Maxim 54 and 55

Continuation of Commentaries

on the Maxims on Love of St. John of the Cross

by Fr. Bruno Cocuzzi, ocd

Maxim 54.

Simple Faith is necessary in seeking God. In outward things, light helps to prevent one from falling; but in the things of God just the opposite is true: it is better for the soul not to see if it is to be secure.

In this Maxim we have a reminder of one of the most fundamental teachings of St. John of the Cross, to wit, that Faith is darkness to the human intellect. He explains why Faith is like midnight to the soul in Book II of The Ascent of Mt. Carmel, Chapters 2 and 3. In the same Book II, Chapter 4, he explains why the soul must be in darkness in order that Faith may lead the soul securely to union with God. If we are not thoroughly familiar with this teaching of St. John of the Cross, and furthermore, not thoroughly convinced of the truth of this teaching, none of St. John's other teachings will ever be of any help to us. I refer us all to those chapters.

But what I have just said does not mean that there are no other elements in this Maxim worthy of our consideration. One phrase we can inquire into for its meaning is the expression: seeking God.

It is my opinion that if we stopped for a moment now, and asked each person in the room what he or she understands by the expression "seeking God," we would have almost as many understandings or meanings as people in the room. (Take a moment to do this). Perhaps this seems unnecessary, since the chapters of The Ascent just referred to teaches us that Faith is the sure guide to union with God. It seems that by the words seeking God, St. John means seeking union with God. Hence, why inquire any further? The reason I do want to inquire further is because I have heard or read these words used by different people, and I get the impression they meant something different than union with God in the sense that St. John uses it in the discussion of Faith as darkness in The Ascent, Book II.

One meaning I detected in the way it has been used by many people is: seeking a felt presence of God. Or, seeking a mystical experience of God. Again, seeking a tangible sense of security that one is pleasing in the sight of God. Whenever I read that phrase I usually think, how much better it would be if the person seeking God or telling others they should be seeking God, were to say: seeking what it is God expects of you, or me. Or, seeking God's will. Then it does coincide with the meaning St. John gives it in speaking of Faith as the only reliable guide to union with God. As we have had occasion to say often, everything in God is God, so seeking God's Will is the equivalent of seeking God. This is certainly more helpful than the meanings I said I detected in the way the phrase has been used by others because generally, it is not God's will that we deliberately seek to experience His felt presence or have mystical experiences of Him.

Another phrase we may inquire into in this Maxim is the expression simple faith. If St. John of the Cross can speak of a kind of Faith that is simple, what might another kind of Faith be that is not simple?

Perhaps we can consider the meaning of the word simple to mean single. I say that because there are passages in scripture that I have seen using the words interchangeably. One has Jesus saying: "If your eye is simple your whole body will be full of light." Another has Him say: If your eye is single your whole being is full of light. Thus a simple Faith would be one that has a single foundation, that is, no more than one foundation. What would be that single foundation for Faith? It can be none other than the fact that God has spoken, or in other words, the authority of God the revealer. So where an individual seeks more than just God's word alone as the basis of his Faith, then it is not simple. What would those additional bases be?

We can get a hint from at least two incidents in scripture. On one occasion Jesus had just finished teaching, or was in the midst of teaching, when a man came to ask Him to come and cure his child. Jesus said in response: "Unless you see signs and wonders you will not believe." He seemed to be saying: "Why isn't my word alone enough for you? Why are you asking for miracles as proof that my word is utterly reliable? Of course we know the response of the man. He simply said "Lord, come down [to my house] before my child dies." That indicated that he did have simple Faith. Jesus' word had convinced him that Jesus was from God and was of God, and it was this Faith and his paternal love for his child that asked for the cure of his son. He was not asking for proof of the reliability of Jesus' word.

The other instance is the episode of Thomas, the Apostle who doubted the Resurrection of Jesus. Here, though, it was not the word of Jesus but the word of his fellow Apostles alone that should have sufficed for Thomas. Then after having touched and handled the wounds of Jesus' hands and side, Thomas professed his Faith in Jesus as God. That was when Jesus said: "You believed, Thomas, or, you have Faith, Thomas, because you have seen. Blessed are those who have not seen yet have believed." So in addition to the word of his fellow apostles, Thomas needed a tangible, physical experience as a basis for his Faith. Thus, it was not a simple Faith.

This example of Thomas needing a physical, tangible experience fits in well with what we said above about the meaning of the phrase, seeking God, being the equivalent of “seeking a mystical experience” or “felt presence” of God. It should be enough for a person to simply accept the doctrinal teaching of the Church, the continuation of Jesus on this earth, and to put into practice the Church's moral teaching to know for sure that one has achieved union with God and has found God. Notice that St. John in this Maxim says that simple faith is necessary. That can only mean that anything other than simple Faith will fail to achieve union with God, will fail to find God. If a person will not continue to accept the doctrine of our Catholic teaching nor continue to follow its teaching on morality, without that felt presence, or mystical experience, or getting precisely what he asks for of God, then it becomes clear that such a person is really seeking his own will, is self-seeking, and thus has not achieved union with the will of God.

