1. It remains, then, to say here that on this blessed night, although the spirit darkens, it does so only to give light to all things; and, although he humiliates him and makes him miserable, it is only to exalt and lift him up; and, although it impoverishes him and empties him of all possession and natural affection, it is only so that he can divinely extend himself to enjoy and taste all things above and below, being with freedom of general spirit in everything.
Because, just as the elements to communicate in all compounds and natural entities, it is convenient that they are affected by no particularity of color, smell or taste, in order to be able to compete with all flavors, smells and colors, so it is convenient for the spirit to be simple, pure and devoid of all natural affections, both current and habitual, in order to be able to communicate freely with the breadth of the spirit with divine Wisdom, in which, due to its cleanliness, tastes all the flavors of all things with a certain eminence of excellence. And without this purgation in no way will he be able to feel or taste the satisfaction of all this abundance of spiritual flavors; because a single fondness that the spirit has or particularity to which it is attached, currently or habitually, is enough to not feel or taste or communicate the delicacy and intimate flavor of the spirit of love, which contains in itself all the flavors with great eminence.
2. Because, just like the children of Israel, just because they had only one fondness and memory of the meat and food of Egypt (Ex. 16, 3), they could not taste the delicate bread of angels in the desert, which was the manna, which, as the divine Scripture says (Wisdom 16, 21), had sweetness of all tastes and was converted to the taste that each one wanted, so it cannot taste the delights of the spirit of freedom, according to the will desires, the spirit that is still affected by some current or habitual hobby, or with particular intelligences or any other apprehension.
The reason for this is because the affections, sentiments, and apprehensions of the perfect spirit, because they are divine, are of another kind and genre so different from what is natural and eminent, that, in order to possess one actually and habitually, habitually and actually have to be expel and annihilate the others, as do two opposites, which cannot be together in one subject. Therefore, it is very convenient and it is necessary for the soul to have to pass to these greatness, that this dark night of contemplation annihilate and undo it first in its baseness, putting it in the dark, dry and cramped and empty; because the light that is to be given is a very high divine light that exceeds all natural light, which does not fit naturally in the understanding.
3. And so, it is convenient that, so that the understanding can unite with it and become divine in the state of perfection, it should first be purged and annihilated in its natural light, currently putting it in the dark through this dark contemplation. Which darkness should last as long as necessary to expel and annihilate the habit that has long formed in its way of understanding itself and, in its place, remain enlightenment and divine light. And so, since that force that he had to understand before is natural, from this it follows that the darkness that he suffers here is deep and horrible and very painful, because, since they are felt in the deep substance of the spirit, they seem substantial darkness.
Neither more nor less, since the affection of love that has to be given in the divine union of love is divine, and therefore very spiritual, subtle and delicate and very interior, which exceeds all affection and sentiment of the will. and all appetite for it, it is convenient that, so that the will can come to feel and taste by union of love this divine affection and delight so high, which does not fall naturally on the will, it be first purged and annihilated in all its affections and feelings , leaving her dry and in a bind, as much as is appropriate according to the habit she had of natural affections, both about the divine and the human, so that, exhausted and lean and well extricated in the fire of this divine contemplation of all kinds of demon, like the heart of Tobias's fish in the coals (Tb. 6, 19), have a pure and simple disposition and a purged and healthy palate to feel the heightened and pilgrim touches of divine love into which it will be divinely transformed, expelled all the current and habitual setbacks, as we say, that he had before.
4. Also because in the said union, to which this dark night prepares and directs it, the soul must be filled and endowed with a certain glorious magnificence in communication with God, which contains in itself innumerable goods of delights that exceed all abundance. that the soul can naturally possess, because in such a weak and impure natural it cannot receive it, because, as Isaiah says (64, 4): No eye saw it, nor ear heard it, nor did what it prepared fall into the human heart, etc. ., it is convenient that first the soul be placed in emptiness and poverty of spirit, purging it of all comfort, comfort and natural apprehension about everything above and below, so that, thus emptied, it is very poor in spirit and devoid of man old to live that new and blessed life that is reached through this night, which is the state of union with God.
5. And because the soul has to come to have a sense and a very generous and tasty divine news about all divine and human things that does not fall into the common feeling and natural knowledge of the soul (which will look at them with eyes so different than before , as the spirit differs from sense and the divine from the human), it is convenient for the spirit to lose weight and harden itself regarding the common and natural feeling, putting it through this purgative contemplation in great anguish and embarrassment, and to the remote memory of all friendly and peaceful news, with an inner sense and temper of pilgrimage and strangeness of all things, in which it seems to him that all are strange and different from what they used to be.
