THE MYSTICAL JOURNEY THAT REVOLUTIONIZED CHRISTIAN SPIRITUALITY-1

The Interior Castle: Teresa of Avila’s Major Text

This the first of a series of blogs on some major themes of The Interior Castle.

The Interior Castle was the most important and influential of all of Teresa’s writings. As a Doctor of the Church, we are assured that her message is profoundly rooted in the gospel of Jesus. The original audience of the text was a small group of nuns in the early days of her reform. Today it is a major classic in Christian spirituality. It has been published in dozens of languages. It has been a consequential contributor to our understanding of the many levels of experiencing God in our long and rich tradition of Christian spirituality.

Teresa wrote her classic text from the graced gift of her experience of pursuing God and receiving God in her life. She wrote from her experience as a woman which was very rare in her day. It was an era marked by truly powerful patterns of a destructive and truly ugly sexism that saturated all levels of society. Her style of insightful writing is very different but complementary to the very analytical and theological writing of John of the Cross. Both are fundamentally poetic and deeply insightful in their message to walk with Jesus.

Teresa’s message was simple but revolutionary. For her, God is the Creator, all loving and all merciful. She is the creature, sinful but loved and forgiven. As a sinner she was caught in the unrelenting pull toward creatures and away from God. She saw herself immersed in the persistent appeal to choose the lesser gods and their deceptive illusions of happiness. However, in Jesus, she understood that she lived in a sea of loving mercy. Her life was a constant movement to choose the gift of love and mercy over the deceiving attraction to the creature comfort and control that led to self-absorption and isolation.

Teresa wrote with passion, clarity and intensity about this eternal struggle to free her heart to love God alone and turn away from the deceiving power of self-love.

In this painful pursuit of God, she discovered several truly important items that opened up and facilitated her understanding and commitment to her true destiny.

Gradually, she saw with new and deeper insight that union with God was the final and ultimate calling of her life. Everything else needed to be measured in light of this goal. Death is simply a step on this journey.

Other significant factors on the passage are self-knowledge, God’s will, prayer, fraternal charity and service. Teresa adds her Program which is the development of the three virtues of humility, detachment and charity. These clear the mind and heart to seek God in all the actions of one’s life.

Teresa shows the importance of all these spiritual themes in her classic text, The Interior Castle. This text has a simple organizational arrangement. There are seven levels or steps leading to the final destiny, union with God. These different stages are called Dwelling Places from the gospel use of the term by Jesus. Each describes the individual’s path of growth on the spiritual journey. The first three quickly describe the beginning of our movement out of ourselves and towards God. Teresa is in a hurry to get to her special message of how God acts in our spiritual life. In the first three, human effort is the key. In the last four it is God’s action that predominates. The fourth Dwelling Places is like a bridge to this divinely driven activity called contemplation.

I hope to present a series of reflections on these themes in the following blogs on The Interior Castle. The first will be on the importance of our clear destiny to be one with God.

My fondest hope is that these reflections will be a helpful enlightenment about the need for a truly gospel-driven spirituality that will help us walk with Jesus in a love that continues to grow in depth and intensity. As always, the growth of deep personal payer will be a driving force in this search.

Matthew 15:21-28

Dear Friends, In days of Jesus and from their earliest history the family of Abraham always treasured their heritage as God’s Chosen People. It is very hard for us to grasp how deeply the Jews at the time of Jesus saw themselves as the Chosen People of God to the exclusion of all others. It penetrated and permeated their reality with a clear vision and an acutely guarded set of protocols that defined all social interaction with the Gentiles. The Jews cherished their God-given position of privilege and uniqueness among all peoples.

The dialogue between Jesus and the Canaanite woman really challenges us. We also need to be aware of another deep truth that is transpiring in this beautiful event. The God of Jesus is the God of the Jews. It was though the Chosen People that Jesus entered into the world . The God of Jesus is the God of the Jews. The woman’s faith in Jesus had wonderful personal consequences in the healing of her daughter. It also unveiled a great truth for all Gentiles. They come to God through faith in Jesus.

The early Christian Church struggled for two generations to break loose of this bondage of exclusiveness. Down through history, the Church, and all societies, have continued to manufacture various expressions of this elitism.

Today’s story from St. Matthew’s Gospel is as relevant as the latest headline on the evening news.

Over the centuries, Christian voices have produced some incredible fantasies to explain away Jesus’ harsh language addressed to the Canaanite woman. It still stands for what it is: a statement of the blind prejudice of His times. I especially like those who claimed it was protocol not prejudice.

History is filled with protocols that came from laws that simply hid the prejudice of the time behind a legal façade. In Ireland in 1710, a law said all government and military leaders must receive the sacraments of the Church of England. This was the first of a set of Penal Laws that led to the oppression and poverty of the Irish for over two centuries. In 1896, the U.S. Supreme Court declared separate but equal was acceptable under the law. This led to the segregation system that attempted to dehumanize the African Americans for decades with “white only” and “the back of the bus” set of protocols that were considered legal and righteous. With the passage of the 19th Amendment in 1920 women finally changed another protocol and won the right to vote. This was a great step in the struggle that continues to this day for equality for women.

When this embattled mother confronted Jesus, she was showing the way for the oppressed of all human history. Her action and her words are a simple declaration of her dignity no matter what the protocols and prejudice of the day has to say to the contrary. In one of the most moving gestures in all of the Gospels, she kneels before Jesus in total vulnerability and begs for help. Her wit turned around Jesus’ words of remoteness. Yet, in the end, it was her faith that moved Jesus to expand his mission as he embraced her pain and healed the poor child.

Jesus saw and heard this declaration of human rights and began a journey toward inclusiveness that continues for us today. God’s grace and God’s love are for all. It makes no difference how deeply and expansively the cultural, legal and theological norms are used to prop up the walls of separation and isolation.

In her simple and brilliant response to Jesus, the Canaanite woman was speaking for all of us. We are the children of God. After three confrontations, Jesus saw the light and celebrated her truth expressed in her faith. Her daughter was healed. All of us continue the healing every time we go beyond the accepted protocols and legalized prejudice and embrace the humanity of the “outsider.” It makes no difference if the excluded is the illegal, the Muslim, the gay and lesbian or maybe just a mother-in-law or father-in-law.

In our day, and all through Christian history, we have used labels in the name of righteousness to hide hatred and all manner of discrimination and dehumanizing activity. Anti-Semitism has been proclaimed and practiced throughout history in the name of the Christian religion. In American history, we have constantly created a hostility toward immigrants in the name of true Christian faith. Today, racism and all manner of hostility toward immigrant hide behind an honorable label of Christian nationalism.

Today’s Gospel message invites us to move beyond the simplicity of labels to the reality of God’s presence in every human being.

