III. What did John of the cross do? St. Juan de la Cruz. dark night of the soul john of the cross dark night of the soul

John the Baptist, also known as John the Baptist, is respected by Christians as a predecessor. In Orthodoxy, it is second in importance after the Holy Mother of God. Many churches in Russia and around the world have been consecrated in the name of John. Muslims, Mandaeans and Baha'is call the prophet Yahya, Arab Christians - Yuhann. He appears as a historical figure in Josephus' Antiquities of the Jews.

On the icons he is depicted with the following attributes: a severed head (the second in the picture), a scroll in his hands, a bowl, a thin cross made of reeds. The saint is dressed in baggy clothes made of shaggy wool, belted with a wide leather belt, or less often in a woven chiton or himation. In the paintings, these signs are supplemented by a honeycomb, a lamb, a shepherd’s crook, and the index finger of the right hand facing the sky. Statues of the Baptist are popular among Catholics.

Childhood and youth

Theologians draw facts from the biography of John the Baptist from the four canonical Gospels, the apocrypha and hagiography. The evangelist Luke tells about John’s childhood.

John was born into the family of the high priest Zechariah and the righteous Elisabeth, a distant relative of the future Mother of God. The upcoming birth of a child to a barren elderly couple was predicted by the Archangel Gabriel, who visited the future father in the Temple, and Gabriel ordered that the boy be given a name unusual for the family. Zechariah did not believe the messenger, for which he deprived Zechariah of the gift of speech. The priest's muteness lasted until the birth of the child.

The child began to prophesy while still in the mother’s womb. When Mary came to visit Elizabeth, the baby began to beat, and Elizabeth felt grace. That is, John rejoiced at meeting the Messiah even before those around him noticed the virgin’s pregnancy. On the site of Zechariah's country house, where the future mothers met, the Church of the Visitation was built.

In Ein Karem, a suburb of Jerusalem, where the prophet was born, a monastery of the Franciscan order (“St. John on the Mountains”) was built. The mute Zechariah confirmed in writing his desire to give his son the name John, indicated by the angel, after which he was able to speak again.

According to Scripture, the Forerunner was born six months earlier than the Savior. Based on this information, the date of celebration of the Nativity of John the Baptist was calculated - June 24 according to the Julian calendar in Orthodoxy. The holiday is popularly known as Ivan Kupala Day. From the point of view of solar symbolism: Jesus' Christmas is celebrated after the winter solstice, when the day becomes longer, and St. John's - after the summer, when the day shortens.

In order to save the child from the hands of the servants of King Herod, who exterminated the children, the mother left the city with him into the desert, where John lived until adulthood, preparing for future service. It is believed that the secret place was a monastery of the Essenes, a secret Jewish sect. The high priest Zechariah was killed by Herod's soldiers at his workplace.

Christian service

In the desert, God spoke to young John, after which John went to preach; the beginning of the journey is considered to be 28 or 29. The Prophet was an ascetic, dressed in a shaggy tunic made of camel hair, girded himself with a rawhide belt, ate honey from wild bees and locusts, and did not drink wine. In his sermons he called on sinners to fear God's wrath and repent. He reproached the Sadducees and Pharisees for hypocrisy and pride.

The prophet urged the warriors to be content with their salaries and not to offend civilians; tax collectors - do not demand anything from the population beyond what is required by law; the rich to share food and clothing with the poor. John designated ritual bathing in the streams of the Jordan River, called baptism, as a symbol of repentance and purification. A circle of followers gathered around the Baptist. John's disciples imitated their teacher's asceticism and assumed that John was the prophesied Savior.

When a delegation of clergy arrived from Jerusalem to verify this version, John denied it. He called himself the voice of the hermit, calling people to renewal. He predicted the imminent arrival of the Messiah, but was surprised when he met Jesus who came to be baptized, since he considered himself unworthy even to tie the straps of the Savior’s shoes.

Jesus insisted on doing what God had ordained and was baptized in the Jordan. While performing the ritual, the Baptist placed his right hand on the top of Christ’s head, and therefore the right hand of the saint was later especially revered. The baptism was accompanied by miracles that revealed to people the messiahship of Jesus: a dove flew from heaven and a voice sounded calling Jesus the beloved son and blessing him.

After the sign, the first two apostles, who had previously been among the disciples of John the Baptist, joined the Savior. While Jesus was meditating in the desert, John was arrested. Saint John in Orthodoxy is considered the most important prayer book for all Christians.

