Today we celebrate the Feast Day of our Founder, St. John of the Cross. Through his untiring determination to climb Mount Carmel through interior poverty and humility, he reached the highest peaks of union with God. As we approach the last week before Christmas, our eyes are still seeking the Star of Bethlehem where we will find the Christ Child.
St. John has a couple of maxims that can assist us on this last leg of our Advent journey.
The first:
The poor man who is naked will be clothed, and the soul that is naked of desires and whims will be clothed by God with His purity, satisfaction, and will.
We know that this is exactly the way that Jesus entered the world. Naked. Poor. In Simplicity and silence. By doing so, He was perfectly fused with the Divine Will of His Father at all times. Things were not overcomplicated. He grew up in simplicity with the Holy Family listening and learning, in obedience. When he began his public ministry, He prayed and fasted for forty days to prepare and do the Will of the Father. He rejected the enemy's temptations and empty promises. Our Lord listened attentively to each person's needs. He met them where they were at and was amongst the people, not the elite. His soul was naked of any personal ambition, and He was truly clothed in purity and humility. We can pray for the same grace and purity. We must cooperate with this grace by stripping ourselves of the attachments and vices that hinder us from realizing such purity in this nakedness of spirit. In these last days before celebrating His birth, let us look within and seek not to add more stuff, but to purge more of the superfluous baggage, whether it be material, emotional, physical, etc.
Second maxim:
The Father spoke one Word, which was His Son, and this Word He speaks in eternal silence, and in silence must It be heard by the soul.
We can only truly hear and subsequently listen to the Spirit's still, small voice if we strive to keep ourselves in a spirit of calm and quiet. This is not easily accomplished in our day and age. We need to foster the presence of Our Lord throughout the day, in the midst of our daily duties and routine by returning to brief loving thoughts of Him, when a moment of quiet sneaks up on us. One can surmise that the reason the shepherds were the ones to hear the glad tidings of joy at the birth of our Savior was due to their quiet disposition and keen listening skills. This doesn't mean we need to go live in the woods or desert to realize such an interior state of being, but we must make efforts and steps towards carving out such times of silence. He is the Word who can soak into our very being and transform us from the inside out. This is the true miracle and promise of Christmas, and of the silence we seek in prayer each and every day. The Christ Child offers us this hope in simplicity and silence, as long as the eyes and ears of our hearts stay open.
Let us ask St. John of the Cross to intercede for us during this last week of Advent, whether we find ourselves in joy or in pain. He has experienced the transformational power of the Cross that leads to resurrection and rebirth. His advice to adapt a spirit of naked simplicity and silence is well taken.
