Incarnate Encounter with the Trinity
Submitted to Mabiala Kenzo, Ph.D. www.ambrose.edu
God the Father loves us such that he sent his only begotten Son Jesus Christ to be - Love Incarnate (Col.1:15) - for all humanity to know (Jn. 3:16); Jesus in turn said that he would send us a helper, the Holy Spirit (Jn. 14:16), and through the witness of Scripture we know that our Triune God is Love (1 Jn. 4:16). Jesus in the flesh of his glorified body, came to his disciples in the upper room, appearing in the midst of them without passing through any door[1] (Lk. 24:33-35); he appeared to them too on the road to Emmaus (Lk. 24); today, and in the history of the church, Jesus appears to us in the breaking of the bread of the Eucharist (Mt. 26:17; John 6:52-59) and even in dreams and visions (Joel 2:28; Acts 2:17). Further, Jesus meets us today as Spouse, Bridegroom and Husband of the people of God. For some Christians this communion with Christ as bridegroom has taken the form of what they perceive to be direct encounter with the Lord in what is described as a nuptial relationship or mystical marriage, in other words, believers have experienced Trinitarian incarnate love through relationship with Jesus. In this paper I will touch upon the experience and understanding of incarnate love in the Trinity as expressed in the reflections of John of the Cross, Benedict XVI, John Paul II, and Teresa of Ávila.
Insights into Trinitarian Love
From the poetry of Carmelite[2] friar John of the Cross (1542-1591) one begins to perceive the depth and intensity of the Trinity's inner love and God's movement of self revelation to the Bride, Christ's church:
Romance on the Gospel text 'In principio erat Verbum'; regarding the Blessed Trinity
I
In the beginning the Word
was; he lived in God
and possessed in him
his infinite happiness…
And thus the glory of the Son
was the Father's glory,
and the Father possessed
all his glory in the Son. As the lover in the beloved
each lived in the other,
and the Love that unites them
is one with them,
their equal, excellent as
the One and the Other:
Three Persons, and one Beloved
among all three...
Thus it is a boundless Love that unites them,
for the three have one love
which is their essence;
and the more love is one
the more it is love.
II
In that immense love
proceeding from the two
the Father spoke words
of great affection to the Son…
III
"My Son, I wish to give you
a bride who will love you…
"I am very grateful,"
the Son answered;
"I will show my brightness
to the bride you give me... I will hold her in my arms
and she will burn with your love,
and with eternal delight she will exalt your goodness".[3]
While John discouraged over dependence upon sense experience for persons who were serious about the practice of their faith he, at the same time, came to be lauded as one of the greatest lyric poets of all time in the Spanish language, "and his metaphor is erotic love."[4]
God as Love: Eros and Agape
Benedict XVI in his first papal encyclical Deus Caritas Est (God is Love) points out that the Greeks spoke of love with the terms eros, philia, and agape, but the NT tends to move away from the term eros in favours of the term agape.[5] He holds that by the church's preferential use of the term agape she was "offering the world a new and deeper understanding of what love truly is."[6] Benedict XVI engages Nietzsche's accusation that Christianity had "poisoned eros"[7], arguing that Christianity had in fact saved eros from the self-destructiveness that had become sacralised in certain Greek forms of paganism. "The ancient pagans considered eros as a means of entering into the divine, to experience an ecstasy, a happiness, a power that transcended the finite and the human. This was ritually enacted through 'sacred' prostitution".[8] The ancients had the intuition that love and the divine were in some manner connected, however, men and women corrupted love by the debasement of their bodies through the false pursuit of divine communion by engaging in the momentary pleasures of physical sexual gratification outside of God's intended order. The pope perceives contemporary Western societies to have fallen into the same trap.
For Benedict, eros is an integral aspect of love but one that needs to be healed and understood in light of God's truth. He writes, "True, eros tends to rise 'in ecstasy' towards the Divine, to lead us beyond ourselves; yet for this very reason it calls for a path of ascent, renunciation, purification, and healing."[9] This is the point of contact between the Christian understanding of God as Love and the Gospel of Love in Benedict's thought.
