There can be no doubt about the fact that the greatest joy and peace that anyone can experience on earth is the joy and peace of soul of a Christian conscious of God’s presence within his soul and at complete peace with God.
“Taste and see that the Lord is good,” says the Psalm, and a conscious contact with God more than proves the goodness or sweetness of the Lord. We have not got a direct sight or physical contact with God, and however close we come to Him, we always contact Him through the veil of faith. It is not true, however, to say that faith conceals God. Faith reveals Him in a very brilliant way if our faith is a very deep enlightened faith and full of the fire of love for God.
No one who can see God by faith can be called blind, no matter what else he may fail to see or be unable to see. No one can be called deaf who can hear by ear or by reading the words God has spoken or speaks to us. No one can be called dumb who speaks to God even if it is in complete silence in the heart.
The miracles Jesus performed on the deaf and dumb and blind were miracles of physical healing, but the Church has always seen our coming to God in Christ as involving enlightenment, opening of ears, and giving of the power to speak of God; and these results of the gift of faith could be called miracles despite the frequency of them.
There have always been some people in the Church who have had or developed a special love of interior prayer, the seeking of God within their souls or hearts, and the rewards for such perseverance in prayer of the heart are very great in this life. . .
Although no life of prayer, life of seeking God, is without ups and downs, there are times when the thirsty soul feels a brief fulfillment of the prophecy of Isaiah: “Then the eyes of the blind will be opened, the ears of the deaf unsealed, then the lame will leap like a dear, and the tongues of the dumb sing for joy . . .”
It is so easy to forget or fail to appreciate fully what a wonderful gift our faith is and what enormous light and power and love it contains if we allow it to expand under God’s sunshine, and God’s sunshine falls on it each time we exercise it and most brilliantly when we exercise it against difficulties. . .
It has been said by several Saints who excelled in the practice of interior prayer that we receive from God as much as we hope to receive, that is to say, as much as we trust God to give us. He does give Himself, and we thirst to taste and see that the Lord is good. We are not, I hope, asking for emotional or sense-conscious pleasure and comfort, but peace of soul and joy in the Lord at the deep level of our spirit or heart, in faith. . .
Let us not be afraid to ask Our Lord for the gift of interior prayer, but remember that it requires deep humility and considerable control of our comfort-seeking if we are to receive the fullness of the peace and joy that Our Lord offers us.
