Contemplation part 7

 Contemplation and passive prayer ( part 7):

Though all the value of our sufferings is derived from the merits of Christ,yet in his condescension He awaits our cooperation in such a way that we also merit our own salvation and that of others. Christ suffers again in us, His members. Thus we " fill up those things   that are wanting of the sufferings of Christ". It is important too to realize that we deal with all suffering without any reservation ,even such as may come to us by human agency or may be the result of our own follies. To their own detriment , through want of knowledge or lack of faith, many make such reservations, forgetting that " to them that love God, all things work together unto good" even sin, as Augustine assures us.

At any stage of the spiritual life suffering borne in this spirit will have a very beneficial effect, and God does send or permit it in order that the soul may be freed from imperfections and attachments. But in a special way God permits a soul to be afflicted, and very grievously to accomplish the active purification .Since the soul finds herself powerless to perform this purification in a perfect degree, God intervenes and by a process of suffering, often of the severest kind, only be realized by those who experience them. These sufferings are known as Passive purgation or purification . Those who desire a deep knowlege of the subject must read and re-read very carefully the Dark Night of the Soul by St . John of the Cross.

Certain observations and references to examples may be made here. The precise nature, the intensity and the duration of these sufferings depend on the state of the soul and the designs of God on it. They are usually of long duration but are intermittent, and God thus keeps the soul from being crushed. They are called by St. John a Purgatory of Love, and he makes no secret that the sufferings are comparable to those of the Purgatory of Fire and gives the consoling assurance that those who suffer this Purgatory of Love ecape the other.

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To be continued....