The Mind’s Ascent to God by a Ladder of Created ThingsSixth step. CONSIDERATION OF FIRE

Fire is an element so pure and noble that God has willed to call himself by that name according to what Moses and Paul affirm, ‘Our God is a consuming fire’;? and when first God appeared to Moses, he willed to be seen in the fire which seized on the bush and yet did not consume it: ‘And the angel of the Lord appeared,’ saith Moses, ‘in a flame of fire in the midst of a bush: and he looked, and, behold, the bush burned with fire, and the bush was not consumed.’ 2 And when God came to give the law to his people, he came in the likeness of fire; for thus saith the same Moses, ‘And Mount Sinai was altogether on a smoke, because the Lord descended upon it in fire.’3 In like manner, when the new law was to be promulgated, the Holy Spirit appeared unto the Apostles in tongues of fire. And lastly, those who are nearest to God in heaven, the seraphim, that is the fiery ones, are so called because from that divine and most burning fire they receive fervour and ardour beyond all other angels.

From these truths it is not difficult, considering the element of fire, its nature, and properties, to form therewith for ourselves a step by which, with the help of prayer and meditation, we may rise up to God: indeed it will be easier to ascend with Elijah in a chariot of fire than to form a ladder from either earth, water, or air.

Let us therefore proceed to consider the properties of fire. The nature of fire is such that in different things it acts in different and often in contrary ways: it forthwith consumes wood, hay, or stubble: gold, silver, precious stones it purifies and makes more beautiful: iron, which naturally is black, cold, hard, and heavy, is transformed by fire, its qualities are changed, and it is gradually rendered clear, hot, soft, and light, so that it shines like a star, burns as fire, dissolves like water, and becomes so light that a blacksmith can very easily move and lift it.

All these things manifestly correspond with the working of God. And first, according to the Apostle in the former Epistle to the Corinthians, wood, hay, stubble signify evil deeds which cannot stand the fire of the divine judgement.! And we can hardly believe how sorely all sins displease God who is most pure fire, and with what zeal he consumes and destroys them, if so be they can be destroyed by patience, that is, if he who has sinned is in a condition to do penance: for all sins are remitted by penitence. But if the sinner is incapable of penitence, as are devils and men who have passed out of this life, the divine wrath of God is turned upon the wicked themselves, ‘For the ungodly and his ungodliness are both alike hateful to God,’ saith the Wise Man.?, And how real and severe this hatred is, the devil is a witness, who once sinned and when he was the most noble angel and, as Saint Gregory testifies, the chief of the first order of angels and the most glorious of the beings created by God, yet was cast out of heaven and despoiled of all supernatural grace and glory and changed into a hideous monster and enslaved to eternal destruction. Christ is also witness, who came down from heaven to destroy the CONSIDERATION OF FIRE | ae works of the devil, that is sin,! and is therefore called ‘the Lamb of God who taketh away the sins of the world.’ But who is able to declare or even to conceive the sufferings he bore, that the justice of God might be completely satisfied? ‘Who, being in the form of God, took upon him the form of a servant’; 3 ‘who, though he was rich, yet for your sakes became poor’;4 who had ‘not where to lay his head’; 5 and though he himself had made heaven and earth yet “came unto his own and his own received him not’; 6 who, when he was reviled, reviled not again; when he suffered, he threatened not, but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously; ‘who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree.’7 “He humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross,’ 8 ‘by whose stripes ye were healed’; 9 and at last bound, spitted on, scourged, crowned with thorns and crucified with extreme insults and greatest agony, poured forth all his blood and life, and he bore all these things that he might destroy the works of the devil and blot out our sins. The law of God is witness, which forbids all sin and punishes it, and leaves not even an idle word unpunished.7° And how great must be his hatred of crimes and evil deeds, who cannot endure an idle word? ‘The commandment of the Lord is pure and giveth light unto the eyes’: he turns away from stains and darkness; there can be no communion between light and darkness, nor between righteousness and iniquity.

