The Trials of the Soul on the Path to God

Source: Saint John of the Cross, Spiritual Canticles

The soul that begins to enter upon the path of perfection sees, in fact, the world presenting itself to its imagination as wild beasts would, threatening it and baring their teeth; and this happens especially in three ways.

(1) The first is that it sees itself threatened with the loss of the world’s favors, its friends, its protectors, its reputation, and even its fortune.

(2) The second, which appears no less formidable than the first, is the prospect of never again having any pleasure or satisfaction in this world, and of being deprived of all the comforts it offers.

(3) The third is more terrifying still: it is the unchaining of tongues that will tear her apart; she will find herself the target of all sarcasm and reproach; there will remain for her nothing but contempt.

Certain souls are so frightened when these difficulties rise up before them that it becomes very hard for them, not only to persevere in the struggle against these wild beasts, but even to take the first step on the path of God.

Other souls, more generous, sometimes have to combat monsters that are more interior and more spiritual; these are temptations, tribulations, and very varied sufferings through which those whom God calls to a high perfection must pass.

He tests them and purifies them like gold in the furnace. This is what the King-Prophet teaches: Many are the tribulations of the just, but the Lord will deliver them from them.

As for the soul deeply in love, which prefers its Beloved to all things, which rests upon His love and relies on His protection, it considers it a small thing not to fear wild beasts…

Such, then, is the line of conduct that the soul proposes to follow in the search for its Beloved. It is, first, constancy and energy, so as not to stoop to gathering the “flowers”; next, courage, so as not to fear the “wild beasts”; finally, strength, to cross the “strongholds” and the “frontiers,” seeking to advance by the mountains and the shores of the virtues…