The vestiges of creation, vocal prayers, even community reflections can make us present to the One who seeks our soul, but they make him present to us in a pale and filtered way. The living and abundant source is far away.
The soul can quench its thirst in the waters of the torrent, but the source of those waters is up there, in the glacier of eternal snow. The waters of the torrent are not enough to satisfy the ultimate aspirations of human loneliness.
The soul, as soon as it sips a glass of those waters, not being satisfied, sighs for the source itself, for the glacier, for itself and not for its vestiges or its photographs.
Don’t want to send me
today more messengers
who don’t know how to tell me what I want (Saint John of the Cross)
The soul is not satisfied with the vestiges of creation nor does it want intermediaries.Find something else.
It is not satisfied with the fresh waters that come skipping othrough the ravines.
Look for the spring itself.
It aspires to the very possession of the Presence.
He wants the ineffable and personal I-you relationship, that identifying communication from presence to presence, the immediate and personal experience with God.
But even in this case, assuming that this possessive and immediate relationship exists, it is consummated, once again, in the shadows, we are in the night of faith.
In other words: God reveals himself to the soul, yes. But it does so like the sun pouring through a thick grove of forest. It is the sun, but it is not the sun. It is a sifted sun; little pieces of sun spilled through the thicket.
But the soul is never satisfied, it always remains unsatisfied and continues to yearn ardently for full possession of itself. The biblical expression Face suggests the living presence of God; It refers to God himself as sensibly perceived in faith, in prayer.
That presence thickens, or rather, condenses when faith and love, in prayer, make the soul’s relationships with God more intimate and deeper.
We have to keep in mind that this presence is always <<dark>>, but even if it remains dark it becomes more alive or denser. Let me explain: when love and faith intensify, then the profiles of the face are perceived not clearer, but more alive, increasing the density of their presence.
I could be with a friend in the open of the night, under the stars. We don’t see each other. We remain in complete silence. We don’t touch each other. But I “know” that my friend is here, now, with me: I can vividly perceive (not sensitively) his presence.
In pure faith and in naked nature, in the silence and solitude of the heart, presence shines with absolute light.
Taken from the book. “Itinerary towards God” chapter III subtitle “No more messengers” by Father Ignacio Larrañaga
