Memorial of Saint John of the Cross, Priest and Doctor of the Church
Expert about the night - St. John of the Cross
The monks kept Him locked for 9 months. His greatest works devoted to prayer were written in the monastic detention.
"How many things can be discovered in Christ, who is like a huge mine with many layers of treasures, where no matter how deeply you penetrate, there will be no limit or end. And in every corner of these His mysteries you can find here and there new deposits of new riches ". He wrote these words, indicating the extraordinary wealth that a Christian find in Jesus Christ. For this reason, the apostle Paul said of Christ: In him are hidden all the treasures of the wisdom and knowledge of God (cf. Col 2:3). He wright this in his "Spiritual Canticle".
He was born near Avila, Spain in 1542. He was twenty-one when he entered the Carmelite Order. After studying theology in Salamanca, he became a priest at the age of twenty-five. He decided to reform his monastery, tightening the requirements of the rule. However, he met a strong resistance from religious brothers who kept him under lock and key for 9 months. His greatest works devoted to the spiritual life were written in the monastic detention. In the end, he managed to escape from custody and complete the work of reforming the Carmelites, who were henceforth called barefoot Carmelites. He collaborated with St. Teresa of Avila. He died at the age of forty-nine, humiliated and stripped of office by his brothers. In his works he described - also in the language of poetry - the way to Mount Carmel, i.e., the mystical journey of the soul to union with God.
What can John of the Cross teach our contemporaries? Mystics? Are these thresholds too high for us, chasing after the things of this world, having no time for prayer forever, and just on the run saying a few sentences to God? The point is that all Christians are potential mystics. Prayer is not about prayer, prayer is about God, writes the Jewish mystic Heschel. Prayer is not a goal; it is a means to a goal. It is the way to meet the Beloved. You just need to desire this meeting. However, you cannot covet God the way you covet a good dinner. St. John points out that the very way we long for God must change. Our desires are dominated by the will to possess. Desires are like arrows: they shoot at what we greedily desire. That is how God cannot be coveted! The arrow must turn into an empty vessel, into outstretched empty hands. John of the Cross points to Mary in Cana. She did not say to her Son, "Give them a drink," but, "They have no wine." There is no coercion here, no anxiety. We cannot hunt God like a hunter to prey. Instead of saying to God, "You are mine," much more must be said, "I am yours" (cf. Ps 119: 94).
St. John was a specialist about the "dark nightof the soul". The inevitable stage of man's path to God is experiencing spiritual darkness. It is an experience of emptiness, loneliness, discouragement, close to despair. The word "night" occurs in St. John next to the word "purification." The night purifies. Someone in a difficult situation often exclaims: "God has forsaken me." Rather, John would have said, "God cleanses me." Meeting with God is joy for our innermost self, but our outer self - the abode of selfishness - rebels. It defends itself fiercely because our selfishness feels that has to die. St. John shows that what appears to be a disaster can be a salvation, that no gulf is so deep, and a mountain so high that it cannot become a road.
St. John of the Cross is often presented as a man of a gloomy character. Nothing is farther from the reality. He was a realist; he took the fight against sin seriously. His works prove that he was a man of great goodness and sensitivity to beauty. Yes, he was not looking for entertainment, but for real happiness. He was dying of longing God.
Until Tomorrow
fr. george