1. The following poem is from Padre Fray Juan de la Cruz. Juan de la Cruz lived in the latter half of the 16th century. To put that in historical context, this was around the same time that the English reformation was in full flower. The first English Book of Common Prayer was published in 1549. As a friend and confessor of St. Teresa of Avila he was arrested, imprisoned in the Carmelite Friary in Toledo where he was treated with incredible cruelty. In his imprisonment he composed a number of poems which have become classics in contemplative theology. His poetry shows the influence both of secular love poetry and the Song of Songs. “A nun asked him whether God ‘gave him these words which were so comprehensive and so lovely.’ John replied: ‘Sometimes God gave them and at other times I sought them.’”[1]2. It would be a mistake to attempt to expound the meaning of his poems, after all he didn’t really do that very well himself.[2] That is perhaps a characteristic of much of poetry. The language and imagery transcend simple analysis. Rather than attempt the impossible I offer these reflections and share with you what this wonderful poem by Padre Fray Juan de la Cruz stirs in me.
3. Love’s fire is a common theme of many spiritual writers. Richard Rolle, the 14th century English author of The Fire of Love, wrote the following:
Good Jesus, scourge me, wound me, slay me, burn me;
do with me here and now whatever in your goodness you decide;
that in the days to come I may know and feel
not evil but your love--and that, for ever!
To be despised, rejected, insulted by all,
for your sake, is sweeter to me
than to be called the brother of any earthly monarch,
honoured among men, and praised by all.... [3]
4. Similarly George MacDonald (1824-1904), in his very Scottish way, writes,
The fire of God, which is his essential being, His love, His creative power, is a fire unlike its earthly symbol in this, that it is only at a distance it burns—that the further from Him, it burns the worse.[4]
And again,
He will shake heaven and earth, that only the unshakeable may remain: he is a consuming fire, that only that which cannot be consumed may stand forth eternal. It is the nature of God, so terribly pure that it destroys all that is not pure as fire, which demands like purity in our worship.[5]
In the poem by Padre Fray Juan de la Cruz I have interwoven the commentary below the verses. The original translation by Roy Campbell, a South African, in 1951; the words in blue are my substitutions to make the poem more accessible to American readers. The titles in blue, are my titles, and not part of the original poem.
Song of the soul in intimate communication and union with the God who is love [6]
[The Song of Responsive Desire]
5. Oh flame of love so living,
How tenderly you force
To my soul’s inmost core your fiery probe!
Since now you’ve no misgiving,
End it, pursue your course
And for our sweet encounter tear the robe.
The fiery song of desire and fulfillment, in the context of Juan de la Cruz’s other poems, is a love cry from the bride to the Bridegroom. It is Jesus, the Anointed One, who is the Bridegroom! He is Flame of Love!
At the very beginning Juan acknowledges that the initiative comes entirely from the Divine Lover and our desire is a responsive desire. The Lover knows that His love will burn away our dross, and he knows that such burning is a death. He comes tenderly, forcing his way into the receptive heart, piercing to the very center of our being. He sees our responsiveness and desire and in that knowledge he has no misgiving. We cry out in invitation, “End it, pursue your course,” Oh, don’t hesitate come my Lord, enter in, and with sweet encounter tear the robe of my defensiveness.
6. [Entry and Purification]
Oh burning most tender!
Oh wound that is my reward!
Oh gentle hand! Oh touch how softly thrilling!
Eternal life you render,
Raise of all my sins, the burden,
And change my death to life, even while killing!
7. The word “burning” in the original English translation, is “cautery,” which conveys not only a burning wound but sealing of the wound. It is a burning, a cautery, most tender, “for He does not willingly afflict or grieve the sons of men."[7] The very wound His piercing love creates is in itself a reward. So also Teresa of Avila felt when the angel pierced her heart, “I saw in his hands a large golden dart and at the end of the iron tip there appeared to be a little fire. It seemed to me this angel plunged the dart several times into my heart and that it reached deep within me. When he drew it out, I thought he was carrying off with him the deepest part of me; and he left me all on fire with great love of God.”[8] Paradoxically that burning touch is gentle, softly thrilling. Eternal life He brings, He raises from our shoulders the burden of our sins and changes our death to life, even while He kills all that is dross in us.
8. [The Union]
Of Light of fiery blaze
To whose radiant fuel
The deepest caverns of my soul grow bright,
Lately blind with gloom and haze,
But in this strange renewal
Giving to the belov’d both heat and light.
The Light of fiery blaze is Himself the radiance, the refulgence of God’s glory bright, and the exact imprint of his nature.”[9] Even as we surrender to the Bridegroom, we open our hearts to the Father as well, in the power of the Spirit, “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.”[10] Oh, tremendous, unspeakable privilege to become the home of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. The radiant fuel, the very power of the Spirit of Jesus makes the deepest, darkest, even the most feared caverns or our souls bright with brilliant light. Before, within, we were filled with gloom and haze, but now in this strange, almost alien renewal of life and light[11] he warms the very depths of our being.
9. [The Result]
What peace, with love enwreathing,
You conjure to my breast
Which only you your dwelling place may call:
While with delicious breathings
In glory, grace, and rest,
So delicately in love you make me fall!
What follows is a tremendous sense of enveloping peace, we are, to borrow a word from Richard Rolle, “rapt” in love, wrapped and enraptured. Campbell’s translation uses the word “conjure.” What has happened is something “magical.” There is no other way to express it. We now belong fully to him, fully surrendered to His love and fiery Presence. So fully do we belong to Him, He alone, has the right of calling our inmost being his dwelling place. The expression “delicious breathings” conveys a sense of a living, breathing, even delicious Presence within. We are in glory. We are in grace and rest, so delicately He has made us fall in love.
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[1] St John of the Cross: The Poems, Translated from the Spanish by Roy Campbell, (London: The Harvill Press, 1951), p. 25-27,. p. 13
[2] Ibid. p. 17, “He can instruct, but he cannot really explain. He does not in the end know what he means, he only knows that he means what he says.”
[3] Clifton Wolters trans. Penguin, 1972
[4] George MacDonald, An Anthology, ed. C. S. Lewis, (New York: Macmillan Publishing, 1947), p. 63
[5] Ibid. p. 2
[6] St John of the Cross: The Poems, Translated from the Spanish by Roy Campbell, (London: The Harvill Press, 1951), p. 25-27, [Text in blue has been modified to meet contemporary English standards by Robin P. Smith].
[7] Lamentations 3:33
[8] The Collected Works of St. Teresa of Avila, Vol. One, “The Book of Her Life”, (Washington: ICS Publications) 1987. P. 42
[9] Hebrews 1:3
[10] John 14:23
[11] “In him was life, and the life was the light of men” (John 1:4).
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