February 1992
God Experience in
Christian Tradition: A Man of God in this World – St John of the Cross
One dark night…
In secret, for no one
saw me…
I went out of myself,
Leaving my cares
forgotten…
God Experience
Kabir and Fakir were known for their holiness and were said
to be men of God. Both had their disciples. As disciples insisted, a meeting of
these two great men was planned. However, when they actually met, the disciples
of both the gurus, who were eagerly waiting to see how these great men would
share their experience, were disappointed. They embraced, wept and parted
without speaking a word. When the
disciples asked for a reason, they were told: Those who have experienced it
know it even without a word. Those who have not experienced it do not
understand, even if any amount of words are spoken (Vineet, 1985)[i].
Many of us are brought up in a religious atmosphere, where
we talk much about God. But if we
examine what our experience of God is, it is likely that we have very less to
speak, or even a draw a blank. When
confronted with the question, ‘what is God experience?’, we are likely to have
no clear answer. Either we are not conscious of the unavoidable experience of
God, or may be, a sin the case of the story above, we find words so powerless
that they fail to express the experience adequately. Thus, we find St John of
the Cross in the preface to the ‘Living Flame of Love’ expressing his
unwillingness to expound his doctrine, saying that they are ‘…things so
interior and spiritual that words commonly fail to describe them…[ii].
Sadhu Ittiyavirah[iii] says that it is an
experience which can’t be restricted by measuring rods and balances. In my view, we can only describe God-experience
as the experience one has of God – God being the ultimate reality. This experience,
in turn, becomes the basis of the entire life of a person, the cornerstone on
which the edifice of one’s life as a human being is built. God-experience is the outcome of the
inter-relationship, conscious or unconscious, between God and the human
individual.
God-experience in Christian Tradition
The title arouses the question: ‘Can we make a distinction
in this realm, on the basis of religious faith?’ or ‘Is there anything
particular about God-experience by a Christian, Hindu, Muslim or someone of any
other faith?’ The answer is ‘yes’. As
human beings are different, so there are differences in their experience of God,
which is much influenced by their environment, in which religions play a major
role. Hence, depending on religions, we
can find several traditions of God-experience. Our concern is God-experience in
Christian tradition.
In Christian tradition, Christ becomes the norm of
God-experience. It is a Christo-centric
God-experience. This needs further
elaboration.
St. John says that God is love (I John 4:8). Now, the nature of love is to give, and it
presupposes persons, who can give and receive.
Now God can fully love only Himself, as no other being is able to
receive and respond to it in a perfect manner.
Hence, fullness of love is found only in God, who, we believe, is a
Trinity – the Father giving his love to the Son, the Son receiving and
responding to it fully, and the Spirit being the vibrant movement of love
between them. In other words, God is
love means there exists a basic openness – in the Father to give, in the Son to
receive and respond in love, and the Spirit is the constant movement of love
between the two.
Now human being is said to be created in the image of
God. This image is the openness to love,
i.e., to receive it and to respond to it
in giving love. This openness is akin to that of the Son – an openness to
receive, for human existence itself if ‘received’. When human beings made a daring attempt to be
‘the giver’, rather than be the ‘receiver’, we say that there was ‘the fall’.
Christ came, God incarnate, God-become-human: (i) to save
human beings from the fall, (ii) to express God’s giving-love in a human way,
and (iii) to show human beings their true nature, ‘how to live as human
beings’, how to receive – receive the greatest good for him, i.e., God’s will.
Christ’s life on earth taught us how to live a life of
constant union with God, a total acceptance of God’s will for him[iv]. It didn’t make him a recluse; rather, it
enabled him to live fully for fellow humans, always available, always giving,
ever forgiving. This Christ is to be the
model for the Christian who seeks God.
‘To have the mind of Christ’ (Phil. 2:5), this is to be the Christian
goal, so that s/he may be able to receive God’s will for him/her, and thus, be
able to live fully in this world, for others, and for oneself.
