“The unconditionals of God”[1]
Formula for the monthly renewal of vows
“The soul that has attachment to anything…, will not attain to the liberty of divine union,”[2] wrote Saint John of the Cross. And what he wrote, he practiced, and he tried hard to instill it in souls. Because this is the vocation of the new man,[3] a vocation to freedom, since: for freedom Christ set us free.[4]
Therefore, and as it could not be any other way, all the aspiration of our spirituality is aimed at the conquest of freedom. Precisely because “authentic freedom is identified with holiness, with the New Law, with the Christian faith and with charity. It is liberty of the children of God.[5]”[6] The Son of God became incarnate for this: to deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong bondage,[7] as the Apostle Paul says.
From this, then, we conclude that what is specific to the members of the Institute of the Incarnate Word is to “live in the freedom of the children of God who are not enslaved: neither under the elemental spirits of the universe;[8] nor under the letter that brings death;[9] nor under the spirit of the world;[10] because we must not submit again to the yoke of slavery… (otherwise) Christ would be of no benefit to us.”[11] “For slavery can have no part with liberty.”[12]
Consequently, our Constitutions make the call to the conquest of poverty or spiritual nakedness manifest when it says that in our Institute, “we can practice the fourth degree of poverty even more intensely and so gain total detachment not only from material goods (the proper object of the virtue of poverty), but also from everything that is not God Himself, which implies the perfection of charity and a complete, consummated holiness,”[13] which, as we said before, is identified with freedom of spirit and is the way to union with God.
Given that we, as members of the Institute, are exhorted to study the teachings of Saint John of the Cross, that great master of the spiritual life, since his teachings are “a limpid source of Christian sense and of the spirit of the Church” – as Pius XI proclaimed when he honored him as Doctor of the Church – we would like, in these few lines, to present the Mystical Doctor’s exemplary life and his sapiential teaching in order to reach this “generosity of the soul, as necessary to the service of God as is freedom of spirit.”[14]
1. Liberty of Spirit
Saint John of the Cross was a religious of the Carmelite Order for 28 years (1563-1591), though he only lived 23 years in the discalced Carmel (1568-1591). All the same, we have to say that even before he became a religious, but especially during those years and in many circumstances, he demonstrated that the struggle to reach the authentic freedom we are talking about is our life’s business.
▪ He decides to become a Carmelite
When he finished his studies at the Jesuit College at 21 years of age, Juan de Yepes was “sought after by all, loved and desired by many orders, because of his virtue and signs of holiness.”[15] And despite the fact that he was coveted by the Benedictines of Saint Bartholomew, the Dominicans of Saint Andrew, the Franciscans of Saint Clare, the Calced Trinitarians of the Conception, the Premonstratensians of Saint Saturninus, and the same Jesuits with whom he had studied, he, leaving aside all these proposals, decided to enter the Order of the Carmelites.[16]
His brother, Francisco de Yepes, testified: “He took refuge in what was most secure and, resolving to enter religion, he set his sights on the Carmel, and in this way he went very secretly to the convent of Santa Ana del Carmen in this city (Medina), where he asked to receive the habit, and the prior and friars gave it to him at once with great satisfaction.”[17] By this, he showed that giving oneself to God – who calls souls by the free initiative of his love[18] – also requires from the religious a free response, and so, turning a deaf ear to the solicitations of the other religious orders, he wanted “to freely and generously respond, with the stimulus and grace of the Holy Spirit,”[19] to God’s call, and entered the Carmelite Order.
He explicitly maintained this same act of freedom, implicit in his entrance with the Carmelites, all throughout his religious life, as we will now see.
▪ He abandons the Carmelite Order of the mitigated rule
Thus, for example, after having professed vows as Fray John of Saint Matthias, he became a bit disappointed with his Order, and was trying to transfer to the Carthusians. Saint Theresa herself recounts: “I gave thanks to our Lord. When I talked to the Father, I was much pleased with him. He told me that he also meant to become a Carthusian.”[20] She would be the one who in this same conversation would convince him “to wait until our Lord should give us a monastery, pointing out that if he meant to better himself, it would be a great gain to do so within his own Order, and much more to the Lord’s service. He gave me his word that he would, if he had not to wait too long.”[21] Let us underline here Fray John’s freedom of spirit, who, though he consented to the foundress’s proposal, put as a condition that “he had not to wait too long.”[22] Since freedom of spirit demands docility and promptness in executing the demands of the Holy Spirit, it is not in vain that our proper law warns us that “indecision is foreign to the grace of the Holy Spirit.”[23]
And so, on November 28th, 1568, he officially began the renewal of the Carmel in Duruelo (Avila), taking from then on the name of Fray John of the Cross.
▪ Sovereignty over men
Our Directory of Spirituality teaches, “in the measure that the religious generously surrenders to the service of Jesus Christ – the only King that deserves to be served – he acquires an effective, though spiritual, royalty over men, even over those who have power and authority, and even over those who abuse it. This dominion comes about because the religious takes the burden of their sins and their hardships upon himself, through a humble and helpful love that arrives even at self-sacrifice.”[24]
According to this, with the same freedom with which Fray John of Saint Matthias decided to abandon the Carmel of the mitigated rule to begin the discalced reform, he submitted himself to various torments and humiliations after the General Chapter of the order took measures against the discalced on May 21st, 1575, but he did not desist from his attempt, that is, he did not renounce remaining firmly and faithfully a discalced Carmelite.
So it was that he suffered his first imprisonment, just for being discalced, since some calced religious, taking advantage of the hostile climate against the discalced, took justice into their own hands, as was the case of the prior of Avila, Fr. Valdemoro, who arrested John of the Cross and his companion, Fray Francisco de los Apóstoles, and locked them up in the convent of Medina del Campo. They were released by order of the nuncio, Ormaneto.
