Libro Segundo — Capítulo 13
The Illumination of the Soul
The dark night of contemplation works to illuminate the intellect and enkindle the will, often affecting the will more readily in the early stages.
Other delightful effects that this dark night of contemplation works in the soul 1. By this kind of inflammation we can understand some of the sweet effects this contemplation is already working in the soul; for sometimes, as we have just said, in the midst of these darknesses the soul is illuminated, and the light shines in the darkness (Jn. This is a mystical understanding flowing into the intellect while the will remains dry—meaning, without an actual union of love—with a serenity and simplicity so subtle and delightful to the soul's sense that it cannot be named, sometimes in one way of feeling God, sometimes in another.✦1 2. Sometimes, as we’ve already mentioned, it also strikes the will, and love catches fire, rising tenderly and strongly. This happens because, as we’ve said, these two powers—understanding and will—sometimes unite as the understanding is being more thoroughly purged; the further they go, the more perfect and excellent this becomes. But before they reach this point, it’s more common for the will to feel the touch of this enkindling than for the understanding to feel the touch of illumination.23 3. But a question arises here: since these faculties are being purified at the same time, why is the inflammation and love of purgative contemplation usually felt in the will at the beginning, rather than its intelligence being felt in the understanding?
The Passion of Love
The inflammation of love is a passive passion that captures the soul, distinct from the free acts of the will and the sensory experiences of the first night.
The answer to this is that here this passive love does not strike the will directly, because the will is free, and this inflammation of love is more a passion of love than a free act of the will; for this heat of love strikes in the substance of the soul, and so it moves the affections passively. That’s why it’s called a passion of love rather than a free act of the will; an act of the will is only called such insofar as it is free. But because these passions and affections relate to the will, it’s said that if the soul is impassioned with some affection, the will is too—and that’s the truth. In this way, the will is taken captive and loses its freedom, so that the impulse and force of the passion carry it along.4 For that reason, we can say this inflammation of love is in the will—meaning it inflames the appetite of the will—and so it’s called, as we say, a passion of love rather than a free work of the will. And because the understanding can only receive pure intelligence passively (and can't do this unless it’s purged), the soul feels the touch of intelligence less often than the touch of the passion of love before it is purged.5 It isn't necessary for the will to be so purged regarding the passions, since the passions themselves help it feel impassioned love. 4. This inflammation and thirst for love, because it already belongs to the spirit here, is utterly different from the other we spoke of in the night of the sense. Although the sense also takes its share here—since it doesn't fail to share in the spirit's labor—the root and living core of this thirst for love is felt in the higher part of the soul, that is, in the spirit. It feels and understands what it is experiencing and how much it lacks what it desires so thoroughly that all the suffering of the sense, though incomparably greater than in the first night of the senses, counts as nothing to it. This is because, interiorly, it knows a lack of a great good that nothing it sees can measure.67
The Boldness of Longing
The soul's deep esteem and longing for God, exemplified by Mary Magdalene, drive it to seek the Beloved with a holy, impatient boldness.
