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3
The image of our mind must
therefore be clothed also in the three
theological virtues by
which the soul is purified, illuminated, and
perfected; and thus the
image is repaired and is made like the heavenly
Jerusalem and part of the
Church militant, which, according to the Apostle,
is the child of the
heavenly Jerusalem. For he says: "But that Jerusalem
which is above is free,
which is our mother" [Gal., 4, 26]. Therefore the
soul which believes in,
hopes in, and loves Jesus Christ, Who is the Word
incarnate, uncreated, and
spirated, that is, the way and the truth and the
life, where by faith he
believes in Christ as in the uncreated Word, which
is the Word and the
splendor of the Father, he recovers spiritual healing
and vision: hearing to
receive the lessons of Christ, vision to look upon
the splendor of His light.
When, however, he yearns with hope to receive
the spirated Word, through
desire and affection he recovers spiritual
olfaction. When he embraces
the incarnate Word in charity, as one receiving
from Him delight and
passing into Him through ecstatic love, he recovers
taste and touch. When these
senses are recovered, when he sees his spouse
and hears, smells, tastes,
and embraces Him, he can sing like the Bride a
Canticle of Canticles, as
was done on the occasion of this fourth stage of
contemplation, which no one
knoweth but he that receiveth it [Apoc., 2,
17]. For it occurs in
affective experience rather than in rational
consideration. On this
level, when the inner senses are renewed in order to
perceive the highest
beauty, to hear the highest harmony, smell the highest
fragrance, taste the
highest delicacy, apprehend the highest delights, the
soul is disposed to mental
elevation through devotion, wonder, and
exultation, in accordance
with those three exclamations which are in the
Canticle of Canticles. Of
these the first arises from the abundance of
devotion, by which the soul
becomes like a pillar of smoke of aromatic
spices, of myrrh and
frankincense [Cant., 3, 6]; the second, from the
excellence of wonder, by
which the soul becomes as the dawn, the moon, and
the sun, like the series of
illuminations which suspend the soul in wonder
as it considers its spouse;
the third, from the superabundance of
exultation, by which the
soul, overflowing with the sweetest delight, leans
totally upon its beloved
[Cant., 8, 5].
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