Libro Segundo — Capítulo 24
The Dual Peace of the Soul
The soul achieves a twofold peace in both its sensory and spiritual faculties, reflecting the state of innocence.
This concludes the explanation of the second song. 1. This is to say: with the higher part of my soul now at rest in its appetites and powers, just as the lower part is, I went out to the divine union of love with God. 2. Since the soul is attacked and purged in two ways through that war of the dark night, as has already been said — namely, according to the sensory part and the spiritual, with its senses, powers, and passions — the soul also comes to gain peace and calm in two ways: namely, according to these two parts, the sensory and the spiritual, with all their powers and appetites. That is why, as has also already been said, it repeats this line twice — namely, in this stanza and in the previous one — because of these two portions of the soul, the spiritual and the sensory: which, if the soul is to go out into the divine union of love, must first be reformed, ordered, and quieted in what is sensory and spiritual, after the pattern of the state of innocence that was in Adam. And so this line, which in the first stanza is understood of the calm of the lower, sensory portion, in this second one is understood especially of the higher and spiritual portion — which is why it has been repeated twice.
The Silence of Divine Union
When the soul's faculties are silenced and stilled, the divine Word unites with it in a profound betrothal.
3. The soul reaches this peace and quiet in its spiritual house, habitually and perfectly, as far as this life allows, through the substantial touches of union we just described. Hidden and sheltered from the disturbances of the devil, the senses, and the passions, the soul has been receiving these from the Divinity. Through them, the soul has been purifying itself, growing calm, strong, and stable, so that it can firmly receive that union, which is the divine betrothal between the soul and the Son of God.1 Once these two houses of the soul are fully calmed and strengthened as one, with all their household—the faculties and the appetites—put to sleep and silenced regarding everything above and below, this divine Wisdom immediately unites itself to the soul with a new bond of loving possession. It is fulfilled just as she says in the Book of Wisdom (18:14–15): “When a quiet silence held all things, and night was midway through her course, your almighty Word, O Lord, came from the royal thrones.”2 The Bride means the same thing in the Song of Songs when she says that after she passed those who stripped her mantle from her by night and wounded her (5:7), she found the one her soul desired (3:4).
The Necessity of Stripping
True union with the Beloved requires the total mortification of self-will and the stripping away of all created comforts.
4. You can't reach this union without great purity, and you can't achieve that purity without stripping away every created thing and practicing living mortification.3 This is signified by the stripping of the Bride’s cloak and by her being wounded at night in her search and pursuit of the Bridegroom; for the new cloak she sought for the betrothal could not be put on her without the old one being taken off. Therefore, whoever refuses to go out in the night already described to seek the Beloved and to be stripped of his own will and mortified, but instead seeks him in bed and comfort—as the Bride once did—will not come to find him, as this soul says of herself that she found him, going out already in darkness and with a longing of love.4
Read the original Latin
Acábase de explicar la segunda canción
1. Lo cual es tanto como decir: estando la porción superior de mi alma ya también, como la inferior, sosegada según sus apetitos y potencias, salí a la divina unión de amor de Dios.
2. Por cuanto de dos maneras por medio de aquella guerra de la oscura noche, como queda dicho, es combatida y purgada el alma, conviene a saber, según la parte sensitiva y la espiritual, con sus sentidos, potencias y pasiones, también de dos maneras, conviene saber, según estas dos partes sensitiva y espiritual, con todas sus potencias y apetitos, viene el alma a conseguir paz y sosiego. Que, por eso, como también queda dicho, repite dos veces este verso, conviene a saber, en esta canción y la pasada, por razón de estas dos porciones del alma, espiritual y sensitiva: las cuales, para poder ella salir a la divina unión de amor, conviene que estén primero reformadas, ordenadas y quietas acerca de lo sensitivo y espiritual conforme al modo del estado de la inocencia que había en Adán. Y así este verso, que en la primera canción es entendido del sosiego de la porción inferior y sensitiva, en esta segunda se entiende particularmente de la superior y espiritual, que por eso le ha repetido dos veces.
3. Este sosiego y quietud de esta casa espiritual viene a conseguir el alma, habitual y perfectamente, según esta condición de vida sufre, por medio de los actos de toques sustanciales de unión que acabamos de decir, y que, en celada y escondida de la turbación del demonio y de los sentidos y pasiones, ha ido recibiendo de la Divinidad, en que el alma se ha ido purificando, como digo, sosegando y fortaleciendo y haciendo estable para poder de asiento recibir la dicha unión, que es el divino desposorio entre el alma y el Hijo de Dios.
El cual, luego que estas dos casas del alma se acaban de sosegar y fortalecer en uno con todos sus domésticos de potencias y apetitos, poniéndolos en sueño y silencio acerca de todas las cosas de arriba y de abajo, inmediatamente esta divina Sabiduría se une en el alma con un nuevo nudo de posesión de amor, y se cumple como ella lo dice en el libro de la Sabiduría (18, 14-15) diciendo: Dum quietum silentium contineret omnia, et nox in suo cursu medium iter haberet, omnipotens sermo tuus, Domine, a regalibus sedibus. Lo mismo da a entender la Esposa en los Cantares, diciendo que después que pasó los que la desnudaron el manto de noche y la llagaron (5, 7), halló al que deseaba su ánima (3, 4).
4. No se puede venir a esta unión sin gran pureza, y esta pureza no se alcanza sin gran desnudez de toda cosa criada y viva mortificación. Lo cual es significado por desnudar el manto a la Esposa y llagarla de noche en la busca y pretensión del Esposo; porque el nuevo manto que pretendía del desposorio no se le podía vestir sin desnudar el viejo. Por tanto, el que rehusare salir en la noche ya dicha a buscar al Amado y ser desnudado de su voluntad y mortificado, sino que en su lecho y acomodamiento le busca, como hacía la Esposa, no llegará a hallarle, como esta alma dice de sí que lo halló, saliendo ya a oscuras y con ansia de amor.
Notes
- 1 ↩Spanish «toques sustanciales de unión» is kept as the technical mystical term “substantial touches of union.” «De asiento» is rendered “firmly” for a settled, abiding reception rather than a passing one. «En celada y escondida de» is rendered “hidden and sheltered from,” capturing concealment from diabolic and sensory disturbance.
- 2 ↩The Latin Wisdom citation in the source breaks off at “a regalibus sedibus,” without the governing verb of motion found in the fuller Vulgate reading (e.g. venit/exiliens). English supplies a minimal bracketed verb so the quotation remains grammatical; sense matches the standard Wisdom 18:14–15 context San Juan is invoking.
- 3 ↩desnudez: San Juan’s technical term for the soul’s stripping/nakedness of creatures; rendered as “stripping bare” to keep both the bodily image and the ascetical sense. viva mortificación: active, ongoing mortification, not a dead formality.
- 4 ↩como hacía la Esposa points to the Bride’s first, failed search in her bed (Cant. 3:1) before she went out; the contrast is with later going out into the night. acomodamiento rendered as “comfort” (ease/convenience), not mere lodging.
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