Shema O Israel Adonai Elehenu Adonai
Ehad (God is one)
Teresa of Avila is a well known Renaissance
mystic who combined contemplation with action.
In the biblical sense she was both Martha and Mary. (Lk. 10 –
39-42)
Twentieth century philosopher Simone de Beauvoir,
who is considered one of the first to champion women’s rights, complimented Teresa
in her ground breaking book, The Second Sex. Beauvoir noted that Teresa was able to integrate
her sexuality with her spirituality.
Bernini’s Baroque statue in Rome is an example.
Her grandfather was of Jewish origin and
forced to convert to Catholicism. Her
father remembered the humiliating process.
Such people were called ‘conversos.’
Spain expelled those of Muslim and Jewish Faith in 1492.
Teresa of Avila was part of the Roman
Catholic Counter Reformation. Her goal was to reform the Carmelite Order of
both men and women whose practices had become lax and corrupt. For a woman to take such a role was without
precedent. She founded several women’s
convents as well as men’s priories in Spain. In doing so she clashed with
Church and political officials. She was
a skillful negotiator as well as an astute business person. Her
method of prayer was direct contact with God and Jesus who guided her endeavors
eliminating clerical intervention. Renaissance individualism segued to modern
times.
Teresa had public episodes of ecstasy. Her confessors advised that Teresa chronicle
her methods which became available for Church officials. Despite such spirituality and openness Teresa
was able to outmaneuver the Church’s Inquisition.
Teresa’s fame spread nationally and
internationally. After her death in 1622 she was declared a saint. She was named patroness of Franco’s Fascist
forces in the Spanish Civil war. Teresa competed
with Santiago Matamoros to be patron Saint of Spain. The Campostella shrine named after him is a
world pilgrimage center in northern Spain. Santiago, St. James, according to legend,
resurrected and fought against the Muslims.
Santiago Matamoros could be
translated, “Jimmy the Muslim Killer.” Teresa
was named patroness of the “Raza.” In
1970 she was declared a Doctor of the Church.
Saint Teresa of Avila’s endeavors were
limited to the reform of the Carmelite Order and her personal relationship to
her God. Despite her brother’s role in
the ‘conquista’ of the Americas, she seemed unaware of the horror brought about
by Spain in their quest for gold and economic hegemony. She did not know the indigenous people of the
Americas, but she did know of them.
Dominican Friars from Salamanca, Spain stationed
in Hispanola, now the Dominican Republic and Haiti, were well aware of the
Spanish atrocities. Friar Anton
Montesino, O.P. living in Hispanola said in a Sunday homily, in 1511:
On what authority have you waged such
detestable wars on these people? … Are they not human beings? Have they no rational souls? Are you not obligated to love them as you
love yourselves?
This was at the
beginning of the ‘conquista’; the evil that followed is so horrible it is
difficult to imagine. One of the Friars who
heard Montesino’s homily, Bartolome de Las Casas, O.P., continued to protest the
treatment of the natives in vain.
Twelfth century Theologian Moses Maimonides
said that God is beyond our comprehension.
Who was Saint Teresa of Avila’s god? Surely the Divinity for her was not
the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
God rises in the divine council,
gives judgment in the midst of the gods.
“How long will you judge unjustly and favor the cause of the
wicked? Defend the lowly and fatherless;
render justice to the afflicted and needy.
Rescue the lowly and poor; deliver them from the hand of the wicked.”
(Psalm 82)
Teresa of
Avila is a saint, but we cannot deny the fact that she did not say anything
about the tragedy of the Americas and she and her order benefitted from it.
Sources
Dr. Richard Lux, Notes from continuing
education class, The Conscience of Israel, Sacred Heart Seminary, 2004; Gustavo
Gutierrez, Las Casas,1993; Cathleen
Medwick, Teresa of Avila: The progress of a soul, 1999; John Welch, Spiritual Pilgrims – Carl Jung
and Teresa of Avila
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