CAPÍTULO 2. Declara que noche oscura sea esta por que el alma dice haber pasado a la unión.
The Threefold Night
The soul's journey to union with God is described as a passage through three distinct nights: the senses, faith, and God himself.
In a dark night. 1. We can say that the journey the soul takes toward union with God is called night for three reasons. The first is from the side of the point the soul leaves behind, because the appetite has to go on lacking all the things of the world it once possessed, in denial of them; and this denial and lack is like night for all the senses of a person.1 The second is the means or path the soul must take to reach this union, which is faith—and faith is also dark to the understanding, like night. The third is from the side of the point toward which it goes, which is God, who is, no more and no less, dark night for the soul in this life.2 These three nights must pass through the soul—or, more accurately, the soul must pass through them—in order to reach divine union with God.
The Allegory of Tobias
The three nights are prefigured in the story of Tobias, where purgation, faith, and the blessing of God lead to perfect love.
2. In the book of holy Tobit (6:18–22), these three kinds of nights were prefigured by the three nights the angel commanded young Tobias to pass through before he was joined as one with his bride. On the first night he commanded him to burn the fish's heart in the fire, which signifies the heart attached and clinging to the things of the world; and to begin going to God, everything that is creature must be burned and purified with the fire of the love of God.3 In this purgation, the devil is driven away—the devil who holds power in the soul through attachment to bodily and temporal things. 3. On the second night, he told him he would be admitted into the company of the holy patriarchs, the fathers of the faith. Because after passing through the first night—which is to strip oneself of every object of the senses—the soul then enters the second night, left alone in faith (not as excluding charity, but the other kinds of knowledge of the understanding, as we will say further on), which is something that does not fall under the senses.45 4. In the third night, the angel told him he would receive the blessing, which is God. Through the second night—which is faith—God is communicated to the soul so secretly and intimately that it becomes another night for the soul. As this communication happens, it becomes much darker than the others, as we will explain later. Once this third night has passed—which is the completion of God's communication in the spirit, something that usually happens in great darkness of the soul—union with the bride follows, and she is the wisdom of God.6 The angel also told Tobias that, once the third night had passed, he would be joined to his wife in the fear of the Lord. When this fear of God is perfect, love is perfect—and that is when the soul's transformation through love with God takes place.✦7
The Stages of the Night
The three nights are unified into a single progression, likened to the stages of the night from dusk to the approach of dawn.
5. These three parts of night are all one night, but it has three parts, just as the night does. For the first, which is that of the senses, is compared to early night, when one has just come to lack the objects of things.8 The second part, which is faith, is like midnight, which is completely dark. The third part is like the end of the night, which is God—already right next to the light of day.9 To understand this better, we’ll go on to discuss each of these causes individually.
Read the original Latin
En una noche oscura.
1. Por tres cosas podemos decir que se llama noche este tránsito que hace el alma a la unión de Dios. La primera, por parte del termino (de) donde el alma sale, porque ha de ir careciendo el apetito de todas las cosas del mundo que poseía, en negación de ellas; la cual negación y carencia es como noche para todos los sentidos del hombre. La segunda, por parte del medio o camino por donde ha de ir el alma a esta unión, lo cual es la fe, que es tambien oscura para el entendimiento, como noche. La tercera, por parte del termino adonde va, que es Dios, el cual, ni más ni menos, es noche oscura para el alma en esta vida. Las cuales tres noches han de pasar por el alma, o, por mejor decir, el alma por ellas, para venir a la divina unión con Dios.
2. En el libro del santo Tobías (6, 18-22) se figuraron estas tres maneras de noches por las tres noches que el ángel mandó a Tobías el mozo que pasasen antes que se juntase en uno con la esposa. En la primera le mandó que quemase el corazón del pez en el fuego, que significa el corazón aficionado y apegado a las cosas del mundo; el cual, para comenzar a ir a Dios, se ha de quemar y purificar todo lo que es criatura con el fuego del amor de Dios. Y en esta purgación se ahuyenta el demonio, que tiene poder en el alma por asimiento a las cosas corporales y temporales.
3. En la segunda noche le dijo que sería admitido en la compañía de los santos patriarcas, que son los padres de la fe. Porque pasando por la primera noche, que es privarse de todos los objetos de los sentidos, luego entra el alma en la segunda noche, quedándose sola en fe (no como excluye la caridad, sino las otras noticias del entendimiento -como adelante diremos-) que es cosa que no cae en sentido.
4. En la tercera noche le dijo el ángel que conseguiría la bendición, que es Dios, el cual, mediante la segunda noche, que es fe, se va comunicando al alma tan secreta e íntimamente, que es otra noche para el alma, en tanto que se va haciendo la dicha comunicación muy más oscura que estotras, como luego diremos. Y pasada esta tercera noche, que es acabarse de hacer la comunicación de Dios en el espíritu, que se hace ordinariamente en gran tiniebla del alma, luego se sigue la unión con la esposa que es la sabiduría de Dios. Como tambien el ángel dijo a Tobías que, pasada la tercera noche, se juntaría con su esposa con temor del Señor; el cual temor de Dios cuando está perfecto, está perfecto el amor, que (es) cuando se hace la transformación por amor del alma (con Dios).
5. Estas tres partes de noche todas son una noche; pero tiene tres partes como la noche. Porque la primera, que es la del sentido, se compara a prima noche, que es cuando se acaba de carecer del objeto de las cosas. Y la segunda, que es la fe, se compara a la media noche, que totalmente es oscura. Y la tercera, al despidiente, que es Dios, la cual es ya inmediata a la luz del día. Y, para que mejor lo entendamos, iremos tratando de cada una de estas causas de por sí.
Scripture echoes
- ↩1John.4.18 — There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears has not been perfected in love.
Notes
- 1 ↩Source reads "termino (de) donde"; treated as "término de donde" (the terminus/point from which the soul departs).
- 2 ↩"ni más ni menos" rendered as "no more and no less" to keep the emphatic exactness: God is, in this respect, dark night to the soul in this life—not a softened metaphor only.
- 3 ↩Spanish 'el cual… se ha de quemar y purificar todo lo que es criatura' is elliptical: rendered so that the required act is burning and purifying all that is creature (with the attached heart as the thing signified), rather than personifying the heart as the agent doing the purifying.
- 4 ↩Spanish 'noticias del entendimiento' is San Juan's technical term for cognitions/apprehensions of the intellect; rendered as 'kinds of knowledge of the understanding' rather than modern 'news' or 'notices'.
- 5 ↩The parenthesis clarifies that 'alone in faith' does not mean faith without charity (caridad), but faith without other intellectual cognitions—faith as dark to sense and discursive understanding.
- 6 ↩"la esposa" is feminine and is identified with "la sabiduría de Dios" (divine Wisdom). Kept as "bride" to preserve the bridal/Tobit allegory rather than flattening to "spouse" or "Wisdom" alone.
- 7 ↩Source has parenthetical clarifiers "que (es)" and "(con Dios)"; rendered as integrated sense ("which is when... with God") rather than leaving editorial parentheses in the English.
- 8 ↩Archaic Spanish for the first part of the night (nightfall/early night), not a numbered 'first night' distinct from the three-night scheme.
- 9 ↩Archaic from despedir: the departing/closing part of night (pre-dawn), when night is taking leave. Rendered as 'the close of night' to keep the night-part analogy with early night and midnight.
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