About the year 500, a mystic and theologian known as
Pseudo-Dionysius observed and wrote of a three stage pattern in spiritual advancement, which he termed the purgative, illuminative and unitive stages.
Our effort to free our soul of its illegitimate attachments is termed the Purgative way. A life of virtue is the Illuminative way. Complete elimination of self will, including hidden legitimate self will for the purpose of union with Christ is the Unitive way.
Adam and Eve were born into the illuminative stage and
were expected to perfect their virtues, then progress into the unitive stage, with the first coming of Jesus Christ.
The purgative stage was never part of the plan, in the purgative stage we purge our soul of illegitimate will and action, that is sin. Sin was never a part of the plan, but it’s here now and everyone must take on a burden of sin and its damaging effects of the soul. We must now push through the purgative stage to reach our native ground which is the virtue of the illuminative stage, and the illuminative stage is just preparation for the unitive stage in which we make divine union with Jesus Christ.
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Jesus speaks, “The truest and most effective teaching that you can receive is this. Keep yourself apart from all men, if not in body, then in spirit. Keep yourself free from all unneeded images and words. Free yourself from everything that is accidental, binding or that brings worry. Always direct your spirit to the intimate contemplation of God, keeping me constantly present before your eyes and never turning them away from me. Direct all other exercises, be it poverty, fasting, vigils and all other types of chastisement toward this goal and make use of them to the extent that they advance this end.”
“Do all this and you shall attain the summit of perfection that not one person in a thousand comprehends because they make these exercises their goal and therefore wander about for years.”
This teaching of the prior two paragraphs, is known as
“brief rules for spiritual advancement”, given by Christ to St.
Henry Suso. It is essentially a rephrasing of Christ’s teaching in Matthew 22:37, “You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.” This phrasing by Jesus seems more attractive than his phrasing of the same idea, given to St. Suso. Suso’s is perhaps more useful because of its detail.
If our salvation is to become Christ, then every faculty of one’s soul must direct itself to Christ, in order that Christ may then incorporate us into his being. When one’s will is fully functioning as Christ’s will, our actions are then redirected to family, job, daily routine; but now as Christ in the world.
To think of, and be Christ 24/7 sounds burdensome and impossible, but it’s not. We do not become a first century carpenter, but a present day member of Christ, who is now the entire body of Christ: a mother, worker, student, unemployed, reforming sinner. We do not really have to learn more, or do 53
more, or even be more. The less we cling to the accidents of this life, the deeper our participation in Christ. On the proactive side, the sacraments are essential, as they are the agents of our incorporation into Christ, as we clear the way of selfishness.