The Dark Night of the Soul
Saturday, December 14th Readings Reflection: Memorial of Saint John of the Cross, Priest and Doctor of the Church
Today is the Feast of St. John of the Cross, the great Carmelite priest and mystic who was close friends with St. Teresa of Avila. In recognition for his great writings, the most famous of which is The Dark Night of the Soul, St. John of the Cross is a Doctor of the Church.
At the beginning of his Dark Night of the Soul, St. John of the Cross wrote an eight-verse poem about the steps that the soul must advance in its journey to God. For St. John of the Cross, the soul’s dark night is the path to a mystical union with God, attainable only when one has reached the highest level of spiritual perfection. In modern times, we sometimes use the dark night of the soul to refer to spiritual trials, such as aridity; however this is not the meaning that St. John of the Cross gave to the term. To this saint, the term referred to the darkness of unknowing, which is the highest and most perfect way of knowing God in this life.
In medieval times, philosophers commonly recognized the inadequacy of finite language to describe God. For example, when we say that God is beauty, our intellects intuitively compare that beauty with tangible examples of beauty that we have experienced in our lives. However, God is perfect beauty, infinite beauty, the Source of beauty itself. Roses, sunsets, and paintings by Fra Angelico are all beautiful but in a limited, finite way. Their beauty is limited to matter, while God’s is not. Earthly things possess beauty by imperfectly participating in the beauty found in God, but God’s beauty infinitely surpasses all finite beauty. Thus to say that God is beauty is a true statement, but because our language and understanding of beauty are limited, the statement does not fully explain Who God is. All language and finite concepts fall short of accurately explaining God.
Of course, as rational beings comprised of body and soul, we rely on concepts that we can (and perhaps have) experienced with our senses. This is part of being human, and it is one way to arrive at an understanding of God. However, St. John of the Cross explained that as the soul advances in the spiritual life, it can eventually reach the point where it no longer relies on these finite, sense-based concepts in its understanding of God: “In the happy night, / In secret, when none saw me, / Nor I beheld aught, / Without light or guide, / save that which burned in my heart.”
The response in today’s Psalm is, “Lord, make us turn to you; let us see your face and we shall be saved.” This verse aptly sums up the darkness of unknowing, in which the soul turns to prayer, recognizing that the intellect alone cannot arrive at a perfect knowledge of God and, setting aside the limits of our fine understanding, seeks to know through the darkness of unknowing the One Who surpasses all understanding. In this way, our soul will be mystically united with its eternal Bridegroom in a love that longs for eternity, where this union can finally be perfected and last forever.
St. John of the Cross, ora pro nobis!
"the intellect alone cannot arrive at a perfect knowledge of God" well said, Chantal. Thank you for this article, as I was one of those that when trials were at hand would say, this must be the dark night of the soul. Thank you for the clarification and the true meaning.
The road ahead is unclear, uncertain my current situation overwhelming. My limited intellect can't contain it. This is my Dark Night of the Soul. Thanks Chantal for reminding me through this reflection.