ST JOHN OF THE CROSS – A MODEL OF GOD EXPERIENCE IN
CHRISTIAN TRADITION
There are any number of individuals in Christian tradition,
who, in imitation of Christ, have experienced God in their lives, each one in
his/her unique way. I have chosen John
of the Cross for the following reasons:
i)
One of the most recognised figures in the
Carmelite tradition for one’s God experience.
ii)
In this modern age of pluarity of religions, it
is fitting to know a Christian, whose doctrine had a great appeal to
God-seeking men and women of Catholic, other Christian traditions, religions
other than Christianity and even those who belonged to no religion at all, and
iii)
The great similarities in his doctrine to the
Indian thinking, especially to the Yoga Sutra of Patanjali.
However, since we had already had a beautiful and detailed
paper on the mystical doctrine of St. John of the Cross, I thought of
presenting the results of my humble research about the person that he was, for
the mystical doctrine which made him famous was the outcome of the person that
he was, the life he lived.
We have heard a lot about St. John of the Cross, but mainly
of his works and the doctrine expounded in them. The picture of St. John, the
earlier biographers have portrayed, is that of a constipated addict to the
letters of Regula, a man devoid of flesh and blood. Now, my effort here would be to see the human
side of the person St John of the Cross
was. My desire is to show that though being
exalted to those mind-boggling heights of mystical union, he remained very much
a human person, a man of flesh and blood, whose wit and humour, whose advices
and presence, whose love and charm had been a source of inspiration to all of
us of this modern age, who desire to attain the heights of Mount Carmel, all
the while remaining human.
“He was a human being who had fallen in love with God in the
world, a man who is indeed a saint, but not because he fled the world, but
because he had discovered in his life that sanctity meant searching for and
finding God, in this world of ours… He is a human being who became through and
his life, a man of God, a saint”.[v]
JOHN OF THE CROSS – THE MAN
To know the person of St John of the Cross, as a man – of
God, it is necessary to know his life and background.
Biographical Sketch: He was born in 1542 in
Spain. His father was Gonzalo de Jepes, of a wealthy merchant class.
Being orphaned in childhood, he was brought up by his uncle. He fell in love
with Cataline Alvarez, an orphan, a weaver by trade, and married her against
the desires of his family, thus forfeiting family inheritance. Now, unaccustomed as he was to the hard life
of a labourer, he fell ill, and when the youngest of his three sons, John, was
just eight years old, he died, after being bedridden for almost 2 years. John managed to attend the Jesuit school
while earning his living as a nurse at the plague hospital, ‘Las Bubas’. At the age of 20, he joined the Carmelites and
received the name John of St. Matthew.
Soon after his ordination, he became the chief collaborator of St.
Terese of Avila in the Carmelite reform she had initiated.
The friars of the mitigated rules, who grew suspicious of
the growth of the Reform, thought of him as a rebel and imprisoned and tortured
him for almost a year. He escaped the prison, and once the reform group was
separated, he held several offices in the congregation. But towards the end of his life, he was much
ill-treated and maligned. He died at the
age of 49, on 14th December, 1591, a the monastery of the discalced
at Ubeda. He was beatified in 1675, canonised in 1726 and declared a doctor of
the Church in 1926[vi].
Now, we will have a closer examination of the various
features of his personality and certain incidents from his life. They give the picture of a man, of God, fully
human and fully alive. He is not someone
who remains suspended between heaven and earth, but one quite human, with human
weaknesses and failures, human tastes and powers.
The Young Juan: As a child, surrounded by poverty,
Juan came to know the stark realities of life.
He had to help his mother in her daily chores. He had a very good schooling in the care of
the sick, by caring for his father, when his mother and brothers were trying to
make ends meet[vii].
Early Success and Failures: He was sent to a school for the poor, Colegio
de la Doctrina. He was quick to learn to
read and write[viii]. But his earnest efforts to be of support to
his family by learning some trade as carpentry, tailoring, wood carving or
painting, didn’t bear fruit.
Learning while Earning: At this time of disappointment,
John was offered a job at the plague hospital, ‘Las Bubas’. Here he came face to face with poverty,
marginalisation, social ostracism and death.
He tried to soothe the pain of his patients with the usual medical care
of those days, and in addition, with his songs, jokes, loving presence and
concern[ix].
Taken up by the sincerity of this boy, Don Alvarez, the
director, allowed him to attend the Jesuit School nearby. As he continued his loving care of the sick,
he was realistic enough to attend to his own personal development by using all
his spare time for his studies.
