St. John of the Cross
Feast day: Dec. 14
There are some people who make such a strong impression when you get to know them, and St. John of the Cross is one of them. A Spanish Carmelite friar born in dire poverty in 1542, he reformed Spanish monasticism by co-founding the contemplative order of the Discalced Carmelites. He was also a great poet whose writing — steeped in his knowledge of Sacred Scripture, particularly the Song of Songs — focuses on growing in union with our loving God.
John’s father was rejected by his wealthy family when he married a woman from a poor and humble background. Disinherited, his father had to adjust to the hard work of the poor, and he died when John was only two years old. As the child of a destitute widow — who soon lost another child, probably to malnutrition — John knew terrible suffering at a young age. Yet this suffering brought him close to God instead of making him bitter and resentful.
Spending most of his youth in an orphanage and in a school for poor children, young John was enlisted as a nurse by a local hospital administrator for his compassion and gentleness towards the sick. This same hospital administrator, aware of John’s intellectual talents, provided for him to be enrolled in a Jesuit school, where he read the classics and learned rhetoric. He joined the Carmelite novitiate in 1563 and was ordained in 1567.
John had been attracted to the Carmelites for their contemplative spirit and devotion to Mary, the Mother of God, but in time he grew frustrated with their relaxed and dissident practices. He considered becoming a Carthusian so he could be more dedicated to prayer, but St. Teresa of Ávila convinced him to join her in reforming the order to its original strict observance. With her, he founded several communities of friars and moved to Ávila, where he became spiritual director for the Carmelite nuns there.
But the tension between the traditional Carmelites and the Discalced reformers grew, and John was imprisoned by his order in a 6-by-10-foot cell in the Toledo monastery. He was beaten at least once a month in front of his community and given little food. Yet in this cell, John grew even closer to God and wrote some of his most profound poetry. His poem “The Spiritual Canticle” describes the process whereby God, intensely in love with his children, goes to great lengths to find them and build a relationship of mutual love in which a person is transformed into his likeness living in peace and charity. In the Toledo prison, John also wrote the poems “For I Know Well the Spring,” “Romance on the Gospel text ‘In principio erat Verbum,”‘ and “Romance on the Psalm ‘Super flumina Babylonis.'” For John, the spiritual life was not so much a matter of renouncing something as loving Someone, Jesus Christ.
After nine months, John escaped his prison and landed on the grounds of a Franciscan convent. He claimed that the Mother of God gave him the strength to accomplish this miraculous escape. And he forgave the men who had imprisoned him per his motto: “Where there is no love, put love, and you will find love.” He spent the rest of his life establishing monasteries, providing spiritual direction, and continuing to write as he spread the reform of the Carmelites. In “The Ascent of Mount Carmel,” John describes the first stages of learning to live in the love of God, while in “The Living Flame,” he details the joy of being transformed into loving God and neighbor. John is probably most well known for his poem “The Dark Night of the Soul,” which shows how much God loves the new Christian, purging his imperfections through trial and temptations in order to bring him closer to the perfect happiness of being united with God in mutual love of all.
Despite all of his work, John continued to face opposition within his community, and he was relegated to one of the poorest monasteries, where he became seriously ill. He died of a fever in 1591 among continued attacks on his character. His last words were: “Today I’m going to sing the Office in Heaven.”
In 1926, St. John of the Cross was named a doctor of the Church by Pope Pius XI.
Reflection
Dear Jesus, thank you for the life of St. John of the Cross. Teach me to know how much you love me and to share that love with all, never counting the cost. Thank you for loving me, my Lord and my God!
Prayer
O God, who gave the Priest saint John
an outstanding dedication to perfect self-denial
and love of the Cross,
grant that, by imitating him closely at all times,
we may come to contemplate eternally your glory.
Through Our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
God, for ever and ever.
