The Dark Night of the Soul

Though we don’t realize it at the time, when habitual senses of God do disappear in the process of the dark night, it is surely because it is time for us to relinquish our attachment to them. We have made an idol our images and feelings of God, giving them more importance than the true God they represent.

Perhaps I’ve prayed sincerely and wholeheartedly for what I think is the experience of God, but God simply refuses to appear. Or worse, after having seemed to be present, God now goes into hiding.

“functional atheism…the belief that ultimate responsibility for everything rests with me.”7

In the popular mind, fornication means immoral sexual activity, but deeper theological considerations give the word a broader meaning. In its larger sense, fornication implies idolatry, a turning away from God and God’s ways in order to seek personal gratification. This, I believe, is John’s understanding when he speaks of the spirit of fornication

If we are honest, I think we have to admit that we will likely try to sabotage any movement toward true freedom. If we really knew what we were called to relinquish on this journey, our defenses would never allow us to take the first step. Sometimes the only way we can enter the deeper dimensions of the journey is by being unable to see where we’re

As John makes clear, it is not God who disappears, but only our concepts, images, and sensations of God. This relinquishment occurs to rid us of our attachment to these idols and to make possible a realization of the true God, who cannot be grasped by any thought or feeling. At the time though, it seems like abandonment, even betrayal.

The significant term is advertencia, for which “awareness” is a rather tepid translation. In modern Spanish usage, advertencia means “Attention!” in the sense of warning or alarm. John himself explains that advertencia is a very dynamic attentiveness. He likens it to the kind of attentiveness one gives to a dearly loved one or the vigilance of stan

Union with God is neither acquired nor received; it is realized, and in that sense it is something that can be yearned for, sought after, and—with God’s grace—found.

By the time life begins to break our idols, we normally find ourselves deadened and insensitive to the tender gifts we’ve been seeking all along. It is as if we have gorged ourselves on rich meals for so long that we cannot appreciate the delicate freshness of a sip of spring water.