The pope goes on to find the truth of eros in the heart of the Trinity, in God's "passionate love for humanity... that is intimately conjoined with agape in that God's passionate love most fully manifests itself in his giving himself freely in love for man... so that the cross becomes the supreme icon of the mutual conjoining of eros and agape"[10]; "Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends" (Jn.15:13 [NIV]). It is from the contemplation of the pierced body of Jesus on the cross that the Christian understanding of love's fullness must begin:
It is when men and women appropriate the gospel virtue of agape that they are able freely to give themselves, even by way of loving sacrifice, to God and to others in all the passion that eros desires. Agape does not poison eros but heals it so as to allow it to become what it truly is and empowers it to ascend to the end for which it truly longs: communion with one's spouse and family, with one's neighbour, and ultimately with God. In accordance with the Thomistic dictum the grace of agape does not destroy eros's nature but builds upon it, healing it and elevating it.[11]
Love of God and love of neighbour is propelled by the force of love – eros – and has been attested to by the Christian witness of innumerable lovers of God and humanity throughout the millennia such as
The Trinity and the Theology of the Body
John Paul II wrote that due to Adam's aloneness God created Eve and in their complementarity they were created to "become one" so that "they might heal their essential incompleteness, and come into existence as the one essence God intended 'from the beginning'." [13] Adam and Eve came into communion with one another such that "their beings come to rest in one another"[14]:
Moved by forces most like those of the inner life of the Trinity, love is "sexual, erotic, physical, and in that form its communio is pro-creative. From two-in-one there comes a third… the startling creativity of birthing, pushing forth a newborn "girl" or "boy" child.[15]
From the previously referenced stanzas written by John of the Cross one may begin to sense how Pope John Paul II could have come to a profoundly Trinitarian Theology of the Body that considers conjugal love as a "model of relations between God and human beings."[16] Theology of the Body teaches that human persons are not merely spiritual but we have been created as persons with bodies in contrast to the angels and God. Because humanity has been created in God's image with a body we both give and receive love by means of our physicality, our bodies. This fact is true of married and single people alike, and of course no less of those who have been called by God to consecrate their bodies, and therefore their very sexuality, to the Creator who has given them that gift.
John Paul II writes:
Christ himself as the Spouse of the Church, the Spouse of souls… has given himself to them to the very limit, in the Paschal and Eucharistic[17] mystery.
In this way… for the sake of the
The Trinity of Father – Jesus – Holy Spirit is not a concept, they are One Love in whom we know love in the fullness of love's meaning: God Is Love (1 Jn.4:16).
…Our Creator lives in self-giving communion. [The] experience of communion between woman and man, self-giving, in mutuality, and without either's dominance, is more like the [Trinitarian] inner life of God than anything else that we encounter in creation. To self-giving communion, willing wholly the good of the other as other, giving of self freely and in accord with the creative will of the Creator, nothing else in the experience of the race comes close.[19]
When God calls one to total consecration to Himself in heart, soul, and body the Trinity offers the fullness of incarnated love to that person with whom God has chosen to be nuptially united. From the history of the people of God as expressed in Scripture and in the lives of the saints the Trinitarian God has revealed himself not only as Saviour, and Redeemer, but as Lover (Hos.2:16 – NJB), Bridegroom (Mt. 25:1-13) and Husband (Is.54:5).
All women and men are embodied spirits and all are called to "living the mystery of marriage in some way, as preparation for that fulfillment promised to each of us by God in the 'wedding feast of the lamb' (Rev. 19:9)". Every Christian vocation is fundamentally a permanent commitment to God through commitment to another / others in marriage and family life or in some form of intentional community within the body of believers.[20] "Truly human, Christian love is an eternal relationship based in an unconditional commitment, which is lived out through bodily service; 'In the body and through the body one touches the person himself in his concrete reality'."[21] Woman and man together are made in the image of God; "God is made visible, not abstractly as "nonsexual person," but, according to Gen 1:27, through male persons and female persons."[22] When we are living up to our humanity as image of God our bodies stand as a sacrament of the Trinity and a sign of who God is and how God acts in the created order.