The Akathist to the Forerunner is read to understand one’s sins and their causes, to bring unbelievers into the Church, and to help prisoners. The author of an ancient prayer compared the Forerunner to a morning star, eclipsing the radiance of other stars, which foreshadows the morning of a sunny day.

Death

The Prophet John severely denounced the crimes of the rulers, calling on them to repent. In particular, he publicly condemned the immoral behavior of the tetrarch of Galilee, Herod Antipas, who was married to Herodias, his niece. Antipas captured the beautiful Herodias from his half-brother, Herod Philip. John appeared at the tyrant’s palace and, right in front of the guests in the banquet hall, accused him of a gross violation of Jewish laws.

The tetrarch did not repent, but, on the contrary, arrested the prophet and put him in prison. What to do with him next remained unclear: the execution of such a well-known person among the people could cause unrest among the population of Galilee. But the accusatory speech angered Herod's wife. The publicly insulted woman sought revenge, which she took with the help of her daughter Salome.

At the festival in honor of the birthday of Herod Antipas, Salome danced so beautifully that Herod promised the girl in front of the guests that she would fulfill any of her wishes. Incited by her mother, Salome asked for John's head as a gift. The squire, who was sent to prison, cut off the prophet's head and presented the girl with an eerie gift on a silver platter. Salome gave the head to Herodias, and the servants gave the body to the disciples of the Baptist.

In memory of these events, the day of the Beheading of John the Baptist is celebrated. In the Orthodox Church this is a day of strict fasting. In the folk tradition, beheading has acquired a number of customs and superstitions: it is forbidden to work with sharp objects, eat round vegetables and fruits, and cut bread. The disciples buried the headless body of John the Baptist in Sebaste, near the tomb of the prophet Elisha, but after that miracles began to happen to the saint’s body.

Around 362, the pagans opened and destroyed the burial, burning the bones and scattering the ashes. However, Christians managed to save some of the relics. In the 10th century, Theodore Daphnopatos told Christians that the Apostle Luke wanted to take his body to Antioch, but the Sebastians allowed only the saint’s right hand to be taken away. Later, the incorruptible Hand of John the Baptist moved to Constantinople, in honor of which a corresponding holiday was established, which is now not popular.

Herodias hid the prophet's head in the palace chambers, but a maid stole the relic and buried it in a clay jug on the slope of the Mount of Olives. A few years later, while digging a ditch, the servants of the nobleman Innocent found the jug and identified the relic. This event is celebrated by parishioners of the Russian Orthodox Church on February 24, old style. Before his death, Innocent hid the shrine well.

During the years when Emperor Constantine the Great reigned in Jerusalem, two pilgrims accidentally found the head, but the lazy people instructed a fellow traveler to carry the relic. A fellow traveler (a potter by profession) left the monks and became the guardian of the shrine. After his death, the jug with the miraculous head passed to the guardian's sister. Later, the relic went to an Arian priest, who hid the chapter in a cave near Emessa.

In 452, John appeared in a dream to the archimandrite of a nearby monastery and indicated the place where the head was hidden. The relic was found and transferred to Constantinople. The second Finding of the Head is celebrated simultaneously with the first. During the unrest in Constantinople, the shrine was sent for storage to the city of Emessa, then hidden in Comana during the iconoclastic persecutions.

The embassy of Emperor Michael III in 850, guided by the insights of Patriarch Ignatius, found the head of the saint in Comana. This was the third Finding, celebrated by the Russian Orthodox Church on May 25 according to the Julian calendar. Each holiday has its own canon - the order and list of prayers read during the solemn service by priests.

The further history of the relic is not precisely known, and now twelve churches are vying for the title of owner of the authentic head of John the Baptist. Also in Christendom there are seven jaws (in addition to heads), eleven index fingers, nine arms and four shoulders. All these relics are considered authentic and perform miraculous healings.

Memory

1663 – Joost van den Vondel’s poem “John the Baptist”
1770 – the battleship of the Russian Imperial Navy “Chesma” was built, which had the second name “John the Baptist”
1864 – poem “Herodias” by Stéphane Mallarmé
1877 – story “Herodias”
1891 – play “Salome”

Orthodox holidays

September 23 (October 6) - Conception of John the Baptist
June 24 (July 7) - Nativity of John the Baptist
August 29 (September 11) - Beheading of John the Baptist
7 (January 20) - Cathedral of John the Baptist
February 24 (March 8) in a leap year, February 24 (March 9) in a non-leap year - the first and second Finding of the Head of John the Baptist
May 25 (June 7) – third Finding of the Head of John the Baptist
12 (October 25) - Transfer of the Hand of John the Baptist

1

God is a Personality - this religious experience of Christianity and the entire spiritual movement that led humanity to Christianity is needed like no other by the people of our days, when the existence of the human personality is threatened in a totalitarian statehood by the will to Impersonality embodied, as nowhere and never in the history of mankind .

