TERESA OF AVILA - CHRISTIAN CONVERSION.pdf

SAINT TERESA OF ÁVILA CHRISTIAN CONVERSION A Spiritual Chronology and Mystical Phenomenology Jean-Marie de la Trinité Monday, April 24, 2017 Objective: Using the theoretical framework of conversion based on the thought of John Paul II as outlined by Carole Brown, PhD, Catholic Distance University, the present paper analyzes Saint Teresa of Ávila’s conversion story in terms of the spiritual moments indicated in that framework. The moments of conversion are specifically identified. Also, somewhat of the phenomenology of the mystical life is discussed. There are nine conversion points to be considered which are set out below. 1 Dialogue with Divine Revelation: Committing herself to Mother Mary in prayer and reading good books lead to the beginning of the life of virtue, 1522 – 1527. Saint Teresa tells us in her Autobiography that her parents were good and very conscientious in raising their children to be virtuous and prayerful. 1 Her father loved to read good books and provided them for his children, which she read, while her mother taught the children to pray and especially to Holy Mary. She credits this combination of the reading of good books, a habit of prayer, and the presence to her of good parents in her life as bringing about in her, at around age six or seven, the beginnings of a virtuous life. God had graced her with the Divine gift of a good family life with good books and the cultivation of the habit of prayer. Her mother died when she was “twelve years old or a little less,”2 and she turned in prayer to the Virgin Mary asking her to be her mother. This instinctive spiritual gesture of love and confidence in the Mother of Jesus seems to have been the seal of the beginning of her personal commitment to a virtuous life. 1 2 Saint Teresa of Avila, The Collected Works, Volume One, p. 54. Ibid., p. 56. 1 2 Threshold of Faith: Decision to Follow Christ (Act of Faith; Self-entrustment, Self-gift to God), 1531. Her father, much concerned for her upbringing, sent her, at around the age of sixteen, to the Augustinian nuns at Santa Maria de Garcia for her education where she began to wonder if she might not have a vocation to be a nun. Her father strongly objected to this vocation. She fell ill and returned home to regain her health, living for some years with a sister. She convinced one of her brothers to run away with her so that he might enter a monastery, while she herself entered the Carmelite Monastery of the Incarnation at Avila on November 2, 1535, following her friend, Juana Suarez, and took the habit3 the following year at age twenty-one, thus giving herself to God. 3 Conscious Encounter with Christ, 1554. We must consider two occurrences of the phenomenon of conscious encounter with Christ in order to have a full impression of the development of Teresa’s spiritual growth in the mystical life. First, at age 39, in 1554, she underwent what Teresian scholars consider a conversion experience4 during a profound impression made upon her by the Crucified Christ. She writes: It happened to me that one day entering the oratory I saw a statue they had borrowed for a certain feast . . . It represented the much wounded Christ and was very devotional so that beholding it I was utterly distressed in seeing Him that way, for it well represented what He suffered for us. I felt so keenly aware of how poorly I thanked Him for those wounds that, it seems to me, my heart broke. Beseeching Him to strengthen me once and for all that I might not offend Him, I threw myself down before Him with the greatest outpouring of tears.5 The second occurrence is an instance of what is termed intellectual vision, for no form appears in such type of vision which distinguishes it from both visions of the imagination and 3 Ibid., p. 64. Ibid., Introduction, p. 38. “. . . her life was by and large of an ascetical type until her conversion experience in 1554 (ch. 9 1,8),” Kieran Kavanaugh, Carmelite Monastery, Waverly, New York. 5 Ibid., pp. 100-101. 4 2 corporeal visions. Teresa had such a vision in June 1560 which profoundly impressed her. She writes: Being in prayer on the feastday of the glorious St. Peter, I saw or, to put it better, I felt Christ beside me; I saw nothing with my bodily eyes or with my soul, but it seemed to me that Christ was at my side – I saw that it was He, in my opinion, who was speaking to me. 6 This deeply personal encounter with Christ frightened her at the beginning, she says, so that she did nothing but weep.7 She had never experienced intellectual vision before this occurrence and did not know that they existed, thus her initial fear and distress. But Christ comforted her with a word which gave her encouragement that what she was experiencing was indeed real, and He remained at her right side habitually from that time forward.8 Such an encounter with the Crucified Christ Jesus is a typical, I dare say classic, occurrence