THE WISDOM OF GOD'S PLAN OF REDEMPTION

Deuteronomy 18:15 Moses prophesied, "The Lord God will raise up for you a prophet from your brethren as He raised me up. You shall listen to Him in whatever he tells you. And it shall be that every soul that does not listen to that prophet shall be destroyed from the people."

John 5:45 Jesus claims Moses' prophesy: "Do not think that I will accuse you to the Father: there is one that accuseth you, even Moses, in whom ye trust. For had ye believed Moses, ye would have believed me: for he wrote of me. But if ye believe not his writings, how shall ye believe my words?

Here's another fulfilled prophesy from Ezekiel:

EZEK 36:21 "And I have regarded my own holy name, which the house of Israel hath profaned among the nations to which they went in...(but)I will sanctify my great name, which was profaned among the Gentiles, "that the Gentiles may know that I am the Lord," saith the Lord of hosts,..And I will pour upon you clean water, (baptism)and you shall be cleansed from all your filthiness, and I will cleanse you from all your idols.(definition of Christian perfection) And I will give you a new heart, and put a new spirit within you: (Spirit of Jesus Christ) and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and will give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my spirit in the midst of you:(Holy Spirit in the Church) and I will cause you to walk in my commandments, and to keep my judgments, and do them."

Is God, then, a religious babbler, leaving unfulfilled prophesies all over the Old Testatment? Or do we find it true, just as prophesied, that those who reject this, Jesus, even today, live spiritually dead lives, barren of hope, with stony hearts, outside the Kingdom of "the People of God." And if these prophesies have been fulfilled as indicated, we must raise a question as to why God confirms the Truth in the Life of this man, Jesus. Why do miracles follow this man Who claims to be God, and Who fulfills all the prophesies? Why does God continue to confirm the Truth of this Jesus and His life-changing power, even now, as He tranforms hearts of stone into hearts of flesh, and as He transforms the contemporary world through each of us? If we be deceived by a world of suffering transformed into joy, and despair into hope, and death into life, through the Cross of this Jesus, then it is God Who is the Deceiver!

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The Redemption of the Human Race through Jesus Christ was the merciful plan devised by Almighty God to reflect the Quality of the Ineffable Love which constitutes His Being. His Nature includes the Mystery of Three Persons in One God, the archetypal Family after which all human families are patterned. As it is at its best between persons on the earth He created, Love in God is Self-Giving, a personal exchange of goodness and an ecstatic surrender of Persons, offering all that each has to the other. The Love within the Trinity of Persons is sacrificial, giving Itself away in total surrender to the Will of the Other, to the Beauty, Goodness and Ecstatic Wonder of the Beloved. Such loving sacrificial giving of Self, when connected with an Incarnational Body of flesh and blood, extends to the giving of the "life force" of that being as represented by "the blood." For greater love hath no man than this, "that a man lay down his life for his friends." (John l5:13) The voluntary shedding of blood, and the voluntary separation of flesh and blood in sacrificial death, then, becomes the expresson of the deepest level of Self-Giving Love, as found in the Persons of the Holy Trinity, and as manifested in the world through the prophesied sacrifice, suffering, and death of the flesh and blood Humanity of the God-Man Messiah.

But how can we believe in such foolishness on the part of our Divine King, the All-Powerful, Omnipotent God of Creation? Surely it's just a myth and wishful thinking, on our part, to think He would lower Himself to our creature level? How can we believe in the Depth of His Humility implicit in this Mystery? How can we fathom the abyss of dereliction to which His Infinite Dignity was subjected, as it identified Itself, for all time, with the nature of created being, clasping humanity to Its Merciful Heart in the Person of the Word, the Son of God?

And "Where is the wise man? Where is the scholar? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has God not made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since in the wisdom of God, the world through its wisdom did not know him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe." For it is written, "I will destroy the wisdom of the wise"(1Cor)- for the foolishness of God is wiser than the wisdom of man, as we see in the prophesy of the Redemption of man through Jesus Christ, clearly revealed in the writings of Isaiah:

"Who hath believed our report? and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed? And he shall grow up as a tender plant before him, and as a root out of thirsty ground: there is no beauty in him, nor comeliness: and we have seen him, and there was nothing to see, that we should be desirous of him:

"Despised, and the most abject of men, a man of sorrows, and acquainted with infirmity: and his look was as it were hidden and despised, whereupon we esteemed him not. Surely he hath borne our infirmities and carried our sorrows: and we have thought him as it were a leper, and as one struck by God and afflicted. But he was wounded for our iniquities, he was bruised for our sins: the chastisement of our peace was upon him, and by his bruises we are healed.

