Explains the nature of this dark night through which the soul
says that it has passed on the road to union.
On A Dark Night
WE may say that there are three reasons for which this
journey[80] made by the soul to union with God is called night. The
first has to do with the point from which the soul goes forth, for
it has gradually to deprive itself of desire for all the worldly
things which it possessed, by denying them to itself;[81] the which
denial and deprivation are, as it were, night to all the senses of
man. The second reason has to do with the mean,[82] or the road
along which the soul must travel to this union -- that is, faith,
which is likewise as dark as night to the understanding. The third
has to do with the point to which it travels -- namely, God, Who,
equally, is dark night to the soul in this life. These three
nights must pass through the soul -- or, rather, the soul must
pass through them -- in order that it may come to Divine union
with God.
2. In the book of the holy Tobias these three kinds of night
were shadowed forth by the three nights which, as the angel
commanded, were to pass ere the youth Tobias should be united with
his bride. In the first he commanded him to burn the heart of the
fish in the fire, which signifies the heart that is affectioned
to, and set upon, the things of the world; which, in order that
one may begin to journey toward God, must be burned and purified
from all that is creature, in the fire of the love of God. And in
this purgation the devil flees away, for he has power over the
soul only when it is attached to things corporeal and temporal.
3. On the second night the angel told him that he would be
admitted into the company of the holy patriarchs, who are the
fathers of the faith. For, passing through the first night, which
is self-privation of all objects of sense, the soul at once enters
into the second night, and abides alone in faith to the exclusion,
not of charity, but of other knowledge acquired by the
understanding, as we shall say hereafter, which is a thing that
pertains not to sense.
4. On the third night the angel told him that he would obtain
a blessing, which is God; Who, by means of the second night, which
is faith, continually communicates Himself to the soul in such a
secret and intimate manner that He becomes another night to the
soul, inasmuch as this said communication is far darker than those
others, as we shall say presently. And, when this third night is
past, which is the complete accomplishment of the communication of
God in the spirit, which is ordinarily wrought in great darkness
of the soul, there then follows its union with the Bride, which is
the Wisdom of God. Even so the angel said likewise to Tobias that,
when the third night was past, he should be united with his bride
in the fear of the Lord; for, when this fear of God is perfect,
love is perfect, and this comes to pass when the transformation of
the soul is wrought through its love.
5. These three parts of the night are all one night; but,
after the manner of night, it has three parts. For the first part,
which is that of sense, is comparable to the beginning of night,
the point at which things begin to fade from sight. And the second
part, which is faith, is comparable to midnight, which is total
darkness. And the third part is like the close of night, which is
God, the which part is now near to the light of day. And, that we
may understand this the better, we shall treat of each of these
reasons separately as we proceed.
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