5. But here it's worth noting that, although at the beginning, when this spiritual night starts, this inflammation of love is not felt—because this fire of love has not yet begun to take hold—God instead at once gives the soul so great an esteeming love of God that, as we have said, the greatest thing she suffers and feels in the trials of this night is the anxious dread of thinking she has lost God, and of thinking she is abandoned by him.8 So, we can say that from the very beginning of this night, the soul is touched by longings of love—sometimes of esteem, and sometimes of inflammation. And you can see that the greatest anguish it feels in these trials is this misgiving; because if it could then be assured that all is not lost and finished, but that what is happening is for the better—as it truly is—and that God is not angry, it would think nothing of all those pains; rather, it would rejoice knowing that God is served by them. Because so great is the love of esteem it has for God—though in darkness, without her feeling it—that not only that, but it would gladly die many times over to please him.9 But when the flame has already enkindled the soul, combined with the esteem it already has for God, it usually takes on such strength, vigor, and longing toward God—the heat of love being communicated—that with great boldness, without regarding or respecting anything else, in the force and intoxication of love and desire, it would do strange and unheard-of things by any means available, not even looking at what it does, just so it may find the One its soul loves. 6. This is why Mary Magdalene, though she held herself in as high regard as she had before, paid no mind to the crowd of prominent and ordinary men at the banquet, nor to the thought that it was neither fitting nor would it look appropriate to go weep and shed tears among the guests (Lk. 7:37–38)—if only she could, without delaying even an hour to wait for another time or season, come before the One by whom her soul was already wounded and set on fire.10 And this is the intoxication and boldness of love: that, even knowing her Beloved was shut in the tomb behind a great sealed stone and surrounded by soldiers—who were guarding him so that his disciples wouldn't steal him (Mt. 27:60–66)—it gave her no room for any of these things to stand in her way and keep her from going before daybreak with the ointments to anoint him (Jn. 20:1). 7. And finally, this intoxication and longing of love made her ask the one who—believing him to be the gardener—had stolen him from the tomb to tell her, if he had taken him, where he had put him, so that she could take him (Jn.✦ 20:15); not considering that that question, by free judgment and reason, was nonsense, since it's clear that if the other man had stolen him, he would not tell her, and still less would he let her take him.✦ But such is the force and vehemence of love that everything seems possible to the soul, and everyone seems to be about the same thing it is about; for she does not believe there is anything else anyone should spend themselves on, or seek, except the one she seeks and the one she loves—it seeming to her that there is nothing else to want and nothing else to give herself to except that, and that everyone else is about that too.11 That is why, when the Bride went out to search for her Beloved through the squares and the outskirts, believing the others were about the same thing, she told them that if they found him they should speak to him, saying of her that she was pining with love for him (Song 5:8). Such was the force of Mary’s love that it seemed to her that if the gardener told her where he had hidden him, she would go and take him, no matter how strictly it was forbidden.12 8. This is the kind of longing for love that the soul feels once she is making progress in this spiritual purgation. She rises by night—that is, in these purgative darknesses as they touch the affections of the will—and with the same yearning and strength that a lioness or she-bear uses to search for her cubs when they have been taken from her and she cannot find them (2 Kgs.13 17:8; Hos. 13:8), this wounded soul goes searching for her God, because, being in darkness, she feels herself without him and is dying of love for him. And this is impatient love, which the subject cannot endure for long without either receiving or dying—like the love Rachel had for children when she said to Jacob: “Give me children; if not, I will die” (Gen.14 30:1).
The Purpose of Purgation
God uses the purgative darkness to strip away the old self, ultimately transforming the soul's faculties and renewing its youth in divine union.
9. But it's worth noting here how the soul, feeling itself so miserable and unworthy of God—as it does in these purgative darknesses—can find the bold, daring strength to go and unite itself with God. The reason is that, since love is already giving it strength with which to love Him truly, and the nature of love is to want to unite, join, equal, and make itself like the beloved, so as to be perfected in the good of love—from this it follows that, this soul not being perfected in love because it has not yet reached union, the hunger and thirst it has for what it still lacks, which is union, and the strengths love has already put in the will, making it passionate for Him, make it bold and daring according to the inflamed will, even though according to the understanding, which is in the dark and unenlightened, it feels itself unworthy and knows itself miserable. 