Personality be for the person
The highest good on earth.
Höchstes Glück der Erdenkinder
Sei nur die Persönlichkeit, -

this is Goethe's word, and another:

Don't be afraid of any losses, -
Just be yourself.
Alles könne man verlieren,
Wenn man bleibe, was man ist, -

these two words, repeated as the sound is repeated by the echoing rumbles of deep caves in the hearts of those who, remembering the horror of what is happening in the world now - these two warning words were spoken, perhaps not by chance, precisely in the country where the most murderous thing was destined to arise for the human personality movement - the totalitarianism of statehood in Germany; It is also no coincidence, perhaps, that those words were spoken precisely in the first quarter of the 19th century, when a spiritual movement began - anti-Christianity, which not only Germany, but almost all of Europe led to this Will and Impersonality and threatens to lead the whole world to it.

Is it possible to destroy the human Personality in such a way as to reduce it to the impersonality of not only an ant, but also a grain of pressed caviar, or even a unit of mechanical forces?

If it is possible, then the impersonal state in its violence against the individual is invincible, and if it is not possible, then sooner or later in the spiritual world something similar to what happened in the physical world during the “splitting of the atom” will happen: the steel armor of the impersonal state will be blown up by a discharge of infinite forces, prisoners in the atom of an indestructible Personality, and the stronger the struggle that squeezed it, the more crushing the explosion will be.

If someday people get tired of making countless sacrifices to Moloch of statehood - throwing themselves and throwing others into his red-hot, iron belly, then they will remember the religious experience of Christianity - God is a Person - and will understand that there can be nothing else but this experience the driving force of totalitarian statehood, the fire that heats the belly of Moloch, the will to Impersonality, has been defeated.

And when people understand this, they will feel how close and necessary they are to the person who, exposing to the last depths the metaphysical roots of the Personality, that primordial granite on which the Personality is based, did this in a way that, perhaps, no one has ever done in two years. thousands of years of Christianity. This man is St. John of the Cross.

The stone that the builders rejected has become the head of the corner... Whoever falls on this stone will be broken, and whoever it falls on will crush him (Matt. 21, 42, 44).

The stone rejected by the builders of totalitarian statehood - the Divine Person of Christ - is that eternal granite on which the human Person is unshakably based. This cannot be understood better than from the religious experience of St. John of the Cross: that is why when the liberation of the human Person from state violence begins, people will need him more than anyone else.

Sooner or later the parable of the evil vinedressers will be fulfilled, because “heaven and earth will pass away, but His words will not pass away.”

When the winegrowers saw their son, they said to each other: “This is the heir; Let’s go, kill him and take possession of the inheritance.” And they seized him, took him out of the vineyard and killed him. So, when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do with these vinedressers? They say to Him: “He will put these evildoers to an evil death, and he will give the vineyard to other vinedressers, who will give him the fruit in their seasons” (Matt. 21:38-41).

“They kicked the Son out of the vineyard,” which means they excluded the Divine Personality of Christ from the entire structure of human life, and with It the human personality; “They killed the Son” means they killed or would like to kill the Divine Person of Christ, and with Her, the human person. But the Father will come and execute the murderer of the Son. This is in the religious experience of St. John of the Cross is foreshadowed in such a way that when this begins to happen, people will again need him more than anyone else.

2

The most personal of all human feelings is love, because only the lover sees in the beloved that which is unique and unrepeatable in eternity and therefore most precious, which makes a possible person real, making him a person. This uniqueness of the human personality is a sign of its Divinity, because God is one. But He is also Love: that is why the greatest manifestation of the Personality in the world - Christ - is also the greatest manifestation of love.

...

By this everyone will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.

...

