In the book, Teresa uses the image of a castle to address the relationship between God and the human person. The castle is a symbol of the human person. Teresa understands well that every human heart hungers for happiness. The journey is to the center where God dwells. This is where true happiness will be found. The heart will realize its true and lasting fulfillment only in God.
When we read Teresa’s text, we are invited to go beyond thought and intellectual insight and reflection. We are drawn into a unique experience of God. She clearly portrays her life as a story of God’s mercy. Teresa shows how the experience of God is rooted in a continual struggle that involves a series of conversions always moving away from self-interest and control. Teresa emerged from the deepening encounter with God recognizing her gifts and addressing her brokenness. In the end, growing self-knowledge drew her away from her independence. She saw the utter importance of God’s mercy and her need to embrace it.
The Interior Castle is an organized and insightful analysis on her experience. She describes the experience in the seven stages or dwelling places leading to the center. This description becomes a manual for our own pilgrimage to God. She says the soul is like a castle “made entirely of a diamond or of very clear crystal, in which there are many rooms, just as in heaven there are many dwelling places.” (IC 1.1) The spiritual life of the individual in the castle is complex. It involves the talents, commitment and individuality of the person as they are manifested at various spiritual depths.
Here are some of the highlights that we need to be aware of as we approach our engagement with The Interior Castle.
- Prayer, at first hesitant and sporadic but steadily growing in maturity, is our point of entry into the Castle.
- The first three dwelling places are about our beginnings. They stress our effort in prayer. The last four dwelling places are about God’s initiative and special activity in our prayer. This is contemplation.
- Teresa always has her eyes fixed on Jesus. He is the model. He is our companion at all times.
- Teresa seems in a hurry to pass through the first three dwelling places. She recognizes that her special gift is to explain the mystical experiences in the final four dwelling places. This is one of her greatest contributions to Christian spirituality.
- The goal is union with God. This will take place in this life by purification and transformation in one’s journey to the center, where God dwells. Failing that, we will pass through purgatory after this life has ended. Either way, we end up united with God. However, the method and time are our choice.
- The journey to the center, where God awaits, unfolds in our ever-deeper awareness and acceptance of God’s love and mercy.
- The way forward in the experience of God is a process of letting go of our selfishness. In that process there is a relentless exposure of the depth and breadth of our self-absorption. Teresa is clear that only God can both expose and transform the deeper levels of self-love.
- One enters the Castle by casting off the spiritual blindness and paralysis that characterizes life in isolation from God. Then one can begin the long passage to the center and union with God. Every step of the way is all about love.
- She presents a vision for our journey to the Center but little is said about methods of prayer emphasizing the unique and constant call to be open to the Spirit on the journey.
- In the end, it is all about love and service for our sisters and brothers which we embrace by participating in the coming of God’s kingdom of justice and peace and the integrity of creation.
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