The essentials of mysticism, and other essaysUnderhill, Evelyn
Religion
The essentials of mysticism, and other essays
Underhill, Evelyn
Mysticism
These objections, however, do not apply to the remarkable “metaphysical
visions”—sharp onsets of real transcendental consciousness—in which her
innate passion for the Absolute found satisfaction. Then, as she says,
God seemed to “put aside all intermediaries between Himself and the
soul;” and “bathed and irradiated by the Divine substance” she became
“aware of the Divine Abyss,” or perceived, as Julian of Norwich did,
“the Universe in a point,” swallowed up in the simple yet overwhelming
sight of God. Here lie, for us, the real interest and value of
Lucie-Christine’s confessions. She shares with Angela of Foligno and a
few other historical mystics the double apprehension of the Divine
Nature under its personal and impersonal forms; and as both utterly
transcendent to, yet completely immanent in, the human soul. In her
descriptions of these visions, this woman unread in philosophy displays
a grasp of the philosophic basis of religion which would do credit to a
trained theologian. Thus she says, “Il n’y a pas, ce me semble, de vue
intérieure qui égale celle de l’essence divine. Mon âme était comme
environnée de la substance divine en laquelle elle voyait ce caractère
essentiel qui nous est révelé par le mystère de la Sainte Trinité,
c’est-à-dire qu’il y a en Dieu l’unité et la distinction, le tout et le
particulier, et je sentais combien c’est folie de chercher quelque chose
en dehors de lui.” Again, “Étant profondément unie à lui dans la Sainte
Communion, je vis Dieu en tant qu’il est le souverain bien, et je
compris en même temps que le mal n’est que la négation du bien, un pur
_néant_.... Dans cette vue intellectuelle, je compris aussi combien sera
grande la confusion des pécheurs quand ils seront jugés, et qu’ils
verront que tout le mal qu’ils ont aimé, préconisé, adoré, se réduit au
néant! Avoir aimé le néant, avoir vécu pour lui, et perdre pour lui
l’Etre éternel!” Here Lucie’s view of sin is that characteristic of all
mystics; who can seldom be persuaded, however orthodox they may be in
other respects, that anything which is not good is real. We remember how
Julian of Norwich, also a natural contemplative of philosophic
temperament, says, “I saw not sin; for I believe it has no manner of
substance nor part of being.”
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