On December 14th the Church celebrates the feast of the great Spanish mystic St. John of the Cross.

In his elegantly written book, Denying and Disclosing God: The Ambiguous Progress of Modern Atheism, Michael Buckley, S.J., draws significantly upon John's mystical theology.

Commenting upon the Saint's discussion of the night of the senses and the night of the spirit, Buckley writes:

In either night, if one insists upon the god projected by the apotheosis of the human or by the need for security and pleasure or by expectations generated by "my own experience," the working of God cannot proceed. There is really only one night in John of the Cross: the progressive purification and transformation of the person in what he cherishes and understands and in what gives him security and support.

The disclosures of God contradict the programs and expectations of human beings in order to fulfil human desire and human freedom at a much deeper level than subjectivity would have measured out in its projections.

Thus John could joyfully exclaim: "Oh noche amable mas que el alborada!"-- "Oh night, far lovelier than the dawn!"