On False Consolation

 

ON FALSE CONSOLATION

The prospect of false consolation is cited in Scripture by Saint Paul.

Even Satan masquerades as an angel of light. (2 Corinthians 11:14)

Saint Ignatius of Loyola acknowledged false consolations in his own personal experience and warned in the Spiritual Exercises against them.

“In his Autobiography, Ignatius describes two spontaneous inner experiences that appeared to be holy and good but required a more sensitive discernment. In his daily routine at Manresa, which was filled with prayer and penance, the time he had set aside for sleep was being invaded with ‘great illuminations and spiritual consolation’; these experiences ‘made him lose much of the time he had set aside for sleep.’ Later in his life, after his return from the Holy Land, when God’s will that he do more study had become clear, he experienced ‘new light on spiritual things and new delights’ that were so strong that he could not do the necessary memorization of Latin grammar. In both these instances, through some prayerful reflection, he realized that these apparently good spontaneous experiences were actually temptations luring him away from following what clearly was God’s will for him.”

https://www.ignatianspirituality.com/false-consolation/

—dotMagis Editor, “False Consolation,” IgnatianSpirituality.com, excerpted from Stretched for Greater Glory: What to Expect from the Spiritual Exercises by George A. Aschenbrenner, S.J.

Third Rule. With cause, as well the good Angel as the bad can console the soul, for contrary ends: the good Angel for the profit of the soul, that it may grow and rise from good to better, and the evil Angel, for the contrary, and later on to draw it to his damnable intention and wickedness.

—Spiritual Exercises, 331

Fourth Rule. It is proper to the evil Angel, who forms himself under the appearance of an angel of light, to enter with the devout soul and go out with himself: that is to say, to bring good and holy thoughts, conformable to such just soul, and then little by little he aims at coming out drawing the soul to his covert deceits and perverse intentions.

—Spiritual Exercises, 332

https://aleteia.org/2018/07/31/here-are-st-ignatius-8-rules-for-the-discernment-of-spirits/

—Philip Kosloski, “Here are St. Ignatius’ 8 rules for the discernment of spirits,” Aleteia, July 31, 2018

Auguste Poulain, S.J., says that a telltale sign of false consolation is “disturbance”—I would describe it as disquiet or unease—“except perhaps at the first moment.”

“What sentiments of peace, or, on the other hand, of disturbance, are experienced during or after the revelations? Here is the rule as formulated by St. Catherine of Siena and St. Ignatius: ‘With persons of good will [it is only of such that we are here treating] the action of the good spirit [God or His Angels] is characterized by the production of peace, joy, security, courage; except perhaps at the first moment.’ Note the restriction. The Bible often mentions this disturbance at the first moment of the revelation; the Blessed Virgin experienced it when the Angel Gabriel appeared to her. The action of the demon produces quite the contrary effect: ‘With persons of good will he produces, except perhaps at the first moment, disturbance, sorrow, discouragement, perturbation, gloom.’ In a word the action of Satan encounters a mysterious resistance of the soul.”

http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/13005a.htm

—Augustin Poulain, “Private Revelations,” The Catholic Encyclopedia (New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1912)

What should we do if after examining the apparent consolation carefully we are still uncertain about its actual character so that we cannot determine whether it is true or false?

A critical condition for discerning correctly is “spiritual detachment.” Spiritual attachment is an inordinate attachment to creatures, desiring them for our own self-serving purposes, so that spiritual detachment is its opposite—the desire for creatures and use of creation for the ends for which they have been created, the service and love of God.

One who is inordinately attached to creatures will naturally have difficulty in discerning correctly, because they will be drawn to make choices out of weakness of will and for their own self-serving purposes.

In addition, the devil seeks to manufacture false consolations in order to draw the person who is tempted thereby toward indulging their spiritual attachments.

Spiritual detachment has been described as “Ignatian indifference.” A better term, in my view, is what Father Mitch Pacwa, S.J. calls “equal-mindedness.”

