Union with God

John of the Cross sees Christian life in the same way as John the Evangelist, whose writings he knew by heart:

He who lives in love lives in God, and God lives in him.” (1 Jn. 4:16)

This perception is situated at the very roots of our being. It is marked by the sense of the person and of persons, a characteristic trait among the saints of Carmel: God and man, in mutual gravitation, destined to be united in the participation and enjoyment of one and the same life, in “equality of love” (Spiritual Canticle, 38). The destiny of man is in this unheard of equality with a God who, by grace and in love, pours into him all the riches of His Trinitarian life, making of him “his equal and companion”. He did not create us for mediocrity but for fullness of being.

In other words, the God who reveals Himself to John of the Cross has nothing to do with the God of modern ideologies. He is a Living God who does not annihilate man. On the contrary, He loves him and elevates him to an unimaginable dignity, in the very depths of his human condition. He does not take him out of the world, but calls him to live in it in Love and Truth, which is the seal of his likeness to God in which he was created. Likewise, he is called to the service of his brethren, like Jesus who has shown the way:

The Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve.” (Mt. 20:28)