December Allocutio 2024

Faith to lead us

Fr. Paul Churchill, Concilium Spiritual Director

Louis Marie de Montfort says that, now in Heaven, Mary has no need of faith. But she preserves it for her faithful servants in the Church militant. He describes this faith as “a lively Faith, animated by Charity which will cause you to do all things through the motive of pure love, a faith firm and immovable as a rock …” (True Devotion, Part II, Ch 2, art 2). These and the following words are incorporated into the final prayer of our meetings.

Yesterday we celebrated the Feast of another saint of great faith, St. John of the Cross. He is clear that the road to Heaven is to climb the ladder of faith which he also describes as the Ascent of Mount Carmel. The Carmelites took their name from the title of Our Lady of Mount Carmel but Teresa of Avila saw the need to reform the Carmelite Order if they were to be faithful. John of the Cross, a Carmelite friar, supported her in this. His support was greatly resisted. So resisted indeed that he was constrained to a prison type cell in an old toilet which provided little relief from the heat of summer or the cold of winter. He was often taken out and asked to abandon the reform and, when he refused, they whipped his back before returning him to his cell to reflect and change.

In a daring escape by first unscrewing the hinges of the door of his prison, which he slowly effected across a period of time, and then by tiptoeing his way one night through the dormitory before letting himself down from an upper window by a rope made of sheets, before finally making his way to a friendly house where he collapsed utterly traumatized, he found the image that gave him the name for one of his great works: the dark night of the soul.

His famous poem about the journey of faith reflects that night of his escape: “One dark night, fired with love’s earnest longings—ah, the sheer grace—I went out unseen, my house being now all stilled. In darkness and secure, by the secret ladder, disguised—ah, the sheer grace—in darkness and concealment, my house now being stilled. On that glad night, in secret, for no one saw me, nor did I look at anything, with no other light or guide than the one that burnt in my heart. This guided me more surely than the light of noon to where he waited for me—Him I knew so well—in a place where no one else appeared. O guiding night! O night more lovely than the dawn! Oh night that has united the Lover with his beloved, transforming the beloved in her Lover.”

You can hear his clear reference to the historical events of his escape but you can also hear many biblical and gospel phrases in there as well as that night referred to in Exodus and the Easter Exultet.

But in the heart of it is the dark night of Faith. True faith is a journey in darkness. That can be read also in that great darkness that fell over the whole earth on the first Good Friday. Jesus on the Cross, with Mary below sharing in it, lived a dark night as all sensible supports just went out. Sheer grace alone was at work. That Jesus suffered physically there is no doubt. The letter to the Hebrews speaks of him offering up supplications with loud cries and tears. He cried out “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” Everything was taken from him, except that sheer faith that trusted. “Into your hands I commend my spirit” were his last words just as he died.

John of the Cross, by some of his phrases, speaks of what true faith involves. “I went out unseen”, in other words, I didn’t follow the way of being noticed or seeking attention. “Nor did I look at anything”, in other words I kept focused and was not distracted. “With no other light or guide than the one that burnt in my heart”, in other words following solely God’s will, shown by the Holy Spirit.

There are many other lights out there and one of John’s favorite words is “nada”. In other words, there is nothing of value in those lights of the world that can attract. And he has this to say about those who seek supernatural phenomena. He is aware that some people can have visions or hear messages seemingly from saints or Our Lady or from Our Lord. “It must be known” he says “that even though these apprehensions come to the bodily senses from God, one must never rely on them or accept them …. The more corporeal and exterior they are, the less certain is their divine origin. God’s communication is more commonly and appropriately given to the spirit, in which there is greater security and profit for the soul, than to the senses, where ordinarily there is extreme danger and room for deception” (Ascent of Mount Carmel, Book II, chapter 11).

I note that Frank Duff relies more on the road of faith in Our Lady’s maternal love for us, than devotion to apparitions.

Let me end however with quoting two more short poems of John of the Cross that are appropriate for this Christmas season.

The first is very short, “The virgin, weighed with the Word of God, comes down the road; if only you would shelter her!” Short, but very deep!

And the second; “When the time had come for him to be born, he went forth like a bridegroom from his bridal chamber, embracing his bride, holding her in his arms, whom the gracious Mother laid in a manger. Among some animals that were there at that time, Men sang songs and angel melodies, celebrating the marriage of Two such as these. But there in the manger God cried and moaned. And these tears were jewels the Bride brought to the wedding. The Mother gazed in sheer wonder on such an exchange: in God, Man’s weeping and in man gladness. To the one and the other things usually so strange.” Again simple but deep.

May I wish you all a Happy Christmas.