Understanding the path to
holiness "is not an added burden to the already heavy burden of our
lives, but a light that man has within himself," a force that helps us
to carry this burden ".
Because human effort alone is unable to
eradicate the bad habits of the person, it can only limit them, instead
“God’s decisive action” is needed to eliminate them”.
A path to render
the soul pure and free" in which all disordered dependence on things
must be eliminated".
This is the lesson that Benedict XVI has drawn from
the life and work of St. John of the Cross, "Doctor mysticus”, during
the general audience attended by six thousand people.
Continuing his series of lessons on the doctors of the church,
the Pope raised the question whether "this great saint, with his mystic,
has something to say to us, to every normal Christian who lives the
conditions of life today, or is he just a model for a few chosen souls".
To "find an answer - he continued - we must first understand that
John’s life was not one of a mystical flying in the clouds: it was a
very hard, practical and concrete life”, to the point of prison, where
"he suffered incredible insult and physical abuse, yet in prison he
wrote one of his finest works. "
Because holiness is not only for a
privileged few, but a path to which we all are called.
The "Doctor mysticus", "one of the major lyric poets of Spanish
literature, was born in Fontiveros in 1542 into a" poor family ": his
father had been disowned and disinherited because he married Catherine, a
humble silk weaver.
The death of his father drove the family to Medina
del Campo, where the young man was admitted to Immaculate Conception
hospital as a nurse and at 18 years of age admitted into the Jesuit
college. By the end of his formation his vocation to religious life was
clear and in 1563 he joined the Carmelites of the city, taking the
religious name of Matthias.
Sent to Salmanca University, he was ordained
priest in 1567 and returned to Medina del Campo for his first mass.
Here his first meeting, "decisive for both”, with St. Teresa of Avila,
who was leading the reform of the Carmelite order. Teresa explained her
plan to reform the way and suggested to John to join her "for the
greater glory of God".
John "was fascinated by the project.
"The two
worked together a few months and inaugurated the first home of the Discalced Carmelites on December 28, 1568. In renewing their religious profession they adopted a new name and John called himself "of the Cross".
It was a " not an easy adhesion" culminating in 1577 in his
abduction and imprisonment in the convent of the Carmelites of the
Ancient Observance of Toledo as a result of an unjust accusation. For
months he was subjected to physical and moral deprivation. "
On the
night between August 16 and 17, 1578 he escaped, taking refuge in the
monastery of the Carmelites.
On his recovery in 1572 at the request of St. Teresa he became
confessor and vicar of the Avila monastery where the saint was prioress.
It was a period of "cooperation and spiritual enrichment for both". He
was then destined for Andalusia, where he spent 10 years in various
monasteries, especially in Granada, where he completed the drafting of
his treaties. Returning as superior to Segovia, in 1591 he was assigned
to the new religious province of Mexico. While preparing for the new
role he became seriously ill.
He patiently endured "great suffering". He
died Dec. 14, 1591, while his confreres recited the office. His last
words were: "Today I am going to sing the Office in heaven."
He was beatified by Clement X in 1675 and canonized by Benedict
XIII 1726. In 1926 Pope Pius XI proclaimed him a Doctor of the Church.
In his major works - The Ascent of Mount Carmel, The Dark Night of the Soul, The Spiritual Canticle, and The Living Flame of Love
- there is a "profound mystical doctrine."
In the Spiritual Canticle
St. John presents the "path of purification of the soul, namely the
progressive joyous possession of God, until the soul comes to feel that
it loves God with the same love with which it is loved by Him". In the
"Ascent of Mount Caramel" we see "the spiritual journey from the point
of view of the progressive purification of the soul, to scale the summit
of Christian perfection."
The Dark Night describes "the passive aspect,
in short, God's intervention in the process of purification of the
soul."
"In fact human effort alone is unable to arrive at the
deep-rooted bad habits of the person, it can only constrain them, but
not completely eradicate them," while "the necessary special action of
God radically purifies".
In this sense John of the Cross speaks of
"passive purification," which is "accepted by the soul, but realised by
the Holy Spirit which is like a flame of fire that consumes all
impurities".
“Eliminating all disordered dependence on thing” is what
renders the soul “pure and free”.