St. John of the Cross also relates simple Faith to security. Security is certainly a wonderful thing. Without security one is always nervous and uneasy, afraid of everything, worrying that something or someone is going to appear suddenly and rob him of what he holds dear, or cause some other kind of harm. A person who lacks simple Faith and looks for the feeling of God's closeness or mystical experiences of God in order to adhere to the will of God is really exposing himself to the danger of being led astray by Satan. We do know, and this is something St. John of the Cross emphasizes, that the devil has power to work on people's feelings and imagination. Thus he can cause people to feel, or imagine, that they are pleasing God when really, they are not. And vice-versa, cause them to feel they are not pleasing God when really they are. And who knows, maybe Satan approaches God and says to Him what he said concerning Job, namely, "what's so great about these souls who serve you because it makes them feel good, or because they feel Your presence? Take that away from them, and then see if they will continue to adhere to your Will." Then God, in all fairness would have to allow Satan to attempt to lead those souls astray by working on their feelings and imagination. Thus, persons who make feelings and felt experiences one of the foundations for their Faith are no longer secure, even if they think or feel they are secure. Someone who has simple Faith pays not the least attention to feelings nor seeks tangible proofs. That being the case, they cannot be led astray no matter what feelings or imaginings the devil causes them to experience.

One other feature of this Maxim worthy of note is the identification of "things of God," as the opposite of outward things. St. John is saying, in effect, that inward things are identical with the things of God. This comes as a bit of a surprise because we have considered, in Maxim 46, things of God as being distinct from both exterior and interior things. In the commentary on that Maxim we said that the things of God, among which were the Sacraments, could be both exterior and interior. In this Maxim 54, there is another meaning given to outward which makes it the opposite of all things pertaining to God. Because it is light that keeps one from falling in outward things, the word light here means human intelligence or human understanding, so that outward things are all those things that are purely natural, wherein human intelligence is capable of keeping a person from falling, i.e., making mistakes. Thus the things of God in this Maxim would have to mean and include everything that is supernatural, and therefore beyond the power of human intelligence to discover or to understand. Thus it becomes clear that if we think we understand the supernatural, we are mistaken, and therefore have fallen. When we exclude human understanding and adhere to truths revealed by God, which are supernatural, by Faith alone, we cannot possibly be mistaken. Thus, the darkness which is simple Faith keeps us from falling, and we remain secure. This Maxim 54 simply states, in part, a line that occurs in St. John's poem: The Dark Night. The line is: In darkness and secure...

Maxim 55.

More is gained in one hour from God's good things than in a whole lifetime from our own.

In this maxim we need to inquire into what St. John of the Cross has in mind when he uses the word more. The question we ask is: More of what? So to help us find the answer, or rather, a complete answer, we begin by saying: More of all those things that have value in the eyes of God for growth in holiness. Then by attempting to identify what those things are, we begin to get a complete answer as to what is meant by more, because St. John is speaking to Nuns and Friars and Lay people eager to grow in holiness.

To begin with, everything that God has created has value in His eyes, objectively speaking. Hence, the most massive star in the universe as well as the tiniest particle of matter in the universe has value in the eyes of God. But these are not part of the things included in the word more, because they are not the things to which we have access. So the things of value we are interested in must be considered in relation to us human beings and to which we have access by dint of our personal effort. They have to be things we can make our own, in the sense of possessing them, or things that are super-added to our being. They must be things that make us more valuable in the eyes of God by making us more holy and pleasing in His sight. And thus, the greater value could be in relation to us as human beings, objectively speaking, or in relation to us in so far as we can be God’s instruments or helpers in carrying out His Plan for the entire human race.

With regard to what makes a person more valuable, or better, more precious in the eyes of God objectively speaking, we have to say that it is those things that cause us to be more perfect as human beings, on the one hand, and more perfect children of God by adoption, on the other.

Thus, as mere human beings, it is virtue that makes us more perfect. But in addition to that, since we all differ in the number of talents and abilities God gave us when He created our souls and infused them into our material organism, we become more precious in the eyes of God to the extent these talents and abilities are developed. With regard to our status as children of God by adoption we only add to what has been said the transformation and elevation achieved in our being by the infusion of Sanctifying Grace. Virtues then acquire a supernatural dimension, and talents and abilities are made capable of producing supernatural results. Thus, in both cases, it seems we can say that the more we obtain from good things, whether God's or our own, would be an increase of virtue and a fuller development of our talents and abilities.

Now when we speak of what makes us more valuable, or precious, in the sight of God as instruments and helpers in carrying out His desires for the entire human race, we have to include what has been said above as making us objectively precious as a foundation, and then we have to add the willingness to be instruments and helpers, as well as the actual lending of ourselves, or surrendering of ourselves, to God as His instruments and helpers. Thus, it would be the more willingness and the more complete surrendering of ourselves to God as instruments and helpers that we would be able to obtain either from God's good things or from our own.