The human heart has a seemingly unlimited capacity to divide us in “us” and “them”. Today’s Gospel message is an invitation to move away from the common sense interpretation of reality to the wonder of the gospel message Jesus models for us today. Through the power of love for the outsider we hold the potential to transform our broken world into the wonder of God’s kingdom.

Matthew 14:22-33

The message of today’s Gospel is clear. Jesus continues joining us in the storms and threatening circumstances of our life. He may seem hidden and absent but he is there whether on the sea that was ready to take Peter or in the boat that evidenced a different threat.

Today’s Gospel story of Jesus walking on the water is filled with symbolism and echoes of the divine in the Old Testament. The disciples found themselves alone in a storm-tossed boat. Suddenly, Jesus was present to assure them, teaching them, and us, that there is no conflict, no struggle, no difficulty or no fear so great that God’s providential care cannot resolve.

Most immediately, the story of the boat in the storm is the manifestation of the Church’s struggles in the first days of her existence and down through history. Likewise, the episode with Peter sinking in the water is an expression of the basic human experience of being totally vulnerable.

Peter is bold and adventurous in his cry out to Jesus, “If it is you Lord, command me to come to you on the water.” (Mt 14:28) Peter begins his walk but reality overwhelms his feeble faith. As Peter faces his moment of truth and begins to sink, he cries out, “Lord, save me!” (Mt 14:30) This is an expression of the naked and unfiltered truth of our humanity. In the end, we are totally dependent on God.

Jesus says, “Do not be afraid!” (Mt:27). This phrase is expressed over three hundred times in the Bible. Each time it introduces us to the loving providence of God, the gracious presence of a saving and compassionate God. To call it a statement of comfort is very short of the mark. It reveals a God profoundly engaged in the human struggle with the power of healing and deliverance. This episode, like so many in the Bible, reveals a God who is always personally present to us in our struggles. In today’s episode, as an example, Peter ends up back in the boat rather than at the bottom of the sea.

Peter’s failed venture had some very beneficial consequences. He learned that the acute exposure to his own weakness brought to light the saving power of the Lord. Immediately, Peter experienced the limitation of his own faith. At the same time, he had the good sense to call upon Jesus. His “Save me, Lord!” was no small gift. It opened his heart to a deeper trust in Jesus and to an awareness of the frailty of his faith. This is the path of faith, a slow step by step growth in the midst of the rough and tumble reality of daily life. For Peter and for us, our experience of faith is always connected to the call of Jesus and not our wishful thinking. The true encounter with God will always be about service and sacrifice rather than selfishness and indulgence.

We all have our, “Lord, save me!” moments. They tend to be fewer but more intense as the years pass by. In the end, the situation grows in clarity that we are truly in the storm and we are about to sink.

The reality of the need for Jesus grows in our heart. It might be health crisis as we experienced in the pandemic, a child or spouse in a pathological addiction, the loss of a loved one, the consequences of an economy out of our control, the emerging hostility of climate change or simply the relentless process of ageing. Today’s headlines carry a new story but they manifest the same tension that is the ever-present unpredictability of life. We are always just a short way away from the storm if we are not already in it. These elements of stress all put extraordinary strains on our personal, family and communal life. Whatever the situation, these events are all down payments on the ultimate human experience, our mortality. The depth of the cry, “Lord, save me!”, becomes more intense and more dominating. At the same time, the need for Jesus’ hand reaching out gets clearer and stronger and incredibly more important. We need to keep our eyes fixed on Jesus.

St. Agustine had this to say about Peter’s and our experience of life’s storms: “He came treading on the waves; and so, he puts all the swelling tumults of life under his feet. Christians – why fear?”

St. Teresa of Avila offers a clear conclusion from today’s reflections. Teresa says the story of her life is the story of God’s mercy. By this she means that when she had arrived at the deepest and clearest moment of her life, her “Lord, save me!” moment, she learned what it meant to be a creature. She embraced the fact of her reality as creature because for her it meant she was cradled in the loving hands of a gracious Creator revealed in her great friend and Savior, Jesus Christ. The ultimate reality is that God is good not that we are good. In the end, God’s limitless mercy is her victory.

It is a journey for us to know that our life also is, in its final expression, the story of God’s mercy. That, indeed, is a beautiful truth as Peter found out in today’s Gospel passage.

Matthew 14:13-21

Dear Friends, Today’s meal is not primarily about the Eucharist. It does, however, reflect the beauty and wonder of the eternal gift of Jesus. We are given a symbol of the final, Messianic banquet, the great day of the total victory over evil and death. While the bread and fishes are distinct from the Body and Blood of the Last Supper, they are a good memento of the blessing of the Eucharist for our daily journey.

Today’s story is about the loaves and fishes as a sign of God’s power, compassion and love. This story appears six different times in the Gospels. Likewise, it is the only miracle story that is in all four Gospels. Obviously, there is a profound message for us in the very special pattern of repetition.

The story looks backwards and forward in the Divine Plan. It clearly has echoes of the manna in the desert (Exodus 16) and Elisha’s similar fete of feeding the crowd with a few loaves. (2 Kings 4:42-44) More importantly, the language Jesus uses is similar to the institution of the Eucharist at the Last Supper. (Mt 26:26) Finally, it foreshadows the Messianic banquet at the end of time.

Jesus mourning for the death of John the Baptist, sets the context for this great miracle. Jesus models the generosity of moving out himself to the needs of the people in his midst. He responded to the people seeking the Word of God and added the great gift of the Bread of God. This all happens because “his heart was moved with pity.” (Mt 14: 14)

By placing it after Herod’s banquet where John the Baptist was beheaded, Matthew adds to the powerful story of the loaves and fishes. The differences in the two banquets are amazing. Here are just a few of the contrasts revealed in the two meals:

Our world today and throughout history is organized with the values of Herod’s dinner values of exclusion, violence and jealousy. The gospel calls us to enter into Christ’s world by sharing, peace, service and inclusion of all.

Herod’s’ feast degraded women while Jesus’ gathering celebrated the dignity of all. Herod’s guests were the rich, powerful and entitled. Jesus’ guests were the poor and hungry and neglected. Herod displayed extravagance and waste. Jesus satisfied all with twelve baskets leftover.

Jesus teaches us that in the gospel world, the world open and accepting of the loving Father Jesus came to proclaim, things are different. When you give away there is always more. Only when we hold on and hoard and seek to find our security in our possessions do we experience loss and insecurity and fear. In Jesus’ world we begin to see the poor and the hungry not as an inconvenience and burden but as an opportunity to share and serve and love. In this way we multiply our own loaves and fish few as they may be.

Teresa of Avila on Prayer

Teresa’s fundamental insight is wonderfully simple but revolutionary. She understood herself in relation to God. God is the Creator, the fount of compassion, mercy and love without limits or conditions. God is calling us into the life of the Mystery of Love and the sea of mercy. Teresa was the creature, sinful but loved and forgiven with mercy and compassion penetrating and blanketing all of her life.