And lastly, hell is witness, for God prepared it for the wicked, and for sinners who, when they might have been washed in the Blood of the immaculate Lamb, either refused or despised it: for it is just that r 1 St. John iii. 8. 2 St. John i. 29. 3 Phil. ii. 6.

4 2 Cor. viii. 9. 5 St. Luke ix. 58. © St. John i. rr.

7 x St. Pet. ii. 24. 8 Phil. ii. 8. 9 1 St. Pet. ii. 24. where sin is eternal the punishment should be eternal: but what is the kind of punishment and how great, it is terrible to think. Of this matter we will speak further when we come to the last step in our ladder.

Therefore, my soul, seeing that the hatred of God against sin is so great, if thou lovest God above all things, thou shouldst also hate sin above all things. Take heed lest thou be deceived by persons who extenuate or excuse sins, see that thou art not deceived by their false reasonings. If thou art not displeased by sin in thyself and in others, thou dost not love God: and if thou dost not love God, thou art lost. Again, if thou be not ungrateful to Christ, how much thou shouldst think thyself indebted to his love, his labours, his Blood, and his death, who hath washed thee from thy sin and reconciled thee to his Father: and will it be grievous unto thee to suffer something for Christ, or for his sake, and by his grace to strive against sin even unto blood?

And lastly, if thou canst not endure the hell of eternal fire, neither shouldst thou endure sin in any form: but rather turn aside from it and from the slightest suspicion of it, as thou wouldst shun the face of a serpent. Make, then, a firm and steadfast resolve to hate sin above all things and to love God above all things.

Fire indeed doth not destroy, but perfects and makes more bright and glistering gold, silver, and precious stones, since (as the Apostle explains) those metals signify good and perfect works which are approved by the fire of the divine justice, and will receive a great reward. Those works God proves because they are his gifts, and when he crowns our merits, says Saint Augustine, he crowns his own gifts.2. They were done at his bidding and by his own aid, by his bounteous gift of power to accomplish them, and directed by the law given by him, and according to the rules prescribed by him. Now gold signifies works of charity, and how should not works of charity be specially pleasing to God, when God himself is Love 3 Silver signifies works of wisdom, namely of those who turn many to righteousness,¹ and that these things also are greatly approved by God and are pleasing to him, the Wisdom of God declares, ‘He that shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.’ 5

Precious stones are the works of the chaste soul, of whom it is said, ‘Her continent mind cannot be valued,’ ® and this is the reason why in the Church’s office in praise of holy virgins there is read the Gospel of the finding of the one pearl of great price. And we may learn how pleasing to God is the purity of virgins, from the prophet Isaiah, who in the name of God foretold to eunuchs, namely to those who ‘have made themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven’s sake’ :7 * Even unto them will I give in mine house and within my walls a place and a name better than of sons and of daughters. I will give them an everlasting name that shall not be cut off.’ Saint Augustine in his book on holy virginity shows that this passage is to be understood of holy virgins, both men and women.

‘There are three particular works which in the united opinion of the doctors merit an aureole in the kingdom of heaven: aureoles, crowns of gold, that is special rewards in addition to eternal life, are given to martyrs, doctors, and virgins: to martyrs by reason of the excellence of their love, for ‘greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends’; ? to doctors for their excellent wisdom, of whom Daniel says, ‘They that turn many to righteousness shall shine as the stars for ever and ever’;? to virgins because of their incomparable chastity, for which cause the virgins in the Apocalypse are said to be singing the new song, which no other can sing: ‘These are they,’ saith Saint John, ‘which were not defiled with women, for they are virgins, and they follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth.’ 3

