intellect and still more the imagination may wander, distracting the soul in its repose of love.

Often this mystical union of quiet, especially in its beginnings, passes unnoticed by the very soul that is favored with it, as St. John of the Cross observes (Ascent of Mount Carmel, bk. II, p. 12). This manner of mystical prayer is easily discerned, for example, in the life of St. Teresa of the Child Jesus, both in her Autobiography and in the Letters, where on every page her infused wisdom is revealed in a wondrous way, although the Saint generally does not give explicit descriptions of mystical states, as does her seraphic Mother. On the other hand, there exist mixed forms of contemplative prayer, in which infused elements are intermingled with the soul's own activity and which may therefore be called mixed contemplation (Gabriele di S. M. Maddalena, loc. cit.).

2. Complete mystical states

These are the ones that St. Teresa describes in the Fifth, Sixth and Seventh Mansions, namely the sleep of the powers, in which God already takes possession of all the faculties of the soul in holy intoxication, "a manifest union of the whole soul with God" (V Man., chap. 1); the most perfect prayer of union, in which the intelligence, the will and the imagination are rapt in God, and in which even the exterior senses are suspended and deprived of all contact with the world, although this ecstasy (v.), which so strikes the uninitiated, is a secondary and purely accidental phenomenon, a consequence of human weakness in the face of the intense operation of God. There is finally the transforming union, the summit of mystical ascents, after which nothing remains for the soul but to long for the consummation of the beatific union of the Fatherland, the specifying term of the whole Christian life and the natural fulfillment of every mystical life.

VI. THE MYSTICISM OUTSIDE THE CHURCH

An arduous problem is the one that R. Garrigou-Lagrange calls that of the "mystics of the outside" (Il Salvatore e il suo amore per noi, Turin 1948, p. 372 ff.). Do such authentic mystics exist? The documents that have been brought to light especially in recent years do not allow an always negative answer. It is well to be prudent so as to affirm nothing beyond the demands of proven facts, and cautious in order to determine their origin and meaning. Beyond the problem in general, it is well to examine some specific cases: that of Plotinus among the ancient philosophers, that of Sufism and especially of al-Hallāj for Muslims, that of Hinduism.

One must here recall what was said to be the essence of m.: an experience of God present in the soul as an object of fruition: it is the "pati divina" of Pseudo-Dionysius or the "frui divina Persona" of St. Thomas (Summ. Theol., 1ᵃ, q. 43, a. 3). Now such an experience or fruition supposes God present with a presence of Grace, superior to the common presence of immensity, and reached through supernatural charity and the gift of wisdom, as guest and friend of the soul. This of itself excludes from the purely natural order any possibility of mystical experience of God.

Since, outside of Grace, a properly so-called m. is not possible, there can nevertheless exist what R. Garrigou-Lagrange calls a natural pre-m., which, not reaching an experience of God in the sense explained, can rise to a profound philosophical contemplation of the Creator, a contemplation that, as Ps. Albert M. observes (De adhaerendo Deo, ch. 9), "sistit in intellectu," unlike the mystical one which "is through love" and proceeds from love. "Such natural contemplation — notes R. Garrigou-Lagrange — prepared and tested by an appropriate ascesis (such was the case of Plotinus, for example), brought by a well-conceived method and training to an exceptional degree of intensity, can carry with it psychic consequences, and, with the intervention of temperament, especially if image and emotivity intervene, bodily consequences materially similar to certain secondary mystical phenomena."

But, once the possibility of a true mystical experience outside of Christian Grace is excluded, a second question arises: does there exist, or can there at least exist, a supernatural m. outside the one Church of Christ, and even more among unbelievers? The problem links up with the more general one of the possibility of salvation outside the Church. Now, it is settled among theologians that to all men, even non-Christians, there is granted at least a sufficient Grace to obtain justification, and that to one who does what he can with the help of this actual Grace the Lord also gives the Grace to love him effectively with true charity: this implies the Baptism of desire with habitual Grace and the right to beatitude. All this, however, does not come about without at least a minimal knowledge of the revealed truths, which, easy to have in the separated Christian confessions, is not excluded even from the pagan world, through various ways of the salvific Providence. But if the attainment of Grace outside the Church is possible, it will be more difficult to reach that summit of the Christian life which the mystical gifts mark. Transitory influences or touches of mystical Grace, called minor mystical Graces by Fr. Lemonnier (La vie spirituelle, Suppl., May 1933), can more easily be admitted, to supply for the deficiency of spiritual helps of the environment. The same lasting mystical states "are possible outside the visible Church, since the Grace of the virtues and of the gifts can develop there, although more difficultly. But it is most probable a priori that such properly so-called mystical Graces, rare in the visible Church itself, are extremely rare in such environments" (R. Garrigou-Lagrange, op. cit., p. 400).

