integration paper
Assignment title: Weekly Reflection Paper # 13
Date: 04.15.18
Indeed the best things in life are hard to achieve. I can only relate this saying to Christianity as a journey. I believe that everyone who would one day like to go to heaven is motivated to live righteous life on earth. Well, that is at least the reward that is best known to us and awaits us for living our lives righteously on earth as Christians. Just like any other rewarding journey, Christianity is also a journey that is full of many challenges and requires God’s grace for an individual to make it to the end of the journey. The poem and concept of “the dark night of the soul” elaborates this by explaining that it is a natural feeling for Christians to sometimes experience spiritual emptiness and the feeling of being abandoned by God. It makes it known to us that such experiences are part and parcel of journey to Christ.
Mother Teresa herself confirms this in one of her letters that was found where she wrote of how she was told that God lives within her yet the emptiness and coldness that she experienced in her soul was so great that nothing touched her soul. This is what the dark night of the soul is all about. To better understand the dark night of the soul, I will look at what it constitutes in the lives of Christians. First the dark night of the soul is necessary in the lives of Christians. Since us as human beings tend to value our comfort zone very much, the dark night of the soul allows us to let go of our comforts as God purifies our desires and makes us ready to go heaven.
The dark night of the soul is also unique in the sense that it looks different in each and every person’s life. This means that while some people may experience the dark night of the soul through trial, others may experience it though temptations and abandonment or all of them. It is also unpredictable in the sense that it can occur at any stage of our spiritual journey. Since our spiritual journey is divided into three major phases that is; the purgative, illuminative and the unitive phases, the dark night is likely to occur at the end of the illuminative way as we transition to the final unitive stage. As we experience the dark night during the journey of Christianity, it reveals to us what exactly we are without God. The trials and temptations that we experience during the dark night of the soul are meant to prepare us for the tough journey ahead towards uniting with Christ.
Having understood the dark night of the soul it is also important for us to acknowledge and be aware that the dark night of the soul is not depression nor is it evil. We should understand that it is Gods unique way of working on soul to draw us nearer to him and seek his kingdom. Sometimes it is the experiences that we go through such as suffering that remind us of the existence of God’s kingdom. Just like Job’s story in the bible, we should remain strong and firm in the Lord amidst many trials and temptations that we may face during the dark night of the soul. Despite Job losing all his wealth, earthly possessions and family, He remained strong in the Lord and still trusted him. Our ark nights maybe similar or even worse than Job’s, but through patience while trusting and believing in God, they are just passing trials.