Spiritual Canticle

^15. This voice was heard by St. John, saying in the Revelation, “I heard a voice from heaven as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of great thunder.” And, lest it should be supposed that a voice so strong was distressing and harsh, he adds immediately, “The voice which I heard was as the voice of harpers harping on their harps.”^[140] Ezekiel says that this sound as of many waters was “as it were the sound of the High God,”^[141] profoundly and sweetly communicated in it. This voice is infinite, because, as I have said, it is God Who communicates Himself, speaking in the soul; but He adapts Himself to each soul, uttering the voice of strength according to its capacity, in majesty and joy. And so the bride sings in the Canticle: “Let Your voice sound in my ears, for Your voice is sweet.”^[142]

“The whisper of the amorous gales.”

16. Two things are to be considered here — gales and whisper. The amorous gales are the virtues and graces of the Beloved, which, because of its union with the Bridegroom, play around the soul, and, most lovingly sent forth, touch it in their own substance. The whisper of the gales is a most sublime and sweet knowledge of God and of His attributes, which overflows into the understanding from the contact of the attributes of God with the substance of the soul. This is the highest delight of which the soul is capable in this life.

17. That we may understand this the better, we must keep in mind that as in a gale two things are observable — the touch of it, and the whisper or sound — so there are two things observable also in the communications of the Bridegroom — the sense of delight, and the understanding of it. As the touch of the air is felt in the sense of touch, and the whisper of it heard in the ear, so also the contact of the perfections of the Beloved is felt and enjoyed in the touch of the soul — that is, in the substance thereof, through the instrumentality of the will; and the knowledge of the attributes of God felt in the hearing of the soul — that is, in the understanding.

18. The gale is said to blow amorously when it strikes deliciously, satisfying his desire who is longing for the refreshing which it ministers; for it then revives and soothes the sense of touch, and while the sense of touch is thus soothed, that of hearing also rejoices and delights in the sound and whisper of the gale more than the touch in the contact of the air, because the sense of hearing is more spiritual, or, to speak with greater correctness, is more nearly connected with the spiritual than is that of touch, and the delight thereof is more spiritual than is that of the touch. So also, inasmuch as this touch of God greatly satisfies and comforts the substance of the soul, sweetly fulfilling its longing to be received into union; this union, or touch, is called amorous gales, because, as I said before, the perfections of the Beloved are by it communicated to the soul lovingly and sweetly, and through it the whisper of knowledge to the understanding. It is called whisper, because, as the whisper of the air penetrates subtly into the organ of hearing, so this most subtle and delicate knowledge enters with marvelous sweetness and delight into the inmost substance of the soul, which is the highest of all delights.

19. The reason is that substantial knowledge is now communicated intelligibly, and stripped of all accidents and images, to the understanding, which philosophers call passive or passible, because inactive without any natural efforts of its own during this communication. This is the highest delight of the soul, because it is in the understanding, which is the seat of fruition, as theologians teach, and fruition is the vision of God. Some theologians think, inasmuch as this whisper signifies the substantial intelligence, that our father Elijah had a vision of God in the delicate whisper of the air, which he heard on the mount at the mouth of the cave. The Holy Scripture calls it “the whistling of a gentle wind,”^[143] because knowledge is begotten in the understanding by the subtle and delicate communication of the Spirit. The soul calls it here the whisper of the amorous gales, because it flows into the understanding from the loving communication of the perfections of the Beloved. This is why it is called the whisper of the amorous gales.

20. This divine whisper which enters in by the ear of the soul is not only substantial knowledge, but a manifestation also of the truths of the Divinity, and a revelation of the secret mysteries thereof. For in general, in the Holy Scriptures, every communication of God said to enter in by the ear is a manifestation of pure truths to the understanding, or a revelation of the secrets of God. These are revelations on purely spiritual visions, and are communicated directly to the soul without the intervention of the senses, and thus, what God communicates through the spiritual ear is most profound and most certain. When St. Paul would express the greatness of the revelations made to him, he did not say, “I saw or I perceived secret words,” but “I heard secret words which it is not granted to man to utter.”^[144] It is thought that St. Paul also saw God, as our father Elijah, in the whisper of a gentle air. For as “faith comes by hearing” — so the Apostle teaches — that is, by the hearing of the material ear, so also that which the faith teaches, the intelligible truth, comes by spiritual hearing.

