Bk II, Ch. XII: Shows how this horrible night is purgatory, and how in it the Divine wisdom illumines men on earth with the same illumination that purges and illumines the angels in Heaven.
A quotation from the Psalms is given that the “wisdom of God is silver tried in fire…” Again the idea of a metalsmith working with metal and melting it so that any imperfections can become separated from the pure metal and removed. And that ties into the idea of fire or flames used to purge souls in Purgatory, or even in the purgatory of the Dark Night St. John describes in this essay.
This chapter uses another metaphor – that of a glass which refracts the light of the sun being like God’s Wisdom and Love. When such Wisdom and Love hit the angels, it goes through them without much refractive effect, as they are things of the spirit and of the spirit purified, and so, when one angel is so shone upon and through, so are they all, but when that light hits humans, the degree to which the light (wisdom, love) gets through depends on the spirit of the recipient, just as light moves easily and without much distortion through plate glass, but less so through thick and dark glass.
Again we get the metaphor of wood, of the log burning in fire until it takes on the qualities of fire itself and becomes pure energy. St. John notes that the soul eventually reaches a point (provided it stays with the program, I’m thinking) that it it becomes aware of the living fire within. And that changes things, for the soul is much more capable of withstanding the difficulties of the Dark Night when it sees some fruit.
The chapter ends with a statement by St. John that the soul sometimes feels the heat of the Divine Fire, but at other times it gets the light, and not the heat. I’m not sure I fully get this. With the heat comes pain, but with the light comes something else. Part of the process is the pain of knowing (or feeling) separation from God and a sense that God has abandoned wretched creatures like ourselves. But the light must be some understanding of the process (and so not just the blind sensation of the pain of the Fire, or the feelings of passion within), but some grasp of the bigger picture. And yet, I’m guessing you need to feel both the passion and have the understanding.
Search
Months
- January 2021
- September 2020
- April 2020
- March 2020
- December 2019
- November 2019
- August 2019
- January 2019
- September 2018
- April 2018
- September 2017
- March 2017
- November 2016
- October 2016
- August 2016
- April 2016
- March 2016
- February 2016
- January 2016
- December 2015
- March 2015
- February 2015
- January 2015
- November 2014
- August 2014
- April 2014
- March 2014
- July 2013
- March 2013
- February 2013
- January 2013
- April 2012
- March 2012
- February 2012
- December 2011
- November 2011
- October 2011
- September 2011
- August 2011
- July 2011
- June 2011
- May 2011
- April 2011
- March 2011
- February 2011
- January 2011
- December 2010
- November 2010
- October 2010
Recent Entries
- Some thoughts on the Epiphany…
- Election 2020 a month away — an Open Letter
- April 1, yet again…
- Hamlet, yet again…
- Service — Feast of Immaculate Conception 2019
- It’s All Souls’ Day, 2019
- Notes on Mary Renault’s “The Mask of Apollo”
- Church Improvment
- Nothing But Net: the Morning Offering, a Yuletide Dream
- If you act now…
0 Responses to “Dark Night of the Soul, Lenten Observance, Day 26, 2013”