"All we like sheep have gone astray, every one hath turned aside into his own way: and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was offered because it was his own will, and he opened not his mouth: he shall be led as a sheep to the slaughter, and shall be dumb as a lamb before his shearer, and he shall not open his mouth. He was taken away from distress, and from judgment: who shall declare his generation? because he is cut out of the land of the living: for the wickedness of my people have I struck him.

"And he shall give the ungodly for his burial, and the rich for his death: because he hath done no iniquity, neither was there deceit in his mouth. And the Lord was pleased to bruise him in infirmity: if he shall lay down his life for sin, he shall see a long-lived seed, and the will of the Lord shall be prosperous in his hand.

"Because his soul hath laboured, he shall see and be filled: by his knowledge shall this my just servant justify many, and he shall bear their iniquities. Therefore will I distribute to him very many, and he shall divide the spoils of the strong, because he hath delivered his soul unto death and was reputed with the wicked: and he hath borne the sins of many, and hath prayed for the transgressors.(Isaiah 53)

So Jesus' violent death was not the result of chance in an unfortunate coincidence of circumstances, but is part of the mystery of God's plan which involves becoming Man through Incarnation. We can begin to see why a God of such Other World Purity chose a redemptive plan involving flesh and blood sacrifice such as those described in the Old Testament Temple sacrifices, the Passover Meal, and in the ultimate Flesh and Blood sacrifice of the Lamb of God in the New Testament. God chose such a plan because it was a vehicle for expression of the very nature of His Being, and because the creatures He wanted to save are flesh and blood creatures, as we remind ourselves when we look in the mirror. And His redemptive action extends beyond our souls to include our whole being, including our flesh and blood bodies, which will enjoy resurrection to Eternal Life. So in this plan, flesh and blood, of Incarnate God and man, become the instruments and sacraments of saving grace. In this plan, through the Sacrament of the Eucharistic Meal, The Sacrifical Lamb becomes the Bread of Life, giving grace to our being, body and soul, "Unless you eat the flesh and drink the blood of the Son of Man you shall not have life in you."

"After agreeing to baptize him along with the sinners, John the Baptist looked at Jesus and pointed him out as the "Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world". By doing so, he reveals that Jesus is at the same time the suffering Servant who silently allows himself to be led to the slaughter and who bears the sin of the multitudes, and also the Paschal Lamb, the symbol of Israel's redemption at the first Passover, in Egypt. By participation in the communal meal of the Paschal Lamb, the people of Israel received the redemptive graces of Passover. By participation in the communal meal of Jesus' Body and Blood in the Eucharist, established during the Passover Meal at the Last Supper, Christians, receive the redemptive graces and forgiveness of sins made available to mankind by the Sacrifice of the Lamb of God. By the shedding of the blood of the animal lamb in the Temple ceremony, the people of Israel sought mercy and forgiveness of their sins. By the voluntary shedding of the Blood of the Divine Lamb, God provided the grace of forgiveness for the sins of the whole world.(developed from Catholic Catechism)

"He(the contemplative) is privileged to understand that the Father's self-revelation in the Son, through the Son's descent into flesh, takes the form of a sacrifice of love in which the Son makes himself poor (2 Cor 8:9); through his total abandonment of himself the Son becomes an unmistakable sign of the origin and nature of divine love, which thus glorifies itself. Consequently the contemplative's gaze continually returns with great attention to the humanity of Jesus. It is the inexhaustible treasure entrusted to us by the heavenly Father. In a true sense he has "despoiled himself" (Jn 3:16) of him to whom he is always pointing: ipsum audite! Listen to Him! (Mt 17:5). (Hans Urs von Balthasar, "Jesus Christ, The Inexhaustible Treasure")

