Dec. 14, 2010 Tuesday: St. John of the Cross, memorial
Saint John of the Cross (San Juan de la Cruz) (24 June 1542 – 14 December 1591), born Juan de Yepes Alvarez, was a major figure of the Counter-Reformation, a Spanish mystic, Catholic saint, Carmelite friar and priest, born at Fontiveros, Old Castile. He was a reformer of the Carmelite Order and is considered, along with Saint Teresa of Ávila, as a founder of the Discalced Carmelites. He is also known for his writings. Both his poetry and his studies on the growth of the soul are considered the summit of mystical Spanish literature and one of the peaks of all Spanish literature. (Wikipedia)
The following is an excerpt of a commentary on St. John of the Cross by a Carmelite priest, Fr. Marc Foley, OCD in the book, The Ascent to Joy: John of the Cross.
Desire, Desires, and Detachment
All of our appetites and their consequent pleasures and satiations are good, according to John, because God created them; nevertheless, they can become obstacles on the spiritual path if we become fixated or attached to them. John is not simply talking about our appetites for sensual pleasures, but anything that we choose to over-invest our ego in, be it our appearance, the acquisition of knowledge, or even the practice of virtue, to name a few.
Mortifying our inordinate desires does not lead to the elimination of desire, but rather the release of our deepest desire for God, which in turn, purifies, transforms, and integrates all of our other desires. The Spanish word for detachment, desprendimiento, has a fundamentally positive thrust to it that is lost in translation; it does not merely refer to "giving up" something, but rather the laying down of something for the sake of something better. Detachment, mortification, self-denial, and any other negative sounding words that we encounter in John's writings need to be heard in the light of their overriding purpose--the attainment of our ultimate happiness in God.
In addition, a careful reading of John discloses that the mortification of our inordinate appetites expands the soul's capacity to "obtain more joy and recreation in creatures..." and enables it to "reach out divinely to the enjoyment of all earthly and heavenly things, with a general freedom of spirit in them all."
The paradox of detachment that John sets before us is that only a non-possessive heart can truly possess and completely enjoy God's creation, for it is freed from the anxiety and fear that possessiveness engenders.
When we take a possessive, grasping, clutching stance toward life, we make ourselves miserable. It seems as if everything we try to possess balks and resists our entreaties. But when we approach creation with gentleness, reverence, respect, and non-possessive love, it yields to us what we are seeking: the pleasure, joy, and happiness that God intends for us to have.
Possessiveness distorts our vision; we perceive life only from the vantage point of self-interest--how things affect us. In contrast, a purified heart has the power and capacity to see things in all their radiant beauty, truth, and native purity. In consequence, "Their joy is far different from the joy of one who is attached to things for...they delight in these goods according to the truth of them, but those who are attached delight according to what is false in them...our inordinate desires are the source of all our suffering and prevent us from seeing the world with unclouded eyes and perceiving God's love for us; yet John's teaching does not aim at the elimination of our appetites but rather at their emancipation and transformation, so that our will and God's will become so completely one that the soul "is no longer anything else than the appetite of God."
