Of other benefits which the night of sense brings to the soul.Of other benefits which the night of sense brings to the soul.
The imperfections of spiritual avarice, under the influence of which the soul coveted this and that spiritual good, and was never satisfied with this or that practice of devotion, because of its eagerness for the sweetness it found therein, become now, in this arid and dark night, sufficiently corrected. For when the soul finds no sweetness and delight, as it was wont to do, in spiritual things, but rather bitterness and vexation, it has recourse to them with such moderation as to lose now, perhaps, through defect, what it lost before, through excess. Though, in general, to those who are brought to this night, God gives humility and readiness, but without sweetness, in order that they may obey Him solely through love. Thus they detach themselves from many things, because they find no sweetness in them.
The soul is purified, also, from those impurities of spiritual luxury of which I have spoken before, in this aridity and bitterness of sense which it now finds in spiritual things; for those impurities are commonly said to proceed generally from the sweetness which flowed occasionally from the spirit into the sense.
The imperfections of the fourth sin, spiritual gluttony, from which the soul is delivered in the dark night, have been discussed in a former chapter, though not all, because they cannot be numbered. Nor shall I speak of them here, for I wish to conclude the subject of this night, that I may pass on to the other, with regard to which I have serious things to write. Let it suffice for a knowledge of the innumerable advantages which the soul, in addition to those already mentioned, gains, in this night, wherewith to resist spiritual gluttony, to say that it is set free from the imperfections there enumerated, and from many other and greater evils than those described, into which many fall, as we learn by experience, because they have not corrected their desires in the matter of spiritual gluttony.
For when God has brought the soul into this arid and dark night, He so curbs desire and bridles concupiscence that it can scarcely feed at all upon the sensible sweetness of heavenly or of earthly things, and this so continuously that it corrects, mortifies, and controls its concupiscence and desires, so that the forces of its passions seem to be destroyed. Marvelous benefits flow from that spiritual soberness, in addition to those I have mentioned; for because it mortifies concupiscence and desire, the soul dwells in spiritual tranquillity and peace; for, where concupiscence and desire have no sway, there is no trouble, but, rather, the peace and consolation of God.
Another benefit comes from this; a constant remembrance of God, with the fear and dread that it is, as I have said,' going back on the spiritual way. This is a great benefit, and not one of the least, of aridity and purgation of the appetite, for the soul is purified and cleansed thereby, from those imperfections which clung to it because of the affections and desires, the effect of which is to darken and deaden the soul.
Another very great benefit to the soul in this night is, that it practices many virtues at once, as patience and long suffering, which are well tried in these aridities, the soul persevering in its spiritual exercises without sweetness or comfort. The love of God is practiced, because it is no longer attracted by sweetness and consolation, but by God only. The virtue of fortitude also is practiced, because amid these difficulties, and the absence of sweetness in good works from which the soul now suffers, it gathers strength from weakness, and so becomes strong: finally, all the virtues, cardinal, theological, and moral, are practiced amidst these aridities.
In this night the soul obtains these four benefits there mentioned, namely, delight of peace, constant remembrance of God, purity and cleanness of soul, the practice of all the virtues of which I have just spoken. David speaks from his own experience when he was in this night. 'My soul,' he saith, 'refuses to be comforted; I was mindful of God and was delighted, and was exercised, and my spirit fainted.' He adds forthwith: 'I meditated in the night with my own heart, and I was exercised, and I swept my spirit' clean of all affections.
The soul is purified also in this aridity of the desires from the imperfections of the other three capital sins of which I have spoken,f envy, anger, and sloth, and acquires the opposite virtues. Softened and humbled by these aridities, by the hardships, temptations, and afflictions which in this night try it, it becomes gentle with God, with itself, and with its neighbour. It is no longer impatiently angry with itself because of its own faults, nor with its neighbour because of his; neither is it discontented or given to unseemly complaints against God because He does not sanctify it at ` once. As to envy, the soul is in charity with everyone, and if any envy remain, it is no longer vicious as before, when the soul was afflicted when it saw others preferred to it, and raised higher; for now it yields to everyone considering its own misery, and the envy it feels, if it feels any, is a virtuous envy, a desire to emulate them, which is great virtue.
The sloth and weariness now felt in spiritual things are no longer vicious as they were once. They were once the fruit of spiritual delights which the soul experienced at times, and sought after when it had them not. But this present weariness proceeds not from the failure of sweetness, for God has taken it all away in this purgation of the desire.
Other innumerable benefits beside these, flow from this arid contemplation; for, in the midst of these aridities and hardship, God communicates to the soul, when it least expects it, spiritual sweetness, most pure love, and spiritual knowledge of the most exalted kind, ' of greater worth and profit than any of which it had previous experience, though at first the soul may not think so, for the spiritual influence now communicated is most delicate, and imperceptible by sense.
Finally, as the soul is purified from all sensual affections and desires, it attains to liberty of spirit, wherein the twelve fruits of the Holy Ghost are had. It is also delivered in a most wonderful way from the hands of its three enemies - the devil, the world, and the flesh; for when all the delight and sweetness of sense A are quenched, the devil, the world, and the flesh have no weapons and no strength wherewith to assail it.
These aridities, then, make the soul love God in all pureness, for now it is influenced not by the pleasure and sweetness which it found in its works - as perhaps it was when that sweetness was present - but by the sole desire to please God. It is not presumptuous and self-satisfied, or perhaps it may have been in the day of its prosperity, but timid and diffident, without any self satisfaction. Herein consists that holy fear by which virtues are preserved and grow. This aridity quenches concupiscence, and our natural spirits, as I said before; for now, when God infuses, from time to time, His own sweetness into the soul, it would be strange if it found by any efforts of its own as has been already said, any comfort or sweetness in any spiritual act or practice.
The fear of God and the desire to please Him increase in this arid night; for as the breasts of sensuality which nourished and sustained the desires which the soul followed after, become dry, nothing remains in that aridity and detachment but an anxious desire to serve God, which is most pleasing unto Him, as it is written: 'a sacrifice to God is an afflicted spirit.'
When the soul beholds the many and great benefits which have fallen to its lot in this arid purgation through which it passed, it cries out with truth, 'oh, happy lot, forth unobserved I went.' I escaped from the bondage and thraldom of my sensual desires and affections, unobserved, so that none of my three enemies were able to hinder me. These enemies of the soul already spoken off so bind and imprison it in sensual desires and affections, that it cannot go forth out of itself to the liberty of the perfect love of God; without them they cannot attack it.
Hence, when by continual mortification the four passions of the soul are calmed, that is, joy, grief, hope, and fear, when the natural desires are lulled to sleep in our sensual nature by persistent aridities, when the senses and the interior powers of the soul cease to be active, and meditation no longer pursued, as has been already said, which is the household of the lower part of the soul, then the liberty of the spirit is unassailable by these enemies and the house remains calm and tranquil as the words that follow show.
- from The Dark Night of the Soul, by Saint John of the Cross