… The human person, embodied as male and female, makes visible a God who both gives and receives in selfless and unconditional love. We know this by revelation in Scripture, as well as through reason in our own human experience. When a man and a woman love each other absolutely and fully, their love is often blessed with the gift of a child, a third person who embodies their love and makes it incarnate for the world. The way a man and a woman love each other in marriage is to make visible to the world this God who is two Persons, who love each other so fully and absolutely that their love is a third Person, the Holy Spirit of love. God is a communion of three Persons in love; the human family is its created image. [23]
The Trinity and the Celibate Consecrated Life
Many Christians throughout the history of the church have experienced Christ's invitation to consecration of body and soul to him in what amounts to marriage to God:
This special way of "following Christ," at the origin of which is always the initiative of the Father, has an essential Christological and pneumatological meaning: It expresses in a particularly vivid way the Trinitarian nature of the Christian life, and it anticipates in a certain way that eschatological fulfillment toward which the whole Church is tending.[24]
The consecrated life involves a total self-giving and self-focus upon Jesus with one's entire being; mind, soul, and body, both in exaltation and in crucifixion by whatever form they are made personally manifest.[25] "In the consecrated life particular importance attaches to the spousal meaning, which recalls the Church's duty to be completely and exclusively devoted to her Spouse, from whom she receives [all good]".[26] The church has traditionally interpreted Mary and the apostles in the upper room awaiting the Holy Spirit (Acts 1:13-14) as "a vivid image of the Church as Bride, fully attentive to her bridegroom and ready to accept his gift" which in turn brings to birth new sons and daughters by the preaching of the Word[27]; "In Mary the aspect of spousal receptivity is particularly clear; it is under this aspect that the Church, through her perfect virginal life, brings divine life to fruition within herself".[28]
Further, in the monastic tradition established through the rule of life formulated by St. Benedict of Nursia, the monk is not his own even in body. As, in the words of Paul, neither husband nor wife have authority over their own bodies within the bond of marriage, likewise the monk or nun gives the authority over his / her own body to another in a kind of "marital relationship, not only with God but also with [one's] community… [it is a] mutual relationship of love and responsibilities...".[29] The choice of chastity / celibacy for the sake of the Kingdom of God has been a part of Christian practice since the time of the Evangelists (Lk. 20:34-35; 1 Cor. 7:32-35) although its motivation is more rooted in a sense of calling or prompting by the Holy Spirit than in any specific Gospel texts. In certain respects the consecration of one's body to the Trinity, which naturally includes one's sexuality, establishes a very clear barrier between the believer and 'the world' and in that sense can be a sign, very much like marriage, that 'this person is espoused to the Creator God' and no other. For those whom God has called to this form of consecrated sexuality their commitment is to belong to the Trinity alone, "even on the level of conjugal love".[30]
The vow of chastity is rooted in the wider Christian call to belong to the Trinity as Father belongs to the Son and the Son to the Spirit (Jn.14:11; 15:26). "This state of consecrating our sexual and affective drives to God, to Jesus, has an element of mystery to it… It is Christological, a consecration in body and soul to the exclusive love of Christ springing from a movement of the Holy Spirit in the heart of a Christian".[31] The consecration of one's sexuality to God, "to consecrate all one's human love to such a Person, to the extent of not having sexual relations with other persons, is to invest it most wisely in… a new, more generous love… Christ's own redeeming, virginal love now made connatural".[32]
Human sexuality expresses through itself the fact that man and woman belong both to the spiritual world and the animal kingdom. This "inner tension" reveals the conflict that seems to manifest itself between our physical bodies and our calling to be wholly with and for God. That inner dissonance "appears principally as a lack of coherence in our emotional reactions, in the activity of our bodily organs and in our spiritual desires".[33] Human beings are caught between the worlds of the finite and the infinite, yet, in facing this tension constructively, "sexuality also becomes a beautiful meeting place for all creation. Here can occur a living and loving synthesis between animal instincts and spiritual openness, both of which characterize human life".[34]
Sexuality, as gift from the Trinity, opens one's being to the wholeness of others different from oneself when what is understood as eros is directed to union with the other in the Trinity. Sexuality makes men and women able to express love in either a masculine or feminine way, with different levels of intensity, even in one's relationship with God. Sexuality's "innate drive toward personal union with the 'other' and to repose in such union once it is achieved" is no less conceivable when that drive to communion is directed to the Trinity[35]; indeed, such union with God is arguably more real and lasting in that the Trinity is the very source and foundation of love, creation and, in short, reality.
