immortal living is no stay-point but infinity of movement, in which
movement the wandering soul becomes lost and finally insensitive.
By means of the flesh the soul is brought to that stay-point where
she more easily receives and understands the impregnation of
Consenting Light, which is the Divine Begetting; and she receives
the drawing power of Consenting Love: she is directly operated
upon by the Divine Pity Who Himself came to show her the Way of
Return: first, by the negation or sacrifice of flesh lusts; secondly, by
the sacrifice of spiritual lusts (by which the soul originally fell);
until finally, by death to all lusts and infidelities she is reunited to
the blisses of Immortal Life. This is the kindly purpose of our life in
this world. Christ being Eternal Light and Love and Life, we also
are eternal _who contain Christ._

So, then, we consent to abandon all lusts of the flesh whilst also
consenting to endure any consequences of these lusts in ourselves
and others, not in unwillingness to endure, which is resistance, but
in submission. From consenting to abandon the delights of the flesh
we advance to consenting to the withdrawal of all spiritual delights
from us: enduring instead spiritual difficulties, standing firm in the
strength of Christ whilst the assaults of self-will and infidelity batter
the soul.

We consent to abandon self-absorption in the delights of God, and,
returning to the world, endeavour to perform all acts of life in the
world in a manner consonant with perfection; but this is impossible:
this effort is insupportable without Grace. We cannot do it alone.
We learn to know it and to know that we are never alone. Even if we
fall into the deepest sin, we are not abandoned by the Divine
Graciousness: by consenting to abandon this wickedness we are
immediately reunited with the Divine Consenting, and so onwards
and upwards in an ever-ascending improvement to perfection: and
by consenting the soul daily sinks into the balm of Christ and loses
her burden.

We see the Perfection of this divine consenting and abandonment of
Self-Will in the final picture of the Cross. We see unmurmuring
consent to the death of flesh, consent to the attacks of evil, consent
to injustice, consent to infidelity (and straightway they all forsook
Him and fled), and, finally, consent to the death of Divine Union:
this not without groanings, as being the one supreme and only
insupportable Agony.

XVII

How is it t