Tuesday, April 8 : Saint John of the Cross

Where have you hidden, Beloved, and left me moaning? you fled like the stag after wounding me; I went out calling you, but you were gone. Where have you hidden? This is like saying: “O Word, my Spouse, show me where you are hidden”. In her petition she seeks the manifestation of his divine essence, because the hiding place of the Word of God is, as St. John asserts, the bosom of the Father (Jn 1:18), that is, the divine essence, which is hidden from every mortal eye and hidden from every human intellect. Isaiah proclaimed in speaking to God: “Indeed, you are a hidden God “(Is. 45:15). It is noteworthy that, however elevated God’s communications and the experiences of his presence are, and however sublime a person’s knowledge of him may be, these are not God essentially, nor are they comparable to him because, indeed, he is still hidden to the soul. Hence, regardless of all these lofty experiences, a person should think of him as hidden and seek him as one who is hidden, saying: “Where have you hidden?” Neither the sublime communication nor the sensible awareness of his nearness is a sure testimony of his gracious presence, nor are dryness and the lack of these a reflection of his absence. As a result, the prophet Job exclaims: “If he comes to me I shall not see him, and if he goes away I shall not understand” (Jb 9:11). It must be understood from this that if a person experiences some elevated spiritual communication or feeling or knowledge, it should not be thought that the experiences are similar to the clear and essential vision or possession of God, or that the communication, no matter how remarkable it is, signifies a more notable possession of God or union with him. It should be known, too, that if all these sensible and spiritual communications are wanting and individuals live in dryness, darkness, and dereliction, they must not thereby think that God is any more absent… The soul’s chief aim in this verse is not to ask for sensible devotion, in which there is neither certain nor clear possession of the Bridegroom in this life, but for the manifest presence and vision of his divine essence, in which she desires to be secure and satisfied in the next life.

Roman Extraordinary (Tridentine) Daily Readings – rosary,team