A Promising Student: He was a sincere and dedicated
student, whether as a student of the Jesuit school or later on, as a
seminarian. While studying humanities at
the famous University of Salamanca, he was appointed prefect of studies, who
had the responsibilities of defending treatises, taking classes for fellow
students. He studied with a critical mind and great earnestness. Even after
becoming a priest, he continued his theological studies.
Sincere, Honest, Frank: He was imbued with human
virtues of sincerity, honesty and frankness.
It was his sincerity that enabled him to be a student of the Jesuit
school, as he was working at Las Bubas.
Again, it was his sincerity that led him to join the Carmel, rather than
taking up a lucrative position as the chaplain of Las Bubas. His sincerity to
his inner voice led him to refuse this offer by his great benefactor, Don
Alvarez, and thus be of help to his family.
His joining the reform movement was the outcome of his basic sincerity.
He was very honest in his dealings. Once, as the superior of a house, he got the
offer of saying some Masses on some particular dates. The monastery was in great need of money. But he refused the offer, since the monks
were engaged during those days. Though the friar in charge of the finances said
that since one day more or less was not really important and since they needed
money, they could nonetheless accept the stipend and say mass at a later date.
But he was firm on the point that they were to be truthful first and foremost
and leave their needs to God. [x]
He was bold enough to speak out his convictions. Because of his forthrightness, there had been
occasions when even St. Teresa had got irritated with him.[xi]
A Daring and Adventurous Person: When he was taken
prisoner at Avila, in the morning, when he was set free to offer mass, he ran
away to his hut and destroyed all the documents which would have put others
into trouble. He risked his own safety
for saving others trouble. But he was
arrested again. The severe tortures and
humiliations did not deter him from holding on to what he believed was true. After long months of incarceration, when he
was sure that he was not going to be let free, he planned to take the risk of
jumping from his prison, making use of the strips of his own cloak tied
together as a rope.[xii]
Sense of Humour: Once, in Granada, a woman holding a
baby approached him, saying that the child was his and he should provide for
its keep. He asked who the mother was, and was answered that she was a fine
woman who had never left Granada. He asked how old the child was and on hearing
it was one year old, he said, ‘Let us praise God for this miracle, because I
have been in Granada for less than one year, and I have never been here
before’.[xiii]
In 1596, at Cordoba, he was working in a cell, and a stone
wall close to it, which was being repaired, fell on it. When they frantically
removed the rubble to retrieve the mangled body of John, they found him huddled
in a corner, laughing.
Even on his deathbed, his sense of humour did not leave
him. As his body had become full of
sores, it was very difficult for him to turn around. A hook was suspended from the ceiling so that
he could hang on to it and turn around. A few hours before his death, as he
tried to turn thus, he remarked in a light vein, while suffering excruciating
pain, ‘That God, I am light’. [xiv]
He was a very good conversationalist. The recreation time spent hearing his
conversations made the monks laugh and relax, whether he spoke on spiritual things
or ordinary things. Those who served at the table even skipped their meals in
order to hear him and be with him. Only
a totally human and compassionate man could command such love and devotion.
A Lover of Beauty and Nature: He loved nature, rivers, mountains, woods,
snow… all these led him to their Creator.
At night, he would spend hours looking out through his window, enjoying
the beauty of the sky and hills. He would occasionally take the monks for an
outing to a certain brook or hill and would raise his heart in praise of God’s
creation.
Psychology: His insights into human psychology are
deeply enlightening and rewarding. Centuries before Freud introduced the idea
of the unconscious mind, John was describing in fierce detail the inner life of
the soul that goes on beneath our surface awareness. He seemed to know all about what we call
defence mechanisms and the subtle ways selfishness can masquerade as
spirituality.
Once, he was asked to exorcise a nun who was possessed at
Medina del Campo. After meeting her, he
told the superior that she was not possessed but was simply suffering from
mental illness. It was a daring
pronouncement to be made in that era.
Poet, Painter, Architect: His poems, though very few in number, are
considered masterpieces in Spanish literature.
Poet and teacher, Paul Mariani writes about John’s poems: “In a
lifetime’s searching among the words, most poets rarely ever touch the
threshold of such knowing as John writes… If one is ever to begin to approach
such knowledge, it will help… to read poems as prayers. And prayers as poems”[xv]. They have the flow of a
folk song, intense emotionality, vivid images from life and nature, and a
mystical aura about them.