We cannot forget the St. John of the Cross’s honorable and noble behavior when, years later, Fr. Diego de Cárdenas, provincial of the Calced Carmelites of Andalucía, and other religious accompanying him, came to Baeza for the canonical visit to the College where he was rector. The provincial brought a vexatious brief (something like a decree of repression) for the discalced. The thing is that, before the visit began, the ordinary ecclesiastical authorities arrived and imprisoned the provincial and his companions. Fray John of the Cross appeared before the ecclesiastical judge who held them prisoners and begged him to release them. And he did so. Once they were outside the prison, he took them to the College and prepared a banquet for them and peacefully sent them on their way. This is how saints “take revenge”! For Cárdenas had forgotten that he no longer had any jurisdiction over the discalced.[25]
The second imprisonment that Saint John of the Cross suffered occurred the night of 2nd to 3rd December, 1577. The “crime” they accused him of is unknown to this day. What is certain is that they gave him the treatment marked out in the Constitutions for those “convicted of the crime of rebellion,” and in this way he was a little more than eight months in the convent prison in Toledo. Some argue that the motive for his imprisonment was very probably because they deemed him complicit in the rebellion of the nuns of the Incarnation when they elected Saint Teresa as prior against the indication and order of the provincial who presided the election. Others think that perhaps it was the fact that he lived outside the convent, in the little house of the Torrecilla,[26] since both John of the Cross and his companion, Germán of Saint Matthias were conventuals of Mancera. In any case, this does not concern us here.
What we do want to point out is the princely spirit with which the holy religious conducted himself during the time that he was in captivity, undergoing not a few humiliations: daily floggings, the narrowness and abject poverty of the cell, the stingy diet to which he was subjected, which served more to destroy his health than to keep him alive, the darkness, the intense heat and piercing cold, the “torment of the lice,” the impossibility of saying Mass, the ruthless reprimands in order to make him renounce his principles and his discalced state, etc. Even so, each day when they took him down to the refectory for the discipline, the other friars marveled at how John of the Cross remained so solid and unshakeable and never made a sign of changing. Indeed, as time passed, seeing him ever more invincible in suffering in silence, the calced called him disparagingly a “mute file” (this is what a file dulled with lead is called and it makes little or no noise when it files). Those who behave like lords, however low they are brought, they stand out over others for their self-possession and feel honor as life itself.[27] Nevertheless, this “bad treatment” did not afflict him as much as hearing his captors say that the days of the Reform of the Order were numbered.
Fray John never held a grudge against the prior of that convent, who caused him so much suffering. “This is how he was in things that concerned his neighbor; and this is how he suffered all the travails that God sent him, without admitting human relief or consolation,”[28] testified Ana de Jesús, discalced Carmelite in Segovia. Indeed, he himself, as one who has suffered filing and abandonment by his superiors, would later write in the second precaution against the devil, and which our Constitutions[29] makes their own: “Always look upon the superior as though on God, no matter who he happens to be, for he takes God’s place. […] Watch, therefore, with singular care that you do not dwell on your superior’s character, mode of behavior, ability, or any other method of procedure, for you will so harm yourself as to change your obedience from divine to human, being motivated only by the visible traits of the superior, and not by the invisible God whom you serve through him. Your obedience is vain and all the more fruitless in the measure that you allow the superior’s unpleasant character to annoy you or his good and pleasing manners to make you happy.”[30]
▪ Sovereignty over himself
In our proper law, we read that the religious exerts a certain dominion over himself “in the measure that man triumphs over sin, … dominates the incentives of the flesh, and governs his soul and body. The religious, in the measure that he subjects his soul completely to God, becomes indifferent and detached from the things of the world. This doesn’t imply a powerlessness, but on the contrary, a dominant and free will, able to be devoted to things of the world without being dominated by them.”[31]
An example of this is the following episode of Saint John of the Cross’s life. Knowing Saint John of the Cross’s spiritual stature and the mastery he possessed, it is funny to read that his captors in the convent prison in Toledo wanted to “buy” him, offering him a good library, a nice cell, a priorate, and even a gold cross. In the face of such an offer, Fray John of the Cross replied categorically: “He who seeks Christ naked has no need of golden jewelry.”[32] And so he would later write in his second precaution against the world that “you should abhor all manner of possessions and not allow yourself to worry about these goods, neither for food, nor for clothing, nor for any other created thing, nor for tomorrow, and direct this care to something higher – to seeking the kingdom of God (seeking not to fail God); and the rest, as his Majesty says, will be added onto us,[33] for he who looks after the beasts will not be forgetful of you.”[34]
And with this same sovereignty, which brings with it forgetfulness of all that is not God for love of God, he fled the prison. Since, according to what some witnesses affirm, “after having commended this to our Lord for some days, [Fray John] felt a great impulse in his soul to leave, for our Lord would help him.” And so he did.
Certainly, the painful experience of prison profoundly marked Fray John of the Cross and taught him the science of the cross: “God has done well, for, after all, abandonment is a steel file and the endurance of darkness leads to great light.”[35] Because “What does anyone know who doesn’t know how to suffer for Christ?”[36] “The purest suffering produces the purest understanding.”[37]
This same science of the cross and freedom of spirit was what he transmitted to all the souls he dealt with, whether religious or lay persons. Indeed, most of his subordinates emphasized his admirable conferences, in which he encouraged them to be perfect and taught them that in order to rise to perfection, they should neither desire the goods of the earth, nor those of heaven, but rather only desire or seek nothing that is not only seeking and desiring in all the glory and honor of God. And they said that those who were with him more profited the most.[38]
His subordinates said that “he had nothing to which he could be attached. And he tried to obtain this in his religious, even with devotional things, as though they were curiosities, teaching them to keep their spirit free, not feeding on childish things.”[39] And he would give them this example: “For it makes little difference whether a bird is tied by a thin thread or by a cord. Even if it is tied by a thread, the bird will be held bound just as surely as if it were tied by a cord; that is, it will be impeded from flying as long as it does not break the thread.”[40] In the same way, in his frequent dialogues with religious, he “insisted on faith and nakedness and detachment from creatures. And ‘that in prayer, we might not have the spirit fixed and determined to rise by one way to God, but rather that we leave ourselves in His hands, according to the spirit with which His Majesty visits us; and that we take great pleasure in dryness, desiring nothing more than God’s pleasure.’”[41]
Saint John of the Cross was a man with the spirit of a prince, of those who “create a style by their conduct,”[42] and therefore, what he taught to others, he first demanded of himself.