The 'giving up of sex' is not the throwing away of one's sexuality, desire, yearning, arousal, etc. What is given up is the "very limited sphere of voluntary acts directly ordered to genital stimulation and pleasure."[36]
There remain the less exciting physiological aspects of sex – automatic rhythms of the sexual organs and their hormones – together with the entire psychological and spiritual process of reordering our 'sexed' personality and centering it on Christ. In this sense, the renunciation of stimulation helps sex, since it orders it to its true goal, [the reality of divine love revealed and made present in Christ]. Sexuality is a responsibility to set things in order, a task of wisdom, and chastity is the way to achieve it.[37]
The life of chastity begins with love for Jesus, it has little force to be sustained if the motive for such a life choice is merely some ascetic ideal. In following the call to consecrated celibacy one "offers to the Lord [the] legitimate desires of human parenthood, affection, friendship, belonging, physical intimacy, and all the gifts which these realities bring with them" and the Holy Spirit "the divine Affection of the Risen Christ towards his Father" will put all these longings into order if we allow for it.[38] Prayerful sincerity in the service of others is the truest expression of love for Jesus; "Each moment of prayer or work, of action of affection, becomes a meeting place with the heart of Christ. This is the true meaning of Christian chastity".[39]
The Trinity: 'Lover and Beloved' - John of the Cross
Ironically, despite this discussion of the monastic ideal and pure chaste love there remains the fact in the human experience that desire, longing, and eros do not simply fade away when we put our minds to a spiritual ideal. If the Trinity is real then a God who is revealed to us in human history but is not literally present today is of little consolation and of little use to us; likewise a God that is understood as an abstract, mystical 'Trinitarian concept' is of no use to the person who suffers now, in this moment for example, from a sense of infinite abandonment. God needs to be known to believers of our time as real, present, and truly loving. God needs to be incarnate to me now if I am to care that he was incarnate ever. He appeared in the upper room out of nowhere, and he can appear to you and I today as Lover if he so chooses. We can know him as Lover, and know ourselves as Beloved, he can and does make it so for some.
Coming from a long Christian literary tradition John, in his work "En una noche oscura – In the Dark Night", draws upon the imagery of the Lover and Beloved in the Song of Songs to elucidate the experience of the believer's soul in the arms of the divine Lover:
Stanzas Of The Soul
1. One dark night,
fired with love's urgent longings
- ah, the sheer grace! -
I went out unseen,
my house being now all stilled…
3. On that glad night,
in secret, for no one saw me,
nor did I look at anything,
with no other light or guide
than the one that burned in my heart.
4. This guided me
more surely than the light of noon
to where he was awaiting me
- him I knew so well -
there in a place where no one appeared.
5. O guiding night!
O night more lovely than the dawn!
O night that has united
the Lover with his beloved,
transforming the beloved in her Lover.[40]
6. Upon my flowering breast
which I kept wholly for him alone,
there he lay sleeping,
and I caressing him
there in a breeze from the fanning cedars…
8. I abandoned and forgot myself,
laying my face on my Beloved;
all things ceased; I went out from myself,
leaving my cares
forgotten among the lilies.[41]
The experience of God as Lover is a powerful theme in the poetry John of the Cross. While John taught that the committed Christian should not allow emotional experience in relationship with God to be a guiding factor in the life of faith, he nevertheless wrote as though passionate experiences of God's love are within the realm of possibility for the believer. For John the Trinity was encountered most often in beauty, and the beautiful with the understanding that beauty went beyond what one experiences as visual pleasure. He believed, with Aquinas, that the idea of beauty embraces a sense of clarity and truth; [42] the Trinity, as the very ground of Reality, is the source of Truth.[43]
The Trinity: Mystical Marriage in the Experience of Teresa of Ávila
Doctor of the Church[44] Teresa of Ávila (1515-1582) wrote, after a number of mystical experiences – including that of repeatedly lifting from the ground in the midst of spiritual ecstasy[45] – that because of God's greatness, the sweetness of his care for us, and his goodness "God, seems not content with drawing the soul to Himself, but he [chooses to] draw up the very body too, even while it is mortal and compounded of so unclean a clay as we have made it by our sins."[46] It was in 1557 that Teresa experienced what she has left us as a description of "mystical marriage to Christ, and the piercing of her heart"[47]:
Of the latter she writes: "I saw an angel very near me, towards my left side, in bodily form, which is not usual with me; for though angels are often represented to me, it is only in my mental vision. This angel appeared rather small than large, and very beautiful. His face was so shining that he seemed to be one of those highest angels called seraphs, who look as if all on fire with divine love. He had in his hands a long golden dart; at the end of the point [I perceived] there was a little fire. And I felt him thrust it several times through my heart in such a way that it passed through my very bowels. And when he drew it out, [I felt as though] it pulled them out with it and left me wholly on fire with a great love of God." The pain in her soul spread to her body, but it was accompanied by great delight too; she was like one transported, caring neither to see nor to speak but only to be consumed with the mingled pain and happiness.[48]
In both OT and NT texts the relationship between God and his people, whether Jewish or Christian, is expressed in terms of the relationship between bridegroom and bride (i.e., Ps. 45).[49] In the history of the church, from the earliest centuries Christian virginity has been considered "a special offering made by the soul to its spouse, Christ".[50] This primitive practice came to fuller development through the centuries, particularly due to the increasingly profound experiences of later Christians, and their resultant writings. Today mystical marriage is understood to have two senses, one broad, the other more specific.
