Now, I’m not talking about Batman, so I’ll give you a second to get over your disappointment…
Okay, I want to write a bit today about the dark night of the soul. If you want the whole story, then check out The Dark Night of the Soul by St. John of the Cross (or Juan de la Cruz, if you speak his native tongue). It is a wonderfully insightful book, and – as far as mystical works go – it’s pretty short.
However, to start considering the issue here, let me ask you a few questions. Have you ever found it suddenly hard to pray? I don’t mean to ask whether you were distracted the last time you prayed. Rather, have you ever gone from a time of feeling spiritually alive and energetic, truly enjoying spiritual reading, prayer, liturgy, and religious discussion/activities to feeling absolutely dead inside? Reading the Bible become a chore (and a bore). Your prayers feel like they hit the ceiling and bounce back at you. You just don’t see any purpose in the religious side of life. What may be worse is that you can’t find any reason for it. One day you were fine, and the world was awash in the radiant colors of God. The next day…everything was grey and dismal.
Does that sound familiar?
On the one hand, you may be depressed. If you suspect that might be the case, please consult with a therapist or mental health professional.
On the other hand, you might be entering the dark night of the soul. To consider this concept appropriately, I need to outline briefly how Christian mystics have historically viewed the spiritual life. They divided out three stages of the spiritual life – for talking purposes. In real life, these stages overlap and interpenetrate — often to a frustrating degree. Anyway, the first stage is purgation or purification in which the Christian is changing her or his life, walking away from bad habits (i.e., sin) and setting up good habits (i.e., righteousness). As these good habits take hold, the person moves into the stage of illumination where holiness increases and a sense of God’s presence begins to be felt. Most mystical experiences occur within this stage, but these moments are fleeting and transitory. The final stage is known as union, and it is characterized by a continual settled sense of God’s presence. One’s life and actions seem to take on the qualities of effortless goodness that are often associated with the life of Jesus Christ, as recorded in the New Testament. The recognized saints and mystics of the church are often held up as role models of this stage.
Now, before going any further, I must reiterate that I’m vastly simplifying these stages for quick description. All of life is messy, and the spiritual life is messy right alongside of everything else.
So, that’s all well and good, but what about the dark night of the soul — Get to your point, Doc!
Okay, okay. St. John of the Cross noted that between the first and second stages that many experienced a time of transition that was utterly spiritually dry (he also saw an analogous period between the second and third stages that he called the dark night of the spirit). God appears to be absent…
…because he is beckoning the Christian to seek him out as he “recedes.” Think of it like a child just learning how to walk. His Papa or Mama sits a little bit away from him to encourage him to walk to them. Gradually, they move further away, maybe even all the way across the room to urge him to practice this new-found skill and let his little legs grow strong.
In the dark night of the soul, God is doing the same with us although all our feelings tell us that he is absent.
I feel very strongly about communicating this concept to others. Before I read St. John of the Cross, I went through the dark night more than once. I took turns thinking I was crazy, had committed some unpardonable sin, or that God really didn’t exist. I would end up slowly, after months or years, to gain interest in the spiritual again just to have the whole process repeat itself. So, if you have recognized your own experience in any of these descriptions, take heart! This is the normal Christian life.
Something to think about…