Libro Segundo — Capítulo 18
The Ladder of Secret Contemplation
The soul ascends to divine treasures through the hidden, ladder-like process of contemplation.
It is set forth how this secret wisdom is also a ladder. 1. But it remains now to see the second point—namely, how this secret wisdom is also a ladder. It’s important to understand that there are many reasons why we can call this secret contemplation a ladder. First, because just as with a ladder people climb up and scale the goods, treasures, and things that are in fortresses, so also by this secret contemplation, without knowing how, the soul climbs up to scale, know, and possess the goods and treasures of heaven. The royal prophet makes this clear (Ps. 83:6-8),✦ 83:6-8), when he says: Blessed is the one who has your favor and help, because such a one has set his ascents in his heart in the valley of tears, in the place he set; because in this way the Lord of the law will give blessing, and they will go from virtue to virtue as from step to step, and the God of gods will be seen in Zion, who is the treasure of the fortress of Zion, which is blessedness.✦12
The Dynamics of Humility and Exaltation
True contemplation involves a rhythmic movement of being humbled and exalted, mirroring the paradox of the spiritual path.
2. We can also call it a ladder because, just as a ladder has the same steps for going up as it does for coming down, so it is with this secret contemplation: the very same communications it makes to the soul, which raise her up in God, also humble her in herself. For the communications that truly come from God have this property: they raise and humble the soul at once. On this path, descending is ascending, and ascending is descending, since whoever humbles himself is exalted, and whoever exalts himself is humbled (Lk.3 14:11). And besides this—that the virtue of humility is greatness—in order to exercise the soul in it, God often makes her climb this ladder so that she may come down, and makes her come down so that she may climb up, so that what the Wise Man says may be fulfilled (Prov.4 18:12): namely, before the soul is exalted, she is humbled; and before she is humbled, she is exalted.5 3. All of this—speaking now in natural terms—any soul that wants to look carefully into it will see clearly enough: how on this path (setting aside the spiritual that is not felt) it suffers so many highs and lows; how after the prosperity it enjoys, some storm and hardship soon follows—so much so that it seems that calm was given to prepare and strengthen it for the next scarcity; and how, after misery and storm, abundance and calm also follow—so that it seems to the soul that they first set it in that vigil in order to give it that feast.6 This is the ordinary pattern and exercise of the state of contemplation until one reaches the quiet state: it never remains in one condition, but is always ascending and descending.
Jacob's Ladder and the Science of Love
The ladder of contemplation is a secret science of love that leads the soul to union with God, modeled after Jacob's vision.
4. And the reason for this is that, since the state of perfection—which consists in perfect love of God and contempt of self—cannot exist except with these two parts, namely knowledge of God and of oneself, the soul must of necessity first be exercised in both: now being given a taste of the one, which enlarges it, and now being made to experience the other and humbled, until, once the perfect habits have been acquired, the going up and down finally ceases, the soul having already arrived and finding itself with God, who is at the end of this ladder, on whom the ladder leans and rests.✦ For this ladder of contemplation, which, as we've said, comes from God, is figured by that ladder Jacob saw while he slept, on which angels of God were going up and down—to man and from man to God—while God himself was resting at the top of the ladder (Gn. (Genesis 28:12). Scripture tells us this happened at night while Jacob was asleep to help us understand how secret this path and ascent to God is, and how different it is from human knowledge. This is plain enough, for ordinarily what is most profitable in it—going on losing and annihilating oneself—one counts as worse, and what is least worth—finding one's consolation and pleasure, in which one ordinarily loses more than gains if one sets oneself to it—one counts as better.7 5. But speaking now a little more substantially about this ladder of secret contemplation, we'll say that the main property for which it's called a ladder here is that contemplation is a science of love—which, as we've said, is an infused loving knowledge of God that at the same time enlightens the soul and kindles it with love, raising it degree by degree up to God, its Creator, because only love unites and joins the soul with God.8 So then, so that this may be seen more clearly, we will here mark out the steps of this divine ladder, briefly stating the signs and effects of each one, so that by them the soul may form some idea of which step it is on. We will distinguish them by their effects, as St. Bernard and St. Thomas do; it's impossible to know them in themselves through natural means, because this ladder of love is, as we've said, so secret that only God measures and weighs it.
Read the original Latin
Declárase cómo esta sabiduría secreta sea también escala.
1. Pero resta ahora ver lo segundo, conviene saber, cómo esta sabiduría secreta sea también escala. Acerca de lo cual es de saber que por muchas razones podemos llamar a esta secreta contemplación escala.
Primeramente, porque así como con la escala se sube y escalan los bienes y tesoros y cosas que hay en las fortalezas, así también por esta secreta contemplación, sin saberse cómo, sube el alma a escalar, conocer y poseer los bienes y tesoros del cielo. Lo cual da bien a entender el real profeta (Sal. 83,6-8), cuando dice: Bienaventurado el que tiene tu favor y ayuda, porque en su corazón este tal puso sus subidas en el valle de lágrimas en el lugar que puso; porque de esta manera el Señor de la ley dará bendición, e irán de virtud en virtud como de grado en grado, y será visto el Dios de los dioses en Sión, el cual es el tesoro de la fortaleza de Sión, que es la bienaventuranza.
