Today is the feast of one of my personal favourite saints, St John of the Cross. He is a Doctor of the Church who has been given the title “Mystical Doctor” because of his teaching on the soul’s union with God.
St John was a Carmelite priest and became the spiritual director of St Teresa of Avila. He helped her with her reform of the Carmelite Order which tried to refocus the contemplative aspect of the Order as well as stricter emphasis on asceticism. Over time this internal reform resulted in a split in the Order and the Discalced (shoeless) branch of the Carmelite Order became independent. Due to his involvement in the reform he was persecuted a lot by his superiors and imprisoned in a closet for 9 months. After the reform he was also mistreated and persecuted within the newly reformed Discalced Order too due to internal politics.
We can see that suffering played a huge role in his own personal life and this in turn influenced his spiritual doctrine. He was mistreated while imprisoned, but at the same time the fruit of this imprisonment is where he write his famous poem the “Dark Night”. His commentary on this become the famous book “Ascent of Mount Carmel” where he describes systemically the spiritual life.
In his writings he has a heavy emphasis on detachment from all things and on suffering. You can understand why this would be when looking at his own life. The reason why he focuses on this is because if we only love God because of the good feelings we get in prayer then we will begin to want the “gifts” (good feelings/experiences) more than the Giver of the Gifts (God). The themes of darkness, dryness in faith, pure desire for God, walking in darkness, naked faith and transformative union in love all permeate his writings. For St John, nothing else matters but God and God alone.
Because of his emphasis on detachment, mortification or the senses and discouragement of feelings in the spiritual life, he can be a bit intimidating for some people. However, he wrote beautiful poetry in the style of the Song of Songs that focuses on the relationship of the Soul as the Bride, wounded by love, seeking after the Beloved Bridegroom. This genre is known as Nuptial Mysticism. He also has shorter maxims on the spiritual life called the “Sayings of light and love”. It is important to remember the context of his writings was for the Carmelite Nuns of St Teresa’s reform and so a lot of the basics of the spiritual life such as participating in the Sacraments, regular prayer life, growing in virtue etc are already assumed.
Mysticism for St John of the Cross is not about experiences or phenomena such as levitating or visions or stigmata - but about loving God above all else and being transformed by God. This is why he focuses so heavily on detachment and nothingness - because our ideas, concepts, feelings can become obstacles in our spiritual life, becoming idols that hinder our union with God and enslave us to created things. Through prayer, faith and love we becomes transformed in love to have that union with God which he calls Mystical Marriage. He uses the image on wood on fire that produces heat, although the fire and wood are two separate things they are united. So it is the same with a soul transformed by love in union with God. We must be purged and purified before we can be illuminated and finally enter Union with God.
Through the intercession of St John of the Cross, may we all enter the path of detachment and ascend Mount Carmel, where at the summit of perfection we will reach the union of transformative love with the Beloved.
O God, who gave the Priest Saint John
an outstanding dedication to perfect self-denial
and love of the Cross,
grant that, by imitating him closely at all times,
we may come to contemplate eternally your glory.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
God, for ever and ever.
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