For example, the freedom of spirit of this man concerning the rule’s prescription about common prayer is striking. In the Constitutions of Fr. Gracián, 1576, it says, “prayer will be in choir, with all present.” The Constitutions of Alcalá, 1581, prescribe in a clearer and more detailed way the following: “Prayer will be in choir, where the brothers, being together, will commence the Aña (antiphon), Veni, Sancte Spiritus, and the prayer, Deus, qui corda fidelium. And then there will be a short reading from some devout book that can be material for meditation. And once finished, all will remain in silent prayer until the end of the hour.”[43]
If we did not have any testimony to the contrary, we would believe that John of the Cross would have observed what was prescribed by the rule to the letter and with exemplar scrupulosity. Nevertheless, his subordinates recount how he would go out into the field to pray and had them do the same, and he would do so with great devotion and calm. Here is shown Fray John’s aforementioned freedom of spirit: he guarded common prayer, but broadly interpreted the place in which it should be done.
He was also entirely free in his practice of charity. For this reason, in the first precaution against the world, he advises that: “you should have an equal love for and an equal forgetfulness of all persons,”[44] and he definitely demonstrated this. For example, when Maria de la Cruz[45] – a discalced Carmelite that the saint held thought highly of – fell ill, without caring about “what they will say,” “Fray John took part of the poor food of the convent of Granada and sent it to her” in the discalced monastery, something the sick sister appreciated and kept as a relic and as coming from heaven. Likewise, they said that a very poor old woman would usually come to the door of the convent to ask for food and that, if she ever did not come, he would send two religious to find out why and to take her what she might need.[46] A last example: when Fray John of the Cross was prior of Granada, contrary to what some might consider “favoritism,” he did not hesitate to call his brother, Francisco de Yepes, an expert in bricklaying, to give him work, and he paid for his travel expenses and let him live with them some months in the convent.[47] It is that Saint John of the Cross was one of those men who are able to give things that no one demands and abstain from things that no one prohibits.[48]
Even more admirable is the indifference and attachment the saint showed when in that General Chapter of the Discalced in Madrid (1591), despite his being the first definitor general (what would be for us the general vicar), “they greatly afflicted him”[49] because John of the Cross expressed himself on the matters dealt with in the Chapter[50] “in the same way he always did, not like some who, in the conclave before Doria (the superior), celebrated his decrees and, outside, grumbled about them.[51] He complained that “in the chapters, no one objects to anything, but rather everything is conceded to and they let everything pass, each one only waiting to take his part; with which the common good greatly suffers and the vice of ambition is nurtured, [and he said how this] had to be denounced, without concern for propriety, because it is a pernicious vice and opposed to the universal good.”[52] He accordingly took a stance with great vehemence, rather than betray his conscience, because he had nothing to do with “arbitrary law, which is so much favored by ignorant men who plume themselves on cleverness” (as Quijote said). That earned him, in this same chapter, a license to go to Mexico and to remain without his office.
So it was that, in view of his departure to the Indies,[53] he left for the solitude of La Peñuela. In this way, the fervent petition that he had so often made to God was fulfilled: “I desire only that death should find me in a remote place far from all traffic with people, without friars whom I should have to lead, without friends who could console me, and visited by all kinds of pain and suffering. I wish that God would prove me as a servant, after having tried the tenacity of my character so often in my work. I wish he would visit me with illness, as he has brought me into temptation through health and strength; I wish he would allow me to be tempted by shame as he has allowed me to be tempted by the good name I had even with my enemies. Lord, deign to crown the head of your unworthy servant with martyrdom.”[54]
▪ Sovereignty over the world
Our proper law says that our religious must exercise dominion over the world in two ways: one of these is by collaborating with the created world through work and with the redeemed world through apostolate.[55]
Saint John of the Cross was tireless in his labor, since he was a skillful man in many areas. His spiritual action of the direction of souls, his use of the pen, his gifts for government, his skill at prose and art, did not nullify him in other areas such as material works: laying floors, making partition walls, etc.
For example, as Definitor General, we can say that he raised the “general house” – even though he was enmeshed in a thousand government concerns. Because he himself took care of making the plans that include the current church and square cloister. Pablo de Santa María, an eyewitness, tells us that “Fr. Fray John of the Cross was very kind and cheerful towards all, and austere and penitential with himself: in the harshest winter and with a lot of snow, he would go, without concern for his feet, to the quarry the stone was taken from, for he was the overseers of the laborers, and, snow and hail falling on his bare and balding head, it seemed like he set everyone on fire. And many of these days, being elderly, he would eat at one in the afternoon without having breakfasted more than on the Blessed Sacrament, seeming to be made more of bronze than of flesh.”[56] Another of the brothers employed in this work also affirmed that when they went out in the morning to work, he would already have the tools ready, and it was though someone had advanced the work and they had gained a half day.