in the lives of many saints, Dominic de Guzman, Thomas Aquinas, Francis of Assisi, Catherine of Siena, Marguerite Marie Alacoque, Josefa Menendez, Faustina Kowalska, Pio of Pietrelcina, and on and on. The theology of such appearances, as indicated in Christ’s word to Saint Teresa, goes beyond simple private revelation, as wonderful as this might be for the saint involved but, like mystical consciousness in general, such appearances are meant for the good of the whole of humanity, as with Teresa when Christ encourages her to found monasteries and to write her life, her life which is essentially her mysticism. This mysticism, along with that of Saint John of the Cross, has become essential reading not only for Catholic Christians but for spiritual persons of all religions. Once encountered, it is understood to be a profound source of the understanding of the spiritual life in general and for all mystics in particular. 6 Ibid., p. 228. Ibid. 8 Ibid. 7 3 4. Mystical Relationship with Christ: Cherubim with Fiery Dart, 1559. Teresa’s habit of intellectual vision of Christ was preceded, and I believe prepared for, by the famous event of the cherub piercing Saint Teresa’s heart with a fiery dart, inflaming her soul with burning Divine Love. This seems to be the case since the event of her Transverberation was a single, one-time event which turned her ever more completely toward Christ and laboring in love for Him. This turn of her whole being toward Him in greater affection and ardent intensity, because of the Living Fire of Love which had pierced her heart, opened her soul to the habit of the Presence of Christ to her in intellectual vision which Gift of His Presence to her then became the hallmark of her spiritual life. She writes: I saw . . . toward my left side an angel in bodily form. . . . the angel was not large but small; he was very beautiful . . . I saw in his hands a large golden dart and at the end of the iron tip there appeared to be a little fire. It seemed to me this angel plunged the dart several times into my heart and that it reached deep within me. When he drew it out, I thought he was carrying off with him the deepest part of me; and he left me all on fire with great love of God.9 As noted, this occurred in 1559, and she recorded it in her Life published in 1565.10 The Love of God, the Gift of Heaven to her, bore fruit in her life in the habitual Presence to her of her Beloved Jesus in intellectual vision. However, this fruit was not for herself alone and, as noted, she began to write from the pressure of Grace of these heavenly experiences of Christ and at the direction of her Beloved Lord Jesus. This emphasizes the great value for the Church and for the world of the presence of the mystic upon the face of the earth. Without the mystic, the world would not have the abundant resources in spiritual writings which help to guide, comfort, and inspire mankind spiritually, while it is my personal conviction that without saints and mystics upon the 9 Ibid., p. 252. Ibid., p. 37. 10 4 earth God would have destroyed it long ago; for they stand in the breach with Christ holding back the Arm of God’s Righteous Judgment that It might not fall with Divine fury upon our sinful world. 5. Endeavor to know better this Jesus to whom one has entrusted oneself: Communion and the Presence of Christ, 1575. Teresa turns to diverse considerations of the life of holiness in her Spiritual Testimonies. In number 5211, she discusses “Deep secrets revealed in Communion” and writes the following: Once after receiving Communion I was given understanding of how the Father receives within our soul the most holy Body of Christ, and of how I know and have seen that these divine Persons are present, and of how pleasing to the Father this offering of His Son is, because He delights and rejoices with Him here – let us say – on earth. For His humanity is not present with us in the soul, but His divinity is [emphasis mine]. . . . It is important to know the nature of this communication, for there are deep interior secrets revealed when one receives Communion.12 Emphasis was added in the above quotation of Teresa’s writing because certain precisions are necessary to understand her well. First, this spiritual testimony was written probably in 157513 in Seville, that is, three years into her spiritual marriage to Christ which occurred in 1572. Now it must be understood that the Spiritual Marriage of God and Soul, of Christ and the saint, is not a closed, static event. Rather, it is a dynamic relationship of Divine Love that continually grows and expands in its horizons of spiritual understanding and awareness of the realities of God and Soul in this growing, ever deepening immense, profoundly Superconscious relationship. What is experienced and known to the Soul in the beginning of this Oneness with God is certainly a most superlative Divine wisdom and understanding but, just as the Divinity is Transinfinite in Existence, so too is the Soul fused into that Transinfinity to ever deepening degrees 11 Ibid., p. 414. Ibid., pp. 414-415. 