Libro Segundo — Capítulo 2
The Habitual Imperfections of the Proficient
Advanced souls still harbor deep-seated habitual imperfections that require the purgation of the spirit to achieve divine union.
He moves on to other imperfections that these advanced souls have. 1. These proficient ones have two kinds of imperfections: some are habitual, others actual. The habitual ones are the imperfect affections and habits that still remain, like roots, in the spirit, where the purgation of the senses could not reach; and the difference between purging these and purging the others is like the difference between root and branch, or between removing a fresh stain and one that is deeply set and old. For, as we said, the purgation of the senses is only the door and beginning of contemplation toward that of the spirit, which, as we have also said, serves more to adapt the sense to the spirit than to unite the spirit with God. But the stains of the old man still remain in the spirit, even though it doesn't seem so to him and he doesn't notice them. If these aren't washed out by the soap and strong lye of the purgation of this night, the spirit cannot reach the purity of divine union.1 2. They also have the dullness of mind and the natural coarseness that every person contracts through sin, along with the distraction and outwardness of the spirit—all of which need to be enlightened, clarified, and gathered inward through the hardship and distress of that night.2 These habitual imperfections are found in everyone who hasn't moved beyond this state of the proficient; and as we say, they cannot coexist with the perfect state of union through love.3
The Dangers of Spiritual Deception
Souls who rely too heavily on tangible spiritual communications are vulnerable to demonic deception, pride, and the loss of holy fear.
3. Not everyone falls into the actual imperfections in the same way.4 But some, because they carry these spiritual goods so outwardly and so tangibly in the senses, fall into greater difficulties and dangers than those we spoke of at the beginning.5 For, because they find so plentifully and so readily at hand so many spiritual communications and apprehensions of sense and spirit—where they often see imaginary and spiritual visions (for all this, with other delightful feelings, happens to many of these people in this state, and in this the devil and their own fantasy very commonly play deceptive tricks on the soul)—and because the devil so often impresses and suggests those same apprehensions and feelings to the soul with such pleasure, he easily captivates and deceives it, since it has no caution to resign itself and defend itself strongly in faith against these visions and feelings.67 Because here the devil gets many people to believe empty visions and false prophecies; here in this state he works to make them presume that God and the saints are speaking with them, and they often believe their own fantasy; here the devil usually fills them with presumption and pride, and drawn by vanity and arrogance, they let themselves be seen in outward acts that look like holiness—raptures and other appearances. In this way, they grow bold toward God and lose their holy fear, which is the key and guardian of all the virtues. So many falsehoods and deceptions tend to multiply in these people, and they become so deeply entrenched in them that it's very doubtful they'll ever return to the pure path of virtue and true spirit.8 They end up in these miseries by beginning to give themselves with too much confidence to spiritual apprehensions and feelings, when they were starting to make progress on the way.9
The Necessity of the Second Night
To reach divine union, the soul must undergo the second night of the spirit, stripping away all sensory apprehensions to walk in pure faith.
4. There was so much to say about the imperfections of these people, and about how those imperfections are more incurable because they take them for more spiritual than the first ones, that I want to leave it aside. I only say this, to establish the necessity of the spiritual night—which is the purgation for anyone who is to go forward—that at least none of these advanced souls, however well they may have managed, fails to still have many of those natural affections and imperfect habits which we said earlier must first be purified if one is to pass on to divine union.10 5. And beyond this, what we left said above still holds—namely, that because the lower part still takes part in these spiritual communications, they cannot be as intense, pure, and strong as is required for that union; therefore, to come to it, the soul needs to enter the second night of the spirit, where, stripping sense and spirit completely of all these apprehensions and tastes, it must make the soul walk in dark and pure faith, which is the proper and fitting means by which the soul is united with God, as Hosea (2:20) says of it: “I will betroth you”—that is, “I will unite you with myself”—“by faith.”✦
Read the original Latin
Prosigue en otras imperfecciones que tienen estos aprovechados
1. Dos maneras de imperfecciones tienen estos aprovechados: unas son habituales, otras actuales.
Las habituales son las afecciones y hábitos imperfectos que todavía, como raíces, han quedado en el espíritu, donde la purgación del sentido no pudo llegar; en la purgación de los cuales la diferencia que hay a estotra, es la que de la raíz a la rama, o sacar una mancha fresca o una muy asentada y vieja. Porque, como dijimos, la purgación del sentido sólo es puerta y principio de contemplación para la del espíritu, que, como también habemos dicho, más sirve de acomodar el sentido al espíritu, que de unir el espíritu con Dios. Mas todavía se quedan en el espíritu las manchas del hombre viejo, aunque a él no se le parece, ni las echa de ver; las cuales si no salen por el jabón y fuerte lejía de la purgación de esta noche, no podrá el espíritu venir a pureza de unión divina.
