Ascent – Part I

Introduction

1. Introduction
   • The title of this three-part series is “The Ascent of Mount Carmel.” The title is intended to convey the theme that runs through two of John’s major treatises: “The Ascent of Mount Carmel” and “The Dark Night of the Soul”.
     • These two treatises, the Ascent and the Dark Night are commonly thought of as separate works.
     • The reality is that together they contain what John promised to write about in his introduction to the prolog of the Ascent.
     • The Dark Night was written during the same six-year time period as the Ascent, and the internal evidence of both works provides explicit evidence that in John’s mind, the Dark Night is a major part of the larger Ascent (CW, 55).
     • Hence, the two treatises are commonly referred to as the Ascent-Dark Night. This lecture series will be drawing from both the Ascent and the Dark Night.
2. Brief Explanation of Teresian Mansions
   • Overview
     • In order to put some of the terminology of the Ascent in its context, we need to first say something about the “Teresian mansions.”
     • In her spiritual masterpiece, “Interior Castle,” Teresa of Avila describes her model of spiritual development in detail. I’m going to summarize her book in less than a page of notes, so this is merely a high-level overview. There is obviously more that could be said about the subject.
     • In her model, there are seven “mansions”; each mansion represents a successively higher level of spiritual development; and each has its own defining characteristics.
     • As one progresses through the seven mansions, the human will becomes increasingly conformed to the will of God. This is especially true of the last four mansions.
     • This spiritual transformation is characterized by a decrease in selfishness and a corresponding increase in virtue.
   • The First Three Mansions
     • In the first three mansions, generally speaking, the mode of prayer is meditation on the life of Jesus, especially as recorded in the Gospels. The prayer of meditation is done in the human manner; the person at prayer is in control (with the assistance of grace, as always).
     • It is reasonable to assume that the vast majority of Christians who are in the state of grace will find themselves in one of these first three mansions.
   • Fourth Mansions
     • In fourth mansions, a person begins to transition from meditation to infused prayer (aka, contemplation). But this occurs with a great deal of fluctuation, so that sometimes it will be proper for the individual to meditate, and sometimes it will be necessary to simply be disposed to receiving infused prayer.
       • Note that contemplation should not be confused with meditation. They are two very different things.
       • Contemplation, as opposed to meditation, occurs in the divine manner, when and if God desires to give it.
       • The person at prayer has no control over infused prayer. One can only be disposed to receiving it.
         • This is analogous to receiving grace from the sacraments.
     • Fourth Mansions is a difficult stage of prayer development because of its fluctuating nature and the gradual transition from meditation to contemplation that occurs at this stage, but John of the Cross provides us with signs that enable us to discern whether or not one should be engaged in meditation, or simply be disposed for infused prayer.
     • Entry into the fourth mansions is common for those individuals who are actively working to develop their spiritual life.
       • Advancement beyond the fourth mansions is not common; few are willing to make the effort.
   • The Last Three Mansions
     • The last three mansions (i.e., mansions 5, 6, and 7) are characterized by contemplation and significant growth in virtue.
     • In seventh mansions, the transformation of the human will has reached the point where it is completely conformed to the will of God.
     • This corresponds to a dramatic increase in the level of virtue that is practiced, for the selfish tendencies the person once had have been completely eradicated by the purifying effects of infused prayer.
       • For this reason, one who dies after having reached the transforming union, enters immediately into the beatific vision. Such a person has no need for the purifying “fire” of purgatory.
     • The degree of virtue found in the seventh mansions is called heroic. It is vastly superior to that found in the prior mansions.
       • Heroic virtue is humanly impossible. It is only possible for one whose will has been completely transformed to the will of God, after which He can produce great works in the person who has been transformed.

