Visualising-Christology-Llama-de-amor-viva-and-the-Resurrection 2

Teresianum 68 (2017/1) 87-125
Visualising Christology:
Llama de amor viva
and the Resurrection
iain Matthew, oCd
Pontifical Faculty of Theology Teresianum, Rome
matthew@teresianum.net
If Paul meant what he said – «I live, now not I, but Christ lives in
me» (Gal 2,20) – then to see Paul living was to catch sight of the living
Christ. This man Paul, who has let his mind be turned around (meta-
noia), who has become so imbued with Jesus’ Spirit that his prayer is
“Abba, Father”, and who lives now in service of «the Gospel of Christ»
(Gal 1,7), this man has been so taken over by Christ that his life de-
clares Christ more than it declares Paul. This is lived Christology; and
to know Paul is to get help in visualising Christology, getting some
picture of what Christology means, of the actual significance for the
world of Christ’s being risen.
As with Paul, so in later ages: a way to know Christ is to contem-
plate those who follow him. Treating of how the Church celebrates her
faith in liturgy, the Catechism affirms: «The desire and work of the Spirit
in the heart of the Church is that we may live from the life of the risen
Christ»1. Those, then, in whom «the Spirit» is at «work» will model for
us «the life of the risen Christ».
San Juan de la Cruz puts the Spirit’s working into words. His writing
is a testament to just how risen Christ is. What we want to do in this
article is to explore how the most explicitly pneumatological book of
Juan de la Cruz, Llama de amor viva, the Living Flame, discloses to us the
reality of Christ’s resurrection.
1
Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC), §1091.
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IAIN MATTHEW, OCD
Juan’s witness here is three-dimensional: his words not only state

the case; they also communicate something of its vitality. What he does,
in sharing his own experience of the work of the Spirit, is to take us in-
side that «heart of the Church» of which the Catechism spoke. He leads
us into the fire which is in Sion and the furnace in Jerusalem (cf. LB
1,162, quoting Isa 31,9), images which Juan interprets as «the Church»
on earth (the fire) and in heaven (the furnace); but in heaven as antici-
pated already here in Llama, where the soul’s union with God «es como
horno encendido», «is like a blazing furnace» (LB 1,16).
It is Christ as risen that we are concerned about here: the signifi-
cance of Jesus’ rising, for the Church and the cosmos. We take a cue
from Anthony Kelly’s, The Resurrection Effect. This Australian theolo-
gian’s study of Christ’s resurrection leads him to call for a reclaiming
of theology by this central tenet of Christian belief: «Rather than trying
to locate the resurrection in some specific area of theology, we are sug-
gesting that theology, in all its endeavours, needs to be located “within
the resurrection” and be suffused with its light, to become, in a word,
more “resurrectional” in mood and methods»3.
The plan for the article is this: first to present the essential evidence,
in Juan’s explanation of Llama, that the work reflects his experience
of the risen Christ. This will lead us to examine the experiential basis
and then the identity of the protagonist of Llama. We shall then con-
sider, in this search for testimony to the resurrection, the global impres-
sion of the work. Finally we shall make two applications, considering
Llama both as evidence of what Christ does in Juan, and as a pointer to
Christ’s own experience in rising.4
2
To refer to Juan’s writings, the following abbreviations are used: LA: Llama,
first redaction; LB: Llama, second redaction; CA: Cántico, first redaction; CB: Cántico,
second redaction; 1S 1,1: Subida del Monte Carmelo, Book 1, chapter 1, paragraph 1
(etc.); 2N: Noche, book 2, etc. Our basic text is: Juan de la CruZ, Obras Completas, ed.
J.V. Rodríguez and F. Ruiz, Editorial de Espiritualidad, Madrid 20096. Translations
from the Spanish are mine.
3
A.J. kelly CSsR, The Resurrection Effect, Transforming Christian Life and Thought,
Orbis, Maryknoll 2008, 41.
4
There are excellent studies of the provenance and content of Llama. Federico
Ruiz’s early article, «Cimas de Contemplación: Exégesis de “Llama de amor viva”»,
Ephemerides Carmeliticae 13 (1962) 257-298, is unsurpassed in its rigorous engagement
with the text in search of the author’s original meaning. An excellent introduction and
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1. Llama as resurrection Christology
In this section, we state the fact: that what we find in Llama, in po-
etry and prose, is verbal expression of the life of the risen Christ, com-
municated by the Spirit, in the heart of Juan de la Cruz. It is the risen
Christ, living out his life in Juan.
«¡Oh llama de amor viva / que tiernamente hieres / de mi alma en el más
profundo centro!» «Oh living flame of love, which tenderly wounds my
soul in its deepest centre». The protagonist of the poet’s experience, Oh
llama, is clearly identified at the outset of the commentary: «Esta llama
de amor es el espíritu de su Esposo, que es el Espíritu Santo» (LA 1,3;
LB 1,3). «This flame of love is the spirit of her Bridegroom, which is the
Holy Spirit».
Let us spell that out. The flame reaches the deepest centre of the
soul, and calls her into the future (rompe la tela, stanza 1), gives life
in place of death (matando muerte en vida la has trocado, stanza 2), em-
powers the soul to love and knows the beloved (calor y luz dan junto a
su querido, stanza 3), and preserves the relationship in tenderness (cuán
manso y amoroso, stanza 4). This flame, we are told, is the Holy Spirit.
And the Holy Spirit is identified as «el espíritu del Esposo», the Spirit of
the Bridegroom. In Juan’s writing, Esposo refers primarily to the living
Christ: «living», since the Bridegroom is the active interlocutor with
whom Juan engages; and «Christ», Jesus, the Son, in keeping with the
nomenclature of the New Testament where the wedding is the Lamb’s5.
analysis is that of M. herráiZ, «Llama de amor viva. Consagración de un místico y un

teólogo», Teresianum 40 (1989) 363-395. These form the basis of the discussion of Llama
in chapter 4 of The Impact of God, London 1995, to which the reader may be referred.
Further insights are offered by Gabriel Castro, whose attention to Juan’s symbolism
gives a roundedness to our reading of Llama: «Llama de amor viva», in: Introducción
a la lectura de san Juan de la Cruz, ed. Salvador Ros, Castilla y León 1991, 493-529. In
Italian, there is the refreshing G. Moioli, Centro dell’anima è Dio, Edizioni OCD, Roma
2010. Most importantly, we now have the critical edition of Llama prepared by Eulogio
Pacho, Monte Carmelo, Burgos 2014. For a rhetorical study, see F. soBrino MataMala,
Llama de amor viva, Burgos 2013. Also noteworthy is Peter Tyler’s not incontrovertible
chapter on Llama («The healing of desire») in his forthcoming Confession, the Healing of
the Soul, Bloomsbury Continuum, London 2017.
5
The references are well known, including Mt 9,15; 25,1-12; Mk 2,19; Lk
5,34 Jn 3,29; 2Cor 11,2; Eph 5,25-33; Apoc 21,9. Helpful comment in A. aMato, Il
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The Bridegroom is the living Christ. So what we have here, in Juan’s

poem and its commentary, is the risen Christ living out his life in the
believer. It is testimony to the risen one, known from within.
This is born out by the commentary on stanza two. There the hand
touches like fire: the Father’s touch – his Son – is fire to the soul, a
single movement in which Christ acts through his Spirit. The commen-
tary rises to a climax in declaring that the death and new life sung in
the stanza lets the soul appropriate the words of Saint Paul, «I live, now
not I, but Christ lives in me», «Vivo yo, ya no yo; mas vive en mí Cristo»
(LB 2,34, Gal 2,20). Llama is about Christ rising in Juan, Christ living out
his life in him.
Before considering more amply the contours of that risen life, the
affirmation we are making begs two questions: how do we know that
Juan is relating experienced reality, rather than something more theo-
retical or fictional? And what support does Juan himself offer for the
identification of the Bridegroom as the risen Christ?
2. Is Llama real?
The question is loaded from the outset, and presumes the successful
clearance of any number of philosophical hurdles. Nonetheless, I be-
lieve that the question is legitimate and important. Does what Juan
writes communicate to us what he himself has experienced? The ques-
tion implies both his intention in writing and the correspondence be-
tween his subjective understanding and actual fact. We shall consider
here particularly Juan’s intention in writing, that is, that he does pro-
pose Llama as the mirror of experience, not only as theory or fantasy.
As for the cogency of that belief, of the actual correspondence between
what Juan thinks he knows and what is objectively real, we can at least
allow Juan to have his say. Let Juan speak, and see how his word in-
forms theology and opens possibilities. A presumption in favour of
Celibato di Gesù, Vatican 2010, and G. de virGilio, «Jesus – Nymphiós: the image
of “bridegroom” and his peculiarities in the Gospels», in: The Gospels: History and
Christology, vol. 2, ed. B. Estrada, E. Manicardi, A. Puig i Tàrrech, Vatican 2013,
231-248.
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Juan’s claim to veracity will find support in wider dimensions which

would be harder to explain if Juan were mistaken in his experiential
claim. These dimensions in support of the credibility of Juan’s dis-
course include the undoubted integrity of his life (seen especially in his
forgiveness of enemies); the purification which his suffering exerted on
what he was later to write; his own merciless assault, in his writings,
on bluff and self-deception; and the fruitfulness of his leadership and
legacy6.
With openness to the cogency of Juan’s discourse, what we focus on
now is the easier question of Juan’s own intention in writing.
All of Juan’s prose works comment, in some way, on his poetry. He

understands his poetry to express his experience. In Llama, the distance
between prose, poetry, and experience is at its most concentrated. To
read the work is to be scorched by the fire.
That is not to say that this work arrives out of nowhere. Llama comes
late in Juan’s poetic repertoire, and last in the story of his prose writing.
It consciously draws on what went before. The poetic image echoes
stanza 38 of Cántico A, con llama que consume y no da pena. The prose
itself refers back explicitly to «la Noche oscura de la Subida del Monte
Carmelo» (LA 1,21)7. And the prologue relates Llama to «the stanzas on
which we commented above», «las canciones que arriba declaramos» (LA
P 3), referring presumably to Cántico. Specifically, Juan sees the inten-
sity of love in Llama to be a development beyond that of Cántico, itself
already a maximum. And what made such love possible is the purgation
and renewal wrought by the night.
Notwithstanding this relationship with Juan’s other writings, Llama
comes to us fresh and young. According to Fray Juan Evangelista, the
secretary and friend of Juan de la Cruz, it was written in a fortnight
which itself was beset by many activities8. Whether this refers to the
6
Cf. for instance 2S 11,6; 29,3-6; and Censura y parecer. It is particularly
noteworthy that Colin Thompson concludes in this direction in his study, The Poet
and the Mystic, Oxford University Press, Oxford 1977, 155-157.
7
Ruiz and Rodríguez understand this to be the book Noche (though the explicit
mention of la Subida del Monte Carmelo suggests that work, in which noche is a
theme, rather than the book Noche where the image of ascent barely figures).
8
«La Llama de amor viva escribió siendo vicario provincial, también en esta casa [de
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whole work, or whether, with Gabriel Castro9, one applies it to the

