That the lover become like the one he loves...

St. John of the Cross, whose feast we celebrate in the middle of our cold and dark Advent season, is often looked to for what he can teach us about suffering. However, in his tremendous suffering, he managed to write so profoundly of the joy brought to us by Christ. It’s a paradox we find in the lives of many great saints.

Imprisoned during Advent in 1577, St. John began to write a beautiful poem about the depths of God’s love and the human journey towards union with Him. He recounts salvation history, and the mutual, selfless love of the Trinity. In the darkness of his own life, he sought the face of God and found that God was in fact seeking him, too. This poem, entitled Romances, is a dialogue between God the Father and God the Son, in which the Father reveals His plan to give a bride to the Son, a bride who will rejoice in His grace and fullness.[1]

Here’s an excerpt, from a translation by Fr. Kieran Kavanaugh, OCD:

“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 become

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.”

(The Collected Works of St. John of the Cross, p. 66.)

[1] https://slmedia.org/blog/like-the-one-he-loves