Libro Segundo — Capítulo 5
The Nature of Infused Contemplation
Infused contemplation is a divine influence that purges the soul of its imperfections to prepare it for union with God.
The first verse is set forth, and he begins to explain how this dark contemplation is not only night for the soul, but also pain and torment. 1. This dark night is an influence of God in the soul that purges it of its habitual ignorances and imperfections, natural and spiritual—what contemplatives call infused contemplation or mystical theology—in which God secretly teaches the soul and instructs it in the perfection of love, without the soul doing anything or understanding how. This infused contemplation, insofar as it is the loving wisdom of God, produces two principal effects in the soul, because it prepares the soul for union of love with God by purging and illuminating it. It follows that the same loving wisdom that purges the blessed spirits by illuminating them is the one that here purges and illuminates the soul.
Why Divine Light is Darkness
Divine wisdom appears as darkness to the soul because its immense light exceeds the soul's natural capacity to understand.
2. But here is the question: since divine light is what illuminates and purges the soul of its ignorances, why does the soul call it a dark night? To which the answer is that for two reasons this divine Wisdom is not only night and darkness for the soul, but also pain and torment: the first is because of the loftiness of the divine Wisdom, which exceeds the soul's capacity, and in this way it is darkness to the soul; the second, because of the soul's baseness and impurity, and in this way it is painful and afflictive to it, and dark as well.1 3. To prove the first, we need to take as given a certain teaching of the Philosopher, who says that the clearer and more open divine things are in themselves, the darker and more hidden they are by nature to the soul—just as the clearer the light is, the more it blinds and darkens the owl's pupil, and the more fully one looks at the sun, the more darkness it causes to the power of sight and deprives it, overwhelming it because of its weakness.2 That is why, when this divine light of contemplation strikes a soul that is not yet fully illumined, it makes spiritual darkness in that soul, because it not only exceeds it, but also deprives it of and darkens the act of its natural understanding. For this reason, Saint Dionysius and other mystical theologians call this infused contemplation a ray of darkness—at least for the soul that is neither illumined nor purged—because its intense supernatural light overwhelms the natural intellectual power and strips it of its strength.3 That is why David (Ps. 96:2) also said that near God and all around him there is darkness and cloud—not because that is how it is in itself, but for our weak understandings, which in such immense light grow dark and remain dazzled, unable to reach it.4 For that reason the same David (Ps. 17:13) explained it next, saying: Through the great radiance of his presence clouds passed—that is, between God and our understanding.5 And this is why, when God pours this bright ray of his secret wisdom from himself upon a soul that isn't yet transformed, it creates deep darkness in the understanding.6
The Pain of Purgation
The soul suffers because the purity of divine light clashes with its own inherent impurity, leading to a profound sense of misery.
4. And that this dark contemplation is also painful for the soul in these early stages is clear; because, since this divine infused contemplation has many excellences that are extremely good, and the soul that receives them, not being purged, also has many miseries that are extremely bad, it follows that, since two contraries cannot fit together in the subject of the soul, the soul must of necessity suffer and endure pain, being itself the subject in which these two contraries work against each other, the ones acting against the others, by reason of the purgation of the soul's imperfections that this contemplation brings about. We will prove this by induction in the following way. 5. As for the first point: because the light and wisdom of this contemplation is very clear and pure, and the soul into which it strikes is dark and impure, that is why the soul suffers so much as it receives that light into itself—just as when the eyes are impure and sick with bad humor, they suffer from the assault of clear light. And this pain in the soul, because of its impurity, is immense when it is truly struck by this divine light, because as this pure light strikes into the soul in order to drive out the soul's impurity, the soul feels so impure and miserable that it seems to her God is against her, and that she has become contrary to God. This is of such deep feeling and pain for the soul—because it seems to her here that God has cast her off—that one of the greatest trials Job felt (7:20) when God held him in this exercise was this, saying: "Why have you set me contrary to you, and I am heavy and burdensome to myself?"✦ For the soul, seeing its impurity clearly here by means of this pure light—even while in darkness—knows plainly that it is not worthy of God or of any creature. And what pains it most is that it thinks it never will be, and that its goods are already finished.7 This is caused by the mind being deeply immersed in the knowledge and feeling of its own evils and miseries. Here, this divine and dark light shows them all clearly to the soul's eye, so that it sees plainly how, of itself, it can no longer possess anything else.8 We can understand in this sense that authority of David (Ps.9 38:12), which says: "For iniquity you corrected man, and you made his soul dissolve and waste away; as the spider unravels itself."10
The Burden of Divine Strength
The soul feels crushed by the weight of God's touch, yet this harsh experience is ultimately a merciful act of divine favor.
