CAPÍTULO 11. En que se prueba ser necesario para llegar a la divina unión carecer el alma de todos los apetitos, por mínimos que sean.
The Necessity of Total Detachment
St. John of the Cross explains that to reach divine union, the soul must mortify all voluntary appetites, even the smallest imperfections.
1. It seems the reader has long wanted to ask whether, to reach this high state of perfection, total mortification of every appetite—small and great—must first have taken place, and whether it would be enough to mortify some of them and leave others, at least those that seem of little consequence; because it seems a hard and very difficult thing for the soul to reach such purity and nakedness that it has no will or attachment to anything.1 2. To this I answer: first, while it's true that not all appetites are equally harmful, nor do they all hinder the soul in the same way, they must all be mortified equally.2 I'm speaking of voluntary appetites, because natural appetites hinder the soul little or not at all regarding union when they aren't consented to. Nor do those in which the rational will had no part, either before or after, go beyond first movements. It's impossible in this life to strip these away—that is, to mortify them completely—and they don't hinder one from reaching divine union, even if they aren't, as I say, completely mortified. Nature can well have them while the soul, according to the rational spirit, remains quite free of them; it will even happen at times that the soul is in deep union of the prayer of quiet in the will, while these actually dwell in the person's sensitive part, without the higher part that is in prayer taking any part in them.3 But all other voluntary appetites—whether they are of mortal sin, which are the gravest; or of venial sin, which are less grave; or only of imperfections, which are the least—must all be emptied out. The soul must be free of them all to reach this total union, however slight they may be. The reason is that the state of this divine union consists in the soul having, as to the will, such a transformation into the will of God that there is nothing in it contrary to God's will, but that in everything and through everything its movement is solely the will of God. 3. This is why we say that in this state, a single will of God is formed: it is God's will, and this will of God is also the soul's will. So if this soul wanted some imperfection that God does not want, one will of God would not have been made, because the soul would then have a will for something God did not will. It is clear, then, that for the soul to reach perfect union with God through love and will, it must first be free of every appetite of the will, no matter how slight. It must not deliberately and knowingly consent to any imperfection, and it must gain the power and freedom to refuse as soon as it notices one.4 And I say “knowingly,” because without noticing and recognizing it, or without it being in the soul’s power, it will certainly fall into imperfections and venial sins and into the natural appetites we have already spoken of; for of such less voluntary and stealthy sins it is written (Prov.5 24:16) that the just person will fall seven times a day and rise again.✦ But of the voluntary appetites—which are deliberate venial sins, even if they concern the smallest things, as I have said—a single one that is not overcome is enough to hinder.6 I mean if that habit is not mortified; occasional acts of different appetites don't do as much harm once the habits themselves are mortified. Still, even these acts must eventually cease, since they also spring from a habit of imperfection. However, some habits of voluntary imperfections that people never quite finish overcoming not only block divine union, but also keep the soul from progressing in perfection.7
The Hindrance of Small Attachments
Small, habitual attachments act like a thread holding a bird or a remora clinging to a ship, preventing the soul from advancing toward God.
