Today dear children I am in a wistful mood, having just celebrated the birthday of the love of my life yesterday. So I think we shall visit our friend John of the Cross who knew a bit about love. .
His father Gonzalo was of noble blood and as a young man fell in love with a beautiful orphan girl, Catalina who made a living from weaving. His family were scandalized by the liaison and told him that they would disown him if he married this woman. John's father chose love over money and family loyalty, and married her anyway. John was the third son of this poor but happy union. Not long after John was born his father died due to lack of good health care.
The lesson John learned, taught to him by his father's example and his mother's self sacrificing love was that true love is worth any price, and if it is authentic, it is worth any sacrifice one has to make to achieve it.
Eventually this would be how John approached his own relationship with God. He would seek nothing, so that God could become everything for him. This is the bit I want to share with you today the way of nothing:
To come to savour all
seek to find savour in nothing;
To come to posses all,
seek possession in nothing;
to come to be all,
seek in all to be nothing. . .
to come to what you know not
you must go by a way where you know not . . .
to come to what you are not
you must go by a way where you are not.
It may be a bit of an enigma wrapped in a riddle locked in a puzzle for a very long time, but if you are seeking God, the way to true enlightenment and fulfillment is through self emptying sacrifice. If you seek to be empty, then God will fill the space.
Pax
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