Her goal was crystal clear. It was a movement to be one with God, despite her sinful condition. Her deep personal prayer let her experience God as the measure of reality, rather than her personal needs and advantages of a self-centered life.

The sin that Teresa is talking about is not some crass immoral activity. It is the basic distortion of the heart: choosing creatures over God, choosing the lesser gods rather than the true God. Teresa is concerned how we relate to all things and every person. All relationships need to rooted and directed to our pursuit of God. Otherwise, we are living a lie.

All of this found expression in what was transpiring in her daily experience. Her teaching on prayer came from this dynamic encounter between her acceptance of her broken condition and the overwhelming gift of God’s mercy.

While Teresa never tires of emphasizing the importance of prayer, she balances it often with a message of the importance of service and presence to life’s many demands. She always saw Christ in the needs of her neighbors. She insisted that we serve Christ by meeting the needs of all such as “taking care of the sick, helping with household chores, working with the humblest tasks that are all ways of serving the Guest who comes to be with us.” (Way of Perfection 17:6)

Here is a list of some of her most important insights on prayer:

Self-knowledge allowed her to see herself in relation to God as the Creator and moved her away from the deception of self-centeredness.

She saw life as the great grace because it is pregnant with the possibility of new love and freedom as one move to the true center in the “give and take” of daily experience.

She understood the need to accept reality as it is and not as something for us to control. In accepting reality, we are open to the pull of God’s call even if it seems contrary to our plans and interests.

She saw her problems and difficulties as real opportunities. They were sources of freedom in her pursuit of God even though they appeared to conflict with her personal goals, desires and self-interest.

She learned to interpret reality by the measure of how it brought her closer to God and not as a source of her comfort, prestige, and power. This is what she meant by “Get Real.”

For Teresa, prayer is the singular gift to help us see and embrace God calling us into the Mystery that is God. Prayer is a means to an end. The real goal is finding and loving God in our life experience.

Teresa’s program of humility, detachment and love for her brothers and sisters is the means to overcome the inner turmoil and disorder, the consequences of sin, within us. These internal disturbances are the dominant obstacles to prayer. They are the product of a divided heart pulling us in many directions. When we do not pray regularly with depth, we short-circuit the entire quest to enter the Mystery of Love and Mercy which is God.

Teresa and Community

I would like to consider Teresa’s message on community by reflecting on two very ordinary gatherings. The first is a Thanksgiving Day dinner. The second is a church meeting to plan the liturgy. The choice of these two meetings is arbitrary. It could be any kind of gathering where people share values and support.

Experience tells us that these two meetings hold many possibilities, from truly deep experience of communion to destructive conflicts with all kinds of variations in between.

Teresa’s messages on self-knowledge and charity offer some genuinely helpful insights.

In the first three Dwelling Places of The Interior Castle there is a progressive growth in the early stages of self-knowledge. In fact, this period of growth covers a large span of self-awareness. All the growth is mainly the product of personal effort. In fact, it is basically ego-centric and not God -centered. Nevertheless, as Teresa explains in the third Dwelling Places, there is a growing maturity in accepting our personal sinfulness.

With the switch to the fourth and the following Dwelling Places with the increasing experience of contemplation, God is progressively involved. The light of the divine presence produces an intensely transformative change culminating in the Spiritual Marriage in Seventh Dwelling Places.

The obvious question is, what does this have to do with our two gatherings?

The answer is human selfishness and how to avoid its damaging consequences. The conflicts that arise are almost always the result of a deeply personal agenda that is blind to another point of view. This comes from a lack of self-knowledge.

As we progress in the spiritual journey, development in self-knowledge will bring an ever more powerful inner light to the situation. What once was a bitterly divisive either/or view of the issue now opens up to several reasonable options. It is the gift of wisdom that guides the discussion away from the conflict and towards a reasonable and charitable search for reconciliation and resolution. The driving force of healing and bridge-building emerges from the wisdom figures that enjoy the God-given gift of deep self-knowledge and charity to move beyond self-interest to the interest of others and the community. They bring the light of love and truth to the dialogue

When necessary, they are the first to forgive and call for patience and understanding for all the members of the group. Their goal is a healing love not a self-righteous agenda.

Teresa has a beautiful teaching that displays this curing reality.

“But the safe path for the soul that practices prayer will be not to bother about anything or anyone and to pay attention to itself and to pleasing God…. But let us strive always to look at the virtues and good deeds we see in others and cover their defects with the thought of our own great sins. This is a manner of acting that although we cannot do so with perfection right away, gradually gains for us a great virtue that is: consider all others better than ourselves. In this way with the help of God one begins to acquire this virtue, for it is necessary in all things; and when it is lacking, all our efforts are useless.” (Life 13:12)

Conclusion

Teresa’s plea for self-knowledge, which is always connected to humility, holds the gift of true peace and transformation. Any family, small group, workplace, faculty room or even a larger community or neighborhood will be blessed with the communal wisdom arising from the enlightened individuals. This is the center of Teresa’s message of breaking the discord so common to any form of community. It is the wisdom of selflessness bringing the Gospel message to the reality of our broken lives and our broken world. It is always the cross of our death to selfishness that leads to the resurrection to new life

Matthew 13:44-52

Dear Friends, Many scholars of the Bible say today’s parable of the treasure is the most important of all the parables. It begins with the statement, “The kingdom of heaven is like…” (Mt. 13:44). “The kingdom of heaven” is at the center of Jesus’ teaching and ministry. It is God’s plan in Jesus to overcome evil with love. It something God is doing not something we possess or acquire. The kingdom frees us from the consequences of sin. It is the movement toward restoring the total harmony and goodness of Paradise. Jesus’ miracles all manifest God’s saving presence bringing this anticipated wholeness and freedom. The ultimate expression of the inflowing of this divine power is in the conquest of death in the Resurrection.

The kingdom is God’s gift. We do not earn it but we need to be open to its call. The kingdom allows us to enter and participate in the very life of God. The kingdom is walking with Jesus. It is letting the values of the gospel message fill our heart and life. This great action of God is like our winning the lottery of the everlasting values that are so in contrast to the passing and deceiving values of the lottery of our materialistic dreams.

The kingdom is not something we do. It is God calling us to participate in God’s saving action in our daily lives. It is our sharing in the action of the kingdom. The threefold action of today’s parable is finding-selling-buying. It is basic method of how we participate in the life of God. It is the process of our personal transformation. This means moving from the deceiving world of our self-absorption to the truthful world where God is the center of reality. This affects everything that we experience in a new way The treasure before us is the Good News of Jesus. It is the wonder of being able to love and be loved. This invites us into an entirely new world of service and compassion, reconciliation and healing, mercy and justice.