But he was also prodigal in his apostolates: now with the religious sisters, now with families, now with children whom he catechized, now with knights, now with the youth in the colleges where he had been, now with those he met in the streets, now with all classes of clergy who came to consult him.
Likewise, when John of the Cross was in the College in Baeza, in order to fully attend to the people who came to confess, he changed the schedule, so that they had their two hours of prayer early in the morning, in order to be free and attend to the people throughout the day.
Another of the ways to exercise dominion over the world, affirms our proper law, is “by leaving the world behind, be it for fidelity to the same world (a means and not an end), or by fidelity to God, resisting concupiscence, temptations, and sins of the world; by being indifferent to the maxims, jeers and persecutions of the world, depending only on our good conscience illuminated by faith, ready for martyrdom – the full and total rejection of the evil world – for fidelity to God.”[57]
While John of the Cross was prior in Granada, the provincial vicar, Diego de la Trinidad, came by and began to put pressure on and bother Fray John, telling him that as superior, he ought to visit the city authorities, primarily the president and judges of the Court. And he said this, reproaching him that “if he did not visit the worthy people of the city, he would not be able to maintain his convent.” They must obey. Fray John called Jerónimo de la Cruz and said to him: “Your reverence, put on your cape, for they say that it is necessary that we go visiting.” They went down to the city and made their visit to the president of the Court, during which Fray John indicated that if they had not visited them beforehand, it was in order to fulfill the obligation of religious recollection. The president responded that they keep complying thus with our Lord and that they really had hardly any time to rest, implying that they were not at fault for not having visited them.
The moral: the saint found it immediately, since “as we went out, [said Fray Jerónimo de la Cruz], he said to me, ‘Our Lord has declared to us that he does not want us to oblige men in the world, since there are many who take care of this, but rather to oblige God, in private.’ And we went straight back to the convent. And I do not remember seeing him make another courtesy call.” That is to say, he did it once, as the superior ordered, but, contrary to all human respect, he did not repeat it.
We have already mentioned the ill-treatment that Fray John of the Cross suffered for being faithful to his vocation as a discalced Carmelite and how much he had to undergo in order to keep himself free and independent before the world’s maxims, taunts, and persecutions, without it mattering to him that he lost his office or that his honor was trampled by the most infamous persecution. But we have not yet said how Saint John of the Cross, with great eagerness, would often say to his own “that one must flee the honors of the world as from the devil, because all of them are full of venom.”[58] And at the same time that he said it, he would give an example of it, since “he was a great enemy of formalities and that they consider him a saint, nor did he like others to make that display.” A proof of this was when Diego Evangelista[59] began a defamatory trial to discredit him, going to the convents to make investigations – wanting to prove that he had comported himself scandalously[60] – and getting very angry when he did not manage to hear what he wanted. Many religious wrote to Fray John, urging him to complain to the vicar general and definer about those reports and to give an account of himself, but the saint, “responded to all with great serenity, that he was a worm, and so no one did him wrong, and that whatever his Creator ordained for him, it was for him to embrace it for love of Him and for nothing else.”[61]
Such was Fray John of the Cross’s spiritual nakedness, that when Christ asked him in prayer, “Fray John, ask me what you wish, and I will grant it to you, for this service you have done me,”[62] he was able to respond, “Lord, what I wish you to give me is suffering to be borne for Your sake, and that I be despised and regarded as worthless.” It is the same thing that he later wrote with great nobility of soul: “Have a great love for those who contradict and fail to love you, for in this way love is begotten in a heart that has no love. God so acts with us, for He loves us that we might love by means of the very love He bears us.”[63]
“This is akin to having the spirit of a prince, to guide the soul to great acts, to be concerned about the big things, to carry out great works with absolute virtue. This is to be noble.”[64]
“For to love is to labor to detach and strip itself for God’s sake of all that is not God.”[65] In this way, we are not concerned with the esteem and good opinion of men, health and corporal strength, the charges and offices that will be given to or taken from us, the events of prosperity or adversity that may happen, dying young or old.[66] “Hence it is clearly seen that the soul must not only be disencumbered from that which belongs to the creatures, but likewise, as it travels, must be annihilated and detached from all that belongs to its spirit.”[67] For, to attain freedom of spirit, we have to work so that our heart may not be detained by anything human.[68] Because, as the Mystical Doctor wrote:
When you dwell upon something,
you cease to cast yourself upon the all.
For, in order to go from the all to the all,
you must deny yourself of all in all.
And, when you come to the possession of the all,
you must possess it without desiring anything.
For, if you want to have something in all,
you have not your treasure purely in God.[69]
In this sense, the saint declares with all conviction: “Blessed is the soul that loves, for it has God for its prisoner, and he is surrendered to all its desires;”[70] and for this reason he said, when you come to the possession of the all, you must possess it without desiring anything.
For this reason our Constitutions paternally exhort us “to love everything that God wants us to love, without being slaves to our affections for creatures. This means to love without being chained, to possess without remaining imprisoned, to use without selfish pleasure, to keep absolute independence and to seek God’s glory in everything and for everything.”[71]
2. St. John of the Cross’s teaching on freedom of spirit
We can almost say that the teaching of St. John of the Cross consists in disposing the soul to attain freedom of spirit and to consolidate it in it.
