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Go backward to Journey of Love
Go up to CHAPTER SIX
The Living and True God in the
System of John of the Cross
John detaches himself from all finite images of God, whether provided by philosophy, theology, popular piety, or spiritual experiences, and he commits himself to the God of our faith. "For God is the substance and concept of faith, and faith is the secret and the mystery. And when that which faith covers and hides from us is revealed...then the substance and mysteries of the secrets will be uncovered to the soul" (C, 1, 10). Confidently, John affirms that "faith...gives and communicates God himself to us" (C, 12, 4).
Faith, the guide to union, "lies beyond all this understanding, taste, feeling, and imagining" (A, 2, 4, 2), challenging us to abide in total darkness, since this alone prepares us for union with God. Rooted in faith, John, like all mystics, is also convinced that God wishes to reveal the divine presence to those believers who seek union. In the Canticle, John presents three modes of divine presence: first is the presence by essence (God sustaining all creation); second is the presence of grace (God living in those who have not rejected the divine self-gift); third is the mystical presence, which includes a deeper appreciation of the other two (C, 11, 3 4). This is the richest. John presents this mystical presence as a secret indwelling of God, of which some individuals become aware as God from time to time communicates knowledge and love to them (F, 4, 14).
John purifies all false images of God, confidently gives himself to the God of faith, and is convinced that individuals can receive deeper experiences of God's presence. Like other mystics, John shares with us his experience, as well as he can, fully aware that "not even they who receive these communications" are able to "describe...the understanding [God] gives to loving souls in whom he dwells" (C, Prologue, 1).
We know God principally through the divine attributes, those qualities of God identified by the church from the reflections of philosophy, Scripture, theology, and religious experience. Philosophers may typically trace the root of these attributes in the one divine nature, but Christian mystics often associate them with the Trinity of divine persons. "Each of these attributes is the very being of God in his one and only suppositum, which is the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit" (F, 3, 2).
John speaks about the ineffable revelation of God in certain contemplative experiences and declares, "God is the direct object of this knowledge in that one of his attributes (his omnipotence, fortitude, goodness, sweetness, and so on) is sublimely experienced" (A, 2, 26, 3). He adds that anyone who thus experiences God finds it impossible to explain the experience to others. It seems that such a person experiences God's attributes vitally, encountering God as goodness, fortitude, and so on. This revelation produces "incomparable delight." The individual becomes aware that "God in his unique and simple being is all the power and grandeur of his attributes" (F, 3, 2).
John lists the divine attributes in both the Ascent (omnipotence, fortitude, goodness, and sweetness, etc.) and the Living Flame (almighty, wise, and good, merciful, just, powerful, and loving, etc.). He says that "although at times individuals use words in reference to this knowledge, they clearly realize that they have said nothing of what they experienced, for no term can give adequate expression to it" (A, 2, 26, 4). John lists traditional attributes, and although he ends each list with "etc." he never specifies any new attributes. In fact, he adds that "God is the other infinite attributes and powers of which we have no knowledge" (F, 3, 2). Probably John's profound experience is a deeper appreciation of the attributes we already know. Even in times of profound union and special illumination, John speaks about the fundamental mysteries of the Incarnation and Redemption. "In this high state of spiritual marriage the Bridegroom reveals his wonderful secrets to the soul," principally communicating "sweet mysteries of his Incarnation and the ways of the redemption of humankind" (C, 23, 1). When later describing a person's desire to pass to a life of glory, he says the person yearns to be with Christ so as "to see him face to face and thoroughly understand the profound and eternal mysteries of his Incarnation" (C, 37, 1). Thus, even the most profound experiences seem to be deeper penetrations of truths known from revelation. Although John the mystic seeks to communicate the mystical knowledge he has received, he gives us the traditional attributes of God, adding no new ones, but indicating by his enthusiasm and awe that he has penetrated the meaning of these attributes more profoundly than people usually do, and that he somehow experiences the attributes rather than merely understanding them in the abstract.
One attribute, God's beauty, is very special for John. He uses this word to describe God, always using the noun form hermosura (beauty) rather than the adjective hermoso (beautiful). This unusual description is not used analogically from the beauty of nature, but rather is clearly intended to refer to the inner being of God. He describes the seeker in the Canticle deliberately asking God "to show her his beauty, his divine essence" (C, 11, 2), so that the person may granted "a certain spiritual feeling of his presence" and "some deep glimpses of his divinity and beauty" (C, 11, 1). For John "beauty" is a divine attribute equivalent to the divine essence itself. Other theologians and saints use the justice, or love, or being of God as their supreme category, but John proclaims God's "beauty."
