Rapture

Rapture is the state of being transported emotionally or spiritually; it is being carried out of oneself by a kind of ecstasy. In our present use, the word rapture means the uplifting of a person by the Spirit of God to things supernatural, by a movement so engrossing and powerful as to blot out the person’s sense-awareness of his surroundings. St. Paul (II Cor. 12:2) tells of his being “rapt even to the third heaven.”

Rapture is of the intellectual order rather than of theappetitive order. It deals with, and is occasioned by, revelations that enthrall the soul; and revelations are manifestations of truth to the intellect. Yet the will may so ardently desire what the intellect considers, that it contributes to the state of rapture. Besides, the intellect beholds, but the will enjoys.

St. Paul (II Cor. 12), speaking of himself in the third person, says he was rapt to heaven and heard secret words which itis not permitted to man to utter. Doubtless, he saw the essence of God, and had, in some way, a foretaste of the joy of heaven. But he had not the fullness of the light of glory and the beatific vision;else he would have been instantly glorified and confirmed in grace and beatitude; and, for man the wayfarer, this is impossible.

That St. Paul in his rapture was withdrawn from his senses is evident from the fact that he did not know whether he wasin heaven in a bodily way or in vision-”whether in the body or out of the body, I know not.”

We are not to suppose that St. Paul’s soul was separated from his body during his rapture (that is, that he died,and was afterwards restored to life), but that his intellect was withdrawn from its natural operation of dealing with sense-images,and was raised, and filled supernaturally with the revelations of God.

As we have noted, St. Paul himself was not sure of just how his rapture was effected. He was sure of one thing: that his whole mind was supernaturally raised, and focused upon divine things to the exclusion of everything else.