Darkness
Monday of the Fifth Week of Lent
Daily Reading: John 8:12-20
Focus Passage:
When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, "I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life." (Jn. 8:12)
The vocabulary of “light” and “darkness” can get confusing on the spiritual journey. At one level, we read Jesus’ pronouncements about the light he gives, the light which brings a person out of the darkness forever. This light illumines the lives of women and men in order to bring us out of spiritual darkness and bondage.
At this level of understanding, spiritual darkness is equated with life opposed to God, set against the movement of God. Darkness is a force for destruction and evil that stands against the well-being, healing, and goodness God brings into the world. This spiritual darkness is real and should not be diminished.
Jesus’ light, then, becomes a new way of seeing in the world, a fresh way of orienting one’s life. These words of Jesus ring true: Once we experience the light of God, we can never again see life in the same way we did previously. Our seeing is forever changed. Even if we try to renounce “the Light,” we can never again be completely satisfied with darkness, destruction, and chaos. Our sight has been illumined forever.
Spiritual writers in the Christian contemplative tradition – St. John of the Cross and Teresa of Avila in the 17th century and Thomas Merton in the 20th century, for example – speak of another kind of darkness. In this understanding of the spiritual life, darkness is not merely a force for evil that opposes God. This darkness, described by John of the Cross, is more like “obscurity” (oscura in Spanish), in which the spiritual journey leads us into a life with God we do not completely understand and cannot fully imagine. He called spiritual state the “dark night of the soul.”
In this understanding, God’s true Being is “obscured” from our view by the many images, metaphors, emotions, and concepts that we confuse with the actual experience of God. Faith in God truly becomes faith because we cannot make our own way to God or figure out God on our own.
For some engaged in a spiritual journey, this darkness is a natural outgrowth of life with God. Many people experience a time when they seem to be in darkness, when all their concepts and images of God slowly begin to slip away. They begin to sense that God is beyond all mental constructs and ideas, that God cannot be reduced to what the mind thinks about God or what the lips can say about God.
Our wisest spiritual guides – John of the Cross, Teresa of Avila, Merton, and others – remind us that this kind of darkness and obscurity is normal in the spiritual life. These spiritual guides claim that this “darkness” is not really darkness at all; rather, humans tend to be blinded by the Light as we experience God as God truly is.
Our experience of this obscurity is counter-intuitive. When in the darkness, we may feel as if we’ve lost everything we’ve known of God, all of God we had previously experienced. Actually, God is moving us to a deeper love, a deeper faith, a heart-to-heart relationship that is not predicated on what we see and what we think.
This obscurity may not feel good, but it is a significant marker in the spiritual life. When we hit this spot in the road, we hope not to run from it or try to move back into a previous state of life. In openness, we relate to God as God is, not as we imagine God to be or desire God to be. We allow God to use the obscurity to shape us and draw us to a more authentic love, both for God and for the world.
During Lent it is appropriate to consider our own dark path, especially as we walk with Jesus toward the Cross and Crucifixion.
For Reflection:
Spend some time reflecting on the two meanings of darkness discussed in the meditation. What experiences have you had of each type of darkness?
Daily Reading: John 8:12-20
Focus Passage:
When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, "I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life." (Jn. 8:12)
The vocabulary of “light” and “darkness” can get confusing on the spiritual journey. At one level, we read Jesus’ pronouncements about the light he gives, the light which brings a person out of the darkness forever. This light illumines the lives of women and men in order to bring us out of spiritual darkness and bondage.
At this level of understanding, spiritual darkness is equated with life opposed to God, set against the movement of God. Darkness is a force for destruction and evil that stands against the well-being, healing, and goodness God brings into the world. This spiritual darkness is real and should not be diminished.
Jesus’ light, then, becomes a new way of seeing in the world, a fresh way of orienting one’s life. These words of Jesus ring true: Once we experience the light of God, we can never again see life in the same way we did previously. Our seeing is forever changed. Even if we try to renounce “the Light,” we can never again be completely satisfied with darkness, destruction, and chaos. Our sight has been illumined forever.
Spiritual writers in the Christian contemplative tradition – St. John of the Cross and Teresa of Avila in the 17th century and Thomas Merton in the 20th century, for example – speak of another kind of darkness. In this understanding of the spiritual life, darkness is not merely a force for evil that opposes God. This darkness, described by John of the Cross, is more like “obscurity” (oscura in Spanish), in which the spiritual journey leads us into a life with God we do not completely understand and cannot fully imagine. He called spiritual state the “dark night of the soul.”
In this understanding, God’s true Being is “obscured” from our view by the many images, metaphors, emotions, and concepts that we confuse with the actual experience of God. Faith in God truly becomes faith because we cannot make our own way to God or figure out God on our own.
For some engaged in a spiritual journey, this darkness is a natural outgrowth of life with God. Many people experience a time when they seem to be in darkness, when all their concepts and images of God slowly begin to slip away. They begin to sense that God is beyond all mental constructs and ideas, that God cannot be reduced to what the mind thinks about God or what the lips can say about God.
Our wisest spiritual guides – John of the Cross, Teresa of Avila, Merton, and others – remind us that this kind of darkness and obscurity is normal in the spiritual life. These spiritual guides claim that this “darkness” is not really darkness at all; rather, humans tend to be blinded by the Light as we experience God as God truly is.
Our experience of this obscurity is counter-intuitive. When in the darkness, we may feel as if we’ve lost everything we’ve known of God, all of God we had previously experienced. Actually, God is moving us to a deeper love, a deeper faith, a heart-to-heart relationship that is not predicated on what we see and what we think.
This obscurity may not feel good, but it is a significant marker in the spiritual life. When we hit this spot in the road, we hope not to run from it or try to move back into a previous state of life. In openness, we relate to God as God is, not as we imagine God to be or desire God to be. We allow God to use the obscurity to shape us and draw us to a more authentic love, both for God and for the world.
During Lent it is appropriate to consider our own dark path, especially as we walk with Jesus toward the Cross and Crucifixion.
For Reflection:
Spend some time reflecting on the two meanings of darkness discussed in the meditation. What experiences have you had of each type of darkness?
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