Seeing Jesus in His Humility or in His Glory

For, as I said in the earlier conference, each mind is raised up and shaped in its prayers according to the measure of its purity. So far as it leaves behind the thought of earthly and material things, the state of its purity carries it forward and lets it see Jesus with the inner eyes of the soul, either still in his humility and in the flesh, or glorified and coming in the glory of his majesty. For those who are still held back in a kind of Jewish weakness cannot see Jesus coming in his kingdom. They cannot say with the apostle, “And if we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know him so no longer.” Only those can look with purest eyes on his Godhead who rise with him from low and earthly works and thoughts and go apart on the high mountain of solitude. That mountain is free from the disturbance of all earthly thoughts and troubles and safe from the interference of all sins. Lifted high by pure faith and the heights of virtue, it reveals the glory of his face and the image of his splendor to those who are able to look on him with the pure eyes of the soul. [a]

But Jesus is also seen by those who live in towns, villages and hamlets, that is, by those who are busy with practical affairs and works. Yet he is not seen by them with the same brightness with which he appeared to those who can go up with him onto that mountain of virtues, that is, Peter, James and John. So too he appeared in solitude to Moses and spoke with Elijah. Our Lord wished to establish this and to leave us examples of perfect purity. He himself, the very fountain of holiness that cannot be violated, had no need of outward help or of the aid of solitude to secure it. The fullness of purity could not be soiled by any stain from crowds, nor could he be defiled by dealings with people, he who cleanses and makes holy all that is polluted. Even so, he withdrew to the mountain alone to pray. By the example of his withdrawal he teaches us that if we too wish to approach God with a pure and spotless love of heart, we should likewise withdraw from all the disturbance and confusion of crowds. Then, while still living in the body, we may in some degree shape ourselves to some likeness of the bliss promised hereafter to the saints, and “God may be” to us “all in all.”