21. The prophet Job, speaking to God, when He revealed Himself to him, teaches the same doctrine, saying, “With the hearing of the ear I have heard You, but now my eye sees You.”^[145] It is clear, from this, that to hear with the ear of the soul is to see with the eye of the passive understanding. He does not say, “I heard with the hearing of my ears,” but “with the hearing of my ear”; nor, “with the seeing of my eyes,” but “with the eye of my understanding”; the hearing of the soul is, therefore, the vision of the understanding.

22. Still, we are not to think that what the soul perceives, though pure truth, can be the perfect and clear fruition of Heaven. For though it is free from accidents, as I said before,^[146] it is dim and not clear, because it is contemplation, which in this life, as St. Dionysius says, “is a ray of darkness,”^[147] and thus we may say that it is a ray and an image of fruition, because it is in the understanding, which is the seat of fruition. This substantial truth, called here a whisper, is the “eyes desired” which the Beloved showed to the bride, who, unable to bear the vision, cried, “Turn them away, O my Beloved.”^[148]

23. There is a passage in the book of Job which greatly confirms what I have said of rapture and betrothal, and, because I consider it to be much to the purpose, I will give it here, though it may delay us a little, and explain those portions of it which belong to my subject. The explanation shall be short, and when I shall have made it, I shall go on to explain the other stanza. The passage is as follows: “To me there was spoken a secret word,” said Eliphaz the Themanite, “and, as it were, my ear by stealth received the veins of its whisper. In the horror of a vision by night, when deep sleep is wont to hold men, fear held me and trembling, and all my bones were made sore afraid: and when the spirit passed before me the hair of my flesh stood upright. There stood one whose countenance I knew not, an image before my eyes, and I heard the voice, as it were, of a gentle wind.”^[149]

24. This passage contains almost all I said about rapture in the thirteenth stanza, where the bride says: “Turn them away, O my Beloved.” The “word spoken in secret” to Eliphaz is that secret communication which by reason of its greatness the soul was not able to endure, and, therefore, cried out: “Turn them away, O my Beloved.” Eliphaz says that his “ear as it were by stealth received the veins of its whisper.” By that is meant the pure substance which the understanding receives, for the “veins” here denote the interior substance. The whisper is that communication and touch of the virtues whereby the said substance is communicated to the understanding. It is called a whisper because of its great gentleness. And the soul calls it the amorous gales because it is lovingly communicated. It is said to be received as it were by stealth, for as that which is stolen is alienated, so this secret is alien to man, speaking in the order of nature, because that which he received does not appertain to him naturally, and thus it was not lawful for him to receive it; neither was it lawful for St. Paul to repeat what he heard. For this reason the prophet says twice, “My secret to myself, my secret to myself.”^[150]

25. When Eliphaz speaks of the horror of the vision by night, and of the fear and trembling that seized upon him, he refers to the awe and dread that comes upon the soul naturally in rapture, because in its natural strength it is unable, as I said before,^[151] to endure the communication of the Spirit of God. The prophet gives us to understand that, as when sleep is about to fall upon men, a certain vision which they call a nightmare is wont to oppress and terrify them in the interval between sleeping and waking, which is the moment of the approach of sleep, so in the spiritual passage between the sleep of natural ignorance and the waking of the supernatural understanding, which is the beginning of an ecstasy or rapture, the spiritual vision then revealed makes the soul fear and tremble.

26. “All my bones were affrighted”; that is, were shaken and disturbed. By this he meant a certain dislocation of the bones which takes place when the soul falls into an ecstasy. This is clearly expressed by Daniel when he saw the angel, saying, “O my lord, at the sight of you my joints are loosed.”^[152] “When the spirit passed before me” — that is, “When my spirit was made to transcend the ways and limitations of nature in ecstasies and raptures” — “the hair of my flesh stood upright”; that is, “my body was chilled, and the flesh contracted, like that of a dead man.”

27. “There stood One” — that is God, Who reveals Himself after this manner — “Whose countenance knew not”: in these communications or visions, however high they may be, the soul neither knows nor beholds the face and being of God. “An image before my eyes”; that is, the knowledge of the secret words was most deep, as it were the image and face of God; but still this is not the essential vision of God. “I heard the voice, as it were, of a gentle wind”; this is the whisper of the amorous gales — that is, of the Beloved of the soul.

[140] Rev. 14:2

[141] Ezek. 1:24

[142] Cant. 2:14

[143] 1 Kings 19:12

[144] 2 Cor. 12:4

[145] Job 42:5

[146] Sect. 20.

[147] ‘De Mystica Theologia,’ ch. i.

[148] Cant. 6:4

[149] Job 4:12-16

[150] Isa. 24:16

[151] Stan. xiii. sect. 1.

[152] Dan. 10:16