Among the specific cases, there appears first of all Plotinus, whose neo-Platonic philosophy, set out in the Enneads, reached a very elevated abstractive knowledge of God, which marks the apex of what human reason could attain, although it is not immune from pantheistic tendencies. Not only that, but to his theoretical knowledge he added an ascetic training, tending toward that purification or κάθαρσις, which resembles what Christian mystics teach about the purification preliminary to union with God. Finally he describes several times that "ecstasy" to which he was granted, rarely, to raise himself, a privileged union with the One, source of ineffable joys: "When I awaken to myself, coming out of what is not the self, to return into myself, I see a marvelous beauty, convinced that then especially I participate in a superior nature living an excellent life and made one and the same thing with the divinity (τὸ θεῖο)... When, after this rest in the divinity, I descend again from the νοῦς to reasoning, I do not know how I can descend nor how a soul can stand within the body, being in itself what has appeared to me" (Enn., IV, 8, 1; ed. E. Bréhier, Paris 1924-38). What is the nature of this ecstasy? From an examination of the whole Plotinian work it emerges that he is completely ignorant of the concept of the personal love of God, and this because of the determinism he attributes to the supreme "One," which allows neither a Providence nor friendly relations with the impersonal God. He does speak of ἔρως, but it is a love that is a natural inclination of the soul toward the divine Good, σύμφυτος, "consubstantial" with the soul, as Bréhier translates; on the subject one should see still better Fr. R. Arnou (Le désir de Dieu dans la philosophie de Plotin, Paris n.d.). Therefore, in Plotinus, a true mystical experience of God, based on charity, in conformity with the principles described above, is not to be admitted. His case can be reduced to the possibilities of natural philosophical contemplation.

However, the radical pantheism of the Hindu philosophies and of the Vedānta themselves, or the religious books that inspire them, is well known: Brahma or God is not only the efficient cause of the world, but also its material cause, the universe and therefore the individual souls being nothing but an evolution of God (cf. P. Johanns, Vers le Christ par le Vedānta, Louvain 1932). This original pantheism corrupted every order of the soul's relations with God. It was the singular merit of Greek philosophy, and first of all of Aristotle, to have analyzed with brilliant acumen the deep roots of being and to have safeguarded the absolute transcendence of God, purest Act. In such a system of metaphysical notions, the order of supernatural relations with God through faith and charity in the first place, and then through the mystical activity that completes them, are clearly distinguished from the purely natural rational process of religious psychology. Not so, however, in the religious life of pantheistic inspiration, in which the logic of the system demands that philosophy and religion, natural and supernatural order, common religious piety and m. be confounded. For the so-called Hindu m. (cf. J. Lacombe, L'absolu selon le Vedānta, Paris 1937; G. Dandoy, L'Ontologie du Vedānta, ibid. 1932).

Much has been said in recent years about Muslim mystics, the so-called sūfī (cf. H. Asin Palacios, El Islam cristianizado estudio del «sufismo», Madrid 1931; G. Fausti, Asceti e mistici nell'Islam, in Civ. Catt., 1932, IV, pp. 344-52, 440-55), among whom the most typical case is that of al-Hallāg (cf. L. Massignon, La Passion d'al-Hoayni-Im-Mansour al-Hallaj, 2 vols., Paris 1932). He was martyred in Baghdad by his own people in 922 for his dissident interpretation of the Corano which placed Jesus, the "Saint" par excellence, above Muhammad and recognized him as the judge who will return to earth at the universal Resurrection. Extraordinary was the life of al-Hallāg, as Massignon describes it according to the documents, where one sees him, after years of ascetic life pervaded by frequent mystical experiences, undertaking journeys of preaching through India and Turkestan, in order to communicate, by voice and in writing, the fruit of his interior life. al-Hallāg himself writes: "At the term of sanctity, at the consummation of divine union, the saint is more than a prophet with an exterior mission to accomplish, with a law to make observed. The saint, having perfectly united his own will to that of God, finds himself in a condition to interpret directly in all things and everywhere the essential will of God, to participate in the nature of God, transformed in God" (op. cit., pp. 115-16). And he bursts forth in this invocation: "O guide of the lost, I know that you transcend... all the concepts of those who conceived you! O my God, you know me impotent to offer you the thanksgiving that is fitting for you. Ah! come into me to thank yourself. This is true thanksgiving; there is no other" (op. cit., p. 116). Characteristic is this note on the way toward divine union: "When no carnal bond remains in him (in man), then the Spirit of God descends upon him, from which Jesus, son of Mary, was born" (op. cit., p. 515). These and many other texts make an impression, for their sincere and profound spirituality. With al-Hallâf one finds oneself far above the pantheistic aspirations of Hinduism and the philosophical ecstasies of Plotinus. Two elements above all are found there that create a favorable presumption of authentic m.: 1st faith, although incomplete, and recourse to Christ the mediator, who will not have rejected a soul that with such generosity drew near to him. Then a pure love of God, which is precisely, when it proceeds from a supernatural motive, that principle of connaturality with God that lies at the root of mystical union. It seems therefore that here one finds oneself before one of those privileged cases whose possibility R. Garrigou-Lagrange admitted, while judging them extremely rare.

Ernesto Mura