[Return to Other Carmelite home]

Go up to CHAPTER THREE John's Vision of the Spiritual Life
Go forward to The System Underlying John's Vision

The Nature of the Spiritual Life in John

We saw in the overview of John's life that he never stops seeking union with God. Rarely does he talk about "mystical experiences," since such experiences can be quite subjective. Rather, wishing to emphasize that the encounter with God is real, and not merely subjective, John talks about seeking union. He has a singleminded commitment to reach this union. "The soul, enamored of the Word, her Bridegroom, the Son of God, longs for union with him through clear and essential vision. She records her longings of love and complains to him of his absence" (C, 1, 2). The seeker who keeps the goal of union always in clear sight is thereby able to accept the hardships of the search. "By finding his satisfaction and strength in this love, [one] will have the courage and constancy to readily deny all other appetites" (A, 1, 14, 2).

The spiritual life is an unwavering search for a union in which seekers not only find God but also their true selves, a search that all are invited to undertake. "God gives many souls the talent and grace for advancing, and should they desire to make the effort they would arrive at this high state" (A, Prologue, 3). Although most of John's works were written for discalced Carmelites (see A, Prologue, 9), he shows great concern for laity, hardly suggesting that his ideas need to be watered down for their sakes! In fact, the work that describes the final stage of union is written expressly for a laywoman, Doņa Ana de Peņalosa. Moreover, religious life in John's day was similar in many ways to that of some contemporary laity dedicated to a deeper life of prayer. His works and message apply to everyone.

John sees the spiritual life as this universal call to search constantly for union with God. It is a personal exodus from our own captivity to the promised land. All of John's major poems suggest this exodus, or departure, in their first stanzas: "One dark night, ...I went out unseen." "I went out calling you, and you were gone." "O living flame of love, ...tear through the veil of this sweet encounter." This journey to God begins after a person "has been resolutely converted to his service" (N, 1, 1, 2). Once started, "the attainment of our goal demands that we never stop on this road" (A, 1, 11, 6).

John understands the spiritual life as a continual process of growth or regression, but never stationary. He does not speak of static states of life, but rather of appetites, desires those qualities of a person (whether good or bad), that are dynamic, constantly drawing us onward. John considers that growth must involve an integrated development, not a dissipated pursuit of several goals at once. "People are indeed ignorant who think it is possible to reach this high state of union with God without first emptying their appetite of all the natural and supernatural things that can be a hindrance to them" (A, 1, 5, 2). If each disordered appetite or desire pursues its own goal, human effort is divided and weakened. "The appetites weaken a person's virtue because they are like shoots burgeoning about a tree, sapping its strength, and causing it to be fruitless" (A, 1, 10, 2). The exodus and resulting journey is a major undertaking of love, and disciples (like John) must never relent but constantly strive to deve lop their positive capacities and energies, and rectify maladjusted ones. "Everyone knows that not to go forward on this road is to turn back" (A, 1, 11, 5).

This exodus of spiritual dedication is a departure from security, and implies a willingness to journey through the nights. Some disciples, rather than accept the sacrifices of this journey to God, "look for progress in what brings no progress but instead hinders them." Such individuals "work and tire themselves greatly, and yet go backwards." "It is sad to see them" (A, Prologue, 7), says John. This dark journey requires great patience and constancy in all the tribulations and trials God allows. In the second chapter of Book One of the Ascent, John offers three reasons why this journey can be called a night. First, the point of departure purification of the appetites and desires implies deprivation or loss. "This denial and privation is like a night for all one's senses." The second reason has to do with the darkness of the road travelled: "Now this road is faith, and for the intellect faith is also like a dark night." The third reason John offers "pertains to the point of arrival, namely, God," for "God is also a dark night to the soul in this life" (A, 1, 2, 1). All who long for union with God must courageously enter this threefold darkness of the journey (A, 1, 4).

Disciples who search for God through the darkness will be rewarded, and will then look back upon "that glad night," knowing that the love they had for the Lord guided their search:

More surely than the light of noon

to where he was awaiting me

him I knew so well

Former hard times become a guiding night for individuals who receive "the sovereign favor God granted...in the intimacy of his love, which is the union with God, or transformation, through love" (C, 26, 2). Of this transforming love John says, "The soul now feels that it is all inflamed in the divine union.... It seems, because it is so forcefully transformed in God, so sublimely possessed by him, and arrayed with such rich gifts and virtues, that it is singularly close to beatitude" (F, 1, 1).

The spiritual life implies a firm, unrelenting, and enthusiastic search for union with God, what John calls a "better love," that is, a desire for Christ that is greater than all other desires (A, 1, 14, 2). This search passes through the nights, and is, in fact, itself a night. The disciple, constantly renewing a choice-oriented love for God, makes this personal exodus and passover to a life of union. The end of the search is a transforming experience of union with God and of personal renewal.