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Book VII
OF THE UNION OF THE SOUL WITH HER GOD, WHICH IS PERFECTED IN PRAYER.
CHAPTER XI. HOW SOME OF THE HEAVENLY LOVERS DIED ALSO OF LOVE.
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All the elect then, Theotimus, died in the habit of holy love; but further,
some died even in the exercise of it, others for this love, and others by
this same love. But what belongs to the sovereign degree of love is, that
some die of love; and then it is that love not only wounds the soul, so as
to make her languish, but even pierces her through, delivering its blow
right in the middle of the heart, and so fatally, that it drives the soul
out of the body;—which happens thus. The soul, powerfully drawn by the
divine sweetness of her beloved, to correspond on her side with his sweet
attractions, forcibly and to the best of her power springs out towards this
longed-for beloved who attracts her, and, not being able to draw her body
after her, rather than stay with it in this miserable life, she quits it and
gets clear; flying alone, as a fair dove, into the delicious bosom of her
heavenly spouse. She throws herself upon her beloved, and her beloved draws
and ravishes her to himself. And as the bridegroom leaves father and mother
to cleave to his dearly beloved, so this chaste bride forsaketh the flesh to
unite herself to her beloved. Now this is the most violent effect of love in
a soul, and one which requires first a great offstripping of all such
affections as keep the heart attached either to the world or to the body, so
that as fire, having by little and little separated an essence from its
mass, and wholly purified it, at length brings out the quintessence,—even so
holy love having withdrawn man's heart from all humours, inclinations, and
passions, as far as may be, does at length urge out the soul, to the end
that by this death, precious in the divine eyes, she may pass to eternal
glory.
The great S. Francis, who in this subject of heavenly love ever returns
before my eyes, could not possibly escape dying by love, because of the
manifold and great languors, ecstasies and faintings which his love of God
gave him; but besides this, God, who had set him forth to the view of the
whole world as a miracle of love, willed that he should not only die for
love but also of love. For consider, I beseech you, Theotimus, his death.
Perceiving himself upon the point of his departure, he caused himself to be
laid naked upon the ground, where having received as an alms a habit which
they put on him, he discoursed to his brethren, animating them to the love
of God and the Church, had our Saviour's passion read, and then with an
extreme fervour began Psalm cxli.: I cried to the Lord with my voice; with
my voice I made supplication to the Lord; and having pronounced these last
words: Bring my soul out of prison, that I may praise thy name; the just
wait for me, until thou reward me, he died,—in his forty-fifth year. Who
sees not, I beseech you, Theotimus, that this seraphical man who had so
earnestly desired to be martyred and to die for love, died in the end of
love, as in another place I have described?
S. Magdalen having for the space of thirty years lived in a cave which is
yet to be seen in Provence, having seven times each day bad raptures and
been borne up in the air by angels, as though she went to sing the seven
canonical hours in their choir; in the end, upon a Sunday, she came to
Church, where her dear Bishop, S. Maximin, finding her in contemplation, her
eyes full of tears and her arms stretched out, communicated her, and soon
afterwards she delivered up her blessed soul, which once again, for good and
all, went to her Saviour's feet, to enjoy the better part, which she had
already made choice of here below.
S. Basil had contracted a strict friendship with a physician, a Jew by
nation and religion, with the intention of bringing him to the faith of
Jesus Christ, which nevertheless he could not effect till such time as, worn
out with fastings, watchings and labours, being upon the point of dying, he
inquired of the physician what opinion he had of him, conjuring him to speak
frankly. The physician did so, and having felt his pulse:—there is no
further remedy, said he; before the sun sets you will depart this life. But
what will you say, replied the patient, if to-morrow I shall be alive? I
will become a Christian, I promise you, said the physician. With this the
saint prayed to God, and obtained a prolongation of his own temporal life,
for the good of his physician's spiritual life, who having seen this miracle
was converted, and S. Basil rising courageously out of his bed, went to the
Church and baptized him with all his family, then returning to his chamber
and to his bed, having entertained himself a good space with our Saviour in
prayer, he holily exhorted the assistants to serve God with their whole
heart, and finally, seeing the angels approach, and pronouncing with an
extreme delight these words: O God I recommend unto thee my soul, and
restore it into thy hands; he died. But the poor converted physician seeing
him thus pass away, embracing him, and melting into tears over him:—"O great
Basil, said he, indeed if thou hadst willed thou wouldst no more have died
to-day than yesterday." Who does not see that this death was wholly of love?
And the Blessed Mother (S.) Teresa of Jesus revealed after her death that
she died of an impetuous assault of love, which had been so violent that
nature not being able to support it, the soul had departed towards the
beloved object of its affections.
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