4. These habitual imperfections include things like a tendency to talk too much, or a slight attachment to something one never quite manages to overcome—whether it's a person, a piece of clothing, a book, a room, a specific type of food, or other trivial conversations and desires to enjoy, know, or hear things, and similar habits. Any one of these imperfections to which the soul is attached and accustomed does so much damage to its ability to grow and progress in virtue that, even if it fell daily into many other minor imperfections and venial sins that didn't stem from a habitual bad trait, they wouldn't hinder it as much as this attachment does. Because as long as the soul holds onto such an attachment, it has no chance of advancing in perfection, even if the imperfection is very slight.8 It makes no difference to me whether a bird is held by a thin thread or a thick one; even if the thread is thin, the bird is just as bound as it would be by a thick one, as long as it doesn't break it to fly away.9 It's true that a thin thread is easier to break, but no matter how easy it is, if the bird doesn't break it, it won't fly. It's the same for the soul that is attached to something; regardless of how much virtue it may have, it won't reach the freedom of divine union. This is because the appetite and attachment of the soul have the same effect that they say the remora fish has on a ship: even though it's a very small fish, if it manages to cling to the ship, it holds it so still that it won't let it reach port or sail. And so it's a pity to see some souls like rich ships loaded with treasures, works, spiritual exercises, virtues, and favors God grants them, and yet, for lack of courage to finish with some little pleasure or attachment or affection—they're all one and the same—they never go forward or reach the harbor of perfection, which only required making one good flight and finishing the break of that thread of attachment, or casting off that clinging remora of appetite.1011 5. It's enough to grieve that God has made them break other, thicker cords—attachments to sins and vanities—and yet, because they won't free themselves of some childish trifle that God told them to overcome for love of him, which is no more than a thread or a hair, they stop short of so much good.12 What's worse is that they don't just fail to move forward; through that very attachment, they slide backward, losing the ground they gained over so much time and with so much labor. It's a known truth on this path that not moving forward is moving backward, and not gaining is losing. That is what Our Lord wanted us to understand when he said: Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters (Mt.13 12:30). If someone doesn't bother to fix a small crack in a vessel, it's enough for all the liquid inside to spill out. Ecclesiasticus (19:1) taught us this well: Whoever despises small things will little by little keep falling.14 For, as the same book says (11:34), from a single spark the fire grows. One imperfection is enough to trigger another, and those trigger even more. You'll rarely see a soul that is careless about conquering one appetite without having many others, all springing from the same weakness and imperfection; that’s how they keep falling. We have seen many people whom God favored by leading them far in detachment and freedom, yet simply because they began to form a small attachment—often under the guise of something good, like conversation or friendship—their spirit and relish for God and holy solitude began to drain away through that opening. They lost their joy and their wholehearted firmness in spiritual exercises, and didn't stop until they had lost everything.151617 And this was because they did not cut short that first beginning of sensory delight and appetite by keeping themselves in solitude for God.18
The Call to Complete Transformation
The soul must be entirely emptied of all earthly cravings, as exemplified by the Israelites' conquest of Jericho, to be fully transformed into God.
6. You must keep moving along this path to reach your destination, which means constantly stripping away your desires rather than feeding them. If you don't finish stripping them all away, you'll never finish arriving. Because just as wood is not transformed into fire for want of even a single degree of heat missing from its readiness, so the soul will not be transformed into God on account of one imperfection it keeps, even if that imperfection is less than a voluntary appetite; because, as will be said later in the night of faith, the soul has only one will, and if that will gets entangled and taken up with something, it no longer remains free, alone, and pure, as is required for divine transformation.1920 7. We have a figure of what has been said in the book of Judges (2:3), where it says that the angel came to the children of Israel and told them that, because they had not finished off that opposing people, but had instead allied themselves with some of them, those people would therefore be left among them as enemies, so that they would become an occasion of their fall and ruin. And God justly does this with some souls: having drawn them out of the world, killed the giants of their sins for them, and finished off the multitude of their enemies—which are the occasions they had in the world (only so that they might enter with greater freedom into this promised land of divine union)—they still form friendship and alliance with the little people of imperfections, never finishing the work of mortifying them; and so Our Lord, angered, lets them go on falling into their appetites from worse to worse.✦21 8. Also in the book of Joshua (6:21) we have a figure of what has been said, when God commanded Joshua, at the time he was about to begin taking possession of the promised land, that in the city of Jericho he should so destroy everything in it that he leave nothing alive in it—from man to woman, and from child to old man, and all the animals—and that of all the spoils they should neither take nor covet anything. So that we may understand how, to enter this divine union, everything that lives in the soul must die—little and much, small and great—and the soul must remain without craving for any of it, and so detached as if it were nothing for her and she nothing for it. Which Saint Paul teaches us well to the Corinthians (1 Cor.22 7:29–31), saying: What I tell you, brothers, is that the time is short; what remains and is fitting is that those who have wives be as if they had none; and those who weep for the things of this world, as if they did not weep; and those who rejoice, as if they did not rejoice; and those who buy, as if they did not possess; and those who use this world, as if they did not use it. This is what the Apostle tells us, teaching us how detached we must keep the soul from all things in order to go to God.
Read the original Latin
1. Parece que ha mucho que el lector desea preguntar que si es de fuerza que, para llegar a este alto estado de perfección, ha de haber precedido mortificación total en todos los apetitos, chicos y grandes, y que si bastará mortificar algunos de ellos y dejar otros, a lo menos aquellos que parecen de poco momento; porque parece cosa recia y muy dificultosa poder llegar el alma a tanta pureza y desnudez, que no tenga voluntad y afición a ninguna cosa.