Ascent of Mount Carmel: Prolog

1. To Reach Divine Union Quickly
   • With these introductory comments out of the way, we now turn to the writings of John of the Cross. He states his purpose for writing the Ascent-Dark Night in his introduction to the Prolog. He writes:
     • “This treatise explains how to reach divine union quickly [i.e., the transforming union, the seventh of the Teresian mansions; note that he says quickly]. It presents instruction and doctrine valuable for beginners and proficients alike [beginners: those in the first three Teresian mansions; proficients: those who have moved into the fourth, fifth, and sixth mansions] that they may learn how to unburden themselves of all earthly things, avoid spiritual obstacles, and live in that complete nakedness and freedom of spirit necessary for divine union” (Ascent Prolog, heading)
   • We need to note three things in this paragraph:
     • First, the “complete nakedness” John speaks of is what comes about as a result of our being stripped of our selfish clingings to the material and immaterial things of this world.
       • These selfish clingings are essentially disordered acts of self-love. The problem with these acts is that they reduce our capacity to fulfill the Great Commandment:
         • “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself” (Lk 10:27).
         • “On these two commandments depend all the law and the prophets” (Mt 22:40).
       • Clearly, we cannot fulfill these two commandments as long as our heart is divided between God and the things of this world, as Jesus tells us in Matthew’s Gospel:
         • “No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon” (Mt 6:24).
         • “He who loves something together with God undoubtedly make little of God, for he weighs in the balance with God an object far distant from God” (A I, 5, 4).
       • Consequently, if we are going to advance in the spiritual life, we need to overcome these selfish clingings. Failure to do so is an obstacle to growth.
     • Second, when he says he will explain “how to reach divine union quickly,” he is thinking in terms of years, typically many years, rather than weeks or months. That will become obvious as we go through this series of lectures.
       • However, one should note that the speed with which one advances is determined largely by an individual’s commitment to attaining the transforming union.
     • Third, when he speaks of “unburdening themselves of all earthly things, [and] avoiding spiritual obstacles,” let us just note for now that there are many such obstacles. John makes them known in detail throughout the Ascent.
2. John’s Audience: A Disputed Question
   • It is these obstacles to spiritual growth that John intends to guide us through in the Ascent. In Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus says:
     • “Enter by the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is easy, that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard, that leads to life, and those who find it are few” (Mt 7:13-14).
     • People typically understand the narrow gate in this verse to be referring to the gate to heaven, and it can be understood that way.
     • But, John teaches that the narrow gate is that which opens the way to the fullness of life in this world (Ascent II, 7).
       • “I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly” (Jn 10:10).
   • Since the way to abundant life is hard, as Jesus states, we should expect that the spiritual direction John is going to give in the Ascent will be challenging. He gives us a bit of a warning about what to expect:
     • “We are not writing on pleasing and delightful themes addressed to the kind of spiritual people who like to approach God along sweet and satisfying paths . . .
     • . . . [rather] we are presenting a substantial and solid doctrine for all those who desire to reach this nakedness of spirit” (Ascent, Prolog, 8).
   • Having heard this statement, one might ask, “Am I the kind of person for whom John is writing? Who, precisely, makes up John’s audience?
   • The question is an important one, because it is a disputed question among those who do not know the Church’s teaching on this matter. Does John write for the many or the few. Are we included in his audience?
     • These questions come up because John writes in the Dark Night:
       • “God does not bring to contemplation [Teresian mansions 4 and above] all those who purposely exercise themselves in the way of the spirit, nor even half. Why? [God] best knows. As a result He never completely weans their senses from the breasts of considerations and discursive meditations” (DN, I, 9, 9).
     • Of this passage, Fr. Dubay writes in “Fire Within”:
       • “We find one text in each writer [John and Teresa] that appears to deny the universal call [to holiness], but it is overwhelmed by an avalanche of other passages [in their writings] that make a final affirmation unmistakable and unhesitating” (FW, 208).
         • The phrase, “universal call to holiness” is found in the documents of Vatican Council II. It refers to the transforming union, the seventh of Teresa’s mansions.
     • There is another paragraph, this one in the Prolog of the Ascent that also calls John’s audience into question. He writes in the prolog:
       • “My main intention is not to address everyone, but only some of the persons of our holy Order of the Primitive Observance of Mount Carmel, both friars and nuns, whom God favors by putting them on the path leading up this mount, since they are the ones who asked me to write this work” (Ascent, Prolog, 9).
       • This statement says nothing more than who his first audience is, and we would know that to be the case even if he didn’t make the explicit statement. The paragraph says nothing about anyone being excluded from his audience.
     • If there were any question about whether John’s mystical doctrine is for the few or the many, it is certainly answered by the fact that the Church has proclaimed John to be a Doctor of the Universal Church, for the Church avidly encourages all the faithful to read the writings of these doctors.
   • So, in answer to our question, “Who is John’s audience?”, we simply repeat what he said above: His audience is “all those who desire to reach this nakedness of spirit.”
     • No one should be discouraged by the challenge he presents to us.
     • The key qualifications for being ready for his doctrine are a desire for the transforming union and a willingness to follow that desire under the guidance of John of the Cross and the Holy Spirit.
       • By following John we can be sure we are following the guidance of the Holy Spirit, for the Holy Spirit has explicitly confirmed John’s teaching through the Church’s declaration that made John of the Cross a Doctor of the Church in the area of mystical theology.
3. The Necessity of the Teaching of John of the Cross
   • The Church doesn’t make someone a Doctor of the Church just because a person writes well on matters relating to the Church’s teachings. Rather, there must be a genuine perennial need for the writings of each of the Doctors of the Church.
   • As a spiritual director par excellence, John has seen the need the Church has for his teaching. Thus, he says the doctrine he is presenting is “extremely necessary to so many souls” . . . “for even though these souls have begun to walk along the road of virtue . . . they do not advance” (Ascent, Prolog, 3).
   • Why do they not advance? He lists some reasons in the Prolog:
     • Some individuals are without suitable and alert spiritual directors.
     • “Some spiritual directors are likely to be a hindrance and harm rather than a help to these souls” (Ascent, Prolog, 4).
     • Some individuals do not know how to break away from the methods of beginners.
     • Some “do not willingly adapt themselves to God’s work of placing them on the pure and reliable road leading to union with Him.”
       • John says of these: “They resemble children who kick and cry, and struggle to walk by themselves when their mothers want to carry them; in walking by themselves they make no headway, or if they do, it is at a child’s pace” (Ascent, Prolog, 3).
     • “Some . . . work and tire themselves greatly, and yet go backwards [for] they look for perfection in exercises that are of no profit to them” (Ibid., 7)
   • John’s goal is to explain all the difficulties one faces when walking along the way of perfection, “so that everyone who reads this book will in some way discover the road he is walking along, and [discover] the [road] he ought to follow if he wants to reach the summit of this mount” (Ibid., 7).