writing of the commentary on stanzas one to three up until the digres-
sion at 3.26, the statement suggests inspired spontaneity rather than
studiousness10.
As with Cántico, there are two redactions of Llama, the first ap-
pearing after Cántico A, the second some time after Cántico B, probably
in the last months of Juan’s life, a last testament which he wanted to get
right. Nonetheless, in contrast with the substantial differences between
the two redactions of Cántico, the changes made in the second redac-
tion of Llama are relatively slight. We may therefore quote from Llama
B, with allusion to the first redaction where more fitting. Both remain
close to the original experience portrayed in the poem.
The Prólogo to the work makes this experiential basis unmistakably

clear, despite the author’s modesty. Juan says that the stanzas «speak
of an enhanced and yet more complete love», «tratan del amor ya más
calificado y perfeccionado» (LB P 3) with respect to the love portrayed in
Cántico. He affirms that the soul is speaking here, in the poem, at this
same level:
The soul speaks here aflame with this intensity, now so interiorly trans-
formed and enhanced in love’s fire, that she is not only united with this
fire, but the fire is now as a living flame in her. In these stanzas this is
what she feels and what she declares with intimate, delicate, tender
love, burning in its flame (LB 4)11.
Granada], a petición de doña Ana de Peñalosa; y lo escribió en quince días, que estuvo aquí
con hartas ocupaciones» (Letter of Juan Evangelista to P. Jerónimo de San José, 1st
February 1630, in: BMC 10, 341).
9
«Llama de amor viva», en: Introducción a la lectura de San Juan de la Cruz, cit.,
493-529, 500 note 8.
10
The poem itself conveys this spontaneity: rather than an epic story, it sings
and encounter, «variaciones y modulaciones de un mismo momento de plenitud espiritual»
(M. herráiZ, «Llama de amor viva. Consagración de un místico y un teólogo», cit.,
365).
11
«Y en este encendido grado se ha de entender que hable el alma aquí, ya tan
transformada y calificada interiormente en fuego de amor, que no sólo está unida en este
fuego, sino que hace ya viva llama en ella; y ella así lo siente y así lo dice en estas canciones
con íntima y delicada dulzura de amor, ardiendo en su llama» (LB P 4).
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And Juan reveals his belief that the prose commentary belongs to
the same level of experience: that is why he delayed the writing, until
he was gifted afresh with a “deep and loving spirit”, entrañable espíritu,
which alone can do justice to the “intimate depths of the spirit”, las
entrañas del espíritu (LB P 1).
All three – Juan’s experience, the poetry which gives it voice, and
the prose which unfolds it – are, according to the author’s testimony
here, in continuity: to read the prose and poetry is to have privileged
access to the originating event.
The experiential quality of Llama which the author confesses in the

prologue is born out more generally in the work. That may not always
seem to be the case. It is paradoxical that this most personal writing
contains one of the most flagrant instances of borrowing in Juan’s
corpus: his commentary on con extraños primores, LB 3,80-85, draws
heavily on De Beatitudine12. Such borrowing could in a later age be a
criminal offence, but in Juan’s day is as much evidence of his respect
for the work on which he drew, particularly as he believed it to be by
Saint Thomas Aquinas; evidence too of his sense of belonging to a tra-
dition where goods are shared.
The Llama poem itself is heir to tradition: Garcilaso and Boscán, and
behind them Petrarch, as well as the spiritualised version of Garcilaso
by Sebastian de Cordoba, find echoes in Juan’s poem13. In theme and
imagery García de la Concha finds echoes too of Augustine, Pseudo-
Dionysius, Hugh of Saint Victor, Richard of Saint Victor, Ruysbroeck,
Tauler, and Saint Teresa. The poem is original, not because of its nov-
elty, but because of the depth of assimilation from which the language
12
Referred to explicitly by Juan in Cántico B 38,4. On the Pseudo-Thomistic
writing, see M.a. díeZ, «La “reentrega” de amor: así en la tierra como en el cielo;
influjo de un opúsculo pseudotomista en S. Juan de la Cruz», EphCarm Roma 13
(1962) 299-354; and his Spanish translation (in the introduction to which, p. 23, he
revises the view of the authorship of the opusculum): Lecturas medievales de san Juan
de la Cruz, Monte Carmelo, Burgos 1999.
13
After transcribing the complete poem of Llama at the beginning of the work,
Juan refers for his model to “Boscán” (cf. Juan de la CruZ, Obras Completas, cit., 788.
The poetic antecedents are ably discussed by V. GarCía de la ConCha, Al Aire de tu
vuelo, Galaxia Gutenberg, Barcelona 2004, 292-301.
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issues. «Linguistic criticism has revealed a host of references in lit-

erary and theological tradition which echo in each of these verses. The
broader this fund of references becomes, the more brilliant appears the
artistry of San Juan, who, with such well-worn material, manages to
construct one of the most original and beautiful poems of all time»14.
A source of a different kind on which Llama draws is Juan’s rela-
tionship with Ana de Peñalosa. Poem and commentary were in some
sense written «at the request» of Ana (so the epigraph to the work); the
poem was written and then commented «for», para, Ana (LB P 1); and
the author attributes the recovery of understanding and warmth which
enabled him to embark on the commentary, to Ana’s «holy desire» (LB
P 1). The verses and commentary were composed in communion, not
in isolation. The author sees no contradiction between this and the ex-
periential basis which the same prologue affirms. His relationship with
Ana must have been such that it did not restrict his creativity. Fede-
rico Ruiz puts it neatly: «Given the level which obtains in this work
[Llama], unless there were personal experience the author could not
have written even the prologue»15.
There is further internal evidence that Juan’s writing conveys per-

ceived reality. For instance, he begins his commentary on stanza three
with what is in fact an auto-confession:
And the reader will need to be attentive, because, if she lacks experi-
ence, she may find it rather obscure and overwrought, just as, if she had
experience, it might well bring her clarity and pleasure (LB 3,1)16.
If the reader will be able to relate to the commentary only insofar as

they have experience, the writer himself must be speaking from that
experience for him to be able to shape the discourse.
14
V. GarCía de la ConCha, Al Aire de tu vuelo, cit., 293, translation mine.
15
F. ruiZ, Místico y Maestro, Editorial de Espiritualidad, Madrid 1986, 51.
16
«Y el que la leyere habrá menester advertencia, porque si no tiene experiencia, quizá le
será algo oscura y prolija, como también, si la tuviese, por ventura le sería clara y gustosa»
(LB 3,1).
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A further reflection of the experiential basis of Llama is the author’s

sense of the inadequacy of his language. This points to a lived reality
which frustrates expression, as opposed to a theory which has been
mastered or a fantasy world which his imagination controls. This sense
of the inadequacy of language accompanies the work throughout:
«What the soul knows and feels in this sublime awakening of God [...]
in the substance of the soul, is totally beyond words» (LB 4,10)17. And
the same sense of inadequacy brings the work to an unceremonious
end:
Of this divine breathing I would rather not speak, and indeed do not
wish to, for I can see plainly that I do not know how to express it, and
it would seem less [than it is] if I were to put words on it [...] And so, I
shall stop here. Finis (LA 4,17)18.
This stammering and falling silent before a reality which words

cannot contain has its counterpart in the exclamations in the poem,
transferred also to the prose. Hence the author explains that the ¡oh!
and ¡cuán! of the stanzas «signify loving endearment; and each time
that these terms occur, they reveal more of the inner reality than can
be expressed by the tongue» (LB 1,2)19. Again, commenting the second
stanza: «Wishing to say it, words fail her, and she stays with the wonder
in her heart and the praise on her tongue, with this term “Oh!” saying
¡oh cauterio suave!» (LB 2,5)20.
Juan’s ready surrender before the lived reality defines too the read-
er’s task: not so much to comprehend what Juan is affirming, as to trust
its truth. A more theoretical discourse would stand or fall on its intel-
17
«Totalmente es indecible lo que el alma conoce y siente en este recuerdo de la excelencia
de Dios [...] en la sustancia del alma» (LB 4,10).
18
«En el cual aspirar de Dios yo no querría hablar, ni aun quiero; porque veo claro que
no lo tengo de saber decir, y parecería menos si lo dijese [...] Y por eso, aquí lo dejo. finis»
(LA 4,17, an abrupt conclusion made more elegant in the second redaction LB 4,17).
19
«[S]ignifican encarecimiento afectuoso; los quales cada vez que se dicen dan a
entender del interior más de lo que se dice por la lengua» (LB 1,2).
20
«[Q]ueriéndolo ella decir no lo dice, sino quédase con la estimación en el corazón y
con el encarecimiento en la boca por este término ¡oh! diciendo: ¡oh cauterio suave!» (LB
2,5).
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lectual cogency. This experiential discourse does not ultimately depend

on intellection, but on acceptance. Hence the above text commenting
¡oh cauterio suave! concludes a plea that the reader be not driven into
doubt by the extremity of what the text describes: «Do not be aston-
ished that God should bring souls to this point»21. The same concern
– as if Juan were saying, I cannot explain it, but please believe me – sets
the tone of the work in the Prólogo itself: «There is no need to be aston-
ished at God doing such sublime and exquisite deeds of kindness»22. It
crowns the exultant affirmation of God’s being the centre of the soul:
«And it should not be thought incredible that [...] what the Son of God
has promised should find fulfilment in this life in this faithful soul» (LB
1,15)23.
These considerations, namely, the auto-confession in the prologue

and elsewhere, the inadequacy of language and its ready surrender, the
plea to the reader not to disbelieve what Juan is trying to say, indicate
that he understands Llama to convey lived reality. His language bears
the hallmark of one surprised and claimed by a gift, not of one control-
ling his own terrain. Juan’s early biographer expresses it simply and, it
would appear, truly: «There above all [in Llama] he provides a descrip-
tion and a picture of himself»24.
3. Identifying the Bridegroom
We have indicated that Llama reflects Juan’s experience: that such