13 Ibid., p. 414 12 5 as the years of the Spiritual Marriage go by. What is known and appreciated by Soul in the progress of years of growth in Mystical Superconsciousness in this Marriage expands and deepens by leaps and bounds. The longer the Marriage, the more Soul Knows and Understands and the Wiser and Wiser Soul becomes. Therefore, when Teresa wrote the above italicized text she was still, as it were, somewhat newly Married to Christ and had not yet realized that, in fact, the Humanity of Christ really is Existent within the Soul of His Spouse. His Humanity is most certainly Present in the Souls of those who are Married to Him, and He makes this known to the Soul progressively in time in the Unfoldment of Interior Grace, the Living Light of Love Existent within Soul. And it is quite a long progress of the Unfolding of Grace in revealing this to the Soul. It is part of the Soul’s ongoing Gift of Marriage to God that the Soul realizes ever more profoundly how deeply in Love Christ is with His Spouse. There is a kind of culminating Revelation of this Truth in which Christ, in a series of extraordinary Visitations, takes up a kind of Final Residence in the depths of Soul which is wholly inexpressible in its Magnificence and Truth. In a word, however, Jesus, in His Humanity and Divinity, becomes the Heart and Soul of the Soul, the New Man of the One who is His Spouse. It cannot be emphasized enough that this Estate of Spiritual Marriage of God and Soul is one of continuing and perpetual revelations of Divine Love. The Marriage itself is marvelous enough to consider, but the everlasting and ongoing depth after depth of the revealing of Spouse to spouse, of God to Soul, is another matter altogether and can scarcely be described and can only be appreciated by the Soul itself who is the recipient of these revelations. It is beyond the Soul’s conception that any of this at all should have occurred, that any of it at all should have been given to Soul, while every moment and instant of this flood of revelation which carries Soul upon it as 6 upon the waves of the Divine Sea of Wisdom and Grace is a distinct surprise and wonderment to Soul who seemingly has received all that it is possible for the finite to receive from the Infinite. But that is just the point, for now, in this Spiritual Marriage of God and Soul, God is now seen to be beyond the Infinite and to be rather the True Transinfinite, and it is now Soul who is the Infinite, for God has raised Soul up to the level of Divine Being and has made Soul Divine and therefore Infinite, with an Infinity that is beyond its created infinite capacity of intellect to know or will to open out in boundless expectant love. In the realization of this, there is experienced by the One who is Married to God the endless Revelation of the depths of Beauty and Divinity of the Holy Faces of Jesus and the Father; for the Father too reveals His Holy Face to Soul when this Estate of the Perfect has been reached and entered into by Soul. This occurs over a period of years in the expanse of the Age of the Perfect, and Soul is always in a state of wonder because of it, for there is no end to it that Soul can ever foresee. Indeed, just when there is a cessation of one form of Appearance of the Holy Face of Jesus or of the Father another form Appears and supplants it. It is also noteworthy that the Holy Spirit does not reveal Himself as a Holy Face in any particular manner, nevertheless He also gives to Soul an evolving ascension into the Perfection of His Appearances in the depths of Soul from one Glory of Appearance to another and in the same process of years on end as is the case in the Appearances of the Holy Faces of the Son and the Father. 6. Obedience of faith, the moral life no longer a burden, 1572. 7 We have just spoken of the Spiritual Marriage of God and Soul, and the present topic of perfect obedience of faith continues that discussion. John Paul II speaks of the “obedience of faith” when he says: 18. Those who live “by the flesh” experience God’s law as a burden, and indeed as a denial or at least a restriction of their own freedom. On the other hand, those who are impelled by love and “walk by the Spirit” (Gal 5:16), and who desire to serve others, find in God’s Law the fundamental and necessary way in which to practise love as something freely chosen and freely lived out. Indeed, they feel an interior urge — a genuine “necessity” and no longer a form of coercion — not to stop at the minimum demands of the Law, but to live them in their “fullness”. This is a still uncertain and fragile journey as long as we are on earth, but it is one made possible by grace, which enables us to possess the full freedom of the children of God (cf. Rom 8:21) and thus to live our moral life in a way