The picture of Christ suffering that he has drawn shows the
artist in him. When he was appointed as superior at Segovia, he designed a
special aqueduct system and supervised the work, and even worked with the
labourers.
Concern for Equality: Much ahead of the French
Revolution which had popularised the slogan, ‘liberty, equality, fraternity’,
St John showed his concern for these in his life. From what Fray Juan de Santa
Eufemia describes, we can understand the saint’s respect for the individual’s
freedom. According to the constitution
of the order, the superior had to visit the cells of the monks to make sure
that they were not disobeying the rules. He would do this, but as he went
along, he would rattle his rosary, thereby making enough noise to warn them he
was coming. He was never out to catch someone doing something wrong. He saw the
rule and its fulfilment as a way of helping others to live out their religious
life more fully.[xvi]
It was his opinion that everyone had to be treated alike,
whether they were superior or subject.
In 16th-century Spain, the prior of a monastery had a very high social
standing. Once, while he was helping
some workers in the monastery grounds, an important religious superior came to
meet him. The other friars asked him to go in and clean up. But he was not going to do anything
special. He simply had the porter bring
the visitor to him, as and where he was.
Human Relationships: The greatest proof of his being
a totally human and humane person is the personal relationships he had at
various levels. We might be surprised to learn how attached to his family was
this great teacher of detachment. His
love for them was such that after he joined the reform, many times he tried to
keep them with him. At Durueolo, his
mother cooked the meals, his brother worked in the field, and his sister-in-law
washed for them.[xvii]
His brother Francisco was his life-long companion. He was so fond of him that he was often heard
introducing his brother to high and low alike, as his brother, ‘the greatest
treasure on earth’.
His friends were many.
Juan Bonifacio, as Jesuit scholastic was one of them who helped him to
progress in his studies at the Jesuit school in Medina del Campo. St Teresa of Avila was his great friend. Their mutual friendship was a consolation and
help for both of them. Their mutual
friendship was a consolation for both of them in their efforts in reform. Many great scholars of the time sought his
company, friendship and guidance. Of them, Dr Villeagas, the Canon
Penitentiary, is said to be specially mentioned. Dona Ana de Penalosa, Madre Ana de Jesus,
etc., were some other of his intimate friends.
It was the inspiration of his friends that led him to write his teatises
of the mystical doctrine.[xviii]
Though he appears a recluse, it was not the case - he was
very popular wherever he lived. When he
was in Avila, he lived in a house for labourers, surrounded by such houses. In
his spare time, he would visit them, guide them, help them, teach catechism to
their children, and thus was very popular among them. His popularity was such that when the
Carmelites of the mitigated rule tried to arrest him with the help of the
Municipal authorities, due to popular pressure, their attempt was foiled. The
large turnout of people at his death and the demand for his mortal remains by
two cities are proof of his popularity.[xix]
Temptations and Trials: However, this great man was
not a superman, devoid of trials and temptations in his life. In his early life, as a religious, he thought
that following the letter of the rule was the norm of holiness. He was so austere
and strict that fellow friars avoided his company. He was very much a human being; he tried his
level best to get transferred to his native region of Castille, from the
Andalusian region, a region which he could not relish.[xx] He was willingly obedient,
though he was not successful in his effort.
Once, while he was alone in the house at Avila, he was
having supper, a beautiful young woman came in and blurted out that she desired
to have him as her lover. She seemed to
have fallen madly in love with him and thought that he felt the same for
her. He did not chase her away, nor did
she accede to her passion. They
conversed together, and she went away convinced that the relationship she
desired with him was impossible. Years later, he was to tell Fray Juan
Evangelista that he had found her utterly appealing and had been attracted to
her in every way.[xxi]
This story reveals to us a man, a human being who was able to live within his
own flesh, committed to the One whom he had chosen years earlier, no matter
what the circumstances.
During the Toledo imprisonment, he was sorely tempted. John was a man of great personal cleanliness,
who could not tolerate the filthiness of the prison, his dress, the inability
to wash and clean himself and the closeness of the prison to the toilet
rooms. To add to this, there was the
terrible dryness of Spirit, the inability to pray, the urge to curse and forsake
God. Unable to rise from the pit of his
darkness, he languished desperately alone and cried out to God.[xxii] Here is a man, ‘who in every respect had been
tempted as we are, yet without sinning’ (Heb ), whom we can emulate.