Righteous Father! and the world did not know You, but I knew You, and these knew that You sent Me... so that the love with which You loved Me may be in them and I in them

The most personal feeling of all human feelings is love, and the most personal love is marital love, because in every other personality they only come closer, but remain separated in their last depths by the barrier of the flesh, and in marital love this barrier falls, and the personalities enter into each other - unite, spiritually-carnally. The complete Personality is not in the spirit and not in the flesh, but in the union of spirit with flesh: this is why a person achieves its fullness not in one spiritual and not in one carnal, but in the spiritual and carnal together union of marital love.

But in the religious experience of the Christian mystery, marital love is only a small, here on earth, visible lightning of a great, invisible thunderstorm; human marriage is only a prophetic sign, a symbol of that which in the Eliuzinian sacraments, at this peak of all pre-Christian humanity closest to Christianity, is given the same name as in the Christian mystery: Theogamy, Divine Matrimony. And this coincidence of the name is not accidental, if the entire religious experience of mankind has gone, is going and will go towards this and if, according to the word of St. Augustine, “there has always been in the world what, after the appearance of Christ in the flesh, people called Christianity,” and if, in the words of Schelling, “world history is an eon, whose only content, cause and goal is Christ.”

St. John of the Cross (also known as St. Juan de la Cruz and St. John of the Cross, Spanish: Juan de la Cruz); (June 24, 1542, Ontiveros, Spain - December 14, 1591, Úbeda, Jaen, Spain), real name Juan de Yepes Álvarez (Spanish: Juan de Yepes Álvarez) - Catholic saint, writer and mystical poet. Reformer of the Carmelite Order. Teacher of the Church.
Biography and creativity

Juan came from a noble but impoverished noble family who lived in the vicinity of Avila. As a young man, he entered the hospital to care for the sick. He received his education at a Jesuit school in the town of Medina del Campo, where his family moved after the death of his father in search of a livelihood.

In 1568 he joined the Carmelite Order and received theological education in Salamanca. He then became one of the founders of the reformed Carmelite monastery of Duruelo. As a monk, he took the name John of the Cross.

In the Carmelite Order at this time there were strife related to the reforms of the order initiated by St. Teresa of Avila. John became a supporter of reforms aimed at returning to the original ideals of the Carmelites - severity and asceticism.

John’s activities were not to the liking of many in the monastery; he was brought to trial three times for slanderous denunciations, and spent many months in prison under difficult conditions. It was during his imprisonment that John began to write his beautiful poems, imbued with a special mystical spirit and religious awe. He also wrote prose treatises - “Ascent of Mount Carmel”, “Dark Night of the Soul”, “Song of the Spirit”, “Living Flame of Love”.

St. died John of the Cross in Ubeda, in 1591. In 1726 he was canonized by Pope Benedict XIII, in 1926 Pope Pius XI declared him a Doctor of the Church. Memorial Day of St. John of the Cross in the Catholic Church - December 14.

The works of St. Russian symbolists were interested in John of the Cross, in particular D. S. Merezhkovsky, who wrote a book about him. Poems by St. John was translated into Russian by Anatoly Geleskul and Boris Dubin.

Based on the saint's ecstatic visions, Salvador Dali painted it in 1950-1952. painting "Christ of St. John of the Cross"

El Cristo de San Juan de la Cruz (1951) "The Christ of Saint John of the Cross". Salvador Dali

Mystical verses
St. Juan de la Cruz

Dark night of the soul.

In the unspeakable night,
burned with love and longing -
O my blessed lot! -
I walked away

In the blessed night
I went down the secret stairs -
O my blessed lot! -
shrouded in darkness
when my house was filled with peace.

Guarded by the darkness of the night,
hiding, I didn’t meet anyone
and I was invisible
and lit the way for me
the love that burned in my heart.

This love is brighter
Than the sun at noon, it illuminated my path.
I walked, led by her,
to someone I knew
to a deserted region, where she expected a meeting.

O night, more tender than the dawn!
O night that served as my guide!
O good night,
that I got engaged to Darling
and dressed the Bride as the Groom!

And in the heart, which is invisible
only for him the blossoms were saved,
he lay motionless
and I caressed him.
The cedar branch gave us coolness.

There, under the jagged canopy,
I touched his hair timidly,
and the wind blows
the wing hit me
and commanded all feelings to be silent.

In silence, in self-forgetfulness
I bowed over my Beloved,
and everything went away. Torment,
which I was yearning for,
dissolved among the snow-white lilies.

FIRE OF LIVING LOVE

Fire of living love
how sweetly you hurt
me to the depths of my heart!
You won't fade away anymore
you won’t get tired of shining -
burn the barrier to the desired meeting!