In two passages John seems swept off his feet when he thinks of God's beauty. In one, quoted earlier, he uses the word twenty-four times in a single paragraph (C, 36, 5), and in the other six times in four lines (C, 11, 10). Madre Francisca de la Madre de Dios testified that on one of his visits to Beas, sometime in 1582 1584, John was carried away by the thought of God's beauty and wrote five additional stanzas of the Canticle on the beauty of God (36 40). Commentators on the lives of mystics refer to the constant repetition of a concept as mystical obsession. Certainly, John seems so obsessed with the thought of God's beauty, that it could be part of his own original direct experience of God.
The word hermosura (beauty) is an unusual word in Spanish, and John typically uses it, not to describe external beauty, but to point to the beauty of God's inner being. His use is metaphysical, or transcendent, and it includes the sense of harmony. He speaks of the soul experiencing "the supreme good and beauty," and refers to it as "his beauty, his divine essence" (C, 11, 1 2).
The entire system of John centers on God, the principal agent in the spiritual life. God draws people to divine life, taking the initiative in every stage of the journey. God's love precedes all human response; it is a love that calls, purifies, illumines, supports in pain, shares, transforms, and unites. God's special interventions in believers' lives are extraordinary, but John's emphasis is not on the extraordinary, even though he is more aware of it than most people. Rather, John steps back from all the wonderful interventions of God, and from the depth of affection the Lover constantly shows, and focuses on the divine characteristics frequently found in the Scriptures.
He stresses four basic qualities of God. First, God is master of the divine self-communication and divine gifts. No matter the stage of spiritual life, or the readiness of the individual, no one can control or effect the transforming graces of the Lord. "For God grants them to whom he wills and for the reason he wills" (A, 2, 32, 2). At times God may have established conditions before certain events take place, but "he will remain silent about the condition" (A, 2, 20, 5). Individuals must respect God's sovereign will and transcendence. "God is above the heavens and speaks from the depths of eternity; we on this earth are blind and understand only the ways of the flesh and of time" (A, 2, 20, 5). When God grants his graces, the individual will find that "there is no reason, or possibility of a reason, why God should look at and exalt her, but that this reason is only in God" (C, 33, 2). Some are led to contemplation, but not others. "Why? He best knows" (N, 1, 9, 9). God is absolute Lord, and sovereignly act s as God wills.
Second, God loves and gives without measure. "The power and the tenacity of love is great, for love captures and binds God himself" (C, 32, 1). Thus in moments of contemplative union God communicates his gifts with loving liberality (C, 27, 1). The hand of the omnipotent Father is "as generous and bountiful as it is powerful and rich" (F, 2, 16). Although sovereign Lord, God participates in a mutual surrender and loving self-gift with those who are drawn to union. Since God loves so much, the believer's response must also be love. "When God is loved he very readily answers the requests of his lover.... Nothing is obtained from God except by love" (C, 1, 13).
The third quality of God is that love leads God to adapt to each person's situation, just as a loving parent treats each child as special. Sometimes, "God accordingly condescends to some souls, granting what is not the best for them" (A, 2, 21, 3). At times, individuals insist on their selfish desires, and "God, though angered, condescends in this and many other ways to the desires of souls" (A, 2, 21, 7). This becomes a dangerous situation, since God may grant a gift that an individual would be better off without. God's love leads to persistent divine effort to draw individuals away from their childish behavior (F, 3, 66).
The fourth quality of God, a basic feature of John's spiritual vision, is God's commitment to the sacramental economy of the church. "Thus God is not inclined to work miracles. When he works them he does so, as they say, out of necessity" (A, 3, 31, 9). Thus, John directs his readers away from the exceptional, preternatural gifts and urges a dedication to the basic ecclesial plan of God. His insistence becomes firm and blunt when he declares, "On judgement day, God will punish the faults and sins of many with whom he communed familiarly here below and to whom he imparted much light and power" (A, 2, 22, 15). John then encourages those individuals who receive unusual experiences to reveal everything to their spiritual directors.
God, sovereign Lord, who loves and gives without measure, adapts to each one's circumstances, and does so most clearly through salvation history in Christ and in the church, where God can repeat "I have already told you all things in my Word, my Son and... I have no other word" (A, 2, 22, 5).
Seeking God, we journey in faith and in love. Those privileged to see the Lord's special presence experience the divine attributes and catch a glimpse of Beauty. Having led us through the rigors of the nights, John brings everyone full circle to focus on the centrality of Jesus and his presence to the church.