was his belief and intention; and that the dynamics of the language
of Llama (particularly the way the author falls silent rather than con-
forming what he wants to say to ready-made patterns) support this
claim. The next question is whether the Other in Llama, the one who
claims and possesses Juan, can truly be considered to be the risen
21
«No os maravilléis que Dios llegue algunas almas hasta aquí» (LB 2,5).
22
«Y no hay que maravillar que haga Dios tan altas y extrañas mercedes [...]» (LB P 2).
23
«Y no es de tener por increíble que [...] deje de cumplirse en esta fiel alma en esta vida
lo que el Hijo de Dios prometió» (LB 1,15).
24
JeróniMo de san José, Historia del venerable V 16, 598, translation mine.
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Christ, such that what Llama gives us is a portrayal of Christ living out
his life in the experience of Juan.
«This flame of love is the spirit of her Bridegroom, which is the Holy
Spirit» (LB 1,3)25. Who is this Esposo, the one whose spirit, the Holy
Spirit, is reaching the deepest centre of the poet’s soul?
We referred to the New Testament identification of the Bridegroom
with Jesus, the Christ, the Lamb26. Evidently John knows these texts
and makes (sparing) allusion;27 but he is also devoted to the Old Tes-
tament language of the Song of Songs, where the Bridegroom, if inter-
preted mystically, would naturally refer to the God of Israel. While this
article could usefully consider the tradition of Christian commentary
on the Song of Songs, our focus instead will be the internal evidence for
the identity of the Bridegroom in Juan’s own writing.
For those of us brought up to apply the word «Jesus» to the Pales-
tinian Jew, «Christ» to the exalted Lord, «God» to the divinity as such,
and «Word» to the second person of the divine Trinity, Juan’s use of
titles and names can seem somewhat slack. In 3S 15,2, sacred images
of Jesus are «imágenes de Dios»; and in CB 40,7 the object of worship
as Trinity is «Jesús [...] con el Padre y el Espíritu Santo». Aside from aca-
demic precisions, Juan’s interest focusses on the «who» of Christology
rather than the «what». What he seeks is not description but personal
encounter28. And for that reason the most frequent designation for Jesus
Christ the Son of God in the sanjuanist corpus is the entirely personal
(hypostatic) term, Esposo: there is nothing more personally orientated
than a marriage.
The person of the Son of God is variously known, then, in his divine
oneness with the Father, in his helplessness in the crib, in his derelic-
tion on the cross, in his Easter companionship, and in his glory at the
25
«Esta llama de amor es el espíritu de su Esposo, que es el Espíritu Santo» (LB 1,3).
26
Cf. footnote 4.
27
Cf. 3S 27,4 (referring to the parable of Mt 25,1-11); CB 26,1 (the Lamb of the
Apocalypse identified as the Bridegroom).
28
Juan «prefiere los nombres personales que le [a Cristo] designan en la comunión
total», Ruiz 1986, 126. F. GarCía MuñoZ, Cristología en san Juan de la Cruz, Universidad
de Salamanca, Madrid 1982, 14, describes the Christ of Juan de la Cruz as “más de
signo mistérico que histórico”.
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Father’s right hand: he himself, one and the same29. At the same time,
the initiative perceived in this Christ is not closed off from the Father;
rather, the Bridegroom involves the soul (Juan) in his own relation-
ships. If the Son is Esposo of the Church (CB 30,7) then he is so in his
relationship with the Father and Spirit. Von Balthasar puts it neatly:
«Saint John’s mysticism is meant to be understood christocentrically,
and only through Christ is it theocentric»30.
The tone is set for the identification of the Bridegroom by the Ro-
mances, described as the prologue to all Juan’s writing31. Composed in
his imprisonment in Toledo, these ballads see creation as the Father’s
gift to the Son, that is, as a bride for the Son. «Una esposa que te ame, / mi
Hijo darte quería» (Romances 77-78). It is the Son who is the Bridegroom,
and who in becoming flesh claims his bride, and, in Johannine fashion,
returns with her to the Father: involves her, therefore, in his risen vic-
tory.
This conforms with the definitive identification of the «Esposo» at
the end of Cántico, in both CA (preceding LA) and CB (following LA),
in the context of Trinitarian doxology: «the Lord Jesus, most gentle
Bridegroom»; and «the most gentle Jesus, Bridegroom of faithful
souls»32. Cántico and Llama are in continuity (LA P 3), and so too is
their Christology: we rightly carry over into Llama the programmatic
identification of the Bridegroom at the end of Cántico. In this Cántico
formulation, the Bridegroom is Jesus, but clearly Jesus risen, as the one
who here and now is acting in the life of the believer33.
29
Cf. e.g. LB 2,17; 2S 19,7; 2S 7,12; 3S 31,8; and 2N 19,4, «porque el inmenso amor
del Verbo Cristo no puede sufrir penas de su amante sin acudirle».
30
h.u. von Balthasar, «Saint John of the Cross», in: Glory of the Lord, a theologi-
cal aesthetics, vol. 3, T & T Clark, Edinburgh 1986, 163.
31
Cf. J.V. rodríGueZ rodríGueZ, San Juan de la Cruz profeta enamorado de Dios
y maestro, Editorial de Espiritualidad, Madrid 1987, 147; and the penetrating
discussion by R. williaMs, «The deflections of desire: negative theology in
trinitarian disclosure», in o. davies – d. turner (eds.), Silence and the Word,
Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2002, 115-135. In this article, Romances
refers to Romance sobre el evangelio «in principio erat Verbum».
32
Or, «most sweet»; «el Señor Jesús, Esposo dulcísimo» (CA 39,6); «el dulcísimo
Jesús, Esposo de las fieles almas» (CB 40,7).
33
Cf. also 2N 21,3: «del amor del Esposo Cristo».
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Turning specifically to Llama, we can find the title Esposo ascribed to

«God». For instance the Bridegroom who speaks in the Song of Songs
is identified as «God» in LB 1,7, specifically God the Blessed Trinity:
«And so, as this soul is so near God as to be transformed in a flame
of love, in which the Father, Son and Holy Spirit communicate them-
selves to her» (LB 1,6)34. Again, at the start of stanza three, Esposo and
Amado (LB 3,1) are in apposition to Dios, to «God who is the Father or
the Son or the Holy Spirit» (LB 3,3)35. In 3,6 «God’ is communicating
himself to the soul; and this favour is attributed to “your Bridegroom”,
who is in you»36.
More characteristically, however, the Esposo in Llama is personally
the Word of God, «¡oh Verbo Esposo!» (LB 4,3); similarly, describing
spiritual betrothal: «And this is a sublime state of spiritual betrothal
between the soul and the Word, in which the Bridegroom favours her
with great deeds of kindness»37. The one who in stanza 4 awakens (re-
cuerdas en mi seno) is «el Verbo Esposo» (4,3), «el Hijo de Dios» (4,4). In 4,13
the scene of Esther’s coming before the king suggests to Juan the soul’s
experience of the Beloved, who is like the bridegroom of the psalm
coming from his chamber38, whose face – «el rostro del Verbo» – is full of
grace. This Bridegroom-Word is acting in direct relationship with the
believer. He is, therefore, the Word as now, not the Word in an a-his-
torical or pre-Christian conception. The Word as now is the risen Christ.
And he is the same as the one whom the gospels portray once speaking
in Palestine: in 1,28 the Esposo is he who taught us how to pray «en el
Evangelio»; the Gospel Jesus, now active39.
34
«Y así, estando esta alma tan cerca de Dios, que está transformada en llama de amor,
en que se le comunica el Padre, Hijo y Espíritu Santo [...]» (LB 1,6).
35
«Dios que es el Padre o el Hijo o el Espíritu Santo» (LB 3,3; cf. also 3,80).
36
«[T]u Esposo, estando en ti» (LB 3,6). Again, in 3,64, being bathed in God and
«entrar en lo interior del Esposo» are in apposition.
37
«Y éste es un alto estado de desposorio espiritual del alma con el Verbo, en el cual el
Esposo la hace grandes mercedes» (LB 3,25).
38
Ps 18,5. Cf. also Romances 9: the Bridegroom, majestically striding forth, is the
baby Jesus.
39
Similarly in 2,23 the Bridegroom identified with the Gospel Jesus: «la promesa
del Esposo en el Evangelio que daría ciento por uno».
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IAIN MATTHEW, OCD
The designation in stanza three, «su Querido», calor y luz dan junto a
su Querido, also sheds light on the identity of the Bridegroom. Querido
and Amado are cognates, denoting the person loved (grammatically
more limited, as passive participles, than the noun Esposo). In Juan’s
lexicon, Amado can refer to the Father: this is clear from the opening
of the Prayer of a loving soul, «Lord God, my Beloved» which, still ad-
dressing this Beloved, goes on to speak of «your Son», «your only Son
Jesus Christ»40. More typically however, the referent of Amado is the
Bridegroom himself (CB 35,2,6); and in the stanza of Cántico which
sings of the spiritual marriage, Amado, Esposo, and Hijo de Dios, stand
in apposition41.
4. The Bridegroom, dying and rising
There is a final indication that the Esposo is the risen Christ: the Bride-
groom involves the soul in a dying and living anew, matando muerte en
vida la has trocado. He shares with her what is in fact a paschal mystery.
Syntactically, the phrase is ambiguous. This is reflected in the varied
placing of the comma in modern editions: should it fall after muerte or
after matando? The first would mean that death has been slain, and life
born: «slaying death, you have changed death into life». This echoes
the cry of victory in Hosea, «Death, I will be your death», and First
Corinthians, «Death is swallowed up in victory» (cited in LB 2,34)42.
God in Christ has slain death and changed that mortal situation of the
soul into life. However in such a reading the action seems to happen
“over there”: God in Christ slaying death, and me (over here) receiving
the benefits. The alternative reading, in which the object of «matar» is
not defined, is more ambiguous but also more intense, more intrinsic.
«Slaying, you have changed death into life». It allows the meaning that
40
«Oración de alma enamorada», en: Dichos de luz y amor, 26: «Señor Dios, Amado
mío...», «tu Hijo», «tu único Hijo Jesucristo».
41
CA 27,2, CB 22,3. That both CA and CB employ this usage, chronologically
flanking LA, suggests that it was a constant for Juan.
42
Cf. 1Cor 15,54, quoting Isa 25,8; Hos 13,14 in the Douay-Rheims Vulgate:
«Ero mors tua, o mors! morsus tuus ero, inferne!» (different in the new Vulgate, which
conforms with the translation from Hebrew).
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the soul herself has experienced death – been slain – and in that nadir
has been given life. Either reading points to a sharing in Christ’s pas-
chal victory; the latter reading identifies the soul more dramatically
with Jesus’ own dying and rising.
The Ruiz-Rodríguez sixth edition of the Obras Completas (Madrid
2009) reads «matando muerte, en vida [...]». Conversely, Eulogio Pacho
in his critical edition adopts the alternative, «matando, muerte en vida la
has trocado»43.
Which version to choose? Textually, the «slaying death» reading is
stronger, inasmuch as the comma appears after «muerte» in the San-
lúcar manuscript of Cántico A, which Juan himself had revised and
corrected44. There the comma after muerte was left untouched by Juan,
who yet made corrections later in the same manuscript45. Still, this may
not be decisive. Rules of punctuation were fluid in the sixteenth cen-
tury46.The Sanlúcar punctuation in stanza 4 is also odd, but has not
been corrected: it places a comma after «manso»: «Cuan manso, y amo-
roso / recuerdas [...]»47. Indeed, in an age without correction fluid, how
43
Pacho explains his choice on the basis of the use of “trocar” in the commenta-
ry (cf. for instance LB 2,1; 2,34).«Es importante tenerlo [el verbo trocar] en cuenta para
la correcta puntuación del último verso». He interprets the phrase: «matando la vida
imperfecta del sentido, tal muerte se ha trocado en vida del espíritu» (193, n. 1). Ruiz and
Rodríguez cite the Sanlúcar manuscript to explain their choice of punctuation. In
the fifth edition of the Obras (1993), however, they place the comma after matando,
without comment. In that same year appeared Cristóbal Cuevas’s edition of Llama,
in which a footnote explains the placing of the comma after muerte, with reference
to Sanlúcar, and to the study by García de la Concha, printed in his 2004 volume Al
aire de su vuelo, a paper originally published in 1992. Perhaps here lies the seed of
change towards the «matando muerte, en vida» reading.
44
This punctuation is clearly visible in the facsimile edition, Juan de la CruZ,
Cántico espiritual y Poesías Manuscrito de Sanlúcar de Barrameda, Junta de Andalucía,
Madrid 1991, vol. I, 211v. Other manuscripts consulted have no punctuation at
all in the line (photograph copies of the Jaén and Sacromonte manuscripts at the
Teresianum library).
45
Crossing out «vivo» and writing «muero» in stanza 2 of his «vivo sin vivir en
mí», ibid., 214r.
46
Cf. I. arellano, «La puntuación en los textos del Siglo de Oro y en el Quijote»,
Anales Cervantinos 42 (2010) 15-32, here 18.
47
Ibid., 211v. C. Cuevas, following García de la Concha, follows the Sanlúcar
punctuation, in Juan de la CruZ, Poesías: Llama de amor viva, Taurus Ediciones,
Madrid 1993, 168, n. 9; so too the 6th edition of the Obras Completas, Editorial de
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IAIN MATTHEW, OCD
in fact could one ‘correct’ a comma, without turning it into an offensive

