Section One
For john of the Cross the Dark Night, contemplation and the transforming action of God in our lives are all intimately connected realities. For John, “Contemplation is none other than a secret, peaceful and loving infusion of God, which if the soul allows it to happen, infuses a spirit of love.” (Dark Night 1.10.6)The senses, the mind, the heart and the entire being need to be prepared for this new action of God. This is the task of the Dark Night. How we see God, and more so, how we experience God is now undergoing a complete makeover. Our self-understanding is profoundly challenged to enter unexplored depths. We are letting go and making space. Our long cherished attachments and deep-rooted addictions are falling by the wayside. The false-self is engaging all its resources in a final stand against the power of love. This gradual movement out of a lifetime of darkness leads to more light in the gift of contemplation.
The immediate result of this whirlwind of change is an onslaught of personal turmoil slowly giving way to an absorbing peace. In this new and deep encounter with God, surrender and acceptance are the ways forward. Letting go and letting God is taking on a totally different intensity. There is a novel degree of clarity of who God is for us and how we experience God. In spite of the great progress, many other levels of growth still await us on this pilgrimage to God.
This spiritual growth usually happens in the midst of a personal crisis. We are asking ourselves, is the entire struggle worthwhile? How can I keep faithful when I am facing apparent rejection and failure on so many levels? All the familiar efforts to manipulate God to protect our plans no longer work. We are standing naked in our creatureliness. Limitations are crushing us from all sides.
Underneath the personal confusion and anxiety is the Dark Nigh and contemplation, this extraordinary action of God. We are just not prepared. Our senses and our mind, and especially our heart, need to be purified for the overwhelming new reality of God’s new engagements within us. Now the divine language of silence is holding sway. Teresa explains it this way. Our thoughts are roaming on the outskirts raising all kinds of havoc while at our center the soul may be completely united with God. We do not see this because our whole being needs purification in order to function at this new level of divine activity.
The transformation we are undergoing is radically changing how we relate to others, the world and God. These deep changes in our being allow us to experience God in a way that frees us and creates a new openness to God’s will.
There is a call to love that urges us to work for justice and peace. Now we feel the pain of God’s creation that is so abused. The cry of the poor and the cry of creation are not a threat but a loving invitation to action.
The Carmelites have a beautiful description of this interplay of the Dark Night and contemplation In their Constitutions, #17: “Contemplation is a transforming experience of the overpowering love of God. This love empties us of our limited and imperfect human ways of thinking, loving, and behaving, transforming them into divine ways.”
In the end, the Dark Night joins with contemplation to free us to a full and generous following of Jesus Christ.
In the second section of this reflection, we are going to look at the prophet Elijah as a model for the puzzling journey of the Dark Night leading to contemplation.
Section Two
Elijah the Contemplative
Elijah, along with the Blessed Mother, is the model for Carmelites. Part of Elijah’s story in the First Book of Kings is a revealing example of the passage to contemplation. Elijah had just experienced a magnificent triumph against the bogus prophets of the false god Baal on Mt Carmel. During this conflict Elijah had challenged the people to choose: “How long will you straddle the issue? If the Lord is God follow him; if Baal, follow him.” (I Kings 19:21)
After Elijah’s great conquest, there is an ironic change of events. All of a sudden, the Queen Jezebel explodes onto the scene. She promises to kill Elijah before the sun sets. In a wildly incongruous denial of all the power of his conquest and triumph on Mt. Carmel, Elijah flees in fear and desperation. On the journey, he drops from both physical and emotional exhaustion. God sends him an angel to give him enough nourishment and hope to move on to Mt. Horeb.
On the mountain, Elijah has a religious experience totally out of his well-defined religious consciousness and expectations. It shatters his intellectual and emotional stability. God did not arrive in the usual manner of the religious tradition. “Then the Lord said, ‘'Go outside and stand on the mountain before the Lord; the Lord will be passing by.’ A strong and heavy wind was rending the mountains and crushing rocks before the Lord but the Lord was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake but the Lord was not in the earthquake. After the earthquake, there was fire but the Lord was not in the fire.” (I Kings 19:11-12)
In his confusion, Elijah had to deal with the collapse of his expectations. The previous familiar encounters of the Israelites with God had come up empty. All Elijah could do is waiting in patient desolation, a radical departure from the clarity and power of his recent victory over the false prophets on Mt. Carmel.
“After the fire there was a tiny whispering sound. When he heard this, Elijah hid his face in his cloak and went and stood at the entrance of the cave. A voice said to him, ‘‘Elijah, why are you here?’ He replied: ‘I have been most zealous for the Lord, the God of hosts.’” (1Kings 19:12-14)
Earlier, while basking in self-pity, Elijah told God he was the only faithful prophet in all of Israel. Now God gently informs him that he had been off in the count. God said there are 7,000 others who have been faithful. God now had a task for Elijah. He is to pass on a double portion of his spirit to Elisha and step aside.
This is a story of self-knowledge and humility and surrender. With these gifts Elijah was able to see himself in the light of God. He was now free. Though he was not in control, he had new power, more than ever. This was his gift of contemplation.
