GOSPEL: A READING FROM THE GOSPEL
OF JOHN 13: 21-30
After he had said this, Jesus was
troubled in spirit and testified, “Very truly I tell you, one of you
is going to betray me.”
His disciples stared at one
another, at a loss to know which of them he meant.One
of them, the disciple whom Jesus loved, was reclining next to
him. Simon Peter motioned to this disciple and said, “Ask him which one he
means.”
Leaning back against Jesus, he
asked him, “Lord, who is it?”
Jesus answered, “It is the
one to whom I will give this piece of bread when I have dipped it in the
dish.” Then, dipping the piece of bread, he gave it to Judas, the son
of Simon Iscariot. As soon as Judas took the bread, Satan entered into
him.
So Jesus told him, “What you
are about to do, do quickly.”
But no one at the meal understood
why Jesus said this to him.
Since Judas had charge of the
money, some thought Jesus was telling him to buy what was needed for the
festival, or to give something to the poor. As soon as Judas had
taken the bread, he went out. It was night.
INTRODUCTION
The title of my homily is, “The
Dark Night of the Soul.”
Today is the feast of St. John of
the Cross [1542-1591]
He is famous for that phrase:
“The Dark Night of the Soul.”
It's the title of his treatise [c.1583] based on his poem: Songs of the Soul Which Rejoices at Having
Reached Union with God by the road of Spiritual Negation [c. 1578]
Theologians, poets,
psychologists, and spiritual writers often talk about “The Dark Night of the
Soul."
Napoleon talked about, “Two
o’clock in the morning courage: I mean unprepared courage.” This can be found
in the Memories of Napoleon written down by Emmanuel-Auguste-Dieudonne from the
island of Saint Helene - where Napoleon was held captive. [Cf. his journal
writings from December 4, 5, 1815 - in Las
Cases, Memorial de Ste-Helene 1843.
Henry David Thoreau wrote about, "The Three o'clock in the morning
courage, which Bonaparte thought was the rarest." That's n Walden [1854]
chapter 4, Sounds.
F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote in his
book, The Crack Up, "In a real
dark night of the soul it is always three o'clock in the morning." [1936]
SO
So in psychology - many times in
talking about depression - people feel like they are in a dark night. They
can’t sleep or they are sleeping too much.
So in prayer - many people in
talking about praying and spirituality - they talk about feeling bored, empty,
dry, feeling like they are in a desert or having been deserted by God.
John of the Cross and Teresa of
Avila - who knew each other as Carmelites - and friends - often talked about
the Dark Night.
A key word one reads is, “Nada!”
They are feeling nothing when they
pray - and then bringing that into her spirituality - Teresa will say, “Nada” -
let nothing disturb you.
When it comes to God, they feel
nothing at times. Nada. They feel like they are in the dark.
GOSPEL
I picked the gospel text I read
for today from the gospel of St. John.
I was going to pick just the last
3 words, “It was night” as the reading - but I thought that could be a
distraction.
John the Poet - very different
from Matthew, Mark and Luke - plays on the theme of sin as darkness.
Judas by his betrayal of Jesus
entered into the night - into the dark night of sin - into the dark night of
the soul.
When we sin - when we betray our
spouse - when we cheat - it’s hard to look the other in the eye. “It is night!” We have eaten, bit in into the sour bread of
sin - and we can’t be in communion with each other.
Paul - especially in Romans - talks about sin as
darkness.
Thieves wear masks.
People going into court hide behind a coat or newspaper.
CONCLUSION
We’re heading for Christmas - the great feast of Light -
especially in the Northern Hemisphere - where Christmas comes in the Darkest
time of the Year.
Yet isn’t it neat to see so many lights on trees and
houses - and in windows - and light in people’s eyes - as they are shopping for
gifts to express their love and appreciation for the people in their lives.
The title of my few thoughts is, “Feast of Our Lady of
Guadalupe - The Numbers.”
Today, December 12, about 3 million people will go to
Tepeyac, Mexico, for the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe. It’s a feast day that starts with the first
revelations of Mary to Juan Diego, a Christian Native American on December 8th
- going further to December 12, 1531
Around 20 million people make a pilgrimage to Our Lady of
Guadalupe Shrine per year.
What about other shrines and other numbers.
Lourdes, France
has about 8 million per year. Apparecida, Brazil gets about 6.6 million
people per year. Fatima has about 4.5 million per year - this year obviously
more - with its 100th Anniversary.
Guadalupe is the largest and best attended Marian Shrine
in the world.
In Hinduism, we have the largest holy place in the world. It’s
dedicated to Ayyappan. It’s in Southern India - in the Kerala region - which is
also the most Catholic area in India. This shrine gets about 40 to 50 million
pilgrims a year. This happens mostly in
late December and early January. The key god is Ayyappan - who is a war god and
the god of growth. Women in their child bearing years don’t want to go in
pilgrimage to this place - because Ayyappan is celibate.
CONVERSATIONS
Start conversations about the holy places you’ve been to.
I haven’t been to Salt Lake City to see the Mormon’s
sacred center.
But I’ve been to Israel. If you get the opportunity, if you haven’t
already, to to Israel. I did in 2000. I saw Bethlehem, The Lake of Galilee, the
place of the Last Supper, Jerusalem, the Jordan, the Dead Sea, the mount of
Transfiguration and what have you.
I liked being on the Lake of Galilee the most - because I
figured that would be closest to the what a place looked like in the time of
Jesus.
I’ve been to various other holy places. I’ve been to Monte Cassino - the key
Benedictine place. It’s in Italy, along with Assissi and all the big churches
in Rome.
In France, I got to Montmartre and Notre Dame in Paris.
But the one shrine I wanted to go to was Chartres Cathedral, 50 miles south and
west of Paris. It supposedly has the most beautiful stained glass windows in
the world. It has big time history -
being the Marian Shrine to visit way before Lourdes.
But I did get to Lourdes
which did give me a feel of what it’s like to go on a pilgrimage.
NUMBERS
I have the word “numbers” in my title. I’m sure you heard
what a Hajj for a Moslem is. It’s one of
the 5 sacred pillars of Islam - to make a sacred pilgrimage in your lifetime to
Saudi Arabia and Mecca and to the black stone - that goes way, way back in
Moslem History. They got 2.35 million folks there this year.
Parts of the sacred shrine at Mecca have had people
breaking off pieces of the sacred stone. During the French Revolution they
broke off parts of Chartres - but luckily it was not destroyed.
RELICS
Interestingly Chartres has the supposed garment of
Mary. Studies say it’s a legend - but
when we went there the tour guide said, that it didn’t make any difference if
it was real or whether it was not. The
key factor is whether people believed it to be Mary’s cloak. They did.
In Tepyyak, they have the cloak of Juan Diego, which has
the image of Mary on it. Like the tilma
or cloak of Mary, this too was tried to
be destroyed, but no luck.
CONCLUSIONS
Pilgrimages are good.
Our Mary pilgrimages are very Catholic. Mary is very
Catholic and Lourdes and Fatima, Guadalupe and Aparacida connect us deeply with
Mary.
