Teresa of Avila

Today is the Feast of Teresa of Avila (1515-1582)  who led a reform of the Carmelite Order in Spain. One of the problems of Convents were that were seen as a place to shuffle off unmarried female relatives but the houses tended to be places where rich unmarried women were served by poor unmarried women in a life of ease and privilege, a sort of harem for Jesus for the mildly pious. Teresa led a reform movement where life was more structured and embraced poverty and contemplative prayers .

 Her guide to prayer: was the Interior Castle  where she urges us to take quiet time to be with the friend Jesus who loves us. The deepest level of prayer is when one completely loses their own body and becomes united with Christ in ecstatic state with Christ's suffering. She entered into visions with these prayers states and of one she wrote of an encounter with an angel of God::"I saw in his hand a long spear of gold, and at the point there seemed to be a little fire. He appeared to me to be thrusting it at times into my heart, and to pierce my very entrails; when he drew it out, he seemed to draw them out also, and to leave me all on fire with a great love of God. The pain was so great, that it made me moan; and yet so surpassing was the sweetness of this excessive pain, that I could not wish to be rid of it."

I remember standing in front of this statue in Rome and being slightly embarrassed to see how Bernini had captured that intimate moment. Part of me wanted to laugh at what on the surface seems religious porn and the Freudian in me went immediately into high gear unmasking the sexual frustration as a way to distance myself into my mind from the moment. My embarrassment had to do with my own failures in going deeper into prayer as I feared being vulnerable to God's love; I only wanted to earn God's respect and forgiveness and keep God at arms length. I wanted to be safe and yet the life with Christ is not safe and we are not in control. 

The Gospel for this coming week begins with James and John asking for places of honor, because they did not know what they were saying. Jesus reminds them that they are to be servants not rules and to be with Christ means to be vulnerable to the pain of the world and enter into it to being the healing union with Christ. I will not preach this week since I well be attending a Bat Mitzvah for a young friend in New Jersey. She is claiming her heritage as a Daughter of the Commandment and will go up to the Bima to read a portion of scripture. She is accepting her opportunity as an adult to love God and neighbor becoming a Living Torah in this world..

Teresa of Avila was descended form a family that had been forced to convert to Catholicism in the years leading up to the Inquisition but I think she remained faithful to her roots by becoming Living Torah  through her relationship with our Jewish brother Jesus: She told us:

Christ has no body now but yours
No hands, no feet on earth but yours
Yours are the eyes through which He looks
compassion on this world
Christ has no body now on earth but yours.