Without attempting in the least to make an exhaustive analysis of his abundant doctrine, here we will only give some features that we judge to be very helpful so that the heart may not walk among base things[72] but rise to the summit of the Mount of perfection, where the saint says: “There is no road here, for there is no law for the righteous man.”[73]
Let us begin by saying that this great Teacher of the faith teaches that “a soul will be unable to attain to that true liberty of spirit which is attained in His Divine union”[74] if it submits itself to other things that are not God and His Divine Will, that is to say, if he lives attached. And the saint insists on this: “the soul that has attachment to anything…, will not attain to the liberty of Divine union.”[75] Simply, “For slavery can have no part with liberty; and liberty cannot dwell in a heart that is subject to desires, for this is the heart of a slave; but it dwells in the free man, because he has the heart of a son.”[76]
From this it follows that:
a) If there is not this true evangelical renunciation – detachment from creatures – neither will there be any going out to walk towards union with God. For no one will find the new life if he is not ready to walk in the denial of himself. But if he goes by the road of denial and losing his own life, following the Incarnate Word, then he will not only find the true life, but will also enjoy many benefits that come from self-denial: interior peace, poverty of spirit, and the hundredfold of the true possession of God and of all that he had previously denied himself. This is where the dark nights and the active and passive purifications we have to traverse take on their full meaning,[77] because they prepare us “to remain in that complete nakedness and freedom of spirit necessary for Divine union.”[78]
b) All attachment, whatever it may be, involves servitude, which is contrary to the doctrine of Christ, since, as we have already said, For freedom Christ set us free.[79] The condition for arriving at true freedom of spirit, then, is to conquer the servitude the appetites subject one to, in those who let themselves be guided by them. “For until the desires are lulled to sleep through the mortification of the sensual nature, and until at last the sensual nature itself is at rest from them, so that they make not war upon the spirit, the soul goes not forth to true liberty and to the fruition of union with its Beloved.”[80]
And why do we say that it is servitude? The Mystical Doctor explains: because “the affection and attachment which the soul has for creatures renders the soul like to these creatures; and, the greater is its affection, the closer is the equality and likeness between them; for love creates a likeness between that which loves and that which is loved. […] And thus, he that loves a creature becomes as low as that creature, and, in some ways, lower; for love not only makes the lover equal to the object of his love, but even subjects him to it. Hence in the same way it comes to pass that the soul that loves anything else becomes incapable of pure union with God and transformation in Him.”[81]
Saint John of the Cross gives us examples to make us see it even more clearly:
- “All the beauty of creatures, compared to the infinite beauty of God, is the height of ugliness […]. So a person attached to the beauty of any creature is extremely ugly in God’s sight. Someone like this is incapable of the infinite grace and beauty of God.
- “All the grace and elegance of creatures compared to God’s grace is utter coarseness and crudity. That is why a person captivated by this grace and elegance of creatures becomes highly coarse and crude in God’s sight.
- “Compared to the infinite goodness of God, all the goodness of the creatures of the world can be called wickedness. […] Those who set their hearts on the good things of the world become extremely wicked in the sight of God.
- “All the world’s wisdom and human ability compared to the infinite wisdom of God is pure and utter ignorance […]. Those, therefore, who value their knowledge and ability as a means of reaching union with the wisdom of God are highly ignorant in God’s sight and will remain far from this wisdom.
- “All the sovereignty and freedom of the world compared to the freedom and sovereignty of the Spirit of God is utter slavery, anguish, and captivity. Those, then, who are attached to prelacies or to other such dignities and to freedom of their appetites will be considered and treated by God as base slaves and captives, not as offspring. And this because of their not wanting to accept his holy teaching in which he instructs us that whoever wants to be the greater will be the least, and whoever wants to be the least will be the greater.[82]
- “All the delights and satisfactions of the will in the things of the world compared to all the delight that is God are intense suffering, torment, and bitterness. Those who set their heart on these delights, then, deserve in God’s eyes intense suffering, torment, and bitterness.
- “All the wealth and glory of creation compared to the wealth that is God is utter poverty and misery in the Lord’s sight. The person who loves and possesses these things is completely poor and miserable before God.”[83]
Through this, the saint wants us to see that they “entrap the soul, as with snares, in its appetites and gratifications and keep it from going forth to the freedom of the love of God.”[84] But he also wants us to see that the nights, though they darken the spirit and sense, they do so only to impart light concerning all things; and though they humble the soul and reveal its miseries, it is only to exalt and raise it up; and, though they impoverish and empty it of all possession and natural affection, it is only so that it may reach out divinely to the enjoyment of all earthly and heavenly things, with a general freedom of spirit in them all.[85]
c) The attainment of this freedom is the source of dominion over all things. It is noteworthy how the saint opposes this dominion to any worldly kingdom or dominion when he says that “in [God’s] eyes freedom and a temporal dominion are neither freedom nor a kingdom.”[86] For this reason, the radical freedom that our proper law and Saint John of the Cross propose is an interior freedom, since this is the spirit of our Institute: “to fully live the freedom of God’s children.”[87] “From a negative point of view, it is freedom from sin and from the appetites that enslave man. Positively speaking, it is the capacity of dominion and determination regarding one’s own personal fulfillment that obviously occurs in communion with God, for which he has been created and positively ordered. The Mystical Doctor founds freedom of spirit on this, making it coincide with divine union.”[88]
Indeed, at the peak of the Mount of perfection, where this union is reached, he writes these significant words, which our proper law cites in the paragraph that talks about freedom: “There is no road here, for there is no law for the righteous man.”[89]
In other words, this freedom is not only “libertas a malo,” but essentially “libertas ad bonum.” It is passing from the slavery of sin to the service of God, from the old man to the new. Even though defined as a passage from one slavery to another,[90] paradoxically, this is true freedom.[91]
Therefore, it is not surprising that our proper law includes martyrdom when speaking about sovereignty and invites us to be “ready for martyrdom – the full and total rejection of the evil world – for fidelity to God,”[92] and in the following line affirms that “the highest grace that God can grant our small Religious Family is persecution.”[93] Because the soul that knows it is called to be deiform[94] must not be afraid to walk the narrow path that leads to union with God. The soul must walk “denuded of all and desiring nothing,”[95] which, Saint John of the Cross says, consists in “true self-denial, exterior and interior, through surrender of self both to suffering for Christ and to annihilation in all things. In the exercise of this self-denial everything else, and even more, is discovered and accomplished. If one fails in this exercise, the root and sum total of all the virtues, the other methods would amount to no more than going around in circles without getting anywhere, even were one to enjoy considerations and communications as lofty as those of the angels.”[96] For this reason, our Constitutions, quoting the Mystic of Fontiveros, strongly exhort us to “nothing, nothing until only the skin remains, and the rest for Christ.”[97] Therefore, the same desire of the martyr who said, “Let fire and the cross; let the crowds of wild beasts; let breaking, ripping, and separation of bones; let cutting off of members; let bruising to pieces of the whole body; and let the very torment of the devil come upon me: only let me attain Jesus Christ,”[98] must grow in our hearts.