10. I don't want to leave unsaid why this divine light, which is always light for the soul, doesn't illuminate her the moment it strikes—as it does later—but instead first causes the darkness and trials we've discussed. Something of this had already been said earlier, but the answer to this particular point is that the darkness and the other evils the soul feels when this divine light strikes are not darkness or evils from the light, but from the soul herself, and the light illuminates her so that she may see them. It follows that this divine light does indeed give her light at once; but initially, the soul can only see what is closest to her—or rather, what is within her—namely her own darkness or misery. She sees these now by the mercy of God, whereas she couldn't see them before because this supernatural light wasn't striking her. And this is the reason why at first she feels only darkness and evils; but after she has been purged by knowing and feeling them, she will have eyes for this light to show her the goods of the divine light; and once all these darknesses and impressions have already been driven out of the soul, the great benefits and goods the soul is gaining in this blessed night of contemplation seem already to be coming into view. 11. From what has been said, it’s clear how God shows the soul mercy here by cleansing and healing her with this strong lye and bitter purge—in both her sensory and spiritual parts—of all the imperfect affections and habits she held regarding temporal, natural, sensory, speculative, and spiritual things. He darkens her interior faculties and empties them of all this, squeezing and drying out her sensory and spiritual affections, and weakening and thinning the soul's natural powers concerning all of it (which the soul could never achieve on her own, as we’ll explain later). God makes her fail in this way toward everything that isn't God by nature, so that he can clothe her anew once she’s been stripped and skinned of her old hide.15 And so her youth is renewed, as an eagle's is (Ps. 102:5), remaining clothed with the new man, which is created, as the Apostle says (Eph.16 4:24), according to God. This is nothing other than illuminating her understanding with supernatural light, so that from a human understanding it becomes divine, united with the divine; and, neither more nor less, forming her will with divine love, so that it is no longer a will less than divine, loving no less than divinely, made and united as one with the divine will and love; and the memory, neither more nor less; and also all the affections and appetites changed and turned toward God in a divine way.17 And so this soul will already be a soul of heaven—heavenly—and more divine than human. All of this, as has been becoming clear from what we've said, God goes on doing and working in the soul through this night, illuminating her and inflaming her divinely with longings for God alone, and for nothing else at all. For that reason, the soul quite justly and reasonably adds the third verse of the song, which says: Oh happy chance!
Read the original Latin
De otros sabrosos efectos que obra en el alma esta oscura noche de contemplación
1. Por este modo de inflamación podemos entender alguno de los sabrosos efectos que va ya obrando en el alma esta contemplación; porque algunas veces, según acabamos de decir, en medio de estas oscuridades es ilustrada el alma, y luce la luz en las tinieblas (Jn. 1,5), derivándose esta inteligencia mística al entendimiento, quedándose seca la voluntad, quiero decir, sin unión actual de amor, con una serenidad y sencillez tan delgada y deleitable al sentido del alma, que no se le puede poner nombre, unas veces en una manera de sentir de Dios, otras en otra.
2. Algunas veces también hiere juntamente, como queda dicho, en la voluntad, y prende el amor subida, tierna y fuertemente, porque ya decimos que se unen algunas veces estas dos potencias entendimiento y voluntad, cuando se va más purgando el entendimiento; tanto más perfecta y calificadamente cuanto ellas más van; pero, antes de llegar aquí, más común es sentir la voluntad el toque de la inflamación que el entendimiento el de la inteligencia.
3. Pero parece aquí una duda, y es: ¿por qué, pues estas potencias se van purgando a la par, se siente a los principios más comúnmente en la voluntad la inflamación y amor de la contemplación purgativa, que en el entendimiento la inteligencia de ella?
A esto se responde que aquí no hiere derechamente este amor pasivo en la voluntad, porque la voluntad es libre, y esta inflamación de amor más es pasión de amor que acto libre de la voluntad; porque hiere en la sustancia del alma este calor de amor, y así mueve las afecciones pasivamente. Y así, ésta antes se llama pasión de amor que acto libre de la voluntad; el cual, en tanto se llama acto de la voluntad, en cuanto es libre. Pero, porque estas pasiones y afecciones se reducen a la voluntad, por eso se dice que, si el alma está apasionada con alguna afección, lo está la voluntad, y así es la verdad; porque de esta manera se cautiva la voluntad y pierde su libertad, de manera que la lleva tras sí el ímpetu y fuerza de la pasión. Y por eso podemos decir que esta inflamación de amor es en la voluntad, esto es, inflama al apetito de la voluntad; y así, ésta antes se llama, como decimos, pasión de amor que obra libre de la voluntad. Y porque la pasión receptiva del entendimiento sólo puede recibir la inteligencia desnuda y pasivamente (y esto no puede sin estar purgado), por eso, antes que lo esté, siente el alma menos veces el toque de inteligencia que el de la pasión de amor. Porque para esto no es menester que la voluntad esté tan purgada acerca de las pasiones, pues que aún las pasiones la ayudan a sentir amor apasionado.
