Ojukwu
Maxwell Chibueze Reg. No. 11108T
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| My First Religious Poem! |
Dark
Night of the Soul by St. John of the Cross (1542 – 1592)
John
de Yepes was born in 1542 in Fontiveros (Spain), the youngest of three sons of
Gonzalo de Yepes and Catalina Alvarez. The story has it that John’s father
Gonzalo fell in love with Catalina, an orphaned girl. They married, but Gonzalo
was disinherited for stooping so low to marry an orphan and thus betraying his
root and family status. In 1542, their son John was born. Shortly after his
birth, his father died and as such, John was helped with his early education in
a catechism school for the children of the poor. At the age of twenty-one, in
1563, John decided to join the Carmelite Order where he met Teresa of Jesus who
introduced him to her reforms. John was arrested and imprisoned by friars who
were opposed to the reform. And while in prison he wrote several poems, one of
which is the Dark Night of the Soul. He died in 1591 at the age
of forty-nine.
I
have been motivated to write on the Dark
Night of the Soul because it was
the first religious poem I memorized as a novice. I have been touched by John’s
careful use of the imagery of the night to describe our vocations’ journey
especially my journey as a young novice. In this work I saw a description of my
struggles in my desire to reach union with God. So in writing on the Dark Night of the Soul once more, I feel I will have more opportunities to
look into and reflect on my journey to God.
Reflection: JOURNEY TO UNION
Reflection: JOURNEY TO UNION
I would like to refer to The Dark Night as a song which the soul that has
reached union with God sings. This song is a description of how the soul
journeyed to this union through the Dark Night. This Dark Night is a moment of
purgation and purification that helps the soul to die to itself and desire
nothing but God. In chapters 1-7, John states some of the imperfections of
beginners. As a beginner, God places the soul on this Dark Night so as to draw it closer to Himself. Like a mother
nurtures her child, God nurtures the soul and grants it spiritual delights
which makes the soul very enthusiastic to practice spiritual exercises. This
could lead to an imperfection or spiritual vices, and that that is why the Lord
places this soul in the Dark Night so as to purify it of these imperfections
and make it advance in union with Him.
Reflection: The Night
through this Journey
In chapter 8 of the Dark
Night, St. John begins to treat of
the nature of this night. This night which is contemplative, causes two kinds
of darkness or purgation according to the two parts of the soul, the sensory
(sensory night) and the spiritual (spiritual night). This purgation prepares
the soul for union with the Lord through love. While the sensory night happens
to many, the spiritual night happens only to a few, the proficient. While the
sensory purgation is bitter and terrible to the senses, the spiritual purgation
is horrible and frightful to the spirit. For the beginners, it is at the moment
when they begin to experience great delights and satisfaction in prayer that
God begins to darken their light and their senses. They become dry and find
spiritual exercises to be distasteful and bitter. Though this aridity, might be
as a result of sin and imperfection, or weakness and lukewarmness, or some bad
humour or bodily disposition and not a result sensory purgation, St. John tells
us to discern properly.
Summary and Reflection
0.1 Introduction
John de Yepes was born in 1542 in Fontiveros
(Spain), the youngest of three sons of Gonzalo de Yepes and Catalina Alvarez. In
1563 he joined the Carmelite Order where he met Teresa of Jesus who introduced
him to her reforms. John was arrested and imprisoned by friars who were opposed
to the reform. And while in prison he wrote several poems, one of which is the Dark Night of the Soul. This work is summary and reflection on the Dark Night of the Soul.
1.0 The Dark Night Book I
The Dark Night of the Soul is a song which the
soul that has reached union with God sings. This song is a description of how
the soul journeyed to this union through the Dark Night. This Dark Night is a
moment of purgation and purification that helps the soul to die to itself and
desire nothing but God. In chapters 1-7, John states some of the imperfections
of beginners. As a beginner, God places the soul on this Dark Night so as to draw it closer to Himself. Just like a mother
nurtures her child, God nurtures the soul and grants it spiritual delights
which makes the soul very enthusiastic to practice spiritual exercises (sensual
glutton). This could lead to an imperfection or spiritual vices, and that is
why the Lord places this soul in the Dark Night so as to purify it of these
imperfections and make it advance in union with Him (cf. Dark Night I, 8).