But it is not only the charity of martyrs, or the wisdom of doctors, or the purity of virgins that will be proved by the fire of divine justice and receive a full reward; but all other kinds of good works, wrought in charity, will be reckoned among the vessels of gold and will endure the divine fire and receive their own reward. For in the last judgement the Lord will say, “Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world,’ 4 to those who gave bread to the hungry and drink to the thirsty, shelter to the stranger, clothing to the naked, comfort to the sick and to those cast into prison. And that no one should be without a reward, the Lord even promised the same to any one who out of love should give even a cup of cold water in the name of a disciple. 5

Dost thou understand, O soul, what a difference there is between some works and others? What course could be more foolish and wretched than if, being in a certain place and at a time in which thou couldst with slight labour gather together gold, silver, and precious stones, thou shouldst prefer, at great cost and hard labour, to collect wood, hay, and stubble? O that thou wast wise and didst understand and wouldst consider the latter end,! for at the last all these things will be searched by the fire of the divine judgement, and will be proved, and the former things be praised and crowned, the latter burnt and reduced to ashes and smoke. Why choose now what thou wilt certainly repent of having chosen? And why not contemn now, when it is serviceable so to do, that which after a short time thou wilt contemn to no profit? And if perchance thou dost not now perceive those distant things, and thine eyesight is clouded by the veil of things present, so that thou dost not gaze upon the clear truth, pray to God and with great longing say to him with the blind man in the Gospel, ‘Lord, that I may receive my sight’; 2 or with the prophet, ‘Open thou mine eyes that I may see the wondrous things of thy law’:3 for it is indeed an altogether wonderful thing that works done in charity should become gold, silver, and precious stones, while works not done in charity are turned into dry wood, hay, and stubble.

Let us now come to the consideration of a second property of fire. Hitherto we have been learning from fire how God works in those who depart this life with evil works, or in those who come to the end of life full of good works. Now by another similitude borrowed in like manner from fire, we may understand what God works in those whom he calls from sin to penitence.

A sinner is like iron which at a distance from the fire remains black, cold, hard, and heavy: but if perchance it be placed in the fire, it becomes shining, soft, hot, and light. Every sinner lacks interior light and walks in darkness, and in this resembleth the blackness of iron, for though he is not only skilful in human knowledge and business, but also apparently esteemed for his good judgement: yet in the matter of discerning between the true good and true evil he is blind and more wretched than any blind man. For a blind man sees naught, and therefore cannot move without a guide: but the sinner thinks he sees what he does not see, or mistakes one thing for another and thinks good evil and evil good, the great small and the small great, the long to be short and the short long, and for this reason is continually mistaken in his choice.

It is this which the Apostle speaks of concerning the idolatrous Gentiles, “Having the understanding darkened. . . through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart’;1 and this it is with which the Lord himself in the Gospel so often upbraids the Scribes and Pharisees who were blind leaders of the blind It is this which the prophet Isaiah said to the Jews of his time, ‘Hear, ye deaf; and look, ye blind, that ye may see’;3 and to those to whom he preached the coming of Christ, who should open the eyes of the blind, and speaking concerning the new Covenant, in the Person of God, he adds, ‘I will bring the blind by a way that they knew not; I will lead them in paths that they have not known; I will make darkness light before them and crooked things straight.’ 4

And lastly, will not the wicked acknowledge so much, after this life when punishment has begun to open their eyes which had been closed by sin? They will say, ‘Therefore have we erred from the way of truth, and the light of righteousness hath not shined unto us, and the sun of righteousness rose not upon us.’!

And it is no wonder that they who have turned away from God in heart and will are blind: for ‘God is light, and in him is no darkness at all’;2 and from this the same Apostle concludes, ‘He that saith he is in the light and hateth his brother, is in darkness even until now,’ and a little later, ‘He that hateth his brother is in darkness and walketh in darkness and knoweth not whither he goeth, because the darkness hath blinded his eyes.’ 3

Now the blindness in sinners is not caused only by their turning away from God, who is light: but also their own wickedness hath blinded them,’ as Wisdom saith: 4 for the passions of the mind, love, hate, wrath, envy, and the rest, which are included under the name of wickedness, so blind the mind that it cannot clearly see the truth; just in the same way as coloured spectacles cause white objects to appear red, or spectacles made in a particular way cause small objects to appear large or large objects to appear small, those very distant to be near and those near to be far off.