THE BEATIFIC VISION AND CONTEMPLATION

So the Vision of God for which we hunger, and which is satisfied by the Beatific Vision in the next life, and of which we get a taste in this life through Contemplative Prayer, is a vision of absolute goodness clothed in the radiance of "Infinite Beauty." In the clear presence of this vision in the next life, coming to us through the Person of the Word, Jesus Christ, we experience a Transforming, "Torrent of Delight" so Powerful that we need special help from God, both in order to See It, and in order to withstand the Power of Its supernatural splendor. For our resurrected being will then come in direct, intuitive contact with the Uncreated Essence, a created participation in God's vision of himself in the Person of the Word, experiencing his attributes and his glory,and participating in the intoxicating splendor of the Holy Spirit love within the Trinity, a love in which we shall be transported from glory to glory within every fiber of our transformed, resurrected being.

For the clear, Beatific Vision of God is like silent spiritual surges of torrents of delight caused by viewing the hydrogen explosions in the life of the Sun, with complete impunity, from a few feet away; and the Sun of our Solar System is but a pale reflection of the power and glory of the One Who created a Universe of Suns. It is a vision in which we go out of ourselves in the ecstasy of a spiritual exchange, with the realization of the Truth that we have captured the Heart of this incomprehensibly wonderful Being, Whose Love for us is now powerfully present within, wounding us with a radiant beauty that, at the very moment we experience it, transforms and "divinizes" us.! It is our personal participation in the experience of the "consuming fire," and the supreme happiness which is the love within the Holy Trinity. We, as adopted children, are invited to share in this archetypal family and its "home life" within the Trinity. And as St Teresa said, when it is minimally experienced through the flesh in this life, in the Transforming Union with the Word, it is a thousand leagues removed from human love. And it is a thousand leagues more powerful! For its substance is "Infinite Spirit," informing our resurrected being with the joy of participation in eternal life and the radiance of supernatural glory!

The Catholic Encyclopedia tells us:

"To enable it to see God, the intellect of the blessed is supernaturally perfected by the added strength of the light of glory (lumen gloriae). For the beatific vision transcends the natural powers of the intellect; therefore, to see God the intellect stands in need of some supernatural strength, not merely transient, but permanent as the vision itself. This permanent invigoration enables the souls in glory to see God with their intellect, just as material light enables our bodily eyes to see corporeal objects. Although the blessed see God, they do not fully comprehend His the "Infinite Mystery of His Being," for it is not possible for any creature to receive the infinite power of comprehending Him as He comprehends Himself.

"Therefore, the Beatific Vision does not extend to everything that God sees in His Essence. For it cannot, by a single act of the intellect, represent every creature distinctly, as God does to Himself; such an act would be infinite, and an infinite act is incompatible with the nature of a created and finite intellect. The Blessed see all the perfections of God and all the Persons of the Trinity; and yet their vision is limited, because it has neither the infinite clearness that corresponds to the Divine perfections, nor does it extend to everything that actually is, or may still become, an object of God's free decrees. Hence it follows that one blessed soul may see God more perfectly than another, and that the beatific vision admits of various degrees.(JOSEPH HONTHEIM, Catholic Encyclopedia, "Heaven")

RELATIONAL LOVE IN GOD'S NATURE

For in the unity of the Godhead there are loving relations among "Persons". And this is the revelation regarding God's nature which Jesus Christ, the Son of God, came upon earth to deliver to the world, and which provides the basis for understanding the Church's contemplative theology as well as the unselfish, relational nature of self-giving love. For in contrast to Eastern religion seeking solitary bliss from cosmic consciousness, Christian contemplation seeks a loving relationship with Jesus Christ, characterized by self-giving between God and man, and among the Persons of the Holy Trinity. And in our lives in the world, this self-giving quality to Christian Love is manifested in "service" to God and our brothers and sisters.

So as Contemplatives, in imitation of the Son, and His Self-Emptying described by von Balthatsar above, we must make a similar sacrifice in which we abandon self and become poor as He did. As fallen men, however, our self-emptying differs from His in that we are inflated by the false-self of pride and sin. So through a process of dark nights, penance, and detachment, we agree to a self-emptying of pride, egotism, and the effects of sin, leading to a "spiritual transformation" that will involve us in a radical change from our current selfish, self-centered way of living, to a new life of union with the humility and Self-Giving Love of Christ.

