The Ascent of Mount CarmelChapter XXXI. The benefits of self-denial in the joy of supernatural graces

By denying itself in this joy, the soul gains two great benefits besides its deliverance from those three evils already described. The first is that it magnifies and exalts God, and the second is the exaltation of itself God is exalted in the soul in two ways. Firstly, when the heart and the joy of the will are withheld from all that is not God, and fixed upon Him alone. This is the meaning of David in the words already referred to when I began to speak of the night of this power of the will,f which are these: ‘Man shall come to a deep heart, and God shall be exalted ;’¹ for if the heart be exalted above all things, the soul will be exalted above them also. And because it thus fixes itself upon God alone, God is exalted and magnified, making known to the soul His own magnificence and greatness; for, in this elevation of joy, He testifieth of Himself, Who He is. Now this cannot be done unless the will is emptied of all joy in supernatural gifts, as it is written, ‘Be still, and see that I am God,’² and again, ‘In a desert land, and where there is no way, and no water, so in the sanctuary have I come before Thee, to see Thy power and glory.’³

2. As God, therefore, is exalted, when our joy is grounded on our detachment from all things, much more is He exalted when we refrain from joy in His most marvellous works to place it in Him alone; for these graces are of a higher nature by reason of their supernatural character, and therefore to detach ourselves from them to rejoice in God alone, is to give greater honour and glory to God than to them; for the more numerous and important are the things we disregard for the sake of another, the more we esteem and magnify him. Besides, God is exalted in the other way when the will is withdrawn from these gifts: for the more we believe in God and serve Him without regard to signs and wonders, the more is He exalted in the soul: seeing that our faith in Him is higher, than the teaching of signs and wonders.

38. The second benefit is the exaltation of the soul itself; for by withholding the will from rejoicing in signs and wonders, the soul is exalted in most pure faith which God infuses into it and increases most abundantly. He increases also at the same time the two other theological virtues, charity and hope. Here the soul has the fruition of the highest divine knowledge through the obscure and detached habit of faith; of the delights of love through charity, whereby the will rejoices in nothing but in the living God; and of the satisfaction of the will through hope. All this is a wonderful benefit which essentially and directly tends to the perfect union of the soul with God.