He who ardently loves, loves a thing which is very beautiful and very good, and so much the more as he considers it to be necessary for himself, and in comparison with it everything else may be neglected or lost. And on the contrary, he who exceedingly hates the same thing considers it misshapen, useless, evil, so much the more as he considers it hurtful to himself, and on this account to be cast away at all costs.

But if this ugly, black iron is moved into the fire, that is, if a sinner begins to turn from his sin and to turn towards God, as the prophet says, ‘They had an eye unto him, and were lightened,’! forthwith he begins to be enlightened little by little and in that light to see the plain truth of the matter, according to the word of the same prophet, ‘In thy light shall we see light.’ And then, when the coloured glasses of the passions have been broken and clear ones put in their place, the crystal of pure charity, a man counts eternal things great and temporal things small, indeed, mere nothings, as indeed they are: and he clearly perceives that all created ornament and beauty 1s in no way comparable to the light of wisdom and truth which is in God and which is God.

And so with Saint Augustine he cries, ‘Too late have I loved thee, O thou Beauty of ancient days, yet ever new.’3 And since Christ saith, ‘Ye shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free,’4 he that is enlightened and set free by the light of truth from hindrance of concupiscence, avarice, ambition, and other passions, rejoices with the prophet and cries, Thou, O Lord, hast broken my bonds in sunder. I will offer to thee the sacrifice of thanksgiving and will call upon the Name of the Lord.’ 5

Now fire does not only cause dull iron to glow, but also it changes cold iron into hot, and not only makes it hot, but so burning and glowing that it seems to be fire itself. Great is our Lord and great is his power. See how a man, by nature cold and timid, frightened by anything, not venturing to speak or daring to attempt anything a little difficult, so soon as he is kindled by the fire of divine charity, he immediately becomes bolder than a lion, the lion that is known to terrify all by its roaring, and to hold every one spellbound, and to whom nothing is difficult, nothing seems hard, and when the fire is strongly burning he says with the Apostle Paul, ‘I can do all things through him that strengtheneth me.’! But we will discuss that efficacy of fire under different heads: and we will speak shortly first of the efficacy of words and then secondly of the efficacy of deeds.

There are now and there have been in the past, many preachers of the word of God in the Church. What then is the reason, that so few are converted by the exhortations and expostulations of so many men? In truth, in great cities daily during Lent twenty, thirty, or even forty sermons are preached, and yet when Lent is over there appears to be hardly any change in the life of the city: the same vices, the same sins, the same coldness, the same dissoluteness, as before is seen. I find no other cause than this: for the most part the discourses delivered are learned and flowery, but the soul is wanting, the life is wanting, the fire is wanting: in short that great charity is wanting which alone can animate the words of the speakers and kindle and inflame and change the hearts of the hearers. And I say it is not because a persuasive voice and ease of movement is lacking to many preachers: for a machine for attacking a fortress having no ammunition might make a great noise, but would have no effect. What is to be desired is that preachers should be animated by a great love for God and the salvation of souls, and this not feignedly but truly, not strained but as it were springing up naturally from the depth of the heart.

