Saint John of the Cross called faith “luminous darkness,” an absolute surrender wherein the ever-deepening of love eliminates all need to know.
As we deepen in faith, the point comes when we marvel at what love has done to us. There is more and more of God’s intimate love giving itself to me as me. That is the blessedness in poverty: when all in us that is not God dissolves, and we finally realize that we are already as beautiful as God is beautiful because God gave the infinite beauty of God as who we are.
God is the infinity of the unforeseeable and is trustworthy, because in everything, God is trying to move us into His consciousness. If we are absolutely grounded in the perfect love of God that protects and sustains us in all things, then we can face all things with courage and tenderness and touch the hurting places in others and in ourselves with love.
This is, perhaps, the reason for the mysterious coexistence of deep suffering and intense joy that the saints experienced with their deep faith.
Romans 5:3-5 “We can rejoice, too, when we run into problems and trials, for we know that they help us develop endurance. And endurance develops strength of character, and character strengthens our confident hope of salvation. And this hope will not lead to disappointment. For we know how dearly God loves us, because he has given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with his love.”
