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Now understand the deepest essence of the soul: what the soul is. The
soul is an essence which is transparent to God and for which God too is
transparent And the soul is more than this: it is an essence which wants
to give delight to God, and which preserves ifs worth as long as it does
not fall away to things which are alien to it, and which are unworthy of
it. And when the soul preserves its worth, then it becomes a groundless
abyss where God is his own delight and in which he forever takes pleasure
in himself in the highest degree, as the soul does for ever in him. The
soul is the way that God goes when he proceeds from his depths to his liberty,
and God is the way the soul goes when it too enters its liberty, that is
into his ground, which is beyond the reach of all things but the soul's
depths. And as long as God is not wholly her own possession, she will not
be satisfied. |
This is how everyone
today loves themselves: they want to live with God in consolation, in wealth
and in splendour, and to share in the delight of his glory. We all wish
to be God with God. But, God knows, there are few enough of us who want
to live as men and women with his humanity or to bear his cross with him,
and to be crucified with him in order to pay for the sins of the whole
world...