If you aren't growing you are doing it wrong

Book 2, Chapter 2

-Part 1-

Continued even more …

“This foundation being laid, the soul has nothing to do save to pass all its life in rejoicing that God is God.” ~Caussade (Page 55.)

It seemed disingenuous to breeze through Father Caussade’s comment here without revisiting the notion of Christian growth and the development of one’s spiritual maturity, as we have done above for some time.

Indeed, it is because he said, “This foundation being laid,” that I had to stop my writing for many days and consider the condition of “this foundation” – not only in me, but in all of us.

For a moment, let’s consider Father Caussade’s full description of the foundation: “The great and solid foundation of the spiritual life is to give oneself to God in order to be the subject of His good pleasure in everything internal and external, and afterwards to forget oneself so completely, that one considers oneself as a thing sold and delivered to the purchaser to which one no longer has any right, in such a way that the good pleasure of God makes all our joy and that this happiness, glory and being become our sole good.” (Page 55)

Only then does he go on to say, “This foundation being laid …”

The material for such a basis for establishing a life of faith is made up of a will to submit to God. No one can “rejoice that God is God” without submitting their will to him. Those who know God as God either submit to him, or remain stubbornly lost, or are darkened by evil.

          It is upon this “great and solid foundation,” as Caussade puts it, that we may then move on to “grow completely into Christ,” as Paul states in Ephesians 4 – to be “fully mature with the fullness of Christ Himself.”

What is the true condition of this foundation among those of us who dare say we walk with God? Do we not see how exclusively and single-mindedly, and with what commitment this foundation is composed? Do we not see its beauty?

More often than not, when reading the words of long-past spiritual shepherds, their comments about the initial phase of spiritual growth (beginners) are beyond any one of us who might think we have adequately moved on in our faith. Myself, thinking that my spiritual journey by this time should be at least at mid-sea, I have found instead that I haven’t left the harbor. My shoes are still dry.

Even during the best occurrences of spiritual growth, the believer is faced with the same ever-fading horizon that plagued the aging king in Tennyson’s “Ulysses” – “Yet all experience is an arch wherethrough Gleams that untraveled world whose margin fades Forever and forever when I move.” As I progress, I see how much farther I have yet to go to reach my drifting goal. I sail toward, but never seem to reach, the receding horizon.

In his 12^th-Century work Ladder of Monks, Guigo II wrote that the function of meditation on Scripture is like squeezing much juice from a small grape. At this, he says, “I am still an ignorant beginner, and it is only with difficulty that I have found something in which to draw up these few drops.” (Page 71)

We want to become better at knowing God, but once we make progress, we realize what little way we have come and how unsearchable he is. The believer’s ever-fading horizon is the sheer magnitude of God.

Even so, we are encouraged not to look back on the field of discoveries that we have made, but to face forward with the plow and continue on. Moses, thank goodness, did not pitch a tent where he saw the burning bush awaiting succeeding fiery interludes with God. Moses is a good example of a spiritual person who was free to move on from one solid experience with God to others. The ground there was called holy by the Lord, yet no altar was built there, nor did the people of Israel camp around an unburnt bush for the rest of time.

From this well-made foundation, as described by Father Caussade, our vantage point from which we perceive God through our inner man is lifted, as though we are children on our father’s shoulders, seeing and enjoying just that much more fully.

Why would the believer then stop building at this point – satisfied to have constructed a passable foundation? What composer would think he had finished an orchestral score when he had only marked out the blank measures and affixed the time and key signatures? Is there not now music to create? Cannot the imagination be summoned to fill pages with notes, and eventually a concert hall with music?

What soul can say that its sole good is the good pleasure of God, and that its life is about rejoicing that God is God? Let us admit together that we are all far from this. We must as well note a careful distinction: Some have the same heart as the psalmist, who yearned for God in his heart. Some have not this heart for yearning. Those who are satisfied should take warning from their inert inner man. As Jesus pointed out, only those who thirst will be satisfied.

How far along am I in loving God? Notice, I didn’t say “studying God,” or “understanding God,” or even “loving what God has done.” There are, in fact, many reasons to love God, but we are required to do more than love these reasons. Note the reasons if you like, but get on with it. Grow in your love for God. If this is not happening, as far as your Christian faith is concerned, you are doing it wrong.