2. A esto respondo: lo primero que, aunque es verdad que no todos los apetitos son tan perjudiciales unos como otros ni embarazan al alma, (todos en igual manera se han de mortificar. Hablo de los voluntarios, porque los apetitos naturales poco o nada impiden para la unión al alma) cuando no son consentidos; ni pasan de primeros movimientos todos aquellos en que la voluntad racional antes ni despues tuvo parte; porque quitar estos, que es mortificarlos del todo, en esta vida es imposible, y estos no impiden de manera que no se pueda llegar a la divina unión, aunque del todo no esten, como digo, mortificados; porque bien los puede tener el natural, y estar el alma, según el espíritu racional, muy libre de ellos, porque (aún) acaecerá a veces, que este el alma en harta unión de oración de quietud en la voluntad, y que actualmente moren estos en la parte sensitiva del hombre, no teniendo en ellos parte la parte superior que está en oración. Pero todos los demás apetitos voluntarios, ahora sean de pecado mortal, que son los más graves; ahora de pecado venial, que son menos graves; ahora sean solamente de imperfecciones, que son los menores, todos se han de vaciar y de todos ha el alma de carecer para venir a esta total unión, por mínimos que sean. Y la razón es porque el estado de esta divina unión consiste en tener el alma, según la voluntad, con tal transformación en la voluntad de Dios, de manera que no haya en ella cosa contraria a la voluntad de Dios, sino que en todo y por todo su movimiento sea voluntad solamente de Dios.
3. Que esta es la causa por que en este estado llamamos estar hecha una voluntad de Dios, la cual es voluntad de Dios, y esta voluntad de Dios es tambien voluntad del alma. Pues si esta alma quisiese alguna imperfección que no quiere Dios, no estaría hecha una voluntad de Dios, pues el alma tenía voluntad de lo que no la tenía Dios. Luego claro está que, para venir el alma a unirse con Dios perfectamente por amor y voluntad, ha de carecer primero de todo apetito de voluntad, por mínimo que sea; esto es, que advertidamente y conocidamente no consienta con la voluntad en imperfección, y venga a tener poder y libertad para poderlo hacer en advirtiendo. Y digo conocidamente, porque sin advertirlo y conocerlo, o sin ser en su mano, bien caerá en imperfecciones y pecados veniales y en los apetitos naturales que habemos dicho; porque de estos tales pecados no tan voluntarios y subrepticios está escrito (Pv. 24, 16) que el justo caerá siete veces en el día y se levantará. Mas de los apetitos voluntarios, que son pecados veniales de advertencia, aunque sean de mínimas cosas, como he dicho, basta uno que no se venza para impedir. Digo no mortificando el tal hábito, porque algunos actos, a veces, de diferentes apetitos, aún no hacen tanto cuando los hábitos están mortificados; aunque tambien estos ha de venir a no los haber, porque tambien proceden de hábito de imperfección; pero algunos hábitos de voluntarias imperfecciones, en que nunca acaban de vencerse, estos no solamente impiden la divina unión, pero el ir adelante en la perfección.
4. Estas imperfecciones habituales son: como una común costumbre de hablar mucho, un asimientillo a alguna cosa que nunca acaba de querer vencer, así como a persona, a vestido, a libro, celda, tal manera de comida y otras conversacioncillas y gustillos en querer gustar de las cosas, saber y oír, y otras semejantes. Cualquiera de estas imperfecciones en que tenga el alma asimiento y hábito, es tanto daño para poder crecer e ir adelante en virtud, que, si cayese cada día en otras muchas imperfecciones y pecados veniales sueltos, que no proceden de ordinaria costumbre de alguna mala propiedad ordinaria, no le impedirán tanto cuanto el tener el alma asimiento a alguna cosa. Porque, en tanto que le tuviere, excusado es que pueda ir el alma adelante en perfección, aunque la imperfección sea muy mínima. Porque eso me da que una ave este asida a un hilo delgado que a uno grueso, porque, aunque sea delgado, tan asida se estará a el como al grueso, en tanto que no le quebrare para volar. Verdad es que el delgado es más fácil de quebrar; pero, por fácil que es, si no le quiebra, no volará. Y así es el alma que tiene asimiento en alguna cosa, que, aunque mas virtud tenga, no llegará a la libertad de la divina unión. Porque el apetito y asimiento del alma tienen la propiedad que dicen tiene la remora con la nao, que, con ser un pece muy pequeño, si acierta a pegarse a la nao, la tiene tan queda, que no la deja llegar al puerto ni navegar.
