John of the Cross
His life
« O sweetest love of God, so little known,
whoever had found the rich mine is at rest!»
(Sayings of light and love, 16)
Saint John of the Cross is not a saint of stone. He is a man of fire and love.
John de Yepes was born in 1542 at Fontiveros, in Old Castile , . His father, Gonzalo de Yepes, belonged to a wealthy family of silk merchants. He married Catalina Alvarez, a weaver of poor and humble background, in spite of bitter opposition from the members of his family, who considered that marriage to a girl of low position as shameful. Gonzalo learned the lowly trade of silk weaving to adapt to his wife’s work. But in spite of hard work, the household was very poor and food scarce.
Only two years after the birth of John, Gonzalo died of a painful and costly illness. The young John learned from his family that nothing is equal to true love, it is above all.
When he grows up and falls in love with God, John goes on with the spirit of his father, leaving all behind, naturally, because it is love alone, love in Person (with a capital letter), that matters.
His Message
« In the Evening We Shall Be Examined on Love.»
(Sayings of light and love, 60)
In a secularized world where the ambiguity of the progress is becoming obvious, the human being needs a certitude that does not exist by itself, but it must always be newly reconquered in an individual and community way. The free compliance with the good does never exist simply in itself, it needs always the new and painful research of each generation, of each human being. (cf. Benedictus XVI. Spe Salvi). Today’s men and women lost in the technology and the science find in Saint John of the Cross the possibility of meeting with the Absolute.
Humankind’s present nostalgia finds its echo in the cry of Saint John of the Cross:
« Where have you hidden,
Beloved, and left me moaning?
You fled like the stag
After wounding me;
I went out calling You, and You were gone.»
(Spiritual Canticle 1)
The message of Saint John of the Cross is this strong love of God who does not abandon us. We need unconditional love and certitude that make us say: “ For I am certain of this: neither death nor life, no angel, no prince, nothing that exists,
nothing still to come, not any power, or height or depth, nor any created thing, can ever come between us and the love of God made visible in Christ Jesus our Lord.” ( Rom. 8: 38-39)