For the goal of contemplative transformation is participation in the same love by which the Divine Persons eternally give themselves to the Ineffable Beauty and Goodness seen in One-Another. For Love, intoxicated by the vision of perfection found in the Other, surrenders in an ecstasy of Exchange and Self-Giving to the Beloved. For even at the natural level, love creates a bond of unity between individual persons such that they take on the characteristics of each other. And at the level of the Infinite, Love contains a unity such that the Persons, distinct by Relationship, Generation and Procession, are mysteriously the same "I Am," in a Unity whereby Each may state with Jesus, "He who has seen me has seen the Father!" And as St Thomas Aquinas comments, "So love is called the unitive force, even in God, yet without implying composition; for the good that He wills for Himself, is no other than Himself, Who is good by His essence." (Summa Theologica, "Love," Part V, Question 20)

SUFFERING IN THE CONTEMPORARY RELIGIOUS MILIEU

However, in today's religious milieu, we find the Good News of Jesus Christ to be an anachronism, not worthy of mention in the pop-culture spirituality of the Global Village. For in the words of John Paul II: "Globalization...does not favour a process of discernment and of mature synthesis, but fosters a relativist attitude which makes it more difficult to accept Christ as "the way, the truth and the life" for everyone.(John Paul II, "Contemplation Does Not Mean Forget The Earth," May, 2001)

Fortunately, however, the Truth is not easily vanquished. And as demonstrated by the transformed lives of many saints, those believers who faithfully follow the traditional spirituality of the Church find authentic spiritual transformation leading to a marriage of Self-Giving Love between the soul and Almighty God: "They shall not hunger nor thirst any more, neither shall the sun fall upon them, nor any heat (Isa. xlix, 10; Apoc. vii, 16). They shall be inebriated by the plenty of thy house, and thou wilt make them drink of the torrent of thy pleasure."(Ps. xxxv, 9).

Most of our suffering in this short life is due to our separation from God, and our desires and our human love being attached, in a self-centered manner, to the things and people of this world, We were created to spend Eternity in a completely self-giving relationship of Personal Love with our Divine Creator. Before Original Sin, and in the perfection of this relationship, the All-Giving, All-Loving Spirit of God was the substantial center of our life. Created things were accidental pleasures that we appreciated, but primarily because they gave glory to God, and because they enhanced our relationship and our center in God. We were substantially complete and happy without them, since they were but a pale reflection of the Good that we enjoyed in the Creator and Source of all Good.

Then along came the Tempter, offering us the opportunity to exercise our freedom and to "demand our rights" as men. God allowed this temptation so that we might engage in an act of loving choice that would image the quality and freedom in His love for us. Instead of choosing to give ourselves away in an act of mature self-giving to our True Beloved, we exercised our "will-power" to reject Him and His Love. And in the proces, we shifted our center from participation in the happiness of our supernatural, All-Giving God Consciousness, from which we were now eternally cut-off, to a center in our natural, possessive, self-centered consciousness.

And our happiness now depended on "possessions," and the accidental ups and downs of a natural world of pleasure and pain that was insubstantial and "was passing away." We rejected the wisdom of the infinite, and the self-giving of the supernatural, in favor of a self-centered, finite existence with our understanding confined to a highly limited, natural, "psychic cocoon." In the process of breaking our bond with God, an impenetrable veil was drawn between us and the supernatural realm. And so it remains, today, for so many unhappy souls who seek ultimate happiness in finite human relationships, sex, drugs, power, and material prosperity, and who say they know nothing of an infinite supernatural realm and a supernatural God.

ST JOHN OF THE CROSS AND CONTEMPLATIVE PREPARATION FOR THE GIFT OF DIVINE UNION

Now since this unhappy condition is the lot of everyone who walks the face of the earth, God in His Mercy has devised a plan which satisfies Divine Justice, and which re-establishes the connection between the human and the supernatural, through the Incarnation of Jesus Christ: "Take up your cross and follow Me!" I'll show you the Way back to the heart of the Father. For in dying to our self-centered natural life, we are "born again" into the self-giving, supernatural life of the Trinity. And that's why St John of the Cross gives the following adice to every contemplative seeking union with the Father, through the Son, sent to bring us back to our "True Home."

