"The Ecstasy of St. Theresa" is shown in all its splendor.A congress addresses the 50th anniversary of the doctorate of Saint Teresa of JesusTimes of the Pope Pius XI. A commission is studying the possibility of granting St. Teresa of Jesus the title of Doctor of the Church. Several, for their own purposes, already consider her as such. In fact, the statements of the Supreme Pontiffs point to it: Pius X had called her a "preeminent teacher" and his successor, Pius XI himself, considered her an "exemplary teacher of contemplation". The commission, however, does not give the green light; instead of giving the nihil obstatpoints out an impediment: obstat sexus.
The story is told by Father Arturo Diaz L.C., chaplain of the monastery of Discalced Carmelites of the Incarnation (Avila), in his book "Who do you say I am? Santa Teresa seen by her Carmelites". He warns that St. Teresa had to face something similar to that of the obstat sexus four hundred years ago. Those who opposed her foundations based their arguments against her on her condition as a woman. They reminded her of the words of St. Paul: "Women should be silent in churches." (1Co 14:34), "I do not allow women to teach". (1Tm 2:12). St. Teresa, questioned, consults the Lord in prayer and receives an answer: "Tell them not to go by only one part of the Scriptures, but to look at others, and if they can possibly bind my hands." (Conscience accounts, 16).
Of course, they could not be tied down. St. Teresa, driven by Jesus Christ, would not stop founding and, four centuries later, the Vicar of Christ, the Holy Father Paul VI, would grant her the title of "Doctor". The Pope revealed his intentions in the homily he delivered in St. Peter's Square on October 15, 1967, the liturgical memorial of the saint from Avila: "We intend to recognize her [St. Teresa] one day, as we did St. Catherine of Siena, with the title of Doctor of the Church."
Previously, Pope Montini had asked the Sacred Congregation of Rites to study, once again, the possibility of declaring a woman a Doctor of the Church. On December 20, 1967, the Congregation's verdict was unanimously positive. The following year, on September 12, the Discalced Carmelite Order submitted to the Pope the official request for St. Teresa to be proclaimed Doctor; the relevant documentation began to be prepared. Finally, on July 15, 1969, the Spanish Cardinal Arcadio Maria Larraona defended the official Ponencia for the Doctorate at the Sacred Congregation for the Causes of Saints. The members of the assembly gave a favorable response. The Pope could now, without obstat sexus to proclaim St. Teresa of Jesus a Doctor of the Church.
The sources of a "brilliant and profound profound"
"We have just conferred or, or rather, we have just recognized santa Teresa of Jesus on títitle of Doctor of the Church". Thus Paul VI began his homily homily on September 27, 1970. Finally, the day he had longed for had arrived (shortly afterwards, on October 4, the Pope would also confer the doctorate on St. Catherine of Siena). to St. Catherine of Siena).
In his homily, St. Paul VI spared no words to describe the new Doctor. "Eximia Carmelite", "saint so singular and so great", "exceptional woman", "religious who, wrapped in humility, penance and simplicity, radiates around her the flame of her human vitality and her dynamic spirituality", "reformer and founder of a historical and distinguished religious Order", "brilliant and fruitful writer", "teacher of spiritual life", "incomparable contemplative" and "tireless active soul". "How great, unique and human, how attractive is this figure!" (The Pope also did not want to overlook the fact that the great Reformer of Carmel was Spanish: "In his personality, the traits of his homeland can be appreciated: the strength of spirit, the depth of feelings, the sincerity of heart, the love for the Church.").
Referring to the doctrine of St. Teresa, Paul VI affirms that it "shines through the charisms of truth, fidelity to the Catholic faith and usefulness for the formation of souls." Undoubtedly, the Pontiff observes, "At the origin of the Teresian doctrine are her intelligence, her cultural and spiritual formation, her readings, her dealings with the great masters of theology and spirituality, her singular sensitivity, her habitual and intense ascetic discipline, and her contemplative meditation. But, above all, we must highlight "the influence of divine inspiration in this prodigious and mystical writer".. The Teresian iconography shows it: the saint is usually represented with pen and book in hand, accompanied by a dove, symbol of the Holy Spirit.
Prayer: the core of the message of the "Mother of Spirituals".
In St. Peter's Basilica there is a statue of St. Teresa of Jesus with an inscription underneath that reads. reads: "S. Teresia Spirit[ualium] Mater."St. Teresa, Mother of Spirituals". On that September 27, 1970 St. Paul VI took note of this and pointed out: "All recognized, we can say with unanimous consent, this prerogative of St. Teresa to be mother and teacher of spiritual persons. St. Teresa's prerogative to be mother and teacher of spiritual persons. A mother full of charming simplicity, a teacher full of admirable depth. [...] We have now confirmed it, so that, endowed with this masterly title magisterial title, she will henceforth have a more authoritative mission to carry out within her religious family her religious family, in the praying Church and in the world, by means of her perennial and current message, the perennial and current message: the message of prayer".