Y así es lástima ver algunas almas como unas ricas naos cargadas de riquezas, y obras, y ejercicios espirituales, y virtudes, y mercedes que Dios las hace, y por no tener ánimo para acabar con algún gustillo, o asimiento, o afición -que todo es uno-, nunca van adelante, ni llegan al puerto de la perfección, que no estaba en más que dar un buen vuelo y acabar de quebrar aquel hilo de asimiento o quitar aquella pegada remora, de apetito.
5. Harto es de dolerse que haya Dios hecholes quebrar otros cordeles más gruesos de aficiones de pecados y vanidades, y por no desasirse de una niñería que les dijo Dios que venciesen por amor de el, que no es más que un hilo y que un pelo, dejen de ir a tanto bien. Y lo que peor es, que no solamente no van adelante, sino que, por aquel asimiento, vuelven atrás, perdiendo lo que en tanto tiempo con tanto trabajo han caminado y ganado, porque ya se sabe que, en este camino, el no ir adelante es volver atrás, y el no ir ganando es ir perdiendo. Que eso quiso Nuestro Señor darnos a entender cuando dijo: El que no es conmigo, es contra mí; y el que conmigo no allega, derrama (Mt. 12, 30). El que no tiene cuidado de remediar el vaso por una pequeña resquicia que tenga basta para que se venga a derramar todo el licor que está dentro. Porque el Eclesiástico (19, 1) nos lo enseñó bien, diciendo: El que desprecia las cosas pequeñas, poco a poco ira cayendo. Porque, como el mismo dice (11, 34), de una sola centella se aumenta el fuego.
Y así, una imperfección basta para traer otra, y aquellas otras; y así, casi nunca se verá un alma que sea negligente en vencer un apetito, que no tenga otros muchos, que salen de la misma flaqueza e imperfección que tiene en aquel; y así, siempre van cayendo. Y ya habemos visto muchas personas a quien Dios hacía merced de llevar muy adelante en gran desasimiento y libertad, y por sólo comenzar a tomar un asimientillo de afición -y so color de bien- de conversación y amistad, írseles por allí vaciando el espíritu y gusto de Dios y santa soledad, caer de la alegría y enterez en los ejercicios espirituales y no parar hasta perderlo todo. Y esto, porque no atajaron aquel principio de gusto y apetito sensitivo, guardándose en soledad para Dios.
6. En este camino siempre se ha de caminar para llegar, lo cual es ir siempre quitando quereres, no sustentándolos. Y si no se acaban todos de quitar, no se acaba de llegar. Porque así como el madero no se transforma en el fuego por un solo grado de calor que falte en su disposición, así no se transformará el alma en Dios por una imperfección que tenga, aunque sea menos que apetito voluntario; porque, como despues se dirá en la noche de la fe, el alma no tiene más de una voluntad, y esta, si se embaraza y emplea en algo no queda libre, sola y pura, como se requiere para la divina transformación.
7. De lo dicho tenemos figura en el libro de los Jueces (2, 3), donde se dice que vino el ángel a los hijos de Israel y les dijo que, porque no habían acabado con aquella gente contraria, sino antes se habían confederado con algunos de ellos, por eso se los había de dejar entre ellos por enemigos, para que les fuesen ocasión de caída y perdición. Y, justamente, hace Dios esto con algunas almas, a las cuales, habiendolas el sacado del mundo, y muertoles los gigantes de sus pecados, y acabado la multitud de sus enemigos, que son las ocasiones que en el mundo tenían (sólo porque ellos entraran con más libertad en esta tierra de promisión de la unión divina) y ellos todavía traban amistad y alianza con la gente menuda de imperfecciones, no acabándolas de mortificar, por eso, enojado Nuestro Señor, les deja ir cayendo en sus apetitos de peor en peor.