4. Esta inflamación y sed de amor, por ser ya aquí del espíritu, es diferentísima de la otra que dijimos en la noche del sentido. Porque, aunque aquí el sentido también lleva su parte, porque no deja de participar del trabajo del espíritu, pero la raíz y el vivo de la sed de amor siéntese en la parte superior del alma, esto es, en el espíritu, sintiendo y entendiendo de tal manera lo que siente y la falta que le hace lo que desea, que todo el penar del sentido, aunque sin comparación es mayor que en la primera noche sensitiva, no le tiene en nada, porque en el interior conoce una falta de un gran bien, que con nada ve se puede medir.
5. Pero aquí conviene notar que, aunque a los principios, cuando comienza esta noche espiritual, no se siente esta inflamación de amor, por no haber empezado este fuego de amor a emprender, en lugar de eso da desde luego Dios al alma un amor estimativo tan grande de Dios, que, como habemos dicho, todo lo más que padece y siente en los trabajos de esta noche, es ansia de pensar si tiene perdido a Dios y pensar si está dejada de él. Y así, siempre podremos decir que desde el principio de esta noche va el alma tocada con ansias de amor, ahora de estimación, ahora también de inflamación.
Y vese que la mayor pasión que siente en estos trabajos es este recelo; porque, si entonces se pudiese certificar que no está todo perdido y acabado, sino que aquello que pasa es por mejor, como lo es, y que Dios no está enojado, no se le daría nada de todas aquellas penas, antes se holgaría sabiendo que de ello se sirve Dios. Porque es tan grande el amor de estimación que tiene a Dios, aunque a oscuras sin sentirlo ella, que no sólo eso, sino que se holgaría de morir muchas veces por satisfacerle. Pero cuando ya la llama ha inflamado el alma, juntamente con la estimación que ya tiene de Dios, tal fuerza y brío suele cobrar y ansia con Dios, comunicándose el calor de amor, que, con grande osadía, sin mirar en cosa alguna, ni tener respeto a nada, en la fuerza y embriaguez del amor y deseo, sin mirar lo que hace, haría cosas extrañas e inusitadas por cualquier modo y manera que se le ofrece por poder encontrar con el que ama su alma.
6. Esta es la causa por que María Magdalena, con ser tan estimada en sí como antes era, no le hizo al caso la turba de hombres principales y no principales del convite, ni el mirar que no venía bien ni lo parecería ir a llorar y derramar lágrimas entre los convidados (Lc. 7,37-38), a trueque de, sin dilatar una hora esperando otro tiempo y sazón, poder llegar ante aquel de quien estaba ya su alma herida e inflamada. Y ésta es la embriaguez y osadía de amor, que, con saber que su Amado estaba encerrado en el sepulcro con una gran piedra sellada y cercado de soldados –que por que no le hurtasen sus discípulos le guardaban (Mt. 27, 60-66)– no le dio lugar para que alguna de estas cosas se le pusiese delante, para que dejara de ir antes del día con los ungüentos para ungirle (Jn. 20, 1).
7. Y, finalmente, esta embriaguez y ansia de amor la hizo preguntar al que, creyendo que era el hortelano, le había hurtado del sepulcro, que le dijese, si le había él tomado, dónde le había puesto, para que ella le tomase (Jn. 20, 15); no mirando que aquella pregunta, en libre juicio y razón, era disparate, pues que está claro que si el otro lo había hurtado, no se lo había de decir, ni menos se lo había de dejar tomar.
Pero esto tiene la fuerza y vehemencia de amor, que todo le parece posible y todos le parece que andan en lo mismo que anda él; porque no cree que hay otra cosa en que nadie se deba emplear, ni buscar sino a quien ella busca y a quien ella ama, pareciéndole que no hay otra cosa que querer ni en qué se emplear sino aquello, y que también todos andan en aquello. Que, por eso, cuando la Esposa salió a buscar a su amado por las plazas y arrabales, creyendo que los demás andaban en lo mismo, les dijo que, si lo hallasen ellos, le hablasen, diciendo de ella que penaba de su amor (Ct. 5, 8). Tal era la fuerza del amor de esta María, que le pareció que, si el hortelano le dijera dónde le había escondido, fuera ella y lo tomara, aunque más le fuera defendido.
