Spiritual Discipline by St. John of the Cross

As I went through some of the books of St. John of the Cross, a 16^th century Spanish Monk I was spell-bound. He was a Carmelite priest, contemporary of St. Teresa of Avila to whom I have devoted a blog earlier. He was a major figure in Counter Reformation, a Spanish mystic, a Roman Catholic Saint, a Carmelite Friar and a priest and a poet of acclaim. 

Just to give an outline of his life, he was born in 1542 near Avila in a place called Fontiveros. His father died when he was barely two years old, and his mother, being penniless and not being able to support her two living children with her job in weaving, sent John to a school for the poor, where he started his studies.

He takes the Carmelite habit in 1563 at the age of 21, and is ordained a priest in 1567. He is supposed to have met St. Teresa of Avila at that time, who convinced him to join the order of monks being started by her.

Taking deep interest in the Counter-Reform movement of the Catholic church which came in after the storm of Reformation, St. John starts to found monasteries of the Reform along with St. Teresa, as the Discalced Carmelites, consisting of barefooted monks of Carmelite order.

In a conflict between Discalced and non-discalced Carmelite orders, he was imprisoned in Toledo in 1577, where he was confined to a very small cell in the jail of the monastery, and was fed with just water and bread, and was brought out to be given lashings in the public every week.  

It was here when he was in the prison, he wrote his now famous poems, stanzas which he later expanded and wrote commentaries on. Prison is an infamous place where people of repute have penned their masterpieces. Think of Paul, the Apostle, Jawaharlal Nehru, India’s first Prime minister and so on, who wrote from their prison cells.

He escaped after 8 months and was nursed back to health by the Carmelite nuns and went ahead to be active in the Reformed church, founding more monasteries of the Discalced order. He at the age of 49 in 1591 at Ubeda. He was canonized by Pope Benedict XIII in 1726 and as declared Doctor of the Church Universal by Pope Pius XI in 1926.

While in prison, St. John composed some 17 stanzas of “Spiritual Canticle,” which are masterpieces of Christian Mysticism. In his writings, he expounds the dark night, the night of doubt, confusion and despair, that the soul passes through in order to receive the Divine light of the perfect union with the love of God.

I tried my luck with the book, “Ascent of Mt. Carmel,” which was the first of the books written by the Saint. It gives an account of the soul from its first determination to seek to rise from the earth and soar upward towards the union with God. It is a systematic study of the ascetical endeavour of a soul looking for perfect union with God.

As I ploughed through the book, which was difficult to read, just to say the least, I was also plagued with doubts whether this is the same concept as the merger and union of a soul, Atma with that of Paramatma, the Absolute Brahman, a Hindu concept codified elaborately in Upanishads of Hinduism.

I broke off reading and restarted it after almost 8 months and completed it, but to my surprise, it wasn’t about a merger like in the Hindu concept. It is about reaching perfection through prayers and meditation leading to transformation in God through love.

Just like Apostle Paul has written in Romans 12: 2, “And do not e conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is good and acceptable and perfect will of God.” The writings are resplendent with the word of God from the Bible strewn throughout the narrative, which is a pleasure to read.  

The next treatise, “Dark Night of the Soul,” which I am reading now, describes what the soul encounters in its journey to seek the ultimate in God, a continuation of the Ascent of Mount Carmel. Here the first stanza of the poem talks of the first night of purgation of the sensual part of the soul. Then comes the spiritual part, the purification which is a night obscure, dark and terrible, the Dark Night.

In the Dark Night, it is God who takes the initiative and purges the soul of its senses and faculties, nudging the soul towards its goal of merger in the love of God and be transformed completely. The treatise talks about the seven deadly sins, including pride, avarice, luxury, wrath, gluttony, envy and sloth and the need to be purged off these.

All these discipline is to ensure the soul will remain in peace and quietness, content with loving attentiveness toward God, depicting the various stages of ascent to the Mount, which culminates in the union with God. St. John also describes the ten steps or degrees of love, which is known as St. Bernard’s mystical ladder.

The other two books of the Saint which I am yet to lay my hands on are The Spiritual Canticle and The Living Flame of Love. I am sure I will do so soon and be delighted in the account of the Saint who had climbed the Mountain himself and has written about his experience.  

Spiritual Canticle is said to be about a bride, the soul, searching for her bridegroom, and is anxious at having lost him. When they find each other, they are filled with joy.

It sounds like the Songs of Solomon in the Bible, where the Shulamite girl, smitten by the love bug, pines for her lover to come and claim her as his bride and the mutual joy they experience once they unite in love.

The Living Flame is supposed to describe the greater intimacy as the soul responds to God’s love, the final Union with God.

Well, it seems to be a tall order in today’s world to lead such a life of not even wearing shoes/sandals and seek the Lord continually, but even without such a rigorous asceticism, it is possible to be in the Lord all the time, continually to remember him, pray for people who are in difficult straits, and ‘be in Christ.’ Writings such as these inspire us to do so, which are achievable for any ordinary human being.

As I write this, Christmas season is on us, and we are celebrating the birth of a child, who gave up everything to take up the human form, to achieve liberation for the human souls, from the captivity of sin and sickness and death. That is love and may we be enveloped by that love that will never leave us or forsake us or abandon us.

Let’s seek refuge in that Love.

Let our Lord’s love and intimacy keep our hearts and souls in love, with him and our fellow-human beings.

Merry Christmas and a very happy New Year.