Our first lesson from the Song of Solomon bears repeating:
“Upon my bed at night
I sought him whom my soul loves;
I sought him, but found him not;
I called him, but he gave no answer.
“I will rise now and go about the city,
in the streets and in the squares;
I will seek him whom my soul loves.”
I sought him, but found him not.
The sentinels found me,
as they went about in the city.
“Have you seen him whom my soul loves?”
Scarcely had I passed them, when I found him whom my soul loves.
I held him, and would not let him go
until I brought him into my mother’s house,
and into the chamber of her that conceived me.
The Song of Solomon, as you may recall, stands out in the Hebrew Bible. In truth, it is unique in all our Holy Scripture. Love poetry, often erotic in nature, is not standard fare elsewhere in “The Good Book.” So, why read such provocative words? Because these words that we heard today describe so precisely, succinctly, and perfectly the spiritual journey of those Christian seekers called mystics. One of those mystics we celebrate today—I’ll get to him in a moment. But, right now I want to make a case for us all to become Christian mystics.
Often times, even in the Church, mystics get painted as looneys, dreamers, or at the very least unlike us normal folk. However, most of us who yearn for a closer relationship with Christ would love nothing more than to have a mystical experience with Our Divine Lord. So what gives? Why are we so weary of mystical experiences with God? And, what do these poetic words from the Song of Solomon have to do with becoming a mystic?
Let us start with the Scripture, as this passage portrays for us a roadmap to having an encounter with the Divine. This story depicts one lover in search of another. Now, some might argue that this story is about God searching for us, but I believe it outlines our search for God. We want God—sometimes we think we want something else, but truly behind all our desires is intimacy with the Lover of Our Souls. Sometimes though, we feel like God is not with us—even if God is always there.
Still, we go searching. If we do not find God close by, then we must go out in search for “him whom [our souls] love.” What if we do not sense God even in our own household? What if we miss God in the routine experiences of day-to-day life? Where do we go to find God? Well, like the lover in the Song of Solomon, we must search beyond just our bed and our own home. This searching though presents obstacles.
In this passage we discover that one lover must overcome sleepiness, darkness, and even guards to find the beloved and to go home. This struggle is our roadmap to finding God as Christian seekers. We aim to experience God’s presence. And, despite God’s infinite nearness, sometimes to get beyond our own doubts we must tiredly search in the darkness. There God invites us to relinquish thoughts, feelings, emotions, persons, situations, and conditions that distract us from intimacy with Our Great Beloved. There we find our home where we dwell with God. The saint whom we celebrate today modeled this mystical journey for us.
Now, we might not even have that saint’s words were it not for something that happened long after his death. Juan de la Cruz, or John of the Cross, is the person the Church celebrates today. He served as a strict Carmelite priest and monk in the 16th Century. More on his life shortly, but after his death Pope Benedict XIII made John a saint in the early 18th Century. This was lovely, but his life was quickly forgotten except for by some Carmelites. It was thanks to Pope Pius XI that we have been given the treasures of John’s journey as a mystical. In 1926 Pius XI made John of the Cross a Doctor of the Church, thus his example and writings were given new life. It was then that we in the English speaking world were given a taste of this mystic Christian’s example.
The life of John of the Cross looked very much like this bit from the Song of Solomon and it outlined a journey that we might take. When John became a Carmelite brother he felt that the order needed some reform, as it had become too relaxed. This was a lover in search of his beloved. However, on his pursuit to finding God and reforming the order, he was confronted with sentinels and darkness. The sentinels came in the form of other Carmelites who did not want reform and thus locked him up in Toledo (Holy Toledo!). Within the trying months in jail John encountered darkness. He was persecuted. His spirit was tried. It was there that he composed some of his most profound mystical writing. And through this darkness he even found his beloved, like the lover in the Scripture.
John of the Cross helped us to understand that darkness is not the opposite of God or something merely to be overcome. Instead as we experience the “dark night of the soul” (a phrase coined by John) we discover that God’s presence can be found in illuminating and challenging darkness, just as it is in overwhelming and inspiring brightness. Other saints of the Church including Mother Teresa of Calcutta, Teresa of Avila (who was John’s contemporary), Thomas Merton, and the recently deceased Thomas Keating all endorse this mystical model of “endarkenment” or embracing the dark night of the soul. Each of these holy ones had moments when they were persecuted, lost, or disenchanted with their Christian journey, such that they found God not in the usual places of light, but in Celestial Darkness.
During this season when we remember Christ’s coming in Jesus of Nazareth and look forward to Christ’s coming at the end, may we also wait and watch in the darkness for Christ’s coming now. With fewer and fewer hours of brightness from the sun each day and with the challenges of our own lives, may we recognize that God’s presence shines luminously even as that around us appears dazzlingly dark. May we be like the lover in the Song of Solomon, desperately seeking our beloved even through weariness, sentinels, and other challenges. May we be like John of the Cross who experienced intimacy with the Great Beloved by embracing the dark night of the soul. Amen.
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