Recently we celebrated the feast of All Carmelite Saints, and I was thinking of the type of death the saints experienced. In the Living Flame of Love, St. John of the Cross speaks of the death experienced by the soul taken with love.
If the death of other people is caused by sickness or old age, the death of these persons is not so induced, in spite of their being sick or old; their soul is not wrested from them unless by some impetus and encounter of love far more sublime than previous ones; of greater power, and more valiant, since it tears through this veil and carried off the jewel, which is the soul.
The death of such persons is very gentle and very sweet, sweeter and more gentle than was their whole spiritual life on earth. For they die with the most sublime impulses and delightful encounters of love, resembling the swan whose song is much sweeter at the moment of death.
St. John of the Cross-Living Flame of Love, Stanza I #30
Is this the kind of death you long for? The soul who experiences this death is the one whose heart has been purified so that it may see God. We could say that we do not "go" to heaven, but that heaven embraces us.
St. John of the Cross' Prayer of a Soul taken with Love
Lord God, my Beloved, if you still remember my sins in such a way that you do not do what I beg of you, do your will concerning them, my God, which is what I most desire, and exercise your goodness and mercy, and you will be known through them. And if you are waiting for my good works so as to hear my prayer through their means, grant them to me, and work them for me, and the sufferings you desire to accept, and let it be done. But if you are not waiting for my works, what is it that makes you wait, my most clement Lord? Why do you delay? For if, after all, I am to receive the grace and mercy that I entreat of you in your Son, take my mite, since you desire it, and grant me this blessing, since you also desire that.Who can free themselves from lowly manners and limitations if you do not lift them to yourself, my God, in purity of love? How will human beings begotten and nurtured in lowliness rise up to you, Lord, if you do not raise them with your hand that made them?You will not take from me, my God, what you once gave me in your only Son, Jesus Christ, in whom you gave me all I desire. Hence I rejoice that if I wait for you, you will not delay.With what procrastinations do you wait, since from this very moment you can love God in your heart?
According to St. John of the Cross there are three paths that lead to union with God:
1. Purgative Way-The purification of the soul that takes place when one begins the life of prayer and desires to become perfect. The soul will normally pass through the "night" of the senses and the "night" of the spirit.
2. Illuminative Way-The soul begins the life of the spirit having mortified its passions and appetites. Nothing in the physical world satisfies the heart longing for God.
3. Unitive Way-After having passed through the purgative and illuminative way the soul reaches the highest union in this life: spiritual marriage.
Peace be with you!
Rosemarie, OCDS
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