St. John the Cross: “God speaks in the Night”
(Summarized & Rewritten by Yanli S. Guerzon)
Feast Day: December 14.
Poet, Monk and Saint
Origin:
St. John the Cross was born as Juan de Yepes y Álvarez in 1542, in the city of Fontiveros, Spain. He was born on June 24 which is the feast day of Saint John of the Baptist. The city of Fontiveros is about 30 miles from the city of Avila.
St. John’s father - Gonzalo de Yepes - is from an affluent family of rich silk merchants. Gonzalo left his family’s wealth to marry Catalina Alvarez, a poor weaver beneath his social class.
Shortly after their marriage, Spain was experiencing a calamity where the country was attacked by the plague of locusts. Spain as a country went to bankruptcy, leaving starving farmers and villagers to poverty. Therefore, John and his two brothers - Francisco and Luis - were born into poverty. His father’s death was followed by Luis who died from malnutrition. His mother tried to ask help from his father’s family but she was dismissed cruelly by her in-laws.
Religious Life:
John learned his basic education of reading and writing through vocational school for the orphans. During his adolescence years, he left the orphanage school and went to live in the Hospital of the Conception where he devoted his times to the victims of the plague and venereal diseases. Afterwards, as an exchange of his nursing services, he was allowed to attend the local Jesuit college. John who was naturally intelligent studied Latin, Greek, rhetoric, Spanish classics and religion. Instead of choosing to be promoted as the hospital Chaplain, he chosen to be growing in love for solitude. As a result, he then decided to enter the religious Order of Carmelite. He took the religious name of Fray Juan De Santo Matía. He was sent by the Carmelites order to study at the University of Salamanca, the finest European university at the time.
Friendship with St. Teresa of Avila:
Toward the end of his religious study, he almost decided to entering the Carthusian monastery where he thought he can practiced his life of solitude. When he finally became ordained into a Carmelite priest and did his first Mass in Medina del Campo, he met Teresa of Avila.
Attempting to leads her nuns back to the original rules of the order, community life, fasting, silence, poverty, and prayer, Teresa founded a renewed monasteries for the Order Carmelite of Discalced (OCD). Discalced means “without shoes” or “barefoot”. To balance their daily living, Teresa incorporated period of recreation into the rule so that the nuns have more time to pray, talk, work and rest.
When Teresa of Avila met John, she knew she has founded a leader to started the OCD community for men who in search of solitude living. While John considered Teresa as his mentor for she is 27 years of his senior, Teresa recognized John as her spiritual director. Finally accompanied by another friar, John started the new discalced men community at Duruelo, outskirts of Avila. He took a new religious name as Juan de la Cruz, or John the Cross in English. The rest was history. More and more young men started joining John in his new reformed Carmelite order.
Transfiguration in Toledo:
The reformed that was originally supported by some leaders in the Carmelite Order became a source of disagreement and anger amongst some of the friars. The devil works through the human’s jealousy and created tension among the Carmelites. After a brief meeting, they decided and condemned the reform movement; thus, John was identified as a rebel within the Carmelites.
John was then arrested by his own Carmelite brothers and was imprisoned in Toledo at the height of cold winter on December 2, 1577. He was flogged, starved and told to forsake his rebellious commitment and to return to the old style of primitive living rules of the Carmelite.
God speaks to John in the nights, he was transfigured in Toledo. The endurance of nine months of sufferings transformed John into his dark nights. Then, at his stark of emptiness, images flowed from the depths of his soul. He poured all of these into his poetic masterpiece, “The Dark Night of the Soul”, and “The Spiritual Canticle.” He encountered God’s separation and yet His Divine Love from a distance. Through God’s mercy and John’s perseverance, he was able to escape and hid in one of the OCD nuns convent in Toledo. The poems he wrote during his imprisonment became the Spanish Poet masterpiece. John of the Cross was truly a mystic, poet, theologian and a master of spiritual direction.
John the Cross Spirituality
The followings are the central themes of John teachings:
“On Fire with Love”, passion for God’s Love. A willingness response to overwhelming the presence of Divine love in our life.
“Compassion for the Poor & the Sick”, his earlier service in hospital for caring for the poor and sick people has made him a person with compassionate heart Christlike.
“Sensitivity to Spiritual needs”, John felt that people were best served through a gentle direction that drew everyone to love God.
“Detachment”, in order to love God’s completely, ones need to detach his or her life from all earthly things. This purification will leads the dark night of the senses and eventually the dark night of the soul.
“ Humility”, being humble is the key of all spiritual enrichment.
“Trust in God”, the need of trusting God’s Providence completely.
“Love of Solitude”, Being in solitude will nourish one’s spiritual strength and intimacy with God.
“Devotion to Mary”, Marian Consecration is a need for getting into eternal life.
John the Cross lived a full life, and finally at the age of 49, he died on December 14, 1591 in Ubeda. He was declared as a saint in 1726 and later on, St. John the Cross was proclaimed as a Doctor of the Church by Pope Pius XI. Through his life, writing and teaching, St. John the Cross repeatedly declared that God’s Love is meant for all mankind and our life is a continuous love story with God who inviting us for a deeper Union with Him.