Experience of the Desert
The Carmelites understood that the continuation of Christ's presence and his work means fighting against the powers of evil, especially in their most insidious forms. The first Carmelites recognized this necessity in the context of the Crusades.
And St. Teresa of Avila was most concerned during her reform with the return to the zeal of those first, idealized days on Mount Carmel. The latest manual for formation throughout the order (1) describes this aspect of Carmelite spirituality in the following way:
The desert of the first Carmelites was a desert in the literal sense: it was a desolate place in a certain landscape. At the same time, however, they abandoned the well-trodden paths to live as strangers in the land of the Lord and to dedicate themselves to a contemplative life. They shared the spirituality of the Crusades and the spiritual movements of the 12th century, "Following Jesus Christ" (obsequium Iesu Christi); in its original context of "pilgrimage to Jerusalem" (peregrinatio hierosolimitana), it meant primarily to follow the crucified Christ, Jesus who denied himself and died naked on the cross.
When they left the certainty of their home desert on Carmel, they carried with them an internalized experience (of the desert). They accepted the status of a mendicant order because in the movements of poverty, they recognized a spiritual program close to their own. "Poverty without all certainties" (paupertas incerta) was a different kind of liberation from all security and a complete surrender to the Lord. They again became strangers and therefore had to more clearly define their identity as "Carmelites." They had to live without any history connecting them to the foundation, without a historical charismatic founder, without any precise form. They had to create a spiritual desert in their hearts and become men of bare faith. (RIVC 1988, art. 24–25)
Saint John of the Cross, drawing on the best Carmelite tradition, describes the ascent to Mount Carmel and does not hide or mask the demanding requirements of life in God's proximity, especially in its more advanced stages. In these radical demands, symbolized by his famous "nada" (i.e., nothing), St. John does not know compromise. As a spiritual leader deeply in love with God, but also completely devoted to those he leads, he wants to guide them on the quick and secure path to the "one thing necessary." He laments that often even zealous religious avoid the direct path and choose paths more according to their liking, easier paths that often prevent them from reaching the summit of the mountain, Christ himself. St. John points out so many obstacles along the way and repeatedly advises to detach from everything that is not God—the goal of all our striving. Deeply rooted in Sacred Scripture, in the patristic tradition, and in the Carmelite school, the saint insists: God is the only absolute; everything else is relative. But in God and according to His will, everything else gains its true meaning and importance. And if we understand that everything else has only relative value, then this other can even be a great aid in the ascent of the mountain.
But how to achieve this desert, this detachment? The guidelines for formation succinctly summarize—the contemporary language—the Carmelite view on this matter as follows: the Carmelites
liberated from the original material desert had to create an inner desert through a continuous process of spiritual self-emptying, gradually abandoning human supports and all kinds of material, ideological, or spiritual security. Thus, the Carmelite desert inevitably becomes a spiritual and mystical desert: a desert of faith and love.
This desert is surely tougher than the original, as it involves a constant and never-ending process of self-denial. The Carmelite tradition has described this process in various ways and uses terms such as "purity of heart" (puritas cordis) and "being free for God" (vacare Deo). These expressions convey absolute surrender to God and a gradual emptying of oneself. (Ibid, art. 27)
Candidates for Carmelite life are taught about the importance of the experience of the desert:
The desert is in Carmelite spirituality the contemplative life. In the process of spiritual transformation (which means: in the contemplative life), we are emptied of what we care about and what we need, and we are filled with God – and thus we are exclusively focused on Him. Dying to oneself and being reborn in God therefore perfectly coincide. In this desert, we receive an encounter with the values of God, which cannot be recognized or attained by any human effort.
According to the confession: "As the Lord lives, before whom I stand" (cf. 1 Kings 17:1)... the desert is the result of exclusively God's action; we enter it only when God leads us into it, and all we can do to reach it is: to open ourselves to His action. This emptying process of the desert is therefore impossible without a direct divine intervention; the desert is for every person a "place" where God enters human history in a constant process of incarnation. (Ibid, art. 28)
(1) This refers to Ratio Institutionis Vitae Carmelitane /RIVC/ from 1988; the most recent RIVC is from 2000.
Taken from the book: Carmel in the Czech Church
Author: Redemptus Valábek, OCarm.
Published by: KNA