In chapter thirteen of Matthew the phrase “kingdom of heaven” appears nine times. So, the question for us is, how does the simple little story of the found treasure connect us to this great saving and liberating action of God revealed in Jesus? The parable of the treasure, more clearly than most other parables, tells us how we experience God and what we need to do to respond to this glorious call.

The finding is the very common human encounter with someone or something. The encounter touches the deepest hunger in the human heart. It might be an event as profound as falling in love, having a child or losing a loved one. Or it may be a bit more mundane like deciding to go to college or becoming more active in the parish or community. Endless expressions of this finding are all part of our human journey. They all may be simple or profound, nevertheless they are the action of God’s grace. God is never finished with the dynamic of his calling and coming into our life.

To get hold of this great gift of God, we need to sell. We need to make space in our heart. We need to die to our comfort and control. Our responsibility is to accept the fact that our little world needs a real change. We need to expand our horizons. In the end, selling costs no less than everything because it makes space for God and space for us to operate according to God’s will.

The final step is buying. When we accept the challenge, we become free and empowered to accept a new world, a new reality where God takes a more prominent place of honor. This leads us to action for the kingdom.

The finding-selling-buying process is an essential part of any authentic spiritual life, our search for God. The most critical part is this. All creatures either help us to seek God or they are an obstacle. Our joy is to bring all these relationships to people, things, ideas and whatever else occurs in our life into proper order. All either help us or hinder us in our quest for God. When we have our finding-selling-buying in order, we are sharing in the great action of God that is the kingdom.

The threefold process never ends. It is all leading to a personal and social transformation called the kingdom of heaven in the Gospel of St. Mathew.

The parable of the treasure with its simplicity exposes how we experience God in the normal course of our daily life. It is an unending call that comes from a gracious God to tap the deepest hunger in our restless hearts. The ultimate and most complete expression of the treasure is Jesus.

St. Matthew 13:24-30

Dear Friends, Today’s parable of the weeds and the wheat, like all the parables, speaks to us of Jesus’ main message, the coming of God’s kingdom, as we enter into the parable, we begin to learn how we experience the presence and action of God in our daily life. The basic conflict of the weeds and the wheat, of good and evil, permeates all of our reality.

It is clear that God is in charge of the harvest. We tend to take over the job. Most of us have at least a Master’s degree in determining the good guys from the bad guys. Jesus would rather that we let the Father take on that task. That is why in Jesus’ teaching, a turned cheek is much more the priority than a clenched fist.

I had my introduction into this parable of the weeds and the wheat when I was a sophomore in high school. It was the time of the McCarthy hearings on TV. The politics of the day stressed the infiltration of Communists into our government and society. I was very interested in this topic.

At first, it was very confusing because there were two items that were very clear in my South Side Irish ghetto. Communists were as bad as you could get and Catholics were good. As the TV political drama evolved, I slowly experienced an assault on my Catholic prejudice. Even though Senator McCarthy was against the Communists and a Catholic, he was being labelled as the bad guy. I painfully began to realize he was indeed the bad guy, the really bad guy. His broad and indiscriminate strokes of accusation left a long path of innocent victims. Justice got lost in the heat of the quest for political advantage. Eventually, he was censored by the Senate. This was one of only three such condemnations in the history of our country.

This was the beginning of a lifetime journey where the clear black and white of my world had to give way to an acceptance of the grey of a complex world, a world where the weeds and wheat were growing side by side.

Among other things, this parable is calling us to an ever-expanding gospel vision of including and accepting others. The summons of Jesus into the kingdom very much includes sinners. We have no right to do less. God is calling us to share God’s patience and mercy. Our heart is a field with plenty of weeds that incline us to divide and separate and isolate and most of all, to judge. The parable of the weeds and the wheat open up the mystery of the justice and mercy of God inviting us into an ever-expanding program of inclusion and forgiveness.

If I just take the topics of race, sexual orientation and respect for women in my own personal experience, I can see an abundance of blindness, ignorance, open hostility and profound prejudice ebbing and flowing to a very painful evolution of change. The coming of the kingdom has slowly challenged me to grow in tolerance, trust and patience. Self-knowledge only comes with this openness to God’s call to be compassionate and patient. Self-knowledge will always reveal a heart blossoming with a full harvest of both the weeds and the wheat. The struggle to live in a loving way with both will continue to the end.

The guidance of today’s parable will lead us to separate evil from the evildoer, sin from the sinner. We are all better off nurturing the wheat by living the gospel. Too much energy goes into the weeds as we sit in judgement of our brothers and sisters. We are all better off if our main task is following the meek and humble Christ. God is quite capable of discerning how to deal with the weeds within us personally and within our sisters and brothers. We need to grow in the awareness that the true power of God is in God’s mercy. This shines out in Jesus on the cross.

This is why the gospel approach to the endless encounters with evil calls for a different approach we need to proclaim a Jesus of mercy and compassion. We need to offer an open hand rather than a closed heart.

St. Teresa of Avila had a very gifted and graced understanding of herself. Even though she eventually would become recognized as the first woman Doctor of the Church and a famous Carmelite saint, she clearly saw her weeds. She knew her life was a gift from God. She said often, the story of her life was ultimately the story of God’s mercy. She truly had tolerance for others, trust in God and patience with herself. She understood, as we need to understand today, that God’s kingdom is coming and with it comes the love and mercy and justice revealed in Jesus. In the meanwhile, God wants us to be the faithful labors of the harvest.

Teresa of Avila and the Importance of Self-Knowledge

In the special section on the prayer of the four waters in the book of her Life, Teresa has a rich quote on self-knowledge:

“This path of self-knowledge must never be abandoned, nor is there on this journey a soul so much a giant that it has no need to return often to the stage of an infant…Along this path of prayer, self-knowledge and the thought of one’s sins is the bread with which all palates must be fed.” (Life Ch 13:15)

The Loving and Merciful Creator And The Loved and Forgiven Creature

Teresa identified two elements as the foundation of her spirituality. The first was her sinfulness. Through self-knowledge, she slowly accepted the limits of her ability to break loose of her brokenness. Through the growing light of God’s presence within her, she truly saw herself as a world class sinner. This is one of great ironies of the spiritual life. The more we grow in love with God, the more we are mindful of our personal sinfulness. Her sense of sin centered on the time wasted in so many ways that kept her from loving Jesus.

Secondly, she realized she was loved and forgiven in spite of her deeply flawed condition. This is why Teresa held self-knowledge in such esteem. The path of self-knowledge gradually opened Teresa to the grandeur of God and her total dependence on God. She was the creature caught in sin. Nevertheless, she experienced herself as both forgiven and loved as a child of God. Her ever-expanding awareness of herself as a sinful creature let her realize that she lived in a sea of mercy. Self-knowledge was a critical component of Teresa’s fundamental grasp of her reality as a sinner both loved and forgiven. This experience motivated Teresa to place God as the loving and merciful center of her reality. At the same time, her self-importance diminished constantly as her love for God, and consequently, her love for her neighbor, intensified.