8. A este talle, pues, son las ansias de amor que va sintiendo esta alma, cuando ya va aprovechada en esta espiritual purgación. Porque de noche se levanta, esto es, en estas tinieblas purgativas según las afecciones de la voluntad; y con las ansias y fuerzas que la leona u osa va a buscar sus cachorros cuando se los han quitado y no los halla (2 Re. 17, 8; Os. 13, 8), anda herida esta alma a buscar a su Dios, porque, como está en tinieblas, siéntese sin él, estando muriendo de amor por él. Y éste es el amor impaciente, que no puede durar mucho el sujeto sin recibir o morir, según el que tenía Raquel a los hijos cuando dijo a Jacob: Dame hijos; si no, moriré (Gn. 30, 1).
9. Pero es aquí de ver cómo el alma, sintiéndose tan miserable y tan indigna de Dios, como hace aquí en estas tinieblas purgativas, tenga tan osada y atrevida fuerza para ir a juntarse con Dios. La causa es que, como ya el amor le va dando fuerza con que le ame de veras, y la propiedad del amor sea quererse unir y juntar e igualar y asimilar a la cosa amada, para perfeccionarse en el bien de amor, de aquí es que, no estando esta alma perfeccionada en amor, por no haber llegado a la unión, la hambre y sed que tiene de lo que le falta, que es la unión, y las fuerzas que ya el amor ha puesto en la voluntad con que le ha hecho apasionada, la haga ser osada y atrevida según la voluntad inflamada, aunque según el entendimiento, por estar a oscuras y no ilustrado, se siente indigno y se conoce miserable.
10. No quiero dejar aquí de decir la causa por que, pues esta luz divina es siempre luz para el alma, no la da, luego que embiste en ella, luz, como lo hace después, antes le causa las tinieblas y trabajos que habemos dicho. Algo estaba ya dicho antes de esto, pero a este particular se responde: que las tinieblas y los demás males que el alma siente cuando esta divina luz embiste, no son tinieblas ni males de la luz, sino de la misma alma, y la luz le alumbra para que las vea. De donde, desde luego le da luz esta divina luz; pero con ella no puede ver el alma primero sino lo que tiene más cerca de sí o, por mejor decir, en sí, que son sus tinieblas o miserias, las cuales ve ya por la misericordia de Dios, y antes no las veía, porque no daba en ella esta luz sobrenatural. Y ésta es la causa por que al principio no siente sino tinieblas y males; mas, después de purgada con el conocimiento y sentimiento de ellos, tendrá ojos para que esta luz la muestre los bienes de la luz divina; expelidas ya todas estas tinieblas e impresiones del alma, ya parece que van pareciendo los provechos y bienes grandes que va consiguiendo el alma en esta dichosa noche de contemplación.
11. Pues por lo dicho queda entendido cómo Dios hace merced aquí al alma de limpiarla y curarla con esta fuerte lejía y amarga purga, según la parte sensitiva y la espiritual, de todas las afecciones y hábitos imperfectos que en sí tenía acerca de lo temporal y de lo natural, sensitivo y especulativo y espiritual, oscureciéndole las potencias interiores y vaciándoselas acerca de todo esto, y apretándole y enjugándole las afecciones sensitivas y espirituales, y debilitándole y adelgazándole las fuerzas naturales del alma acerca de todo ello (lo cual nunca el alma por sí misma pudiera conseguir, como luego diremos) haciéndola Dios desfallecer en esta manera a todo lo que no es Dios naturalmente, para irla vistiendo de nuevo, desnuda y desollada ya ella de su antiguo pellejo. Y así, se le renueva, como al águila, su juventud (Sal. 102,5), quedando vestida del nuevo hombre, que es criado, como dice el Apóstol (Ef. 4, 24), según Dios. Lo cual no es otra cosa sino alumbrarle el entendimiento con la lumbre sobrenatural, de manera que de entendimiento humano se haga divino unido con el divino; y, ni más ni menos, informarle la voluntad de amor divino, de manera que ya no sea voluntad menos que divina, no amando menos que divinamente, hecha y unida en uno con la divina voluntad y amor; y la memoria, ni más ni menos: y también las afecciones y apetitos todos mudados y vueltos según Dios divinamente. Y así, esta alma será ya alma del cielo, celestial, y más divina que humana.