The Dark Nights

1. The Dark Nights (Chapter 1)
   • Following the Prolog’s overview of John’s plan for the issues he intends to address in the Ascent, he begins to lay out his particular paradigm for the journey to God. The imagery he uses is that of “night.”
   • He tells us that “a soul must ordinarily pass through two principal kinds of night (which spiritual persons call purgations or purifications of the soul) in order to reach the state of perfection” (Ascent I, 1, 1).
     • Before we speak of these two principle nights, we need to be clear about what John means when he speaks of the “state of perfection,” for this is a major theme of his writings.
     • He is not speaking of some lofty moral ideal that is impossible to attain.
     • The word “perfection” comes from the Latin “perfectus,” which means, in this context, complete, finished.
     • Used in this sense, we can say that the perfection of an acorn is a mature oak tree, a tree that is capable of producing acorns, so as to be able to continue the propagation of its species and provide food for squirrels.
     • When the acorn has reached maturity, it has become what God intended it to be; hence, it has reached a state of perfection (i.e., completeness).
       • It can take an oak tree twenty to thirty years to reach maturity. Note that maturity does not mean the oak will cease growing.
     • With human beings, since we are a composite of body and soul, there are two modes of perfection, one of the body and one of the soul.
       • With respect to the body, perfection consists in reaching the state of physical maturity where, like the oak tree, the body is capable of continuing the propagation of the species and caring for one’s offspring. This is what God has intended for the body.
         • “And God blessed them, and God said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it’” (Gen 1:28).
       • With respect to the soul, perfection consists in attaining complete harmony with God’s will. This is what God has intended for us, as we see in Scripture:
         • “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself” (Lk 10:27).
         • “If you love me, you will keep my commandments” (Jn 14:15).
         • “You, therefore, must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect” (Mt 5:48).
       • This perfection of the soul occurs in the transforming union, the seventh of the Teresian mansions.
         • Notice that the maturity of the body is essentially guaranteed, as long as one does the things we are inclined to do anyway (e.g., eating, sleeping, working).
         • The situation is different for the soul. The maturity of the soul is by no means guaranteed, as is patently obvious just by comparing our spiritual lives with the lives of the saints.
2. The Two Principal Nights
   • Regarding the two principal nights that we mentioned above, John is referring to what he calls the “night of sense” and the “night of spirit” (Ascent I, 1, 2).
     • The night of sense refers to the time of reformation of the voluntary desires that we attribute to the five senses (sight, sound, smell, taste and touch).
       • For example: the desire to eat for pleasure alone, the desire to hear things we do not need to hear, or to see things we do not need to see, etc.
     • The night of spirit refers to the reformation of the voluntary desires that arise in the will.
       • For example: the desire to be well thought of by other people, the desire to have one’s own way in doing things, the desire to exercise power over others, the desire for possessions, etc.
     • These two nights, the night of sense and the night of spirit, each have an active part and a passive part.
       • In the active part of each night, one does what he can to eliminate these inordinate desires.
       • However, it is not possible for anyone to do this completely on his own. Hence, before the task is complete, God must step in to bring about the necessary purification. This takes place in the passive part of each night, with the individual’s cooperation, of course.
     • The active night of sense is entered when one begins to make a decided effort to purify himself of disordered sensory desires.
       • Hence, one chooses to enter the active night of sense, and it will not be entered until one has made that choice.
       • Entry to the active night of sense typically corresponds to one beginning the practice of Christian meditation. We will explain why that is shortly.
     • Entry into the passive night of sense comes about according to God’s timing.
       • This takes place after one has exercised himself in the active night of sense for some time, and has made progress in the reform his inordinate desires of the senses.
       • Entry into the passive night of sense corresponds to the time at which one receives the first beginnings of infused prayer.
         • This normally begins anywhere from one to several years for a person who has made a serious commitment to the practice of Christian meditation,
       • We will speak of the signs denoting this entry in part II of this series.