Self-Knowledge: Key to the Spiritual Journey

Self-knowledge demands a relentless quest for a deeper and more extensive awareness of our personal reality. The demands and benefits of self-knowledge will never be exhausted in this lifetime. Learning what truly is going on within ourselves is a task that is never completed. One way of getting insight into the search for self-knowledge is seeing the conflict in our lives as a struggle between the false self and the true self, between sin and grace.

The false self involves layer after layer of self-deception, fallacies and a sense of self-grandiosity that places us at the center of our consciousness. We tend to become blinded to our faults and failures and, more importantly, blind to the presence of God at the true center of our being. We emphasize the shortcomings of others. Jesus put it ever so clearly when he pointed our inability to see the log in our own eye yet totally aware of the splinter in our neighbor’s eye. (Mt 7:3) Self-righteousness dominates our worldview. As we become mindful of the false values flowing from our fragmented heart, we find ourselves facing a fork in the road.

We have a choice of life or death. We choose death when we double down on the clamoring of the false self for more attention. We choose life when we open ourselves to the mercy of God which draws us toward the true self. At the heart of this decision is the perennial challenge of knowing ourselves.

Teresa of Avila was unyielding in declaring the importance of self-knowledge as the special avenue to God in the center of our being. In one of her many statements on self-knowledge she said:

“Well now, it is foolish to think that we will enter heaven without entering ourselves, reflecting on our misery and what we owe God and begging Him often for mercy.” (The Interior Castle 2.1.11)

Many of the Gospel mandates are an expression of this practice of leaving the false self of our self-centeredness and moving on to the true self which is seeking God at our center. In Mark we read: “If anyone wants to be first, he must make himself last of all.” (Mk 9:35) Matthew tells us: “Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.” (Mt 10:39) Again, John says: “Unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains a grain of wheat, but if it dies, it produces much fruit.” (Jn 12:24) Finally, Matthew adds: “Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross and follow me.” (Mt 16:24) The Gospels contain numerous other statements with the same message. Fundamental to all these teachings of Jesus is the treasure of knowing ourselves in relation to God. This is self-knowledge.

The Importance of Prayer

Prayer becomes an energizing force on the passage to this life-giving self-knowledge. Prayer is an invitation to redirect our lives. The encounter with God’s Word and God’s will in deep personal prayer is our ticket to our true destiny at the center where God awaits. Meaningful reflection and prayer draw us into the light of the Scriptures which often open new horizons in our normal awareness. This unlocks the way to deeper self-knowledge.

This new spiritual maturity leads to novel ways of accepting others. Our relationships and responsibilities move out of a narrow world of self-concern. They grow into a more spacious stance of openness, acceptance and service for others.

For Teresa, prayer was the answer to almost all problems. However, she had an expansive notion of prayer. It took place in the context of the relationship between God at the center, our person and our life experience. In the interaction of these elements in prayer, self-knowledge has a pivotal role. The mystery of God unfolds in the dynamic of the person’s prayer and life experience. Self-understanding brings this process together. The movement, in accepting the reality of God’s place and our place, brings God’s mercy to the forefront. This is what the spiritual life hopes to accomplish. As she advanced in self-knowledge, the great Carmelite Saint became more convinced in her oft-repeated belief: “My life is the story of God’s mercy.”

Mt 13:1-9

Dear Friends Todays message of the Sower is the first of three Sundays proclaiming parables from chapter thirteen of St. Matthew.

A parable is simply a story taken from the ordinary events of daily life that leads to a deep insight into reality. Even though the parables are prone to different interpretations, they all lead to an insight into the main message of Jesus, the kingdom of God. They unveil the saving presence of God in our ordinary human experience.

Today's parable is about the Sower of the seeds. A few facts about the agricultural practice at the time of Jesus are very helpful in coming to terms with the message of the parable.

First of all, the casting of the seed so indiscriminately does not seem like a bright idea. However, it makes a little more sense when one realizes the Jewish custom was to plow after the sowing. Most of the world does the opposite.

Secondly, a return between eight and ten percent was considered a very good yield on the seed sown.

In todays parable of the Sower. we are invited to compare the Word we receive to a seed. Each week we are summoned to once again hear the Word. The Church offers us the liturgy as a fruitful ground to encourage the growth of the Word in our heart and in our life. It is our task to let the Word blossom into the fruitful growth of the kingdom of service and love.

The parable of the Sower lets us know there was a range of responses to Jesus message in the early church. The same is true today. Even more so is it true in the depth of our hearts where the acceptance of Gods Word is always in turbulence and ambiguity. We need to continue the struggle to be generous enough to produce the thirtyfold and sixtyfold and one hundredfold.

For Jesus, the primary challenge of the kingdom relates to the human heart. It is in the heart where one resolves the struggle between sin and grace, love and hatred, inclusion and exclusion and, in todays example, between the weeds and the wheat.

Consequently, we can enter into the world of Jesus' parable and draw some true wisdom. The seeds are cast on all kinds of soil. Jesus' message is for all people, no matter what their circumstances. The universal call is at the heart of Jesus' message. Everyone is welcome at the table.

Of course, "all people" has always been a difficult choice for all Christians down through history. inevitably having a group of "those people" or outsiders who were not to be included has been a universal challenge for all followers of Christ. For centuries it has been the racial issue. Many decades ago, it was the Protestants and divorced. Recently, the gays and the Muslims were at the top of the charts for "those people."

Today, we are filling the void made by progress in societal understanding and acceptance of yesterdays rejects with new rejects, Today, transgenders are moving to become the top target of rejection. The fractured human heart will make sure we will never run short of groups to isolate and discard.

Another point to consider was the return of thirtyfold, sixtyfold, and one hundredfold. These numbers are outrageous. In the time of Jesus, an eight to ten percent level of return was considered very productive. Even more outrageous is God's love. The heart is the home of that good soil that opens up to incredible new possibilities even in this dark valley of tears.

The parable of the Sower reveals a mystery in life, a possibility of an explosion of love that is hidden in the ordinary flow of events. Reality is impregnated with a graciousness and giftedness beyond our dreams when we embrace the call of Jesus. The upshot of the yes to Jesus leads to a new life of freedom and reconciliation that guides us in seeking to create a new world of justice, healing and peace. Acceptance of Jesus' call is the transition to an innovative world of acceptance and inclusion, the beginning of God's reign here and now. In Jesus' lottery, the winning combination is 30, 60, and 100. The prize is in the victory of love over hate, peace over violence, harmony over division and a human heart with a deep sense of wholeness and integrity and freedom.