In its broad sense, many of the saints describe mystical marriage as something akin to a vision in which Jesus comes to the believer's soul and expresses that he desires to take the soul as his bride. The vision largely takes on the forms and symbols of traditional Christian marriage, i.e. the giving of a ring, and a ceremony at which the Virgin Mary is present, along with various saints and angels. The celebration and all its related symbols are understood to represent to the soul that s/he has received a purely spiritual gift of grace; a gift that hagiographers seem unable to define, however, "it may be said that the soul receives a sudden augmentation of charity and of familiarity with God, and that he will thereafter take more special care of it; all that is involved in [our regular notions] of marriage."[51] As is to be expected, the newly espoused then enters more deeply into the life of the divine Lover and, very notably, begins to share profoundly in the experience of Christ's sufferings for the redemption of the world (Col.1:24).[52]
Teresa of Ávila and John of the Cross use the term mystical marriage in a more restricted sense. For these Carmelite doctors of the church "mystical union with God is the most exalted condition attainable by the soul in this life; it is also called 'transforming union', 'consummate union', and 'deification'."[53] There are three aspects to this state of communion between the soul and the Trinity:
· The first of these aspects is a virtually continuous awareness of God's presence regardless of what one might be occupied with. "This favour does not of itself produce an alienation of the senses; ecstasies are more rare… This permanent sense of God's presence is not the spiritual marriage, but is near to it."[54]
· In the second aspect "the soul is conscious that in its supernatural acts of intellect and of will, it participates in the Divine life… Here, as in human marriage, there is a fusion of two lives."[55]
- The third aspect of mystical marriage is known through "an habitual vision of the Blessed Trinity or of some Divine attribute" and is sometimes attested to be experienced before one enters into transforming union. "St. Teresa gives the name of "spiritual betrothal" to passing foretastes of the transforming union, such as occur in raptures."[56]
Contemporary Implications for the Believer and Church
In our longing for deliverance from suffering, from anguish, pain and ultimately from death we have sought something through which we could attain the experience of true freedom. As Christians we have found our answer to these questions in the hope and life we have come to know in the Trinity through Jesus's life, death and resurrection. But there is more. Once we begin to know salvation and newness of life we are called further, into fullness of life (John 10:10), and it might be argued that the gift of nuptial communion with the Father, Son and Holy Spirit is one facet of what fullness of life means in relation to the Christian vocation to belong to God alone. Those believers who have been called to mystical marriage/union with the Trinity have been powerful witnesses in the Kingdom of God as we see in the cases of John of the Cross and Teresa of Ávila. To ask God for such a grace in our own lives as believers today would indeed be taking an immense risk, it would cost us 'everything' to be conformed in every way to the Divine Lover; but what is the real cost once we have become the Spouse of the Creator of the universe, He who is Love? In nuptial communion with Him perhaps we too can become love incarnate.[57]
Conclusion
Through the lives and writings of mystical theologians Teresa of Ávila and John of the Cross I have illustrated how the Trinity has chosen to reveal Their heart of love to believers in the nuptial relationship of Lover with Beloved. Through the works of the theologians John Paul II and Benedict XVI I have sought to guide the reader to a contemporary synthesis of theology with mystical experience. The work of these two most recent popes has proposed a new Theology of the Body, and a reconciliation of eros with the Cross and telos of love that is expressed by and in human gender differences and sexuality.[58]
That Jesus is God with the Father and the Holy Spirit, that Jesus is Love Incarnate means everything to the believer and the church as a whole today. He has promised not to leave us orphans by asking the Father to send us the Holy Spirit (Jn. 14:18; Heb. 13:5), and he remains physically present to us in the Body of believers and in the Eucharist; yet, the Trinity chooses to come to some in still another way, as Husband and Lover. As Jesus came to his disciples in the upper room without passing through any door, so God can choose to come to the believer, as Lover to Beloved, and we can await our wedding night's embrace.