smudge? Juan may have let it go, if indeed he noticed it.
There are other reasons for favouring the reading which places
matando independently (following it immediately, therefore, by the
comma). This last line of stanza two culminates a series of paradoxes
where the seemingly negative assault on the soul is in fact a blessing:
the Spirit cauterizes her, but sweetly; the Father wounds her, gently.
The expectation is that the final line will be the ultimate negativity for
the soul, which is yet supremely positive: slaying, you give life.
The commentary too suggests that matando is what is done in the
soul, such that she herself dies and lives: «And thus, speaking of her-
self, she says well in the verse: Slaying, death you changed to life»48. The
slaying refers to «herself»; this could scarcely mean herself as subject
– nowhere does Juan suggest that the soul is the one who slays death.
The phrase, then, refers to «herself» as object of the verb matar. Hers is
a paschal mystery of being put to death in order to live.
As noted earlier, the model of what Juan is describing (LB 2,34) is
Saint Paul in Gal 2,20. «Matando muerte en vida la has trocado. Because
of this the soul is able to say here very appropriately with Saint Paul: I
live, not I; but Christ lives in me»49. Why «because of this»? The phrase
suggests that Paul’s no longer living is explained by the poet’s matando.
It is Paul who ceases to live; it is, in this sense, Paul who is “slain”, and
his dying becomes life as it lets Christ live in him.
One of Juan’s prison poems provides a key. The Romance sobre el
salmo “Super flumina Babilonis” is an ode to hope for salvation, con-
ceived as a transformation of the self in Christ. The poet is in the land
of strangers, enemies – his prison in Toledo; but more, his spiritual con-
dition. There is a drama taking place of greater magnitude than his cap-
tivity. Love has wounded him (verse 15), and claimed him completely
for Sion. This Sion is not defined; but, as the antithesis to Babylon, it
Espiritualidad, Madrid 2009, unlike the 5th edition 1993.

48
«Y por eso, hablando ella de sí, dice bien en el verso: Matando muerte en vida la has
trocado» (LB 2,34).
49
«Y de esta manera: Matando muerte en vida la has trocado. Y por eso, puede aquí
decir el alma con mucha razón con San Pablo: Vivo yo, no yo; mas vive en mí Cristo» (LB
2,34). Cf. section 1 above.
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coincides in the final lines of the poem with «the rock who is Christ»
(verse 67). Juan’s longing for Sion, in his exile, is a longing for a love
which will not only wound him, but slay him («Díjele que me matase»,
verse 17); his Babylonian life is suffocating him, and only if love slays
him will he be able to breathe again:
Allí me hirió el amor There love wounded me

y el corazón me sacaba. and wrenched my heart from me.
Díjele que me matase, I said to love that it should slay me
pues de tal suerte llagaba; [...] since its wounding used me so; [...]
estábame en mí muriendo, In myself I was dying
y en ti solo respiraba; and in you alone could I breathe;
en mí por ti me moría, in me for you was I dying
y por ti resucitaba, and for [or through] you did I rise,
que la memoria de ti for the memory of you
daba vida y la quitaba50. both gave life and took it away.
Such a hope, for a love which slays the self and releases life, finds
expression also in Cántico. Commenting stanza seven, the author de-
scribes three blessed assaults on the soul: a graze, a cut, and a wound
(llaga afistolada). They are caused by increasingly intense knowledge
of the Beloved. The wound has the potential to slay her, an assault
which would set her free. And it is love that will do the slaying and
the transforming: «until, in slaying her, love makes her live a life of
love, transforming her in love. And this dying through love [de amor] is
brought about in the soul through a touch of sublime knowledge of the
Godhead» (CB 7,4)51. This supports the choice in Llama for the reading,
«matando, muerte en vida la has tocado», where it is not death (over there)
that has been slain, but the soul herself who must die, and who does
50
Romance sobre el salmo “Super flumina Babilonis”, verses 15-28.
51
«[H]asta que, matándola el amor, la haga vivir vida de amor, transformándola en
amor. Y este morir de amor se causa en el alma mediante un toque de noticia suma de la
divinidad» (CB 7,4). Cf. also «matar» in 7,9; 8,2; 1,18; 9,2-3; 11,8. Romance sobre el salmo
“Super flumina Babilonis”: «Allí me hirió el amor / y el corazón me sacaba. / Díjele que me
matase, / pues de tal suerte llagaba [...]».
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IAIN MATTHEW, OCD
die, through the transforming power of Christ’s love, and so comes

alive, in him.
In fact the two interpretations (where the soul dies; or death dies)
are closer in meaning than at first appears, because the “death” which
Christ must kill inheres in and contaminates the soul, and she needs to
die with it in order to escape from it. What the hand of the Father slays
through the touch of the Son is that in the bride which holds her back
from him. «You wounded me in order to heal, oh divine hand! And you
slew in me what kept me dead, deprived of God’s life in which now I
see I live» (LB 2,16)52.
What must die is the «old humanity» spoken of in Ephesians (LB
2,33), that the soul may be clothed with the new. In this new life, «all
the soul’s appetites and its faculties, with its inclinations and opera-
tions, which of themselves worked death and privation of spiritual life,
are made divine» (LB 2,33)53. This, says Juan, is real loving, compared
with the moribund loving humanity is used to54. Llama sings of adop-
tive sonship set free (Rm 8,14 in LB 2,34), Christ living his risen life in
us (ibid.), the fulfilment of the Pauline hope in Christ and of Hosea’s
triumphant cry55.
Syntactically, then, the ambiguity – slaying (the soul), or slaying
death? – may have been intended by the author, perhaps not as a con-
scious “ploy” but in his sensitivity to the polyvalence of language.
We find such polyvalence elsewhere: «En la interior bodega / de mi
Amado bebí [...]» (CA 17, CB 26): does she drink in the Beloved’s wine
cellar? Or in the wine cellar, does she drink of her Beloved? Or both?
Similarly in Llama, the line matando muerte en vida la has trocado conveys
both Christ’s destruction of death, and the soul’s being slain by love
and so living in Christ.
52
«Llagásteme para sanar, ¡oh divina mano!, y mataste en mí lo que me tenía muerta
sin la vida de Dios en que ahora me veo vivir [...]» (LB 2,16).
53
«[T]odos los apetitos del alma y sus potencias según sus inclinaciones y operaciones,
que de suyo eran operación de muerte y privación de vida espiritual, se truecan en divinas»
(LB 2,33).
54
«[A]ntes amaba baja y muertamente» (LB 2,34).
55
As Maximiliano Herráiz expresses it, «El hombre descrito en Llama es la más
perfecta realización del “hombre nuevo”, “resucitado”, surgido de la muerte y del sepulcro
de Cristo» (ibid., 373).
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Having argued for the experiential basis of Llama, and for the iden-
tity of the protagonist as the risen Christ acting through his Spirit,
sharing his dying and rising, we may now look in Llama for light on
Christology. In doing so, texts we have seen already may now be re-
visited for their theological content.
5. A “saturated phenomenon”: Llama, its beauty, its wonder
«The mystery of the Resurrection, in which Christ crushed death,

permeates with its powerful energy our old time, until all is subjected
to him». In speaking of «powerful energy», this magisterial text56
echoes Paul’s hope for the Ephesians, that they might be so enlightened
by «the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory», as to know
«what is the immeasurable greatness of his power in us who believe,
according to the working of his great might which he accomplished in
Christ when he raised him from the dead»57. What is this «powerful
energy» with which Christ’s rising permeates history, this “power in
us who believe” which in some way relates to God’s mighty deed in
raising Christ? If Llama relates Juan’s experience of the risen Christ at
work in him, the book should help us to understand Paul’s hope and
the Catechism’s assertion.
Seeking to do justice to the abundance of the resurrection, Anthony

Kelly employs the terminology of Jean-Luc Marion, and speaks of the
resurrection as a “saturated phenomenon”: it offers itself to the believer
as inexhaustibly rich and multi-faceted; a donum to be received, not a
datum to be controlled58.
Juan’s Llama too points in this direction. It testifies to the gift of the
risen Christ, known as inexhaustibly rich. This giftedness and inex-
haustibility give to Llama its tone of surprise and wonder, attitudes of
appreciation which have been set free in Juan by a long-wrought death
56
CCC 1169.
57
«κατὰ τὴν ἐνέργειαν τοῦ κράτους τῆς ἰσχύος αὐτοῦ, ἣν ἐνήργηκεν ἐν τῷ
Χριστῷ ἐγείρας αὐτὸν ἐκ νεκρῶν» (Eph 1,19f). We adopt here the traditional
ascription of the letter to Paul.
58
A. kelly, The Resurrection Effect, xiii.
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IAIN MATTHEW, OCD
to self. In order to appreciate the gift and tone, a certain surrender is

demanded.
And such is the language and the words which God speaks in souls
who are purged and clean, all on fire [...] For those whose sense of taste
is unhealthy, and crave other things, cannot savour the spirit and life
in [these words]; on the contrary, they find them repugnant (LB 1,5)59.
Repeatedly, Juan asks the reader to step over into receptivity, by al-
lowing the Word of God to shape her expectations. The ineffability of
Llama which we considered as evidence of its experiential character60,
is in fact intrinsic to the Christology Juan is helping us to visualise.
The risen Christ is exactly that: given, surprising, uncontainable, de-
manding. His demand is that the measure of our criteria become God’s
generosity, not human restrictiveness; he requires the realignment
of our judgement with the contours of faith. In short, Juan would be
saying: If the Gospel revelation is really true, how can Christ not be
better than we imagine!
And so, as this soul is so near God as to be transformed in a flame

of love, in which the Father, Son and Holy Spirit communicate them-
selves, why should it be incredible to say that she senses a breath of life
eternal? (LB 1,6)61.
Similarly, the programmatic appeal in the Prologue:
And there is no need to be astonished at God doing such sublime and

