In the history of mankind there are people whose lives are given to everybody as an example to follow, imitate and emulate. Think of St Augustine in his Confessions, think of St Francis of Assisi, or even closer to us St Therese of Lisieux. The light of these people is not meant to remain hidden under a bushel, but it is placed by God on the lampstand (Matthew 5:15) so they can shine forth, or better said, the Light of the Risen Lord can shine through them. St Teresa of Avila is a saint of this nature, offered to everybody as an example: her life, her journey are full of teachings for us. All the graces she received were certainly for her, but filter in addition through her, to her nuns, and to all of us. The fact that Pope Paul the Vlth declared her "Doctor of the [universal] Church" is a sign that in her life there is encapsulated an important teaching for all of us.
From
the start when we look at her, we have to say, that it is not
uncommon to find a gap between what really happened in her life –
often recounted by her - and what people think and project about her.
We know that many times she had fallen into ecstasy, fallen onto the
floor, that she was subject to levitation, transverberation,
spiritual marriage,... Seeing the extraordinary graces she received,
popular opinion is attracted, but often retains what is secondary to
these graces. As a consequence, some might hastily conclude: "this
is not for me", or even worse: "this woman is not really of
sound mind".
It
seems advisable, therefore, to look at both sides of the coin
regarding what really happened. One has to recognise that she never
really sought the extraordinary external effects of the graces she
received, that she often felt very embarrassed about receiving graces
in public, being the object of laughter, accusations and denigration
from many. However, there was a reason for this to happen: God wanted
to show his Mercy in her and wanted to tell us what His Grace can
achieve in us.
It
is very important to understand that what St Teresa went through is
not that uncommon. If the description she offers of the Graces she
received seems a bit exaggerated we need to understand the reason:
she acts like a magnifying glass for us,
greatly enlarging the effect so we can perceive it. God was “zooming
in” on her soul to show us the effects of His Grace in her, with
the hope of the same effect resulting in us. Why so? Because God has
the earnest desire to give himself to us, to give us "grace upon
grace" as Saint John puts it in his Prologue (John 14:16), or
without measure (John 3:34) as he says in his Gospel.
It
is good, now, to take the opportunity to distinguish what is in St
Teresa’s experience of God “for everybody” and what is rather
more exceptional, “for her only” or for lesser numbers of people.
The majority of the Graces she received are “for all”. I suggest
putting them into three categories:
1-
What we can do in our lives without the personal direct intervention
of the Holy Spirit.
2-
What God achieves through direct intervention on His part.
3-
Some secondary effects of the Grace of God in her.
It
is not difficult to sort out the graces because 1 and 2 are quite
frequent: “1” covers the first part of her life, till the age of
thirty-nine, till her “second conversion”; “2” is what will
happen in her life from that moment on up to her death. Therefore it
is more important to pay closer attention to “2” because this is
what really interests us, this is God’s message to the Church: the
necessity of His Grace, of His action in us, and the goal His action
is achieving: a journey of sanctification in order to reach “Union
with Christ” and to serve Him, as the Apostles and Disciples did.
It
is true that just mentioning St Teresa’s name triggers the notion
of “mysticism” and can put off many of us. “Mysticism” did
not always have a good press in the Church, while many think that it
certainly does not embody the mainstream of Catholic experience. But
God through St Teresa seems to say the contrary to us: mysticism is
the common way for Him. Let us examine this more closely.
First
let us clarify one point about her initial intention: has she sought
after all these graces? Definitely not. She often felt embarrassed,
as if she were standing out from the courting fame: some even told
her that this was from the Devil, so her suffering can only be
imagined. She certainly would have preferred to be away from such
manifestations of the Grace of God. So what is their meaning? And why
are we attached to a popular vision of her and do not search for what
happened to her spiritually, as she relates it in the book of her
Life?
Mysticism
often alludes to a very powerful and intimate relationship with God,
a life filled with plentiful received Graces. In what we put under
“mysticism”, therefore, we need to distinguish between two kinds
of graces: on the one hand the “normal” ordinary graces destined
for “everybody” and focused on within St Teresa’s writings, and
on the other hand “extra-ordinary” ones that are not destined for
everybody. In fact, we are all invited by Christ to have a personal
relationship with him (CCC 2558) and to receive grace upon grace
(John 1:16), to experience the Risen Lord and grow spiritually until
we reach Union with Him – undeniably the case for “everybody”!
