Why is St. John of the Cross Called St. John ‘of the Cross?’

[Michie]

If you have never spent time reading the works and life of St. John of the Cross, here’s where to start.

There was a span of time after I entered the Church in 2012 where I was pretty confused by the saints. Specifically, I was confused about their names. A saint named after where they are from made total and complete sense: Augustine of Hippo, Thérèse of Lisieux, and so on. And the ones I thought I understood in plain titles, I didn’t realize I had entirely misjudged. St. John of the Cross was one of these.

“Okay. Easy enough with my Bible knowledge,” I said to myself. “There was one apostle present at the crucifixion, so St. John of the Cross was the saint who was at the cross. So that’s just what Catholics call him.”

Of course, I was hilariously wrong, but I wouldn’t learn this until years later. Eventually, someone recommended The Interior Castle by St. Teresa of Ávila, and in reading this wonderful work of the Spanish mystic, I connected the lines between her and her co-founder of the Discalced Carmelites. From there, I moved from an appreciation for the Spanish saint to utter devotion to his works.

If the reader has never spent time reading the works — not just the life — of this literary genius, be encouraged.

Continued below.

Why is St. John of the Cross Called St. John ‘of the Cross?’

If you have never spent time reading the works and life of St. John of the Cross, here’s where to start.

www.ncregister.com

 

[fide]

I'm sorry to say there is much inaccuracy in this article. The author wrote:

[Of The Ascent of Mt. Carmel]... spiritual treatise on union with Christ through the ascetical life — the metaphorical Mount Carmel. Here, also, we see more details on the “dark night,” privations in search of spiritual fulfillment.

• No, "the ascetical life" is the struggle against the loves of this world and for fidelity to the life of God - by active, conscious effort and intention, by the striving soul earnest for His Will (the summit of Mt Carmel). But all this by mere human effort and means, and ordinary grace. More is needed. Extraordinary grace is needed!
• The (1st) Dark Night, which is the night of the senses, is brought about in the soul not through natural means or human effort even with ordinary grace, but by the supernatural intervention of God Himself, the Holy Spirit. This darkness is the beginning of "the mystical life" of spirituality. made manifest by a darkening curtain, so to speak, fallen upon all physical and spiritual consolations, pleasures, and satisfactions which were the fruit of human, natural means. These were spiritual fruit "born of the flesh" - and not sufficient, nor pure enough, for the life of Christ in the Holy Spirit. God calls us to true holiness, which is made possible only by and through Him! - By His Holy Spirit! Such will be "born of the Spirit", and not of the works of man, "of the flesh." We thus remember and understand:

Eph 2:8 For by grace you have been saved through faith; and this is not your own doing, it is the gift of God—
Eph 2:9 not because of works, lest any man should boast.

• Thus, the (1st) Dark Night - that of the senses - is a withdrawal of consolations given at first to the spiritual child (so to speak), to keep him on the path to Life. But it is a (edited to add: "step along the ") path (edited to add: "still") far from the Life that God desires.
• Following this Dark Night, the Seven Gifts of the Holy Spirit begin, slowly and not all at once, to bring true supernatural illumination in the soul! This is a time of great fervor in the soul, and spiritual fruifulness - a true and deep beginning - but it is still only the beginning of a new life in Christ. Still more supernatural (mystical) purification is needed - the (2nd) Dark Night, of the Spirit.
• In the Night of the Spirit, a much deeper and more intense purging, darkness, purification comes upon the soul. After that purgation, the soul emerges into a union with God (which itself has three "stages") that is the true vocation of man made in the divine image.

The two Dark Nights seen together are a Cross [this is how I understand the significance of his name "John of the Cross"] that brings about and completes a death to this world, which is needed for a full resurrection into the Life of Christ and the Union with the Holy Trinity and with all who are in union with Him - the infinite glory of Beatitude in the infinity of Heaven.

 

[Michie]

I'm sorry to say there is much inaccuracy in this article. The author wrote:

• No, "the ascetical life" is the struggle against the loves of this world and for fidelity to the life of God - by active, conscious effort and intention, by the striving soul earnest for His Will (the summit of Mt Carmel). But all this by mere human effort and means, and ordinary grace. More is needed. Extraordinary grace is needed!
• The (1st) Dark Night, which is the night of the senses, is brought about in the soul not through natural means or human effort even with ordinary grace, but by the supernatural intervention of God Himself, the Holy Spirit. This darkness is the beginning of "the mystical life" of spirituality. made manifest by a darkening curtain, so to speak, fallen upon all physical and spiritual consolations, pleasures, and satisfactions which were the fruit of human, natural means. These were spiritual fruit "born of the flesh" - and not sufficient, nor pure enough, for the life of Christ in the Holy Spirit. God calls us to true holiness, which is made possible only by and through Him! - By His Holy Spirit! Such will be "born of the Spirit", and not of the works of man, "of the flesh." We thus remember and understand:

• Thus, the (1st) Dark Night - that of the senses - is a withdrawal of consolations given at first to the spiritual child (so to speak), to keep him on the path to Life. But it is a path far from the Life ethat God desires.
• Following this Dark Night, the Seven Gifts of the Holy Spirit begin, slowly and not all at once, to bring true supernatural illumination in the soul! This is a time of great fervor in the soul, and spiritual fruifulness - a true and deep beginning - but it is still only the beginning of a new life in Christ. Still more supernatural (mystical) purification is needed - the (2nd) Dark Night, of the Spirit.
• In the Night of the Spirit, a much deeper and more intense purging, darkness, purification comes upon the soul. After that purgation, the soul emerges into a union with God (which itself has three "stages") that is the true vocation of man made in the divine image.

