Here are some common misrepresentations of John’s teaching on the Dark Night. Many people believe:
- It is just for truly holy people.
- It is almost applied to any serious difficulty in life.
- It is a punishment to be avoided.
- It is a possible opportunity for anyone. No preparation is needed.
- The good and faithful Christian should not be concerned about such a secret teaching.
- Ordinary piety and devotions are the norm for all lay people.
In its most simple form, the Dark Night sets the heart free for love and directs the search for God with clarity and with compelling intensity. The human heart was made for God and will never find true satisfaction in anything else. However, sin drives the human quest in the wrong direction. We are constantly seeking our happiness in creatures rather than the Creator. Likewise, we go through much of life failing to realize that we are on a dead-end road. The Dark Night offers a road map to God that is direct, clean and simple.
Our misdirection and ignorance need to be addressed if the human heart will ever find fulfillment. Since only God will satisfy, the question for us is, where do we find God? John’s answer is the Dark Nigh opens the way.
II
The first phase of the Dark Night involves some spectacular growth in self-knowledge. Most of it is a new awareness of our own very specific brokenness. These new insights are the beginning of some intense personal turbulence. Some of the truly “sure” accomplishments and missions in our past life slowly become more ambivalent. Many of the good and solid things we chalked up as services for the Lord begin to be seen in good part as self-serving and less than truly righteous. Years of service for others are seen as a power grab and a prestige issue. “All in the name of Jesus” activities often had nothing to do with Jesus. This uncovering of our self-centeredness is prominent in the early stages of the Dark Night. The revelation of long hidden selfishness in our activities is just the start. It is the twilight preceding the increasing obscurity of the Dark Night.
This new awareness will continue to unveil the lack of true charity in so much of our activities that we thought were both good and virtuous. This unraveling of our distorted self-image is a slow and painful process. However, some have a less troublesome experience. This point is part of John’s constant teaching that God has a unique program for each individual. Seldom however, do we avoid deep personal confusion as this awareness of our deep-rooted brokenness continues to expand.
Often, the first change is that we can no longer pray as we once did. Meditation and reflection just do not make the connection. We come up blank and dry. Spiritual reading seems like a waste of time. Even the prayerful reading of the bible is quite burdensome.
We obviously are going to ask why is this happening to us. We will find no relief in our painful inquisitiveness. The experience is ultimately called the Dark Night not because it seeks to harm us and block our journey in some hurtful and nefarious way. The Dark Night is truly about a healing obscurity of God freeing the depths of our being in preparation for the gift of deeper and all-encompassing love. Behind the sense of loss, confusion and dryness the seeds of freedom, hope and love are being planted.
Hidden in the confusion and underneath the personal upheaval, the Dark Night is introducing a new experience. We are moving into a changed and more mature relationship with God. The adjustments are felt in both our prayer and in our personal life. At the heart of this shift is our personal experience. As is always the case in the spiritual life, the lived experience is gently beginning to catch up with our pious thoughts and words. Our new life is transforming our good intentions into concrete action as never before.
As we said in the beginning, the Dark Night is quite simple and truly complex. The following reflections will pursue this simplicity and complexity to help us find the hidden treasure that is the gift of the Dark Night.