Oh the happiness of the burn!
O joy of those wounds!
About the touch of a gentle hand -
you are the road to eternity,
and payment of all debts,
and death, and transformation of death into life!

Oh, living lights!
Immeasurable radiance
that the dark depths of feelings were washed,
until then blind;
and a joyful tribute -
bestowed its warmth and light!

So tender and humble
ignited in consciousness,
only you, fire, secretly dwell in it...
In my blessed soul
your breath lives on
and you fill me with love!

SOURCE.

How sweet it is for me to know the source running
in the darkness of this night!

This eternal source is hidden from view,
but I know the valley where it flows quietly
in the darkness of this night.

In this dark night that is called life,
blessed is he who touches this moisture with faith,
in the darkness of this night.

All existing rivers originate in it,
you won’t find its beginning forever
in the darkness of this night.

Outshining any beauty,
he waters the firmament and the earth
in the darkness of this night.

Its waters flow, filled with coolness,
and there is no limit to them, and there is no barrier to them
in the darkness of this night.

The crystal of these waters will never be eclipsed,
but the light of the whole earth will be born in them from eternity
in the darkness of this night.

Clean and bright, those waters irrigate
and earth, and hell, and the vaults of heaven
in the darkness of this night.

This source gives birth to a great stream,
and he, the almighty, sweeps away obstacles
in the darkness of this night.

It contains the appearance of three, fused together,
and each shines, illuminated by others
in the darkness of this night.

This eternal source is hidden from view,
but it will turn into life-giving bread for us
in the darkness of this night.

That eternal bread nourishes creatures,
satisfying their hunger in the darkness of suffering,
in the darkness of this night.

And the eternal source, without which I suffer,
This living bread will quench my thirst
in the darkness of this night.

ON THE RIVERS OF BABYLON.

Here, on the rivers of Babylon,
Now I sit and cry,
the land of exile with tears
I irrigate every day.
Here, O my Zion, with love
I remember you
and the more blessed the memory,
the more I suffer.
I took off my clothes of joy,
I put on the robe of sorrows,
now hung on the willow tree
the harp on which I play;
I still have hope
what I entrust to You.
Wounded by love, in separation
I remain with my heart
and begging for death,
I stretch out my hands to You.
I threw myself into this flame -
I know its burning fire
and, becoming like a bird,
I'm dying in this fire.
I, having died in my heart,
I come to life only in You,
dying for you,
for Your sake I rise;
I'm losing it in my memories
life, and I find it.
We kill with our lives,
I die every day
for she separates
with the One I call.
Foreigners rejoice
that I'm languishing in their captivity
and to their vain joy
I look on blankly.
They ask for my songs
what I write about Zion:
“Sing,” they say, “the anthem of Zion!”
I, grieving, answer:
"How in the valley of exile,
crying for reasons,
I will sing songs of joy,
in which do I glorify Zion? "
I rejected someone else's joy,
I remain faithful to myself.
Let my tongue go numb
with which I sing your praises,
if I forget you
here, where I am in captivity,
if for the bread of Babylon
I will exchange my Zion.
May I lose my right hand
the one I hold to my chest,
if I don't remember you
with every sip that I taste,
if you celebrate a holiday
I will wish without you.
Woe, O daughter of Babylon,
I announce your doom!
Will be glorified forever
The one to whom I now call,
The one who will return your punishment
what do I accept from you!
May He gather these little ones,
for in captivity I trust
I'm on the stronghold of Christ
and I am leaving Babylon.

Debetur soli gloria vera Deo.

(True glory belongs only to God, lat.)

* * *

Seized by a strange thirst,
I waited for the cherished time -
and I flew high
I achieved my desired goal!

I've risen so high
drawn by this delight,
that in the heights is unknown
I'm forever lost.

Here it is, that long-awaited moment!
I was still flying alone
in this love - and high
I achieved my desired goal!

Higher! But my gaze is in flight
was blinded for a moment -
and so I overtook him in the dark
the target is like game on the hunt.

Blindly, with that strange love
I stepped deep into the darkness
and, being high,
I achieved my desired goal!

I got up so easily
up - is there a happier fate? -
and became more humble
and diminished more and more.

I say in the tireless struggle:
"Who will reach the source?" -
and I flew high
I achieved my desired goal!

My wondrous flight contains
there are so many different flights -
for he who trusted in God
he finds what he was looking for.