worthy of our sublime vocation as “sons in the Son”. This vocation to perfect love is not restricted to a small group of individuals. The invitation, “go, sell your possessions and give the money to the poor”, and the promise “you will have treasure in heaven”, are meant for everyone, because they bring out the full meaning of the commandment of love for neighbour, just as the invitation which follows, “Come, follow me”, is the new, specific form of the commandment of love of God. Both the commandments and Jesus’ invitation to the rich young man stand at the service of a single and indivisible charity, which spontaneously tends towards that perfection whose measure is God alone: “You, therefore, must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect” (Mt 5:48). In the Gospel of Luke, Jesus makes even clearer the meaning of this perfection: “Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful” (Lk 6:36). Veritatis Splendor Faith is activated by love in the spiritual life of the soul that is advancing toward or into the Estate of Perfection. First of all, faith is Soul’s willed assent to Truth, to God’s Self-Revelation in Christ Jesus for the Christian saint. Now, this is an intellectual assent of Soul at the direction of the will seizing the Truth through its intention. However, in the Way of the Perfect, Soul is under the influence of the Living Fire of Divine Love which has Inflamed and set it Ablaze, such that the saint is now ardently in love with the Beloved, with God, Soul’s Spouse. This adds a kind of infinite dimension to the act of faith of Soul which is consumed by God’s Transinfinite Love, and 8 this infinite dimension of faith is expressed as Soul burning itself out in service in the love of the Beloved, Soul’s Husband, God, and Father. Teresa was once asked, “What is it like to be in the Spiritual Marriage?” She responded, “Work, work, work!”14 This is the fuller meaning of this perfect obedience of faith,15 for here the term “perfect” means the utter depths of the person, the Heart Set Ablaze with Divine Merciful Pure Love and the Intellect Infused and Beatified with the Pure Light of the Blaze of Wisdom of the Great Holy Triunity. In this ambience of the Transinfinite Grace of God, Soul’s faith becomes a perfect obedience in pure love which is the giving of the entire self of Soul to the Will of God in total service to God and humanity in the fulfillment of the single commandment of love given to humanity by Jesus which the perfected Soul takes completely to Heart: A new commandment I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so also you must love one another. (John 13:34). This commandment of Christ of pure love constitutes Soul’s reaching to the utter depths of faith as perfectly personalized, that is, as activated by the Fire of Love because Soul is perpetually converted to God and Emerges Into God continually and unendingly as long as the earthly sojourn continues and the Gates of Heaven are not yet opened to Soul in death in the Ascent into Glory. Now this perpetual conversion is not a question of sins per se, even of small sins, but it is a question of perfection itself which is boundless in its potential achievement, such that the person who is Perfect becomes the Perfect Perfect or the Perfected Perfect in continual Perfection of the Divine Life; for that Soul is the recipient of Grace following upon Grace, as Saint John’s Gospel says (1:16). She walks easily in Grace untroubled by fear, sin, imperfection, or death, and pours herself out in service to God and humanity. Saint Catherine of Siena who nursed the sick 14 Reference unknown. Through Him and on behalf of His name, we received grace and apostleship to call all those among the Gentiles to the obedience that comes from faith (Romans 1:5). 15 9 during a plague was said to have slept only fifteen minutes a night, dropping down where she stood for only a scarce few minutes of sleep and then getting back up again and going back to work. Saint Teresa begins to give of her virtues in great generosity to others, as she beautifully describes: This progress in virtue remains for some time with the soul. It can now, with clear understanding that the fruits are not its own, begin to distribute them since it has no need of them. It starts to show signs of a soul that guards heavenly treasures and has the desire to share them with others, and it beseeches God that it may not be the only rich one. It begins to be of benefit to its neighbors almost without knowing it or doing anything of itself. They recognize it because now the fragrance of the flowers has reached the point in which it attracts others. The soul understands that it has virtues, and its neighbors see the desirable fruit. They would like to help it eat this fruit.16 Saint Teresa began the experience of this perfect obedience of faith of this Divine Life of Marriage to her Husband Jesus Christ at Ávila, Monastery