Bibliography
| Books |
| |
Augustine Roberts, Centered on Christ: A Guide to Monastic Profession. (
Texts Available Online
Benedict XVI, "Deus Caritas Est – God is Love", accessed 26 November 2010, http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/encyclicals/documents/hf_ben-xvi_enc_20051225_deus-caritas-est_en.html#_ftn1 .
Rod Bennett, Four Witnesses: the Early Church in Her Own Words, (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2002), accessed 26 November 2010, http://books.google.ca/books?id=82KFXzEDAe4C&pg=PA325&lpg=PA325&dq=%22Because+of+this+Body+I+am+no+longer+earth+and+ash,+no+longer+a+prisoner,+but+free.+Because+of+this+Body+I+hope+for+heaven,+and+I+hope+to+receive+the+good+things+that+are+in+heaven,+immortal+life,+the+lot+of+the+angels,+familiar+conversation+with+Christ.+%22&source=bl&ots=lssEvFdvEC&sig=enwBxiLn9sNHdPkokZK_UlX2rDQ&hl=en&ei=NvrvTPC_C4ScsQOgvt2mCw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=3&ved=0CCIQ6AEwAg#v=onepage&q=%22Because%20of%20this%20Body%20I%20am%20no%20longer%20earth%20and%20ash%2C%20no%20longer%20a%20prisoner%2C%20but%20free.%20Because%20of%20this%20Body%20I%20hope%20for%20heaven%2C%20and%20I%20hope%20to%20receive%20the%20good%20things%20that%20are%20in%20heaven%2C%20immortal%20life%2C%20the%20lot%20of%20the%20angels%2C%20familiar%20conversation%20with%20Christ.%20%22&f=false .
Tom Darby, Bela Egyed, and Ben Jones. "Nietzsche and the rhetoric of nihilism," by (Don Mills, ON.: Carleton University Press, Inc. 1989), accessed 26 November 2010, http://books.google.ca/books?id=G-1YV3x6yakC&pg=PA128&dq=Christianity+gave+Eros+poison+to+drink:+he+did+not+die+of+it+but+degenerated+-+into+vice&hl=en&ei=bvXvTKPmN5PWtQOOv6HwCw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CCwQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=Christianity%20gave%20Eros%20poison%20to%20drink%3A%20he%20did%20not%20die%20of%20it%20but%20degenerated%20-%20into%20vice&f=false
John of the Cross. "Romance on the Gospel text, 'In principio erat Verbum'; regarding the Blessed Trinity'," accessed 25 November 2010, http://www.poesi.as/sjc11uk.htm.
John of the Cross. "The Dark Night of the Soul", accessed 23 November 2010, http://www.ocd.or.at/ics/john/dn.html.
John Paul II. "Vita Consecrata – [The Consecrated Life], Address given in
John Paul II. "Celibacy is a Particular Response to the Love of the Divine Spouse," L'Osservatore Romano - Weekly Edition in English, 3 May 1982, accessed 25 November 2010, http://www.ewtn.com/library/papaldoc/jp2tb79.htm.
Joseph Vann, Lives of Saints, "Saint Teresa of
Thérèse of Lisieux, from Catholic Online article "Saint Thérèse of Lisieux", accessed 26 November 2010, http://www.catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint_id=105 .
Online Newspaper Article
Christopher Howse. "Sacred Mysteries: The love poetry of John of the Cross", The Telegraph, 30 July 2010, accessed 23 November 2010, http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/columnists/christopherhowse/7919575/Sacred-Mysteries-The-love-poetry-of-John-of-the-Cross.html.
Journal Articles
Ilia Delio, "Bonaventure's Metaphysics of the Good", Theological Studies, vol. 60, 1999, accessed 26 November 2010, http://www.questia.com/googleScholar.qst?docId=5001267432.
Paula Jean Miller. "The Theology of the Body: A New Look At It", Theology Today 57, no 4 (Jan. 2001), p 501-508.
Michael Novak, "The Embodied Self", First Things 130 (February 2003): 18-21.
Poulain, A. "Mystical Marriage," in The Catholic Encyclopedia, (New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1910), accessed 25 November 2010, http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/09703a.htm.
