For the liturgical memorial for Saint Teresa of Jesus (Avila) the Church puts on our lips for the entrance antiphon the famous line from Psalm 42: Like the deer that yearns for running streams, so my soul is yearning for you, my God; my soul is thirsting for God, the living God.
One of my favorite saints is Teresa of Avila. Her humanity, humor and intense desire to be a friend of God is attractive. Real holiness attracts. She gives good example of what it means to be attentive to the interior life. Hence, today’s gospel pericope nicely coheres with the Teresa’s remembrance: don’t pay more attention to exterior than to the interior things. The spiritually immature Christians worry more about the outside of the cup than the inside. Formalism will not lead to fruitfulness and friendship with God. The spiritually mature Christian is truly thirsting, a longing for the Divine.
Saint Teresa shows how not to be enslaved by a dysfunctional Christianity but that we are made for joy, for Eternal Life, in communion with God.