JOHN OF THE CROSS – THE MAN OF GOD
It was this man, fully human and fully alive, a man totally
in-the-world, who became a man-of-God, because he loved God in and through this
world. For him, God was not an abstract
entity up there, but a personal reality here and now, always and everywhere
present.
Idea of Holiness as Wholeness: The negative attitude
towards the world as a deterrent to spiritual growth and the excesses in
observing the rules underwent a transformation.
The studies at Salamanca of philosophy and humanities didn’t become a waste. Hence, we see in his writings and later life,
the core of the Gospels – a God of love who intensely desires to live with us
in this life, integrating all its elements into an embodied salvation. This attitude is clearly reflected in his
later life, always discouraging excesses, but being gentle in all his dealings.
Confronting Problems:
He was quite gentle when faced with problems. At Pastrana, Fray
Angel de San Gabriel was the novice master.
To teach the novices obedience, he would ask them to perform so many
ridiculous things, such as going out in the street as mad people, performing
extraordinary penances. John was sent to
set things right. With a great deal of diplomatic tact, he spoke gently to the
community on the real value of prayer and put an immediate stop to all
penitential extravagances. He showed
interest only in those practices that succeed in freeing individuals for real
love and service of God. He was very careful that practices don’t become end in
themselves.
Dealing with Sinners: Those who approached him found in
him a marvellous guide of souls. His
dealings with the sinners were so gentle that those who came to him for
confession found both inspiration and consolation. There was a very rich young
woman in Avila. Her friends feared that
her vain and selfish conduct would ruin her life. They persisted in urging her to see Fray
Juan. But she hesitated because he
seemed so severe. Finally, she went just
to oblige her friends, convinced that this was not the right thing to do. Somehow, she managed to explain to Fray Juan
how she felt, she began to feel more at ease.
Then, to her surprise, he told her that she would have no other penance
than what she had already suffered in coming to see him. He was so compassionate and insightful in
dealing with the penitents.
Dealing with Adversaries:
A nun who had led a sinful life approached him after much hesitation,
and his counsel changed the whole course of her life. The man who was her partner was enraged, and
once when John was walking alone towards his home at night, he attacked him
from behind and fled after inflicting severe blows. Though John knew who it was
and though his cheeks were swollen for days after that, he remained silent when
asked who the culprit was, to save difficulties for that man and the nun. He comes to us as a man of amazing fidelity
and sensitivity.[xxiii]
When, during this last illness, he was thoroughly
ill-treated by the Superior of Ubeda, John would humbly ask pardon for all the
trouble he had caused. Even when others
spoke ill of Fray Diego, who was appointed to make enquiries about John and who
maliciously tried to expel him from the order, he would not allow anyone to
speak harshly about him.
Serenity: He was always serene, even in
adversities. When torments after
torments were unleashed upon him in Toledo prison, he would keep his calm. Even
in the hours of utmost agony and desperation, he would not leave his serenity. In his dark hours, when he felt that even God
had left him, he remained calm; he wrote verses.
Poverty and Love for the Poor and the Sick: In letter and spirit, he led the life of
a poor man. But his poverty was not a
poverty for its own sake. On his journeys, he would beg from the rich, not to
feed himself, but to distribute among the poor.
Though the approach to realistic religious poverty appealed
to him personally, he would never impose it on others. Once, when he was the confessor at La
Incarnacion, he found a Calced nun walking with difficulty, because she had no
shoes and had no money to buy a pair.
So St. John went to the city and begged, and when he had collected
enough money, he returned to the monastery and gave the money to the nun so
that she could buy a pair of shoes.
When he confessor at Avila, his stay was in one of the
cottages for the poor labourers. He had no difficulty in mingling with them and
would play and have fun with their children and teach them to read and write.
Wherever he stayed, his room would have only the basic
conveniences. A table and a chair, a
wooden cot, a rug for a bed, and no pillow.
He had no books other than the Bible and the Constitution. Whenever he needed books, he would take them
from the library and return them after use. If some special food was offered to
him, he would send it to a sick nun or a sick monk.
