Spiritual life follows a path of
development. Most church leaders and theologians do not give emphasis to this
truth. While they may know this from their study of spiritual theology or
spirituality, they do not make use of this knowledge in their pastoral care.
Thus they simply classify Christians as church goers or non-church goers, as
practical Catholics or nominal, as genuine Christians or mere cultural
Christians, as laymen and laywomen, religious or priests.
They do not seem to realize that these Christians
have a spiritual life and it would be most helpful for these Christians to be
led safely and fruitfully along the path or stages of the spiritual life. There
are of course some Christians who have a spiritual director to guide them, but
both they and their directors do not seem to appreciate the usefulness of
knowing in what stage of the spiritual life they are. If they did, they would
assiduously teach these stages or path to other Christians, since this would
immensely benefit the life of these Christians.
All things that are alive develop. And
there are stages in the development of life. We know the stages of the
development of a human person: birth, adolescence, adulthood, maturity, old
age. And we have developed sciences to take care of each of these stages. We
even know the stages of the development of a one-celled bacteria. But we do not
know the stages of the development of the spirit in us which is the most
important element in our life.
What is most surprising is that more than
70 years ago a Dominican theologian by the name of Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange,
O.P., wrote a book THE THREE AGES OF THE INTERIOR LIFE
Prelude of Eternal Life. This by agreement
of writers is his best-known book, a two-volume study of the mystical life, the
life that all Christians are supposed to live. It is considered to be a summa
in this field of study. It is also mentioned that many people, whether laymen,
religious or priests, have found this book very valuable.
The question that we ask is, Why is the
teaching of this book by Fr. Garrigou-Lagrance not spread by our church leaders
if this is very valuable for the Christian life? A cynic would answer, Perhaps
it is because these church leaders themselves do not live a spiritual life and
so they do not know these stages and how knowing these stages would help the
Christians entrusted to their care.
If what Karl Rahner said is true that the
devout Christian of the future will either be a ‘mystic,’ one who has
experienced ‘something,’ or he will cease to be anything at all (“Christian
Living Formerly and Today,” in Theological Investigations VII, trans. David
Bourke (New York: Herder and Herder, 1971), then we need to know the stages in
the mystical or spiritual life. This would help the Christian mystic safely reach
his or her full development. Otherwise his or her growth would be stunted or he
or she would be led astray.
