15 October 2019 – Teresa of Avila – Tuesday of the 28th week in Ordinary Time - Psalm 19:2-3, 4-5

     I think it is easy to judge a period of history through the lens of the reality of the modern world.  However, Teresa of Avila lived in a very different time.  It was the age of the Reformation, the age of the Spanish Inquisition.  It was an age when women did not have the same opportunities that women have today.  This was the age of St Teresa of Avila, born in the year 1515 in Avila, Spain. And yet, even though the first doctors of the Church were named in 1298, the first female doctor of the Church happened in 1970 with Teresa of Avila and Catherine of Sienna.  Since, then, Therese of Lisieux and Hildegard of Bingen have also been named Doctors of the Church, four towering figures who have had a huge influence on their times and on the history of our Catholic faith.  

      When I think of St Teresa of Avila, I think not only of the Doctor of the Church, the mystic, the theologian, the Church reformer, the founder of many Carmelite convents, but I also think of a wonderful, joyful lady who would be a delight to have as a dinner companion.  The Spanish people have such an esteemed view of her, that several times throughout history they have debated whether or not they should her as that country’s patron saint instead of St James, even though St James is such a beloved saint himself in Spain as well.  

         I love the saints for what we can learn from them. While Teresa withstood persecution from the Spanish Inquisition in the years after the Protestant Reformation and the withdrawal of the Moors from the Iberian peninsula, while she was able to withstand the jealousies and backlash from her fellow Carmelites against the reforms she proposed, she was able to meld a sophisticated mystical spirituality with an earthy realism and sense of humor.  I give thanks to St Teresa of Avila, for her witness of faith that speaks out to us through the centuries. 

         As the psalm tells us today that the heavens proclaim the glory of God, Teresa proclaimed the glory of God through her life, her words, and her actions.  We will close our homily today with this wonderful prayer written by St Teresa of Avila.  

Let nothing trouble you,

let nothing frighten you.

All things are passing;

God never changes.

Patience obtains all things.

He who possesses God lacks nothing:

God alone suffices.