Saint Theresa Went Inside

Saint Theresa of Avila “went inside,” but very differently than do the self-obsessed. She went in to gain possession of her heart in order to give her heart to God.

Here’s a way to think about this reformer of the Carmelites. Recall the encounter of Saint Peter with Our Lord on the shores of Galilee after Jesus had been raised from the dead. Peter had denied him just a few days earlier, but still he jumps into the water, swims to Jesus, and says to him, “Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you.” What did Peter mean by that?

Peter was saying, “Lord, you knew that I would deny you; you told me I would even before I did. So, if you knew that, then you must also know that underneath my denial is love for you.” That place underneath the denial is our “desire” or “longing” for God. That’s the place to which Saint Theresa went.

In the interior castle of her heart, she found the place where that desire resides, remaining always alight, and from that place she would meet, and enjoy deep intimate union with, God.

Her reforms of the convents were therefore not ultimately about the merely outward reform of her Carmelite Order. Rather, like the Pharisees in the Gospel who were met with the harsh critique of Our Lord for caring only about the outside of the dish while “ignoring the inside,” her religious sisters and brothers were met with Saint Theresa’s reform of a way of thinking that too often would begin and end with externals, ignoring the interior life.

Perhaps one way to think of the mixed reception she received during her lifetime is to think of our contemporary, Thomas Merton, the American Trappist. Loved by some, he was also looked upon with great suspicion for his efforts to introduce his fellow monks to the real final frontier of man, namely the heart, and at the center of that heart, man’s desire for God.

Merton and Saint Theresa and Saint Peter all came to understand that only the man who lives from his desire for God is truly free in his relationship with God. This is why Saint Theresa was able to say, “If you desire heaven, heaven will be yours.” +