The two Dark Nights seen together are a Cross [this is how I understand the significance of his name "John of the Cross"] that brings about and completes a death to this world, which is needed for a full resurrection into the Life of Christ and the Union with the Holy Trinity and with all who are in union with Him - the infinite glory of Beatitude in the infinity of Heaven.

Glad you enjoyed it.

Shaun McAfee Mr. Shaun McAfee, O.P. is the author of Reform Yourself! and other books, is the founder and editor of EpicPew.com, and contributes to many online Catholic resources. He holds a Masters in Dogmatic Theology from Holy Apostles College and Seminary. Shaun has made his temporary profession as a Lay Dominican and temporarily lives in Italy.

 

[fide]

Glad you enjoyed it.

Shaun McAfee Mr. Shaun McAfee, O.P. is the author of Reform Yourself! and other books, is the founder and editor of EpicPew.com, and contributes to many online Catholic resources. He holds a Masters in Dogmatic Theology from Holy Apostles College and Seminary. Shaun has made his temporary profession as a Lay Dominican and temporarily lives in Italy.

If you know his address, maybe you could ask him to read my post and comment on it.

 

[fide]

If you know his address, maybe you could ask him to read my post and comment on it.

edited to add: I re-read my post that you responded to, Michie, to double-check what I had written. I found one sentence that I edited/added to, to try to be more clear, but made that addition obvious as an "edited to add" addition. There is much more that ought to be written to put the spirituality of St. John of the Cross in a post, or an article, but still I stand by my assessment.

A well-credentialed source for an understanding of the Dark Nights, besides reading St. John himself, is to read a true expert, Fr. R. Garrigou-Lagrange, O.P.. A convenient and brief work of his is free to read on EWTN HERE. You will find a through but very brief "walk" along the path of spiritual purification, including "three conversions", with the associated "dark nights" necessary for these 2nd and 3rd "conversions" needed for God's final intention for us. I strongly suggest you read the whole book, provided for free to any interested.

An illuminative portion of this book is:

The transitions from one stage to another in the spiritual life, analogous to similar transitions in our bodily life, are marked by a crisis in the soul; and none has described these crises so well as St. John of the Cross. He shows that they correspond to the nature of the human soul, and to the nature of the divine seed, which is sanctifying grace. In the Dark Night, [129] after having spoken of the spiritual imperfections of beginners, he writes: 'The one night or purgation will be sensual, wherein the soul is purged according to sense, which is subdued to the spirit.... The night of sense is common, and comes to many; these are the beginners.' Then he adds: [130] 'When this house of sensuality was now at rest -- that is, was mortified its passions being quenched and its desires put to rest and lulled to sleep by means of this blessed night of the purgation of sense, the soul went forth to set out upon the road and way of the spirit, which is that of progressives and proficients, and which by another name is called the way of illumination or of infused contemplation, wherewith God Himself feeds and refreshes the soul, without meditation, or the soul's actual help. Such, as we have said, is the night and purgation of sense in the soul.'

The words that we have italicized in this passage are very significant, and they reproduce the original Spanish exactly.

St. John of the Cross then proceeds [131] to treat of the imperfections which are proper to progressives or proficients: natural roughness, outward clinging of the spirit, presumption, a remnant of spiritual pride -- and he thus shows the need of the passive purgation of the spirit, another painful crisis, a third conversion which is necessary before the soul can enter fully upon the life of union which belongs to the perfect, to those who, as St. Thomas says, wish above all things to cleave to God and to enjoy Him, and yearn ardently for eternal life, to be with Christ.' [132]

This doctrine of the Dark Night is found also in the Spiritual Canticle, especially in the division of the poem and in the argument which precedes the first strophe. [133]

As for Fr. Garrigou-Lagrange, a brief on his life is found HERE, for example, which includes this:

He is best known for his spiritual theology. His magnum opus in the field is The Three Ages of the Interior Life (Les trois ages de la vie intérieure),[6] in which he propounded the thesis that infused contemplation and the resulting mystical life are in the normal way of holiness of Christian perfection. This influenced the section entitled "Chapter V: The Universal Call to Holiness in the Church" in the Second Vatican Council's Dogmatic Constitution on the Church, Lumen gentium.[7]

His great achievement was to synthesize the highly abstract writings of St Thomas Aquinas with the experiential writings of St. John of the Cross, attempting to show they are in perfect harmony with each other.[8]

Father Garrigou-Lagrange, the leading proponent of "strict observance Thomism", attracted wider attention when in 1946 he wrote against the Nouvelle Théologie theological movement, criticizing elements of it as Modernist.[9]

He is also said to be the drafter of Pope Pius XII's 1950 encyclical Humani generis, subtitled "Concerning Some False Opinions Threatening to Undermine the Foundations of Catholic Doctrine".[10][11]