Having seen much poverty and sickness himself, he was very
kind to the poor and the sick. He would
never send back a person empty-handed who would come to the monastery asking
for help. In 1584, when there was a severe famine in Andalusia, all who came to
the monastery were fed with whatever they had.
He would send help secretly to those of richer families who were ashamed
to seek help.
Whenever someone was sick in the house, he would approach
them and console them with his wit and humour.
He would name several delicacies to the sick man, and if anyone appealed
to him, he would spare no trouble to get it for him. Once, a brother was very sick. The doctor
said there was no hope of recovery. Then
John asked if there was any medicine that could reduce his pain. When the doctor
suggested one, though it was very expensive, John had no hesitation in getting
it for him.
In 1580, when there was an epidemic in Spain, many of his
own monks fell ill. John took not a moment’s rest. He would wash them, change their clothes,
cook meals for them and tenderly care for them.
In addition to it, he formed a team of monks who were well and visited
the people and cared for the sick in the vicinity.[xxiv]
Thus, his poverty was poverty that enriched others, just as
his master’s was.
A Life of Gratitude: The life of poverty he practised enabled him
to live a life of gratitude, ‘making melody to the Lord, with all his heart,
and always and everywhere giving thanks …’ (Eph. 5:19ff). We are all familiar with the incidents in his
life, when they had no food, they thanked God and departed. The life of poverty he led was a means for
him to be happy with and thankful for whatever he had.
Liturgy and Scripture: Even after attaining the great
heights of mystical union, he did not disregard the community prayers. The devotion he had for them grew deeper as
time went by. Dona Maria de Paz spoke of
seeing him at different seasons and how his whole body, but especially his
face, seemed to reveal the mood of the season.[xxv] For he was like all human
beings whose heart can be read in their physical appearance, if one looks
carefully.
Scripture was the source of all his life and thinking.
Students, teachers, nuns and even ordinary people who came seeking his guidance
gradually came to realize that the saint saw scripture in creative ways because
he himself approached it as the source of his own daily life. It was not simply a question of finding a
pertinent text for any given context. Rather, he lived each moment of his life
so fully that he could then read the Bible and constantly see the newness it
offered. Scripture was being incarnated
daily because Fray Juan knew life.
Humility: His humility was the outcome of his
awareness of his creaturehood and of his disarming honesty. Once a religious superior told him, “Father,
since you keep yourself here in the monastery and we do not see you in the
city, we would think you were the son of some worker.” He answered, “Oh, I am not so highly placed a person. I am simply the son of a weaver.”[xxvi]
Man of Faith: There was a Dominican nun in Lisbon who
was very famous for her visions and ecstasy.
While he was in Lisbon, he was invited to visit her many times. When he returned, he was asked if he had seen
her. He replied, “I did not see the nun,
nor did I desire to do so because I would not think much of my own faith if I
thought it would grow one iota by seeing her.”[xxvii] His faith was not built
upon ecstasies and visions, but purely upon trust in God.
Pati et Contemni pro Te: ‘To suffer and to be looked
down upon’. Does not this motto seem to
us quite outdated and out of tune with a saint whom we are trying to see as a
saint for our times, a saint of balanced views?
If we think a little deeper, we will understand it is not so. For ‘to suffer’ for him is the occasion to be
aware of his creatureliness and to cling to God totally. Hence, he asks for more and more suffering,
not a sadomasochist view, not as suffering as an end in itself, but as a means
to his ultimate goal. To be what one ought to be – a creature of God, whose
trust is God and not his own strength and power.
CONCLUSION
After having examined the life and person of St. John of the
Cross, we can sum up his God experience a follows: A Man of God – A man for
others, in this world.