With this strange hope
I was waiting for the cherished time...
I was high, high
I achieved my desired goal!

* * *

I found myself in that land
having tasted such ignorance,
which is beyond anyone's knowledge.

I don’t know which path
I entered this reserved land,
I don’t know where I am, but I won’t hide it,
that at this moment my mind is poor,
leaving the world dumb and pale,
tasted such ignorance,
which is beyond anyone's knowledge.

True knowledge has embraced
the whole world created by the Almighty.
So, alone, in silence,
I saw him and, captivated,
became like an unintelligent baby,
having touched such a sacrament,
which is beyond anyone's knowledge.

I was so completely absorbed
what's at the top of alienation
every feeling is numb,
any feeling is gone
when I realized
incomprehensible - such
which is beyond anyone's knowledge.

This pilgrim, by God's will,
free himself from himself
and everything he had learned so far
will turn to dust and ashes.
will increase so much that it will decrease
suddenly, out of ignorance,
which is beyond anyone's knowledge.

The more he learns, numb,
mind, the less it comprehends
this flame that led Moses,
the light that shines at midnight,
but the one who still knows him,
will taste such ignorance,
which is beyond anyone's knowledge.

This unknown knowledge -
- such power it has,
that the wise men in their efforts
to comprehend it - they will not succeed,
for their knowledge will not be able to
achieve such ignorance
which is beyond anyone's knowledge.

Its top is inaccessible,
and there is no science that has mastered
by that higher knowledge entirely
or succeed in surpassing him.
But he overcame himself,
will taste such ignorance,
becoming above everything earthly.

And if you want an answer -
- what does the highest secret hide? -
I will say: this is good knowledge
represents the essence of the Divine.
God's mercy allows us
taste such ignorance.
which is beyond anyone's knowledge.

YOUNG SHEPHERD.

The young shepherd mourns in voiceless anguish.
He rushed, alien to entertainment,
to his shepherdess with every thought,

It's not because he's crying in vain
deeply wounded by his love,
but that is why he suffers cruelly,
that was forgotten by the beautiful shepherdess.

And forgotten by the beautiful shepherdess,
he endures this severe torment,
foreign land accepts reproaches,
and his chest is sick with passionate love.

And the shepherd says: “Oh, unfortunate me!
After all, she is now sick of my love!
She forgot me forever
and I yearn for this passionate love!”

And now, tormented by hourly torment,
one day he climbed a tree
and remained hanged by the hands
and his chest is sick with passionate love.

* * *

Both without support and with support
I live in darkness, without light;
I find my limit in everything.

About all creatures of flesh
the soul has forgotten forever,
and soared above herself,
and God was with her on that flight,
the support that kept her.
And therefore I have the right to say,
that there is no more beautiful thing,
my soul saw in reality -
both without support and with support!

Let my life be enveloped in darkness -
then the fate of everyone in the earthly vale,
I do not mourn this fate!
My love does to me
a hitherto unprecedented miracle:
sometimes I go blind, but I know -
the soul is full of love until
I live in darkness, without light.

That power of love guides me:
she, living invisibly in me,
Is it good or evil that is being done to me -
converted with one meal
and transformed life into itself.
And in this sweet languor
I feel like I'm burning in flames
and, wounded without healing,
I find my limit in everything.

Translation by L. Vinarova .

Saint Juan de la Cruz

Prayer of a loving soul.

The earth and the sky belong to me, all people are mine - righteous and sinners; my angels and the Mother of God, and all my things, and God Himself is mine and for me, for Christ is mine; and everything in the world was created for me. So what do you ask and seek, my soul? You own it all, and it's all for you. Do not strive for anything less, do not pay attention to the crumbs that fall from the table of the Lord. Go out and rejoice in your paradise, take refuge in it and enjoy,
and you will find what you want.

CLIMBING MOUNT CARMEL
Fragment of the treatise

Jordan Omann

from book
"CHRISTIAN SPIRITUALITY IN THE CATHOLIC TRADITION"

It is impossible to talk about St. Teresa of Avila, without turning her thoughts to her great companion St. John of the Cross. They were so closely interconnected in life, in activity and in teaching that they are certainly the pillars on which the Carmelite school of spirituality stands. St. John of the Cross (1542-1591) is not known and read as widely as he deserves, and there are several reasons for this: he wrote for those whose souls had already advanced on the path of perfection; his teaching on detachment and purification seems too strict to some Christians; his language, often too refined and esoteric, is not to the taste of modern readers. However, his works and the works of St. Teresa complements each other so perfectly that one can best come to an understanding of one through studying the other. There is, of course, a significant difference between them, but it concerns not the essence, but the approach.