In the following chapters of the Dark Night
book I, St. John begins to treat of the nature of this night. This night which
is contemplative, causes two kinds of darkness or purgation according to the
two parts of the soul, the sensory (sensory night) and the spiritual (spiritual
night). This purgation prepares the soul for union with the Lord through love.
1.1 First
Purgation and Night of the Senses
While the sensory night happens to many, the
spiritual night happens only to a few, the proficient. While the sensory
purgation is bitter and terrible to the senses, the spiritual purgation is
horrible and frightful to the spirit. For the beginners, it is at the moment
when they begin to experience great delights and satisfaction in prayer that
God begins to darken their light and their senses (dark night of the senses).
They become dry and find spiritual exercises to be distasteful and bitter.
Though this aridity might be as a result of sin and imperfection, or weakness
and lukewarmness, or some bad humour or bodily disposition and not a result
sensory purgation, St. John tells us to discern properly.
The souls undergoing this dark night (of the sense)
feel that God has abandoned them in this night. They grow weary and make
efforts to focus on objects of contemplation. They feel they are doing nothing
in prayer. They fatigue and overwork themselves thinking that they are failing
because of their sins. At this stage, one has to trust in God who will give
them his light by means of the night of the spirit (cf. Dark Night I, 10.1-4).
2.0 The Dark Night, Book II
2.1 Second
Purgation and the Dark Night of the Spirit
At this stage, the soul which has undergone the
first purgation is at the level of the proficient and for some years is left in
this level before being put in this dark night of the spirit (cf. Dark Night II, 1.1). The soul at this
level of the proficient goes about the things of God with much more freedom and
satisfaction of spirit and with more abundant interior that it experienced in
the beginning before entering the night of the senses. The soul experiences in its
spirit a very serene, loving contemplation and spiritual delight. At this
stage, the Lord would desire to complete the purgation and the person begins to
experience aridities and darkness and conflicts. But the soul will quickly
overcome these and return to its spiritual delight because God is bringing this
night at intervals, “frequently causing the night to come and then the dawn…” (Dark Night II, 1.1)
At this stage, the devil induces many into believing
in vain visions and false prophecies making them think that they are coming
from God and the saints. They long to exhibit and make an external
manifestation of their holiness, thus, they are drawn to vanity, presumption,
arrogance and pride (cf. Dark Night
II, 2.2). These are some of the imperfections manifested at this stage.
From chapter four, St. John begins to give an
explanation of all the stanzas of the poem: “The Dark Night”. “One dark night, does not describe a local
habitation, but a state of being. “Fired with love’s urgent longings” is not a
description of passing emotions. It is a lasting disposition of a person for
whom life’s only meaning has become oneness with the Divine. “Ah, the sheer
grace!” is a deep sigh welling up from one who has no one and nothing to depend
on but God. “I went out unseen” is the jubilant proclamation of one who has
escaped the tricks of the devil, the appetites, the traps of power and
possession, etc. “My house being now all stilled” is like a description of the
inner peace and joy we experience when our struggles and temptations are
overcome.[1] These
phrases will always be repeated by John in all the stanzas of the poem.
3.0 Insights
from the “Dark Night”
In the Dark Night, St. John explains the spiritual
journey as a personal movement towards union with God in continuous movement of
purification. This purification is necessary because of the many barriers,
distractions and obstacles which prevent the spiritual journey and can paralyze
the movement definitively.
The dark night purges our sense so that we can see
with clarity the unique persons we are: women and men loved into being by God.
The spirit also has to undergo considerable transformation, for clinging to it
like barnacles on a ship’s hull are the several obstacles described in the
first seven chapters of the Dark Night.