Because in this, tonight, he is taking the spirit out of his ordinary and common feeling about things, to bring him to a divine sense, which is strange and alien in every human way. Here it seems to him the soul that walks beside itself in pain. Other times she thinks if she is enchanted or enraptured, and walks around marveling at the things she sees and hears, seeming to her very bizarre and strange, being the same ones that she commonly used to deal with; which is the cause of the soul becoming remote and oblivious to common sense and news about things, so that, annihilated in this, it remains informed in the divine, which is more of the other life than of this one.
6. All these afflictive purgations of the spirit to regenerate it in spirit life through this divine influence, the soul suffers, and with these pains the spirit of health comes to birth, because the sentence of Isaiah is fulfilled (26, 1718). , which says: From your face, Lord, we conceived, and we were in labor pains, and we gave birth to the spirit of health.
In addition to this, because through this contemplative night the soul prepares itself to come to tranquility and inner peace, which is such and so delightful that, as the Church says, it exceeds all meaning (Phil. 4, 7), it suits the soul that all the first peace, which, because it was involved with imperfections, was not peace, although it seemed to the said soul (because it walked to its taste), that it was peace, peace, two voices, that is, that it had already acquired the peace of sense and spirit, as she saw herself filled with spiritual abundances) that this peace of sense and spirit, which, as I say, is still imperfect, be first purged in her and removed and disturbed from peace, as she felt and Jeremiah cried on the authority that we allege from him to declare the calamities of this past night, saying: Removed and dismissed is my soul from peace (Lm. 3, 17).
7. This is a painful disturbance of many suspicions, imaginations and combats that the soul has within itself, in which, with the apprehension and feeling of the miseries in which it sees itself, it suspects that it is lost and its goods finished forever. From this it is that it brings in the spirit a pain and groaning so deep that it causes strong spiritual roars and bellows, pronouncing them sometimes through the mouth, and resolving in tears when there is strength and virtue to be able to do it, although less often there is this relief. .
David declares this very well, as one who experienced it so well, in a psalm (37, 9) saying: I was very afflicted and humiliated, my heart roared with the groaning. Which roar is a thing of great pain, because sometimes, with the sudden and acute memory of these miseries in which the soul is seen, the affections of the soul rise up and close in pain and sorrow, that I do not know how it can be given. to understand but by the similarity that the prophet Job (3, 24), being in the same work as him, by these words says: As are the avenues of the waters, so is my roar; because just as sometimes the waters make such avenues that they drown and fill everything, so this roar and feeling of the soul sometimes grows so much that, drowning it and piercing it all, it fills with anguish and spiritual pain all its deep affections and strength above all. what can be expensive.
8. Such is the work that night does in it, concealing the hopes of daylight. For to this purpose the prophet Job also says (30, 17): At night my mouth is pierced with pain, and those who eat me do not sleep. Because here by the mouth is understood the will, which is pierced with these pains that in tearing the soul to pieces neither cease nor sleep, because the doubts and misgivings that pierce the soul thus never sleep.
9. Deep is this war and combat, because the peace that awaits must be very deep; and the spiritual pain is intimate and thin, because the love that it has to possess must also be very intimate and rushed; because, the more intimate and careful the work must be and remain, the more intimate, careful and pure the work must be, and the stronger when the building is firmer. For this reason, as Job says (30, 16, 27), the soul is withering in itself, and boiling inside without any hope.
And neither more nor less, because the soul has to come to possess and enjoy in the state of perfection, which through this purgative night it walks, to innumerable goods of gifts and virtues, as well according to the substance of the soul as well as according to the powers of it, it is convenient that first generally she sees herself and feels alienated and deprived of all of them and empty and poor of them, and it seems to her that she is so far from them that she cannot be persuaded that she will never come to them, but that she all good is over; as Jeremiah also implies in said authority (Lm. 3, 17), when he says: I have forgotten goods.
10. But let us now see what the cause is, since this light of contemplation is so soft and friendly for the soul, that there is nothing more to desire (since, as has been said above, it is the same with which the soul has to unite and find in it all the goods in the state of perfection that you want), cause with your rush to these principles so painful and elusive effects as we have said here.
11. This doubt is easily answered by saying what we have already said in part, and that is that the cause of this is that there is nothing on the part of the contemplation and divine infusion that in itself can cause pain, rather much sweetness and delight, as will be said later, but the cause is the weakness and imperfection that the soul then has, and dispositions that it has in itself and contrary to receive them; in which attacking the said divine light, the soul must suffer in the manner already mentioned.