In other words, we must know how to renounce, how to sacrifice whatever must be sacrificed, but without compromising in any way our progress toward the conquest of freedom. Rather, we must be earnestly determined to walk “the way of perfection in all humility and detachment, interior and exterior, not with a childish spirit but with a robust will.”[99] To put all our efforts into “following Christ and denying self,”[100] and “if at any time someone, whether superior or anyone else,” warns the Master of the faith, “should try to persuade you of a lax teaching, even though it be confirmed by miracles, do not believe or embrace it; rather, greater penance and greater detachment from all things. And do not seek Christ without the cross.”[101] This is what is means to be “the unconditionals of God,”[102] to “not put anything before His love.”[103] This, and no other, “should be the priestly attitude of all members of our small Religious Family. […] One must live this attitude permanently, without diminution or retraction, without reserve or condition, without subterfuge or delay, without retreating or even slowness. In both personal matters and in great historical endeavors, [because] it’s impossible to build an empire if one cannot set fire to his ship after disembarking.”[104]
Thus, the way of freedom is the way of the “nothing” that leads to all: “to come to possess all, desire to possess nothing.”[105] After having renounced all things, the soul possesses them all and enjoys them with freedom of spirit: “detached from all kinds of natural affection,” the soul can now “freely to share in the breadth of spirit of the Divine Wisdom, wherein, through its purity, it has experience of all the sweetness of all things in a certain pre-eminently excellent way.”[106] And this takes place “without the sensual part being able to hinder it.”[107]
The Saint beautifully expresses this in his Canticle, when the Spouse (which is the soul) has reached union with the Divine Spouse and hears His voice without anyone hindering her, in breadth of spirit: “freed from… all temporal disturbances and changes, and divested and purged of imperfections, penalties, and clouds in the senses and the spirit, she feels a new spring in spiritual freedom and breadth and gladness.”[108]
For this reason, this “happy freedom of spirit desired by all”[109] that we have been speaking about, “is good and contains within itself all the good things in the world. It is a great dominion.”[110] Our program is to attain it and live it fully.
In this way, it is characteristic of the members of the Institute of the Incarnate Word to subject themselves to Christ, to His Divine Will, because in this lie true freedom and the fullness of our happiness; and we want to do so following the way that Christ Himself followed, which is none other than the way of the cross. So that, even if they make us lords of all created things in this world and even if they threaten to take our bodily life,[111] and all our works come to nothing, we must be man enough to make the “decision not to make a pact with, compromise with, capitulate with, negotiate with, surrender to or give in to the spirit of the world,”[112] since otherwise we would be at fault with God and we ourselves would suffer great servitude and misery.
Our motto is simple: “Show by the depth of your convictions and by the consistency of your behavior that Jesus Christ is our contemporary.”[113]
How? By ridding ourselves “completely of what is repugnant and unconformed to the divine will,”[114] to the point of being “reduced to nothing”[115] and becoming “fools for Christ,”[116] which, in the language of Saint John of the Cross, is the fullest “freedom of spirit.”[117]
They will push us around, laugh at us and consider us awkward, slow and even mentally weak; nevertheless, we must bless those that curse us and laugh together with those who laugh at and made fun of us, like senseless children, and even when they beat, persecute and martyr us, we must give thanks to God who found us worthy.[118]
Thus understood, to be the unconditionals of God is to carry out the “oblation of greater value”[119] that we make each year in the Spiritual Exercises. “This is to be noble. […] It is a man with heart, a man that has something to give to himself and to others, a man born to lead. Nobles are able to punish themselves and others. They create a style by their conduct. They do not demand freedom but hierarchy. They set laws and fulfill them… They feel honor as life [itself]. They can give themselves because they possess themselves. They know at every instant what one must die for. They are able to give things that no one demands and abstain from things that no one prohibits. They always regard themselves as beginners […] and unceasingly aspire to a holier and more perfect life.”[120]
And for a more complete idea of freedom of spirit, let us conclude with those words that Saint John of the Cross puts on the lips of God the Father: “consider My Son, Who is subject to Me, and bound by love of Me, and afflicted.”[121] This is the image of true freedom.
We are not alone in such a great and sublime conquest – we count on the extraordinary aid of the Most Blessed Virgin Mary, because no one besides her “is made for God alone, and far from ever detaining a soul in herself, she casts the soul upon God and unites it with Him so much the more perfectly as the soul is more perfectly united to her.”[122] “I do not think anyone can acquire an intimate union with our Lord, and a perfect fidelity to the Holy Ghost,” said Saint Louis-Marie Grignion de Montfort, “without a very great union with the most holy Virgin, and a great dependence on her assistance.”[123] For this reason, he recommended that we renew our consecration to Mary each day. “The more we shall do so,” he said, “the more we shall be sanctified; and we shall all the sooner attain to union with Jesus Christ, which always follows necessarily on our union with Mary, because the spirit of Mary is the spirit of Jesus.”[124]
May the Incarnate Word, Who found his freedom in allowing himself to be enclosed in the womb of Mary Most Holy, find us each day “more slaves” to such a sweet Mother.