exquisite deeds of kindness to souls whom he chooses to gift. For if we
consider that he is God and that he does them these deeds as God and
with infinite love and goodness, it will not appear unreasonable to us,
59
«Y este es el lenguaje y palabras que trata Dios en las almas purgadas y limpias,
todas encendidas [...] Que los que no tienen el paladar sano, sino que gustan otras cosas, no
pueden gustar el espíritu y vida de ellas, antes les hacen sinsabor» (LB 1,5).
60
Cf. section 2 above.
61
«Y así, estando esta alma tan cerca de Dios que está transformada en llama de amor,
en que se le comunica el Padre, Hijo y Espíritu Santo, ¿qué increíble cosa se dice que guste
un rastro de vida eterna [...]?» (LB 1,6).
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since he himself declared that in the one who loves him, the Father, the
Son and Holy Spirit would come and make their dwelling in him (LB
P 2)62.
Juan is saying: Trust God’s exorbitant generosity, that is what God is

like; and we know this from his promise in the Gospel.
The same logic is at work in the commentary on el más profundo
centro, expressing just how far the flame of the Holy Spirit intends to
go in searching out and transforming the person. Many will think this
exaggerated, Juan says; but «to all these I answer [...]» – and he does
answer, with a number of biblical texts testifying to the delight with
which God bestows Himself. Therefore Juan asks us, on this basis, to
unshackle our trust:
And it should not be thought incredible that for a soul once tried and
purged and proved in the fire of suffering and toil and different kinds of
temptation, and found faithful in love, what the Son of God has prom-
ised should find fulfilment in this faithful soul in this life, namely, that
if anyone loved him, the Most Holy Trinity would come to that person
and dwell in her; that is, divinely illuminating her understanding in
the wisdom of the Son, and delighting her will in the Holy Spirit, and
the Father absorbing her powerfully and strongly in the fathomless em-
brace of his tenderness (LB 1,15)63.
Surrendering to receptivity opens one to the gift in its totality, its

abundance, its beauty and excess. Juan’s surrender to silence in Llama
62
«Y no hay que maravillar que haga Dios tan altas y extrañas mercedes a las almas
que Él da en regalar; porque si consideramos que es Dios y que se las hace como Dios y con
infinito amor y bondad, no nos parecerá fuera de razón, pues Él dijo que en el que le amase
vendrían el Padre, el Hijo y Espíritu Santo y harían morada en Él [...]» (LB P 2).
63
«Y no es de tener por increíble que a un alma ya examinada, purgada y probada en
el fuego de las tribulaciones y trabajos y variedad de tentaciones, y hallada fiel en el amor,
deje de cumplirse en esta fiel alma en esta vida lo que el Hijo de Dios prometió, conviene a
saber: que si alguno le amase, vendría la Santísima Trinidad en Él y moraría en Él; lo cual
es ilustrándole el entendimiento divinamente en la sabiduría del Hijo, y deleitándole la
voluntad en el Espíritu Santo, y absorbiéndola el Padre poderosa y fuertemente en el abrazo
abisal de su dulzura» (LB 1,15).
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IAIN MATTHEW, OCD
is not only evidence of the inadequacy of language to communicate

the divine; it is a relational silence, the silence of love, where lover and
beloved are absorbed in each other.
Hence the delicacy of the delight which is felt in this touch is beyond
words, nor would I want to speak of it, lest it be thought that it is no
greater than the words imply; for no vocabulary can rise to such divine
realities as those which happen in these souls. Here, in the case of one
who receives this touch, the right language is to understand it herself,
and feel it, and enjoy it, and be silent (LB 2,21)64.
Poetry is compacted language, its syntax and vocabulary serving

a compressed meaning which holds more than its separate elements
signify. The commentary of Llama is particularly close to the poem, pro-
longing its tenor into prose. The paradoxes in Llama do in language
what faith has Juan experience: hold in tension, indeed, in identity, op-
posites which store in their compacted contrast immeasurable power:
like the infinite personal difference of the Father, Son and Spirit, in ab-
solute natural unity.
An example of these opposites-in-identity is to be found in the two
main spatial metaphors for the spiritual journey in Juan’s writing,
namely, going out – salí sin ser notada – and entering within – en el más
profundo centro. In Llama, the commentary on cauterio suave speaks of
the interiority of the Holy Spirit’s wound, which sends the soul out to
the corners of the world. Such a contrast conveys more than its sepa-
rate elements, multiplying geometrically the energy they contain.
[The soul] feels the wound [...] like the tip of a burning arrow in the sub-
stance of the spirit, as if pierced through to the heart of the soul. And of
this most inward point of the wound, which seems to be the mid-point
64
«De donde la delicadez del deleite que en este toque se siente es imposible decirse ni
yo querría hablar en ello, porque no se entienda que aquello [no] es más de lo que se dice;
que no hay vocablos para declarar cosas tan subidas de Dios como en estas almas pasan; de
las cuales el propio lenguaje es entenderlo para sí y sentirlo y gozarlo y callarlo el que lo
tiene» (LB 2.21). Adding «no» from Bg (Llama, Archivo Silveriano, ms. 11, Burgos, 2
redacción) and 1st redaction; so Pacho, in contrast to Ruiz - Rodríguez.
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of the heart of the spirit, which is where is felt the most refined delight,
who could adequately speak? (LB 2,9-10)65.
Jesus’ likening of the kingdom to a mustard seed speaks to Juan

of just this reality. «For what the soul feels there is like minute grain
of mustard, alive with intense heat, which sends out from itself to the
circumference a living, burning fire of love» (LB 2,10)66. This outreach
of love encompasses the soul; but more, it interprets the cosmos: «In
which it seems to the soul that the whole universe is an ocean of love
in which she is engulfed, unable to see an end or limit where this love
might finish, feeling in herself [...] love’s living point and centre» (LB
2,10)67. Such an identification of most inward and most outward, the
intimate centre and the circumference of the cosmos, takes us beyond
the physics of human logic and demands a surrender to the excess of
meaning which the Gospel gives.
Another instance of this togetherness of opposites, serving a com-
pressed meaning which exceeds description, is the identification in
Llama of gentleness and power68. The poem itself confronts us with this
in the paradoxes of the first two stanzas: a flame which wounds, but
tenderly; a jousting clash (encuentro) which is gentle; a burning cautery
which is sweet, a gash which brings delight. Accordingly, in the com-
mentary, we meet «el piadoso y omnipotente Padre» («the compassionate
and all-powerful Father» LB 2,16), whose gift of self is the more gentle
the more powerful it is: «the Father absorbing her powerfully and
65
«[El alma] siente la herida [...] como una viva punta en la sustancia del espíritu,
como en el corazón del alma traspasado. Y en este íntimo punto de la herida, que parece
quedar en la mitad del corazón del espíritu, que es donde se siente lo fino del deleite, ¿quién
podrá hablar como conviene?» (LB 2,9-10).
66
«Porque siente el alma allí como un grano de mostaza muy mínimo, vivísimo y
encendidísimo, el cual de sí envía en la circunferencia vivo y encendido fuego de amor» (LB
2,10; citing Mt 13,31-32 in 2,11).
67
«En lo cual parece al alma que todo el universo es un mar de amor en que ella está
engolfada, no echando de ver término ni fin donde se acabe ese amor, sintiendo en sí [...] el
vivo punto y centro del amor» (LB 2,10).
68
In a rare reference to a specific mystical experience, Llama speaks of the
stigmata of Saint Francis, where this conjunction of opposites comes to be
expressed psychosomatically: the soul’s delight is the body’s pain (cf. especially
the first redaction, LA 2,13).
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strongly in the fathomless embrace of his tenderness» (LB 1,15)69. The

Word, the Father’s touch, conveys this same contrast: «Oh! Graceful
breeze, since you are graceful and delicate, tell me, how do you touch
gracefully and delicately, Word of God, being so fearful and powerful?»
(LB 2,17)70. It is the Word’s personal communication, Christ’s self-gift,
received by the surrendered soul, that constitutes this identity of op-
posites; not, then, a stylistic device, but a mystical reality, a personal
divine communication, which invites the soul to relinquish incredulity
and to surrender to the lordship of Christ:
Oh blessed and greatly blessed the soul whom you touch gracefully
and delicately, being so fearful and powerful! Tell this to the world –
no, not to the world, for the world does not recognise such a graceful
breeze and will not feel you, since it cannot receive you or see you; but
only those, my God and my life, will see and feel your graceful touch
who, in exile from the world, themselves become graceful, at one in a
common grace (LB 2,17)71.
This compressed meaning in the identity of opposites is strongly

present in the commentary on the Word’s awakening (stanza 4), «a
movement by the Word in the substance of the soul, of such grandeur
and lordship and glory and such intimate sweetness» (LB 4,4)72. How
is it possible to survive the waking presence of infinite power? Juan
answers that it is because the Word is manso that his power does not
destroy. In the Word, the two – mildness and power – are identical:
69
«[A]bsorbiéndola el Padre poderosa y fuertemente en el abrazo abisal de su dulzura»
(LB 1,15).
70
«¡Oh aire delgado!, como eres aire delgado y delicado, di: ¿cómo tocas delgada y
delicadamente, Verbo de Dios, siendo tan terrible y poderoso?» (LB 2,17). Behind this
image is Elijah’s experience on Mount Horeb, where the gentle breeze exerts power
over him more than any earthquake or hurricane (cf. 1Kings 19,12).
71
«¡Oh dichosa y mucho dichosa el alma a quien tocares delgada y delicadamente,
siendo tan terrible y poderoso! Di esto al mundo, mas no lo quieras decir al mundo, porque
no sabe de aire delgado y no te sentirá, porque no te puede recibir ni te puede ver; sino
aquellos, ¡oh Dios mío y vida mía!, verán y sentirán tu toque delgado que, enajenándose del
mundo, se pusieren en delgado, conviniendo delgado con delgado» (LB 2,17).
72
«[U]n movimento que hace el Verbo en la sustancia del alma, de tanta grandeza y
señorío y gloria y de tanta íntima suavidad» (LB 4,4).
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And so the soul feels as much gentleness and love as power and lord-
ship and grandeur, because in God all this is the same. And so the de-
light is strong, and the protection strong, in gentleness and love, so as
to be able to bear such powerful delight (LB 4,12)73.
The mystery of the kingdom – mystery because exceeding the pos-

sible, holding the greatest in the smallest and power in weakness – is
at work in Llama, and Juan’s language is fit for purpose: conveying the
inexpressible without betraying its sacredness. If it is better to be silent
about that of which we cannot speak74, that does not mean, for Juan de
la Cruz, that the unspeakable is therefore off limits, and that it is better
to get on with practical and delimitable stuff and leave knowledge of
the sacred to the next life. It means rather the fulness of communion,
where the best kind of “saying” is a receptive attentiveness to the gift.
This is why the discussion of contemplative prayer in the commen-
tary on the third stanza, which apparently slackens the pace and lowers
the temperature of Llama for several pages, is in fact of a piece with the
whole work. It describes the kind of knowing appropriate to mystery:
Since, then, God in giving relates to her in simple loving knowledge, so

too the soul in receiving should relate with God in simple and loving
knowledge or attention, so that knowledge might be joined to knowl-
edge and love to love (LB 3,34)75.
In turn, God’s self-communication requires the silence of soul for it

to enter:
73
«Y así tanta mansedumbre y amor siente el alma en Él cuanto poder y señorío y
grandeza, porque en Dios todo es una misma cosa. Y así, es el deleite fuerte, y el amparo
fuerte en mansedumbre y amor, para sufrir fuerte deleite» (LB 4,12).
74
If we may borrow L. wittGenstein, Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus 7: «Whereof
one cannot speak, thereof one must be silent».
75
«Que pues Dios entonces en modo de dar trata con ella con noticia sencilla amorosa,
también el alma trate con Él en modo de recibir con noticia o advertencia sencilla y amorosa,
para que así se junte noticia con noticia y amor con amor» (LB 3,34).
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This sublime wisdom, God’s language, which is contemplation, cannot

be received except by a silent spirit, which does not depend on feelings
and putting thoughts together (LB 3,37)76.
Rather than a discourse which would either lord it over Christ or

else escape to more familiar ground, contemplation lets Christ be Lord
in the person’s life. The wonder, beauty and breathlessness of Llama
is therefore intrinsic to its testimony, communicating the excess of the
risen Christ whose love defeats our measurements. «No one can say
“Jesus is Lord” except by the Holy Spirit» (1Cor 12,3). In Llama, the
Spirit of the Bridegroom is establishing the lordship of Christ.
On the basis of this reception of Llama in its totality as testimony to

