Paths to Contemplation - 46

Chapter 10 -The Night of the Soul

The what and why of the Night of the Soul

The Night of the Soul – sometimes called the Dark Night of the Soul, or the Night of the Spirit -- is both similar to, yet different from, the Night of the Senses.   It is similar in its purpose which is purification to allow the soul to become more closely conformed to God, and it is similar in the difficulty the soul finds in praying.  But the Night of the Soul is far more intense than the Night of the Senses in the pain the soul suffers at the seeming loss of God, and the purification God uses this Night to effect is at a deeper level.

Teresa of Avila believed that while most souls intent on fidelity to God endure the Night of the Senses, few reach the Night of the Soul.  The very term “Night of the Soul” is often misused to designate a period of sadness or depression or other time of great stress or difficulty.   I have heard people say, “I am going through the Dark Night of the Soul,” in this latter sense when they were not in this Night as the term is properly used in the theology of the spiritual life.

A person who is led in the Night of the Soul has already achieved a high degree of union with God and has usually, though not invariably, been given the gift of infused contemplation.  The contemplative prayer with which the soul has been gifted may, at times, have caused it to forget the senses and the intellect; the soul may have seemed drawn out of the body, the body as if asleep, to raptures that were a foretaste of heaven, an embrace in the arms of God.

The soul is already so closely conformed to God, so much in love with God that it would rather die than commit the slightest offense against the Beloved, so devoted to the Lord that it would prefer to suffer any pain or endure any affliction than be separated from the One it loves above all else, even itself.  And so, if the soul has, by God’s grace, already reached such an advanced state of holiness, why is there the need for further purification, particularly in such a painful form as the Night of the Soul?

We are called on to love God with all our hearts and minds and souls and strength.  Someone who loves God with 99.8% of her heart and mind and soul and strength is certainly doing much better than average, but there is still some small part of her that does not yet belong entirely to God, some obstacle that prevents God from completing the transformation of the soul into all God wants it to become, his perfect beloved.

I find the term “purgative contemplation” to be key to the understanding of the Night, for during the Night, God is acting within the soul in a special way to cleanse it of all those last obstacles that yet remain to full union with the soul’s Beloved.  The soul itself has, in essence, gone as far as possible in conforming itself to God’s will and, through the grace of God, to living in accordance with the fulness of the Gospel.  But this is still not enough to purify it so perfectly that it may be brought into the bridal chamber of the One for whom it yearns so passionately.  At some point, only God knows what obstacles remain and, like a purifying flame, God must enter in and burn away the dross that yet remains.

The soul, so fervently in love with God, does not deliberately cling to these obstacles to God’s action.  If the soul knew what they were, she would do all she could to remove them.  But the soul at this stage is not aware of what they are and could not, of her power, remove them even if she were aware.  But God knows what they are and God has the power to remove them to make the soul completely his.

The Night of the Soul, like infused contemplation or the Night of the Senses, cannot be adequately described in verbal descriptions or artistic images.  Just as Jesus used parables to try to convey often mysterious spiritual realities, poetry is often a medium employed to try to convey what the soul endures during this Night.  Nor are terms such as suffering or pain adequate to describe the soul’s experience, for in this Night God is taking control of the soul and drawing it ever closer to himself.  The soul senses this and knows in faith that God has not abandoned it, no matter distant the beloved may seem to be.  The pain may be intense, but there is also a sense of safety, an inner assurance that good things are taking place.