Let
us examine the lives of the Apostles for a start: their entire
mission rests on the fact that they were the Lord’s companions and
that they saw Him Risen. He sends them the Holy Spirit, who will be
constantly present with them and guiding them. They are essentially
witnesses of the Risen Lord. This is so evident in the book of the
Acts of the Apostles and in the life of a man like St Paul who
received powerful graces. Why then do we give credit to St Paul and
not to what the Lord achieved in St Teresa’s life, and wants to
achieve in the life of each one of us?
Some
people, in their negation of “mysticism”, go to the point of
saying that St Therese of Lisieux is different from St Teresa, that
she never received extra-ordinary graces, and that therefore the way
God offers through St Teresa’s life is an extra-ordinary life, not
for everybody. Let us not be deceived by such inaccurate statements.
First, it is important primarily to take into account all the graces
St Therese mentions in her writings. It is true that she seems
psychologically “stronger”, therefore she does not faint easily
as St Teresa does, but the core of what she receives is identical to
what St Teresa received.
Furthermore,
thinking that they are different (or worse that they have different
spiritualities) leads very easily to errors in the reading and
understanding of their lives. This is seriously unhealthy. The great
advantage with St Therese is that strictly speaking all that is
extraordinary (and not the core) in mysticism is clearly discarded.
This is not the case with St Teresa. Therefore in order to read St
Teresa’s writings to greater advantage, we can comfortably discard
all that is extraordinary in the Action of God in her and deal with
the rest: much will remain, and it is the essence of her work.
To
be fair, it is true that for the average reader it is very difficult
to sort out the graces. What is extraordinary, then, in mysticism and
in St Teresa’s life? Levitation to start with, i.e. where her body
is elevated from the floor while receiving a strong grace. Next, the
visible part of the grace of transverberation (when an Angel pierces
her heart with a fiery arrow).Then certain exterior manifestations of
her ecstasies: falling on the floor and fainting. Or Certain visions
she received. All these could be discarded, as not being destined for
the everyday Christian. But let us keep all the rest.
The
rest could still seem extra-ordinary, but in fact it is not. The
Grace of God is an action of God in
us which is greater than our own capacities (With man
this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.
(Mt 19:26)), and in this sense the Grace of God is by definition
extra-ordinary, or better said: super-natural, i.e. above the normal
capacity of our faculties. It elevates our way of doing things to a
divine level. Let us not reduce the Grace of God and what it achieves
in us. When God acts in us, His action has a real effect on us. If
some consider that this “mysticism” is not part of christian
life, they are emptying Christianity of of its essential constituent:
the experience of the Risen Lord.
Here
a valid objection of many arises: “but we live by faith and in
faith”!
It
is important, then, for us to go back once more to the experience of
the Apostles and of the Saints. This is our criterium, the way we
should measure our faith, and what constitutes a life of faith. If
“faith” means absence of the experience of the Risen Lord and
forgetting the experience of the Holy Spirit, then there is a serious
problem. This is the basic attitude of the individual, moved by the
Grace of God, open to the direct Action of the Holy Spirit. One has
only to re-read the Gospel and make a note of all the passages that
allude to an experience of the Holy Spirit to see that, if removed,
nothing will be left.
Here
further objections may arise: Christ said in St John’s Gospel:
blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.
(John 20:29) and St Paul mentions that we live our life in faith i.e.
without seeing! For now we see only a reflection as in a
mirror ; then we shall see face to face. (1 Cor 13:12). Are these
objections really truer?
St
Paul can talk with authority. He underwent the experience of the
Risen Lord, he heard His voice, he received hundreds of Graces, he
was taken to the third heaven (see 2 Cor 12:2),... Therefore, let us
be prudent in our reading of the texts, and let us view them together
in a coherent way, not quoting one text while forgetting the others.
Between the very narrow idea some have of “faith” and the
experience of St Paul and the Faith he preaches, there is an abyss.
Let us be objective.
