The Mystical Pathway
510 THE MYSTICAL PATHWAY IN DECLARING Saint John of the Cross a "mystical doctor," the Church has drawn attention in an especial manner to an example much needed by the contemporary era. Although...
...Richard Crashaw, Coventry Patmore, Francis Thompson, and Arthur Sym-ons were diligent readers of his books, and many lesser men caught something of his radiance...
...Saint John of the Cross averred that he knew nothing except God...
...This present note can only be a notice of his elevation to the rank of mystical doctor and of his notable human significance...
...and it is said by competent critics that his use of the Castilian tongue is exquisite and exemplary...
...He is part and parcel of the renaissance...
...But we may struggle toward it, and feel its beneficence a little—the calm which contrasts so starkly with the material turmoil of the modern world, its struggle with things and its unsatisfactory surrender to itself...
...Moreover, both laid down a method which anybody who earnestly cares to do so can follow—if he have the necessary courage and purposiveness...
...Both, the patron of literary men and the patron of mystics, proved in what manner and with what comforting certainty the gross, limited ambitions of human selfishness could be overcome for the sake of living wholly for the beautiful wisdom of God...
...It is a curious fact that Saint John of the Cross has always exerted a very strong influence upon artists...
...If we pass by the many European writers who, like Huys-mans, w ve his images and experiences with their own, and conhue our attention to English letters, we shall discover what is really a surprising fact—that he has influenced more writing in our language than all other Spanish literature combined...
...Although the lofty doctrine and asceticism of the Spanish master may not be within the reach of all who are sincerely concerned with mystical experience, he can be a guide and a source of encouragement to the most humble and sorely tried...
...and indeed it is hardly possible to comprehend that period without seeing him as a figure in its story...
...About it and Saint John of the Cross there will be much more to say during the coming year and after...
...A Belgian scholar has pointed out how closely the Spanish doctor resembles Saint Francis de Sales: "the fundamentals of their teachings are the same, although what is inflexible logic in the first becomes persuasion in the second...
...To a considerable extent, this influence can be accounted for, of course, by the wonderful literary form into which the work of Saint John of the Cross is cast...
...In a large measure, his great books are poems, to which there is added an extensive commentary...
...Consciousness of Divine love, as he achieved it through steadfast mastery of the senses and all desire, is a thing which most of us cannot quite comprehend...
...His imagery and other imaginative resources stamp him as one of the supreme poets...
...Saint Teresa refers to him as "the little Seneca"—a reference based no less, it is said, upon his scholarship than upon his fondness for the maxims of the Roman philosopher...
...Moreover, we know that the saint was, as a young man, a diligent student of letters, in particular of the Latin writers...
Vol. 5 • March 1927 • No. 19
