A
Reflection on Elements of Warfare in Teresa of Avila’s “Interior Castle”
The Lord above made liquor for temptation,
To see if man could turn away from sin.
The Lord above made liquor for temptation, but
With a little bit o' luck,
With a little bit o' luck,
When temptation comes you'll give right in![i]
To see if man could turn away from sin.
The Lord above made liquor for temptation, but
With a little bit o' luck,
With a little bit o' luck,
When temptation comes you'll give right in![i]
We
live in a dangerous world. And the
dangers that confront us can be lethal.
Surrender to Alfie’s temptation can lead to ruined marriages, abused
children, loss of jobs, and ultimately loss of life itself. The joke is no joke.
Isaiah
describes this world of ours as a Habitation of Dragons:
Thorns shall grow over its strongholds,
nettles and thistles in its fortresses.
It shall be the habitation of dragons
a court of owls.
And wild animals shall
meet with howlers;
the satyr shall cry to
his fellow;
indeed, there the night
hag settles
and finds for herself a
resting place.[ii]
We live our lives in the
habitation of dragons, in the den of snakes and vipers and poisonous creatures,
and when we approach the door of our Interior Castle they enter along with
us. By our long unperceptive association
with them they have in a sense earned the right of entrance. Our settled habits and accepted weaknesses
are dangerous. Teresa tells us that we
are so accustomed to living with that vile horde that they enter the first
rooms of the castle along with us, and make it difficult for us to “appreciate
the beauty of the castle or to find any peace within it.”[iii]
Teresa gives us notice,
“Remember that in few of the mansions of this castle are we free from struggles
with devils,”[iv]
and that “the devil’s intentions are always very bad, he has many legions of
evil spirits in each room to prevent souls from passing from one (mansion) to
another, and as we, poor souls, fail to realize this we are tricked by all
kinds of deceptions.”[v]
C. S. Lewis
rightly remarks, “There are two equal and opposite errors into which our race
can fall about the devils. One is to
disbelieve in their existence. The other
is to believe, and to feel and excessive and unhealthy interest in them. They themselves are equally pleased by both
errors, and hail a materialist or a magician with the same delight.”[vi]
As twenty-first century
Anglican Christians, we are much more apt to err on the side of ignoring the
reality of devils, than being spooked by Teresa’s clear teaching in this area. The reason for Teresa’s concern is the
negative effect that these devils have on our spiritual perception. She says, “(I hardly know how to explain
myself) because there are so many bad things—snakes and vipers and poisonous
creatures—which have come in with the soul that they prevent it from seeing the
light.”[vii] Indeed, “being among such poisonous things,
it (the soul) cannot, at some time or another, escape being bitten by them.”[viii] That may at first glance be uncomfortable,
but it is very important. To change the
analogy, if I know where the poison ivy is, most of the time I will try to
avoid walking barefoot in it. Most of
the time. On the other hand we have a
propensity to think somehow that we are immune and become careless.
Teresa tells us that “There are
a multitude of ways in which he (the devil) can deceive us, and gradually make
his way into the castle, and until he is actually there we do not realize it.”[ix] Our own spiritual experience should tell us
that our early warning signals need to be finely tuned. When the moment comes that we realize we have
been bitten by poisonous vipers it is time for us once more to visit the Room
of Self-knowledge. When we have been
snake bitten, it is instructive to start where we are and trace our steps
backward. It is rather like trying to
find something you have lost. Walk
backward in your memory and try to find
where that particular temptation began to arise. Sometimes we don’t have to look very far; but
at other times we may indeed pull on the end of that thread of memory and
unravel a whole sequence of uncomfortable events.
There is a marvellous scene in
the movie ‘The Iron Lady’ in which Lady Margaret Thatcher comments on
habits. She says, “Watch your thoughts
for they become words. Watch you words
for they become actions. Watch your
actions for they become habits. Watch
your habits for they become your character, and watch your character for it
becomes your destiny!”[x] Our society tends to look for the origin of
our problems in our feelings, but what biblical basis is there for this? Jesus didn’t ask Peter, James, Andrew, or
Judas how they felt about things; he gave them a choice, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross
daily and follow me.”[xi]
It is not that
feelings have no importance, after all even a casual reading of the Psalms will
make it clear that we are to take our feelings to the God who is the mender of broken
hearts, and it is clear that feelings, both negative and positive can be a
driving force in our lives, particularly when we don’t recognize and understand
them. Emotions run riot are a symptom of
spiritual snake bite. Note the Biblical
emphasis: We are to rule our feelings; our feelings are not to rule us. “A man without self-control is a city broken
into and left without walls,”[xii]
and “Be angry and sin not,”[xiii]
and “For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is
in you through the laying on of my hands, for God gave us a spirit not of fear
but of power and love and self-control.”[xiv] At every step of our life looking backwards
and forwards we have the responsibility that comes from making choices, and
each choice is an act of the will.
The search for the knowledge
and Presence of God will lead us from time to time back to that room of
self-knowledge. A burst of ill-temper
may be only the result of not enough sleep and a poor diet indicating a need
for better care for some of the simple basics of life. On the other hand a burst of ill-temper may
uncover a whole thread of unresolved and unforgiven things that need to be
resolved. Some of these things may reach
far back into our childhood and to the models set by our parents.
It is a grace to hear the Lord
say, "What do you mean by repeating this proverb concerning the land of
Israel, 'The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children's teeth are set
on edge'? 3 As I live, declares the Lord
GOD, this proverb shall no more be used by you in Israel.”[xv] Through self-knowledge and the grace of God
we can arm ourselves in the battle against the vipers, and by grace rule our
feelings.
[i] Alan Jay Lerner, “My Fair Lady”,
1964
[ii] Isaiah 35: 13-14 (Note that the night
hag in Hebrew is Le-Leeth, from which we get Lilith
[iii] Teresa
of Avila, The Interior Castle, E. Allison Peers, trans, and ed. (New
York; Doubleday, 1989, p. 33
[iv] Ibid. p.41
[v] Ibid. p.40
[vi] C. S. Lewis, The Screwtape
Letters, (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1996). p. 15
[vii] Teresa, p. 40
[viii]
Ibid. p. 41, (bracket added
for clarity)
[ix] Ibid. p. 42
[x] “The Iron Lady”, Pathé, 20th
Century Fox, 2012
[xi] Luke 9:23
[xii] Proverbs 25:28
[xiii]
Psalm 4:4
[xiv] 2
Timothy 1:6-7
[xv] Ezekiel
18:2-3
No comments:
Post a Comment