Christ’s resurrection, we now focus on two applications: Llama as what
the risen One does in the believer; and Llama as Christ’s own song on
Easter morning.
6. Llama as a declaration of what the Risen Christ does in the believer
Here we want to highlight a particular aspect of the effect of the

risen Christ in the believer as displayed in Llama, namely, the extreme
intensity of his love.
We have seen that the work expresses the action of the Spirit of the
Bridegroom, that is, of the Holy Spirit, in the believer. It expresses, then,
the effect of the Spirit of the living Christ. This unity of the risen One
with the Spirit is expressed brilliantly through the images of the second
stanza: the protagonist is hand, and touch, and cautery: the touch of a
hand that heals (cf. LB 2,1-2). The risen Christ (the touch of a finger-tip)
is one with the Father (the touching hand) in the Spirit (the healing
power of the touch). The joy of the love of the Trinity – that love sung
in Romances and Fonte – is the key to the event of the resurrection. Llama
76
«No es posible que esta altísima sabiduría y lenguaje de Dios, cual es la contemplación,
se pueda recibir menos que en espíritu callado y desarrimado de sabores y noticias
discursivas» (LB 3,37).
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points to this trinitarian Love as that «powerful energy» with which

Christ’s rising has been said to permeate history77.
Juan reads Scripture in the light of this criterion: «Our God is a con-
suming fire» (Dt 4,24), «that is to say, a fire of love; which, being of
infinite power, is able inestimably to consume and transform in itself
the soul it touches» (LB 2,2)78. Reading Deuteronomy itself, or indeed
the interpretation in Heb 12.29, «love» is scarcely what the «consuming
fire» phrase would bring to mind. But for Juan, it is simply obvious that
the kind of consuming fire God is, is a fire of love, which transforms
in love. What Christ does in the believer, through his Spirit, is involve
her in his loving: «And since in this case this divine fire has totally
transformed the soul into itself, not only does she sense a cautery, but
she herself has wholly become a cautery of intense fire» (LB 2,2)79. This
is what the Spirit of the Bridegroom does, and it defines therefore the
risen Christ.
And as he [the Holy Spirit] is an infinite fire of love, when he wishes to

touch the soul somewhat firmly, the soul burns in such a supreme de-
gree of love that it seems to her that she is burning more intensely than
all the fires of the world (LB 2,2)80.
Love here means giving oneself to the loved one. That is the strong
sense of “comunicarse” in Juan: not only “to be in communication with”
a person, but “to communicate oneself to” the person. This is evident in
the image of flame itself: the flame enters, takes itself into, the deepest
centre of the soul. The fire does not remain outside, warming from a
distance; it burns its way through, with the whole of itself, to the most
inward reality of the beloved. That flame is the Spirit of the Bride-
77
Cf. note 54.
78
«[E]s a saber, fuego de amor. El cual como sea de infinita fuerza, inestimablemente
puede consumir y transformar en sí el alma que tocare» (LB 2,2).
79
«Y por cuanto este divino fuego en este caso tiene transformada toda el alma en sí, no
solamente siente cauterio, mas toda ella está hecha cauterio de vehemente fuego» (LB 2,2).
80
«Y como Él sea infinito fuego de amor, cuando Él quiere tocar al alma algo
apretadamente, es el ardor del alma en tan sumo grado de amor que le parece a ella que está
ardiendo sobre todos los ardores del mundo» (LB 2,2).
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groom. What the risen Christ does, through his Spirit, is to get right
inside us; in so doing he is delivering himself to us.
Flame is the right symbol: of its nature, fire bestows itself as it gives
off light and heat81. As such, the flame symbol speaks of contemplation;
of God giving himself as light and warmth, knowledge and love, and
received in faith and love by the soul82. Accordingly, in the commen-
tary on stanza three, the «lamps of fire» symbolize God shining on the
believer and engaging her capacity to love and know God in return.
The divine Scripture recounts how in ancient times one of these lamps
passed before Abraham [...] (Gen 15,12-17). So with all these lamps,
kindly, lovingly shining on you, enriching you with the knowledge of
God: how great is the light and delight and love they give! So much
the greater than was the terror and darkness which that fire caused
Abraham! How great your delight, how great the good it does you,
how many-faceted it is, since in all these lamps, in all their shining, it
is God communicating himself to your mind and heart. According to
his character and strength, so does he communicate himself, and this is
what gives you joy and love (LB 3,6)83.
The lamps of fire speak of the divine attributes which are God him-
self, «God’s very being in one single divine reality which is the Father,
or the Son, or the Holy Spirit»84. Each divine person fully realises the
divine being. At the same time this trinitarian Oneness can be unfolded
across the economy of grace, such that the lamps are the Son of God
the Father shining forth in the Holy Spirit. So the commentary on the
splendour of the lamps concludes by addressing specifically the Son,
81
«Las lámparas tienen dos propiedades, que son lucir y dar calor» (LB 3,2).
82
«Que, pues, Dios entonces, en modo de dar, trata con ella con noticia sencilla amorosa,
también el alma trate con Él en modo de recibir con noticia o advertencia sencilla y amorosa,
para que así se junte noticia con noticia y amor con amor» (LB 3,34).
83
«Cuenta la Escritura divina que una de estas lámparas pasó delante de Abrahán [...].
Pues todas estas lámparas de noticias de Dios que amigable y amorosamente te lucen a ti,
¡oh alma enriquecida!, ¡cuánta más luz y deleite de amor te causarán que causó aquélla de
horror y tiniebla de Abrahán! Y ¡cuánto, y cuán aventajado, y de cuántas maneras será
tu deleite, pues en todas y de todas recibes fruición y amor, comunicándose Dios a tus
potencias según sus atributos y virtudes!» (LB 3,6).
84
LB 3,3, cf. note 34.
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the Christ of Colossians in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and
knowledge: «Because of your purity, oh divine Wisdom, many things
are seen in you when one thing is seen; because you are the storehouse
of the Father’s treasures»85. Therefore, without lessening the focus on
the divine attributes, we may consider the action of stanza three as a re-
flection of what the Son of God, and therefore the risen Christ, is doing.
Accordingly, in the union of love which is the context of Llama,
where the soul has been purified of self-worship, the Bridegroom can
be himself, can act as he truly is, without dilution or attenuation.
For when a person loves another, and does her good, he does her good
and loves her according to his own personality and characteristics. So
with your Bridegroom, who is in you: it is as he who he is that he shows
you favour.
The paragraph spells out just what the Bridegroom is like when no
restrictions are imposed: he loves with power and wisdom, with infi-
nite goodness, with holiness and justice, with his mercy, compassion,
and kindness, with sublime strength and delicacy, with a love which
is pure and uncontaminated, a love which is genuine and generous,
without self-interest, «simply in order to do you good». Juan’s testi-
mony to what Christ is like for him rises to this climax:
[...] and as he is the virtue of utter humility, with utter goodness and
appreciation of you he loves you, making you like himself, showing
himself to you joyfully, in these, the pathways of divine knowledge,
his face full of graciousness. He speaks to you in this union he has with
you, to your great amazement and joy: I am yours, and for you; and I
am pleased to be as I am that I may be yours and give myself to you
(LB 3,6)86.
85
«Porque por tu limpieza, ¡oh Sabiduría divina! muchas cosas se ven en ti viéndose
una; porque tú eres el depósito de los tesoros del Padre» (LB 3,17); cf. also Carta 4; Col 2,3.
86
«[...] sólo por hacerte bien; y como él sea la virtud de la suma humildad, con suma
bondad y con suma estimación te ama, e igualándote consigo, mostrándosete en estas vías
de sus noticias alegremente [cf. Wis 6,17] con este su rostro lleno de gracias y diciéndote en
esta unión suya, no sin gran júbilo tuyo: Yo soy tuyo y para ti, y gusto de ser tal cual soy
por ser tuyo y para darme a ti» (LB 3,6; cf. LA 3,6: «igualándose contigo»!).
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The point we are making is that this experience (“experience” as

received and recognised reality) of the Bridegroom (as Christ, Son of
the Father in the Spirit) is important for Christology. It invites us to en-
visage Christ radiating, the divine attributes shining through his risen
flesh. In this way does Christ communicate himself, give himself to the
loved one. This is the meaning of love in Llama. When allowed to be
himself, this is what the risen Christ does.
Llama is enabling us to visualise Christology, to recognise the risen

