A festive union

Today’s gospel speaks of a wedding—and a wedding means union. A wedding, or union, gives us a reason to hold a feast. Today also happens to be the feast of St. Teresa of Avila (religious name in Carmel, Teresa of Jesus), a spunky woman whose life and teachings crystallized the concept of union with God. Having heard that those the Moors decapitated became martyrs whowent straight to heaven, seven-year-old Teresa, desirous to see God, persuaded her younger brother Rodrigo to run away and offer themselves to be beheaded by the Moors. No one suspected that the girl with an active imagination would one day become the first woman to be proclaimed Doctor of the Church.

As a nun in the Carmelite Order, her faith moved mountains. She had the chutzpah to reform the Order when it was becoming too complacent for its own good. She founded the Order of Discalced Carmelites (OCD), establishing 16 convents for nuns and two monasteries for friars all over Spain at a time they had only horse carriages for mobility. She also grew up in an age when women were not sent to school but were trained only to become good housewives, and yet, home-schooled apparently, she was to write books that would become classics in spiritual literature. Her book “Interior Castle” speaks of the soul’s journey into union with the King, but far from being a scholarly tome, it is something anyone can grasp—however, one must have the desire for that union. That desire is the “wedding garment” in today’s gospel. God invites everybody to a spiritual marriage, but He expects us to come with desire for Him in our heart.