The experience of full union, and ecstasy if it is given, prepares the pilgrim for the dark night of the spirit, the last and narrowest tunnel of the spiritual journey toward wholeness in Christ. The dark night of the spirit is the eye of the needle through which no remaining vestiges of self-will may pass. It is the final stage of losing our self that it may be no longer we who live but Christ who lives in us (Gal 2:20). But such loss is profoundly painful. It is indeed a dying, a crucifying, and is surrounded by the darkness of God’s “absence” even as was the cross from which Jesus cried
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