2. Tienen éstos también la hebetudo mentis y la rudeza natural que todo hombre contrae por el pecado, y la distracción y exterioridad del espíritu; lo cual conviene que se ilustre, clarifique y recoja por la penalidad y aprieto de aquella noche. Estas habituales imperfecciones, todos los que no han pasado de este estado de aprovechados las tienen; las cuales no pueden estar, como decimos, con el estado perfecto de unión por amor.
3. En las actuales no caen todos de una manera. Mas algunos, como traen estos bienes espirituales tan afuera y tan manuales en el sentido, caen en mayores inconvenientes y peligros que a los principios dijimos. Porque, como ellos hallan tan a manos llenas tantas comunicaciones y aprehensiones espirituales al sentido y espíritu, donde muchas veces ven visiones imaginarias y espirituales (porque todo esto, con otros sentimientos sabrosos, acaece a muchos de éstos en este estado, en lo cual el demonio y la propia fantasía muy ordinariamente hace trampantojos al alma), y como con tanto gusto suele imprimir y sugerir el demonio al alma las aprensiones dichas y sentimientos, con grande facilidad la embelesa y engaña, no teniendo ella cautela para resignarse y defenderse fuertemente en fe de estas visiones y sentimientos.
Porque aquí hace el demonio a muchos creer visiones vanas y profecías falsas; aquí en este puesto les procura hacer presumir que habla Dios y los santos con ellos, y creen muchas veces a su fantasía; aquí los suele llenar el demonio de presunción y soberbia, y, atraídos de la vanidad y arrogancia, se dejan ser vistos en actos exteriores que parezcan de santidad, como son arrobamientos y otras apariencias. Hácense así atrevidos a Dios, perdiendo el santo temor, que es llave y custodia de todas las virtudes; y tantas falsedades y engaños suelen multiplicarse en algunos de éstos, y tanto se envejecen en ellos, que es muy dudosa la vuelta de ellos al camino puro de la virtud y verdadero espíritu. En las cuales miserias vienen a dar, comenzando a darse con demasiada seguridad a las aprensiones y sentimientos espirituales, cuando comenzaban a aprovechar en el camino.
4. Había tanto que decir de las imperfecciones de éstos y de cómo les son más incurables por tenerlas ellos por más espirituales que las primeras, que lo quiero dejar. Sólo digo, para fundar la necesidad que hay de la noche espiritual, que es la purgación para el que ha de pasar adelante, que a lo menos ninguno de estos aprovechados, por bien que le hayan andado las manos, deja de tener muchas de aquellas afecciones naturales y hábitos imperfectos, que dijimos primero ser necesario preceder purificación para pasar a la divina unión.
5. Y, demás de esto, lo que arriba dejamos dicho, es a saber: que, por cuanto todavía participa la parte inferior en estas comunicaciones espirituales, no pueden ser tan intensas, puras y fuertes como se requieren para la dicha unión; por tanto, para venir a ella, conviénele al alma entrar en la segunda noche del espíritu, donde desnudando al sentido y espíritu perfectamente de todas estas aprensiones y sabores, le han de hacer caminar en oscura y pura fe, que es propio y adecuado medio por donde el alma se une con Dios, según por Oseas (2, 20) lo dice, diciendo: Yo te desposaré, esto es, te uniré conmigo, por fe.
Scripture echoes
- ↩Hos.2.20 — And I will make a covenant for them on that day with the beasts of the field, and with the birds of the sky, and with the creeping things of the ground; and I will break the bow and the sword and war from the land, and I will make them lie down in safety.
Notes
- 1 ↩"hombre viejo" is rendered "old man" to preserve the Pauline spiritual-theological term (vetus homo), not a merely chronological sense.
- 2 ↩Source embeds the Latin technical phrase *hebetudo mentis* (dullness/bluntness of mind); rendered in plain English as “dullness of mind.”
- 3 ↩“aprovechados” is John’s technical term for the proficient (those advancing beyond beginners but not yet perfect); kept as “the proficient.”
- 4 ↩Spanish actuales contrasts with the habitual imperfections of the previous section: actual (act-level) faults as distinct from rooted habits.
- 5 ↩manuales en el sentido: not 'manual' in the ordinary English sense, but sensory/palpable—goods handled almost hand-to-hand in the sense faculty.
- 6 ↩trampantojos: literally trompe-l'œil / eye-tricks; rendered as 'deceptive tricks' to keep the sense of sensory-spiritual illusion without archaic or painterly jargon.
- 7 ↩resignarse here is not fatalistic resignation but deliberate self-surrender away from clinging to the experiences; defenderse ... en fe means holding to faith rather than resting on the visions themselves.
- 8 ↩"se envejecen en ellos" rendered as "grow so inveterate in them" (become long-settled/hardened in the falsehoods); could also be read more literally as "grow old in them."
- 9 ↩"aprensiones" kept as "apprehensions" (interior spiritual graspings/perceptions in Juan de la Cruz's technical sense), not modern "anxieties."
- 10 ↩Idiomatic: skillful self-management or progress by one's own efforts; rendered as 'however well they may have managed'.
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