By Sr. Helena of Mary, O.Carm.
Feast Day: December 14th
Carmelite,
Mystic, Doctor of the Church
The Carmelite Order celebrates the
feast of Saint John of the Cross on December 14th. Saint John is first of my
favorite male Saints, with St. Francis De Sales, as my second. Humanly speaking,
his life was a story of poverty and sufferings but spiritually, it was a story of
love between a creature and the Creator. To know Saint John, we need to know some
basic facts about him.
Juan de Yepes was
born June 24, 1542 in Fontiveros, Spain. He had two brothers, Francisco and
Luis. Luis died as a small child after his father's death. His father, Gonzalo
De Yepes, belonged to a noble family of silk merchants. His mother, Catalina
Alvarez, was an orphan girl who was raised by a local family and earned her
living as a weaver. The two met when Gonzalo was on a business trip. Gonzalo
fell in love with this attractive young woman and the two married "out of love"
without the blessing of the Yepes family. Gonzalo was disinherited and the
couple raised their family in hard work and financial straits but full of love
and dedication. When Gonzalo died, Catalina was left to care for the boys. Life
proved to be very difficult for her and the small family of three lived in
abject poverty. Catalina assumed the heavy responsibility of feeding and raising
her children. She was forced to move from place to place to look for a good
paying job that would help her meet even the bare necessities of life. This
childhood experience of self-sacrificing love would form John and he would develop
this subject and used it as a structure in his explanation of the Divine love of God
and the standard of what our own response to God's love should be. His sayings of:
"Where there is no love, put love and you will find love," "Love is repaid by
love alone," "In the evening of life you will be examined in love" "When you
experience something unpleasant, look at Jesus Crucified and be silent," are
all sentiments formed by his own experience of self-emptying
love.
Catalina was described as a very devout Christian
woman who brought up her sons "with the greatest Christian spirit, and
encouraged them to be devoted to the Mother of God." Years later, Saint John
would recount a story of his childhood. He had fallen into a pond and a very
beautiful lady appeared and stretched her hand to him in the motion of helping
him. Young Juan refused to extend his hand to her because he did not want to get
her dirty. A workman with a pole eventually fished him out of the pond and
rescued him. Saint John often said that it was for this reason that he was very
devoted and fond of Our Lady.
We cannot speak of
Saint John without mentioning Saint Teresa of Avila. The two met when St. John
went back to Medina del Campo to celebrate his First Mass after his priestly ordination. He
had entered the Carmelites but felt unhappy thinking he was called to a more
austere life of the Carthusians. St. Teresa had founded a reformed Carmelite
community of nuns in the same town and was beginning a process of finding men to
join her reform for the friars. This was to be a providential meeting. They met
and talked and St. John confided to her his plans. St. Teresa for her part
convinced John to join her reform and assured him that whatever he was looking
for with the Carthusians, he would find in the Reformed Carmel. John agreed
provided that he did not have to wait long.
John and
Teresa suffered much for the reform of Carmel. It resulted in St. John being
held prisoner for 9 months in a Toledo cell by his fellow Carmelite brothers.
True to the practice of the times, he received the beatings and penalty imposed
on a "renegade " religious. He was in a solitary confinement, deprived of any
kind of mental or physical activity, in the cold and dark prison cell with a
very small window to allow a little bit of light to enter. When the time
ordained by God came, he escaped and made his way to a monastery of Reformed
Carmelite Nuns in Toledo. They barely recognized him for they found him
emaciated, confused and looking barely alive.
St.
John's experience in imprisonment brought with it a purification of the purest
quality. It would bring out the sparkle already in the diamond that was St. John.
It produced the most beautiful poetry Spain ever had, the 'Spiritual
Canticle." John of the Cross would serve the Discalced Order in a spiritual way.
He is considered to be the co-founder of the Order along with Saint Teresa of
Avila. He died in Ubeda December 14, 1591 from a blood poisoning originating
from a gangrenous ulcerated leg sore. He was beatified by Pope Clement January
25, 1675. His canonization occurred 50 years later on December 27, 1726 by Pope
Benedict XIII. He was declared a Doctor of the Universal Church by Pope Pius XI
August 24, 1926.
Personally, I love Saint John
because he is a true voice of Truth. He is dependable because he doesn't water
down the demands of the Gospel. He points to what is true and necessary and does
not mince words to soften the blow. He challenges but at the same time he
comforts with his words of love and understanding. He demands but at the same
time understands the frailty of human nature. He holds up an ideal but makes
room for human weakness. He feeds us with the solid meat of the spiritual. He is
austere but at the same time poetic and eloquent. He speaks of mortification and
detachment but always in the context of loving. He reminds us that we are
special and loved by God. He reminds that we have been bought by the blood and
death of Jesus and that nothing - no suffering, no trial, no persecution- can
ever make us repay what He did out of love. Except to love Him back.
Saint
John wrote his major works of The Dark Night, Ascent of Mount Carmel, Spiritual
Canticle and Living Flame of Love. He also wrote some prose, prayers and
Counsels. We have some surviving letters he wrote.
Saint
John of the Cross is known as the Doctor of the Dark Night. That is an
inaccurate description. His dark night was only a means to the greater end of
transforming union in love. He is a Doctor of Love. Only if we see him in this
light, will we cease to be afraid of him and his doctrine.
What
is St. John's relevance in our modern day and age? I believe first and foremost
that he, like John the Baptist", is the voice that cries in the wilderness,
"make straight the way of the Lord!" His voice bears the impact of conscience.
Our lives can become filled with so many needs, longings and wants, ambitions
and plans. We find our plates full , and yet, still go away hungry and
thirsty. We find ourselves in a world of options and freedoms, and yet, find
ourselves enslaved and limited. We find ourselves soaring so high in our
spiritual adventure, and suddenly, find ourselves on a rapid descent and
sometimes ending with a fatal crash on the ground of life. What does John of
the Cross say to all these? "On the way to the mountain, nothing, nothing,
nothing. And at the top of the mountain, still nothing." (Ascent of Mount
Carmel). God is much greater than all the goods of this earth. Much greater
than the loftiest of our spiritual experiences. Much greater than our mind can
conceive. He teaches us that the ascent to union with God is accomplished in
darkness and nakedness. He teaches that God is not found AFTER the darkness
passes, but that God is IN the darkness, and to embrace this darkness is the
surest way to find God. Faith, Hope and Love, the three things that last. In
the end, these are the surest guides we can depend on. We are living in these
times of faith-crisis. We look for signs and miracles. We exalt grand
spiritual experiences and gravitate to what our intellect can understand. We
are confronted by worldly idols and created some ourselves. We put out our
hands and frantically grab whatever makes us happy, only to be disappointed
because they all make us feel empty. In short, we look for God in all the wrong
places. St. John invites us to journey WITHIN.
Saint John of the Cross, pray
for us!
