# The Dark Night Leading to GOD’S Action, an Introduction (The Dark Night – Books One and Two) - OCDS Ongoing Formation Volume II “The way of perfection passes by way of the Cross. There is no holiness without renunciation and spiritual battle. Spiritual progress entails the ascesis [self-denial] and mortification that gradually lead to living in the peace and joy of the Beatitudes.” (CCC 2015) “It remains to be said, then, that even though this happy night darkens the spirit, it does so only to impart light concerning all things; and even though it humbles individuals and reveals their miseries, it does so only to exalt them; and even though it impoverishes and empties them of all possessions and natural affection, it does so only that they may reach out divinely to the enjoyment of all earthly and heavenly things, with a general freedom of spirit in them all.” (The Dark Night, 2.9:1) The following introduction to The Dark Night was taken from The Collected Works of John of the Cross, pg. 353-357. Courtesy ICS Publications. “A work called The Dark Night has come down to us from John of the Cross in manuscripts separate from The Ascent of Mount Carmel. Explaining the passive purifications of both the senses and the spirit, this work fulfills John’s several promises in The Ascent to treat of the passive nights... And a number of times as he moves through his material, he asserts that active purification alone [one’s own efforts] is insufficient for attainment of union. This work, The Dark Night, then, describes how God purifies the soul passively and brings the theological life to perfection delineated in The Ascent... Though different in literary style, this latter work furnishes a necessary complement to The Ascent of Mount Carmel. “... In the Night, turning to the poem once again, he states his intention to explain its stanzas. And this time the exposition of the subject matter follows the poem more closely and is more influenced by it.... He tells us in a brief prologue that the first two stanzas refer to the effects of the two kinds of purification, sensory and spiritual [that take place in a person]; and the last six [stanzas] speak of the effects, wonderful though ineffable, of illumination and union. “... Thus the poem describes two fundamental conditions in the spiritual process: the painful passage through the night, and the unspeakable joy of encountering God. “In his exposition, John does not present a program of detailed asceticism for attaining the poverty of spirit implied by the radical purification. His emphasis is on allowing God to lead, on accepting the Lord’s work with all its consequences. At the same time the teaching must be seen in relation to the main focus of the Ascent, as a prolongation and complement to it. “... What is really at stake in the spiritual journey to union with God is an ongoing work of purification, a cleansing of all that is repugnant to God’s holiness. The purity implied is impossible without personal effort, but this effort, however intense, does not achieve the radical stripping demanded by the union. God’s own intervention is necessary through a purifying communication that works passively, beyond the realm of what human effort can achieve. Human effort does little more than dispose one for the divine action. “The human work and the divine action are not perfectly successive; rather, they are parallel and simultaneous. It is the predominance of one over the other that permits the establishing of a certain relative succession, which of course means that in the final stage of the purification the divine is clearly prevalent. “What the person undergoing the dark night experiences is a painful lack or privation: darkness in the intellect; aridity in the will regarding the exercise of love; emptiness of all possessions in the memory; and a general affliction and torment as a consequence. Such persons receive a vivid understanding of their own misery and think they will never escape from it. “All these painful experiences as well as the beneficial fruits of the transformation are attributable to contemplation. This contemplation is an inpouring of God into the soul, a divine, loving knowledge that is general, without images or concepts, obscure and hidden from the one who receives it, a knowledge that both purifies and illumines.... “... The novelty of this knowledge does not lie in the information, but in a new sense of the presence of God through faith and love. The one who receives it is in a kind of passive activity. There are no adequate human controls; before God, only poverty, confidence, and abandonment remain. “... But contemplation is not identifiable with dark night; it may be given in forms that produce effects different from these purifying ones. In addition, it is worth saying that if this night darkens, it does so only to give light; if it humiliates, it does so only to exalt; if it impoverishes, it does so only to enrich. “The point of arrival to which the night leads is the ‘new self,’ divinized in being and operation, living now a life of faith, hope, and love, fortified and pure. “John’s exposition of the night may seem to disengage that experience from the rest of the life. But the night cannot occur apart from the external happenings of every day, nor can we forget, while reading, the event of John’s imprisonment in Toledo with all its social and material deprivations. Our horizons open to many possible forms in which we may experience a dark night, according to the grace, state in life, and historical or personal circumstances of the individual. John leaves to each reader and each age the task of making the suitable applications. What is essential is that the sufferings and privations bring about a growing response of faith, hope, and love; without this transforming theological life the night would fail to purify and produce fruit.” Dark Night, Book One – Session One p.47 --- **Source:** [[maps/bibliography#^biblio-ocds-on2|OCDS Ongoing Formation Volume II]]