"First, let him have an habitual desire to imitate Christ in everything that he does, conforming himself to his life, upon which life he must meditate so that he may know how to imitate it, and to behave in all things as Christ would behave.

"Second, and in this context, St. John urges the Christian to recognize that by "embracing the Way of the Cross," we can transform the suffering of this life into a Royal Road leading to supernatural transformation, life, and joy. So he teaches: "Try not to prefer that which is easiest but that which is "most difficult;" not that which gives the most pleasure but that which "gives least;" not that which is restful but that which "is laborious;" not that which is the greatest but that which "is the least;" and so forth. In a word, one should strive to cultivate a spirit of holy indifference, a perfect obedience to the divine will.

Moreover, in contrast to "natural" intense efforts and meditative techniques resulting in "esoteric knowledge," and sudden shifts of "intellectual" understanding through "enlightenment" or realization of "no-self," "emptiness," or "Oneness," genuine spiritual transformation through contemplation and carrying the cross is a gradual "supernatural" process, which through charity, transforms the "will," increases virtue, and establishes the capacity for the exercise of the fullness of the Supernatural Love of Jesus Christ, a process extending over many years: "...the theological virtue of charity is the mainspring as well as the outcome of the act of contemplation."(Catholic Encyclopedia, "Contemplative Life")

St John of the Cross avers:

"This makes it clearer that the preparation of the soul for this union, as we said, is not that it should understand or perceive or feel or imagine anything, concerning either God or aught else, but that it should have purity and love -- that is, perfect resignation and detachment from everything for God's sake."(St John of the Cross, Ascent of Mt. Carmel, Ch. 5).

And this increase in "Love" will be visible in the changed life, and increased self-giving, of the Contemplative. That's why Our Blessed Lord told us, in Matthew 7:16, that genuine spirituality is always judged by the standard "by their fruits ye shall know them." For it is not by mystical insights and esoteric knowledge that the Contemplative is judged, but, rather, by the evidence of the Humility and Transforming Spirit of God, producing virtue, love for and service to others, and Supernatural, Self-Giving Love in his life.

So the Christian experience of God's Personal Presence and Activity coming through advanced Contemplation is qualitatively different from the natural, intellectual experience coming through Eastern-based "enlightenment." For, as we have indicated, the practice of Contemplative Prayer, while involving a cognitive, intuitive act of the intellect, is aimed primarily at the "will" of man in terms of spiritual perfection,(since it raises the act of charity, which informs and perfects all the virtues, from the natural to the divine mode, and heroic level, of action) releasing it from the desire and slavery of all natural attachments, so it may have the total freedom required to make an act of perfect self-giving love, voluntarily surrendering all that it is and all that it has to the Supernatural Spirit of God. And in this act of self-giving love, the Contemplative perfectly fulfills the First Commandment to "Love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart, whole soul, and whole mind."

Father Jordan Aumann tells us:

"The gift of wisdom(actuated by contemplation) perfects charity by giving it the divine modality it lacks so long as charity is subject to the rule of human reason, even illumined by faith. So far as it presupposes a judgment, the gift of wisdom resides in the intellect as in its proper subject, but as a judgment by a kind of connaturality with divine things, it presupposes charity, for this is not a purely speculative wisdom but a practical wisdom. It is true it belongs to the gift of wisdom, in the first place, to contemplate the divine, but in the second place, it pertains to wisdom to direct human acts according to divine things." (Fr Jordan Aumann, "Spiritual Theology," Part I, Ch. 10)

