John of the Cross
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Today, Dec 14 is the Feast of John of the Cross who along with Teresa of Avila – are the greatest masters of the spiritual life. We have much to learn from him today.
We all want to get to Heaven and we think we must wait until after death and purgatory but Heaven does not want to wait.
· At every moment, God is trying to break in and flood our souls with His Divine Life, with Heaven right now.
· But we will not let Him in
· We have Blockages
o Pride, envy, sloth, anger, greed, gluttony, lust
o Anxiety, Fear, Gossip, complaining, ingratitude, impatience…
o Disordered attachments to good things that we want or think we need more than God
The soul must be emptied to be filled by God
· Purgatory is for those who have not completely made room for God – are not completely empty when they die
· Hell is for those who refuse to make room for God
· Heaven is for those who have made room for God
· Heaven is supposed to begin on earth and we call it contemplation
John writes: Contemplation is nothing else than a secret and peaceful and loving inflow of God, which, if not obstructed, fires the soul in the spirit of love, (Dark Night of the Soul 1, 10)
The key phrase here is if not obstructed. What are our blockages?
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John was Ordained in 1567
Then he met Teresa of Avila
· She persuaded him to help her reform the Carmelite Order
· From a life of busyness and distraction
· In which they had no time or interest in daily meditation
· We usually have no time for something when we have no interest in it
· Man always has time for what he loves
How do you think the Carmelites responded to this effort to make them change?
December 2, 1577 a group of Carmelites
· kidnapped John and took him to Toledo
· Tortured and imprisoned him in a 10 x 6 cell
· With very little light
· No change of clothes
· No bed
· He lived on bread and water for 9 months
John writes: The immense blessings of God can only enter and fit into an empty and solitary heart…
We must be emptied to be filled by God
What do you think God was doing in John during this time?
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God did not send the Friars to kidnap, imprison and beat John
· But God allowed it and turned it in John’s favor
· Romans 8:28 All things work for good for those who trust God
· John trusted in Divine Providence
And the fruit of this experience was that
· John surrendered himself totally to God
· He emptied himself,
· He let God do what He wanted to do through the people and events in John’s life.
· John accepted and cooperated with God
· And God flooded his souls with the River of Living Water
· John experienced Contemplation – Heaven on earth
August 15, 1578 John escaped; He and Teresa of Avila formed a new branch of the Carmelites and they became the two most important teachers on Prayer
The word John uses to capture his idea about being emptied to be totally filled by God is Nada
a. Nada is to be unconditionally surrendered to God and His will – no matter how it comes to us
b. so that God can empty us of anything that blocks us from Him, that we may be filled by God.
A prayer of St Nicholas of Flue captures the idea of Nada
My Lord and my God,
Take from me everything that distances me from You
My Lord and my God,
Give me everything that brings me closer to You
My Lord and my God,
Detach me from myself to give my all to You
4 There are two ways to be Emptied
1. The Active Purification that comes by way of
a. Receiving Jesus in the sacraments and the commitment to daily meditation and a resolution that helps us practice the virtues
2. The Passive Purification
a. God allows something to happen in your life that you
i. Did not choose
ii. Do not like
iii. And Cannot change
What do we do then?
· Surrender ourselves to Divine Providence
· Let God do what He wants through people and events
· Accept it (choose it) with Trust in Divine Providence
· And cooperate with God by saying “Yes” to His will in four ways:
1. The duties to perform or inspirations to follow,
2. The pleasures to delight in,
3. The suffering to endure,
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Sometimes we are called not to act, or rather wait patiently and let God act while He takes care of everything.
This is where God, by heavy trials, particularly interior ones, perfects and completes what the soul has begun on its own but cannot complete on its own. That is why it is passive but not In-active, because we cooperate by trusting God in every circumstance – even in adversity - rather that resisting God.
Let nothing trouble you / Let nothing frighten you
Everything passes / God never changes
Patience obtains all
Whoever has God wants for nothing
God alone is enough
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If we want to experience Heaven sooner rather than putting it off for later, the most important thing is prayer – time spent in friendship with God.
John of the Cross is clear, the most important thing to God he says is: attentiveness to Him and the continual exercise of love for him. This the Lord values and esteems so highly that he reproved Martha when she tried to call Mary away from her place at his feet in order to busy her with other active things in his service; and Martha thought that she herself was doing all the work and Mary, because she was enjoying the Lord's presence, was doing nothing [Lk. 10:39-41]. Yet, since there is no greater or more necessary work than love, the contrary is true.
After all, this love is the end for which we were created. Let those, then, who are singularly active, who think they can win the world with their busyness and hard work observe here that they would profit themselves and the world and please God much more…were they to spend at least half of this time with God in prayer…They would then certainly accomplish more, and with less labor, by one work than they otherwise would by a thousand…Without prayer they would do a great deal of hammering but accomplish little, and sometimes nothing, and even at times cause harm...it is beyond doubt that good works can be performed only by the power of God.” (St. John of the Cross, The Spiritual Canticle 29:3)