In the last post I reviewed the first book of St. John of the Cross' of Ascent of Mount Carmel. This post will resume the summary and commentary starting with the first part of Book Two.
The book provides a handbook on how to achieve “mystical union” with God. Before proceeding I should note that God dwells with, and is present substantially in, every soul. What St. John of the Cross means when he writes about mystical or divine union is a transformation that is more supernatural. Union comes to us when we conform our wills to the will of God. In order to do this we must rid ourselves of everything that is repugnant to the Divine and transform ourselves through love and obedience.
We can receive knowledge from either of two channels. The first is the natural channel, which uses the senses. The second is supernatural. In the last post we discussed how we should cut ourselves off from the information we receive from our bodily senses. With the supernatural manner, however, information comes to our souls over and above our natural ability. It is this last type of information that we are seeking.
The second book of Ascent of Mount Carmel metaphorically describes the next part of the journey - which deals with faith - as midnight of the dark night. Compared to the total light of God, faith is still the dark night for the soul, but it gives off its own illumination. As we travel through the night, we become more sensitive to that illumination and become united with God in simplicity, purity, love, and solitude.
Faith has the ability to overwhelm the senses. The previous post described how a person should deprive himself of the natural “light” of senses so that it will only be his faith that gives light to the darkness.
Faith tells us about things that we have never seen and helps us to attain knowledge that we can't receive through the senses. It has a faculty for the supernatural, whenever God chooses to allow us a glimpse of the supernatural. Faith comes to us through grace, but we can "culture" it through certain habits and disciplines.
In order for us to be guided by solely by faith, we must not only cut ourselves off from the distractions of the physical senses, we must also be blind itself to certain things that we see with our imagination during prayer and meditation. When we imagine spiritual entities/things such as God or Heaven, we usually picture them based on things that we have seen with our own eyes. Of course, God is much greater than anything we could ever imagine. We don’t have minds that can comprehend the infinite and perfect. When we try to envision God, Heaven, we are limiting Him, the way He works in us, and our progress toward mystical union.
Therefore, we should take our sensory deprivation one step further. When we have reached the point where it is appropriate to do so, we should strip our prayer and contemplation of visual images. Passing beyond all that can be understood naturally, our souls will come to desire what cannot be known to the senses. The more we emphasize our rational experiences and knowledge, whether it is spiritual or not, the more we lose focus of the supreme good, and the more we are hindered from approaching it.
It is very important to note, however, the use of imagination during prayer is necessary for all beginners. The use of the senses during the early part of our faith journey serves as remote means to union with God. Many people will be satisfied to stay in this “step” of their spiritual journeys and stay there forever. There is nothing “wrong” with that. If we are seeking a mystical union, at some point we will need to pass beyond that point, but if we do it too soon, we risk moving “backward.”
St. John of the Cross gives us the signs we can use to determine whether we should abandon the use of mental pictures during the course of prayer and meditation. He says that all three of these signs must be present.
- You no longer take pleasure from using imagination during prayer and instead find aridity.
- You no longer desire to fix your prayer upon particular “objects,” exterior or interior.
- The surest sign is that the soul takes pleasure in being alone, and waits with loving attentiveness upon God, without making any particular meditation, in inward peace and quietness and rest and without acts and exercises of the faculties.
As we transition from one state to the other, we will hardly be aware of the change for two reasons.
- At the beginning, the change is very subtle and almost imperceptible; and
- Having been accustomed to the first form of meditation, we may not notice the switch toward the more spiritual since we don’t yet understand it.
Conforming Ourselves to God’s Will
God communicates to us all the time, but we must learn to listen. We can prepare ourselves for this by conforming ourselves to God’s will. We must learn to become creatures of certain habits, which in time will become automatic and involuntary. In this process, some of our old habits must be annihilated.
According to St. John of the Cross, God gave us “power to be transformed in God …being born again through grace, and dying first of all to everything that is of the old man, are raised above themselves to the supernatural, and receive from God this rebirth and adoption, which transcends all that can be imagined.”
There can be no perfect transformation if there is not perfect purity, and our enlightenment, illumination, and union with God will be according to the proportion of our purity. (However, during our journey we must be cognizant of the fact that true perfection is for God alone.) This process gives us security against the deceits of the devil and against self-love and its ramifications, which subtly deceives us and hinders us on our spiritual journeys.
Throughout his book, St. John of the Cross continually uses scripture to support all his contentions. However, he emphasizes Mark 8:34-35 - He summoned the crowd with his disciples and said to them, "Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and that of the gospel will save it.
According to St. John of the Cross, “True spirituality seeks for God's sake that which is distasteful rather than that which is delectable; and inclines itself rather to suffering than to consolation; and desires to go without all blessings for God's sake rather than to possess them; and to endure aridities and afflictions rather than to enjoy sweet communications, knowing that this is to follow Christ and to deny oneself.”
An example of true spirituality is to never discuss whether we “get something out of mass.” If we think in those terms we are completely missing the point. We are there to worship God, not for our enjoyment.
