Consecrated in the Truth
- SIMONE WEIL
In my contemplations on the insoluble problem of God, I did not anticipate the possibility of real contact, person-to-person, here below, between a human and God.
I had vaguely heard tell of things of this kind, but I never believed them.... Moreover, in Christ's sudden possession of me, neither my senses nor my imagination had any part. Through my suffering I only felt the presence of a love analogous to that which one reads in the smile of a beloved face.
I had never read any of the mystics, because I have never felt called to read them. In reading, as in other things, I always attempt practical obedience. There is nothing more favorable to intellectual progress, for as far as possible I do not read anything except for that which I am hungry in the moment, when I am hungry for it, and then I do not read...I eat. God mercifully prevented me from reading the mystics, so that it would be evident to me that I had not fabricated this absolutely unexpected contact.
Yet I still half refused, not my love, but my intelligence. For it seemed certain, and I believe it still today, that we can never wrestle God too much if we do so out of pure concern for the truth. Christ loves that we prefer the truth to him, because before being the Christ, he is the Truth. If someone takes a detour from him to go towards the truth, they will not go a long way without falling into his arms.
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Acknowledgement
Simone Weil "Consecrated in the Truth." Awaiting God (Abbotsford, BC: Fresh Wind Press, 2012).
Published under fair usage.
The Author
Simone Weil (1909-1943) was a French philosopher and political activist. As her life progressed she became more religious and inclined towards mysticism. In the 1950s and 1960s, her work became famous in continental Europe and throughout the English-speaking world. Albert Camus described her as "the only great spirit of our times". Simone Weil is the author of Waiting for God, Gravity and Grace, The Need for Roots: Prelude to a Declaration of Duties Towards Mankind, and Love in the Void: Where God Finds Us.