Todo lo cual, según se ha ido viendo por lo que habemos dicho, va Dios haciendo y obrando en ella por medio de esta noche, ilustrándola e inflamándola divinamente con ansias de solo Dios, y no de otra cosa alguna. Por lo cual, muy justa y razonablemente añade luego el alma el tercer verso de la canción, que dice:
¡oh dichosa ventura!
Scripture echoes
- ↩John.1.5 — And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.
- ↩John.20.15 — Jesus said to her, "Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you seeking?" She, thinking that he was the gardener, said to him, "Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away."
- ↩John.20.15 — Jesus said to her, "Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you seeking?" She, thinking that he was the gardener, said to him, "Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away."
Notes
- 1 ↩Spanish 'inteligencia mística' is kept as 'mystical understanding' (infused knowledge), not discursive intellect. 'Unión actual de amor' is rendered 'actual union of love' (present act of love, not mere habit).
- 2 ↩Spanish «subida, tierna y fuertemente» is dense: rendered as love rising tenderly and strongly (the enkindled ascent of love), not as a separate noun-phrase for «ascent» alone.
- 3 ↩«calificadamente» rendered as «excellent» (marked/qualified excellence of the union as the powers are more purged).
- 4 ↩se reducen a la voluntad: scholastic 'are reduced/referred to the will' (ascribed to the will as their seat), not 'diminished'.
- 5 ↩pasión receptiva del entendimiento: the understanding's passive/receptive power (capacity to receive), not 'passion' as emotional turmoil. inteligencia desnuda: bare/naked intelligence without images or forms.
- 6 ↩Rendered as 'living core' of the thirst for love; 'el vivo' means the vital, living center rather than mere intensity.
- 7 ↩Rendered as 'how much it lacks what it desires'—the ache of want that the desired good causes by its absence.
- 8 ↩amor estimativo: Sanjuanist technical term for an esteeming/appreciative love of God, not yet the felt inflammation of love (inflamación).
- 9 ↩amor de estimación (love of esteem/valuation) is San Juan’s technical term for valuing God highly even before the sensible inflamación of love is felt; kept as 'love of esteem' to match the book’s running distinction between estimación and inflamación.
- 10 ↩a trueque de rendered as 'if only she could' / for the sake of being able; force is that she disregarded decorum in exchange for immediate access to Christ.
- 11 ↩Spanish shifts between masculine él (the one inflamed with love) and feminine ella (the soul/Bride). Rendered with she/it for the soul, keeping love’s force as the governing subject.
- 12 ↩aunque más le fuera defendido: rendered as ‘even if it were forbidden her ever so much’ (however strongly she might be kept from it).
- 13 ↩Spanish '2 Re.' follows older Vulgate-style numbering in which 2 Kings = 2 Samuel; the cubs image points to 2 Sam 17:8 (and the following Hos 13:8).
- 14 ↩'el sujeto' kept as 'the subject' (the person undergoing this experience), not smoothed to 'soul,' to preserve the technical force of the Spanish.
- 15 ↩Spanish 'lejía' is the harsh alkaline wash (lye) used for deep cleaning; kept as 'lye' to preserve the purge-and-scour image rather than soften it to 'cleanser'.
- 16 ↩Kept 'new man' (nuevo hombre) for the Pauline surface rather than paraphrasing to 'new self', since the next clause cites the Apostle.
- 17 ↩Spanish 'informarle la voluntad' is the scholastic sense of giving form to the will; rendered 'forming' rather than modern 'informing' (telling), to avoid a doctrinal-sounding mistranslation.
Dark Night of the Soul companion
A daily portion of stillness
Chosen Portion delivers one short contemplative reading and a guided moment of silence each day — the ascent, one step at a time.
Chosen Portion is the paced doorway into this collection: it portions the dense mystical treatises into one daily reading plus guided silence, exactly as the 14-day plan teaches.
- Daily bite-sized excerpts from the contemplative classics, never a wall of text
- A built-in timed stillness practice that grows from 2 minutes to 10
- Gentle progression through the tradition — the app remembers where you are on the ascent