Libro Primero — Capítulo 14
The Transition to Infused Contemplation
The soul, having mortified its sensory appetites, begins the journey into the illuminative way of infused contemplation.
In which the final verse of the first song is explained. 1. Now that this house of the sensual nature was at rest—mortified, its passions extinguished, and its appetites calmed and put to sleep through this blessed night of sensory purgation—the soul set out on the road and way of the spirit. This path belongs to those who are advancing or already advanced, and it is also known as the illuminative way or the way of infused contemplation, through which God, of His own accord, feeds and refreshes the soul without discursive reasoning or any active effort from the soul itself.1 Such, as we've said, is the night and purgation of sense in the soul; which, in those who later have to enter the other, more severe night of the spirit in order to pass on to the divine union of love (for not everyone, but only the few, ordinarily pass that way), is usually accompanied by severe trials and sensory temptations that last a long time, though more in some than in others.
The Trials of the Sensory Night
The soul endures intense sensory and spiritual afflictions, including temptations of the flesh, blasphemy, and spiritual vertigo.
For to some is given the angel of Satan (2 Cor. 12:7), which is the spirit of fornication, so that it may lash their senses with abominable and fierce temptations, and afflict their spirit with foul suggestions and more vivid images in the imagination, which is sometimes a greater pain to them than dying.2 2. At other times, in this night, the spirit of blasphemy is also given to them—a spirit that goes threading through all their ideas and thoughts with intolerable blasphemies, and sometimes these are forced so strongly into the imagination that it almost makes them utter them, which is a heavy torment for them. 3. At other times they are given another abominable spirit, which Isaiah (19:14) calls spiritus vertiginis—not so that they fall, but so that it may exercise them; and it so darkens their sense that it fills them with a thousand scruples and perplexities so tangled for their judgment that they can never be satisfied with anything, nor rest their judgment on any counsel or notion; and this is one of the gravest goads and horrors of this night, very close to what takes place in the spiritual night.✦34
The Pedagogical Purpose of Suffering
God uses these trials to humble and prepare the soul for the reception of divine wisdom.
4. God ordinarily sends these storms and hardships in this night and sensory purgation to those whom, as I say, he is later going to set in the other night—though not everyone passes into it—so that, punished and buffeted in this way, their senses and faculties may be exercised, prepared, and toughened for the union with Wisdom they are to receive there. For if the soul isn't tempted, exercised, and tested with hardships and temptations, it can't sharpen its sense for wisdom. That is why Ecclesiasticus said (34:9–11): The one who isn't tempted—what does he know? And the one who isn't tested—what are the things he recognizes? Jeremiah (31:18) bears good witness to this truth when he says: You chastened me, Lord, and I was taught.✦ And the most fitting form of this chastisement for entering into wisdom is the interior hardships we speak of here, because they are among those that most effectively purge the sense of all the delights and consolations to which, through natural weakness, it was attached—and in which the soul is truly humbled for the exaltation it is meant to receive.
The Divine Measure of Purgation
The duration and intensity of the purgation are determined by God according to the soul's capacity and the depth of union He intends.
5. It's impossible to say for certain how long a soul might spend in this fasting and penance of the senses, because it doesn't happen the same way for everyone, nor with the same temptations. It is measured by God's will according to how much or how little imperfection each person needs to purge, and according to the degree of unitive love to which God wants to raise the soul, He will humble it with more or less intensity, and for a longer or shorter time. God purges those who have the capacity and strength to suffer with greater intensity more quickly.56 For He leads the very weak through this night a long time with much mildness and weak temptations, giving them ordinary refreshments to the sense so they don't turn back—and they arrive late at the purity of perfection in this life, and some of these never do. They are neither fully in the night nor fully out of it: because, although they don't advance, so that they may be kept in humility and self-knowledge, God exercises them at times and for days in those temptations and dry spells; and at other times and seasons He comes to them with consolation, so that growing faint they don't turn back to seek the world's.78 With other, still weaker souls, God goes about as if appearing and withdrawing, to exercise them in His love, because without these departures they would not learn to draw near to God.9 6. However, souls destined for a state as blessed and high as the union of love—no matter how quickly God may lead them—usually tend to remain in these dry spells and temptations for a long time, as experience has shown. It's time now to begin discussing the second night.
Read the original Latin
En que se declara el último verso de la primera canción
1. Estando ya esta casa de la sensualidad sosegada, esto es, mortificada, sus pasiones apagadas y apetitos sosegados y dormidos por medio de esta dichosa noche de la purgación sensitiva, salió el alma a comenzar el camino y vía del espíritu, que es de los aprovechantes y aprovechados, que, por otro nombre, llaman vía iluminativa o de contemplación infusa, con que Dios de suyo anda apacentando y reficionando al alma, sin discurso ni ayuda activa de la misma alma.
Tal es, como habemos dicho, la noche y purgación del sentido en el alma; la cual, en los que después han de entrar en la otra más grave del espíritu, para pasar a la divina unión de amor (porque no todos, sino los menos, pasan ordinariamente), suele ir acompañada con graves trabajos y tentaciones sensitivas, que duran mucho tiempo, aunque en unos más que en otros. Porque a algunos se les da el ángel de Satanás (2 Cor. 12, 7), que es el espíritu de fornicación, para que les azote los sentidos con abominables y fuertes tentaciones, y les atribule el espíritu con feas advertencias y representaciones más visibles en la imaginación, que a veces les es mayor pena que el morir.