This message, the Pope exhorts, "comes to us, tempted, by the lure and by the compromise of the outside world, to yield to the hustle and bustle of modern life and to lose the true treasures of our soul for the conquest of the seductive treasures of the earth." And he insists: "This message comes to us, children of our time, while we are losing not only the habit of conversing with God, but also the sense and the need to adore and invoke him". Hence the convenience of directing the eyes and the heart to the "sublime and simple message of the prayer of the wise Teresa".
The foundations of Teresian doctrine and spirituality spirituality
"All great mystics have had" -writes Crisogono de Jesús Sacramentado (1904-1945), a Discalced Carmelite and one of St. Teresa's biographers. one of St. Teresa's biographers-, "among the multitude and diversity of images that enveloped his teachings, a broader allegory that, embracing all the others, responds to a synthesis of his work all the others, responds to a synthesis of his work, to which it lends unity and beauty". In the case of the mysticism of Avila, what is this allegory? allegory? Father Chrysogonus himself answers: the Inner castle with their dwellings.
St. Teresa explains that God is in the soul as in the center of a castle, in the most important dwelling place, "where things of great secrecy pass between God and the soul." (Moradas I, 1, 3). The spiritual life consists, then, in going deep into the soul until it reaches where Christ dwells.
The door to enter the castle is prayer, which, as we have seen, is essential in the saint's doctrine. She underlines "the great good that God does to a soul that disposes it to have prayer with a will." and shortly thereafter defines it with great simplicity and grace: "It is nothing else mental prayer, in my opinion, but to try friendship, being often alone with the one we know loves us." (Book of Life, 8, 4-5). It should be known that St. Teresa never asked her Carmelites for an elaborate prayer: "I do not ask you now to think about Him, nor to draw out many concepts, nor to make great and delicate considerations with your understanding; I do not ask you more than to look at Him" (Road to perfection, 26, 3). Certainly, prayer presents itself as an uncomplicated reality, but at the same time, warns the saint from Avila, it requires the effort of perseverance.
In addition to prayer, Father Chrysogonus points out others "two fundamental columns" of the Teresian spiritual doctrine: mortification and humility. On the first, St. Teresa writes in Road to Perfection: "To believe that [God] admits to his close friendship gifted people without jobs is nonsense." (18, 2). The "close friendship" so proper to prayer, as the saint conceives it, is impossible without mortification, since "gift and prayer is not pitied". (4, 2). Therefore, both corporal and spiritual mortification are indispensable for the life of prayer, the latter being undoubtedly more important.
Humility
Closely linked to prayer and mortification is the virtue of humility. "What I have understood is that this whole foundation of prayer is founded on humility." (Book of Life, 22, 11); "It seems to me that they [mortification and humility] always go together; they are two sisters that there is no reason to separate them." (Road to perfection, 10, 3). Famous is the definition of humility that the Reformer of Carmel leaves recorded in the Moradas: "I was once considering for what reason our Lord was so friendly to this virtue of humility, and this was laid before me - to my mind, without considering it, but immediately - that it is because God is the supreme Truth, and the humility is to walk in truth; it is very great to have no good thing from us, but misery and being nothing; and whoever does not understand this, walks in a lie". (Moradas VI, 10, 8).
Faced with a false interpretation of the expression "humility is to walk in truth", "which reduces it to a kind of foolish formality with which a refined pride and arrogance is often covered".Father Chrysogonus observes that, for St. Teresa, humility implies resignation to the divine will, a willingness to suffer without being upset when one's fame is attacked, or to bear without complaint the dryness of prayer. The basis of humility is ultimately found in the knowledge of God and of oneself. The soul convinced that God is everything and that it is nothing is in possession of the truth and will therefore be humble.
And this is exactly where the mystic doctor places the true essence of the "spiritual": not in the experience of extraordinary phenomena, but in humility. "Do you know what it is to be truly spiritual? To make yourselves slaves of God, to whom - marked with his iron, which is that of the cross, because they have already given him their freedom - he can sell you for slaves to the whole world, as he was, who does you no wrong or small mercy; and if you are not determined to this, do not be afraid that you will profit much, because all this building - as I have said - is its foundation humility, and if there is not this very truly, even for your good, the Lord will not want to raise it very high, because he does not give everything on the ground." (Moradas VII, 4, 9).
Undoubtedly, many more things could be highlighted about the teachings of St. Teresa of Jesus: her love for the Humanity of Jesus Christ and the Eucharist; her filial relationship with the Blessed Virgin; her particular devotion to St. Joseph; her fidelity to the Church. These, and so many others, are jewels that continually appear while reading and studying her writings. What better way to celebrate half a century of his doctorate than by being determined, with "determined determination," to delve into his legacy.