But now, what is meant by good things? Well, it seems to me, that these good things have to be related to the acquisition of virtue and the development of talent on the one hand, and the increase of willingness to serve and surrender of self, on the other. This being so, there are certain good things that God has provided for our growing in virtue, and certain good things that lie within our personal power.

In my opinion, the two things that enable us to acquire virtue (grow in virtue) and to develop talents and ability are education and apprenticeship. Education involves all those things that increase our intellectual knowledge, and apprenticeship involves all those things that give us hands-on experience and the guidance of a Master workman.

And, again in my opinion, there is only one thing that enables us to grow in willingness to serve and self-surrender. And that one thing alone is love. Thus, we have to identify, or rather to distinguish between the education and apprenticeship provided by God, and the education and apprenticeship we provide for ourselves. We have to distinguish also between a love which is divine and a love that is merely human and thus within our unaided power to achieve.

But what kind of education and apprenticeship can we provide for ourselves that enables us to grow in virtue and to develop our personal talents and abilities? In all honesty, it seems we are unable to educate ourselves because we cannot give ourselves information we don't have. Likewise, we cannot be our own Masters and Guides in getting practical hands-on experience because we cannot show ourselves how to do what we have never, ever done. At best, we can go to a library or bookstore and read the books on virtue and other books on developing talents and skills. We also would have to read those books that give detailed instructions on how to become proficient in a particular skill, such as carpentry, or how to play the guitar. So it seems we have to say that the good things of education and apprenticeship that we call our own are really both our personal choice as to where we go to become educated, and also where and to which Masters we apply in order to develop talents and abilities. In addition, we can extend the idea of the good things of our own to apply to the time and energy which we devote to learning from teachers and masters of our own choosing. This last idea of devoting time and energy to growing in virtue and developing God-given talents must also be considered as part of this Maxim because of the expression: to gain from. It indicates St. John of the Cross has in mind the idea of investing time and energy from which we obtain a valuable return the way an investment of money produces a return of interest. This notion also finds support in St. John of the Cross' use of expressions of time in this Maxim. Based upon what we've said so far, this Maxim 55 says that time and energy invested over a period of one hour in the education and apprenticeship provided by God, produces more of an increase of virtue and development of talents than the time and energy invested in an entire lifetime to the education and practical guidance provided by books and instructors of our own choosing. In a true sense, these merely human teachers and practical guides can be called our own because they belong to the human race, considered as distinct from God, because they are members of the human race to which we also belong.

Now having said all that, it seems that we may not have gone far enough in identifying the more that St. John of the Cross has in mind in this Maxim. We still have to look to what it is that virtue and developed talents bring us by their exercise. Indeed, they are the means by which we live a fuller, more satisfying life. In this way, we see that the investment of time and energy in letting God the Father, Jesus Our Savior and the Holy Spirit be our teachers, and in letting Jesus be our model and Master under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, yields a very significant increase in our participation in Divine Life in a very short time. No mere human teachers and guides can give more than a minuscule increase of true life no matter how much time and energy is invested in learning from them. That is because true life is Divine Life, which cannot be attained by mere human effort alone.

Finally, we ask, what are those good things of God that provide the education and apprenticeship that yield more and fuller participation in the Life of God? Actually, the good things of God are the very same as the things of God of which we spoke in previous conferences on the Maxims. The use of the word good adds nothing extra to the expressions of things of God. Everything pertaining to God is GOOD because He is eternal subsistent GOODNESS. It is important to know this, because this Maxim now suggests that all those things of God we mentioned before, in particular the teaching and example of Jesus in and through His Sacred Humanity, must be acknowledged by us to be the means that provide education and apprenticeship in gaining an increase of our Divine Life and to live Divine Life in a fuller, more satisfying way. And this in turn helps resolve another difficulty. Since we can only turn to human beings to teach us and guide us toward greater participation of God's life through Charity and an increase of Sanctifying Grace, how can we be sure that it is Jesus and the Holy Spirit who are giving us THEIR good things? St. Teresa resolves this difficulty by one of her own Maxims: On one occasion she wrote: "These are not the times for believing anyone (i.e., for taking anyone at all as teacher and guide). Believe only those whom you see patterning, (modeling) their own lives upon Jesus Christ." In other words, learn only from those teachers who are already recognized as Saints and Blesseds. As regards others, trust only those who present Jesus as scripture itself and the Saintly Doctors of the Church have presented Him.

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MISSION STATEMENT: This web site was created for the purpose of completing the work of Fr. Bruno Cocuzzi, O.C.D These conferences may be reproduced for private use only. Publication of this material is forbidden without permission of the Father Provincial for the Discalced Carmelites, Holy Hill, 1525 Carmel Rd., Hubertus, WI 53033-9770. Texts for the Maxims on Love were taken from The Collected Works of St. John of the Cross, by Fr. Kieran Kavanaugh, O.C.D. and Fr. Otilo Rodriguez, O.C.D. 1979 Edition. Copies of the book are available at ICS Publications, 2131 Lincoln Rd., N.E., Washington, D.C. 2002-1199, Phone: 1-800-832-8489.