6. The second way the soul suffers is because of its natural, moral, and spiritual weakness; for since this divine contemplation charges into the soul with some force in order to strengthen and tame it, the soul suffers so much in its weakness that it almost collapses—especially at times when the contemplation charges with still greater force. The senses and the spirit, as if under an immense and dark burden, suffer and agonize so much that death itself would seem like a relief and a gain.11 Having experienced this, the prophet Job (23:6) said: I don't want him to deal with me with great strength, lest he crush me under the weight of his greatness. 7. Under the force of this oppression and weight, the soul feels so far from being favored that it seems to her—and so it is—that even what she used to find some support in has gone the way of everything else, and that there is no one who takes pity on her. On this same point, Job says (19:21): "Have pity on me, at least you, my friends, for the hand of the Lord has touched me."✦ What a great wonder — and what a pity — that the soul's weakness and impurity should be so great here that, though God's hand is of itself so gentle and soft, the soul feels it here as so heavy and harsh, even though it neither weighs down nor settles its weight, but only touches — and that mercifully, since it does so in order to grant favors to the soul, and not to punish it!✦
Read the original Latin
Pónese el primer verso y comienza a declarar cómo esta contemplación oscura no sólo es noche para el alma, sino también pena y tormento
1. Esta noche oscura es una influencia de Dios en el alma, que la purga de sus ignorancias e imperfecciones habituales, naturales y espirituales, que llaman los contemplativos contemplación infusa o mística teología, en que de secreto enseña Dios al alma y la instruye en perfección de amor, sin ella hacer nada ni entender cómo. Esta contemplación infusa, por cuanto es sabiduría de Dios amorosa, hace dos principales efectos en el alma, porque la dispone purgándola e iluminándola para la unión de amor de Dios. De donde la misma sabiduría amorosa que purga los espíritus bienaventurados ilustrándolos es la que aquí purga al alma y la ilumina.
2. Pero es la duda: ¿por qué, pues es lumbre divina, que, como decimos, ilumina y purga el alma de sus ignorancias, la llama aquí el alma noche oscura? A lo cual se responde que por dos cosas es esta divina Sabiduría no sólo noche y tiniebla para el alma, mas también pena y tormento: la primera es por la alteza de la Sabiduría divina, que excede al talento del alma, y en esta manera le es tiniebla; la segunda, por la bajeza e impureza de ella, y de esta manera le es penosa y aflictiva, y también oscura.
3. Para probar la primera conviene suponer cierta doctrina del Filósofo, que dice que cuanto las cosas divinas son en sí más claras y manifiestas, tanto más son al alma oscuras y ocultas naturalmente; así como la luz, cuanto más clara es, tanto más ciega y oscurece la pupila de la lechuza, y cuanto el sol se mira más de lleno, más tinieblas causa a la potencia visiva y la priva, excediéndola por su flaqueza.
De donde, cuando esta divina luz de contemplación embiste en el alma que aún no está ilustrada totalmente, le hace tinieblas espirituales, porque no sólo la excede, pero también la priva y oscurece el acto de su inteligencia natural. Que por esta causa san Dionisio y otros místicos teólogos llaman a esta contemplación infusa rayo de tiniebla, conviene a saber, para el alma no ilustrada y purgada, porque de su gran luz sobrenatural es vencida la fuerza natural intelectiva y privada.
Por lo cual David (Sal. 96, 2) también dijo que cerca de Dios y en rededor de él está oscuridad y nube; no porque en sí ello sea así, sino para nuestros entendimientos flacos, que en tan inmensa luz se oscurecen y quedan ofuscados, no alcanzando. Que por eso el mismo David (Sal. 17, 13) lo declaró luego, diciendo: Por el gran resplandor de su presencia se atravesaron nubes, es a saber, entre Dios y nuestro entendimiento. Y ésta es la causa por que, en derivando de sí Dios al alma que aún no está transformada este esclarecido rayo de su sabiduría secreta, le hace tinieblas oscuras en el entendimiento.
4. Y que esta oscura contemplación también le sea al alma penosa a estos principios, está claro; porque, como esta divina contemplación infusa tiene muchas excelencias en extremo buenas y el alma que las recibe, por no estar purgada, tiene muchas miserias también en extremo malas, de aquí es que, no pudiendo caber dos contrarios en el sujeto del alma, de necesidad haya de penar y padecer el alma, siendo ella el sujeto en que contra sí se ejercitan estos dos contrarios, haciendo los unos contra los otros, por razón de la purgación que de las imperfecciones del alma por esta contemplación se hace. Lo cual probaremos por inducción en esta manera.
5. – Cuanto a lo primero, porque la luz y sabiduría de esta contemplación es muy clara y pura y el alma en que ella embiste está oscura e impura, de aquí es que pena mucho el alma recibiéndola en sí, como cuando los ojos están de mal humor impuros y enfermos, del embestimiento de la clara luz reciben pena.
