Living Flame of Love by St. John of the Cross:
A must read for those who desire to
desire
For
those who are familiar with Interior
Castle, Ascent of Mt. Carmel or The
Dark Night of the Soul, I highly recommend that you first read Living Flame of Love by St. John of the
Cross. I say this because people that usually start reading a work of St. John
of the Cross, end up not finishing it. This likely happens because they do not
understand all that St. John speaks of, or they find his mysticism and works to
be spiritually intimidating. However, if one begins by reading Living Flame of Love, which vividly
describes the final stage of transforming union, he or she would be inspired
and motivated to read about the the other stages needed to reach the
transformative union. Let us remember that the works of the mystics are
classics. In other words, these books are meant to be read over and over again.
The more that these works are read and pondered on, the more we will understand
the movement of the soul towards God.
Before
I delve into the criticality of reading Living
Flame of Love, I will briefly discuss the background and structure of
Christian Asceticsm according to St. John, and its historical context. St. John
lived in sixteenth century Spain during the flowering of mysticism in the
history of the Church. Religion never exerted as much widespread influence in
Europe than in the period between 1500 and 1660, nor was it ever more bound up
in politics.[1]
Juan de Yepes was born in 1542 at Fontiveros and came from a loving family.[2]
He entered the order at age nineteen and with St. Teresa of Avila, brought reforms
to the Carmelite order. What many people do not acknowledge is that he was a
wonderful lyrical poet who had already reached the heights of sanctity at the
time of his writings. Because he was a learned theologian, his writing was very
systematic. And although St. John was young, he was already residing in the
deepest chamber of the soul in the unitive way.
Before reaching complete divine union
and transformation in the unitive way, the soul must undergo the purgative and
illuminative stages where there is much trial and purification. When the soul
finally reaches the unitive stage, the intensity and joy of God’s presence in
the soul is so profound and highly indescribable. A person cannot simply
capture its essence with words. That is why St. John describes this spiritual
marriage in his poem, Living Flame of
Love. The poem consists of four stanzas with a commentary by St. John to
understand it even more. Some even say the poem is autobiographical since St.
John underwent what is described in his stanzas: “O living flame of love, that
tenderly wounds my soul in its deepest center!”[3]
The central image that St. John uses to describe such union is an all-consuming
flame, which transforms the soul so much that every movement is a direct
inspiration of the Holy Spirit. He provides a summary of the process of
liberation up to divine union saying, “It possesses the properties and performs
the actions of fire: It is dry and it dries; it is hot and it gives off heat;
it is brilliant and it illumines; it is also much lighter in weight than
before.”[4]
For the soul in the unitive stage, suffering even becomes so sweet because
suffering is redemptive and obtained in grace and love.[5]
I found that the word that appears most in this work is “love,” as this is what
one completely transforms into.
In the second stanza, St. John
specifically notes that soul experiences suffering, but a profound joy and
overflowing zealousness: “The soul feels its ardor strengthen and increase and
its love becomes so refined in this ardor that seemingly there flow seas of
loving fire within it, reaching to the heights and depths of all earthly and
heavenly spheres, imbuing all with love."[6]
In other words, once a soul is totally immersed in the love of God in its
fullest, there is no more self, but only God – only love. The essential
defining trait of what it means to be human, is to love. The more we grow to be
transformed until the unitive stage, the more human we become.
To understand St. John successfully, I
recommend reading Living Flame to fervently
desire the ultimate end. In order to obtain, we must first desire and desire
strongly. To desire is fundamentally human, and that is why St. John describes
transformative union so poetically. Living
Flame of Love and the other works of St. John, are not spiritual guides for
beginners or new converts. It is for those who seek spiritual advancement and
seriously want to become saints. According to St. John, few persons have
reached these heights.[7]
His explanation
for the second stanza is my favorite line of all: “It seems to it that the
entire universe is a sea of love in which it is engulfed, for conscious of the
living point or center of love within itself, it is unable to catch sight of
the boundaries of this love…For the soul beholds itself converted into an immense
fire of love that emanates from that enkindled point in the heart of the
spirit.”[8] This sums up what is beyond even the imaginative, of what God intends for His beloved soul.
[1]
James Hitchcock, History of the Catholic
Church (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2000), 300.
[2]
Gerald Brenan, St. John of the Cross: His
Life and Poetry (London: Cambridge University Press, 1973), 3.
[3]
John of the Cross, trans. Kieran Kavanaugh and Otilio Rodriguez, Living Flame of Love, (Washington DC: ICS Publications, 2010) Prologue, iBooks edition.
[4]
John of the Cross, Living Flame of Love, Chapter 3.
[5]
Thomas Nelson, lecture on Christian Asceticism (Front Royal, VA: Christendom College, recorded July 2019).
[6]
John of the Cross, Living Flame of Love, Chapter 2.
[7] John of the Cross, Living Flame of Love, Chapter 2.
[8] John of the Cross, Living Flame of Love, Chapter 2.
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