Reference must be made to another dimension of the loss of self, an entirely new one which is confined to the mystic states of mind. The inward death depicted by St. John of the Cross in his Dark Night far exceeds that dying to oneself which we have met with as an aspect of our transformation in Christ. It amounts to a dying of the soul comparable to the experience of being immersed in complete darkness—a negative prefiguration and token of our future total rebirth in Christ. Here, the concept of losing one’s self acquires a greatly enhanced, a very much more literal meaning. The life in Christ which grows out of that surrender implies an immediate experience of Christ, a sensing of the fact St. Paul describes in these words, “I live, now not I; but Christ liveth in me.”

This supreme aspect of our transformation in Christ, a classic treatment of which can be found in the writings of many mystics, particularly of St. Teresa of Avila and St. John of the Cross, does not enter into the scope of the present work. It suffices to remark that this phase of man’s transformation in Christ, too, constitutes an essential aspect, in a sense, the crowning aspect of the Vocation expressed in these words of the Lord: “But he that shall drink of the water that I will give him shall not thirst forever” (John 4:13).

Our consideration of the theme of transformation in Christ has now come to an end. In its course, we have measured the full meaning of the vocation that resounds in the words, sequere me. We have envisioned the countenance of “the new man who is renewed unto knowledge, according to the image of Him that created him.” We have caught a glimpse of the new supernatural beauty, that reflection of the holiness of the God-Man, which fills the “prisoners of Christ” and radiates from their souls to light up the world of mankind: “That you may declare his virtues, who hath called you out of darkness into his marvelous light” (1 Peter 2:9).

We have surveyed the attitudes in which the fundamental principle of dying with Christ and rising to life with Him is unfolded. We have discussed the nature of the great assent which is the precondition, on our part, of our transformation in Christ: the assent that is to pervade, shape, and illumine our whole life until the coming of the hour that sounds the call, “Behold the bridegroom cometh: go ye forth to meet him” (Matt. 25:6); the assent sublimely expressed in the Psalmist’s prayer: “Uphold me according to. Thy word, and I shall live: and let me not be confounded in my expectation” (Ps. 118:116).