Water has the second place among
the elements of the world, and from rightly considering it, we may also frame a
step of ascension unto God. First we will consider waters in general, and then
we will draw a special ascension unto God from founts. Water is cold and moist,
and has, as it were, five properties: It washes away stains, it quenches fire,
it cools heat, it joins different things together, and at length, as deeply as
it goes down, it ascends as high. These things are manifest symbols, or
vestiges of God the Creator of all. Water washes corporal stains, God washes
spiritual stains. “You will wash me,” David says, “And I will be whiter than
snow.” Although contrition, the sacraments, priests, alms, and other works of
piety wash away the stains, that is, the sins of the soul, still, they are but
instruments or dispositions; the Author of this washing is God alone. Through
Isaiah, God says, “I am, I am he that blots out your iniquities for my own
sake.” Thus the Pharisees, when they murmured against Christ, said, “Who can
forgive sins but God alone?” were not deceived in giving to God alone the
supreme power to forgive sins, but because they did not believe that Christ was
God, they both blasphemed and spoke the truth at the same time.
God does not only wash the stains
of the soul like water. St. John writes: “He that believes in me, as Scripture
says, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. Now this he said of
the Spirit which they should receive, who believed in him; for as yet the
Spirit was not given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.” Thus, God the Holy Spirit
is living water, and Ezechiel speaks of him: “I will pour upon you clean water,
and you shall be cleansed form all your filthiness.” Now, because this
uncreated water far excels created water, we will set down three differences
between the washing of the one and the other.
Created water washed away
corporeal stains, but not all, for it cannot wash away many except by soap or
other instruments. Uncreated water altogether washes stains, just as we read
again in Ezechiel, “You shall be cleansed from all of your filthiness.”
Created water rarely washes all
stains in such a way that some vestige, or shadow of the stain is not left.
Uncreated water washes to such an extent that the thing washed is rendered more
glorious and beautiful than it was polluted, as David says, “You will wash me,
and I will be whiter than snow,” and our Lord says through Isaiah, “If your
sins be as scarlet, they shall be made as white as snow; and if they are as red
as crimson, they will be as white as wool.”
Next, created water washes natural
stains, which do not resist cleansing; uncreated water washes voluntary stains,
which cannot be washed unless the soul itself were to will it, and consent to
them being washed away of its own will. So admirable is the power of this
water, that it sweetly enters into hardened hearts and is not refused, because
as St. Augustine rightly teaches (De Praedest. SS. C. 8 n. 13). Who can
grasp, O Lord, how you give faith to the unfaithful, humility to the proud, and
charity to your enemies, that he who once breathed forth threats and slaughter,
and persecuted you in your disciples, being changed all of the sudden, so willingly
suffered threats and persecutions for you and your Church? (Act. 9:1, seqq.)
Far be it for me to dive into your secrets, for I would rather experience than
search after the efficacy of your grace. Now, because I know that water of your
s is a willing rain, separated to your inheritance, as the prophet sins;
therefore, I humbly beg you, let me be found in your inheritance, and may it
please your grace to descend into the earth of my heart, so that it would not
remain like the earth without water from you, arid and sterile, the kind that
of itself does not even suffice to conceive of anything good. Now, let us
continue to the rest. (Robert Bellarmine, The Ascent of The Mind To God: By
the Ladder of Creation [trans. Ryan Grant; Port Falls, ID.: Mediatrix
Press, 2022], Fourth Step, Chapter 1, pp. 43-45)