Todays parable of the Sower celebrates the universality of the gospel. There are no outsiders in Jesus agenda. It is a program of indiscriminate love and tolerance.

Teresa and the Humanity of Christ
Part Two

Devotion to the Passion

In responding to her mistake about the importance of the humanity of Christ, Teresa soon moved to a great love for the Passion and Death of Christ.

For Teresa, this emphasis on the suffering and death of Jesus gave her an anchor to embrace the deeper dimensions of the spiritual life. It let her be more connected and more committed to her everyday human experience.

Here are a series of quotes from the Holy Mother that enlighten the stages of her growth in devotion to the Passion:

“I could only think about Christ as He was as man…The soul can place itself in the presence of Christ and grow accustomed to being inflamed with love for is sacred humanity…this is an excellent way of making progress, and in a very short time.” (Life, Ch, 9:6; Ch12:2; Ch 13:22)

Teresa understood that the movement in all of Jesus’ life was a faithfulness to walk the Road to Jerusalem. Teresa recognized that in his Passion and Death, Jesus embraced all of humanity’s suffering and experience of evil. Jesus not only heard the cry of the poor and the cry of the earth; Jesus entered into this agony wholeheartedly. It is in the heartbreak and the mockery and the rejection and the crown and nails that Jesus became our cry for justice, for peace, for healing and reconciliation.

In her devotion to the Passion, Teresa was more connected to life than today’s headlines. The suffering and death of Jesus will always be the clearest expression of commitment and discipleship. There is no more concrete bond to our broken world and our broken lives than the Crucified Christ. Teresa understood that walking with Jesus always must move forward to the Cross on hill on the way to the glory of the Resurrection.

The Importance of Humility

It is at this stage of development, the genuine devotion to the Passion and Death of Christ, that Teresa returns to one of her most consistent teachings. “Since this edifice is built entirely on humility, the closer one comes to God, the more progress there must be in this virtue; and if there is no progress in humility, everything is going to be ruined.” (Life Ch 12:4)

Even when we are making real progress, we will eventually face the challenge of compromise. This is the ego’s desperate maneuver to maintain control. We are driven persistently to seek a space between the costly demands of the Gospel and the comfort of the world. We subtly create our own gospel and make Jesus over in our image. This produces the heavy burden of mediocrity. This has been a truly destructive element throughout Christian history.

We should let Peter’s example encourage us in this struggle that is the human curse of ambivalence. In spite of Peter’s total failure in the threefold rejection, Jesus did not give up on him. It is the same for us. He is always calling us to life. Each crisis manifests a deeper insight into the depth of our weakness and the magnitude of God’s merciful love revealed in Christ Crucified and Christ Risen.

The four Gospels, in all their diversity, finally bring us a picture of Jesus which is a mirror for us. We look at Jesus and see what is most authentic about ourselves. We are children of God, loved and forgiven. In his Exhortation, The Joy of the Gospel, Pope Francis describes the joy and beauty of discovering our true selves when we respond to Jesus’ call.

“The Lord does not disappoint those who take this risk; whenever we take a step toward Jesus, we come to realize that he is already there, waiting for us with open arms. Now is the time to say to Jesus, “Lord, I have let myself be deceived; in a thousand ways I have shunned your love, yet here I am once more, to renew my covenant with you. I need you. Save me once again, Lord. Take me once more into your redeeming embrace.” (The Joy of the Gospel: #3)

Teresa and the Humanity of Christ
Parte one

One of the great blessings of today’s spirituality is the rich and challenging teachings of Vatican II. It is the steady effort to bring Jesus back to the center of our search for God. This venture of centering on Christ has always been an element of every authentic renewal in our long and varied Christian history

Teresa says one of her biggest mistakes was thinking reflection and awareness about the humanity of Christ was only for beginners. She came to understand the centrality of Jesus’ role and deeply regretted her error. Afterwards, she always put Jesus at the center of her personal prayer and her teachings and writings no matter how advanced her spiritual development.

In the book of her Life, there are special chapters, eleven to twenty two, on the four stages of prayer. Here, she has a special message on the importance of focusing on the humanity of Christ.

“The soul can place itself in the presence of Christ and grow accustomed to being inflamed with love for His sacred humanity. It can keep Him ever present and speak with Him asking for its needs and complaining of it labors, being glad with him in its enjoyments and not forgetting Him because of them, trying to speak to Him not through written prayers but with words that conform to its desires and needs,” (Life ch12:2)

Teresa has these types of statements on the sacred humanity throughout all of her writings. She always highlights the need for the encounter with Christ as an essential part of our search for our true self and for God.

Here is a statement from John of the Cross that is especially supportive of Teresa’s teaching on the sacred humanity. It describes the beginners’ need to encounter the Jesus of the Gospels.

“First, have a habitual desire to imitate Christ in all your deeds by bringing your life into conformity with His. You must then study His life in order to know how to imitate Him and behave in all events as He would,” (Ascent Book 1: Ch 13, #3)

Teresa found the humanity of Jesus truly helpful in developing a balanced approach to contemplation and all of her spirituality. Jesus was the center of her life and prayer. The Gospels were the primary source of her prayer. She was continually proclaiming to all the urgency of being friends with Jesus and lovers of Christ.

This commitment to Christ will always involve the cross. “Whether in the beginning, the middle or the end, all have their crosses even though these crosses be different. For all who follow Christ, if they do not want to get lost, must walk on this path that He trod.” (Life 11:5)

Teresa knew well that only in Jesus of the Gospels can we find genuine righteousness in our Christian faith. Every age must face deceptions and cultural flaws pulling us to an easier route. Whether it is the search for true fraternal charity or honest prayer, the demands of justice or our clinging to our possessions, the power of the ego is constantly attacking our Gospel commitment like a cancer. It is eating away at the Gospel truth. This leads to an image of Jesus far less demanding than the Jesus of the four Evangelists. This false Jesus has been an ever-repeating occurrence in the history of our faith.

Teresa taught that we always need to return to Jesus for the light and the truth, no matter how uncomfortable or challenging. Jesus alone is the source of all true integrity in life.

Taking the Risk of Jesus: “Not my will,, but thy will be done.”

We constantly have to keep our eyes on Jesus. We have to let his word enter into our mind and heart to transform our inner being.

The Gospel reveals the basis of all authentic spirituality and calls us to the transparency of a true Christian identity. It teaches us that to be a disciple of Jesus is to follow him. This is what Christian life is, following Jesus.

Teresa teaches us that the heart of the encounter with Jesus is a transition moving from our vision for happiness, from our priorities, to Jesus’ vision and call. This initial conversion repeats itself many times. It expands our world as we stay faithful with Jesus on the road to Jerusalem. Prayer leads to an ever more generous acceptance of God’s will. A new and more mature experiences of prayer, flowing from the series of conversions, empowers us to live in a way that is genuinely guided by God’s will. The demands of justice and the environment are always knocking at the door of our heart as are the needs of our neighbor. This openness to our life’s circumstances is how faithfulness grows within us.