To understand St. John of the Cross and St. Teresa, it is necessary to understand the state of Christianity in sixteenth-century Spain. People who claimed to have received revelations, visions and other unusual mystical experiences were admired; We were looking for such people. Some of them really sought to acquire these wonderful gifts; others clearly imitated stigmata or visions simply to influence believers. Illuminism, which reached enormous proportions, especially in monastic monasteries that allowed indulgences, acted as a means leading to higher holiness and not requiring ascetic deeds and efforts in acquiring virtues. They were rejected as interfering or as absolutely unnecessary for direct connection in the mystical experience of communication with All methods of religious practice developed and officially approved by God. Pseudomysticism became the object of careful study by the Spanish Inquisition, which managed to control the situation, sacrificing, however, the development of genuine, orthodox spirituality.502 If we do not take into account the situation that developed in Spain in the sixteenth century, then we can mistakenly interpret certain provisions of the works of St. Teresa and St. John of the Cross.

Born in the town of Fontiveros, near Avila, Juan de Iepes, St. John of the Cross (1542-1591) was only a few months old when his father died. The family, squeezed by the grip of poverty, moved to the city of Medina del Campo, where John tried different professions, and from 1559 to 1563. attended a Jesuit school. At twenty-one he joined the Carmelite Order and was sent to Salamanca to receive theological education. Returning to Medina del Campo to celebrate his first Mass, John met St. Teresa of Avila. At the time, he seriously considered defecting to the Carthusians, but Teresa convinced him to join the reformed Carmel.

The first men's monastery of the reformed Carmelites was founded in Duruelo; the founding fathers were John and Anthony of Jesus. For several years, John of the Cross carried out various duties: mentor of the novitiate, rector of the college in Alcala, confessor of the Carmelites at the Monastery of the Annunciation in Avila. It was in Avila that he was kidnapped (1577) and imprisoned by the Shoed Carmelites in their monastery in Toledo.

After escaping from Toledo, John spent most of the rest of his life in Andalusia and was elected to various important positions. However, at the provincial chapter held in 1591 in Madrid, John openly expressed disagreement with the vicar general Nicholas Doria, who immediately deprived John of all positions. Humiliated, but rejoicing at the opportunity to return to the solitude and concentration of St. John of the Cross ended his days in Úbeda, where he died after much suffering. He was canonized in 1726 by Pope Benedict XIII, and in 1926 Pope Pius XI declared him a Doctor of the Church.503

The main works of St. John of the Cross - Ascent of Carmel (1579-1585); Dark Night of the Soul (1582-1585); Song of the Spirit (1584 - first edition, second - between 1586-1591); Living Flame of Love XCII (first edition between 1585-1587, second - between 1586-1591). All these works are commentaries on St.'s own poems. John of the Cross; the first two treatises were never completed. It is generally accepted, however, that these two treatises Ascension - Dark Night are devoted to the same theme, the theme of the separation of active and passive purification of the senses and spiritual faculties.504

During the years of study of St. John of the Cross in Salamanca, his studies there were carried out in line with Thomistic theology, but he also became acquainted with the works of Pseudo-Dionysius and St. Gregory the Great. However, the greatest influence on John seems to have been Tauler, although it is quite possible that he also knew the works of St. Bernard, Ruysbroeck, Cassian, the Victorians, Osuna and, of course, St. Teresa of Avila.505 Nevertheless, John of the Cross did not imitate anyone; his works, each in its own way, are distinguished by their special originality.

The fundamental principle of the theology of St. John is to affirm that God is everything and man is nothing. Therefore, in order to achieve perfect union with God, which is what holiness consists of, it is necessary to subject all the faculties and powers of soul and body to intense and deep purification. In Ascension - Dark Night, the process of purification can be traced completely - from the active purification of external senses to the passive purification of higher abilities; The Living Flame and the Song of the Spirit describe the perfect spiritual life in transformative union. The entire path to union is “night,” for the soul travels along it only by faith. St. John of the Cross presents his teaching systematically, so that the result is mystical theology in its best understanding, not because it is systematic, but because its sources are Holy Scripture, theology and personal experience.

