Some people speak about the spiritual life as if the only detachment that we must embrace is that which purifies the deep-seated tendencies to sin which have invaded, infested, festered in, and boiled over our soul. Some people speak as if the desolations, dark nights, and purifications worked by God in our soul affect only the distortions that sin has produced and by which we are inclined towards actions that are not good in themselves.

I won’t say a word against this.

But my experience tells me that, in the world of personal spiritual itineraries, the truth is a bit broader. Or, if the truth is not a bit broader, it certainly feels like it.

Why?

Because, in the end, we cannot have everything that is good. There are too many particular goods in the world. They are not all for everyone. God wants to always give us what is, for us, best. This involves, for example, a particular vocation. Every particular vocation means not taking another good road. It is not a bad thing to seek, in all holiness, marriage. But if we can take a spiritually fruitful celibate state, then God may indeed do such work in us.

Sometimes, if not usually (!), this choosing of a state in life happens before we reach the “state of union” with God in the major part of our will, and at which most of the purification has been done. Certainly, the choosing of a state in life happens before death and before our will is entirely one with God’s through the Beatific Vision.

Yet God guides us into a state of life that excludes, for us, the other options.

That means being guided, prompted, teased, to choose something that is better, when we could have had something that is good, but not as good.

This means that, to some degree, God alienates us, not only from disordered desires, but also from some good desires. Alienation worked by God is not exactly the same as purification worked by God. There are similarities. They’re not identical.

It’s the way of Love. If God wills not only to purify us, but also that we have the best in this life, we will end up alienated, to a greater or lesser degree, not only from the evil in us, but also from some of the good. Perhaps, when we become holy enough, we are no longer alienated from these goods. Then, we might choose the better entirely without being pushed that way by the Holy Spirit, somewhat against our will. At that point, there will be no more alienation from the good for the sake of the better. Our judgment will be sufficient to go always to the better. But until then, alienation is a bit broader than purification: in Christ, we are alienated from more than we have disordered inclinations for. Always for the better! But still, it requires sacrifice.

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On this blog, I don’t only speak about darks nights, desolations and purifications… although I do speak about these, too.

I also try to talk about alienation in general. To my mind, that is a way of speaking as if the God of Love and Goodness is also the God of Providence. In all the details of life and not only in our sanctity, God is always on our side.