Birthday
Today the year-long celebrations for the 500th birthday of St Teresa of Avila draw to a close. It has been a wonderful 12 months commemorating this milestone. Yet what is really important is to listen to what this engaging woman had to say. More than 45 years ago she was declared a Doctor of the Church – her teaching is universal.
Interior Castle
Teresa is at her best in her masterpiece The Interior Castle. In it she maps out the journey to union with God. Using the metaphor of the soul as a castle, she describes a person’s development from the initial stages (outside the castle) all the way to the stage when we’ve reached the inner room, where the King dwells. On the way there are all sorts of things that can prevent us from advancing. All the while, it’s a joint effort, God’s and ours. Our constant companion is Jesus Christ. Teresa was a woman with a great capacity for friendship. As she grew she came to understand that the one friendship that made all the rest possible was the one with Jesus Christ.
Entry
The entry into the castle is prayer and reflection. There follows a series of 7 dwelling places, representing the different stages of development in the gradual transformation of the human person.
In the earliest stages when we begin to pray, rather distractedly, we are very much in the driver’s seat (or at least we think we are!). At the end God is the centre and all our actions flow from a deep union with him. On the way there needs to be a stepping away from our selfishness and sin to becoming self-giving, life-giving persons. The first three dwelling places are about what we can do (always with God’s help). The last four are where God begins to take over the controls.
Obstacles
As we journey through life, we can get blocked in our development. It really helps to have someone point out the pitfalls so we can avoid them. The mystics are canny folk – far from having their heads in the clouds, they have a deep understanding of human nature, our call to greatness, and our ever-present foibles.
Humility
It can be embarrassing to see oneself in the examples Teresa points out. Once we’ve become serious about praying, we can easily think we’ve got a divine edict to teach everyone around us about prayer. Or we suddenly find ourselves on a crusade to stamp out the failings of those who live with us…
Teresa has a great love for self-knowledge and humility. If we don’t acquire these we’ll stay stuck in our development for the rest of our lives. We are called to greatness, and without humility we’ll remain mediocre. And it’s often in our relationships that we can gain the most self-knowledge (if we’re open to it).
Relationships
Another obstacle can be problematic interpersonal relationships. Teresa highlights the importance of love of neighbour. So much so that she says: “If you were to understand how important this virtue is for us you wouldn’t engage in any other study.”. Probably in each of our lives there are people with whom we feel we’ve met our Waterloo. It may be a matter of differences of background, strongly held opposing beliefs, or just something quite unconscious that they trigger whenever we are in their presence… But it’s important to try to see them as God sees them. Those we find hardest to love can really help us come to know ourselves, and can give us the opportunity to become established in that movement of going out of ourselves in love. That’s not something sentimental – we may never feel any fondness for them; still, we actively work for their good – even if all we can manage is to pray for them.
Trials
There is no shortage of trials in our lives. St Teresa had her fair share. At one stage she says she’d never experienced a day without pain in the previous 40 years. She had many detractors. Constant business matters. Law suits. Family problems. Confessors who didn’t understand her. In the final dwelling places she notes that the soul has to fly higher to go beyond the trials, and it is trials that have moved us from living on the outskirts of our existence to the central room where God dwells.
End of the Journey
What does a person look like when they’ve arrived? In the seventh dwelling places Teresa shows us a person who lives in the company of the Trinity. Far from cutting us off from life in the here and now, that wonderful Company establishes us firmly in reality. This person is forgetful of self, has a particular love for their persecutors, is focused on gaining glory and honour for God, and prefers God’s plans to their own. They don’t spend their lives praying in a corner, but devote themselves to God’s mission, even if it be the very humble mission of getting on with quietly living a life of extraordinary love in one’s everyday setting of home or workplace. They don’t have a life free from difficulties. As Teresa puts it: “…the cross is not wanting but it doesn’t disquiet or make them lose peace. For the storms, like a wave, pass quickly. And the fair weather returns, because the presence of the Lord they experience makes them soon forget everything.”
Perseverance
The Interior Castle is not an easy read to begin with. I recently heard of a Carmelite priest saying that anyone who read through the whole book on the first attempt deserved a medal. But it’s worth persevering. I heard of another priest, who having got over that first hurdle, subsequently reread the whole book every month for spiritual reading. There’s got to be something in… And it’s not just for priests and nuns. The journey to a deep relationship with God is for everyone. Bon voyage!
(Image: BRIDGEMAN ART LIBRARY)
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