14 December 2022
Memorial of Saint John of the Cross, Priest and Doctor of the Church
St. John of the Cross, a sixteenth century Carmelite monk and mystic in Spain is most well-known for his poetic writing regarding the “Dark Night of the Soul”. While this name may sound ominous and make us pause with a bit of fear, especially as we are loosing more and more daylight with the approaching winter solstice, St. John uses the “dark night” to refer to the path toward the light of God’s glory. Why is this journey so “dark”? Well, the first reason is that entering into the light of glory requires a purgation or renunciation of the pleasures and attachments of the this fleeting world. To approach the Creator of the World, we must let go of all of the creations and seek only the source of it all. Our first reading today states, “For thus says the LORD, the creator of the heavens, who is God, the designer and maker of the earth who established it, not creating it to be a waste, but designing it be lived in: I am the LORD, and there is no other.” Second, the path to God requires growth in faith, which, for the human intellect striving to make sense of everything through logical and empirical reasoning, is a dark path. The leap of faith into the love of God will not make sense. Think of Abraham who was asked to sacrifice is long-awaited and only son Isaac. It made no sense. Finally, the dark night’s goal is God, who is beyond human knowing and understanding and whose presence provides an indescribable experience that no words or ideas can grasp. Such an experience is considered a “negative” or “dark” theology. Even John the Baptist in today’s Gospel asks, “Are you the one who is to come, or should we look for another?” And the response from Jesus is not a direct answer, but we can only recognize the Lord through the effects: “the blind regain their sight, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, the poor have the good news proclaimed to them.” As we approach the great celebration of the Nativity, God’s entry into the world, let us be ready to receive the Lord into our lives. This loving entry will require a dark night of our soul.