of the Incarnation, on Tuesday, November 18, 157217 on the Church Feast of the Dedication of the Basilicas of Saints Peter and Paul. She writes of her Mystical Nuptial Experience at Holy Communion: He appeared to me in imaginative vision . . . very interiorly, and He gave me His right hand and said: “Behold this nail; it is a sign you will be My bride from today on. Until now you have not merited this; from now on not only will you look after My honor as being the honor of your Creator, King, and God, but you will look after it as My true bride. My honor is yours, and yours is Mine.”18 She remained in growth in perfect obedience in faith, the active assent of her intellect and will to God in love, in this Marriage to her Divine Spouse in doing His work for His honor in the labor of love of founding houses for souls who were His own that they might have places to live and worship Him where He could come to be with them. 16 Saint Teresa of Avila, The Collected Works, Volume One, p. 165. Ibid., p. 402. 18 Ibid. 17 10 7. Mystical Participation in God’s Sacramental Life. The saint’s devotion to the Blessed Sacrament is legendary, but upon being refused Holy Communion by the celebrant to test her faith, she was wholly submissive and humble in the event. She did not protest and remained perfectly at peace. She deeply realized the power of the sacraments, and especially the Eucharist, as when she writes: Here, in approaching the sacraments, it [the Soul] has the living faith to see the power that God has placed in them; it praises You because You have left such a medicine and ointment for our wounds and because this medicine not only covers these wounds but takes them away completely. It is amazed by all this.19 Indeed, the wonder of the sacraments is revealed to the Soul endowed and blessed by God with mystical awareness of their profound reality which encompasses the very Power of God Himself, which Power of God is made active within them and released from them when they are approached with faith, hope, love, trust, and humility. Revelations of Divine Love occur often during the sacraments of Baptism, Eucharist, and Anointing of the Sick as witnessed and reported on by many saints, and Teresa herself is such a witness and makes such a report: It happened that while I was here [monastery of St. Joseph’s in Toledo] a fatal illness struck one of the Sisters. After receiving the sacraments and being anointed, her happiness and joy were so great that, as though she were going to another country, we were able to talk to her about how she should recommend us to God when in heaven and to the saints to whom we were devoted. A little before she died, I went to her room to be with her, for I had just gone before the Blessed Sacrament to beg the Lord to give her a good death. And when I entered I saw His Majesty at the head of the bed. His arms were partly opened as though He were protecting her, and He told me that I could be certain He would protect all the nuns that die in these monasteries and that they should not fear temptation at the hour of death. I was left very consoled and recollected. After a little while I began to speak to her, and she said to me: “O Mother, what great things I am going to see.” Thus she died, like an angel.20 19 20 Ibid., p. 167. Saint Teresa of Avila, The Collected Works, Volume Three, The Foundations, p. 177. 11 A discussion of the Graces and Favors of the Sacred Heart of Jesus is beyond the scope of this paper, but I point out that in the literature of that great devotion there is ample witness to the Eucharist functioning as something like the Heart of this devotion in the liturgy of the Church, while the general Power of the Grace of God which emanates from the Eucharist, even without reference to the Sacred Heart of Jesus as such, is experienced by the mystic on a daily basis and practically every time the Blessed Sacrament is approached. In this regard, the Eucharist is the Heart of Christ as Emanating the Living Light of Love which is the Grace of the Holy Spirit. The witness of the life and prayerful devotion of Saint Teresa to the Holy Eucharist makes her a preeminent saint of the Blessed Sacrament and, indeed, of the Mass itself. 