“When it comes to dealing with good, legitimate options, I can either make a decision by the seat of my pants, or I can really seek to determine what God is asking of me. …If we want to do what God wills, then we can be open to any possibility, because God our Lord made everything good, including riches, poverty, or a relatively simple lifestyle. God can work through people with wealth (many saints were kings and queens) or through very poor people (St. Francis of Assisi and many other saints). These various possibilities are good in themselves, and therefore they are ways to become holy and to give glory to God who made them. How do we choose among these good options?

“If God can use everything and everything is good, then an essential starting point of being able to discern God’s will is the gift of being ‘equal-minded.’ St. Ignatius of Loyola called this gift being ‘indifferent,’ but some modern people interpret this term as not caring about the choices. Better is the term ‘equal-minded,’ which implies that I am happy to take either this option or that option. Neither option matters to me except insofar as one gives greater glory to God than the other. Seeking to give greater glory to God is one of the most important principles of discerning God’s will for my life.”

—Fr. Mitch Pacwa, S.J., How to Listen When God Is Speaking: A Guide for Modern-Day Catholics (2011), pages 72-73

Perfect spiritual detachment is very difficult if at all possible. After all, we are creatures who survive in the world because we follow our animal instincts.

Notwithstanding, we seek to bring our natural human desires before God in prayer, asking him to direct them in accordance with his will.

When discernment is difficult or opaque, Saint Ignatius recommends at least two ways to proceed. They have been described as the “Second Way” and “Third Way.”

We discuss the Third Way first. It sets aside our experience of consolation and desolation, at least initially, in order for us to examine the decision at hand analytically.

“When we have our end clearly in sight, then we are able to tackle the complexities of decision making. One way is the analytical approach. In trying to choose between two goods, we might list pros and cons in two columns on a sheet of paper. If we are perplexed, we might also ask some friends what they think. Then we make a decision, offer our decision to God for his blessing, and pray for a consolation of peace as God’s gift to us.

“Ignatius calls this type of decision making a ‘third-time’ choice.”

https://www.ignatianspirituality.com/making-good-decisions/an-approach-to-good-choices/how-ignatian-spirituality-gives-us-a-way-to-discern-gods-will/

—David L. Fleming, S.J., “How Ignatian Spirituality Gives Us a Way to Discern God’s Will,” IgnatianSpirituality.com, excerpted from What Is Ignatian Spirituality? (2008) by David L. Fleming, S.J.

The Third Way is expounded in Spiritual Exercises, 180-183.

“Second-time choices are situations where the preferred choice is not entirely clear. We are presented with alternative courses of action that all seem attractive to some degree, and we are not blessed with the gift of a clear certainty about what to do. In these cases, Ignatius says that we can discern the right choice by attending to the inner movements of our spirit. In particular, feelings of ‘consolation’ and ‘desolation’ will signal the correct course of action.

“…Second-time choice is not simply a matter of ‘feeling peaceful’ about a proposed decision. The feelings of spiritual consolation and spiritual desolation must be carefully assessed. Complacency and smugness about a decision can masquerade as consolation. At times, desolation can be a timely sense of restlessness pointing us in a new direction.”

—Ibid.

The Second Way is described in Spiritual Exercises, 176.

Both the Third and Second Ways considered separately will address the matter of ambiguous consolations—is the consolation true or false?—to the point wherein the person who discerns can come to judgment with sufficient moral certainty.

“Moral certainty is a concept of intuitive probability. It means a very high degree of probability, sufficient for action, but short of absolute or mathematical certainty.”

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moral_certainty

—“Moral Certainty,” Wikipedia

“The quaint-sounding term ‘moral certainty’ dates back to c. 1400. The Oxford English Dictionary defines it as ‘a degree of probability so great as to admit of no reasonable doubt.’ In the seventeenth century it became an important term in the law….”

https://philosophynow.org/issues/118/Moral_Certainty

—Toni Vogel Carey, “Moral Certainty,” Philosophy Now, 2017

False consolation is not an insoluble conundrum. Systematic method assisted by grace addresses it adequately.