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The science of the cross. Saint John of the Cross II

Edith stein.. Martyr in the Auschwitz Holocaust

In the month of September or October 1568 the young Carmelite Juan de Yepes, known until then by the name of Juan de Santo Matía with which he had professed in Carmel, made his entry into the poor farmhouse of Duruelo, which was to serve foundation and cornerstone of the Teresian Reform that was then beginning. On November 28, together with two other companions, he committed himself to the observance of the Primitive Rule and took as title of nobility the nickname of the Cross

As just noted, John of the Cross was by then no novice in the science of the Cross. The nickname that he adopted in the Order shows that God united with his soul to symbolize a particular mystery. Juan tries to indicate with the change of his name that the Cross will be from now on the badge of his life. When we speak here of Science of the Cross

The same Savior, on different occasions and with different meanings, has spoken of the Cross: when he predicted his Passion and Death2 he had before his eyes in a literal sense the stake of ignominy on which he was to end his life. But when he says «…he who does not take up his cross and follow me is not worthy of me»3 or «he who wants to come after me must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me» 4 , the Cross is the symbol of all that is difficult and heavy, and that is so contrary to nature, that when one takes this burden on oneself, one has the sensation of walking towards death. And this is the burden that the disciple of Christ must carry daily.

Nowhere does this appear so clearly and impressively expressed as in Saint Paul’s message, which constitutes a well-developed Science of the Cross, a Theology of the Cross, lived in the soul. «Christ sent me… to evangelize and not with artificial words so that the Cross of Christ is not distorted. Because the doctrine of the Cross of Christ is foolishness for those who are lost, but it is the power of God for those who are saved”; «…the Jews ask for signs, the Greeks seek wisdom, while we preach Christ Crucified, a scandal for the Jews, madness for the Gentiles, more power and wisdom of God for those called, whether they are Jews or Greeks. For the folly of God is wiser than the wisdom of men, and the weakness of God is more powerful than the strength of men

La doctrina de la Cruz constituye el «Evangelium Pauli», el mensaje que tiene que anunciar a judíos y gentiles. Es un mensaje sencillo, sin adornos, sin pretensión alguna de persuadir con argumentos racionales

: «Cuanto a mí, no quiera Dios que me gloríe sino en la Cruz de Nuestro Señor Jesucristo, por quien el mundo está crucificado para mí y yo para el mundo»16. El que se ha decidido por Cristo, está muerto para el mundo y el mundo para él. Lleva en su cuerpo los estigmas del Señor 17; es débil y despreciado ante los hombres pero recto y, por ello mismo, fuerte, pues la fuerza de Dios es su fortaleza en la debilidad 18

With this knowledge, not only does the disciple of Christ take on himself the Cross that has been imposed on him, but he himself is crucified. «Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified his flesh with its passions and lusts»

The prison in Toledo also offered him abundant opportunities for this, he called the Holy Mother to Ávila to help her in her difficult mission. She had received the order to return as prioress to the Monastery of the Incarnation from which she had left. She had, under the observance of the mitigated rule, to suppress the abuses that had been introduced there and lead the numerous Community to a true spiritual life. For this, she found it essential to have good confessors. No one could find more on purpose than Juan, whose experience in the inner life she knew very well.

From 1572 to 1577 he worked here to the great benefit of souls.

On the night of December 3 to 4, 1577, some footwear with their accomplices entered the house inhabited by the two father confessors and took them prisoner. Since then, all traces have disappeared.

Only nine months later, following his release, did it become known where he had been. Blindfolded he was led, through lonely neighborhoods, to the Convent of Our Lady in Toledo, the most famous of the convents that the mitigated Observance possessed in Castile. He had his statement taken and, as he refused to leave the Reformation, he was treated as a rebel. He served her as a prison in a narrow room, ten feet long by six wide, in which «how small he is,» as Teresa later wrote, barely fit.

This room had no window or other vent but an open loophole in the wall. In order to pray his breviary, the prisoner had to get on a chair and wait until the sun came up3. The door was secured with a padlock. When, in March 1578, news was received of Father Germán’s escape, the door of the room in front of the cell was even closed. At first every evening and later three times a week – at last only on Fridays – the prisoner was taken to the refectory, where, sitting on the ground, he ate only bread and water for food. In the same refectory he received the discipline. He knelt, naked from the waist up and with his head bowed, and all the religious passed in front of him and beat him with the discipline

Since he handled everything patiently, they called him dead fly, kill them by keeping quiet. To lure him away from the Reformation they offered him a priory as bait, but he was as still as a rock. Then he opened his lips that had been sealed and assured that he would not go back even if it cost him his life. The young novices, witnesses of the insults and ill-treatment, wept with compassion and, amazed at his patience, said: «he is a Saint» 4. His tunic was soaked with blood from the scourging. But he could not change it and he had to wear it during the nine months that his prison lasted. You can imagine what he went through like this in the hot summer months. The food served to him caused such  disorders, that he thought they wanted to kill him. She had to make an act of love with each bite to resist this temptation.

And now it seemed that the sweet light in her heart had gone out. God left him alone. This was the deepest suffering to which no earthly pain can compare. And yet, it was proof of a love of predilection. It seemed to lead him to death, but it led him to life.

No human heart has ever penetrated such a dark night as the Word Incarnate in Gethsemane and Golgotha. No human spirit will be able, no matter how much he investigates, to penetrate the secret of the divine abandonment of the dying Christ. But Jesus can give chosen souls a taste of this extreme bitterness. They are his most faithful friends from whom he demands the supreme proof of love