Finally, returning to the book by Henry Edward Cardinal
Manning, The Interior Mission of The Holy
Ghost , one sees the intuitive
understanding of this good leader of the Church.
Like St. Angela, another reflective person who was granted
graces by God, one sees that the great advantage of the saints of the past was
that they could find silence in their worlds.
Cardinal Manning assumes that one has the ability to find
times of silence. So does St. Angela. As noted
on this blog before, silence is essential for a life of holiness.
Silence is not the same as exile, or imprisonment. Silence
is a gift of being in the world with time and space to pray, to study, to
reflect.
I cannot understand those who never have silence and who
flee from silence. What could be the reasons for good people to avoid silence?
I have one reason and that is the fear of death. Silence
makes one face death, the death of self-will, the death of desires. Noise blocks out thoughts of sin, of the four
last things.
Noise covers up the need for listening to God.
Cardinal Manning writes this in his chapter on “The Gift of
Counsel”: “…the characteristic mark of these latter days; I mean the perversion
of the intellect. The intellect of man is withdrawing itself from the light of
faith, and therefore from conformity to God. And this intellectual perversion
is the source of a systematic immorality in men, in households, and in states.
The intellect in man is the image of God in us. Ir is the light of the soul;
and if that light be darkened, how great is the darkness.”
Manning refers to the rise of Gnosticism, the rise in
“illuminism” which we would call relativism or subjectivism. He refers to rationalism.
In all of these heresies, the idea that God is knowable has
been undermined. Revelation is denied.
Manning notes that those who deny Revelation have replaced God with
themselves.
He also stresses that the seven gifts of the Holy Ghost
perfect, that is, sanctify the intellect. I have written about this before in
the long perfection series. Manning
tells us that the sanctification of the intellect is “the illumination of the
reason of man by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit of God’ it is the submission
of the intellect of man to the authority of the Divine Teacher; it is the
conformity of the reason, and therefore of the conscience, of man to the truth
and to the law of God.”
How does one allow God to perfect the intellect? In his chapter on the gift of knowledge,
Manning states that most of the sins in the world come from the perversion of
the intellect, “which is the corruption and darkness of the reason; and that if
we would heal our own souls, we must begin by rectifying the false action and
perversion of our intellect.”
How different is this emphasis than on the overly emotional
approaches of pastors today, who insist on “healing” rather than right reason.
Both may be necessary, but to ignore the necessity of right
reason for the pursuit of holiness begs the question for the need for healing.
One must ask the correct questions if one is to be healed, let us say, for
example, of rebellion.
Manning writes, “The reason or intellect in us is that part
of the soul which is nearest to God. The Son of God became man by assuming a
reasonable nature: when He took upon Himself a created nature He did not take
it from the irrational creatures, He took it from the reasonable creation. And
the order of the Incarnation was this: He took a human body by assuming a human
soul, and He assumed a human soul by uniting His eternal intelligence with a
created intelligence; so that the human reason is that part of our nature which
is in the most immediate contact with God, and the reason which is in us
therefore in a special way the image of God.”
One cannot develop a relationship with God without use of
the intellect. One cannot use the intellect except in silence and in
reflection.
Manning notes, “It is the light of God in the soul, whereby
we are able to know God and ourselves, and to judge of truth and falsehood, and
of right and wrong.”
This light of the soul becomes extinguished by sin, and as I
wrote a few days ago, sin makes one stupid, literally.
Reason is not merely a combination of electrical impulses in
the brain, but the gift of God, the light of God which joins our intelligence
to His.
One cannot do this in noise and constant distraction.
Manning stresses that one actually become “deformed” in the measure in which
one’s image leaves off reason.
One must admit that one of the great evils of Protestantism
is the emphasis on feeling and anti-intellectualism. But, the sin of “intellectual pride” seems to
exist more among the agnostics and atheists, who refuse to conform their minds
to the Mind of Christ.
Manning writes of the time in history in which man’s
intellect was illumined by grace, when the light of God became obvious in the
world. “’Thy word is a light unto my feet.’ Such was once the state of the
Christian world, and such it is still, wherever faith reigns over the hearts of
men.”
Much upon which to think…to be continued….