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Book Review: "By Way Of Night : Meditations On St
John of the Cross' "The Dark Night"
Do you want to be healthy? Well, then, make
good use of this booklet!
All of us know that healing is not
just physical
wellbeing. One can be physically fit
and
yet may be living in hell. Physical
fitness
does not heal us of our inner anger
and loneliness
which torment us. Bodily strength does
not
mend harmful relationships and does
not pull
us out of our debilitating addictions.
These
conscious and unconscious wounds can
only
be healed by facing up to their origins
and
making peace with them.
This is real health -- being at peace
with
oneself. When we learn to accept our
inner
brokenness and sinfulness and, at the
same
time, we begin to live in harmony with
the
outside world, then we are on the road
to
real wellbeing.
This making-peace-within-oneself is
not a
magical one moment thrust. It is a
process.
A long, many times painful, process.
To use
the graphic language of Saint John
of the
Cross, we have to pass through "abandonment,
supreme poverty, dryness, cold, and
sometimes
heat. They find relief in nothing,
nor does
any thought console them. . . ."
This
journey is so long and so painful that
many
do not even bother starting it. They
spend
all their lives running away from themselves.
Instead of facing to their inner vulnerability,
they just hide themselves behind distorted
defenses such as alcohol, drugs, food,
gambling,
sex, sports, television, false pietistic
religiosity…
Obviously what one sow, one reaps.
If one
sows in God, one reaps in God. If one
sows
in alienation, one reaps nothingness.
This is why Saint John of the Cross
can be
such a terrific ally and loyal companion.
He not only wrote extensively and insightfully
about this journey towards God, he
lived
it himself. There is no need for us
to make
this inward journey alone. His comforting
words and deep insights can accompany
us
each step of the way.
Saint John of the Cross calls this
process
a dark night. An experience, he says,
of
spiritual purgation in which all physical
and psychological satisfactions are
stripped
away to leave the soul in the presence
of
nothing but the physically invisible
(and
therefore, to human experience, dark)
and
silent workings of divine grace. As
unnerving
as it is, it is still a profound experience
of spiritual healing. It is not self-punishment,
but a real opening to genuine Love.
The Dark Night strips away all human
illusions
and pretensions. It helps the person
to turn
away from the distortion of his own
self-indulgence.
It opens his eyes to see the fraud
of the
world around him. He starts to become
vulnerable
without defenses so that he can receive
Love.
The Dark Night explains at length how
the
overpowering afflictions experienced
in purgation
are caused by the very flame of God
which
imparts his love. Purgation is, therefore,
an act of God's love. As narcissistic
defenses
are stripped away through this spiritual
process, the soul's infirmities are
brought
to light: "Whether a soul is wounded
by other wounds of miseries and sins
or whether
it is healthy, this cautery of love
immediately
effects a wound of love in the one
it touches,
and those wounds deriving from other
causes
become wounds of love."
Even old wounds of victimization, along
with
their desire for revenge and compensation,
are transformed into the "wound"
of pure love itself.
What Saint John of the Cross constantly
insists
is that God, this tremendous lover
is the
initiator, the companion and the end
of this
whole journey! And that is why it is
so beautiful!
And so, we can relax.
Paul Buis manages to portray the Dark
Night
in a very charming poetic way. Married
with
two children, Paul is a computer programmer
by profession and a poet by charisma.
He
is a member of the Secular Discalced
Carmelites.
In Carmel he found vast spaces where
his
spirit can roam and soar high.
The main merit of this booklet is that
the
author manages to show, in an amplified
way,
what the full expansion of the life
of grace
can be. Taking cue from the insights
and
writings of Saint John of the Cross,
he traces
the journey out poetically and throws
out
constant hints and clues of how to
walk it
with joy and in simplicity.
His choice of the Scripture readings
and
his selection of the writings of Saint
John
of the Cross are valuable. His poems
are
just beautiful. Paul prompts us to
keep in
mind how priceless the unique coaching
of
Saint John of the Cross is.
Read this booklet with your heart and
you
will become healthier!
Thank you, Saint John of the Cross.
Thank
you Paul.
Father Pius Sammut OCD
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