The Sixth Dwelling Places
The sixth dwelling places of Teresa’s The Interior Castle is a true love story. It is the story of God pursuing the person in a process of divine self-giving that is unrelenting. At times, it seems harsh and challenging. At times, it appears gentle and embracing. At all times it is about God’s love for us.
The sixth dwelling places is the longest section by far. It is one third of the total text. It contains eleven of the twenty seven chapters. Teresa places it in the second stage of the marriage process, the betrothal. It contains difficult material on mystical phenomena such as locutions, raptures and ecstasies.
The sixth dwelling places has a constant theme of trials and favors. Even with the progress of the previous five dwelling places we are not ready for God. The honeymoon is over. Now comes the inflexible demands of love that are sustained only with the death of self-centeredness in the most painstaking details. It is sacrificial love called beyond human limits. The trials come as one’s burdened human condition is being prepared for the divine self-communication. The comfort of the divine activity is the new and expansive presence of one’s first-hand reality in God. All else is a means to this preparation for union in the mystery of love.
The sixth dwelling places is a space of enormous desires that God prompts from deep within the soul. The longings are produced by an arrow that wounds the soul. The wound is both painful and delightful. We are being prepared for an encounter with God that is unprecedented. It demands a purity and intensity that only happens with overwhelming personal purification.
“All these sufferings are meant to increase one’s desire to enjoy the spouse.” (IC 6.1.1)
Teresa is describing her personal adventure of God seeking her out. Her love story is our love story if we allow it to be. The result is a painful, yet a totally joyful transformation. This comes to light by the mystical events interwoven in the ups and downs of daily life. The new brilliance of God’s presence is blinding only because of our weakness. It is the combination of hardship and consolation in the course of life in a broken, sinful world. It is the engagement with the new self-communication of God’s transforming presence. This is the fundamental reality that defines in the sixth dwelling places.
This suffering of this intensity had been evaded up to this point. Now it is the only passage to ultimate goal, union with God. Purgatory is non-negotiable. We can do it in this life or the next.
“Moreover, if the suffering is to purify this soul so that it might enter the seventh dwelling places – just as those who will enter heaven must be cleansed in purgatory – it is as small as a drop of water in the sea.” (IC 6.11.6)
Teresa uses two elements to show how the often frightening mystical events are connected to our daily experience. The first is her development of the theme of human love in marriage. The second is the humanity of Christ.
For Teresa, the sixth dwelling places represents the second step of marriage in her time, the betrothal. It is preceded by the courtship and followed by the union of marriage. While stressing the infinite chasm between the human experience of marriage and the mystical experience of marriage, the saintly Carmelite points out there is no better comparison to help us understand the divine love story.
When I witness a celebration of marriage, I use a traditional anonymous exhortation for the couple that contains these words:
“Henceforth, you belong entirely to each other. You will be one in mind, one in heart and one in affections. Whatever sacrifices you may hereafter be required to make to preserve this common life, always make them generously. Sacrifice is usually difficult and irksome. Only love can make it easy and perfect love can make it a joy. We are willing to give in proportion as we love. When love is perfect, the sacrifice is complete.”
Love always shatters our common sense approach to reality. Teresa draws attention to this trait of sacrificial love. She says the more the soul receives in favors from the Lord, the more it suffers. This suffering is not a hindrance but a jubilant invitation into a fuller life and more intense love.
“The reason is that since it is getting to evermore know the grandeurs of God and sees itself so distant and far from enjoying him, the desire for the Lord increases much more; also, love increases in the measure that the soul discovers how much this great God and Lord desires to be loved.” (IC 6.11.1)
Later, she adds:
“Oh God help me! Lord how you afflict your lovers. But everything is small in comparison with what you give them afterwards.” (IC 6.11.6)
It is clear that love is the goal. This is helpful in making sense of the mystical experiences. The phenomena of locutions, raptures and ecstasies include various kinds of visions. They are all part of the self-communication of God in the individual. This is the experience of contemplation. John of the Cross calls it the infusion of divine knowledge and love. For many, the mystical graces of God’s presence often overflow into psychic and even physical expressions within the person. The personal experience of these events varies on an individual basis. In the end, however, what matters is not the discernable experiences, but the transforming power of God expanding the heart for self-giving love.
In all of this, Teresa is emphatic on preserving contact with the humanity of Christ. Contemplative silence and absorption in God need the support of Christ and his Gospel message to keep the soul grounded in reality.
“To be always withdrawn from corporeal things and enkindled in love is the trait of angelic spirits not those who live in mortal bodies.” (IC 6.7.6)
Teresa points out that life will never be short of trials and burdens. We need to keep our eyes fixed on the Crucified Christ as the model and way for us. There is no time where we will find any truer passage into freedom and love than in the footsteps of Jesus.
This emphasis to always maintain a close connection to the humanity of Christ was one of Teresa’s most influential contributions in the history of Christian spirituality. Over the centuries there were many destructive appeals in the opposite direction. These deviations had devastating consequences that mutilated the Gospel message.
In the final two chapters of the sixth dwelling places, Teresa stresses two points, the light of Truth and the fire of desire. It is here that Teresa lays out the definition of humility which is the virtue so foundational to all her teachings and experience.
“Once I was pondering why our Lord was so fond of this virtue of humility, and this thought came to me – in my opinion not as a result of reflection but suddenly: It is because God is supreme Truth; and to be humble is to walk in truth, for it is a very deep truth that of ourselves we have nothing good but only misery and nothingness. Whoever does not understand this walks in falsehood. The more anyone understands it the more he pleases the supreme Truth because he is walking in truth. Please God, Sisters, we will be granted the favor never to leave this path of self-knowledge.” (IC 10.7)
Conclusion
In the sixth dwelling places God’s desires to communicate with person meet human resistance at its deepest and most hidden level. The trials and favors of the sixth dwelling places are all leading to the goal of union with God. The soul is being prepared and transformed. Certain idols have stayed hidden all through the spiritual journey of the previous dwelling places. Now, they are drawn into open. The action of God leaves no space untouched. The lifetime habits of compromise and ambivalence are scorched by the radiance of God’s truth and love. The lack of mindfulness and the fractured heart pull in a thousand directions. They are exposed as the obstacles to love. The suffering of the sixth dwelling places singes the last remnants of resistance. God draws us into an open embrace that casts off all that is not God. Nothing is left intact. The immensity of God’s call engages the soul. God eliminates every obstacle to this great love affair.
At the same time, there is new light to see God in all persons well beyond the limits of culture and self-interest. The whole of creation speaks with a fresh eloquence of God’s presence. People are experienced in a way that transcends race, religion, sexual orientation, economic status and all other labels of division we use to separate and isolate. The genuinely spiritual now is truly made flesh in the incarnational and historical aspects of daily life. The least of my brothers and sisters now have the undeniable stamp of God’s image. We are at the doorstep of the final passage to be one with God.
