St.John of the Cross(1542-1591)
St. John of
the Cross is known in Christian circles as a great mystic and an author of
mystical works. As a companion and counselor of St.Teresa of Avila, he grew in
mystical experience and became a founder of a new order of Carmelite
spirituality. Even as a young friar, he caught the attention of St.Teresa of
Avila because of his theological knowledge, deep attachment to Jesus, and
mystical experiences. Surprisingly, in the 20th century, he had another great
disciple and fan in the US. , T.S. Eliot, the father of modern English poetry. T.S.
Eliot passed through very dark experiences as a Christian and St. John of the
Cross and his works became a source of comfort and strength for him. The following
quote from East Coker in the Four Quartets shows the profound influence of John
of the Cross on his life :
“You say I am repeating
Something I have said before. I shall say it again.
Shall I say it again? In order to arrive there,
To arrive where you are, to get from where you are not,
You must go by a way wherein there is no ecstasy.
In order to arrive at what you do not know
You must go by a way which is the way of ignorance.
In order to possess what you do not possess
You must go by the way of dispossession.
In order to arrive at what you are not
You must go through the way in which you are not.
And what you do not know is the only thing you know
And what you own is what you do not own
And where you are
is where you are not.”
It is very easy to see that T.S.Eliot
is expatiating upon the theme of detachment enunciated by St.John of the Cross
in the following lines from The Ascent to Mount Carmel:
“In order to arrive at that which
thou knowest not,
Thou must go by a way which thou knowest not,
In order to arrive at that which thou possessest not,
Thou must go by a way that thou possessest not.
In order to arrive at that which thou are not,
Thou must go through that which thou art not.
(“The Ascent of Mount Carmel” I, xiii)
Reading the biography of St.John of
the Cross is excruciatingly painful. Although his father belonged to the nobility,
he was disinherited on account of marriage to a lady from a poor background.
The father left his hometown to live at his wife’s place. John’s father passed
away when he was very young. His mother took the children to their ancestral
place but the family was not welcoming. She then left the place and got John
admitted to an orphanage. However, through his studiousness, others noted him,
and he was appointed as a caretaker of an infirmary. He was very kind to the
patients and took care of their needs. His education was taken care of by a
kind gentleman. He helped him to join a college nearby and after his studies,
John decided to join the Carmelite monastery. There he developed a great thirst
for holiness and lived a rigorous ascetic life. It was there that he came into
contact with St.Teresa of Avila. Although he was young, St.Teresa chose him as
her confessor and of other sisters of her convent as she was drawn by his
scholarship and deep attachment to Christ. He became a part of the Reform
movement started by St.Teresa in the Carmelite monastic system. John was entrusted
with creating the reform for monks and encouraged to start monasteries for
them. The new monks and sisters in the new movement began to be known as
discalced Carmelites.
Many of the monks in the monasteries
that followed the traditional system did not like the initiative of St.John and
hence they imprisoned him in a room with no convenience, as a prisoner, for
almost six months. He had to endure their insults, punishments, and all kinds
of inhuman treatment. He lived like a condemned prisoner in a prison-like cell.
He suffered all these inhuman treatments because of his thirst for a pure and
more authentic monastic life. He escaped from the prison after six months and
ran away to a distant place as he was afraid he would be caught and punished
again. With the help of St. Teresa of Avila, he continued his ministry of being
a spiritual father and confessor to the sisters of the new movement. In the end,
he died in a monastery where the superior was very antagonistic to him. With a
lot of pain on account of his breathing problems and skin blisters, he breathed his last.
When we look at his life, we become
amazed at the suffering he endured just because he wanted to be a holy priest.
He was compassionate to the poor, the sick, and the suffering and whenever it
was possible he spent his time caring for the sick. He knew that he had to
help his mother and brothers as they were still not financially successful. He
got a chance to visit his mother only a couple of times. He couldn’t be present
at the deathbed of his beloved mother when
she breathed her last.
It is in these dark moments of his life
that he composed his beautiful poem,The Dark Night of the Soul, explaining in
allegorical images the comfort and solace one gets in union with Jesus. One has
to pass through the dark night, through a life of detachment, through the world
of suffering and hardship ,to reach this
state of perfect bliss with Jesus.
The Dark
Night of the Soul
o
SSt.John gives a detailed exposition
of the meaning of the Dark Night in his commentary, Ascent to Mt.Carmel.
What this poem tells an
ordinary person is that the soul is searching for union with Christ and when it
becomes united with Jesus, it experiences unbounded bliss. Everyone who goes
through suffering and purification of senses and of spirit in his holy pilgrimage
to Jesus, finds in the end this happy union that takes away all the pain of
suffering and purifications.
This poem is thus a source of
consolation to all those who suffer on account of their attachment to Jesus.
The following quote from John of the Cross
is a source of great comfort and peace:
“ "In the twilight of life, God
will not judge us on our earthly
possessions and human successes, but on how well we have loved.”