2. Podemos también llamarla escala porque, así como la escala, esos mismos pasos que tiene para subir, los tiene también para bajar, así también esta secreta contemplación, esas mismas comunicaciones que hace al alma, que la levanta en Dios, la humillan en sí misma. Porque las comunicaciones que verdaderamente son de Dios esta propiedad tienen: que de una vez levantan y humillan al alma; porque en este camino el bajar es subir, y el subir, bajar, pues el que se humilla es ensalzado, y el que se ensalza, humillado (Lc. 14, 11). Y, demás de esto de que la virtud de la humildad es grandeza, para ejercitar al alma en ella, suele Dios hacerla subir por esta escala para que baje, y hacerla bajar para que suba, para que así se cumpla lo que dice el Sabio (Pv. 18, 12), es a saber: Antes que el alma sea ensalzada, es humillada; y antes que sea humillada, es ensalzada.
3. Lo cual, hablando ahora naturalmente, echará bien de ver el alma que quisiere mirar en ello, y cómo en este camino (dejando aparte lo espiritual que no se siente) echará de ver cuántos altos y bajos padece, y cómo tras la prosperidad que goza, luego se sigue alguna tempestad y trabajo, tanto, que parece que le dieron aquella bonanza para prevenirla y esforzarla para la siguiente penuria, y cómo también, después de la miseria y tormenta, se sigue abundancia y bonanza; de manera que le parece al alma que, para hacerla aquella fiesta, la pusieron primero en aquella vigilia. Y éste es el ordinario estilo y ejercicio del estado de contemplación hasta llegar al estado quieto: que nunca permanece en un estado, sino todo es subir y bajar.
4. Y la causa de esto es que, como el estado de perfección, que consiste en perfecto amor de Dios y desprecio de sí, no puede estar sino con estas dos partes, que es conocimiento de Dios y de sí mismo, de necesidad ha de ser el alma ejercitada primero en el uno y en el otro, dándole ahora a gustar lo uno engrandeciéndola, y haciéndola ahora probar lo otro y humillándola, hasta que, adquiridos los hábitos perfectos, cese ya el subir y bajar, habiendo ya llegado y viéndose con Dios, que está en el fin de esta escala, en quien la escala se arrima y estriba.
Porque esta escala de contemplación, que, como habemos dicho, se deriva de Dios, es figurada por aquella escala que vio Jacob durmiendo, por la cual subían y descendían ángeles de Dios al hombre y del hombre a Dios, el cual estaba estribando en el extremo de la escala (Gn. 28, 12). Todo lo cual dice la Escritura divina que pasaba de noche y Jacob dormido para dar a entender cuán secreto y diferente del saber del hombre es este camino y subida para Dios. Lo cual se ve bien, pues que, ordinariamente, lo que en él es de más provecho, que es irse perdiendo y aniquilando a sí mismo, tiene por peor, y lo que menos vale, que es hallar su consuelo y gusto, en que ordinariamente antes pierde que gana, si a eso se hace, tiene por mejor.
5. Pero, hablando ahora algo más sustancialmente de esta escala de contemplación secreta, diremos que la propiedad principal por que aquí se llama escala es porque la contemplación es ciencia de amor, la cual, como habemos dicho, es noticia infusa de Dios amorosa, que juntamente va ilustrando y enamorando el alma, hasta subirla de grado hasta Dios, su Criador, porque sólo el amor es el que une y junta al alma con Dios.
De donde, porque más claro se vea, iremos aquí apuntando los grados de esta divina escala, diciendo con brevedad las señales y efectos de cada uno, para que por allí pueda conjeturar el alma en cual de ellos estará. Y así, los distinguiremos por sus efectos, como hace san Bernardo y santo Tomás; porque conocerlos en sí, por cuanto esta escala de amor es, como habemos dicho, tan secreta que sólo Dios es el que la mide y pondera, no es posible por vía natural.
Scripture echoes
- ↩Ps.83.6-Ps.83.8 — For they have taken counsel together with one heart; against you they cut a covenant. Ps.83.7 — the tents of Edom and the Ishmaelites, Moab and the Hagrites, Ps.83.8 — Gebal and Ammon and Amalek, Philistia with the inhabitants of Tyre
- ↩Ps.83.6-Ps.83.8 — For they have taken counsel together with one heart; against you they cut a covenant. Ps.83.7 — the tents of Edom and the Ishmaelites, Moab and the Hagrites, Ps.83.8 — Gebal and Ammon and Amalek, Philistia with the inhabitants of Tyre
- ↩Gen.28.12 — And he dreamed, and behold, a ladder was set on the earth, and its top reached to heaven; and behold, the angels of God were ascending and descending on it.
Notes
- 1 ↩'Señor de la ley' renders the psalm's legislator/lawgiver; kept literal as 'Lord of the law' to track the Spanish.
- 2 ↩Quoted psalm span is a candidate; numbering is Vulgate Ps 83:6-8 (often Ps 84 in modern Protestant Bibles). Final Moses resolution belongs to a later stage.
- 3 ↩de una vez rendered as "at once" (simultaneous raise-and-humble), not merely "once".
- 4 ↩Y, demás de esto de que is slightly compressed; rendered as "And besides this—that..." to keep the concessive/additional force without inventing missing words.
- 5 ↩San Juan’s paraphrase of Prov 18:12 applies the saying to the soul’s alternating humbling and exaltation; translated from his Spanish wording, not from a stock English Bible version.
- 6 ↩vigilia / fiesta preserves the liturgical pair of vigil-eve and feast; the source uses this as the natural image for trial preceding consolation.
- 7 ↩irse perdiendo y aniquilando a sí mismo: rendered as progressive self-loss and annihilation (mystical self-emptying), not physical destruction.
- 8 ↩Spanish 'noticia infusa ... amorosa' is San Juan's technical phrase for infused loving knowledge (not mere information). 'Propiedad' here means defining characteristic/property, not ownership.
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