Saint John of the Cross
The Dark Night of the Soul
Book One - Chapter 9
Contrasting Spiritual Aridity with Lukewarmness
Source: http://www.carmelite.com/saints/john/works/dn_10.htm
Dark
Night of the Soul in its Entirety
Collected
Works of Saint John of the Cross
[Signs for discerning whether a spiritual person is treading
the path of this sensory night and purgation.]
1. Because these aridities may not proceed from the sensory
night and purgation, but from sin and imperfection, or
weakness and lukewarmness, or some bad humor or bodily
indisposition, I will give some signs here for discerning
whether the dryness is the result of this purgation or of one
of these other defects. I find there are three principal signs
for knowing this.
2. The first is that since these souls do not get satisfaction
or consolation from the things of God, they do not get any
from creatures either. Since God puts a soul in this dark
night in order to dry up and purge its sensory appetite, he
does not allow it to find sweetness or delight in anything.
Through this sign it can in all likelihood be inferred that
this dryness and distaste is not the outcome of newly
committed sins and imperfections. If this were so, some
inclination or propensity to look for satisfaction in
something other than the things of God would be felt in the
sensory part, for when the appetite is allowed indulgence in
some imperfection, the soul immediately feels an inclination
toward it, little or great in proportion to the degree of its
satisfaction and attachment.
Yet, because the want of satisfaction in earthly or heavenly
things could be the product of some indisposition or
melancholic humor, which frequently prevents one from being
satisfied with anything, the second sign or condition is
necessary.
3. The second sign for the discernment of this purgation is
that the memory ordinarily turns to God solicitously and with
painful care, and the soul thinks it is not serving God but
turning back, because it is aware of this distaste for the
things of God. Hence it is obvious that this aversion and
dryness is not the fruit of laxity and tepidity, for lukewarm
people do not care much for the things of God nor are they
inwardly solicitous about them.
There is, consequently, a notable difference between dryness
and lukewarmness. The lukewarm are very lax and remiss in
their will and spirit, and have no solicitude about serving
God. Those suffering from the purgative dryness are ordinarily
solicitous, concerned, and pained about not serving God. Even
though the dryness may be furthered by melancholia or some
other humor - as it often is - it does not thereby fail to
produce its purgative effect in the appetite, for the soul
will be deprived of every satisfaction and concerned only
about God. If this humor is the entire cause, everything ends
in displeasure and does harm to one's nature, and there are
none of these desires to serve God that accompany the
purgative dryness. Even though in this purgative dryness the
sensory part of the soul is very cast down, slack, and feeble
in its actions because of the little satisfaction it finds,
the spirit is ready and strong.
4. The reason for this dryness is that God transfers his goods
and strength from sense to spirit. Since the sensory part of
the soul is incapable of the goods of spirit, it remains
deprived, dry, and empty. Thus, while the spirit is tasting,
the flesh tastes nothing at all and becomes weak in its work.1
But through this nourishment the spirit grows stronger and
more alert, and becomes more solicitous than before about not
failing God.
If in the beginning the soul does not experience this
spiritual savor and delight, but dryness and distaste, the
reason is the novelty involved in this exchange. Since its
palate is accustomed to these other sensory tastes, the soul
still sets its eyes on them. And since, also, its spiritual
palate is neither purged nor accommodated for so subtle a
taste, it is unable to experience the spiritual savor and good
until gradually prepared by means of this dark and obscure
night. The soul instead experiences dryness and distaste
because of a lack of the gratification it formerly enjoyed so
readily.
5. Those whom God begins to lead into these desert solitudes
are like the children of Israel. When God began giving them
the heavenly food, which contained in itself all savors and
changed to whatever taste each one hungered after [Wis.
16:20-21], as is there mentioned, they nonetheless felt a
craving for the tastes of the fleshmeats and onions they had
eaten in Egypt, for their palate was accustomed and attracted
to them more than to the delicate sweetness of the angelic
manna. And in the midst of that heavenly food, they wept and
sighed for fleshmeat [Nm. 11:4-6]. The baseness of our
appetite is such that it makes us long for our own miserable
goods and feel aversion for the incommunicable heavenly good.