CHRISTIAN TRANSFORMING UNION VERSUS EASTERN ENLIGTENMENT

And so "enlightenment," in contrast to Christian perfection and union with God, is a process preparing man to "see into his own nature" which does not necessarily imply, as does Christian union, greater moral purity in line with an increase in supernatural charity. And this "seeing," is an experience of a "radical realization of oneness," characterized by a new-found sense of "liberation from traditional views," which are based on a duality of subject and object. It can sometimes be produced by natural techniques ranging from mind-expanding drugs to intense meditative programs lasting from a few hours to a few days. Christian perfection through contemplative prayer, on the other hand, is a lifetime affair involving transformation of the "will" into a likeness of the Will of Christ, and requiring, ultimately, the elimination of all willful selfish desires and habits of imperfection. In contrast to Eastern intellectual insights, union with Christ produces the supernatural fruit of: "love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control" (Gal 5:22-23). For the practice of Contemplation brings us a supernatural, loving knowledge of a Personal God. And we fall in love with this supernatural Being as we learn to know and love Him in the life of Jesus Christ. This powerful, transformative love draws our will to it, more and more, over the years as we practice the virtues of Jesus Christ learned from meditation on His Life. In the process, all our lesser, natural loves and habits of attachment become "undone" as our will gains freedom from bondage by our acts of voluntary mortification, and the transforming power of this supernatural Love. So from the standpoint of spiritual transformation, Contemplative Prayer works mainly through the supernatural power of "Love," rather than through the intellectual power of "vision" or "insight."

St. Thomas Aquinas tells us in the Summa Theologica:

"It is written (Col. 3:14): "Above all things have charity, which is the bond of perfection," because it binds, as it were, all the other virtues together in perfect unity. Therefore the perfection of the Christian life consists radically in charity. (Summa Theologica,II-II, 184) Now this sympathy or connaturality for Divine things is the result of charity, which unites us to God, according to 1 Cor. 6:17: "He who is joined to the Lord, is one spirit." Consequently wisdom (the cognitive basis for contemplation) which is a gift, has its cause in the will, which cause is charity,(supernatural love in the will, which informs the gift of faith, is the cause of wisdom) but it has its essence in the intellect, whose act is to judge aright, as stated above." (Summa Theologica II-II,45). So, as quoted above, chairity is the mainspring as well as the outcome of contemplation.

For by means of Contemplative Prayer, the Holy Spirit gradually transforms our will and dismantles our entrenched self-centeredness and habits of egotism, freeing us from fear, pride, and illusion, and allowing us to live more authentically, as our true-selves(purified selves), reflecting Christ's love in the world. "For he that loveth his life shall lose it, and he that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal." (John 12:25) In place of our selfishness and pride, He establishes generosity and meekness. In place of dislike and distrust for others, He establishes the capactity to love and enjoy the company of our brothers and sisters. In place of a desire for revenge, He establishes mercy and forgiveness. And in place of our self-centered desire to possess, consume, control, and manipulate things, He establishes unselfish love for the beauty and grandeur of all His creation.

And in return for the things we gave up for His love, God repays us "a hundredfold" by giving them all back to us in a new unpossessive way, that includes greater enjoyment for everything in creation. For as we progress in Contemplative Prayer, we find a shift taking place in our Understanding and, at the same time, we begin to see creation through the "Eyes of God!". For when God looks at the attributes of created being, He sees and loves the Infinite Perfection of these attributes existing within Himself. And through participation in His Life, through Contemplation, we begin to do the same. We no longer love created being for what we can get out of it. We no longer love it as an object to which we are attached and on which we depend for our happiness. Our love is fully engaged with the Transcendent Goodness and Beauty, and we love created being only to the extent that it is a reflection of That Which already has our hearts.

CONTEMPORARY NEED FOR INSTANT CONTEMPLATION

Today, however, there is widespread belief among many modern practitioners of so-called "contemplative prayer," that the whole process of spiritual transformation is an easily acquired thing, completely in-line with materialistic living, and under the control of man by means of Eastern based prayer techniques; and it doesn't matter what you believe, or whether you embrace a lifestyle based on imitation of Christ, since, supposedly, all are equal at the level of mantra-chanting and the spiritual emptiness it produces. This Eastern chanting process, rather than meditation on the Life of Christ, and the practice of His virtues, supposedly leads one to a state preparatory to contemplation. Jesus Christ becomes of minor importance, and somewhat irrelevant, as does His Church, since the unknowing, chanting process supposedly provides the same spiritual transformation in any and every belief system.

