Yesterday
I was in a hospital, following the case of a friend. His doctor
couldn't understand why he had fevers, going up and down. After trying
antibiotics for 10 days, thinking of an infection, seeing that the
fever is still there the doctor deduced it can be that. He then had a
guess, and ordered a Scan. The scan revealed a stone between the
kidney and the bladder. The stone measured exactly 5,5 mm. We know
now exactly where it is and what was happening. Quite urgently my
friend will have to go through a surgery to extract that calculus,
avoiding possible complications.
We
know as well that the development of Neuroscience (and many other
sciences) boomed these last 20 years because of the development of
new generations of scanning machines (the fMRI).
Few
years ago (without these machines) we wouldn't have been able to diagnose (at least so
rapidly) many diseases.
What
is a scanning machine? It is a machine, that allows us to delve in
the human body, and see, with greater detail and precision, what the
naked eye can't see.
_________________
Well
that fact made me think a lot about Spiritual Theology. All what it addresses, is directly non-visible: the soul (mind and will, memory, imagination, inner senses) and the
spirit (the upper part of the soul). The "Master in Spiritual Life" is
like a Doctor : he needs to diagnose the state of the person he sees. And in order
to diagnose, he needs to see inside.
Only
few saints had that special gift of seeing in the heart. Would this
mean only very few people can offer Spiritual Direction? Only few
people can teach Spiritual Theology? “a blind man cannot guide
another blind one, they will both fall” (Luke 6:39) says Jesus.
Without these "scanning machines" and "powerful
analysis means" they have today available Doctors were sort of “blind”. They had to use other means
in order to “see” (in fact: “guess” or “deduce by more visible symptoms" and "gathering knowledge fro the greatest number of cases”).
How
does a human being access his own soul and the soul of the others?
The same for the spirit (this highest part of the soul that
enters in the direct contact with God, and is, by
definition, super-conscious) how can we access it?
For
sure one cannot dismiss the help of the Holy Spirit in order to help
the Spiritual Master, to remind him, to open his eyes, in order to
“see” what is happening. But the Holy Spirit doesn't work in a
miraculous magical way. He supposes the presence of our effort, that is: our correspondence to the Grace of our state and call: our study, our experience and our
discernment received through spiritual direction.
Do
you see what I mean? In order to build, in the “Spiritual Master”,
these eyes that will help him/her see what is happening in this
mysterious, mystical, world of "spiritual life", the Holy Spirit is
asking him to do three things, to grow in the practice of them, and
to excel in them:
1- experience: delving in the experience of God, and not just reading or studying.
And growing in the experience of God.
2- science: learning about the experience of God by reading, studying, and
receiving the grace of understanding what he/she reads and the grace
of recognising (connecting what he reads/knows with what he
experiences). And on top of all that, studying and doing research in
that area.
3- discernment: becoming first a disciple, seeking “spiritual direction”;
receiving the needed discernment. Humility is necessary, and
listening to God who speaks, teaches and corrects through the
spiritual director.
As
we see, this is a combined effort, not just a Grace given from Above.
This combined effort between the Holy Spirit and the person called to
that service, for years, will end up by building "new eyes" that will
help him recognise, see, analyse and measure what is happening in the
soul of his brothers and sisters.
So
we have the call, received, to follow the steps of the “spiritual
masters”, starting to go down in humility, experience, science,
recognition, discernment, growing in all these elements, for years.
This will generate like new eyes. The eyes of the Guide.
This
requires an effort. Studying requires an effort. Holiness requires an
effort. This is how the salt remains salty (see Mt 5).
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