Light, Life, and Love: Selections from the German Mystics of the Middle Ages · Chapter 33On the Threefold Natural Unity of Man
This chapter is not translated yet. You are reading the original.
NOW consider attentively: there are three kinds of natural unity in all men, and, moreover, of supernatural unity among the just. The first and supreme unity of man is in God; for all creatures are immanent in this unity, and if they were to be separated from God, they would be annihilated, and would become nothing. This unity is essential in us according to nature, whether we are good or bad. And without our co-operation it makes us neither holy nor blessed. This unity we possess in ourselves, and nevertheless above us, as a beginning and support of our life and essence.
Another unity exists in us naturally—that of the supreme forces, in so far as they actively take their natural origin in the unity of the spirit or of the thoughts. This is the same unity as that which is immanent in God, but it is taken here actively and there essentially. Nevertheless the spirit is entirely in each unity according to the integrity of its substance. We possess this unity in ourselves, above the sensitive part of us; and thence are born memory, intelligence, and will, and all the power of spiritual works. In this unity the soul is called spirit.
The third unity which is in us naturally is the foundation of bodily forces in the unity of the heart, the source and origin of bodily life. The soul possesses this unity in the lively centre of the heart, and from it flow all the material works and the five senses, and the soul draws from thence its name of soul (anima); for it is the source of life, and animates the body—that is to say, it makes it living and preserves it in life. These three unities are in man naturally, as a life and a kingdom. In the inferior unity we are sensible and animal, in the intermediate unity we are rational and spiritual; and in the superior unity we are preserved according to our essence. And this exists in all men, naturally.
Now these three unities are adorned and cultivated naturally, like a kingdom and an eternal abode, by the virtues, in charity and in the active life. And they are adorned still better and more gloriously cultivated by the internal exercises of a spiritual life. But most gloriously and blessedly of all by a supernatural contemplative life.
The inferior unity, which is corporeal, is adorned and cultivated supernaturally by external practices, by perfect conduct, by the example of Christ and the saints, by carrying the cross with Christ, by submitting our nature to the command of Holy Church and the teachings of the saints, according to the forces of nature and prudence.
The other unity which resides in the spirit and which is absolutely spiritual, is adorned and cultivated supernaturally by the three Divine gifts, Faith, Hope, and Charity, and by the influx of grace and Divine gifts, and by good will directed to all the virtues, and the desire to follow the example of Christ and of holy Christendom.
The third and supreme unity is above our intelligence and yet essentially in us. We cultivate it supernaturally when in all our works of virtue we have in view only the glory of God, without any other desire but to repose in Him, above thought, above ourselves, and above everything. And this is the unity from which we flowed out when we were created, and where we abide according to our essence, and towards which we endeavour to return by love. These are the virtues which adorn this triple unity in the active life.
Now we proceed to say how this triple unity is adorned more sublimely and cultivated more nobly by interior exercises joined to the active life. When a man, by love and right intention, elevates himself in all his works and in all his life towards the honour and glory of God, and seeks rest in God above all things, he will wait in humility and patience and abandonment of self and in the hope of new riches and new gifts, and he will not be troubled or anxious whether it pleases God to grant His gifts or to refuse them. So men prepare themselves for receiving an internal life of desires; even as a vessel is fitted and prepared, into which a precious liquid is to be poured. There is no vessel more noble than the loving soul, and no drink more necessary than the grace of God. Man will thus offer to God all his works and all his life, in a simple and right intention, and in a zest above his intention, above himself, and above everything, in the sublime unity in which God and the loving spirit are united without intermediary.