Episode Transcript  

One

Imprisonment: God Empties to Fill

Today, December 14th, we celebrate the Feast of St. John of the Cross. Together with St. Teresa of Avila, he stands as one of the Church’s greatest teachers on the spiritual life. If we want to grow in holiness, we must understand what he teaches.

When John was ordained in 1567, he met Teresa. She convinced him to join her in reforming the Carmelite Order, moving them from a life of noise, constant activity, and distraction, where many had never learned the practice of meditation, to a life centered on prayer, silence, and the pursuit of God above everything.

But reform is rarely welcomed by those comfortable with mediocrity. On December 2nd, 1577, a group of Carmelite friars seized John in the night, dragged him to Toledo, imprisoned him in a 10 × 6 foot cell with almost no light, no bed, no change of clothes, and fed him only bread and water for nine months.

It was in this darkness that John would later write, “The immense blessings of God can only enter and fit into an empty and solitary heart.”

God was emptying him so He could fill him. And this is the same pattern God desires to work in us. God removes lesser loves so He can become our greatest love; He purifies our desires so He can fill us with Himself and give us perfect joy!

Two

Escape 

God did not send the friars to kidnap or beat John; they acted out of fear and resentment. But God allowed it and turned it into John’s transformation. In that tiny cell, John was stripped of every comfort and earthly support, emptied of all the things he once relied on, and brought to a place where he could surrender himself entirely to God.

Once he was emptied, God filled him, flooding his soul with the Living Water of divine life. That is why John emerged from suffering not bitter but transformed. On August 15th, 1578, he miraculously escaped. He and Teresa went on to form a new branch of the Carmelites, and they became the two greatest doctors of the Catholic spiritual life.

John summarized his entire journey with one word: Nada. Nada does not mean rejecting the good things of life. Nada means, “Enjoy every good thing God gives—but hold them lightly.” Because when God allows something to be diminished or taken away, He is clearing space to give you more of Himself, the greatest good of all.

Nada is not subtraction; Nada is freedom. It is God making room within us to fill that space with Himself.

Three

Bethlehem: God Is Born Where There Is Room

The Feast of St. John of the Cross always falls in Advent, the season of preparing room for Christ. And Bethlehem gives us the perfect image of John’s teaching. Why wasn’t Jesus born in the inn at Bethlehem? Because it was full. Why was He born in a stable? Because it was empty. This is the doctrine of Nada in a single image. If our hearts are full, full of anxieties, full of ambitions, full of lesser loves, then there is no room for God. God does not force His way into a cluttered heart. But when the heart becomes empty of disordered attachments, it becomes like the stable: a place where Christ can be born.

As John writes, “The immense blessings of God can only enter and fit into an empty and solitary heart.”

It is not that worldly goods are bad. God created them, and they are good. But when we cling to them tightly, when we desire them inordinately, we block the only One who can truly satisfy us. When we let go, when we make room, God fills the space with His own life. Bethlehem teaches us that God is born in emptiness. God fills the space we surrender.

Four

The Goal of Nada: Transforming Union With God

If Nada were only about giving things up, it would be bleak. But St. John of the Cross insists the opposite. God empties us only so that He can fill us with His own life. Holiness is not merely becoming a better person. Holiness is union with God, allowing Him to penetrate the soul so deeply that we begin to think with His mind, love with His heart, and delight in what delights Him.

John writes, “The soul lives the life of God… the intellect becomes divine…the will is changed into the life of divine love…
the emotions satisfied by the delight of God.” (Living Flame, 2.34)

This is the destiny of every Christian. Not just to follow Christ. Not just to imitate Christ. But, in John’s bold words, to live God’s life by participation, so that with St. Paul we can say, “I live, now not I, but Christ lives in me.”

This is why God makes room in us to give us nothing less than Himself. And if union is God’s goal, then the question becomes simple and urgent. How does God transform the soul into Himself?

Five

Becoming Fire: Charity as the Path to Union

St. John answers this with his most powerful image: fire and wood.

When dry wood is placed in a flame, at first it crackles and smokes, then the fire dries it, then it glows, and eventually it becomes so united to the flame that it seems nothing but fire.

John says this is exactly what God does to a soul that is emptied and offered to Him, “This flame of divine love softens, quiets and illumines the soul; for when the fire penetrates the wood, it transforms it into itself.” (Living Flame, 1.23) God is a consuming fire, not because He destroys, but because He transforms everything He touches into love.

But how do we dispose ourselves so this transformation can happen? John tells us plainly in Spiritual Canticle 13.2, “God does not place His grace and love in the soul except according to its desire and love.”

If we want to burn with God’s love, we must desire it and practice it. John continues, “To acquire this charity, one ought to practice what St. Paul taught: ‘Charity is patient, is kind, is not envious…does not seek its own…bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.’” (1 Cor 13:4–7)

This is John’s practical path. If you want divine love, practice divine love, practice the virtues. If you want to be set on fire, stack the wood:
patience, kindness, humility, forgiveness, endurance. If you want God to fill you, love where it costs you the most. For John, charity is the match God strikes. When we practice charity, we give God permission to ignite us.

Holiness is not only God’s gift; it is our cooperation with that gift. Holiness is love, and to love is to will and to do the good for others. But doing the good is nothing other than living the virtues, because virtue is love made visible and concrete. And the soul that practices love in this way becomes fuel for God: a heart ready for the flame, a life ready to become fire.

If you enjoyed this meditation, subscribe below.