6 — RULES OF STRIPPING

Presence of God. — O Lord, my blindness and my weakness still need Your light and Your strength to undertake generously the way of nothingness.

Meditation

1 — Jesus said: “the kingdom of heaven is like to a merchant who goes in search of fine pearls; and, having found one pearl of great price, he goes, sells all that he has and buys it” (Mt. 13, 45). The pearl of great price is union with God; if you wish to acquire it you must sell all you have, that is, detach yourself from every disordered appetite. This is why St. Teresa of Avila, speaking of detachment, was able to say that, “lived perfectly, it is everything” (Way 8, 1). Certainly, the spiritual life is not reduced to detachment and does not end there, but detachment practiced with perfection does effectively bring it to its term: union with God. Only the Lord can lead you to this union, but He will do so only if you, like the merchant of the Gospel, sell everything, that is, renounce every least attachment that still binds you to yourself or to creatures.

Here are the golden rules St. John of the Cross proposes to you to bring about this total detachment: “The soul must be inclined: not to what is easier, but to what is harder; not to what is tastier, but to what is more insipid; not to what is more delightful, but to what is more distasteful; not to rest, but to toil; not to what consoles, but to what disheartens; not to more, but to less; not to things more noble and precious, but to things more lowly and despised; not to wanting anything, but to wanting nothing” (A. I, 13, 6). By doing this, little by little you will accustom yourself to contradict that disordered tendency to enjoy which is the root of all attachments. It is a matter of going against the current: it is therefore a harsh and toilsome work carried out only by blows of the will; one must act in a sense contrary to nature and push oneself exactly where nature recoils. But for the soul in love with God this work is sweet: it knows that all it refuses itself it gives to the Lord, and that when it has arrived at denying itself in all, at selling all, God Himself will place in its hands the precious pearl of divine union.

2 — “It is necessary that [the soul] embrace from the heart such an exercise of self-denial and virtuous works, training in it the will with order and discretion” (A. I, 13, 7). Of the soul that wishes to enter the way of nothingness, John of the Cross asks two things: first, decision and generosity, because one who does not have the courage to deny himself in all will never reach total detachment and therefore not even union with God. But at the same time he also asks for “order and discretion.” The Saint does not claim that always and in all things you choose what is harder, more painful or more toilsome - which would not even be possible, both with regard to circumstances proper to one’s state, and with regard to physical strength which always needs a certain relief - but he asks you to be inclined to this choice, that is, to cultivate the desire for it. He asks you to create in yourself the inclination and habit of doing things contrary to your tendencies, so that, when some opportune occasion presents itself, you do not draw back because of nature’s repugnances. Above all at the beginning of the spiritual life it is necessary to proceed with discretion and to regulate oneself by the counsel of confessor and superiors, particularly regarding bodily mortification. But it is of highest importance that you be firmly resolved to train your will in this exercise of renunciation, that you never stop because of your cowardice and when, either by duty or propriety, you must allow yourself certain reliefs, you do so always with detachment, that is, keeping your will detached from the taste and pleasure it may find in them.

It is clear that if you do not make yourself strong against your attachments and do not resolve once and for all to make them all die, you will never reach the goal. It is a true death to selfish and earthly satisfactions, but from this death life will be born. Jesus said it: “Unless a grain of wheat falling into the earth dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit... And he who hates his own life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal” (Jn. 12, 24-25).

Colloquy

O Lord, in the light of Your teachings, even the hard and rugged way of total stripping becomes lovable and everything invites me to undertake it with courage. Yet, You know that I am weak and that by nature I spontaneously shrink from all that is difficult, toilsome, disheartening; You know that my nature always tends to minimal effort, to what is easier, more pleasant, more comforting. But Your love, O my God, is omnipotent and You, who out of love created me from nothing, can by that same love overturn even my tastes and my tendencies. Yes, I feel it: only Your love can urge me along this way, can give me the courage to undertake this profound reform of myself; only Your love, O Lord, is the weight that drags me toward total renunciation. Only Your love draws me and will be my reward. But You, my God, deign to draw me ever more powerfully, because my weakness always tends to stop me, to hold me back; it is this that I fear.

“But why, O Lord, should I worry over my fears and lose courage because of my weakness? You make me understand that I must fortify myself in humility, persuading myself that I can do very little alone and that without Your help I am nothing. I therefore wish to trust in Your mercy and utterly distrust my own strength, convinced that my weakness comes entirely from leaning upon myself. You teach me that I must not be surprised at my struggles, because when a soul wishes to give itself to mortification, it meets difficulties everywhere. Does it wish to renounce its comforts? What pain! Neglect honor? What torment! Suffer an insulting word? An intolerable torture: in short it finds itself besieged by deadly sorrows. But when it resolves to die to the world, all anguish will cease” (cf. T.G. P.3, 12).

You died for me, O Lord; grant that I may know, for love of You, how to die to myself, to my tastes, to my satisfactions. To die to myself, to live for You, to reach union with You.