ST. JOHN OF THE CROSS

INTRODUCTION

Today is the feast of St. John of the Cross - Juan de Cruz.

His dates are 1542 - 1591. So, he lived in the time after the discovery of America by Christopher Columbus – and that burst of energy that must have erupted in Spain after the discovering a whole new world.

But I don’t know how much that experience affected his life – in the places in Spain where he lived.

·      He was a delving Spanish mystic.

·      He was an intriguing Spanish poet.

·      He fits in as  a December Saint.

He has been labeled a genius as a writer.  More important, he is a Saint.

Fortunately, we have his 3 great books:

·      The Ascent of Mount Carmel

·      The Dark Night of the Soul – The Spiritual                    Canticles

·      The Living Flame of Love.

To be read slowly. To be read very slowly and with commentary. To discover, he might not be your cup of tea.

Along with St. Teresa of Avila he is considered the founder of the Discalced Carmelites.

MESSAGE

What I take as a message from his life is the Cross and Rejection - but not just the cross and rejection, but how he dealt with the cross and rejection.

His father’s family had wealth, but when his father married someone in a class much lower than his – his family rejected him.

Then after kids came, the father died. Ugh. So, the mother was left homeless and in poverty.

At some point, John got a job as a servant in a hospital and then he entered the Carmelites. Someone spotted his talents and he ended up receiving a good education.

He meets Teresa of Avila who is trying to reform the female branch of the Carmelites and he joins with her in this reform of the male branch.

He is rejected – in fact, he’s imprisoned in the Carmelite monastery for 9 months – and is brought to the dining room at times and beaten publicly. The Redemptorists don’t do this.

CHOICE

He could have become as someone said, “a cynic or a compassionate mystic.” He became the mystic.

His life theme could be: seek God because God seeks us; desire God, because God desires us, and in the pursuit, we will meet God, often in the cross.

He is famous for his use of the theme of “The dark night” – as in the Dark night of the senses and the dark night of the soul.

F. Scott Fitzgerald and many others used that phrase, as in Fitzgerald’s line, “In a real dark night of the soul, it is always three o’clock in the morning.” That was in his book, “The Crack Up” (1936), not “Tender is the Night” (1933) or "The Great Gatsby" (1925).

2 PERSONAL STORIES

I have two personal stories concerning John of the Cross.

Years ago, I used to write a spirituality newsletter entitled, “You” – for the Thomas More Association out of Chicago. I would write  an issue, send it to Chicago, and it would be printed.

Well, I had just finished one issue on the theme of night, and it featured John of the Cross. Just at that time a classmate dropped in to visit me. 

I said, “Hey, Tom, read this and let me know what you think of it.”

Tom read it and said, “Where did you get this?” 

I said I made it up. 

He said, “It’s not  the way he put things. This is not what John of the Cross was saying.”

I said, “Oh!” Then I added, “Why do you say that?”

He answered, “Well, down in Santo Domingo we read a section of his writings every morning and then talked about it for reflection.”

I said, “Oh!”

The moral of the story is this. Reject everything you read. Don’t believe it. Give it a cross examination. If Tom hadn’t shown up, it would have been printed as is and some people who might read it, would  figure it’s true, because it’s printed.

So, I am critical of what  I read. It’s a good practice. It could be mish mash, unprepared something, made up by someone who didn’t do the research.

The second experience was a book of Night Prayers I wrote from my encounter with John of the Cross’ stuff. I finished the book and it was rejected. It’s sitting in my room, so I took it out last night and grabbed two short prayer poems.

The first one is entitled, “Presence” and the central image is bone. Did you ever have the experience of seeing someone – being with someone and you start to meditate on their skull – thinking, “This person is going to be dead, a skeleton, one of these years.”

I don’t do this all the time.

Presence

The bone

beneath the skin,

and You Lord,

present within me

throughout the night.

The second prayer poem is entitled, “Empty In The Night.” The central image in this short piece is trees without leaves against a night sky – a cold winter sky. Haven’t you ever stopped to look through empty branches and see the moon or the stars on the other side.

Empty In The Night

Barren black branches

against a December sky,

the cold and empty arms of the cross,

my wooden soul cries out

for You, O Lord.

CONCLUSION

It’s morning, but John of the Cross can help us get through the night.