Daily Mass Gospel Reflection - Soul Surgery

Word on Fire Ministry ^ | 12-14-22 | Bishop Robert Barron

[MurphsLaw]

Memorial of Saint John of the Cross, Priest and Doctor of the Church
Luke 7:18b–23

Friends, today we celebrate the memorial of the great Spanish mystic St. John of the Cross.

We find ourselves, St. John of the Cross taught, in the midst of a good and beautiful world,
but we are meant finally for union with God.
Therefore, the soul has to become free from its attachments to finite things
so as to be free for communion with God.

This purification first involves what John called "the night of the senses"
(the letting go of physical and sensual pleasures),
and it continues with "the night of the soul"
(a detachment from the mental images that one can use as a substitute for God).

Like all purifications, this one is painful,
especially if one’s attachment to these finite things is intense.
It will often manifest itself, John of the Cross said,
as dryness in prayer and a keen sense of the absence and even abandonment of God.

In this process, God is not toying with the soul;
rather, he is performing a kind of surgery upon it,
cutting certain things away so that its life might intensify.

[MurphsLaw]

+++At that time,
John summoned two of his disciples and sent them to the Lord to ask,
“Are you the one who is to come,
or should we look for another?”
When the men came to the Lord, they said,
“John the Baptist has sent us to you to ask,
‘Are you the one who is to come,
or should we look for another?’”
At that time Jesus cured many of their diseases, sufferings,
and evil spirits;
he also granted sight to many who were blind.
And Jesus said to them in reply,
“Go and tell John what you have seen and heard:
the blind regain their sight,
the lame walk,
lepers are cleansed,
the deaf hear, the dead are raised,
the poor have the good news proclaimed to them.
And blessed is the one who takes no offense at me.”+++