[1] Origen, On Prayer: PG 457.
[2] Saint John of the Cross, The Ascent of Mount Carmel, Book 1, Ch. 11, 4.
[3] Cf. Constitutions, 43.
[4] Gal 5:1.
[5] Rom 8:21
[6] Directory of Spirituality, 195.
[7] Directory of Spirituality, 32; op. cit. Heb 2:15.
[8] Gal 4:3.
[9] Cf. 2 Cor 3:6.
[10] Cf. 1 Cor 2:12.
[11] Cf. Directory of Spirituality, 39.
[12] Saint John of the Cross, Ascent of Mount Carmel, Book 1, Ch. 4, 6.
[13] Constitutions, 68.
[14] Saint John of the Cross, Ascent of Mount Carmel, Book 3, Ch. 23, 6.
[15] José Vicente Rodríguez, San Juan de la Cruz – La biografía, Ch. 3, p. 127.
[16] Cf. Ibidem.
[17] Ibidem.
[18] Vocations Directory, 84.
[19] Directory of Consecrated Life, 151; op. cit. Optatam Totius, 10; Cf. CIC, c. 247, § 1.
[20] Saint Teresa of Avila, The Book of the Foundations, Ch. 3.
[21] Cf. Ibidem.
[22] This meeting of Fray John of Saint Matthias with Saint Teresa occurred during the months of August-October 1567.
[23] Directory of Spirituality, 16; op. cit. Saint Ambrose, Commentary on Saint Luke, 2, 19.
[24] 35.
[25] José Vicente Rodríguez, San Juan de la Cruz – La biografía, Ch. 16, p. 416.
[26] To be the confessor of the nuns in Avila.
[27] Cf. Directory of Spirituality, 41.
[28] José Vicente Rodríguez, San Juan de la Cruz – La biografía, Ch.34, p. 728.
[29] Constitutions, 76.
[30] Cf. Saint John of the Cross, The Precautions, 12.
[31] Directory of Spirituality, 34.
[32] José Vicente Rodríguez, San Juan de la Cruz – La biografía, Ch. 13, p. 309.
[33] Mt 6:33.
[34] Cf. Saint John of the Cross, The Precautions, 7.
[35] Saint John of the Cross, Letters, Letter 1, To Catalina de Jesús, Discalced Carmelite.
[36] Saint John of the Cross, Sayings of Light and Love, 175.
[37] Saint John of the Cross, Sayings of Light and Love, 127.
[38] Cf. José Vicente Rodríguez, – La biografía, Ch. 28, pp. 620-621.
[39] José Vicente Rodríguez, San Juan de la Cruz – La biografía, Ch. 19, p. 467.
[40] Saint John of the Cross, The Ascent of Mount Carmel, Book 1, Ch. 11, 4.
[41] José Vicente Rodríguez, San Juan de la Cruz – La biografía, Ch. 19, p. 466.
[42] Directory of Spirituality, 41.
[43] José Vicente Rodríguez, Juan de la Cruz y su estilo de hacer comunidad.
[44] Saint John of the Cross, The Precautions, 5.
[45] Nicknamed “Machuca,” whom the saint himself encouraged to follow the Carmelite vocation, interceded for her with the sisters because she had no dowry, and then gave her the habit, the veil, and received her profession himself.
[46] Cf. José Vicente Rodríguez, San Juan de la Cruz – La biografía, Ch. 21, p. 507.
[47] Cf. José Vicente Rodríguez, San Juan de la Cruz – La biografía, Ch. 19, pp. 447-448.
[48] Cf. Directory of Spirituality, 41.
[49] Handwritten statement of Fray Juan de Santa Ana. Quoted by José Vicente Rodríguez, San Juan de la Cruz – La biografía, Ch. 34, p. 721.
[50] “Laws, attitude of the sisters, problem of Fr. Gracián.” Fray John was not in favor of multiplying laws, but rather against it, and he said so. What is more, he maintained that they should not abandon the governance of the religious sisters, nor should all have to pay for what some few had done. He had to suffer the same in the case of Fr. Gracián, for they wanted him to be condemned, which Saint John of the Cross always opposed (even though he had received a brief from the Pope to investigate Fr. Gracián and sentence him: see José Vicente Rodríguez, San Juan de la Cruz – La biografía, Ch. 34, p. 720-722).
[51] José Vicente Rodríguez, San Juan de la Cruz – La biografía, Ch. 34, p. 714; op. cit. Reforma, t. 2, lib. 8, c. 45, 558.
[52] José Vicente Rodríguez, San Juan de la Cruz – La biografía, Ch. 36, p. 775.
[53] Which never happened because he got sick and died beforehand.
[54] J. Brouwer, De achterground der Spaanse mystiek, Zutphen, 1935, p. 217. Quoted by Saint Edith Stein, The Science of the Cross, Fragment, Ch. 24, p. 305.
[55] Directory of Spirituality, 36.
[56] José Vicente Rodríguez, San Juan de la Cruz – La biografía, Ch. 27, 616.
[57] Directory of Spirituality, 36.
[58] José Vicente Rodríguez, San Juan de la Cruz – La biografía, Ch. 21, p. 500.
[59] Biographers argue that Diego Evangelista remained resentful towards the saint after he, being superior, scolded him for excessive zeal in preaching, which caused him to neglect his obligations in community life.
[60] José Vicente Rodríguez, San Juan de la Cruz – La biografía, Ch. 39, p. 828.
[61] José Vicente Rodríguez, San Juan de la Cruz – La biografía, Ch. 39, p. 834.
[62] For having placed His Image in the church to be venerated and reverenced by the other religious.
