The statement that "the Spirit makes a much deeper impression on the interior man than material things make on the exterior senses" must have been a reality contemplatives like Guerric.
Mediaeval Cistercian literature has a very patristic "feel to it" - Guerric, Bernard and others like them seem to breathe the same air as the Fathers.
Words had no effect on the apostles until they received the gifts. For when Jesus himself came and stood before them, he convinced them not so much by showing them his body as by breathing on them his Gift.
You know that when he came to them the doors were locked and he stood among them, but they were startled and frightened and supposed they saw a spirit.
But when he breathed on them saying, "Receive the Holy Spirit," and when later he sent from heaven the same Spirit with another gift, these gifts were indeed undeniable proofs and testimonies of resurrection and life.
It is the Spirit who bears witness in the hearts and on the lips of the saints that Christ is the truth, the true resurrection, and the life.
Thus the apostles who had previously doubted even after seeing his living body, after tasting his life-giving Spirit with great power gave testimony to his resurrection.
So it is much more important to receive Jesus in our hearts than to see him with our eyes or hear him with our ears.
The Spirit makes a much deeper impression on the interior man than material things make on the exterior senses.
What room is left for doubt when he who bears witness and he who is the object of that witness are the one Spirit? If the Spirit is one there must be a complete understanding, everything fits together.
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