The Purpose of Pain and the Dark Night

He Will Uphold You

Evil is evil and suffering can result from evil, but suffering is not evil. The purpose of pain and suffering can only be understood within the overall context of the purpose of the human person. The ultimate purpose of the human being is union with God. Suffering can be, is meant to be, something that moves us forward towards the divine destination, and it plays a crucial role at every stage of that journey. Pain and suffering can rouse us from our spiritual sloth and indifference so that we take our relationship with God and way we are living seriously. Once we are on the right path, suffering can prevent us from standing still, it keeps us moving forward toward God. Finally, suffering can empty us of all that has blocked God from filling our soul with himself. Therefore, the last leg of the journey, as St. John of the Cross describes it, is the Dark Night. Not Batman, but the Dark Night of the soul.

Sirach 2: My son, if you aspire to serve the Lord, prepare yourself for an ordeal. Be sincere of heart, be steadfast, and do not be alarmed when disaster comes. Cling to him and do not leave him, so that you may be honored at the end of your days. Whatever happens to you, accept it, and in the uncertainties of your humble state, be patient, since gold is tested in the fire, and chosen men in the furnace of humiliation. Trust him and he will uphold you, follow a straight path and hope in him.

Blockages

We don’t have to wait until after death and purgatory to reach heaven. Heaven is transforming union with God and we are designed for transforming union here. At every moment God wants to flood our souls with His Divine Life. The problem is that we have BLOCKAGES! We have filled our soul with everything but God, things that need to be emptied out so that we may be filled perfectly by God. John of the Cross says

The more he wants to give, the more he makes us de sire - even to the point of leaving us empty in order to fill us with goods. You will be repaid for the goods…that you leave behind… Since the immense blessings of God can only enter and fit into an empty and solitary heart, the Lord wants you to be alone. For he truly loves you with the desire of being himself all your company.

Active Purification

Our soul is emptied of disordered attachments to be filled by God through two things: The Active purification; and the Passive purification

We do our part to empty our soul of disordered loves and attachments by:

• Daily meditation and a resolution – this Rosary is one method

• By living a well ordered and balance life

  • Physical needs

  • Friendship and relationships

  • Work / achievement

    • Be Faithful to the Duties and Responsibilities of our state in life

  • Knowledge

    • Study and learn all that Christ has revealed through Scripture, Tradition and the Magisterium

  • Beauty – watch the sun set over the ocean

• Frequent sacramental life

  • Eucharist

  • Reconciliation

    • Daily examination of conscience

      • Root out vice and practice virtue

        • Pride, envy, anger, sloth, greed, gluttony, lust

        • Humility, meekness, diligence, generosity, temperance, chastity, Faith, Hope, Love, Prudence, Justice, Fortitude, patience…

          • Gain Interior Freedom from Disordered Attachments

• Meet with a Spiritual Director regularly

• So - If you want to reach heaven – then do your part

Passive Purification

 We can only carry ourselves so far on this journey up the mountain to God. There is only so much we can do to purify our soul on our own from our disordered attachments. They are too deeply rooted, too hidden from our sight. But God Our Father knows exactly what we need to be purified and emptied so that we can be flooded by His life and be perfectly happy. This is when he allows the Passive Purification

a.     Something occurs in your life that you

                                                    i.     Did not choose

                                                   ii.     Do not like

                                                 iii.     Cannot change

What do we do now?

·       Say yes to God even if you don’t feel like it

·       Accept it with Trust

·       Offer it with Love to God

This is where God, by heavy trials, particularly interior ones, perfects and completes what the soul has begun on its own but cannot complete on its own. That is why it is Passive but not In-Active b/c we cooperate by saying yes to God and by not escaping through any means available

Say Yes to All He Is Doing

John of the Cross describes the purification of The Dark Night using two images: In the purification of the senses, God is likened to a loving mother who first nurses her child, carries and caresses it in her arms, but who then must wean it, teach it both to walk on its own and to put aside the ways of childhood. In the other, the purification of the spirit, God's action is likened to fire working on and transforming a log of wood.

In this process of purification which is painful we must allow God to lead. Our job is to say yes, and to accept the Lord's work with all its consequences.

Our temptation will be to escape. The pain of body and soul is so great in the Dark Night that we would do almost anything to stop it. Resist this temptation. Keep your eyes fixed on the good you want – transforming union with God and the bliss of heaven on earth. Certainly do what is reasonable and moral to change what is evil or broken or diseased in your life, but do not try to escape those things you did not choose, do not like and cannot change. Numbing or escaping the pain will prevent God from doing what is necessary to empty and then fill us with himself. This is the hand of God. Say yes to all He is doing, don’t panic, hold fast and patiently endure with joy.