Thomas G. Weinandy, "Deus Caritas Est: Defining the Christian Understanding of Love", Pro Ecclesia, vol. xv, no. 3 (2004): 259-262.
[1] An anonymous Irish author wrote a poem that has become a song of long tradition in Éire the text of which, in English, has been used as a love song to the Trinity. The words are: "I will give my love an apple without any core; I will give my love a house without any door; I will give my love a palace wherein He may be – and He may unlock it – without any key."
[2] Teresa of Ávila and John of the Cross were the leading reformers of the Order of Our Lady of
[3] John of the Cross. Romance on the Gospel text, 'In principio erat Verbum'; regarding the Blessed Trinity' , translators – Kieran Kavanaugh & Otilio Rodriguez accessed 25 November 2010, http://www.poesi.as/sjc11uk.htm.
[4] Christopher Howse. "Sacred Mysteries: The love poetry of John of the Cross", The Telegraph, 30 July 2010, accessed 23 November 2010, http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/columnists/christopherhowse/7919575/Sacred-Mysteries-The-love-poetry-of-John-of-the-Cross.html.
[5] "That love between man and woman which is neither planned nor willed, but somehow imposes itself upon human beings, was called eros by the ancient Greeks. Let us note straight away that the Greek Old Testament uses the word eros only twice, while the New Testament does not use it at all: of the three Greek words for love, eros, philia (the love of friendship) and agape, New Testament writers prefer the last, which occurs rather infrequently in Greek usage. As for the term philia, the love of friendship, it is used with added depth of meaning in
[6] Thomas G. Weinandy, "Deus Caritas Est: Defining the Christian Understanding of Love", Pro Ecclesia, vol. xv, no. 3 (2004): 259-262.
[7] Nietsche stated: "Christianity gave Eros poison to drink: he did not die of it but degenerated - into vice." From Nietzsche and the rhetoric of nihilism by Tom Darby, Bela Egyed, and Ben Jones. (Don Mills, ON.: Carleton University Press, Inc. 1989), 128. Accessed 26 November 2010.
[8] Weinandy, ibid.
[9] Ibid.
[10] Weinandy, 261
[11] Ibid.
[12] Weinandy, 262.
[13] Novak, Michael, The embodied self. First Things no 130 F 2003, p 18-21.
[14] Novak, 19.
[15] Ibid.
[16] Christopher Howse. Sacred Mysteries: The love poetry of John of the Cross.
[17] John Chrysostom wrote: "When you see [the Body of Christ] lying on the altar, say to yourself, 'Because of this Body I am no longer earth and ash, no longer a prisoner, but free. Because of this Body I hope for heaven, and I hope to receive the good things that are in heaven, immortal life, the lot of the angels, familiar conversation with Christ. This body, scourged and crucified, has not been fetched by death . . . . This is that Body which was blood-stained, which was pierced by a lance, and from which gushed forth those saving fountains, one of blood and the other of water [symbolizing the sacraments of Communion or the Eucharist and Baptism] , for the world.' . . . This is the Body which He gave us, both to hold in reserve [for worship] and to eat, which was appropriate to intense love; for those whom we kiss with abandon we often even bite with our teeth." From Rod Bennett, Four Witnesses: the Early Church in Her Own Words, (
[18] John Paul II. "Celibacy is a Particular Response to the Love of the Divine Spouse," L'Osservatore Romano - Weekly Edition in English, 3 May 1982, accessed 25 November 2010, http://www.ewtn.com/library/papaldoc/jp2tb79.htm.
[19] Michael Novak, "The Embodied Self", First Things 130 (February 2003): 18-21.
[20] Paula Jean Miller. "The Theology of the Body: A New Look At It", Theology Today 57, no. 4 (Jan. 2001), p 501-508.
[21] Quote of John Paul II. Ibid.
[22] Miller, 504.
[23] Ibid.
[24] John Paul II. "Vita Consecrata (VC) – [The Consecrated Life], Address given in
[25] Ibid.
[26] VC, ch. 34.
[27] VC, ch. 34.
[28] John Paul II goes on to write that "the consecrated life has always been seen primarily in terms of Mary— Virgin and Bride. This virginal love is the source of a particular fruitfulness which fosters the birth and growth of divine life in people's hearts.[72] Following in the footsteps of Mary, the New Eve, consecrated persons express their spiritual fruitfulness by becoming receptive to the word, in order to contribute to the growth of a new humanity by their unconditional dedication and their living witness. Thus the Church fully reveals her motherhood both in the communication of divine grace entrusted to Peter and in the responsible acceptance of God's gift, exemplified by Mary" (VC, ch. 34).
