Part OneThe third dwelling places is where the “good guys” become “bad guys”. Only when they recognize themselves as “bad guys” are they able to truly begin the journey to become authentically “good guys” through humility and the mercy of God. It is like the Gospel that repeats over and over again, you will win by losing!
Settling Down
St. Teresa of Avila wrote her classic, The Interior Castle, to explain how we experience God in life, and more specifically, on the spiritual journey leading to God. She lays out seven levels or dwelling places on this journey. The final goal is to be one with God in total surrender.In the first two dwelling places, she points out how we have an initial encounter with the transcendent. This is the beginning of a more conscious engagement with the divine reality. This leads to an eventual moral conversion. It brings us to the third dwelling places. This is the setting for most who are serious about the Christian calling.
In the third dwelling places, we experience relief from the consuming moral struggle of the second dwelling places. There is a sense of having arrived at a very good place. We have a clear perception of progress against the forces of evil. Yet, the conflict of good and evil is never far from the surface and far from over.
Real growth happens in the third dwelling places. The challenge of the new situation is to avoid deceiving ourselves. The struggle will continue, but the inclination is to bask in the victory. The great temptation of the third dwelling places is a false sense of having arrived. God is not so easily satisfied. The anguish of the third dwelling places is the challenge to move on.
We want to settle down. God wants the journey to progress with all due haste. Teresa is clear. There are seven dwelling places not three. The tension is between God inviting us to move on and our sense of accomplishment which draws us to put down roots. The drama of the third dwelling places takes place in the struggle to resolve this conflict. A major issue to be addressed is becoming aware of the total inevitability of our personal brokenness.
Self-Knowledge: The Lifesaver
It is no surprise that self-knowledge, and its true source, humility, become critical for progress in this part of Teresa’s spiritual structure. The biggest difference between the third dwelling places and the two predecessors arises from the fact that our selfishness goes underground, often taking on the guise of virtue. It hides behind good works and a multitude of good intentions. A major task of the third dwelling places is to identify this self-deception with a new depth of self-knowledge. Growth in humility leads to freedom from the crippling confines of ego inflation and the unyielding distortion of self-grandiosity.
Teresa declares two critical issues for progress in the third dwelling places. We need to persevere in our determination to move forward. We need to contrast the selfishness of our sinfulness with God’s love revealed in Christ crucified. Prayer is the major source of clarifying these concerns in our search.
“Those who live in this third dwelling place have to recognize that they need not only to offer themselves generously to the Lord but to recover from their failings. They have to become engaged in a more difficult task: accepting that God has plans that go far beyond one’s present project, generous though it may be, and letting him take the initiative, especially when it is a surprise and upsets one’s own strategies.” (IC.3.1.4)
The Insight Foundational to All of Teresa’s Teachings
God, as Creator and Savior, is the destiny of all humanity and all creation. This divine destiny is the source of each person’s beauty and dignity. At the same time, our brokenness pulls us to center on ourselves. These two forces are the root of the human struggle between good and evil, grace and sin. Thus, as humans we are splendor and wonder beyond our grasp as the image of God. On the dark side, we are also in constant withdrawal from divine love. All share this deeply flawed human condition. This duality permeates all of Teresa’s teachings. Teresa stresses our fractured reality at all times. We are sinners but we are sinners both loved and forgiven. We are called to live in a sea of divine mercy.
For Teresa, humility is the truth that enlightens all human reality to help us center on God. Humility lets us accept God as the Creator who is loving and merciful. Humility lets us accept ourselves as the creature both sinful and loved and forgiven. Humility helps us embrace our condition and put all things in the proper order with a surrender to God’s will that engulfs us in unending acceptance and mercy. Humility is always the way forward to God but especially in the third dwelling places. Prayer is critical for the search of the hidden treasure that is humility.
Teresa says, “Believe me, the whole affair doesn’t lie in whether or not we wear the religious habit but in striving to practice virtues, in surrendering our will to God in everything, in bringing our life into accordance with what His Majesty ordains for it and in desiring that his will, not ours, be done. Since we may not have reached this stage – humility, as I have said! Humility is the ointment for our wounds.” (IC 3.2.6)
