By gazing at His grandeur...

"Let's strive to make more progress in self-knowledge, for in my opinion we shall never completely know ourselves if we don't strive to know God.  By gazing at His grandeur, we get in touch with our own lowliness; by looking at His purity, we shall see our own filth; by pondering His humility, we shall see how far we are from being humble. -(Teresa of Avila, Interior Castle, second mansion, par. 9)

         The above text from the Master of prayer empresses me so much.  St. Teresa of Avila was a women who always teaches us to become more human, to go down deep within us, to discover the inner space God prepared for us so that we may be able to meet Him there.  This texts for me is somewhat the same from the lines of Socrates "the unexamined life is not worth living" and the words of St. Augustine when he says "enter into yourself and you will see that your heart is restless till it rests in God".  All of these ideas evolve mainly on the knowledge of the self, and of God. Like all the other, they wanted to let us understand that we cannot fathom and grasp the fullness of ourselves not unless we first know who we are, from the basic.  This is why I like it so much because St. Teresa of Avila teaches us that we have to strive to make more progress in knowing ourselves.  What does it mean? 

     

             It is a responsibility for each one of us to look deeper, to listen to the voice deep within us, to see our inner groaning, our attachments, our cries, our aspirations, our concerns, our interests, our motivations, our goals and our purpose in life.  Not only that we also have to try to discover and learn when, where and how we react on things and how we practice virtues, etc…most importantly we strive to discover what on earth are we here for.  This is actually a challenge, a quest and a puzzle to many.  But the only answer is that it all start with God.  Unless we know who God is in our life, we will never know ourselves.  This is what Teresa of Avila said as she continues…"for in my opinion we shall never completely know ourselves if we don't strive to know God."   This is absolutely true!  It is only in God that we discover our origin, our identity, our meaning, our purpose, our significance, and our destiny.  Our restlessness is endless until we find who we really are, unless we find rest in Him.

         

          In addition, St. Teresa of Avila continued in saying "by gazing at His grandeur, we get in touch with our own lowliness; by looking at His purity, we shall see our own filth; by pondering His humility, we shall see how far we are from being humble".  This statements give a very profound meaning of our spiritual life and prayer life.  The saint truly have experienced them in her life, no wonder she was called a mystic.  For me, this simply means that we have to get in touch with our humanity in order to see the wonders of God's divinity. In talking about our humanity, this means our being human, our sinfulness, our failures and our filth. We are nothing compared to the greatness of God.  I am nothing compared to his majesty.  With constant and intimate union with Him in prayer, the soul will discover how weak we are, how foolish we are, how sinful we are, how fragile we are, how ugly our souls are.  I wanted to run away in shame!  Many times I do and feel that.  I am ashamed before God to know my shortcomings and weaknesses.  But God offered me His self, his whole self so I may become more like Him.  However, to discover our sinfulness, Teresa of Avila offered a requirement of being humble and lowly.  God showed us how to be humble.  He became like us-poor and humble,  and that was a gift.  And yet, the foolish man continue on doing what he wants until God offered his life for our sake.  It is a grace, it is faith, it is love and it is a grace to discover.  We will not grow in spiritual life and in relations with others not unless we will strive to know our origin, our God.  St. Teresa of Avila is really a great mystic and doctor of the church.  Her words have impressed me so much because they awaken my whole being to examine myself again, by being humble and in truth by asking God for a change of heart in order to find peace and everlasting joy deep within.  Allowing Him to dwell in the sacred space within me and let Him be the center of my life.