When St John wrote, “At the evening of life, you will be
examined in love…”[xxviii] he gave his readers the
key to unlock the mystery of God experience for his time and for our time. Having oneself immersed in the scriptures, he
saw the commandment of love as a fundamental, radical call which God makes to
every human being (Jn 13:34; 15:12, 17; James 2:2-25; IJn 3:11-14). To love God
is to love one’s neighbour. The
asceticism which He demands is to be found within the very structure of
incarnating that love. Isaiah eloquently
expresses the Word of Yahweh in this regard when he says:
They ask for laws that are just, they long for God to draw
near: ‘Why should we fast fi you never see it, why do penance if you never
notice? Lo, … you oppress all your workmen; lo, you quarrel and squabble when
you fast and strike the poor man with your fist… Is that the sort of fast that
pleases me…? Hanging your head like a reed and lying down on sackcloth and
ashes? … Is not this the sort of fast that pleases me – it is the Yahweh who
speaks – to break unjust fetters and undo the thongs of the yoke, to share your
bread with the hungry, and shelter the homeless poor, to clothe thee naked man
and not turn from your own kin? Then will your light shine like the dawn and
your wound be quickly healed over. Your
integrity will go before you and the glory of Yahweh behind you. Cry, and Yahweh will answer… “I am here.”…
(Is. 58:3-11).
It was precisely because Jesus did this that he shocked and
scandalised the saints of his time. And
in freeing the oppressed, He established a charter of love for his disciples, a
love and compassion, in and through which God the Father reaches out to all,
especially to the non-persons, the ones who do not count in our society. Today, our growing consciousness of the
absolute need for us as disciples of Jesus to be with and concerned concretely
and effectively with the nonperson is yet another sign of what it is to be a
man of God, to claim God-experience today.
St. John of the Cross himself, though living in another era and culture,
is a model of that holiness or wholeness brought about by and in the Spirit who
teaches all things (Jn 14:26).
There is no characteristic that better describes St John
than his love. He loved thee poor, those
oppressed by material and spiritual needs.
Think of him nursing the sick, the outcasts of society, because of their
illness and poverty, at Las Bubas. One
needs but remember those other monks and lay people whom he personally
ministered to during the famine in Granada and during the plague in Baeza. Then
there were the children of the poor who lived around his own house in
Avila. He taught them and loved them. He loved and showed his love to his humble
brother Francisco, even though the society of his said he should rather hide
him away. The expectations of society
were of no interest to him because his life was based upon the command of the
master who had become his companion and friend. In short, deep human love was
the foundation for all his inter-relationships
of sensitivity and compassion.
Over his lifetime, St John became like the burning log which
is continuously attacked by the fire of
love, who is the Spirit – until finally the flame and the log become
indistinguishable. That love was a love
of God he encountered in all: his mother, and brother, and friends like Madre
Aana de Jesus and Dr Becerra of Baeza, as well as Dr Villegas of Segovia. Saint and sinner, high and low were all
deeply, intimately loved by him, for they were, like him, part of God’s
creation and objects of His love expressed and incarnated through St. John of
the Cross.
Moreover, he loved the whole of creation. He had to love it because of God’s love for
it. Through God he loved it all, which
meant he truly saw that it was good. The
way of denial which he teaches in his works is but a technique to free the
lover in each human being. By learning
to let go and to allow the world and fellow human beings to be who and what
they truly are, a disciple frees himself to love - to the death. Those who have seen him and his
way to no-thing as being aloof and despising the world have totally missed the
significance of St. John of the Cross.
St. John’s extraordinary delight in creation was the source
of his strength. His gentleness and compassion did not mean weakness and
failure. Rather, these qualities that
were grounded in love gave him the strength to be faithful to his commitments
and to live every aspect of his day-to-day life fully. His experiences of the jail in Toledo, the
demands of his positions in the order, the removal from all authority in 1591,
his suffering of the malicious inquest into his past, his sympathetic
understanding of the Prior of Ubeda’s harsh and cruel treatment of him, and his
painful death did not destroy who he was. Rather, all these things, including
the joys of his life, created his life. His holiness, that wholeness, grew in
all his life experiences, and the love of God reached others through him in the
midst of these events.
The daring and to a great extent successful venture to
describe in writing the indescribable experiences he had of God – as in the
Kabir-Fakir story[xxix]
- was yet another expression of his being a man for others.
By living his life fully, St. John of the Cross challenged
the evil of his society and built up the good. Creation was not something apart
from him. He was no angel in disguise.
He was fully human, living his life in this world – and this was the
life of God because he was rooted in creation, God’s creation. Because of this,
he is St John of the Cross, a Man of God, a man for others in this world.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Burrel, David B. John of the Cross and Creation
Spirituality. Spiritual Life, Fall 1991, pp. 173-177
Curtsinger, Rev. George OCD and Plerini, Rev. Pascal OCD. Poetry.
