When it 'came out' that Mother Therese had experienced the "Dark Night of the Soul", the general response was shock. How could a person so joyful, so generous, so peaceful have lived in a state void of the feeling of God's presence or love?
As in the past, I really can't blog unless I am reading and praying--I didn't quit praying over the last month or two, but I haven't been reading much 'blogable' material...until the past few days! I am back in conversation with my buddy Von Balthasar...and Theresa Benedicta (a.k.a. Edith Stein). She, more than VB, feeds into the comment on MT above.
In rediscovering "The Science of the Cross" I've been invited to a new and profound sense of the spiritual life--but frankly, anyone who is honest would be! Isn't it curious that the spirituality of St. John of the Cross (who Edith comments on in the aforementioned text) has been so integral for some of the greatest saints--most notably Papa John Paul, who actually learned Spanish solely to read John's texts in the original language?
In reading chapter 3 of Stein's text, the reader is invited to begin delving deeply into the Dark Night, what it truly is. The first reflections are concerning the Dark Night of the Senses. I think it is wise to note that the Dark Night is an utterly profound mystical reality which not every person is spiritually prepared to receive. And, even if you can intellectually appreciate the essence of it, still...to allow that notion of understanding to translate from your head to your heart is an entirely different matter.
From my initial reading and reflection, I've garnered a few gems that I can probably meditate on for the rest of my life, 1) What the Dark Night is; 2) The Active Night; 3) The Passive Night.
So, essentially, as I have posted before, the Catholic Mysticism is in my opinion absolutely essential, not only for individuals, but for the good of the Communio. That beings said, few Catholics are aware of our rich mystical tradition, and even fewer know that it is the desire of our Creator that we all enter into the Mystical Life. In previous posts I've written about the stages in the Mystical Life: Purgative, Illuminative and Unitive. Now...in light of this, let's consider the Dark Night.
How could saints like John of the Cross, Mother Theresa and even Papa John Paul have been subjected to such spiritual turmoil as the feeling of the absence of God? Isn't that cruel and unusual. Not at all!
As she explains John's Mystical understanding of the Dark Night, I beleive Edith is pointing out that the Dark Night is truly something that not all souls will participate in. It seems that the Dark Night follows a period--with a time-frame that is not set--during one's prayer life that is full of spiritual consolation, gifts, deep feelings of God's presence, etc. It is only after such a time that God would invite one into the Dark Night...which is really the beginning of the Purgative way...an intense journey of cooperating in God's will to be stripped of all that displaces us from God.
When John speaks of (and Edith explains) the Active Dark Night...what he means is essentially the choice we make to renounce all that keeps us from Union with God. This is a choice that has to be actively made and willed. There is a distaste for all things of the world...a profound sense of one's sinfulness and the need for mortification and allowing oneself to be subject to God's will. In a sense, the soul chooses to enter into the Dark Night.
Why is it called the Dark Night? Because the soul is a spirit...and although we have physical bodies, the soul is not physical, but spiritual. There are realities experienced in the spiritual realm which cannot be communicated through physical senses or means. In this lies the imperative nature of the Dark Night.
It is only in the darkness, in the utter detachment of all things physical and sensual, in that void of all that distracts the soul from his Creator, that one can fully receive the Divine. Because our eyes see dimly, because they are veiled, they cannot receive the full Light that is God. In this world, that Light can only blind us, because we are not perfected...that light is so strong, it is Dark...and in the Dark Night, the Soul enters into nothingness that is completed only by God...God who is perfect and simple perfects the darkness, beyond the full comprehension of the Soul that enters into the Dark Night.
Once a soul chooses the Dark Night, it can only be completed in the Passive Dark Night...by God Himself. The soul can offer itself as a sacrifice, as a victim, but only God can complete the Crucifixion, which is the climax of the consummation of the soul with God...of Union with the Creator.
There are three signs that one has entered into the dark night:
1) The soul finds no delight in creaturesThe Darkness, the emptiness, is really freedom--it is freedom from attachment to all things created, even our own ideas...it is formation for spiritual perfection: in that Emptiness, there is Fullness beyond any Spiritual Consolation.
2) There is a sense of spiritual dryness, a sense that the soul is not serving God, the acknowledgment of how the fallen human nature is disposed to a distaste for the things of God
3) One experiences the dryness in a new form of communication with God, a sort of dry contemplation...in which God communicates in a language never experienced before, God's spirit communicating directly with the soul
I cannot even begin to fully comprehend this. In one way, we see God's generosity, His willingness to allow us to share in the Darkness that Christ Himself experienced on the Cross. Although we cannot suffer to the full extent that Christ suffered, we can experience a part of it...we can delve into that agony in an entirely Mystical Way. And this makes sense through the truth that Love entails, and is, a Sacrifice.
The Dark Night requires great Faith...and I beleive that this is why not all...and probably not many...experience the Dark Night. God would not invite a soul to something which that soul was not prepared for. God is always offering us grace to grow closer to Him, but He is gentle, and will not make a choice for us. We must respond to His calling, His whispers to draw closer and closer...and we must cooperate with that innate desire for something more, something better, something utterly purifying. Then, I beleive one might be invited into the Dark Night. I do not think that one must experience the Dark Night while on earth to enter Eternity (perhaps that is why Purgatory exists...maybe it is a form of the Dark Night). But...I do beleive it is through the promptings of God and His completion that the Dark Night leads to the Unitive Way.
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