Only the fresh waters of spiritual purgation can restore us to our true selves.[2]
The different “Nights” thus, represents a challenge
one encounters in the process of the journey towards union with God. In our
ordinary life, these challenges could be seen in forms of vices and addictions
that prevent us from being the true persons we were meant to be. Thus setting
out on this journey means renouncing one’s own path and picking up our crosses
to follow him. Practically, one may have to renounce the satisfaction of seeing
growth at the time of growth. It may be months or years down the track that one
realizes that a crippling weakness is no longer such a problem, even though one
did not see it disappearing at the time. One thus feels a sense of weakness and
an anxiety to be free.[3]
3.1 Overcoming
Anxiety: Trust in God
It is night because it is not a pleasant experience
for one to encounter his/her weaknesses and face them with total abandonment
and trust in God’s grace and mercy. It is like a situation when one has to face
a particular trying time in life, what helps us to go through it is the
conviction that cloudy days do pass, that the temptation to give up is
temporary. We trust that when sunshine is in the forecast that storms will soon
subside.[4]
3.2 Total
Detachment and Desire for Union
The period of purgation is a time when one begins to
search to be united with God. One comes to see and appreciate the divine
invitation. It is a point of departure from which the soul sets out on the road
of the spiritual journey in search of the beloved.
During the
night of the senses, when sense is lord, the whole being is sensual, and
becomes hostage to the needs of its own creation.[5] At this point, St. John proposes a radical
paradigm shift in order to be freed from the “Nights of the Senses”. Having
overcome the night of sense, the things of the material world may not be
obstacles to spiritual growth because one recognizes them and can easily
transcend their attraction and challenges.
But then, new challenges appear. These are
challenges of spiritual good which may also constitute a night because one may
get stuck in the vicious circle of seeking such goods of heaven and loses sight
of the Glory of God. These are considered “Nights of the Spirit” because they
are equally gluttonous but of spiritual nature as opposed to the gluttony of
sensual nature. Spiritual gluttons make us proud of our accomplishments and make
us seek spiritual pleasures rather than seek God for his own sake.[6] Thus
we need to allow God to purge us of this night of the spirit.
3.3 God
Alone can Purge and Transform Us
We learn in the Dark Night that our human gifts,
sensual and spiritual, must pass through the way of purgation to be worthy of
being united with the Lord. Thus it is necessary to remain in a posture of
humility and openness to the promptings of the Spirit. We have to temper our urge
to interfere with what God is doing for us, and not indulge in lower level
inclinations or self-saving attempts to push against the peace of God’s grace.[7] As
the principal agent of our heart’s transformation, only God can infuse the
graces necessary for contemplative union.
It is only God who can also grant and satisfy the
soul’s desire to behold Him as he is in His Glory. We have to wait patiently in
faith, hope and trust in the mercy of God to sustain us in his grace till the
day it pleases him to grant us the joy of the so longed for spiritual union.
4.0 Conclusion
This is my understanding of St. John of the Cross’s
presentation of the spiritual journey. A close analysis of the Dark Night will
present to us the everyday dimension of our day-to-day living in this would. We
receive and give form on a day-to-day basis in the light of the changes that
occur in our body as we grow physically and mature spiritually.
Bibliography
John
of The Cross, “The Dark Night” in The
Collected Works of St. John the Cross
translated by
K. Kavannaugh
– O. Rodriguez, Washington, D.C:
ICB Publishers 1991.
Matthew
I., The Impact of God: Soundings from St.
John of The Cross, London:
Hodder
& Stoughton Ltd 1995.
Muto S., John
of The Cross for Today: The Dark Night, Notre Dame: Ave M
[1]
Cf. S. Muto, John of the Cross for Today, 168.
[2]
Cf. Cf. S. Muto, John of the Cross for Today, 86.
[3]
Cf. I. Matthew, The Impact of God, 61.
[4]
Cf. Cf. S. Muto, John of the Cross for Today, 103.
[5]
Cf. I. Matthew, The Impact of God, 59.
[6]
Cf. Cf. S. Muto, John of the Cross for Today, 69.
[7]
Cf. Cf. S. Muto, John of the Cross for Today, 229.
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