“Más perfecto grado de perfección a que en esta vida se puede llegar”. The aim of spiritual development in the texts of John of the Cross

Abstract

The present study proffers a theological-spiritual interpretation of the spiritual experience contained in the text The Living Flame of Love as composed the Spanish Baroque mystic John of the Cross. The article is founded on the thesis of the researcher M. Hlaváčová, who examined the connection between the New Testament Johannine Christology of the Incarnate Word and its original reinterpretation in the poetic work of John of the Cross In principio erat Verbum. While Hlaváčová has demonstrated the efficacy of an important feature of spiritual experience in John of the Cross, namely the 'mysticism of the Incarnate Word of God' (inspired by the Christology of John's Gospel), this study further explores the motif of the Word-Spose that appears in the Spanish Carmelite in the text The Living Flame of Love. The study reveals the manner in which this spiritual experience constitutes an imaginary arc of the mystic's understanding of the totality of the mystery of salvation. The symbolic origin beginning of this arc can be found in the poem In principio erat Verbum, while its culmination can be found in the text of the Living Flame, which articulates the mystic's experience of participation in the life of God through the touch of the Word-Spose-Christ, a phenomenon that awakens at the very core of human existence. The human subject is thus rendered susceptible to the "Pentecostal experience" of the Spirit, which the mystic anchors with the symbol of the flame. The study examines how this ultimate experience of transcendence is perceived and reflected upon by the human subject.