Today’s Scripture Readings

‘But woe to you Pharisees! For you tithe mint and rue and herbs of all kinds, and neglect justice and the love of God; it is these you ought to have practised, without neglecting the others. Woe to you Pharisees! For you love to have the seat of honour in the synagogues and to be greeted with respect in the market-places. Woe to you! For you are like unmarked graves, and people walk over them without realizing it.’

One of the lawyers answered him, ‘Teacher, when you say these things, you insult us too.’ And he said, ‘Woe also to you lawyers! For you load people with burdens hard to bear, and you yourselves do not lift a finger to ease them.

This is a powerful Gospel. Jesus calls out the hypocrisy of those who interpret God’s word, not as a call to authentic freedom but rather as a burden to be borne by the faithful, while they themselves do not live according to those same rules.

Saint Teresa of Avila, whose feast we celebrate today, bears out the essence of this teaching of Jesus. She entered religious life early, but the Convent of the Incarnation which she entered was not particularly observant. Notwithstanding the ease of life at the Incarnation, Teresa discovered contemplative prayer and a call to a more authentic witness to the Gospel. She became aware that the life she was living was not how God wanted her to live out her life.

Teresa was in her mid-40s, a reasonably advanced age for her times, when she began the reform of the Carmelite nuns. She left behind security and set out to establish communities that embraced the poverty and simplicity of the Gospel. She suffered severe curvature of the spine. Yet, her courage to pursue the reform calls us out of our comfort zones and challenges us to an ever-deeper conversion to the Gospel.

It is not by imposing a legalistic interpretation of God’s word but how we live out the Gospel, that is a witness to others. Teresa of Avila, the first woman to be named a Doctor of the Church for her authentic spiritual teaching, continues to call us to authentic witness across the centuries.