[63] Saint John of the Cross, Letters, Letter 33, To a discalced Carmelite nun in Segovia, Úbeda, October-November 1591.
[64] Cf. Directory of Spirituality, 41.
[65] Saint John of the Cross, The Ascent of Mount Carmel, Book 2, Ch. 5, 7.
[66] Cf. Constitutions, 68.
[67] Saint John of the Cross, The Ascent of Mount Carmel, Book 2, Ch. 7, 4.
[68] Cf. Saint John of the Cross, Sayings of Light and Love, 144. Quoted in Constitutions, 68.
[69] Saint John of the Cross, The Ascent of Mount Carmel, Book 1, Ch. 13, 12.
[70] Saint John of the Cross, Spiritual Canticle, Stanza 32, 1.
[71] Constitutions, 68.
[72] Cf. Saint John of the Cross, Letters, Letter 7, To the discalced Carmelite nuns of Beas Málaga, November 18, 1586.
[73] Saint John of the Cross, Drawing of the Mount of Perfection. Quoted in the Directory of Spirituality, 195.
[74] Saint John of the Cross, The Ascent of Mount Carmel, Book 1, Ch. 4, 6.
[75] Saint John of the Cross, The Ascent of Mount Carmel, Book 1, Ch. 11, 4.
[76] Saint John of the Cross, The Ascent of Mount Carmel, Book 1, Ch. 4, 6.
[77] Constitutions, 10 y 40; Directory of Spirituality, 22.
[78] Cf. Saint John of the Cross, The Ascent of Mount Carmel, title.
[79] Gal 5:1.
[80] Saint John of the Cross, The Ascent of Mount Carmel, Book 1, Ch. 15, 2.
[81] Cf. Saint John of the Cross, The Ascent of Mount Carmel, Book 1, Ch. 4, 3.
[82] Lk 22:26.
[83] Cf. Saint John of the Cross, The Ascent of Mount Carmel, Book 1, Ch. 4, 4-7.
[84] Saint John of the Cross, The Dark Night, Book 1, Ch. 13, 14.
[85] Cf. Saint John of the Cross, The Dark Night, Book 2, Ch. 9, 1.
[86] Saint John of the Cross, The Ascent of Mount Carmel, Book 2, 19, 8.
[87] Constitutions, 34.
[88] Eulogio Pacho, Diccionario de San Juan de la Cruz, p. 102.
[89] Saint John of the Cross, Drawing of the Mount of Perfection. Quoted in the Directory of Spirituality, 195.
[90] Rom 6:22: you have been freed from sin and have become slaves of God.
[91] Cf. Eulogio Pacho, Diccionario de San Juan de la Cruz, p. 102.
[92] Directory of Spirituality, 36.
[93] Directory of Spirituality, 37.
[94] Cf. Directory of Consecrated Life, 10 and 14. See also Saint John of the Cross, The Spiritual Canticle, Stanza 39, 4.
[95] Saint John of the Cross, The Ascent of Mount Carmel, Book 2, Ch. 7, 7.
[96] Saint John of the Cross, The Ascent of Mount Carmel, Book 2, Ch. 7, 8.
[97] Constitutions, 68; op. cit. Saint John of the Cross, Maxims and Spiritual Sentences, 68, 4.
[98] Directory of Spirituality, 144; op. cit. Saint Ignatius of Antioch, Letter to the Romans, 5, 3.
[99] Saint John of the Cross, Letters, Letter 16, To M. María de Jesús, discalced Carmelite, Prioress in Córdoba, Segovia, July 18, 1589.
[100] Saint John of the Cross, The Ascent of Mount Carmel, Book 2, Ch. 7, 5.
[101] Saint John of the Cross, Letters, Letter 24, To Fr. Luis de San Ángelo, OCD, in Andalucía, Segovia, 1589-1590(?). Quoted in the Directory of Contemplative Life, 92.
[102] Formula for the monthly renewal of vows; op. cit. Origen, On Prayer: PG 457.
[103] Cf. Constitutions, 37.
[104] Cf. Directory of Spirituality, 73.
[105] Saint John of the Cross, The Ascent of Mount Carmel, Book 1, Ch. 13, 11.
[106] Saint John of the Cross, The Dark Night, Book 2, Ch. 9, 1.
[107] Saint John of the Cross, The Dark Night, Book 2, Ch. 23, 12.
[108] Saint John of the Cross, The Spiritual Canticle, Stanza 39, 8.
[109] Saint John of the Cross, The Dark Night, Book 2, Ch. 22, 1.
[110] Constitutions, 65; op. cit. Saint Teresa of Avila, The Way of Perfection, Ch. II, 5.
[111] Cf. Saint Ignatius of Loyola, The Spiritual Exercises, [165].
[112] Directory of Spirituality, 118.
[113] Saint John Paul II, To the youth of Brescia (September 26, 1982), 4. Quoted in the Directory of Spirituality, 115.
[114] Saint John of the Cross, The Ascent of Mount Carmel, Book 2, Ch. 5, 3.
[115] Saint John of the Cross, The Ascent of Mount Carmel, Book 2, Ch. 7, 11.
[116] Directory of Spirituality, 181.
[117] Cf. The Ascent of Mount Carmel and The Dark Night.
[118] Cf. Directory of Spirituality, 181.
[119] Saint Ignatius of Loyola, The Spiritual Exercises, [98].
[120] Cf. Directory of Spirituality, 41.
[121] The Ascent of Mount Carmel, Book II, Ch. 22, 6.
[122] Saint Louis-Marie Grignion de Montfort, The Secret of Mary, 21.
[123] Saint Louis-Marie Grignion de Montfort, True Devotion to Mary, 43.
[124] Saint Louis-Marie Grignion de Montfort, True Devotion to Mary, 259.