Mt 11:25-30

Dear Friends, In today’s gospel passage, we have an attractive invitation to be set free of our burdens. We will do this when we discover the true center of human existence. This a movement outside ourselves and in the God Jesus is revealing.

Many times, as a pastor, I counseled people that God does not allow us to be burdened beyond our ability to accept life’s troubles. More than a few times I got the response, “Well, God hasn’t checked my situation recently because I am on overload!” The message of today’s readings assures us God is up to date on the state of affairs in each of our lives. Indeed, the Father has sent Jesus to share our difficulties and trials and to show us a new way and a new wisdom that transforms our burdens into freedom.

In today’s Gospel, Jesus presents himself as one who truly knows the Father and his compassionate and saving will. When Jesus is inviting us to come to him, he is inviting us to make a choice not only against the religious leaders but of all human deception and distortion down through history even into the present day. He is inviting us to make a choice against the manipulation of the Law that the Priests, Scribes and Pharisees used to maintain power, privilege and wealth. We are invited to come to Jesus, free of the burdens of any and all misleading versions of the Law. Jesus did not offer the burdensome yoke of the slanted twisting of the Law. His was the yoke of the faithful and loving obedience to the will of God. With Jesus, we are invited into the sea of mercy and love that the true understanding of the Law produces. The honest acceptance of the Law brings genuine rest and freedom. The rest Jesus promises is not the lack of work and stress. The rest Jesus is proclaiming is rooted in God’s Day of rest on the seventh day of Creation, the Sabbath. This is the fullness of life in the kingdom. This rest is here and now, in this life, and it opens into eternal life.

Jesus says “Come to me.” (Mt 11:28). Jesus offered not the burdensome yoke created by the religious leaders of his day. As the full and privileged source of the complete revelation of the Father, the yoke he offers “is easy, and my burden light.” (Mt 11:30). We are to take his yoke; a yoke rooted in love not obligation. This is far different than the yoke of the leaders with its various intricacies, and even deceptions, of a legal system gone astray. This was the case in Jesus’ day and is often the same distortion in our day.

Jesus’ teachings all go beyond the rituals and external dictates. It is an invitation to the depths of our being. The message of Jesus is always centered on the engagement of the heart and relationships that are true and meaningful.

Where will we find rest for our souls? Where will we discover the peace that our hearts long for? Where will we encounter the wisdom that will set us free? Jesus opens the way in his invitation. “Come to me.” (Mt 11:28) Jesus is inviting us to embrace him and his summons to love. He is calling us to the depths of righteousness in the heart. He is calling us to live in openness and acceptance with all persons. He is calling us to cast off the burden of the endless “dos and don’ts” and to make our way into the freedom that true love offers.

When we come to Jesus, we will find another way to live. In Jesus’ way, we are engulfed in a love that enlightens us with the wisdom to see the way of truth and love. The continuing struggle to break loose of self-interest, to welcome the commitment to sacrifice and service, to eliminate the security rooted in excessive possessions, these preferences all lead to finding rest for our souls. “Yes, my yoke is easy and my burden light.” (Mt 11:30). Jesus calls us to a love of God and love of neighbor that promises joy and peace now and everlasting life in the future.

Love is the driving force behind Jesus’ transforming promise to ease the burden of life. We need to keep our eyes fixed on Jesus because he holds the seeds of wisdom leading us into the fullness of the Father’s kingdom.

Over the ten plus years of my blog on deep personal prayer, Praying Alone Together, I have referenced Teresa of Avila many times. During this time, my understanding, experience and love of Teresa and her teachings has matured. I hope to share that spiritual growth and insight in a series of blogs on this great Carmelite Saint and her vison on prayer and the Gospel calling

I am going to emphasize Teresa’s teaching on the beginning of deep personal prayer as described in her special message on prayer in chapters eleven to twenty-two in the book of her Life. There are many other rich teachings on prayer in her numerous other writings. I will make a few references to her other works. However, I will focus on the twelve chapters from her Life. This section offers a clear, practical and manageable expression of the Carmelite’s profound teachings on deep personal prayer.

Teresa of Avila: Doctor of the Church and Superb Teacher of Prayer

Teresa does not offer a well-defined theological message on prayer. Her writings are dominated by her personal experience. Likewise, her writings, while most often clear and deeply insightful, are also disrupted by almost continual interruptions and distractions from her designated theme. This makes it a little difficult to read. The extra effort benefits the reader with a pathway into true wisdom and spiritual enrichment.

The Experience of God

Teresa’s mysticism, like all other true mystics, was about the extraordinary experience of God in the ordinary activities of her daily life. While she had many visions and other spiritual occurrences of various kinds, she always would point to the lived daily experience, free of self-interest and committed to the love of neighbor, as the most authentic experience of God. When you read Teresa with an open and searching heart, the sense of the reality and the presence of God shines out in a spectacular way.

God feels so real and so special and so inviting that it is truly an overwhelming experience. She drives us from a shallow awareness of God to an indisputable experience of God. One author describes Teresa’s writings as “taking a bath in God”.

Few authors on prayer would be as emphatic in stressing the importance of silence, solitude and withdrawal as part of any trustworthy prayer life. Yet, Teresa was far from proclaiming an escape from the demanding realities of daily life. She clearly teaches that we will find God among “the pots and pans”, by which she means the often challenging “give and take” of living in a sinful and broken world with sinful and broken people. For Teresa, we withdraw into silence, solitude and prayer only to enter into life with a more intense and genuine presence.

Today, any meaningful spirituality is going to attack the false separation of the experience of God and truly responsible presence to our daily life and the concrete demands of being faithful to relationships and our expanding and ever-more inclusive responsibilities. This requires a commitment to prayer and a life of meaningful service in our actual historical situation. It is not life or prayer, not service or a true spiritual life. These items always go together in Teresa’s agenda.

However, for Teresa, the historical experience first takes place in prayer. She saw prayer every bit as part of our human experience as a form of service and ministry. For Teresa, there was no substitute for prayer in our pursuit of God which is the most real measurement of life’s true goal. We suffer drastic, and often destructive consequences, when we share in the common belief today that prayer is supplementary to the truly important issue of service to our brothers and sisters. Teresa is clear that prayer is a non-negotiable on our journey to God. Fraternal service needs to complement and be integrated with prayer.

For Teresa, prayer is part of life. In our day, there are many obstacles blinding us to the true importance of prayer. One must struggle to keep a genuine focus on the value of prayer in one’s life. Teresa clearly understood the pull of the ego to diminish the importance of prayer. Likewise, she was clear we have no authentic prayer without self-sacrifice and discipline.