8. Participation in the Christian Community, Feb. 9, 1570: Worship; Union of Truth in Charity; Fellowship. We take special note of how frequently, and even habitually, our Lord Appears to His friends during Holy Communion and expresses the Will of His Heart that they might accomplish some good in His service in their service to their neighbors and, as in the case of Saint Teresa, those under their spiritual care. Thus He weds the Holy Communion of Love with the communion of love of the faithful building one another up in Grace in fellowship and mutual support. Now, Jesus tells her on more than one occasion to found many houses and to write her history, and this precisely for the good of souls, that He might be with them in these houses founded by her in which to glorify Him and achieve their sanctification. She notes in No. 6 of her Spiritual Testimonies how, after receiving Holy Communion, Jesus Appeared to her Crowned with a glorious Crown, where the Crown of Thorns must have been on His Head and in Its place. She writes: 12 I asked Him what I could do as a remedy for this [wounding effect of sin upon Him] because I was determined to do everything I could. He told me that now was not the time for rest, but that I should hurry to establish these houses; that He found his rest with the souls living in them; that I should accept as many houses as given me since there were many persons who did not serve Him because they had no place for it; that those houses I founded in small towns should be like this one, for, by desire, as much could be merited as in the other houses; that I should strive to put all the houses under the government of a superior; that I should insist that the interior peace not be lost through a concern for bodily sustenance; that He would help us so nothing would be lacking; that the sick especially should be cared for; that a prioress who did not provide for and favor the sick was like Job’s friends; that He made use of the scourge for the good of souls, and that in such an event they should practice patience; and that I should write about the foundation of these houses.21 9. Participation in Christ’s Mission: Vocation; Evangelization; Solidarity with the Human Family: Founding of the monastery of the glorious St. Joseph, 1562. We note that the life work of the saint involves her whole career as a daughter of Jesus Christ which is spent in His service in the service of His faithful and of the whole world. This we emphasize as occurring in the founding of monasteries which Teresa pursued with astonishing energy and determination. It is by these foundations, and the reforming of the Carmelite order, that particularizes her special type of evangelization which was actually a reforming of the Church by the reforming of the Carmelites, which reforming of the Church reached to the whole world in its good effect upon the faithful everywhere and to this very day and time in history. She writes of the founding of her beloved monastery of the glorious Saint Joseph: One day after Communion, His Majesty earnestly commanded me to strive for this new monastery with all my powers, and He made great promises that it would be founded and that He would be highly served in it. He said it should be called St. Joseph and that this saint would keep watch over us at one door, and our Lady at the other, that Christ would remain with us, and that it would be a star shining with great splendor. He said that even though religious orders were mitigated one shouldn’t think He was little served in them; He asked what would become of the world if it were not for 21 Ibid., Volume One, p. 387. 13 religious and said that I should tell my confessor what He commanded, that He was asking him not to go against this or hinder me from doing it.22 Saint Teresa accomplished a great deal of work in service to her Lord for His glorification, the good of the Church, and the edification of the whole world and did so precisely in pursuing a life of personal holiness dedicated to her Beloved Jesus Christ. She shows us in the process just how much such great achievement of Soul is dependent upon Soul’s continuing conversion to Christ Jesus in Holy Grace to its fulfillment in Divine Oneness with God; for that is what the mystical-spiritual life is, that is, the continuing organic growth of Soul in Grace, which is the Life of God, into the Perfected Estate of the Perfect, which is Soul’s Emergence Into the Great Holy Triunity in the Divine Merciful Pure Love of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. The truth of the growth of Soul to fulfillment of conversion in Grace is that this wondrous Emergence Into God continues in Perfection even in the very Estate of the Perfect and, as long as Soul is in sojourn in earth and still journeying to Heaven, there is no end to Soul’s Perfecting for being forever Perfectible in this life. Following John Paul II’s thought on the fulfilled conversion of the faithful, this paper has sought to convey something of this growth in holiness by pointing out specific moments of it in the life of the great reformer of the Carmelites and Doctor of the Church. On October 3, 1582, Saint Teresa of Ávila received the sacraments of reconciliation and of the sick, and on October 4, at nine in the evening, she died “a daughter of the Church”23 at age sixty-seven in the tenth year of fulfilled conversion of her Soul in Spiritual Marriage to her Beloved Jesus Christ. 22 23 Ibid., p. 280-281. Ibid., Volume Three, p. 91. 14 BIBLIOGRAPHY Teresa of Avila, Saint, The Collected Works. Washington, D.C., ICS Publications, Institute of Carmelite Studies, 1976, 1980, 1985, 1987. 15