Saint Peter knew nothing of rhetoric; he was skilled only in steering his boat, in casting and mending his nets: but as soon as the Holy Spirit descended upon him in fiery tongues and filled him with burning charity, he began forthwith to speak so powerfully, so eagerly, and so effectually in the midst of the city of Jerusalem, that by one sermon many thousands were converted to penitence and faith; and yet we do not read that in his sermons he used great straining of the voice, or that he tired himself out with excessive action. Saint Bonaventura reports that Saint Francis was unlearned, and that he had not given great attention to rhetoric, and yet when he preached to the people they listened to him as to an angel from heaven: for, saith he, his words were like burning fire, penetrating the inmost heart ;2 and as is told us in the chronicles of the order of Friars Minor, when sometimes after supper he would speak to the people a few extempore words, his hearers were so greatly moved to penitence that the day seemed to be like Good Friday itself. How came so much movement, so great fruit, from a few words? From this, namely, that the holy preacher was as a coal enkindled and his word as a burning torch, as Ecclesiasticus records of Elijah.3 We have written sermons of Saint Vincent, Saint Bernardine, and of other saints, which some persons would consider scarce worth reading on account of the very great simplicity of the words: and yet we know that many thousands of men were converted to God by those sermons, and that they were always heard with attention by a remarkable number of people, because those simple words came from fiery and glowing hearts.

Lastly, the divine fire shows its power not less by deeds than by words. God decreed to subdue to himself by the Apostle Peter the city of Rome, head of the state and queen of the nations. He decreed also that of the rest of the Apostles, some should be sent to Ethiopia, some to the Indies, some to Scythia, others to farthest Britain, that by their means the world’s idols should be destroyed, the standard of the Cross be raised, laws and customs changed, and the tyranny of Satan be overturned. If any one had foretold these events to the Apostles when they were fishing on the Lake of Gennesareth or when they were seeking a refuge at the time of the Lord’s Passion, they would have seemed as dreams or old wives’ tales: and yet very soon afterwards all these things came to pass, and by no other force than by that of the burning love which the Holy Spirit kindled in their hearts.

“Love casteth out fear,’! and ‘Charity endureth all things, hopeth all things.’? It thinketh all things possible and with the Apostle cries out, ‘I can do all things through him that strengtheneth me.’3 And so we see, through the work and labour of these men armed with charity alone, idolatry overturned throughout the world, the Church of Christ founded in every place, the trophy of the Cross set up in every kingdom, and this without any army of soldiers and without any machinery of war.

Next, fire has also this property, that it softens hard iron so that it can easily be stretched and spread out and turned by the workman into flat blades or figures of any shape. Fire hath great power over iron, but far greater is the power of God when it works upon the stubborn and obstinate hearts of mortal men. Hear Saint Bernard in his book, De Consideratione: ‘The heart is hard, because it is not alarmed, and because it feels nothing. What, therefore, is a hard heart? It is the heart not wounded with compunction, not softened with piety, not moved with prayers, not yielding to threats stiffened by punishment; it is ungrateful for kindness, regardless of counsel’; and again, ‘It is the heart which neither fears God nor reverences man.’! And to the truth of all this Pharaoh is witness, for the more plagues were sent upon him by God, the more he was hardened, and the more the mercy of God shone forth in his removal of the plague, so much the more was he moved to despise and contemn God. But when it pleases God to kindle a spark of the true fire of love in a heart, however hard it be, the heart is quickly softened and melts like wax, and no prolonged or hard obstinacy withstands his power: but the heart which has been stony at once becomes of flesh ;2 and when the Spirit of the Lord breathes upon the frozen snows, the waters flow.3

We have an example in the Gospel: the woman in the city who was a sinner could not be urged to forsake her sin either by the admonition of her brother, the rebuke of her sister, the honour of her family, nor even her own disgrace, and yet one ray of Christ, penetrating her heart and there kindling a spark of divine love, so suddenly transformed her into another creature that this noble woman did not blush to approach the feet of Christ at a feast in public, and dissolving into tears to make of those tears a bath for the feet of Christ and to wipe them with her own hair instead of with a towel, and in the vehemence of her love to kiss them and anoint them with most precious and sweet-smelling ointment, to signify that she would henceforward dedicate herself and all that was hers to the service of Christ. ‘Therefore she heard that saying of the Lord, ‘Her sins which are many are forgiven, for she loved much.’ 4