For
St John (blessed are those who have not seen and yet have
believed) the same applies: does he not talk about the necessity
to receive “grace upon grace” (John 1:16)? Does he not speak
about the fact that God gives his Holy Spirit without measure
(John 3:34)? What we need to understand in the text (blessed are
those who have not seen and yet have believed), is not the
negation of the experience that the act of faith brings to us, but
the priority of that act over the experience: believe first, and
secondly you will see, you will have the experience. On the one hand
we cannot put experience before faith, and on the other hand, the act
of faith, opens us to the action of the Grace of God and therefore
offers an experience of God: if you believe, you will see the
glory of God. (John 11:40)
In
the Gospel of St John, in fact, “to believe” is a progressive
journey: from the faith of the first disciples in the first chapter,
through their faith in Cana of Galilee, up to the Faith of St. John
at the foot of the Cross seeing Jesus’ side opened, there is growth
and progress. This is the teaching of St John. Believing leads to a
vision of the Glory of God. First we see Jesus, in his human nature,
secondly we believe that in Him there is more than just what we first
see or notice. Then with the act of faith we enter deeper within Him,
in order to reach new layers/dimensions of His Divine being. Finally
we have the experience of His Divinity, leading to the experience of
the Risen Lord. This is the core of St John’s Gospel, underlined in
his first conclusion: “Jesus performed many other signs in the
presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book. But
these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the
Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his Name.”
(John 20:30-31) What is written is a journey of growth in Faith, a
Faith that leads to the experience of the Divine Life, during this
lifetime.
The
fact that the experience during this lifetime is not a total vision,
can be universally acknowledged, but from that assertion to
discarding the existence of a journey of growth, would be to offer an
impoverished reading of the Gospel.
Returning
to St Teresa once more, it can be said that her experience of Jesus
is a way for everybody to undergo. Of course, by saying that one
seems to go against the mainstream! To offer a mysticism like hers to
everybody seems unsettling. But St Teresa is adamant in sending a
clear message to the entire Church because what is at stake is the
core of Christianity. If one removes the experience of the Risen Lord
and the experience of the Holy Spirit that comes with it, what will
remain? The same applies to her life: if we remove all the graces the
Lord gave her, out of His pure mercy, we empty her life completely of
its meaning and purpose. Her achievements become but a human
endeavour.
The
fact that she seems to go against the trend is not her fault. St Paul
in a similar way, when talking to the Greeks in the Areopagus was
going against the trend: when he mentioned the Resurrection of Jesus
they laughed at him and stopped listening to him. Christianity at its
core is an openness to the One who is Present amongst us, acts, loves
us, and is searching for us. Christ offers his friendship, his Love!
For some, Christ is absent, away, dead! This is not the case for St
Teresa and for Christians: on a daily basis they have an experience
of him: otherwise christians would be a collection of liars.
This,
emphatically, is christian life and indeed talking this way puts
people out of their comfort zone. Some easily take St Teresa for a
mentally or psychologically deranged person. But let us not forget
what happens to St Paul after his experience of the Risen Lord, when
he talks to his fellow Jews. Will they listen to him? When he will
talk to the Gentiles, in Greece, will they listen to him? Is he
trying to cajole them? If we remove from Christianity the “experience
of the Risen Lord as something common offered to all Jesus’
followers” we empty it completely.
To
this the objection may be raised that many do not have this
experience and are surprised to hear this. It seems excessive!
But
Teresa did not actively seek out such an experience, she did not even
know it existed. She was a nun for almost twenty years without this
experience, at least without a steady growth spiritually. And God in
His infinite Mercy took pity on her, shook her powerfully so she
could completely turn all her
being towards Him and start to receive a great abundance of graces. When
we read her then, we find her very sincere. She cannot lie. Her
authenticity endorses more forcibly what she has to say. Those almost
twenty years of having a “normal” life as a consecrated person
speak loudly to us, because they highlight all that comes afterwards.
Her life is an invitation sent by Jesus to each one of us to receive
what she received, to learn how to prepare ourselves - removing all
obstacles - in order to receive the Lord. It is a matter of
experience: to dive into the pool is exceedingly more useful than to
discuss at length the nature of its water!
St
Teresa offers us a huge challenge, a challenge that is capable of
changing our Christian lives. All her life is here to tell us the
difference between before and after meeting the Risen Lord. In this
light it resembles St Paul’s life a little. As with him, it was
certainly a huge effort for her to accept the challenge and undergo
the journey. But she learned to let the Lord lead her, to be
attentive to Him and to receive His Graces.
It
will not be to our detriment if we lose hold of our resistance and
make an attempt and follow her example. On the contrary – the
adventure starts here!
1 comment:
Thanks for this. Great post
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