The Dark Night of Contemplation
November 25, 2016
Jonah in the Belly of the Whale
“Because the light and wisdom of this contemplation is very bright and pure, and the soul in which it shines is dark and impure, a person will be deeply afflicted on receiving it. When eyes are sickly, impure and weak, they suffer pain if bright light shines on them.
The soul because of its impurity, suffers immensely at the time this divine light truly assails it. When this pure light strikes in order to expel all impurity, persons feel so unclean and wretched that it seems God is against them and they are against God.
Because it seems that God has rejected it, the soul suffers such pain and grief that when God tried Job in this way it proved one of the worst of Job’s trials, as he says Why have You set me against You, and I am heavy and burdensome to myself? [Jb. 7:20] Clearly beholding its impurity by means of this pure light, although in darkness, the soul understands distinctly that it is worthy neither of God nor of any creature.”
— St. John of the Cross, The Dark Night, from the Collected Works of St. John of the Cross, translated by Kieran Kavanaugh, ICS Publications, 1961; p. 402
