September 19, 2009
Interior Castle
Today I picked up, and started reading Interior Castle by Teresa of Ávila. I thought it might be an interesting task to bring the readers of HHG (all 3 of you) along with me as I journey through this classic work. The nature of this work is to examine our souls as if they were a mansion with many layers of rooms. Christ’s light is at the core, with His power of love, compassion and perfection. The world of sinfulness and darkness exists beyond the outer rooms. Therefore the question we face is how we can move ourselves further inwards towards the pure light of Christ.
One of the questions I hope to examine as I walk with this book, is the nature of balance between inward spirituality vs. outward expressions of Christ-likeness. What is the balance to be found between seeking Christ inside oneself, and yet, not denying the mission of the believer to the world? How does the purity of Christ change oneself into an actor of his love in the world? These, and other questions, I hope to find some thoughts about in this classic work.
So to begin, let us examine Teresa’s first room, or first set of mansions in the castle. The exterior of our soul is the border between the sinful pull of the world, and the calling to a deeper life in Christ. Yet, even though the exterior, sinful world is able to penetrate this area, we are still in a state of salvation. This could be considered the baseline, the starting point as we journey towards a closer relationship with Christ. We’re seeking out deeper intimacy with Christ, yet we still struggle and fall with the world around us.
First though, there is the question of how we even arrive into this initial gateway of our soul. How does one open the door to the first mansions? The answer simply is prayer. Teresa writes:
A short time ago, I was told by a very learned man that souls without prayer are like people whose bodies or limbs are paralyzed; they posses feet and hands but they cannot control them. In the same way there are souls so infirm and so accustomed to busying themselves with outside affairs that nothing can be done for them, and it seems that they are incapable of entering within themselves at all.
Therefore it is through deep meditative prayer that one begins to be able to distance ourselves from the world around us. It is through the act of speaking and meditating on God that we begin to be able to separate ourselves from those things that seek to harm us and distance us from the center of God’s love. It is this that leads to Teresa’s second point, which is that the outer mansion is the place where we start to learn two very important ideals: self-awareness and humility. If we want to journey deeper into our soul we need to understand ourselves. We need to have an awareness about the sins we pray for protection against. We must be able to contemplate where we exist in our world, and where we are in relation to God.
It is this self-awareness that lends itself to humility. If we understand who we are, and where we fall, then we understand our own limits and abilities, and where we need to rely on the strength of God. However, this humility is not one of self-deprecation. Though it is good to deprive oneself of pleasures from time to time to help build self-control and refocus ourselves on Christ, when the deprivation, or punishment becomes the end to our means, we’ve missed the point. At the same time, we don’t engage in “humble acts” so as to make others notice us, so that we can boast about how humble we are. This humility we strive for is one of self-awareness, and desire for deeper communion with the Creator.
So this first mansion is a place of beginnings. A place of starting a journey and developing our awareness of our relation to God. It is in this place that we begin to take stock of our soul, and can begin to delve deeper, and closer to the light of Christ.
Written and posted by Jamison on September 19, 2009, 5:01 pm.
Filed under: General Discussion, Reflections, Transformation
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