Patrick Burke, O.Carm.
“It's
as though Jesus tells the Father that He is now ours since the Father has
given Him to us to die for us; and asks that the Father not take Him from us
until the end of the world; that He allow Him serve each day.”
(The
Way 33, 4)
St
Teresa in commenting on the petition of the Our Father, “Your will be done
on earth as it is in heaven” is quite practical and blunt when she tells her
nuns: “Look, daughters, His will must be done whether we like this or not,
and it will be done in heaven and on earth. Believe me, take my advice and
make a virtue of necessity” (The Way of Perfection, 32, 4). For Teresa, our
human will is the faculty by which we form an attitude to what is around us
and create a relationship which reflects our wanting, our desires and our
hopes. The will of God is the mind that was in Christ. “He humbled himself
and became obedient unto death, even death on a cross’ (Phil.2, 5). Such a
will is rooted in love - love of God and love of neighbor. This inevitably
involves a suffering we cannot control. Since it is God’s will, it results
in openness to God rather than planned self-directed desires. The thrust of
Teresa’s writing was directed toward the complete gift of ourselves to the
Creator, the surrender of our wills to His and detachment from creatures.
“Unless we give our wills entirely to the Lord so that in everything
pertaining to us He might do what conforms with His will, we will never be
allowed to drink of the living water.” (W. 32, 9).
Teresa begins Chapter 33 of The Way of Perfection by stating that “Jesus
understands what a difficult thing it is He offers us. He knows our
weakness, that we often show that we do not understand what the Lord’s will
is. We are weak and He is merciful.” In fact we are slow to let go our own
mentality because of our selfish purposes. She cites the case of a rich
person living in luxury who is told to be moderate at table so that the
hungry may have something to eat; and he replies with a thousand excuses for
not understanding this. Or a backbiter, told that it is God’s will that he
love his neighbor as himself, becomes annoyed and cannot understand. But
Teresa reminds us too of a religious who has grown accustomed to freedom and
comfort that he should remember his obligations and keep in mind that it is
God’s will that he be faithful to his vows. It seems so difficult to do
God’s will.
So
Teresa explains. “Once Jesus saw the need, He sought out a wonderful means
by which to show the extreme of His love for us, and in His own name and in
that of His brothers He made the following petition: “Give us this day,
Lord, our daily bread.”
Teresa devotes the three following chapters (33-35) to the Eucharist,
explaining how we could not even begin to do God’s will without the
companionship and faithful presence of Christ who prays with us to the
Father. This presence that is required is not merely the individual’s
spiritual communion or the result of personal devotion. Recognizing the
difficulty people have in doing God’s will, she sees that it was necessary
for us to see His love and courage in order to be awakened -not just once
but every day. “Thy will be done” is addressed by Jesus to the Father: and
Teresa says that “since by sharing in our nature He has become one with us
here below, He reminds the Father that because He belongs to Him the Father
in turn can give Him to us.” (Way, 33,5). And so Jesus says our bread”. He
doesn’t make any difference between Himself and us.
Teresa then considers the word “daily”. The petition has the words “Give us
this day our daily bread”, referring to one day which “lasts as long as the
world and no longer.” She sees the Eucharist as the Blessed Sacrament, which
witnesses to God’s desire to be with us. “Since the Father has given us His
Son and sent Him into the world, the Son, just because He wants to, desires
not to abandon us but to remain here with us, to the greater glory of His
friends and the affliction of His enemies.” (34.2). The Sisters are to
receive the Blessed Sacrament and to “ask the Father together with the Lord
to give you your Spouse this day so that you will not be seen in this world
without Him.” She explains that “receiving Communion is not like picturing
with the imagination as when we reflect upon the Lord on the Cross or on
other episodes of the Passion. In Communion the event is happening now, and
it is entirely true. There’s no reason to go looking for Him in some other
place farther away. Since we know that Jesus is with us as long as the
natural heat doesn’t consume the accidents of bread, we should approach Him.
If when He went about in the world the mere touch of His robes cured the
sick, why doubt, if we have faith, that miracles will be worked while He is
within us and that He will give what we ask of Him, since He is in our
house?” (34,8)
For
Teresa herself the post-Communion meditation and thanksgiving were in fact
the heart of her prayer life. Since God desires to be with His creation, the
Eucharist is for her the one true and contemporary sign of this reality
linking the theology of the Cross to the Eucharistic presence.
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