Salesian Literature

Chapter 6  :  Contemplation is easy – the third way it differs from meditation

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Contemplation’s simple survey is made in one of these three ways…

 

Sometimes we look at just one of God’s perfections (as, for instance, his infinite goodness), without thinking of his other attributes or qualities; like a bridegroom who concentrates his gaze on his bride’s beautiful complexion, so that, while he sees her face, he does not particularly notice her features, her charm, or the other beautiful things about her.  So, occasionally, the mind merely considers God’s supreme goodness. Although it is aware of his justice, his wisdom, his power, it is concentrating on his goodness, towards which the single gaze of its contemplation is directed.

 

Sometimes too we gaze intently on several of God’s infinite perfections, but with one glance that takes them all in at once; like the man whose gaze travels over his bride from head to foot, admiring the whole picture, but noting nothing in particular.  He would he hard pressed to describe which necklace or what dress she was wearing, what sort of expression she had, or how she was looking; he would only know that she was utterly beautiful and charming.  So, in contemplation, we quite often simply reflect on several of God’s perfections at once – unable to give a definite description of any of them, but only that the whole of what we see is perfect in goodness and beauty.

 

Finally, at other times the object of our reflection is not any of God’s perfections, singly or severally, but some activity or work of his – such, for instance, as the activity of mercy by which God forgives sins, or his work of creation, or his raising of Lazarus from the dead, or his conversion of St. Paul; in the same way as a bridegroom may not notice his bride’s eyes but only the sweet way she looks at him, may not be aware of her lips but only of the charming words that fall from them.  And then, Theotimus, the soul knows a thrill of love, not just for the activity it is thinking about, but for God from whom it comes.

 

Use which of these three ways you will, contemplation has this to be said for it: it s a pleasing occupation.  It presumes that we have found God and his holy love, that we possess and enjoy him, saying: I found him, so tenderly loved; and now that he is mine and I will never leave him, never let him go (Cant. 3;4).

 

That is how it differs from meditation, which is nearly always difficult, tiring, demanding a great deal of thought, as the mind makes its way from reflection to reflection in widespread search of its love’s beloved or its beloved’s love.

 

Meditation is like Jacob working to win Rachel; contemplation resembles his longed-for possession of her, all his work forgotten (cf. Gen. 29:18).

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