Lesser Festival for John of the Cross, poet, teacher of the faith,
1591
De weg door de donkerheid
Le chemin de l’obscurité
What mysteries are here! Is Jesus
really saying that the world has had its chance to work out who he is, and that
God’s presence is now to be restricted to those who recognised the merits of
keeping the commandments: the obedient, the rule-followers? Is it now too late
for everybody else? Judas is also confused and asks Jesus for clarification. The
answer is reassuring. A right response is to be measured not by an ability to
conform to the rules, but rather by a capacity to love, which will go hand in
hand with keeping Jesus’ words. John of the Cross discovered that to love and
to keep Jesus’ words sometimes leads us directly to what feels like the
opposite of what is promised here. The dark night of the soul brings anguish
and disorientation: we feel like orphans, we feel alone. But this, according to
John of the Cross, is a sign that we are moving into a deeper relationship with
God. It is merely this part of the journey, taking leave of the things of the
world, that feels dark. If we keep going, keep loving, keep listening, we will
see Jesus and we will live.
Suggested listening: Rückert-Lieder. Ich bin der Welt abhanden gekommen (I am lost to the world). Alice Coote
Jane
McBride
Attribution:
Amorosa Inebriatio from The Life of Saint John of the Cross (or The Soul Embracing the Cross as a Token of his Ardent Love for Christ from The Spiritual Song of the Carmelite John of the Cross), by Antonius Wierix III (Dutch, 1596–1624), The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, The Elisha Whittelsey Collection, The Elisha Whittelsey Fund, 1951, www.metmuseum.org.
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