The Doctrine of John of the Cross 2

one

In recent days I have been walking you through the essential teachings of John of the Cross on how to reach the goal of our life which is transforming union with God. Our transformation begins when God pours his divine life into our soul through the sacrament of Baptism and then constantly nourishing and increasing His divine life within us by the Eucharist. We respond to God by giving ourselves to Him in return through the good actions we turn into habits called the virtues – the greatest of these is love. God is love so we travel to him by means of love. As John of the Cross writes: In the evening of life, we shall be judged by our love.

Assuming the role of the sacraments, renouncing evil and the practice of virtue, John gives us a two-part plan to reach the goal: prayer and detachment. Now don’t overreact. John is not saying the only things we need are prayer and detachment. That would be inhuman. So, let’s step back and get the context first.

We have been designed by God to need many good things to be fulfilled and happy. We need a Hierarchy of good things - three levels of goods to be happy: Superficial, Profound and Divine.

1.  Superficial natural goods:

a.  Protein, carbs, and, oh yes, coffee

b.   A walk on the beach at sunset

c.    Good books

2.  Profound natural goods:

a.  Physical goods, nutrition, sleep, exercise, safety, security…

b.  Psychological goods like stability and variety

c.   Family and friendship

d.  Knowledge,

e.  Achievement and meaningful work

f.    Beauty from nature, art, music, literature, or a play well executed on the field or the court.  

3.  Divine Good – Union with God  

We were designed to need all of these. That is why a well-ordered life that allows us to pursue these in a balanced way is the foundation of happiness and holiness.  

Transforming Union with God is founded first on a well ordered and balanced life. Are you pursuing these in a balanced way or are you feeling out of balance or missing essential ingredients?

two

John of the Cross would insist that before we plunge into  detachment, we learn to delight in all the good God has given us, especially in the present moment, and thank Him for it. See, we were made for delight, not sacrifice and sorrow. We were made to delight in the possession of the Supreme Good, God, for ever. In this process of our transformation, God wants to get us ready to delight in Him by learning to delight properly in the superficial and profound good things. We learn to delight in God by delighting in the good he has given us and thanking him for it. This week I am delighting in the great good and gift of God that is my wife Sandy. I am delighting in walking on the beach, watching the sunrise and the sun set, excellent meals with my daughters Grace and Sara. We were made to delight in God by being trained to delight in his gifts, recognize they come from Him and invite us back to Him.

How well do you delight in the good things God has given you in each present moment? It is a necessary step in your training.

three

God himself designed us to need the three levels of good. He also designed us to have a desire, a hunger and thirst for the things we need and be attached to them in the proper way. We should be attached to water to live, attached to our work because taking ownership breeds better care. We should be attached to our children so that we don’t just leave them at the rest stop when we had enough of a long car ride. However, we must keep our loves and attachments in order. We are to long for God, love Him and be attached to Him above all things. It’s just about keeping our loves and attachments in order. Love and be attached to the lesser things less and be attached and Love the greater things more - for virtue is rightly ordered love.

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Our problem is that we get our loves out of order which results in a disordered attachment – meaning – to want some thing more than God or in a way that prevents us from deeper union with God.

Disordered attachments usually come from things we should be attached to at some level – but it becomes too much – it can even become our source of self-worth and identity. Pride is all the ways we try to validate our existence, prove our worth, apart from God.

How do we know we have a disordered attachment? When we become too sad, too angry, tempted to give up, or too fearful when that thing is lost or threatened.

What preoccupies our mind and desire?

What prevents us from time in prayer?

What distracts us in prayer?

Where do we fall into sin?

The answers to these questions point to our disordered attachments. Can you identify yours?

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Detachment is not the goal. Union with God is. Detachment keeps all things in their proper order.

CCC 226 It means making good use of created things: faith in God, the only One, leads us to use everything that is not God only insofar as it brings us closer to him, and to detach ourselves from it insofar as it turns us away from him:

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.