3 0 S p i r i t ua l i t y S t u d i e s 5 - 2 Fa l l 2 0 1 9 4 Working with Emotions in Spiritual Life According to John of the Cross John of the Cross, just like Ignatius of Loyola, applies the knowledge of psychology of his era to spiritual life. The mystical path to the Divine union is a transition from “a prison” of dissipated inclinations towards the inner spiritual freedom. We are transitioning in spiritual pain that accompanies the withering and dying of an old man. John of the Cross says that on his path to God, a mystic is passively immersed into two arenas of the “dark night” being purged from emotions (the night of the senses), through which he had perceived life and experienced the joy from God’s calling, and from the desire in spiritual life (the night of the spirit). Embarking on the spiritual journey of faith and deeper relationship with God entails interior conversion. This conversion, evoked by God’s calling, enkindles a strong desire for God. Therefore, faith is often accompanied with consolations; the human often finds pleasure in ascetic actions that he or she may not have before (or even after) considered important. But one must be vigilant, since these experiences pose a risk of becoming the main criterion determining spiritual life. Spiritual growth thus requires a transition into another phase of spiritual life, but people are not equipped to do so on their own. In the words of John of the Cross, “how greatly they need God to set them in the state of proficients. This He does by bringing them into the dark night.” (John of the Cross 1959, I, 7, 5). Since the relationship with God is realized through both the emotional and rational dimensions, one must be purged on a sensual as well as spiritual level. John does not limit the process of transformation to the dark night. Entering the dark night requires conversion and active work on one’s moral life. When John speaks about a change, he means an utter transition from the spiritual prison of sin through conversion, which is accompanied with active work on one’s spiritual life, through deadening, towards strengthening the virtues of faith, hope and love for God. John refers to this as the active night and elaborates it further in The Ascent of Mount Carmel. Important is, however, that the conversion and the alleviation of one’s sins is not the end, but only the beginning of the “ascent of the mount”. At this moment, in the so-called passive night, God enters into the process of spiritual maturation, when He continues transforming the soul through the night of the senses and the night of the spirit towards the union in pure love between the Himself and the soul [3]. 4.1 Entering the Night of Senses John of the Cross compares this stage of spiritual life to the mother-child relationship (John of the Cross 1959, I, 1, 2). It must be known, then, that the soul, after it has been definitely converted to the service of God, is, as a rule, spiritually nurtured and caressed by God, even as is the tender child by its loving mother, who warms it with the heat of her bosom and nurtures it with sweet milk and soft and pleasant food, and carries it and caresses it in her arms; but, as the child grows bigger, the mother gradually ceases caressing it, and, hiding her tender love, puts bitter aloes upon her sweet breasts, sets down the child from her arms and makes it walk upon its feet, so that it may lose the habits of a child and betake itself to more important and substantial occupations. The loving mother is like the grace of God, for, as soon as the soul is regenerated by its new warmth and fervor for the service of God, He treats it in the same way; He makes it to find spiritual milk, sweet and delectable, in all the things of God, without any labor of its own, and also great pleasures in spiritual exercises, for here God is giving to it the breast of His tender love, even as to a tender child. At first, beginners in spiritual life experience happy times. They find great consolation in different spiritual exercises: prayers, penance, sacred texts reading, etc. without any extra effort. They are drawn to it by the consolation and pleasure that they find in their new spiritual life and in many spiritual exercises and prayers. John warns, however, that just as children, these exercitants too are not prepared for the real life yet, since they have faults and imperfections. For instance, such persons see the purpose of prayer in, “experiencing sensible pleasure and devotion and they strive to obtain this by great effort, wearying and fatiguing their faculties and their heads; and when they have not found this pleasure they become greatly discouraged, thinking that they have accomplished nothing. Through these efforts they lose true devotion and spirituality, which consist in perseverance, together with patience and humility and mistrust of themselves, that they may please God alone.” (John of the Cross 1959, I, 6, 6).
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