6. Yet, as I say, when these aridities are the outcome of the
purgative way of the sensory appetite, the spirit feels the
strength and energy to work, which is obtained from the
substance of that interior food, even though in the beginning
it may not experience the savor, for the reason just
mentioned. This food is the beginning of a contemplation that
is dark and dry to the senses. Ordinarily this contemplation,
which is secret and hidden from the very one who receives it,
imparts to the soul, together with the dryness and emptiness
it produces in the senses, an inclination to remain alone and
in quietude. And the soul will be unable to dwell on any
particular thought, nor will it have the desire to do so.
If those in whom this occurs know how to remain quiet, without
care or solicitude about any interior or exterior work, they
will soon in that unconcern and idleness delicately experience
the interior nourishment. This refection is so delicate that
usually if the soul desires or tries to experience it, it
cannot do so. For, as I say, this contemplation is active
while the soul is in idleness and unconcern. It is like air
that escapes when one tries to grasp it in one's hand.
7. In this sense we can interpret what the Spouse said to the
bride in the Song of Songs: Turn your eyes from me, because
they make me fly away [Sg. 6:4]. God conducts the soul along
so different a path, and so puts it in this state, that a
desire to work with the faculties would hinder rather than
help his work; whereas in the beginning of the spiritual life
everything was quite the contrary. The reason is that now in
this state of contemplation, when the soul leaves discursive
meditation and enters the state of proficients, it is God who
works in it.
He therefore binds the interior faculties and leaves no
support in the intellect, nor satisfaction in the will, nor
remembrance in the memory. At this time a person's own efforts
are of no avail, but are an obstacle to the interior peace and
work God is producing in the spirit through that dryness of
sense. Since this peace is something spiritual and delicate,
its fruit is quiet, delicate, solitary, satisfying, and
peaceful, and far removed from all the other gratifications of
beginners, which are very palpable and sensory. This is the
peace that David says God speaks in the soul in order to make
it spiritual [Ps. 85:8]. The third sign follows from this one.
8. The third sign for the discernment of this purgation of the
senses is the powerlessness, in spite of one's efforts, to
meditate and make use of the imagination, the interior sense,
as was one's previous custom. At this time God does not
communicate himself through the senses as he did before, by
means of the discursive analysis and synthesis of ideas, but
begins to communicate himself through pure spirit by an act of
simple contemplation in which there is no discursive
succession of thought. The exterior and interior senses of the
lower part of the soul cannot attain to this contemplation. As
a result the imaginative power and phantasy can no longer rest
in any consideration or find support in it.2
9. From the third sign it can be deduced that this
dissatisfaction of the faculties is not the fruit of any bad
humor. If it were, people would be able with a little care to
return to their former exercises and find support for their
faculties when that humor passed away, for it is by its nature
changeable. In the purgation of the appetite this return is
not possible, because on entering it the powerlessness to
meditate always continues. It is true, though, that at times
in the beginning the purgation of some souls is not continuous
in such a way that they are always deprived of sensory
satisfaction and the ability to meditate. Perhaps, because of
their weakness, they cannot be weaned all at once.
Nevertheless, if they are to advance, they will ever enter
further into the purgation and leave further behind their work
of the senses.
Those who do not walk the road of contemplation act very
differently. This night of the aridity of the senses is not so
continuous in them, for sometimes they experience the
aridities and at other times not, and sometimes they can
meditate and at other times they cannot. God places them in
this night solely to exercise and humble them, and reform
their appetite lest in their spiritual life they foster a
harmful attraction toward sweetness. But he does not do so in
order to lead them to the life of the spirit, which is
contemplation. For God does not bring to contemplation all
those who purposely exercise themselves in the way of the
spirit, nor even half. Why? He best knows. As a result he
never completely weans their senses from the breasts of
considerations and discursive meditations, except for some
short periods and at certain seasons, as we said.
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