St. John Of The Crosss

St. John of the Cross was born in Spain in 1542.  He learned the importance of self-sacrificing and the value of love from his parents.  His father, who was a very wealthy man with high status and comfort gave up everything when he married the love of his life, a poor weaver’s daughter.  He was disowned by his noble family.

When his father died, his mother kept the poor and destitute family together as they wandered homeless in search of work.  When she found work, the income that she got was not sufficient to feed the entire family but John went hungry so that his family could eat.  There were lot of instances of sacrifices John followed with his great love for God. 

At the tender age of 14, John took up a job in a hospital caring for patients who suffered from incurable diseases and madness.  It was out of this poverty and suffering that John learned to search for beauty and happiness not of the world but in God.

John joined the Carmelite order.  He was pained to see the Carmelites living a well to do life and doing little work.  They hardly lived life pleasing to God.  He was thinking of leaving when St. Theresa of Avila asked him to stay and help her to change things.  He did and supported her belief that the Carmelites should return to their strict life of prayer and poverty.  Some of the Carmelites were not happy with the changes as they felt threatened by this reform.  They locked him in a cell six feet by ten feet and had him beaten three times a week by the monks. There was only one tiny window high up near the ceiling, yet in that unbearable dark, cold and loneliness, his faith and love in God were like fire and light.  John had nothing left but God and God brought his greatest joy in the tiny cell.  He was in the cell for nine months after which he escaped by unscrewing the lock on his door and creeping past the guard taking with him the poetries he had written in the cell. He climbed out a window using a rope made of strips of blankets.  He has no idea where he was.  The place was lonely and uninhabited.  He kept following a dog and reached civilization.  He hid from his pursuers in a convent where he read his poetries to the nuns.  He devoted his life to sharing and explaining his experience of God’s love. 

His life of poverty and persecution could have made him a bitter, angry and  mad man but instead gave birth to a compassionate person because of his beliefs, trust and companionship with God.  St. John of the Cross says ‘Where there is no love, put love and you will find love’.

Let St. John of the Cross be a role model for us and try to conquer all shortcomings, bitterness, anxiety with love and trust in God.

St. John of the Cross’ very words “What more do you want, O Soul! And what else do you search for outside, when within yourself you possess your riches, delights, satisfaction and kingdom – your beloved whom you desire and seek? Desire him there, adore him there.  Do not go in pursuit of him outside yourself.  You will only become distracted and you won’t find him, or enjoy him more than by seeking him with you”