Teresa sees prayer as the development of friendship and intimacy with God through the person of Jesus. The Carmelite Saint defines prayer “in my opinion is nothing else than an intimate sharing between friends; it means taking time frequently to be alone with Him who we know loves us.” (Life Ch 8, 5) This is a skill that needs to be developed. This demands much work and sacrifice in the practice and growth in prayer. The following reflections will attempt to describe and encourage the use of the many guides Teresa offers to achieve a vital life of prayer.

Mt 10: 37-42

Dear Friends, Today’s teachings our Jesus’ final words on mission in this section of Matthew. The first three deal with the disciples’ reply to Jesus’ challenge to mission. They lay out the demands of being a missionary. The next three statements are about the response of those who receive the gospel message.

It is clear that if we are going to walk with Jesus, we have a price to pay. Sacrifice and suffering are part of the journey. This is the way to life and freedom in the experience of the gospel. The gospel law of love means that there is no room for selfishness in following Jesus. Our salvation is found in moving out of ourselves in service and reconciliation. With the perennial challenge for racial justice, with drugs feeding the scourge of gangs and gun violence, with intensifying threat of climate change, all we need to do and is to check our favorite media for the rest of our always growing chaos. Calamity seems to always be drawing closer. Jesus teaches us that the most realistic answer to our crisis is the call to a self-sacrificing witness proclaimed in today’s gospel.

Today’s seemingly severe words of Jesus about family are simply an invitation to put everything in order. When we love God first, not only do we love our family more, this love is more selfless and life-giving. This love is free of deception and illusion.

I like to reflect about our encounter with Jesus’ call to mission with this example. Each morning, we wake up with a short note from God awaiting us on this imaginary table next to our bed. This divine text is our to-do list for the day. The top priorities are our relationships and our responsibilities. Each of the tasks for responsibilities and relationships identifies some people who our marvelous gifts from God in all aspects of our life. Some of these individuals represent the cross that Jesus is talking about: “Whoever does not take up his cross and follow me is not worthy of me.” (Mt 10:38) Each of us in the journey of life has created a network of folks of all different kinds who need our love and service. These specific persons are the clearest expression of God’s will for us.

The discipleship Jesus calls for enriches and expands our vision of the world. Our daily responsibilities of family, work, communal and social obligations open up to new horizons to guide us in walking with Jesus. We are invited beyond the surface and outside the narrow limits of our comfort zone.

We are called to enter into the depths of life where we meet the wonder of God’s love in the ordinary flow of daily life. Our task is to cross the “T” s and dot the “I” s to bring love to the concrete circumstances of our day.

The gospel law of love seeks to drive us beyond the ever-present pull of our deeply ingrained selfishness. The saving will of our God will be found in our openness to the needs of our brothers and sisters.

Jesus makes it clear. We need sacrifice and deeper reflection to transform our lives with our families and our communal and professional responsibilities. This same sacrificial effort opens up how we relate to our neighbors including how we face the challenge of a suffering world that is immediately related to the indulgence of our lifestyle. Our consumer culture is always seeking to expand and saatisfy our desires. We are on the edge of destroying our planet. God’s will is clear. Enough already!

Today’s gospel tells us those who seek themselves are on the road to self-destruction. Our relationship with God, with our loved ones, with our life situation only finds life through self-giving.

“Anyone who does not take his cross and follow in my footsteps is not worthy of me. Anyone who finds his life will lose it; anyone who loses his life for my sake will find it.” Mt 10: 38-39

Jesus of the gospels is clear. The way to life is through sacrifice, self-denial and our daily cross. Our great and continuing temptation is to create a new Jesus in our own image that frees us from the clarity and immediacy of this potent message.

Mt 10:26-33.

Dear Friends, Today’s gospel selection has the disciples about to begin their first missionary venture. Jesus is counseling them to cast off any fear. He is telling them about the Father’s constant providence. Jesus is addressing a universal human experience of fear in its many manifestations.

In addressing the perplexing issue of fear, the Bible has over seven hundred statements on this topic. Each time some form of fear is mentioned, the biblical text has a response expressing a deep sense of God’s providential loving care.

Today’s passage, like so much of the Word of God, shows that faith liberates, empowers, encourages, and offers hope. In contrast, fear imprisons, weakens, paralyzes and invites hopelessness.

Jesus’ message offers us a three-fold approach against fear. His first statement against fear is that his teachings will have liberating power. This point had been hidden but is now revealed. Secondly, Jesus had earlier told them they would be like sheep among the wolves. (Mt 10:16) Nevertheless, they need to move ahead without fear. Finally, the third declaration against fear is based on God’s loving and compassionate care. Jesus uses the everyday examples of the sparrows and the hairs on our heads.

In the time of Jesus, the sparrows were sold two for a penny and five for two cents. Yet, God knows their every movement. The hairs on the average person’s head offer a real test to maintain an accurate count. If God can keep track of these two obscure and almost frivolous items, infinitely more forceful is God’s loving care for each of us. This loving providence of the Father is the central truth of today’s teaching. All other elements need to be understood in this testimony.

There are two kinds of fear. The first is helpful and reasonable. Jesus is talking about the second fear that is rooted in ignorance and illusion. This fear is a crippling force that grips the frightened person. This fear distorts reality to the detriment of one’s responsibilities and relationships. This is a fear that stunts growth and deceives reason. This pathological fear destroys hope and freedom. Franklin D. Roosevelt spoke of this fear in his famous Inaugural address: “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself – nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance.”

We all find ourselves these days in senseless wars and growing divisions at almost all levels of society. We all must come face-to-face with fear at many levels of our daily life. The wrong kind of fear often is damaging to our effort to live the gospel. We are drawn to an ordinary and mediocre effort devoid of the gospel’s challenge and new horizons. Do we fear the honest power of the gospel that will show us the deception of our cultural customs so removed from Jesus’ teachings? We all have to ask ourselves what kind of fear is motivating us? Is it calling us forward into the new world of the teaching of Jesus or is it crippling us in the captivity of our comfortable but often rigid world that blinds us to our own mortality and concern for our neighbor? Is it building fences or bridges? Is it drawing us deeper into the inclusion of all others as the gospel teaches or into the isolation of our prejudices?

Much of Christian service and true charity involves drawing our brothers and sisters away from the entanglements of destructive fear. Likewise, a true Christian love will identify and support true salutary fear. This is what Jesus is doing in today’s gospel passage. A true awareness of God’s loving presence will help us to see and embrace our true and final fear, a fear of missing out on eternal life.

The vision of Jesus in today’s gospel is clear and forthright. What we truly need to fear is the final separation from the source of all life, our gracious and loving God. All else, even the destruction of the body in death, rests in the hands of our loving Father who is always calling us to life.