2. Otras veces se les añade en esta noche el espíritu de blasfemia, el cual en todos sus conceptos y pensamientos se anda atravesando con intolerables blasfemias, y a veces con tanta fuerza sugeridas en la imaginación, que casi se las hace pronunciar, que les es grave tormento.
3. Otras veces se les da otro abominable espíritu, que llama Isaías (19, 14) spiritus vertiginis, no porque caigan, sino porque los ejercite; el cual de tal manera les oscurece el sentido, que los llena de mil escrúpulos y perplejidades tan intrincadas al juicio de ellos, que nunca pueden satisfacerse con nada, ni arrimar el juicio a consejo ni concepto; el cual es uno de los más graves estímulos y horrores de esta noche, muy vecino a lo que pasa en la noche espiritual.
4. Estas tempestades y trabajos ordinariamente envía Dios en esta noche y purgación sensitiva a los que, como digo, ha de poner después en la otra, aunque no todos pasan a ella, para que castigados y abofeteados de esta manera se vayan ejercitando y disponiendo y curtiendo los sentidos y potencias para la unión de la Sabiduría que allí les han de dar. Porque si el alma no es tentada, ejercitada y probada con trabajos y tentaciones, no puede avivar su sentido para la sabiduría. Que por eso dijo el Eclesiástico (34, 9-11): El que no es tentado, ¿qué sabe? Y el que no es probado, ¿cuáles son las cosas que reconoce? De la cual verdad da Jeremías (31, 18) buen testimonio, diciendo: Castigásteme, Señor, y fui enseñado. Y la más propia manera de este castigo para entrar en sabiduría son los trabajos interiores que aquí decimos, por cuanto son de los que más eficazmente purgan el sentido de todos los gustos y consuelos a que con flaqueza natural estaba afectado, y donde es humillada el alma de veras para el ensalzamiento que ha de tener.
5. Pero el tiempo que al alma tengan en este ayuno y penitencia del sentido, cuánto sea, no es cosa cierta decirlo, porque no pasa en todos de una manera ni unas mismas tentaciones; porque esto va medido por la voluntad de Dios conforme a lo más o menos que cada uno tiene de imperfección que purgar; y también, conforme al grado de amor de unión a que Dios la quiere levantar, la humillará más o menos intensamente, o más o menos tiempo. Los que tienen sujeto y más fuerza para sufrir con más intensión, los purga más presto. Porque a los muy flacos con mucha remisión y flacas tentaciones mucho tiempo les lleva por esta noche, dándoles ordinarias refecciones al sentido porque no vuelvan atrás, y tarde llegan a la pureza de perfección en esta vida, y algunos de éstos nunca; que ni bien están en la noche, ni bien fuera de ella: porque, aunque no pasan adelante, para que se conserven en humildad y conocimiento propio, los ejercita Dios algunos ratos y días en aquellas tentaciones y sequedades; y les acude con el consuelo otras veces y temporadas, para que desmayando no se vuelvan a buscar el del mundo. A otras almas más flacas anda Dios con ellas como pareciendo y trasponiendo, para ejercitarlas en su amor, porque sin desvíos no aprendieran a llegarse a Dios.
6. Pero las almas que han de pasar a tan dichoso y alto estado como es la unión de amor, por muy apriesa que Dios las lleve, harto tiempo suelen durar en estas sequedades y tentaciones ordinariamente, como está visto por experiencia.
Tiempo es, pues, de comenzar a tratar de la segunda noche.
Scripture echoes
- ↩Isa.19.14 — The LORD has mingled within her a spirit of confusion, and they have led Egypt astray in all her work, as a drunkard staggers in his vomit.
- ↩Jer.31.18 — I have surely heard Ephraim lamenting: 'You disciplined me, and I was disciplined, like an untrained calf. Restore me, and I will return, for you are the LORD my God.'
Notes
- 1 ↩“Casa de la sensualidad” is San Juan’s technical figure for the sensory part of the soul as a “house”; “sensual nature” keeps the technical sense without reducing it to modern “sensuality.” “Discurso” is rendered as discursive reasoning (active meditation), not speech. “Aprovechantes y aprovechados” are those progressing and those already advanced on the spiritual way.
- 2 ↩Spanish 'advertencias' here is interior suggestions/promptings rather than verbal warnings; rendered as 'suggestions' to keep the imaginal assault clear.
- 3 ↩spiritus vertiginis is kept as in the Spanish source (Isaiah’s Latin tag); it means a spirit of dizziness/giddiness that confuses judgment.
- 4 ↩sentido here is the sensory/lower faculty of the soul (as in the night of sense), not merely ‘meaning.’ estímulos is rendered ‘goads’ for the piercing trials that prick the soul, not modern ‘stimuli.’
- 5 ↩Spanish «sujeto» here means fitness/capacity to endure the purgation, not a grammatical or philosophical 'subject'.
- 6 ↩Source «intensión» is the older spelling of intensity (intensidad).
- 7 ↩«remisión» rendered as mildness/easing of severity, not juridical 'remission of sins'.
- 8 ↩«el del mundo» = the world's (consolation), elliptically answering «el consuelo» earlier in the clause.
- 9 ↩«pareciendo y trasponiendo» evokes God seeming to appear and then shifting away; «desvíos» are those withdrawings/turnings aside, not moral deviations.
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