Contrary to popular belief, religion isn’t necessarily a “feel-good thing.” Too often we use religion for consolation when life becomes harder, and ignore or compartmentalize it when life is easy.
According to St. John of the Cross, “Christ is known very little by those who consider themselves His friends: we see them seeking in Him their own pleasures and consolations because of their great love for themselves, but not loving His bitter trials and His death because of their great love for Him.”
God does not necessarily want you to be rich. He cares more about your eternal salvation than your luxuries. Scripture is clear that we should embrace our sufferings. When we offer them up to God in obedience and humility we receive graces beyond imagination. When we join our sufferings to Jesus, we transcend time and space, and in our own humble ways we share in his sufferings.
Collosians 1:24 - Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I am filling up what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ on behalf of his body, which is the church
We are so far removed from the Age of Faith that very few of us remember (and it is now rarely taught) that when we offer up our sufferings to God, suffering is a blessing. This process gives meaning and value to our sufferings. When we only feel sorry for ourselves, suffering is of absolutely no value.
In taking the narrow way, there is room only for self-denial. “If a man resolves to submit himself to carrying this cross -- that is to say, if he resolves to desire in truth to meet trials and to bear them in all things for God's sake, he will find in them all great relief and sweetness wherewith he may travel upon this road, detached from all things and desiring nothing.
“The soul that practices this suffering and annihilation will achieve all that those other exercises can achieve, and that can be found in them, and even more. If a soul be found wanting in this exercise, although its meditations and communications may be as lofty as those of the angels, he will not progress. Any spirituality that would fain walk in sweetness and with ease, and flees from the imitation of Christ, is worthless.”
St. John of the Cross emphasizes, however, that just as using imagination during prayer is important for beginners, so too is the use of religion as a consolation. For novices, it may be the only way to get through serious setbacks in life. However, for most of us, it is something that we need to move beyond (which is not easy in this era of hedonism).
Supernatural Experiences Involving the Senses
As we proceed along our journey we may encounter supernatural experiences that involve our bodily senses. If we do, our first inclination might be to celebrate and embrace the experiences. These experiences might involve the senses of sight, hearing, smell, taste, and touch.
- With respect to sight, some people may have visions that involve Heaven, life after death, or people who have passed on.
- With respect to hearing, we may hear voices or instructions.
- With respect to smell, we may perceive certain fragrances, such as the smell of roses, which is often linked to visions of the Blessed Mother.
- Though it might be less common, some people may be conscious of unexplainable sweet tastes.
- With respect to touch, some people may feel what they believe is the touch of grace. To some, as if they are infused in a physical way with ecstasy.
We may feel that they are a gift or a grace. However, St. John of the Cross instructs that we must never rely upon them or accept them, but must always fly from them, without trying to ascertain whether are good or evil. The more exterior and physical they are, the likely it is that they come from God (God most likely to communicate to the spirit rather than to the senses). Therefore, such things are more likely to come from Satan than from God.
When we have these types of experiences, we should immediately consult with a spiritual advisor who is knowledgeable about spiritual theology. If we rely on experiences and information that aren’t coming from God, at the very least we run the risk of falling into error and presumption and allow vanity to grow within us.
The experience may seem to be of greater importance than they truly are because they are more readily felt. When we go after them, we abandon faith because we use them as our guide, but the more attention we pay to such things, the farther we stray from the true means, which is faith/trust without proof.
When a supernatural experience comes from God it produces its effect on the spirit at the very moment when it appears or is felt, without even giving the soul time or opportunity to deliberate whether to accept or reject it. If we need to contemplate as to whether the experience is from God or is diabolic, it probably does not come from God.
Even if the source of a supernatural experience (involving the senses) originates from God, we should not desire it because it is a detour from, rather than a path to, mystical union. St. John of the Cross gives the following reasons as to why we should reject such experiences:
- They cause a decrease of faith, because our trust comes from something that is based upon what is tangible.
- If they are not rejected, we may rest in them and not strive to something greater.
- We can become attached to such things and not advance to true resignation and a detachment of the spirit;
- We begin to lose the spiritual advantage of them because they involve the senses, from which we are trying to detach ourselves.
- We might lose grace from a “sense of entitlement” and believe the experiences “belong” to us.
- Accepting the experiences opens the door to the devil who may deceive us with similar things, which he can disguise so that they may appear to be good.
As we pass through the dark night the first gifts that we receive from God are usually unpretentious and don’t involve the senses.
In summary, no knowledge that can be comprehended by “natural” understanding and reasoning can serve as a means of Divine union with God. Such reasoning and understanding is actually an impediment.
According to St. John of the Cross, if the soul conquers the devil upon the first step, it will pass to the second; and if upon the second likewise, it will pass to the third; and so forth.
First we must first deny ourselves the sensual things of the world. Secondly, we must pass out of the state of meditation that relies upon the senses. Thirdly we enter into purity of the spirit.
Each step is difficult as it takes us out of our comfort zones. Also, results don’t come overnight. We need to “abide attentively and wait lovingly upon God in a state of quiet.”
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