In this Eastern influenced process, one "voluntarily" ceases meditation during prayer in favor of an "acquired passivity," whether God is providing the grace for such contemplative passivity or not. One fills one's consciousness with a mantra and invites God to provide supernatural prayer. The only problem with this is that ones prayer may remain continuously at the level of "natural" unknowing, without the benefit of meditative insights, or growing in the supernatural Love generated by the gifts of the Holy Spirit.

As Father Garrigou-Lagrange explains, one must not thrust oneself into the mystic way without the infused grace:

"Infused passivity" connected with contemplative prayer springs from inspiration of the Holy Spirit. The actuation of the Gifts of the Holy Spirit gives us an inclination to "let go" of actions of the faculties, such as those connected with meditation, since, under the influence of this contemplative grace, they cause subtle pain and aridity. This should be distinguished from "acquired passivity" which one might undertake in order to thrust oneself into the mystical way before the proper time, and without the infused grace. Acquired passivity is obtained purely by the voluntary cessation of acts and activity.(gloss from Fr. Garrigou-Lagrance, "Three Ages of the Interior Life," p.22)

The idea is rampant, in and out of the Church, that each one is on his own road to Truth, and, that each one comes, sooner or later, by his own road to the same high place. So, if you and I come from different belief systems, and both practice contemplative prayer, then I won't insult you by telling you about Jesus Christ and the necessary struggle against sin, hard choices, life changes, and dark nights connected with authentic religion, and building a solid spiritual foundation for the process of transformation in charity. Why bother, since we've both supposedly arrived by different paths at the same "spiritual heights" of contemplation.

And from this vantage-point, our spiritual day need no longer be Christian, for it is no longer built around Jesus' Life, the liturgy, Christian prayer and the struggle against sin. For now we just spend the spiritual day in the presence of the Spirit of Divinity found in all belief systems, or, more often than not, a state of mental blankness equivalent to "outer-space." And the "strait and narrow" path of Jesus Christ, requiring that one possess single-minded, bedrock conviction of its Truth, in order to overcome in the spiritual warfare against the powerful temptations from the World, the Flesh, and the Devil, has been significantly undermined. For it has become sidelined as an afterthought, a threat and an embarassment to this contemplative, sycretistic dialogue, and easy spirituality which talks endlessly about all spirituality being nothing but love, but has no clue as to what love means or how to practice it:

"According to the new morality, the only absolute principle is to love. While we have no intention of discussing all the complexities posed by this position, we can note that, on the popular level, there is a fear that there are no more objective moral standards and that no actions can be proposed as outright sinful. In the catechesis of sin, this could result in refusing to mention, for example, the Ten Commandments or to accept any objective sinful actions... It has been claimed often that Christianity is not a new moral code but a new life in Christ. But this is an oversimplification that could lead to moral laxity .... A catechesis of sin, specifying certain actions as morally reprehensible, is a necessary aspect of the presentation of Christianity."(Fr Jordan Aumann, "Spiritual Theology," Part II, section 7, quote: Eugene Maly, Sin (Dayton: Pflaum/Standard, 1973), pp. 27-31,)

For ongoing participation in Church, doctrine, ritual, sacraments, and Christ-centered prayer are fundamentally necessary to the spiritual path, for they keep us "connected" to Self-Giving Love and to the process of transformation. It is not long before those who refuse such participation lose themselves in non-transformative, dead-end doctrines of men, leading to more ego, more desire, more sin, and more suffering. And as part of this Christian path, the restraints of Church precepts and counsels provide for strengthening of character by the practice of virtue, growth in charity, and expanding mental energy in order to perfect and unify our will as we prepare it for the awesome union with supernatural power.

For easy-sprituality is just another form of pride and the false-self, but this time in the guise of spiritual attainment through feel-good experiences. And as has always been the case, those who embrace the "spirit of the world" find a deep dislike for the spirituality of Jesus Christ, which exposes sham and hypocrisy and demands spiritual authenticity: "The world cannot hate you; but me it hateth: because I give testimony of it, that the works thereof are evil." (John 7:7) So, if Christianity is brought up during most of the current Contemplative dialogue, it is apologetically discussed as though it were just another of the many paths one may pursue to reach the contemplative mantra-chanting, "emptiness" summit.