Christ in his vitality and momentum. We have spoken of the intensity
of love, the gift of self, which characterises this Christ. It is important
too to emphasise the cosmic scope of this love; how, in Llama, Christ
through his Spirit is at work drawing all to himself (Jn 12,32), filling all
things (Eph 4,10), putting all his enemies under his feet (1Cor 15,25).
Specifically, Llama shows us Christ reclaiming history, the flesh, the
cosmos, and the future.
Hence in commenting on cauterio suave, the author describes cauter-
ization (no doubt recalling scenes he witnessed in the Hospital de las
Bubas as a teenager), where fire searing into a wound converts it into a
wound of fire; so too with the Spirit of the Bridegroom:
this cautery of love, in touching the soul – whether she is wounded

with other wounds of misery and sin, or whether she is healthy – at
once leaves her wounded by love; and now those wounds which were
from another cause have become wounds of love (LB 2,7)87.
Christ’s love is able here to retrieve the person’s history. He does not
abrogate it; rather, he converts what is most lost and shameful into the
source of communion with God.
The Christ who rose in flesh saves our flesh. So this dimension of
humanity which in Juan’s writings can suggest what in man is most
superficial, least dependable, finds itself anew and in the union of love
which Llama describes:
87
«[E]ste cauterio de amor, que en el alma toca, ahora esté llagada de otras llagas de
miserias y pecados, ahora esté sana, luego la deja llagada de amor, y ya las que eran llagas
de otra causa quedan hechas llagas de amor» (LB 2,7).
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And from this blessing of the soul, the anointing of the Holy Spirit may
at times redound to the body, bringing joy to the sensory reality and
to all the bodily members and bones and marrow [...] with a feeling of
great delight and glory, felt right through to the last joints of feet and
hands. And the body feels such glory in the soul’s glory that it in its
own way magnifies God (LB 2,22)88.
This work of reclamation spreads out to draw in the cosmos. So in

stanza four, the Word’s awakening is in fact the soul’s being woken
by the Word, so as to participate in his seeing, and to know creation
through God, and so in its truth, instead of the second-hand knowl-
edge we are used to (LB 4,5). The transforming effect of Christ’s love
enables the believer to re-read the universe, to see it as he sees it: «In
which it seems to the soul that the whole universe is an ocean of love
in which she is engulfed, unable to see an end or limit where this love
might finish, feeling in herself [...] love’s living point and centre» (LB
2,10)89.
With history healed and creation laid bare, Christ’s eschatological

magnetism can have its full effect. It is precisely in the fulness of present
union (the spiritual marriage) that the future exerts its proper influence.
Juan sees death as the gateway to «la acabada posesión de la adopción de los
hijos de Dios» (LB 1,27), the fulfilment of sonship, of adoption in Christ.
He sees it as an event in which the love of the risen Christ has become
irrepressible: the rivers of love in the person swelling and banking up
and pressing forward to break out into the ocean (cf. LB 1,30).
The momentum of the river, the magnetism of Christ’s attraction, is
the Spirit, who “provokes” the soul’s yearning for eternity (cf. LB 1,28).
88
«Y de este bien del alma a veces redunda en el cuerpo la unción del Espíritu Santo y
goza toda la sustancia sensitiva, todos los miembros y huesos y médulas [...] con sentimiento
de grande deleite y gloria, que se siente hasta los últimos artejos de pies y manos. Y siente
el cuerpo tanta gloria en la del alma que en su manera engrandece a Dios» (LB 2,22). Cf.
also LB 3,7: «En lo cual eres maravillosamente letificada según toda la armonía de tu alma
y aun de tu cuerpo, hecha todo un paraíso de regadío divino».
89
«En lo cual parece al alma que todo el universo es un mar de amor en que ella está
engolfada, no echando de ver término ni fin donde se acabe ese amor, sintiendo en sí [...] el
vivo punto y centro del amor» (LB 2,10).
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This is where the Spirit of the Bridegroom is leading, the proper term
of all Christ’s action: «Even though this movement of the Holy Spirit is
powerfully effective in absorbing the soul in great glory, still the Spirit
does not complete this work until the time arrives when the soul leaves
the domain of this life of flesh and can enter the centre of the spirit of
perfect life in Christ» (LB 3,10)90.
Looking to Llama for evidence of what the risen Christ does in the
Church, we have focussed on the witness this writing bears to the in-
tensity of Christ’s love. Far from committing us to pietism, this witness
reveals a love which is proper to Christ’s being Lord, a self-gift which is
transforming history and reclaiming the cosmos, and yet which reaches
with breathtaking intimacy through to the centre of Juan’s soul.
7. Llama as a window onto Jesus’ own rising
Ephesians sees God’s mighty deed in raising Jesus as the exemplar

and source of the divine power at work in believers: «[...] his power in
us who believe, according to the working of his great might which he
accomplished in Christ when he raised him from the dead» (Eph 1,19-
20). In Acts 2 the pattern is the reverse: it is the Psalmist’s hope which,
for Saint Peter, models the experience of Jesus in his resurrection: «But
God raised him up, releasing him from the throes of death, because it
was impossible for him to be held by it. For David says of him: “I saw
the Lord ever before me, with him at my right hand I shall not be dis-
turbed [...]”»91.
We have seen in Llama Juan’s testimony to what the risen Christ,
through his Spirit, wills to do in the believer. Here too the pattern may
be reversed. If in this writing the «desire and work of the Holy Spirit»
that we should «live by the life of the risen Christ» is being realised in
90
«Mas [...] aunque estos motivos del Espíritu Santo son eficacísimos en absorber al
alma en mucha gloria, todavía no acaba hasta que llegue el tiempo en que salga de la esfera
del aire de esta vida de carne y pueda entrar en el centro del espíritu de la vida perfecta en
Cristo» (LB 3,10).
91
Acts 2,24-28; New American Bible, United States Conference of Catholic Bi-
shops, Washington 2002.
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an intense and pure way, we may look to it to model for us what that
life of the risen Christ is in itself, what Jesus’ rising from death meant
for him.
On two counts such modelling must be by way of analogy. Firstly,
because, however translucent may have been the veil which still sepa-
rated Juan from vision face to face, his testimony in Llama remains on
this side of eternity; a perfected love which is yet at an immeasurable
distance from eschatological fulness. Indeed, this gives Llama its ten-
sion and direction: «For this reason, it is most important to really prac-
tise love, so that, reaching fulfilment here, the soul may not be much
delayed, either here or beyond, before seeing him face to face» (LA
1,28)92. If in rising Jesus has now passed through the veil, what Llama
might give us is the view of that passage from the point of departure.
The modelling we find in Llama must be analogical because, sec-
ondly, the Other is the Son of God: any light which Juan’s experiential
writing may throw can only ever be a terminus post quem. Christ’s mys-
tery is confessed by Juan to be unfathomable, a never-ending invita-
tion; that than which nothing greater can be experienced, «because all
these deeds of kindness are less than the wisdom of the mysteries of
Christ, since they are all as preparations disposing the soul to come to
that wisdom» (CB 37,4)93. On these counts, Llama, particularly as testi-
mony to Christ’s own rising, is «so much less than what is there, as is a
painting compared with real life» (LB P 1)94.
Nonetheless, the real anticipation of eternity in mystical marriage95,
and the real participation in the Son’s relationship with his Father in
the Spirit, of which Llama sings96, allow us to look to this work for help
in visualising Easter. Considering Llama as testimony to the action of
the risen Christ in the believer, we focussed on the intensity of love
revealed there. Now as we look to Llama as a window onto the experi-
92
«Por eso, es grande negocio ejercitar mucho el amor, porque, consumándose aquí el
alma, no se detenga mucho acá o allá sin verle cara a cara» (LA 1,28; cf. LB 1,34: «[...] sin
ver a Dios»).
93
«[P]orque todas estas mercedes son más bajas que la sabiduría de los misterios de
Cristo, porque todas son como disposiciones para venir a ella» (CB 37,4).
94
«[T]anto menor de lo que allí hay, como lo es lo pintado que lo vivo» (LB P 1).
95
Cf. for instance LB 1,27; 1,14.
96
Cf. for instance LB 3,77-84; 2,34.
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ence of Jesus, we are led to the exchange of love between the Father and
his Son. The mystic’s praise of God is an echo of the prayer of Jesus on
Easter morning, a window onto his heart, onto the relationship with
the Father which held his whole self out of death. To help us visualise
Christology, we might apply these words of Llama to Jesus as he rises:
«Oh love, love on fire! In your loving, tender action you are glorifying
me right through to the utmost scope and strength of my soul!» (LB
1,17)97.
In considering Jesus’ rising in the light of Llama, we shall focus on
two aspects. The second will be the resurrection as “glory”. The first
is the all-encompassing penetration of the Father’s love; how his love
encompasses every aspect of his incarnate Son, including, naturally, his
flesh. Juan explains el más profundo centro in dynamic terms, not only
as the most intimate dimension of the person, but as the person’s focus
and term of his orientation. To be in one’s deepest centre is to be ‘cen-
tred’ in the Other with the whole of oneself. The Spirit’s «wounding
through to the centre» is his reclaiming the person for the Beloved: «we
mean that through to the utmost extent of the soul’s reality, power and
strength, does the Holy Spirit wound and invade the soul» (LB 1,14)98.
The Spirit works to empower the person for loving: «When she reaches
him with all the capacity of her being and with the strength of her op-
eration and impetus, she will have reached her final and deepest centre
in God, which will be when with all her strength she understands and
loves and enjoys God» (LB 1,12)99. And this offers us a window onto
the resurrection of Jesus. Peter in the Acts has said how David «foresaw
and spoke of the resurrection of the Christ, that he was not abandoned
to Hades, nor did his flesh see corruption» (Acts 2,31). There the Spirit
of his Father claimed Jesus’ whole self, claimed his flesh, because he
was entirely capable, including now in the flesh surrendered in death,
of being penetrated by the self-gift of his Father. The Father’s Spirit has
97
«¡Oh encendido amor, que con tus amorosos movimientos regaladamente estás
glorificándome según la mayor capacidad y fuerza de mi alma!» (LB 1,17).
98
«[E]s decir que, cuanto alcanza la sustancia, virtud y fuerza del alma la hiere y
embiste el Espíritu Santo» (LB 1,14).
99
«[C]uando ella hubiere llegado según toda la capacidad de su ser y según la fuerza de
su operación e inclinación habrá llegado al último y más profundo centro suyo en Dios, que
será cuando con todas sus fuerzas entienda y ame y goce a Dios» (LB 1,12).
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held him, on the model of the flame claiming the soul «right through to
her ultimate and deepest centre, which will be when God’s love trans-
forms her and illuminates her in all her being and potential and power,
insofar as she is capable of receiving, until God’s love so forms her that
she appears God» [sic] (LB 1,13)100.
«Father, the hour has come; glorify thy Son» (Jn 17,1). Llama keeps
us sensitized to the dimensions of what is at stake here. «What the soul
knows and feels in this sublime awakening of God is totally beyond
words; for God is communicating his sublime reality in the substance
of the soul» (LB 4,10)101. Jesus’ flesh surrendered to the Father is heir too
to the self-gift of the Father. Where God’s self-gift is experienced mysti-
cally, the body needs to be protected if it is not to be overwhelmed102. At
Easter, Jesus’ body has been so given by the Son that it is diaphanous
to the divine radiance; it needs no protection, for it is now one with
God’s glory. Of Jesus it might be ventured: «Great glory of you souls
who merit to come to this sublime fire, in which, while there is infinite
force capable of consuming and annihilating you, it is certain that, not
consuming you, it consummates you in immense glory!» (LB 2,5)103.
Similarly, the opening words of Juan’s commentary, which display
the glorifying work of the Spirit, offer a window onto the Spirit who
raised Jesus out of death. Certainly the text reminds us of the analog-
ical character of what we are doing: it emphasises the ‘not yet’ dimen-
sion of Juan’s eschatology, and it reminds us of the otherness of Jesus
100
«[E]l último centro y más profundo del alma, que será transformarla y esclarecerla
según todo el ser y potencia y virtud de ella, según es capaz de recibir, hasta ponerla que
parezca Dios» (LB 1,13).
101
«Totalmente es indecible lo que el alma conoce y siente en este recuerdo de la
excelencia de Dios; porque siendo comunicación de la excelencia de Dios en la sustancia del
alma [...]» (LB 4,10). Herráiz proposes this text as Juan’s definition of glory, cit., 379.
102
«Just as God shows the soul grandeur and glory in order to delight her and
ennoble her, he so favours her that she may not suffer harm, protecting her natural
reality». Spanish original: «Porque así como Dios muestra al alma grandeza y gloria para
regalarla y engrandecerla, así la favorece para que non reciba detrimento, amparando el
natural» (LB 4,12).
103
«¡Oh gran gloria de almas que merecéis llegar a este sumo fuego, en la cual, pues
hay infinita fuerza para os consumir y aniquilar, está cierto que, no consumiéndoos,
inmensamente os consuma en gloria!» (LB 2,5).
121
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IAIN MATTHEW, OCD
the Son of God. At the same time these words help us, in their beauty
and spontaneity, to look beyond the veil to the glory received by the
rising Jesus:
The soul, feeling herself now totally inflamed in the divine union, en-
tirely sensitized in glory and love, and that through to her most inti-
mate substance she is pouring forth nothing less than rivers of glory,
overflowing with delight, sensing in her breast flowing rivers of living
water which the Son of God said would come forth from such souls, it
seems to her, since she is so powerfully transformed in God and sub-
limely possessed by him and adorned with such rich wealth of gifts
and virtues, that she is so near the life of the blessed that only a thin veil
separates her (LB 1,1)104.
Because the soul is so close to «eternal life», and «the delicate flame
of love in which she is burning, every time that it assails her, is as it
were glorifying her with a sweet and powerful glory», she asks the
Holy Spirit to finish the work and to «glorify her wholly and perfectly»
(LB 1,1)105. That total, perfect glorification is where Jesus’ resurrection
stands.
«Father, the hour has come; glorify thy Son, that the Son may glo-
rify thee» (Jn 17,1). As Jesus is glorified, through to his flesh, by the
Spirit of love of the Father, so he on Easter morning gives glory to his
Father. Llama suggests this above all. The poem ¡Oh llama...! is, formally,
a song of praise. This is true too of Noche, Cántico, Fonte, and, in its way,
Romances. Praise is Juan’s most characteristic stance, what he does
104
«Sintiéndose ya el alma toda inflamada en la divina unión, y ya su paladar todo
bañado en gloria y amor, y que hasta lo íntimo de su sustancia está revertiendo no menos
que ríos de gloria, abundando en deleites, sintiendo correr de su vientre los ríos de agua
viva que dijo el Hijo de Dios que saldrían en semejantes almas, parécele que, pues con tanta
fuerza está transformada en Dios y tan altamente de Él poseída y con tan ricas riquezas de
dones y virtudes arreada, que está tan cerca de la bienaventuranza que no la divide sino una
leve tela» (LB 1,1).
105
«[L]a vida eterna», «la llama delicada de amor que en ella arde, cada vez que la está
embistiendo, la está como glorificando con suave y fuerte gloria», «glorificarla entera y
perfectamente» (LB 1,1).
122
OCD
when he is allowed to be most himself. His poetry is his word which

