🕊️Saint John of the Cross, born Juan de Yepes in Spain in 1542, stands out in the firmament of the Church as the Mystical Doctor par excellence, having undertaken, together with Saint Teresa of Avila, the rigorous reform of the Carmelite Order, which cost him misunderstandings and painful imprisonment, sufferings that served as a forge for his sublime spiritual writings and poems such as the "Ascent of Mount Carmel" and the "Dark Night of the Soul"; his life was a ceaseless quest for transforming union with God, teaching the path of radical detachment — the nothing — to arrive at the All, until his death in 1591, leaving a perennial theological legacy that illuminates the depths of the interior life and Christian asceticism.
📜Epistle (II Tim 4, 1-8)
✍️Dearly beloved: I charge thee, before God and Jesus Christ, who shall judge the living and the dead, by his coming, and his kingdom: Preach the word: be instant in season, out of season: reprove, entreat, rebuke in all patience and doctrine. For there shall be a time, when they will not endure sound doctrine; but, according to their own desires, they will heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears: And will indeed turn away their hearing from the truth, but will be turned unto fables. But be thou vigilant, labour in all things, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill thy ministry. Be sober. For I am even now ready to be sacrificed: and the time of my dissolution is at hand. I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith. As to the rest, there is laid up for me a crown of justice, which the Lord the just judge will render to me in that day: and not only to me, but to them also that love his coming.
✝️Gospel (Mt 5, 13-19)
🌟At that time, Jesus said to his disciples: You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt lose its savour, wherewith shall it be salted? It is good for nothing any more but to be cast out, and to be trodden on by men. You are the light of the world. A city seated on a mountain cannot be hid. Neither do men light a candle and put it under a bushel, but upon a candlestick, that it may shine to all that are in the house. So let your light shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven. Do not think that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets. I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill. For amen I say unto you, till heaven and earth pass, one jot, or one tittle shall not pass of the law, till all be fulfilled. He therefore that shall break one of these least commandments, and shall so teach men, shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven. But he that shall do and teach, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.
🧘Reflections
🕯️Today's liturgy, in celebrating Saint John of the Cross, intertwines the depth of asceticism with the luminosity of mysticism, reflecting Saint Paul's exhortation to Timothy to "preach the word" and maintain sobriety amidst tribulations. The "good fight" of the Apostle finds an echo in the life of this Doctor of the Church, who understood that being the "light of the world," according to the Gospel, does not mean seeking exterior brilliance or human recognition, but allowing the living flame of love to purify the soul in the dark nights of the senses and the spirit; as Saint Teresa of Avila teaches us well, mental prayer, the basis of this union, "is nothing else than a friendly dealing, taking time frequently to be alone with Him whom we know loves us" (Saint Teresa of Jesus, The Book of Her Life, 8), and it was in this inhabited solitude that John became a beacon, not hidden under the bushel of fear, but placed on the candlestick of the Church to guide souls to the summit of perfection.
🛡️As we meditate on Christ's call for us to be the "salt of the earth," we are referred to the preserving function of Catholic truth against moral and doctrinal corruption. Saint Thomas Aquinas explains that salt symbolizes the divine wisdom that tempers the human mind and prevents the putrefaction of sin, it being the duty of the doctors of the Church to communicate this wisdom (Saint Thomas Aquinas, Catena Aurea in Matthaeum); the doctrine of Saint John of the Cross, by proposing the radical detachment from everything that is not God, acts as this purifying salt that preserves the essence of the faith, teaching that to possess the "All," it is necessary to desire to be "nothing" in created things, thus fulfilling the law of God not only in the letter but in the integrity of the spirit that seeks solely the glory of the Father.
⛰️Finally, the Pauline warning about the time when men "will not endure sound doctrine" and will turn to fables is a perennial alert for our fidelity to the Magisterium and Tradition. True greatness in the Kingdom of Heaven, promised by Christ to him who keeps and teaches the commandments, lies in the constancy of faith and the practice of heroic virtues, and not in adapting the Gospel to the whims of the world; the Catechism of the Catholic Church recalls that "the way of perfection passes by way of the Cross" and that there is no holiness without renunciation and spiritual battle, a truth incarnated by Saint John of the Cross who, by keeping the faith amidst persecutions, received the "crown of justice," inviting us to be firm like a city upon a mountain, whose works glorify God and illuminate the darkness of ignorance.
🇺🇸See English version of the critical articles here.
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