Illustrating the figure of St. John of the Cross at the general audience, Benedict XVI emphasizes that holiness is not for "privileged few", but path to which all are called. By "eliminating all disordered dependence on things" the soul is rendered "pure and free".
Vatican City (AsiaNews) – Understanding the path to holiness "is not an added burden to the already heavy burden of our lives, but a light that man has within himself," a force that helps us to carry this burden ". Because human effort alone is unable to eradicate the bad habits of the person, it can only limit them, instead "God's decisive action" is needed to eliminate them". A path to render the soul pure and free" in which all disordered dependence on things must be eliminated". This is the lesson that Benedict XVI has drawn from the life and work of St. John of the Cross, "Doctor mysticus", during the general audience attended by six thousand people.Continuing his series of lessons on the doctors of the church, the Pope raised the question whether "this great saint, with his Christian mysticism, has something to say to us, to every normal Christian who lives the conditions of life today, or is he just a model for a few chosen souls". To "find an answer - he continued - we must first understand that John's life was not one of a mystical flying in the clouds: it was a very hard, practical and concrete life", to the point of prison, where "he suffered incredible insult and physical abuse, yet in prison he wrote one of his finest works. " Because holiness is not only for a privileged few, but a path to which we all are called.
The "Doctor mysticus", "one of the major lyric poets of Spanish literature, was born in Fontiveros in 1542 into a" poor family ": his father had been disowned and disinherited because he married Catherine, a humble silk weaver. The death of his father drove the family to Medina del Campo, where the young man was admitted to Immaculate Conception hospital as a nurse and at 18 years of age admitted into the Jesuit college. By the end of his formation his vocation to religious life was clear and in 1563 he joined the Carmelites of the city, taking the religious name of Matthias. Sent to Salamanca University, he was ordained priest in 1567 and returned to Medina del Campo for his first mass. Here his first meeting, "decisive for both", with St. Teresa of Avila, who was leading the reform of the Carmelite order. Teresa explained her plan to reform the Order and suggested to John to join her "for the greater glory of God". John "was fascinated by the project." The two worked together a few months and inaugurated the first home of the Discalced Carmelites on December 28, 1568. In renewing their religious profession they adopted a new name and John called himself "of the Cross".
It was a " not an easy adhesion" culminating in 1577 in his abduction and imprisonment in the convent of the Carmelites of the Ancient Observance of Toledo as a result of an unjust accusation. For months he was subjected to physical and moral deprivation. On the night between August 16 and 17, 1578 he escaped, taking refuge in the monastery of the Carmelites.
On his recovery in 1572 at the request of St. Teresa he became confessor and vicar of the Avila monastery where the saint was prioress. It was a period of "cooperation and spiritual enrichment for both". He was then destined for Andalusia, where he spent 10 years in various monasteries, especially in Granada, where he completed the drafting of his treatises. Returning as superior to Segovia, in 1591 he was assigned to the new religious province of Mexico. While preparing for the new role he became seriously ill. He patiently endured "great suffering". He died Dec. 14, 1591, while his confreres recited the office. His last words were: "Today I am going to sing the Office in heaven."
He was beatified by Clement X in 1675 and canonized by Benedict XIII 1726. In 1926 Pope Pius XI proclaimed him a Doctor of the Church.
In his major works - The Ascent of Mount Carmel, The Dark Night of the Soul, The Spiritual Canticle, and The Living Flame of Love - there is a "profound mystical doctrine." In the Spiritual Canticle St. John presents the "path of purification of the soul, namely the progressive joyous possession of God, until the soul comes to feel that it loves God with the same love with which it is loved by Him". In the "Ascent of Mount Caramel" we see "the spiritual journey from the point of view of the progressive purification of the soul, to scale the summit of Christian perfection." The Dark Night describes "the passive aspect, in short, God's intervention in the process of purification of the soul." "In fact human effort alone is unable to arrive at the deep-rooted bad habits of the person, it can only constrain them, but not completely eradicate them," while "the necessary special action of God radically purifies". In this sense John of the Cross speaks of "passive purification," which is "accepted by the soul, but realised by the Holy Spirit which is like a flame of fire that consumes all impurities". "Eliminating all disordered dependence on thing" is what renders the soul "pure and free".