Volume I, Treatise V, Chapter VIII

Of the Necessity of Meditation

Huco of St. Victor says, prayer cannot be perfect unless meditation goes before or accompanies it; and his doctrine is taken from St. Austin, who says, prayer is tepid without meditation. The proof of this proposition is easy; for if we do not exert ourselves to know and examine our weakness and misery, we shall be deceived and misinformed of our wants; and hence it will come to pass that in prayer we will not know what we ought to ask, nor will we ask it with the requisite earnestness and fervour.- There are many who, from not reflecting upon themselves, and from being ignorant of their own defects, presume too much upon themselves, which they would not do if they had a right knowledge of themselves. And hence it happens that in prayer they dwell on everything else, except what is most necessary for them. If you wish, then, to learn to pray, and to beg of God what you stand most in need of, employ yourself in considering exactly your defects and weaknesses. Having obtained perfect knowledge of these, you will then know what you ought to ask of God; and, as a man who feels himself pressed with necessity or misery, you will beg with all earnestness and fervour what is most proper for you. St. Bernard, speaking of the means of attaining perfection, says, No one becomes perfect on a sudden, it is by mounting, and not by flying, that we come to the top of the ladder. Let us, therefore, ascend. and let meditation and prayer be the two feet we make use of to do so. For meditation lets us see our wants, and prayer obtains for us relief from God. The one shews us the way, and the other leads to him, and, in fine, meditation makes us clearly discern the dangers that surround us, and prayer makes us happily avoid and escape them.” (Ber. serm. i. de S. Andrea.) But St. Austin goes yet farther, and says, that “meditation is the beginning and ground of all good.” In effect we cannot consider how good God is in himself; how good and merciful he is towards us; how much he loves us, and how much he has done and suffered for us, without feeling ourselves inflamed with love of so good a master. We cannot perceive our faults and infirmities without humbling and conceiving a contempt for ourselves; we cannot reflect upon our great negligence in the service of God, and the offences we have committed against him, without acknowledging, at the same time, that we deserve all kinds of chastisements. So that it is by the means and help of meditation that the soul comes to enrich herself with all the virtues that can render her agreeable in God’s sight.:

It is for this reason that the Holy Scriptures so particularly recommend meditation unto us: ‘“‘ Happy is the man,” says the Royal Prophet, “who meditates day and night upon the law of our Lord. He shall be like a tree that is planted by the river side, which brings forth its fruit in due season.” (Psalms 1:3) And in another place he says, “those who reflect upon his promises, shew that they seek him with all their heart.” (Ps. exviii. 2.) Or rather, it is that which makes them seek him after this manner. The same prophet, also speaking to God, says, “Give me understanding; I will make profound reflections upon your law, and I will observe it with all my heart.” (Psalms 118:34) “But if,” says he, in another place, “your law had not been the subject of my meditation, perhaps I had not remained in my humility, and I should have thereby perished” (Psalms 118:92); that is to say, as St. Jerome interprets it, I should have remained in those pains and miseries that surrounded me. But that which still ought to give us a high esteem of meditation is, what the saints say of it, to wit, that it is a help to all virtues and good works. “It is,” says Gerson, “the sister of spiritual reading; the nurse of prayer; the director of good actions, and in fine, the perfection and consummation of all heroic actions.” But to contrast it with the opposite vice, and thereby come to a better knowledge of it, we must know that the neglect of meditation is one of the chief causes of all the evils in the world, according to the words of the Prophet Jeremy: “The whole earth is desolate, because there is no one that makes reflection _ upon his heart.” (Jeremias 12:11) Would you know why the earth is desolate as to spiritual matters? It is because there is scarce any one that enters into himself, and ruminates upon the ineffable mysteries of religion and the infinite bounties of God. For who is there that durst be so bold as to commit a sin, if he | considered that God died for sin; and that sin is so great an evil that it required God should become man, in order that by his death he might entirely make satisfaction for sin, even to the rigorous justice of his heavenly Father? And who would sin, if he considered that one mortal sin is punished with the eternal pains of hell? Or if he but seriously reflect upon these words —‘ Go ye cursed into everlasting fire?” (Matthew 25:14) If we considered seriously the everlasting duration of an unhappy eternity,.and that as long as God is God, so long we are to burn in hell, would there be any one so mad or foolish, think you, as, for a moment of pleasure, to expose himself to such eternal torments? St. Thomas of Aquin said, that he could not comprehend how a person in mortal sin could have any joy or repose. And without doubt the saint had a great deal of reason; because man is not certain of the enjoyment of any one moment of his life, and yet knows infallibly, that should he die in this state, he would be for ever damned. We read that the most costly viands, and the most enchanting music, could not impart pleasure to Damocles, when he perceived a naked sword which was hanging over his head, and which was fastened by a single hair only; for he trembled every moment lest the hair should break, and the sword fall, and cause his death. What fear, therefore, ought that man to have who, in the midst of the criminal delights and filthy pleasures of this world, knows that at every instant he is threatened not only with a temporal, but with an eternal death / That all depends upon the slender thread of life: that every moment he may die suddenly; and that lying down in perfect health, he may the next morning find himself buried in hell? A great servant of God said very well upon this subject, that he thought, in a Christian commonwealth, there ought to be only two sorts of prisons; the one for heretics, and the other for fools. For either we do or do not believe that there is a hell destined for the eternal punishment of sinners. If we do not believe it, we deserve to be cast into the inquisition as heretics; and if we believe it, and still remain in sin, we deserve to be ranked amongst fools and madmen; as having our understanding vitiated and infected with the greatest folly that can be imagined. It is certain, if we practised it as we might, that meditation would serve as a bridle to restrain us from falling into sin. It is for this reason that the devil, who knows the advantage we would derive from it, endeavours continually, by all sorts of means, to withdraw us from meditation. The first thing that the Philistines did to Samson, after they had made him their prisoner, was to put out his eyes. It is the first thing the devil, in like manner, does to sinners. If he cannot entirely deprive them of the eyes of faith, he endeavours at least to deprive them of their use; and to make them believe in such a manner, as if they believed not at all— “That seeing they may not see, and hearing they may not hear, nor understand.” (Matthew 13:13) He hinders them from reflecting upon what they believe; and makes them think no more on it than if they believed it not at all, which is all one for the compassing his ends; because, since he cannot put out their eyes, he at least shuts them. It is the same thing, whether we open our eyes in the dark, or shut them in the light; because, in either ¢case, we see nothing. But meditation is of so great and particular importance, that it not only opens the eyes of our understanding, but also imparts light to discern the most obscure mysteries of faith.

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