Before reviewing and adding to some of the points which you can find in the myriad postings on this subjective, I want to refer to two aspects of the Illuminative State.
The first has to do with age and God's Plan for us. Yes, we can delay purification by being afraid of suffering and by not willing to embrace humility. But, God may allow a person to sit in the Dark Night for a very long time, only bringing the person to Illumination and Unity at the end of life.
Why? Some say that a certain mission in life may be more perfectly fulfilled if one is suffering. For example, St. John Paul II became a saint. He was not, like some of the younger and purer saints, like Gemma Galgani, a saint early. His long life, and particularly his long suffering in old age, was allowed by God to show the dignity of growing old and the call for all of us to love the aged.
St. John Paul II suffered purification publicly. That was part of his call in serving the whole Church. He had to endure illness and pain as part of his way, God's way, for all of us to learn many, many lessons.
In an age which idolizes youth, St. John Paul II brought our attention to the honor we need to give the elderly and the ill.
His old age and infirmities taught us that God's timing for purification may not be our timing.
We cannot compare saints. They all have their own way, but we can learn from them.
St. John Paul II's Illuminative State was less dramatic than one might expect. But, his life of patience and the living out of the virtues became more and more obvious as he aged.
Interestingly, one of his contemporaries, Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta had a very long Dark Night and short Illuminative and Unitive State. Ralph Martin suggests God allowed her long suffering because she was called to serve the most suffering of humans on earth-the homeless, those dying in the streets, the "unwanted."
She could identify with them in her long dryness of the Dark Night. But, the life of virtues must come after we set aside the ego, and it does.
The second point is that some saints come to this state early and show us in their lives the fruits of the Illuminative State. Now, I humbly differ with Ralph Martin, who writes that the states of purification overlap. I do not think so. The demarcation is the death of the ego and the growing of God's love in us.
Suddenly, one understands Scripture, the teachings of the Church, certain aspects of Christ, the Father, and the Holy Spirit. One may experience "infused knowledge" which God gives to the pure of heart.
In the Illuminative State, which we see in such saints clearly as St. Catherine of Siena, St. Therese the Little Flower and St. Bernard of Clairvaux, the life of the virtues blossoms into an everyday lifestyle.
It is "easy" to be virtuous, but one is not without temptation, until one dies, by the way. But, these do lessen, considerably.
I do want to mention one clear sign of the Illuminative State not mentioned in my other posts. St. Bernard teaches us that the carnal, affectionate love we have for Christ becomes rational, spiritual.
This type of love is a sign of the Illuminative State. It is still connected to the desire for God, but the love has been purified in the Dark Night. Some people have experienced this in marriage. One no longer feels the romance or the emotion of love, but wills to love. In that willing comes a zeal, a strength and a deep peace. One is grounded in love, a love which surpasses moods and difficulties.
Love becomes all the attributes found in St. Paul, in 1Corinthians 13, who is describing the love of the Illuminative State. I always find it interesting that married couples frequently choose this passage as one of their wedding readings, when in reality, this is the goal, not the reality of the day.
Charity is to be preferred before all gifts.
[1] If I speak with the tongues of men, and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal.
[2]
And if I should have prophecy and should know all mysteries, and all
knowledge, and if I should have all faith, so that I could remove
mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing.
[3]
And if I should distribute all my goods to feed the poor, and if I
should deliver my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth
me nothing.
[4] Charity is patient, is kind: charity envieth not, dealeth not perversely; is not puffed up;
[5] Is not ambitious, seeketh not her own, is not provoked to anger, thinketh no evil;
[6] Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth with the truth; [7] Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things. [8] Charity never falleth away: whether prophecies shall be made void, or tongues shall cease, or knowledge shall be destroyed. [9] For we know in part, and we prophesy in part. [10] But when that which is perfect is come, that which is in part shall be done away.
[11] When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child. But, when I became a man, I put away the things of a child. [12] We see now through a glass in a dark manner; but then face to face. Now I know in part; but then I shall know even as I am known. [13] And now there remain faith, hope, and charity, these three: but the greatest of these is charity.
This is a perfect description of a person in the Illuminative State. This is the "automatic" life of the virtues which happens at this point, after the Dark Night. How many married couples come to love each other more after trials? Many. That is the point of the graces of the sacrament of marriage.
How wonderful it must be to be known by and to know another person in such intimacy?
St. Paul is describing perfection, which becomes obvious after the Dark Night, through the freedom of the virtues, which hitherto were bound up by habits of sin and the predominant faults.
To be continued....