Speaking about the union of the soul with God, St. John emphasizes that we are talking about a supernatural union, and not about that general union in which God appears to the soul when he simply supports its existence. The supernatural union characteristic of the mystical life is the “union in likeness,” accomplished in grace and love. However, in order for this union to reach its highest perfection and highest degree of intimacy, the soul must get rid of everything that is not God and everything that limits the love of God, so that it can love God with all its heart, soul, mind and strength.

Since any damage to the union of love comes from the soul, and not from God, then St. John concludes that the soul must undergo a complete purification of all its faculties and powers - both sensory and spiritual - before it can be fully illuminated by the light of divine union. Following this comes the “dark night,” a state whose name is determined by the fact that the starting point is the refusal and renunciation of the attraction to the created, the desire for the created; the means or way by which the soul advances towards union is faith in darkness; the goal of the path is God, Whom man also imagines in earthly life as a dark night.506

The need to go through this dark night is due to the fact that, from the point of view of God, human attachment to created things is absolute darkness, while God is the purest light, and darkness cannot comprehend the light (John 1:5). In the language of philosophy, the coexistence of two opposites in one subject is impossible. Darkness, an attribute of creatures, and light, which is God, are opposites; they cannot be in the soul at the same time.

Then St. John goes on to explain how the soul should mortify its passions or lusts and how it should, through faith, carry out an active purification of the senses and spirit. And although the treatment may seem unpleasant and strictly ascetic, St. John always tries to make it clear that this purification or poverty does not consist in the absence of created things, but in the renunciation of them, in the eradication of the desire to possess them and attachment to them.507 St. John gives a simple method for achieving purification: have a constant desire to imitate Christ; and for imitation, study the life and works of Christ and do as He did.508

In the second book of the Ascension of St. John speaks of the active night of the spirit. He states that the purification of the mind, memory and will is accomplished through the operation of the virtues of faith, hope and love, and then explains how faith is the dark night through which the soul must pass to unite with God. Turning further to prayer practice, St. John names three signs by which the soul can recognize its transition from meditation to contemplative prayer. Firstly, it is no longer possible to meditate in the usual way; secondly, there is no desire to focus separately on something specific; thirdly, an irresistible attraction to God and to solitude arises. A person experiences “awareness of God in love,” and this is what contemplative prayer consists of.509

Passive purification is explained in the Dark Night. At this stage, God stops the soul’s activity of self-purification in the area of feelings and spiritual abilities. The soul is gradually immersed in the contemplation of darkness, which Pseudo-Dionysius described as the “Ray of Darkness”, and St. John calls “mystical theology.”510 And although one might expect that mystical contemplation is delightful, St. John says that it causes torment, and the reason for this is that the divine light of contemplation, striking a soul that has not yet achieved complete purification, plunges it into spiritual darkness, for it not only exceeds human understanding, but also deprives the soul of the ability to think.

Nevertheless, even in this darkness and painful contemplation, the soul discerns the rays that signal the approach of dawn. In the Song of the Holy Spirit John describes the soul's restless search for God and the final meeting in love, using the image of a bride searching for a groom and ultimately entering into a perfect union of mutual love. God attracts the soul to Himself as a powerful magnet attracts metal particles; the soul’s approach to God accelerates all the time, until everything else is left behind and it enjoys that highest intimate union with God that is available in this life: the mystical marriage of a transforming union.

Then, in the Living Flame of Love, St. John describes sublimated perfect love in a state of transformative union. The union of the soul with God is so intimate that it surprisingly resembles a beatific vision, so reminiscent that “only a thin veil separates it.” The soul asks that the Holy Spirit now rip the veil of mortal life, that the soul may enter into full and perfect glory. The soul comes so close to God that it is transformed into the flame of love, communing with the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. She enjoys the anticipation of eternal life.511

And it should not be considered as incredible that in a soul that has already been tested, purified and tested in the fire of suffering, trials and the most varied temptations, and recognized as faithful in love, the promise of the Son of God will be fulfilled, the promise that the Most Holy Trinity will come and create an abode in to everyone who loves Her (John 14:23). The Most Holy Trinity dwells in the soul through the divine illumination of the mind of the soul by the wisdom of the Son, through the delight of the will in the Holy Spirit and its enthrallment into the delightful, sweet embrace of the Father.512

St. Teresa of Avila and St. John of the Cross, together, gave the Church a spiritual teaching that has never been surpassed. Their influence was so great and their writing was so brilliant that they eclipsed all other authors of the golden age of Spanish spirituality.