8. Tambien en el libro de Josue (6, 21) tenemos figura acerca de lo dicho, cuando le mandó Dios a Josue, al tiempo que había de comenzar a poseer la tierra de promisión, que en la ciudad de Jericó de tal manera destruyese cuanto en ella había, que no dejase cosa en ella viva, desde el hombre hasta la mujer, y desde el niño hasta el viejo, y todos los animales, y que de todos los despojos no tomasen ni codiciasen nada. Para que entendamos cómo, para entrar en esta divina unión, ha de morir todo lo que vive en el alma, poco y mucho, chico y grande, y el alma ha de quedar sin codicia de todo ello y tan desasida, como si ello no fuese para ella ni ella para ello. Lo cual nos enseña bien san Pablo ad Corinthios (1 Cor. 7, 29-31), diciendo: Lo que os digo, hermanos, es que el tiempo es breve; lo que resta y conviene es que los que tienen mujeres, sean como si no las tuviesen; y los que lloran por las cosas de este mundo, como si no llorasen; y los que huelgan, como si no holgasen; y los que compran, como si no poseyesen; y los que usan de este mundo, como si no usasen. Esto nos dice el Apóstol, enseñándonos cuán desasida nos conviene tener el alma de todas las cosas para ir a Dios.
Scripture echoes
Notes
- 1 ↩Spanish desnudez is rendered as nakedness (not mere emptiness), keeping John of the Cross’s technical sense of spiritual denuding from attachment.
- 2 ↩Source punctuation places an opening parenthesis before 'todos en igual manera se han de mortificar' and closes it mid-sentence in s3 after 'unión al alma'. Rendered as the intended continuous sense: not all appetites harm or hinder equally, yet all must be mortified in the same way.
- 3 ↩'actualmente' rendered as 'actually' (in act / at that moment), not 'nowadays'. 'Oración de quietud' kept as the technical Carmelite term 'prayer of quiet'. 'Primeros movimientos' kept as 'first movements' (involuntary initial stirrings).
- 4 ↩Spanish 'advertidamente y conocidamente' marks deliberate, conscious consent of the will, as distinct from unnoticed first movements.
- 5 ↩'Subrepticios' rendered as 'stealthy': sins that slip in without full advertence, not fully deliberate acts of will.
- 6 ↩Spanish ends with elliptical 'para impedir'; the object (divine union / progress toward it) is supplied by the surrounding argument and made explicit in s8.
- 7 ↩Final Spanish 'pero' functions as classical 'not only ... but also' (modern Spanish would often use 'sino también'); rendered accordingly as 'but also'.
- 8 ↩Spanish 'excusado es que pueda' is idiomatic: not 'excused,' but 'it is useless/hopeless to expect that it can'—rendered as 'there is no chance.'
- 9 ↩'eso me da que X que Y' is idiomatic for 'it is all the same to me whether X or Y.'
- 10 ↩Spanish mercedes: divine favors or graces granted by God, not civil 'mercies' alone; rendered 'favors God grants them' to keep the gift-from-God force.
- 11 ↩gustillo, asimiento, and afición are treated as near-synonyms in the source (que todo es uno): a small relish, a clinging attachment, and a fond affection for some thing.
- 12 ↩aficiones: disordered attachments/affections (not mere hobbies); desasirse: detach/free oneself—core Sanjuanist vocabulary of asimiento.
- 13 ↩allega: gather/bring in; derrama: spill/scatter—rendered to match the standard Matthean pair gather/scatters while staying faithful to the Spanish.
- 14 ↩ira cayendo = irá cayendo (future progressive); rendered as progressive falling rather than a single fall.
- 15 ↩asimientillo is a pejorative diminutive of asimiento: a small, seemingly slight attachment. Rendered as "a little attachment" to keep both smallness and danger.
- 16 ↩so color de bien = under pretext/appearance of good. Kept as "under color of good" for period force without archaism.
- 17 ↩enterez = entereza: integrity, undivided firmness, wholeheartedness in spiritual practice—not mere emotional cheer.
- 18 ↩apetito sensitivo = sensory/sense-level appetite (not merely "sensitive" in the modern emotional sense).
- 19 ↩Spanish «embaraza» here means encumbers/entangles (not modern pregnancy sense); rendered as «gets entangled».
- 20 ↩«aunque sea menos que apetito voluntario» taken as magnitude: an imperfection smaller/lesser than a voluntary appetite still blocks transformation.
- 21 ↩"gente menuda de imperfecciones" continues the Judges typology: after the "giants" of grave sins are slain, the remaining small hostile peoples stand for minor imperfections the soul still befriends instead of mortifying.
- 22 ↩Citation is split across s4–s5 in the source (1 Cor. / 7:29–31); translation preserves that break.
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