Y esta pena en el alma, a causa de su impureza, es inmensa cuando de veras es embestida de esta divina luz, porque embistiéndose en el alma esta luz pura a fin de expeler la impureza del alma, siéntese el alma tan impura y miserable que le parece estar Dios contra ella y que ella está hecha contraria a Dios. Lo cual es de tanto sentimiento y pena para el alma, porque le parece aquí que la ha Dios arrojado, que uno de los mayores trabajos que sentía Job (7, 20) cuando Dios le tenía en este ejercicio, era éste, diciendo: ¿Por qué me has puesto contrario a ti, y soy grave y pesado para mí mismo? Porque viendo el alma claramente aquí por medio de esta pura luz, aunque a oscuras, su impureza, conoce claro que no es digna de Dios ni de criatura alguna. Y lo que más le pena es que piensa que nunca lo será, y que ya se le acabaron sus bienes. Esto le causa la profunda inmersión que tiene de la gente en el conocimiento y sentimiento de sus males y miserias; porque aquí se las muestra todas al ojo esta divina y oscura luz, y que vea claro cómo de suyo no podrá tener ya otra cosa. Podemos entender a este sentido aquella autoridad de David (Sal. 38, 12), que dice: Por la iniquidad corregiste al hombre, e hiciste deshacer y contabescer su alma; como la araña se desentraña.
6. – La segunda manera en que pena el alma es a causa de su flaqueza natural, moral y espiritual; porque, como esta divina contemplación embiste en el alma con alguna fuerza, al fin de la ir fortaleciendo y domando, de tal manera pena en su flaqueza, que poco menos desfallece, particularmente algunas veces cuando con alguna más fuerza embiste. Porque el sentido y espíritu, así como si estuviese debajo de una inmensa y oscura carga, está penando y agonizando tanto, que tomaría por alivio y partido el morir. Lo cual habiendo experimentado el profeta Job (23, 6), decía: No quiero que trate conmigo con mucha fortaleza, porque no me oprima con el peso de su grandeza.
7. En la fuerza de esta opresión y peso se siente el alma tan ajena de ser favorecida, que le parece, y así es, que aun en lo que solía hallar algún arrimo se acabó con lo demás, y que no hay quien se compadezca de ella. A cuyo propósito dice también Job (19, 21): Compadeceos de mí, a lo menos vosotros mis amigos, porque me ha tocado la mano del Señor.
¡Cosa de grande maravilla y lástima que sea aquí tanta la flaqueza e impureza del alma, que, siendo la mano de Dios de suyo tan blanda y suave, la sienta el alma aquí tan grave y contraria, con no cargar ni asentar, sino solamente tocando, y eso misericordiosamente, pues lo hace a fin de hacer mercedes al alma, y no de castigarla!
Scripture echoes
- ↩Job.7.20 — If I have sinned, what have I done to you, O Watcher of humanity? Why have you made me your target, so that I have become a burden to myself?" "If I have sinned" better reflects the rhetorical, concessive force in context and avoids making Job sound more confessionally settled than the chapter allows.
- ↩Job.19.21 — Have mercy on me, have mercy on me, O you my friends, for the hand of God has struck me.
- ↩Job.19.21 — Have mercy on me, have mercy on me, O you my friends, for the hand of God has struck me.
Notes
- 1 ↩Spanish talento here means the soul's capacity or power of reception, not a special gift or aptitude.
- 2 ↩el Filósofo: standard scholastic designation of Aristotle; the owl/sun analogy is from the Aristotelian philosophical tradition, not a biblical citation.
- 3 ↩rayo de tiniebla (ray of darkness) is the Dionysian mystical term for divine light that blinds unprepared natural reason; kept as a technical phrase rather than paraphrased.
- 4 ↩no alcanzando is objectless in the source; rendered as unable to reach it (the immense light / God), which is the natural sense from context.
- 5 ↩se atravesaron nubes can mean clouds passed across / cut across / interposed; rendered passed to match the psalm image and the gloss that they stand between God and our understanding.
- 6 ↩en derivando de sí: gerund of derivation/emanation from God; rendered pours out from himself to keep the causal timing without inventing a technical scholastic term.
- 7 ↩"nunca lo será" is elliptical for never being worthy (of God or any creature), picking up "digna" from the previous sentence; kept elliptical in English for fidelity.
- 8 ↩Source reads "de la gente"; most plausible intended reading is "de la mente" (of the mind), a common Sanjuanist collocation with "inmersión" and knowledge/feeling. Translated as "mind" with review flag.
- 9 ↩Citation is split across s6–s7; psalm reference completes in s7 as 38:12.
- 10 ↩"contabescer" is rare (Latin contabescere: waste/pine away); "se desentraña" renders the spider image of being spun out or unraveled from within.
- 11 ↩partido here means advantage/better option (tomar por partido), not a political party; rendered as 'gain'.
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