Volume I, Treatise I, Chapter IV

The More We Apply Ourselves to Spiritual Things, the More Earnestly Shall We Desire Them

“Tory that eat me shall yet hunger, and they that drink me shall yet thirst” (Ecclesiasticus 24:29), says the Holy Ghost, speaking of wisdom. St. Gregory says, there is this difference between the pleasures of the body, and the pleasures of the soul, that we desire the former with great impatience, when we have them not, and when we have possessed them, we set but little value on them. For example, in the world every man, according to his birth, quality, and profession, longs very much for some civil, military, or ecclesiastical preferment. Scarce, however, does he obtain the object of his desire, when he begins to contemn it, and to fix his eyes on something else, which, when obtained, he is, in like manner, as soon weary of: in short, unable to regulate his ambition or to set bounds to his desires, he still gapes after something new, and never rests satisfied with what he has. But it is not so in spiritual things. For when we have them not, we feel for them disrelish and aversion; but when once we possess them, it is then we begin to know their value; it is then we set still higher value on them, and the more we taste them, the more earnestly we seek after them. The reason of this difference, says this great saint, is, that the enjoyment of temporal goods unfolds to us their vanity and emptiness; so that not finding in them the satisfaction we hoped for, we contemn what we possess; and expecting to find in something else the content we seek after, we suffer ourselves to be carried away by new desires. But still we deceive ourselves—these new desires will meet the same fate as the others. For, as we are not made for this world, there is in it nothing, which can fully satiate our appetite. This is what our Saviour taught the Samaritan woman, when he told her, “Whoever drinks of this water shall thirst again” (John 4:13); because all the pleasures of this life cannot quench the thirst of man who is created for heaven. But as to spiritual goods and pleasures, we never love or desire them so much, as when we possess them; because then we best know their value, and the more perfectly we possess them, the greater is our desire and thirst after them. The same St. Gregory says, it is not to be wondered, that we do not desire spiritual things, when so far from having experienced how sweet they are, we have not even begun to taste them: “For how can any one love that he is ignorant of?” (Hom. 16.) The Apostle St. Peter also says, “If nevertheless you have tasted how sweet the Lord is” (1 Peter 2:3); and the Royal Prophet, “Taste and see how sweet the Lord is.” (Ps. xxxiii- 9.) Because when once we begin to taste the Lord, and to relish spiritual things, we shall experience such sweetness in them, as to render our desires of them insatiable. By these words, then, “those who eat me shall yet hunger, and those who drink me’ shall yet thirst,” we must:

understand, that the more assiduously we apply ourselves to heavenly things, the more frequently and fervently shall we feel the desire of possessing them.

But you will ask me, how can this accord with what our Saviour says to the Samaritan, “He that shall drink of the water I shall give him shall never thirst’’? (John 4:13) Here the Son of God says that we shall never thirst, if we drink: of the water he shall give; and the Holy Ghost, by the mouth of the Wise Man, says, “That the more we drink, the more we shall thirst.” How shall we reconcile one with the other such different assertions? The holy Fathers reply, that by the words of Jesus Christ to the Samaritan, we are to understand, that whoever drinks of the living water therein described, “shall never thirst after sensual pleasures;” because the sweetness of spiritual things will give him an absolute disrelish for things of the world, and will render them quite insipid. As when you have tasted honey, says St. Gregory, everything else will seem sour and bitter; in like manner, when we have tasted God and spiritual things, all that savours of any affinity to and contagion of flesh and blood will become insipid and excite a loathing. But as to the words of the Wise Man, “Those who eat me shall yet hunger, and those who drink me shall yet thirst” (Ecclesiasticus 24:29), we must consider them to relate to spiritual things, and we must understand, that the more we taste them, the more we shall feel our hunger and thirst for them to increase. For being then come to a better knowledge of their worth, and having experienced their sweetness, we shall, in consequence, be impelled to be more zealous in seeking after them. It is thus the holy doctors reconcile these two passages.

But then, how can this accord with what our Saviour says again in the gospel, “Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after justice; because they shall be filled”? (Matthew 5:6) “Here he says that he will fill those who shall hunger and thirst after justice; and there the Wise Man assures us, that such as shall eat and drink of wisdom, shall always find the same hunger and thirst as before. Now, how is it possible that things so opposite can exist together? how is it possible to reconcile assertions so different? It is very easy to doit. It is the privilege and the ‘excellence of spiritual things to satisfy, and at the same time, to excite our appetite; to quench, and still to excite our thirst; and, in a word, to cause, that the more we eat and drink of them, the more we hunger and thirst after them. But then it is a hunger, which, instead of making us faint and weak, renders us strong and hearty; and it is a thirst, which, instead of pain, imparts great pleasure to us. It is true, that it is only in heaven we shall be perfectly satisfied, according to these words, ‘‘T shall be satisfied when I shall see thee in thy glory” (Psalms 16:15); and these others, ‘“‘ They shall be inebriated with the plenty of thy house.” (Psalms 35:9) However, the above words of the Wise Man must be understood according to the interpretation of St. Bernard, who says, we shall never be in such manner, satisfied with the sight of God as to be without a desire of, and thirst after his sight; because, instead of giving us disgust, it will excite in us perpetually a new desire of seeing and enjoying him. In the Apocalypse, St. John, speaking of the blessed who assisted at the throne, and before the Lamb, says, “‘ That they sung as it were a new song.” (Apocalypse 14:3) This is to show us, that this song will always contain, something new, and will excite in us new joy, and ‘new admiration, which will make us continually cry out, as the children of Israel did in first seeing the manna fall in the desert, “‘Manhu?” that is to say, “What is this?” It is just so with spiritual things here below; for being an emanation from those above, they, in consequence, participate of their qualities and virtue. On the one hand they satisfy and fill our hearts, and on the other, they excite in us extreme hunger and thirst. The more we devote ourselves to them, the more we relish them; and the more we enjoy them, the more we con- ‘tinually hunger and thirst after them. But then this very hunger will be a kind of satiety, and this thirst a most sweet and agreeable refreshment to the soul. All this ought to excite in us a high idea of spiritual things; it ought to make us set a great value on them, and devote ourselves to them with such real and fervour, that regardless of, and scorning all the allurements and vanities of this world, we may say with the prince of the apostles, “Lord, it is good for us to be here.” (Matthew 17:4)

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