has been purified in the night. He writes as one who appreciates from
experience the value of the night of the spirit, «for it is well for her to be
in this sepulchre of dark death, for the spiritual resurrection for which
she hopes» (2N 6,1)106. And he recommends to his friends that they too
put to death whatever may prevent «la resurrección interior del Espíritu»
(Carta 7). Juan’s poetry is resurrection praise, and this characteristic
stance of his is the nearest we may get to Jesus’ attitude in rising. Ac-
cordingly, we might see in Juan’s praise of the Father, the gentle hand
whose wound is loving, a window onto Jesus’ praise of his Father:
But you, oh life divine, you never slay, except to give life, as you never
wound except to heal. When you chastise, your touch is light, and even
this suffices to burn up the world; but when you bless with kindness,
you press very firmly, and so the blessing of your tenderness knows no
limit (LB 2,16)107.
In fact, our two applications of the thesis that Llama discloses the
life of the risen Christ, namely, our consideration of Llama as the ef-
fect of the risen Christ in the believer, and our consideration of it as a
window onto Jesus’ own rising, come together in Juan’s teaching: what
the Bridegroom gives to the bride is precisely a share in his own rela-
tionship with his Father.
Accordingly, at the end of stanza three, Juan’s awesome commen-
tary on Querido has the soul participating in the loving exchange of the
Blessed Trinity. This means the soul offering the Holy Spirit to God, «as
an adopted son of God» (LB 3,78)108, that is, rendered sharer in the son-
ship of Jesus, and so enabled to give the divine essence on the model of
the Son who receives all from and returns all to the Father (cf. Jn 17,10,
106
«[P]orque en este sepulcro de oscura muerte la conviene estar para la espiritual
resurrección que espera» (2N 6,1).
107
«Mas tú ¡oh divina vida!, nunca matas sino para dar vida, así como nunca llagas
sino para sanar. Cuando castigas levemente tocas, y eso basta para consumir el mundo, pero
cuando regalas, muy de propósito asientas; y así, del regalo de tu dulzura no hay número»
(LB 2,16).
108
«[C]omo hijo de Dios adoptivo» (LB 3,78).
123
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IAIN MATTHEW, OCD
LB 3,79). The sense suggests that the soul’s Querido is Christ who then
involves her in his relationship of love with the Father:
[The soul] loves through the Holy Spirit, as the Father and the Son
love each other, as the Son himself declares through Saint John, saying,
«That the love with which you loved me may be in them and I in them»
(LB 3,82)109.
This is also where the work concludes: an awakening of Christ the

Word in the soul (that is, his waking her) in which he breathes the Holy
Spirit according to the measure of the Word himself, absorbing her in
the Holy Spirit and capacitating her with the Spirit’s love. «For since
the breathing is full of blessing and glory, in this breathing the Holy
Spirit has filled the soul with blessing and glory, engendering in her
a love for himself beyond all word and feeling, in the depths of God»
(LB 4,17)110.
What is this, if not the act of the risen Jesus on Easter evening, hap-
pening afresh in the Church? He comes, breathes, gives his Spirit, and
shares his mission111.
In short, Juan’s testimony in Llama displays the effect in him of the

risen Christ, and so is a window onto that same Christ. Juan’s mystical
writing enables us better to visualise Christology: to sense its contours
and its impetus, to be touched by reverence, and to grow in hope.
109
«[El alma] ama por el Espíritu Santo, como el Padre y el Hijo se aman, como el
mismo Hijo lo dice por San Juan, diciendo: “La dilección con que me amaste esté en ellos y
yo en ellos”» (LB 3,82, Jn 17,26).
110
«Porque siendo la aspiración llena de bien y gloria, en ella llenó el Espíritu Santo al
alma de bien y gloria, en que la enamoró de sí sobre toda lengua y sentido en los profundos
de Dios» (LB 4,17).
111
Cf. also, staggeringly, CB 39.
124
OCD
Teresianum 68 (2017/1) 87-125
iain Matthew, oCd
Visualising Christology: Llama de amor viva and the Resurrection
ABSTRACT: The article seeks in Juan de la Cruz light on what it means for Christ
to be risen; what that means for humanity, and what for Christ himself. We concen-
trate on the writing Llama de amor viva, consider its experiential quality, and iden-
tify “the Bridegroom” there as Christ in the Trinity. This enables us to gather from
Llama global impressions of Christ’s power and vitality. We then look to Llama for
evidence of how Christ establishes his lordship in Juan; and for evidence of how
Llama discloses something of the risen Jesus’ praise of his Father.
KEYWORDS: Christ; resurrection; Holy Spirit; Bridegroom; paschal mystery;

flame; poetry; experience.
125
OCD

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Teresianum 68 (2017/1) 87-125

Juan’s witness here is three-dimensional: his words not only state

1. Llama as resurrection Christology

analysis is that of M. herráiZ, «Llama de amor viva. Consagración de un místico y un

The Bridegroom is the living Christ. So what we have here, in Juan’s

Juan’s claim to veracity will find support in wider dimensions which

All of Juan’s prose works comment, in some way, on his poetry. He

whole work, or whether, with Gabriel Castro9, one applies it to the

The Prólogo to the work makes this experiential basis unmistakably

The experiential quality of Llama which the author confesses in the

issues. «Linguistic criticism has revealed a host of references in lit-

There is further internal evidence that Juan’s writing conveys per-

If the reader will be able to relate to the commentary only insofar as

A further reflection of the experiential basis of Llama is the author’s

This stammering and falling silent before a reality which words

lectual cogency. This experiential discourse does not ultimately depend

These considerations, namely, the auto-confession in the prologue

3. Identifying the Bridegroom

We have indicated that Llama reflects Juan’s experience: that such

Turning specifically to Llama, we can find the title Esposo ascribed to

4. The Bridegroom, dying and rising

in fact could one ‘correct’ a comma, without turning it into an offensive

Espiritualidad, Madrid 2009, unlike the 5th edition 1993.

Allí me hirió el amor There love wounded me

die, through the transforming power of Christ’s love, and so comes

5. A “saturated phenomenon”: Llama, its beauty, its wonder

«The mystery of the Resurrection, in which Christ crushed death,

Seeking to do justice to the abundance of the resurrection, Anthony

to self. In order to appreciate the gift and tone, a certain surrender is

And so, as this soul is so near God as to be transformed in a flame

Similarly, the programmatic appeal in the Prologue:

And there is no need to be astonished at God doing such sublime and

Juan is saying: Trust God’s exorbitant generosity, that is what God is

Surrendering to receptivity opens one to the gift in its totality, its

is not only evidence of the inadequacy of language to communicate

Poetry is compacted language, its syntax and vocabulary serving

Jesus’ likening of the kingdom to a mustard seed speaks to Juan

strongly in the fathomless embrace of his tenderness» (LB 1,15)69. The

This compressed meaning in the identity of opposites is strongly

The mystery of the kingdom – mystery because exceeding the pos-

Since, then, God in giving relates to her in simple loving knowledge, so

In turn, God’s self-communication requires the silence of soul for it

This sublime wisdom, God’s language, which is contemplation, cannot

Rather than a discourse which would either lord it over Christ or

On the basis of this reception of Llama in its totality as testimony to

6. Llama as a declaration of what the Risen Christ does in the believer

Here we want to highlight a particular aspect of the effect of the

points to this trinitarian Love as that «powerful energy» with which

And as he [the Holy Spirit] is an infinite fire of love, when he wishes to

The point we are making is that this experience (“experience” as

Llama is enabling us to visualise Christology, to recognise the risen

this cautery of love, in touching the soul – whether she is wounded

This work of reclamation spreads out to draw in the cosmos. So in

With history healed and creation laid bare, Christ’s eschatological

7. Llama as a window onto Jesus’ own rising

Ephesians sees God’s mighty deed in raising Jesus as the exemplar

when he is allowed to be most himself. His poetry is his word which

This is also where the work concludes: an awakening of Christ the

In short, Juan’s testimony in Llama displays the effect in him of the

iain Matthew, oCd

Visualising Christology: Llama de amor viva and the Resurrection

KEYWORDS: Christ; resurrection; Holy Spirit; Bridegroom; paschal mystery;

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