[29] Augustine Roberts, Centered on Christ: A Guide to Monastic Profession. (
[30] Roberts, 104-105.
[31] Roberts, 107.
[32] Ibid.
[33] Roberts, 112.
[34] Ibid.
[35] Ibid.
[36] Roberts, 113.
[37] Roberts, 113-114.
[38] Roberts, 116.
[39] Roberts, 117.
[40] Aquinas wrote of love in this way: "Love is more unitive than knowledge in seeking the thing, not the thing's reason; its bent is to a real union. Other effects of love he also enumerates: a reciprocal abiding [mutua inhaesio], of lover and beloved together as one; a transport [exstasis] out of the self to the other; an ardent cherishing [zelus] of another; a melting [liquefac-tio] so that the heart is unfrozen and open to be entered; a longing in absence [languor], heat in pursuit [fervor], and enjoyment in presence [fruitio]. In delight, too, there is an all at once wholeness and timelessness that reflect the tota simul of eternity; an edge of sadness similar to that of the Gift of Knowledge; an expansion of spirit; a complete fulfillment of activity without satiety, for they that drink shall yet thirst." (Novak, 19)
[41] John of the Cross. "The Dark Night of the Soul", accessed 23 November 2010, http://www.ocd.or.at/ics/john/dn.html.
[42] Novak, 19.
[43] Ilia Delio, "Bonaventure's Metaphysics of the Good", Theological Studies, vol. 60, 1999, accessed 26 November 2010, http://www.questia.com/googleScholar.qst?docId=5001267432.
[44] "The title "Doctor of the Church," unlike the popular title "Father of the Church," is an official designation that is bestowed by the Pope in recognition of the outstanding contribution a person has made to the understanding and interpretation of the sacred Scriptures and the development of Christian doctrine… There are three requirements that must be fulfilled by a person in order to merit being included in the ranks of the "Doctors of the Catholic Church":
1) holiness that is truly outstanding, even among saints;
2) depth of doctrinal insight; and
3) an extensive body of writings which the church can recommend as an expression of the authentic and life-giving Catholic Tradition." – by D'Ambrosio, Marcelino, Ph.D. cited from the web ministry 'Crossroads_Initiative'_25_November_2010: http://www.crossroadsinitiative.com/library_article/128/Doctors_of_the_Church.html
[45]As has been the experience of other saints attested to in the history of Christianity such as Catherine of Siena, Thomas Aquinas, and Orthodox Christian saint Seraphim of Sarov to name but a few.
[46] Joseph Vann, Lives of Saints, "Saint Teresa of
[47] Ibid.
[48] Ibid.
[49] An interesting fact is that Teresa of Ávila herself was of Jewish heritage, her grandfather having been an observant Jew who converted to Christianity (such persons were referred to as 'Conversos') during the Spanish Inquisition. There is speculation that John of the Cross may also have been of Muslim or Jewish 'Converso' heritage.
[50] Poulain, A. "Mystical Marriage," in The Catholic Encyclopedia, (New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1910), accessed 25 November 2010, http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/09703a.htm.
[51] Ibid.
[52] Ibid.
[53] Poulain, A. (1910). Ibid.
[54] Ibid.
[55] Ibid.
[56] Ibid.
[57] Thérèse of Lisieux wrote: "I feel in me the vocation of the Priest. I have the vocation of the Apostle. Martyrdom was the dream of my youth and this dream has grown with me. Considering the mystical body of the Church, I desired to see myself in them all. Charity gave me the key to my vocation. I understood that the Church had a Heart and that this Heart was burning with love. I understood that Love comprised all vocations, that Love was everything, that it embraced all times and places...in a word, that it was eternal! Then in the excess of my delirious joy, I cried out: O Jesus, my Love...my vocation, at last I have found it...My vocation is Love!", accessed 26 November 2010, from Catholic Online.com, http://www.catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint_id=105 .
[58] 'Telos' (τέλοϛ) Greek term for for "end", "purpose", or "goal". See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telos_(philosophy) or http://www.studylight.org/lex/grk/view.cgi?number=5056, accessed 27 November 2010.