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is essential
RETURNING
TO WHAT IS ESSENTIAL
IN OUR CHARISM AND SPIRITUALITY
1. What is essential in
the Rule of St Albert
2. What is essential in
Teresian experience and teaching
3. Essentials of the experience
and teaching of St John of the Cross
4. What is essential in
the charism and spirituality of the Teresian Carmel
3. Essentials of the experience and teaching
of St John of the Cross
51. St John of the Cross was also strongly influenced in
his experience and teaching by the mystery of the tripersonal
God who is self-communicating. It was an experience that made
him "go out", to make a personal commitment of his
life, to react positively to God's loving-action in the soul:
"if anyone is seeking God, the Beloved is seeking that
person much more". "The soul's centre is God".
The saint, in explaining the nature of our being children
of God, speaks of the desire to understand the deep ways and
mysteries of the Incarnation which holds the person transformed
in Christ by the action of the Spirit: "One of the reasons
urging the soul most to enter this thicket of God's wisdom
and to know its beauty from further within is... to unite
her intellect with God in the knowledge of the mysteries of
the Incarnation, in which is contained the highest and most
savory wisdom of all his works". The believer desires
to penetrate into these "caverns" of Christ to be
absorbed, transformed and intoxicated, that is, to live in
real and total participation the filial modality of being
companions in the divine nature, "equals and companions
of God". This process of being transformed into children
in the Son is brought about by the working of the Holy Spirit,
who purifies believers of all that is not God and gives them
the possibility of loving God with God's own love, and to
arrive at the fulness of God's image which we are from the
moment of our birth. St John of the Cross emphasises that
this participation in the intra-Trinitarian life, through
the working of the Holy Spirit, makes the soul like God, and
so the soul can be raised to God's image and likeness. "No
knowledge or power can describe how this happens, unless by
explaining how the Son of God attained and merited such a
high state for us, the power to be children of God".
52. Encounter with God arises always from the theological
virtues: the action of God in which, at one and the same time,
he himself communicates and is communicated, as well as being
the one who enables and is the way for mankind, through the
virtues' purifying and unitive aspect. Through the theological
virtues, the saint explains the whole process of God gifting
himself and the human response: "the sole proximate means
to union". In substance, Christian life is uniquely the
life of the theological virtues.
This approach is also deepened through prayer-contemplation:
"it brings to prayer no other support than faith, hope,
and love". The Holy Spirit is the agent of contemplation:
"the Holy Spirit will not illumine it (the soul) ...
more than in faith". He is the "living flame"
who purifies (true and profound "ascesis") and unites,
"makes divine". The whole of the spiritual journey
is made under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.
53. It is a spiritual journey consisting simultaneously of
purification and of union, quite marked in what happened to
the saint and was taught by him. It passes through the Night,
"moments" of experiencing purification more intensely,
decisive "moments"in the journey consisting of union,
which merited special treatment by the Mystical Doctor. Union
is the vocation of mankind, a reality in evolution, dynamic,
in development, which presides over the believer's journey
and "conditioned" and shed light on the whole of
St John's exposition. This union, which in its ultimate realisation
is profound immersion in the mystery of Trinitarian life,
brings to fulfilment our filial state in an efficient manner.
54. Jesus Christ, the Son, the modality of our participation
in the Trinitarian mystery, is also, through his passion and
death, our own way, who justifies and verifies our "passion
and death", our "process of asceticism": to
"follow him to Calvary and the sepulchre". This
is the meaning of chapter 7 of the second book of the Ascent,
in which the saint offers us his understanding of "the
mystery of the door and way which is Christ", our way.
This is the word he uses in the tiny group of recommendations
in 1 Ascent 13:3; thus he sums up the Night: "we enter
further, deep into the thicket". It is to die to whatever
"still impedes the inner resurrection of the Spirit"
by "following in his (Christ's) footsteps". St John
of the Cross presents Jesus as the Word of the Father, in
what he said to us, in giving everything to us and in remaining
silent. The Father has given us his Son as a brother, companion,
our ransom price and pledge. This ought to nourish in us a
basic attitude: to fix our gaze on Christ since in him the
Father has revealed everything, "since he has finished
revealing the faith through Christ, there is no more faith
to reveal, nor will there ever be".
55. What is essential in the experience and teaching of St
John is found, as in St Teresa, in the area of the Trinity:
the three divine Persons, Father, Son and Holy Spirit are
those who bring about the work of union of the human being
with God. This is accomplished by means of a journey enlightened
by Christ, the Word of the Father, and guided by the Holy
Spirit. It passes through nights of purification which lead
to maturity in faith, hope and charity. These three fundamental
attitudes are the means and preparation for union with God
and guide the practice of an authentic Christian prayer. The
humanism of St John of the Cross complements that of St Teresa.
This humanism is found in his sensitivity to the beauty of
nature, his love for music, his preoccupation for the sick
and poor, and particularly in his poetical writings.
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Taken from the INSTRUMENTUM LABORIS, DISCUSSION
DOCUMENT FOR THE 2003 GENERAL CHAPTER: "JOURNEYING WITH
TERESA OF JESUS AND JOHN OF THE CROSS,
SETTING OUT FROM ESSENTIALS" DISCALCED CARMELITE GENERAL
DEFINITORY, NAIROBI 2001. Full text available at: www.ocd.pcn.net
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