Carmelite Digest, Autumn 1991, pp. 33-36.
Hard, Richard P. John of the Cross: Loving the World in
Christ. Spiritual Life, Fall 1991, pp. 161-172.
Hardy, Richard P. Search for Nothing. NY: Cross Road,
1989.
Ittiyavirah, Sadhu. Daivanubhuti. Carmel, Jan.
1992, p. 37.
Kavanaugh, Kieran, OCD and Rodriguez, Otillio OCD. Ed. The
Collected Works of St. John of the Cross. Bangalore: AVP. 1981.
Kavanaugh.K. St John of the Cross. New
Catholic Encyclopaedia, 1967 ed. s.v.
pp. 1045-1047.
Lanty, Jerome OCD. Those Pesky Heights. Carmelite
Digest, Autumn 1991, pp. 3-20.
Leahy, Fr Edward OCD. A Spiritual Leader for our Times. Carmelite
Digest, Autumn 1991, pp 33-36.
Mariani, Paul. The Intensest Rendezvous. Spiritual
Life, Fall 1991, pp. 131-138.
May, Gerald G. Lighness of Soul: From Addiction towards
Love in St. John of the Cross. Spiritual Life, Fall 1991, pp.
139-147.
Pears, E Allison. Studies of the Spanish Mystics. Vol. I. London: SPCK, 1951, pp. 131-233.
Vineet, V.F. The Foundations of World Vision.
Bangalore: Dharmaram Publications, 1985, p. 18.
END NOTES
[i]
See
V.F. Vineet, The Foundations of World Vision, Bangalore:DP. 1985, p. 18
[ii]
See
Kieran Kavanaugh & Rodriguez Otillio OCD, The Collected Works of St.
John of the Cross, Bangalore: AVP, 1981, p. 577.
[iii]
See
Sadhu Ittiyavirah, Daivanubhuti, Carmel, Jan. 1992, p. 37.
[iv]
Based
on the talks by Rev. Fr Norbert Edattukaran CMI on 25.11.1991 and 14.12. 1991
at DVK, Bangalore.
[v]
Richard
P. Hardy, Search for Nothing, NY: Cross Roads, 1989, p.3
[vi]
See
ibid. pp. 5-20, 11-126.
[viii]
Ibid. p.12 (from Biblioteca Nacional de
Madrid, Ms. 12838, fol. 613)
[ix]
Ibid.
p.14 (from Jeronimo de San Jose, Historia, pp. 23-24)
[xi]
Ibid.
p.29 (from Efrende la Madr de Dios & Otger Steggink eds., Obras
Completas de Saanta Teresa de Jesus Madrid: BAC, 1967.
[xiii]
Ibid.
p.95 (from BNM 12738, fol. 985)
[xiv]
Ibid. 109 (from Biblioteca
Mistica Carmelitana Vol. 14, p. 399 & BNM Ms. 19494, Ca. fol. 176.)
[xv]
Paul Mariani, The
Inensest Rendezvous, Spiritual Life, fall 1991, p. 138.
[xvi]
Richard P. Hardy, Search for
Nothing, p. 86 (from MMC Vol. 14, p. 399)
[xvii]
Ibid. p.36. (from BNM Ms 8568,
fol. 371)
[xviii]
Kieran Kavanaugh & Rodriguez,
The Collected Works of St. John of the Cross, Bangalore: AVP, 1981, p.
577
[xix]
See Richard P. Hardy, Search
for Nothing, p. 49 (from Gonzalez y Gonzalez, El Monasterio de, p.
312).
[xxi]
Ibid. p. 52 (from Silverio de
Santa Teresa OCD ed., OBRAS de San Juan de la Cruz. Doctor de la Iglesia
BMC 1931).
[xxv]
Ibid. p. 85 (from BMC Vol. 14,
p. 45).
[xxvi]
Ibid. p. 95 (from BMC Vol. 14, p.
384).
[xxvii]
Ibid. p. 97. (from BMC Vol. 14,
p. 13).
[xxviii]
Ibid. p. 126. (from Sayings of
Light & Love, Kavanaugh, p. 672).
