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How
does one become a saint, a man of God? What stages
must one go through? What virtues must he develop?
Saint
Anthony offers many, notable points of departure for a theology
of becoming spiritual.
If communion with God is a "state" of the
Christian, it can not be ignored that this new state is a
"life" (la vita nova, cf. Rom 6,4). Like any life,
it supposes a birth and a development. The sacraments
preside at the origin and at the becoming of this life and
offer, therefore, the dynamic plot of Christian spirituality.
But,
there is no Christian life if man does not add his own collaboration
to the action of God. A child in his Christian life upon
being baptised, the Christian must develop to reach the maturity
that is eternal life. The
saint places particular focus on the psychological-ethical
aspect of the phases in the path to perfection:
- the
dynamic of the organism of virtues;
- an
itinerary of spiritual life susceptible to reflection
and immense development.
From
Anthony's doctrine on virtue, one that could be called a
true dialectic of the spiritual becoming shines through.
The
path toward true spiritual perfection is one in substance,
even though it has various phases. Saint Anthony does not
present it theoretically or abstractly, as do studies of aesthetic
or mystic theology, but concretely in the Christian
who follows that path with difficulty, often limping and sometimes
even slipping.
As
for divine intervention, perfection has three characteristic
moments which correspond to the three classic levels
of the Christian spiritual life: that of the incipient,
the proficient and the perfect.
- At
the first level - of the incipient - purification is predominant;
- in
the second - of the proficient - the opening of the
soul to truth and its clothing in virtue;
-
in the third - of the perfect - the soul throws open
the door to communion with God, with whom he often
experiences gentle effusions.
The
first level coincides with the return to God from a life of
sin, and it absorbs man in a labour full of struggle and
purification. Exiting from the mire of sin, he still carries
with him the stigmata of a sad heredity: bad habits to overcome,
a past to expiate. To the inner disagreement between body and
spirit must be added the external deceit of the world and the
Devil. Two "great friends" who act together to the
spiritual damage of the believer. Necessary virtues: vigilance
and constance. |
