The Sea of Faith pictured by Matthew Arnold in his famous poem was already beginning its ‘long melancholy roar’ of withdrawal from earth’s shores in the 17th century. Just think of the pantheistic system crafted by Baruch de Spinoza, the Dutch Jewish lens-grinder who got himself excommunicated by the Amsterdam Synagogue for the then still shocking offence of atheism. Spinoza was a major influence on Friedrich Daniel Ernst Schleiermacher, Franz Pieper’s bête noire as the father of most varieties of modern liberal protestant theology, the systematics professor who could never decide whether God exists independently of the world or not.

But as St Zechariah assures us, there have been an unending series of prophets ‘since the world began’. One of the most enticing of such figures was the French mathematician, philosopher, and theologian Blaise Pascal, who was born 400 years ago today. When I was still regularly lecturing on the development of the kind of theology against which official Missouri sternly sets its face, I would focus not only on Arnold’s poem as background to the course, but also on the famous Night of Fire/Nuit de Feu endured by Pascal on the night of St Clement of Rome’s Day, 23 November 1654 , whose written autobiographical account still shines its luminous glow over the intellectual and spiritual darkness of our own times.

The year of grace 1654,

Monday, 23 November, feast of St. Clement, pope and martyr, and others in the martyrology.
Vigil of St. Chrysogonus, martyr, and others.
From about half past ten at night until about half past midnight,

FIRE.

GOD of Abraham, GOD of Isaac, GOD of Jacob not of the philosophers and of the learned. Certitude. Certitude. Feeling. Joy. Peace. GOD of Jesus Christ. My God and your God. Your GOD will be my God. Forgetfulness of the world and of everything, except GOD. He is only found by the ways taught in the Gospel. Grandeur of the human soul. Righteous Father, the world has not known you, but I have known you. Joy, joy, joy, tears of joy.

I have departed from him: They have forsaken me, the fount of living water. My God, will you leave me? Let me not be separated from him forever. This is eternal life, that they know you, the one true God, and the one that you sent, Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ. I left him; I fled him, renounced, crucified. Let me never be separated from him. He is only kept securely by the ways taught in the Gospel: Renunciation, total and sweet. Complete submission to Jesus Christ and to my director. Eternally in joy for a day’s exercise on the earth. May I not forget your words. Amen.

L’an de grâce 1654.

Lundi 23 novembre, jour de saint Clément
Pape et m. et autres au martyrologe romain
veille de saint Chrysogone m. et autres, etc.
Depuis environ dix heures et demi du soir
jusques environ minuit et demi.

------------------------------------FEU.----------------------------------

Dieu d’Abraham. Dieu d’Isaac. Dieu de Jacob
non des philosophes et savants.
Certitude, joie, certitude, sentiment, vue, joie
Dieu de Jésus‑Christ.
Deum meum et Deum vestrum.

                                                   Jean 20. 17.

Ton Dieu sera mon Dieu. Ruth.
Oubli du monde et de Tout hormis DIEU
Il ne se trouve que par les voies enseignées
dans l’Évangile. Grandeur de l’âme humaine.
Père juste, le monde ne t’a point
connu, mais je t’ai connu. Jean 17.

Joie, joie, joie et pleurs de joie ---------------------------------
Je m’en suis séparé -----------------------------------------------
Dereliquerunt me fontem -----------------------------------------
mon Dieu, me quitterez‑vous -----------------------------------
que je n’en sois pas séparé éternellement.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

Cette est la vie éternelle, qu’ils te connaissent
seul vrai Dieu et celui que tu as envoy
Jésus-Christ ---------------------------------------------------------

Jésus-Christ ------------------------------------------------------

                                   je l’ai fui, renoncé, crucifié
je m’en suis séparé,  -----------------------------------------------
que je n’en sois jamais séparé ----------------------------------
il ne se conserve que par les voies enseignées
dans l’Évangile.
Renonciation totale et douce ----------------------------

Soumission totale à Jésus-Christ et à mon directeur.
Éternellement en joie pour un jour d’exercice sur la terre.
Non obliviscar sermones tuos. Amen.

 As Gottesblog readers are aware, my admiration for Pope Bergoglio extends only to miniscule proportions. Even so, let praise be given where praise is due. His letter on the occasion of Pascal’s 400th birthday is worth a read: https://www.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/apost_letters/documents/20230619-sublimitas-et-miseria-hominis.html.

A while ago I was moved to tears by this French-language movie on Pascal and his wondrously Christian pilgrimage, amazed that my rusty schoolboy French was able to get the gist without subtitles: https://www.google.com/search?q=french+movie+on+blaise+pascal&oq=french+movie+on+blaise+pascal&aqs=chrome..69i57j33i22i29i30l2.241606446j0j15&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8#fpstate=ive&vld=cid:f325d4df,vid:7epRnPtE1hc

Happy birthday/Bon anniversaire to Blaise Pascal, our dear and honoured brother (and fellow foe of Jesuit trickery—https://rorate-caeli.blogspot.com/2023/06/on-400-years-of-birth-of-blaise-pascal.html) in the communio sanctorum.

And I do hope his account of the Nuit de Feu speaks to your heart.