But we may be allowed to bring forward an example of much later time. William, Duke of Aquitaine, lived in the time of Saint Bernard. He was obdurate and persistent in holding to Anacletus the schismatic Pope and in opposing the lawful Pope. He had banished all the Catholic bishops from his dominions and bound himself by oath never to make peace with them, and because every one knew how hardened in evil was this man’s heart and feared his cruelty and pride, no one durst admonish him. It then pleased the Lord to visit the hard heart of this man by his servant Bernard, and to enkindle within his breast a great spark of divine love: suddenly from being a lion he became a lamb, no longer proud but humble, and instead of stubborn, most submissive. At a word from Saint Bernard he embraced the Bishop of Poitiers and with his own hand replaced him in his throne, and, a thing which seems to surpass all wonders, when he had sought from a certain hermit a punishment for his soul on account of the sins he had confessed and was bidden to put upon his bare flesh a brazen breastplate and so to fasten it with a key that no one would be able to loosen it, he obeyed forthwith, and when he was sent by the hermit to the Pope to receive his absolution, he went. But the Pope was doubtful about his penitence and desired to test his patience, and ordered him to make a pilgrimage to Jerusalem and to seek absolution from the Patriarch of that city; William at once set out on his journey and fulfilled the Pope’s command. And at last this very powerful prince became a humble monk, and there was scarce any one of his age who surpassed him in humility, patience, devotion, and piety. This indeed is ‘the change of the right hand of the Most High,’! this is the force of the divine fire which no hardness of heart can resist.

There remains the last property of fire, that it lessens the weight of heavy objects and lifts them easily aloft.

Why is it that men who are not fervent in divine love are hard of heart, and the prophet says of them, * How long will ye blaspheme mine honour, and have such pleasure in vanity and seek after leasing ?’? There is one reason in particular, that ‘the body which is corrupt, presseth down the soul,’ as Wisdom saith,3 and ‘a heavy yoke is upon the sons of Adam from the day that they go out of their mother’s womb till the day that they return to the mother of all things.’ 4 And that this yoke is heavy which presses down the soul within the mortal body the same writer explains a little farther on, adding ‘Wrath, envy, trouble, and unquietness, fear of death,’ and the rest,5 which are usually called passions of the mind, do so oppress a man that he looks at nothing but the earth to which he clings prostrate, and can neither rise up to seek after God nor can he hasten to run in the way of God’s commandments. But when the divine fire from on high begins to be enkindled in the human heart, at once those passions are weakened and put to death, and the heavy pressure begins to be lessened: and if the heat is increased, the human heart is set free without difficulty, it can take wings as of a dove, and can say with the Apostle, “Our conversation is in heaven,’ © And when the heart is expanded by the fire, it says with David, ‘I will run the way of thy commandments when thou hast set my heart at liberty.’ 7

Indeed since our Saviour said, ‘I am come to send CONSIDERATION OF FIRE 91 fire on the earth, and what will I, if it be already kindled ?’⁷ we have seen many persons made so free and light-hearted, that they have parted with all affection for worldly honours and riches, and have said to Christ ascending into heaven, ‘Draw us after thee.’ 2 Hence we find so many monasteries built, so many deserts begun to be inhabited, so many bands of virgins, to whom it was not only easy to run the way of the commandments, but also to rise up by the way of the Counsels and ‘to follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth.’ 3. |

O blessed fire, which consumest not, but enlightenest, and if thou dost consume, thou consumest but the harmful vapours, lest they should quench the life. Who will give to me to be seized upon by that fire which, with the light of true wisdom, will purge and take away the darkness of ignorance and the dullness of a false conscience: which will change the cold of indolence, indevotion, and negligence into a burning love which will never suffer my heart to be hardened, but will always soften it with its own heat and make it obedient and devout: which will at last remove the heavy burden of earthly cares and earthly desires and raise my heart on high on the wings of holy contemplation wherewith charity is nourished and increased, that I may say with the prophet, ‘Rejoice the soul of thy servant, for unto thee, O Lord, do I lift up my soul.’ 4