Palm Sunday and Saint John of the Cross' ROMANCES

THIS PASSION SUNDAY, I find myself drawn to one of my favorite spiritual writings: The Romances by St. John of the Cross. A mystically written poem of the pursuit of this Bridegroom of ours, Who would rather give Himself and bear every burden and punishment for our own sins and offenses than see us suffer the consequences of our own broken actions.

The Bridegroom comes to rescue His Bride, bear all mockery, humiliation, torture, and even death, all that He might take her to Himself and free from all that holds her captive.

What does this Bridegroom, this King ask of us in return? Only to truly live in this love. Love is the aim of all of His sufferings, that you might know the depths to which He would go for you, and that you might love Him in return.

St. John of the Cross writes:

In the beginning the Word

was; he lived in God

and possessed in him

his infinite happiness.

That same Word was God,

who is the Beginning;

he was in the beginning

and had no beginning.

He was himself the Beginning

and therefore had no beginning.

The Word is called Son;

he was born of the Beginning

who had always conceived him,

and was always conceiving him,

giving of his substance always,

yet always possessing it.

And thus the glory of the Son

was the Father's glory,

and the Father possessed

all his glory in the Son.

As the lover in the beloved

each lived in the other,

and the Love that unites them

is one with them,

their equal, excellent as

the One and the Other;

Three Persons, and one Beloved among all three.

One love in them all

makes of them one Lover,

and the Lover is the Beloved

in whom each one lives.

For the being that the three possess

each of them possesses,

and each of them loves

him who bears this being.

Each one is this being,

which alone unites them,

binding them deeply,

one beyond words.

Thus it is a boundless love

which is their essence;

and the more love is one

the more it is love.

In that immense love

proceeding from the two

the Father spoke words

of great affection to the Son,

words of such profound delight

that no one understood them;

they were meant for the Son,

and he alone rejoiced in them.

What he heard

was this:

"My Son, only your

company contents me,

and when something pleases me

I love that thing in you;

whoever resembles you most

satisfies me most,

and whoever is like you in nothing

will find nothing in me.

I am pleased with you alone,

O life of my life!

You are the light of my light,

you are my wisdom,

the image of my substance

in whom I am well pleased.

My Son, I will give myself

to him who loves you

and I will love him

with the same love I have for you

because he has loved

you whom I love so.

"My Son, I wish to give you

a bride who will love you.

Because of you she will deserve

to share our company,

and eat at our table,

the same bread I eat,

that she may know the good

I have in such a Son;

and rejoice with me

in your grace and fullness."

"I am very grateful,"

the Son answered;

"I will show my brightness

to the bride you give me,

so that by it she may see

how great my Father is,

and how I have received

my being from your being.

I will hold her in my arms

and she will burn with your love,

and with eternal delight

she will exalt in your goodness."

"Let it be done, then, said the Father,

for your love has deserved it.

And by these words

the world was created,

a palace for the bride

made with great wisdom

and divided into rooms,

one above, the other below.

The lower was furnished

with infinite variety,

while the higher was made beautiful

with marvelous jewels,

that the bride might know

the Bridegroom she had.

The orders of angels

were placed in the higher,

but humanity was given

the lower place,

for it, in its being,

a lesser thing.

And though beings and places

were divided in this way,

yet all form one,

who is called the bride;

for the love of the same Bridegroom

made one bride of them.

Those higher ones possessed

the Bridegroom in gladness;

the lower in hope, founded

on the faith that he infused them,

telling them that one day

he would exalt them,

and that he would lift them

up from their lowness

so that no one

could mock it any more;

for he would make himself

wholly like them,

and he would come to them

and dwell with them;

and God would be man

and man would be God,

and he would walk with them

and eat and drink with them;

and he himself would be

with them continually

until the consummation

of this world,

when, joined, they would rejoice

in eternal song;

for he was the Head

of this bride of his

to whom all the members

if the just would be joined,

who form the body of the bride.

He would take her

tenderly in his arms

and there give her his love;

and when they were thus one,

he would lift her to the Father

where God's very joy

would be her joy.

For as the Father and the Son

and he who proceeds from them

live in one another,

so it would be with the bride;

for, taken wholly into God,

she will live the life of God.

....

Now that the time had come

when it would be good

to ransom the bride

serving under the hard yoke

of that law

which Moses had given her,

the Father, with tender love,

spoke in this way:

"Now you see, Son, that your bride

was made in your image,

and so far as she is like you

she will suit you well;

yet she is different, in her flesh,

which your simple being does not have.

In perfect love

this law holds:

that the lover becomes

like the one he loves;

for the greater their likeness

the greater their delight.

Surely your bride's delight

would greatly increase

were she to see you like her,

in her own flesh."

"My will is yours,"

the Son replied,

"and my glory is

that your will be mine.

It is fitting, Father,

what you, the Most High, say;

for in this way

your goodness will be more evident,

your great power will be seen

and your justice and wisdom.

I will go and tell the world,

spreading the word

of your beauty and sweetness

and of your sovereignty.

I will go seek my bride

and take upon myself

her weariness and labors

in which she suffers so;

and that she may have life,

I will die for her,

and lifting her out of that deep,

I will restore her to you."

...

(Stanzas 1-4; 7 from The Collected Works of St. John of the Cross, ICS Publications, translated by Kieran Kavanaugh, OCD and Otilio Rodriguez, OCD)