St. John of the Cross Poetry Reflections Part 1 One Dark Night

One dark night
Filled with love's urgent longings
-Ah, the sheer grace!-
My house being now all stilled;

In the darkness and secure,
by the secred ladder, desguised;
-Ah, the sheer grace!-
In darkness and concealment,
My house being now all stilled;

On that glad night,
In secret, for no one saw me,
Nor did I look at anything,
With no other light or guide,
Than the one that burned in my heart.

This guided me
More surely than the light of noon
To where he waited for me
-Him I knew so well-
In a place where no one else appeared.

O guiding night!
O night more lovely than the dawn!
O night that has united
The lover with his beloved
Transforming the beloved in her lover.

I understand and forgot myself
All things ceased
I went out from myself
Leaving my cares
Forgotten among the lilies.

In One Dark Night, St. John of the Cross describes his experience of going through the process of ecstasy while in a state of contemplative prayer. Ecstasy can be described as God briefly taking the soul out of the body and "holding it in the palm of his hand" in an intimate encounter. The comforting words of Scripture in spite of the darkness of faith, which here is compared to a dark night, resound throughout the whole poem. This poem speaks of Christ leading his beloved to himself even in the darkness of faith. While St. John may be describing his immediate experience of ecstatic union with God, this experience has profound meaning for the Christian as well because, while the majority of people do not regularly experience this privileged grace, as St. John did, it is through this same process that God leads each and every soul to unity with himself through the ups and downs of an entire lifetime. These grace-filled experiences of coming to know and becoming ever more united with God manifest themselves not only in prayer or in the reading of scripture, but can include everything from experiencing the love in our families and friendships to even an experience of the awe and beauty found in creation and in the arts that express it along with countless other measures of God’s goodness revealed.

As one treads through this life of brokenness and sin, let the words of the first stanza beam a ray of light, remembering that God fills us, his beloved, with love for him. With this love, he sustains us through the rough terrain of our earthly existence by his "sheer grace," and by the light of this grace, we can seek and keep focus. This is also a stark reminder to the artist who seeks perfection in his work. Human nature inhibits the artist from fully conveying the true beauty and goodness of God in his work in spite all attempts on his own. It is only through the grace which St. John speaks of here that enables the Holy Spirit to guide the artist to showcase God's glory in his beautiful work. It is clearly evident that St. John was the perfect example of such an artist at work in cooperation with the Holy Spirit in describing his experience of God.

In this poem and in many of St. John's poems, he speaks of God's infinitely and unconditionally loving relationship to his people as like the relationship found within spouses. Often Christ is compared to a bridegroom or similar figure and man, the bride or something synonymous. Like in scriptural images, the house that St. John speaks of is an allegory used to describe the soul. The beloved in the poem is confident in and at peace with Christ's pursuit of the beloved as we must be. With this confidence, St. John feels ready to venture into the uncertainty of darkness. Despite the darkness and by the graces which are showered upon St. John, he responds positively as he moves forward into the darkness. In the second stanza St. John states that he has come to the understanding that God has begun to lead John in a way not recognizable without the gift of grace. Let this be an example for us as well to find God at work in the more hidden circumstances and for a greater openness of the grace to do so.

In his surrender, God takes full control of St. John, leading him into places unknown. Yet, St. John continues to remain confident and trusting because he travels "with no other light or guide than the one that burned in his heart." St. John soon even forgets that he is surrounded in darkness as he continues to ascend upwards towards the hand of God. He becomes so trusting in God's loving providence that he compares it as being brighter than the light of noon. As one reads throughout the whole poem, even at times when God's presence is not as recognizable as it is in the fourth stanza where he makes the statement of God's providence as being brighter than the light of noon, one can understand by the overall tone of the writing, that St. John still expresses great joy in his intimate encounter with God throughout his entire journey of ecstasy and in even his earthly life thereafter in spite of its limitations. He goes on to explain that it is through one's darkness where he has the greatest experience of God. Finally in the last stanza, St. John reaches the climax of his ecstatic experience where he is moved to complete self-denial for God, coming to full understanding that the most important aspect of his whole life that matters is to live for the glory of God. This climax of St. John's experience is what the soul will experience in the Beatific Vision of God in heaven.