St Teresa of Avila: When We Are Too Close to See

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n today's Gospel (Lk 11:47-52), Jesus speaks very strongly against the religious leaders of his time. They were supposed to be guides, helping people find their way to God, yet Jesus tells them, “You have taken away the key of knowledge. You yourselves did not enter and you stopped those trying to enter.” It is a sobering reminder that even those entrusted with guiding others also need to be guided. Religious knowledge, position, or authority does not automatically mean that we see clearly where God is leading.

And this brings me to the saint we celebrate today, because St Teresa of Avila placed great importance on spiritual direction. She knew from experience that when we journey alone, it is easy to mistake our own desires—or even our fears—for the voice of God.

But Teresa also knew that not every spiritual director is necessarily a good one. She famously advised choosing carefully—one from a thousand, even one from ten thousand. For her, the ideal spiritual guide had to be both learned and spiritual. But interestingly, if she had to choose between the two, Teresa placed great importance on a good knowledge of theology. Personal holiness alone was not enough. An unlearned guide could confuse a person's conscience and even mistake God's action for something dangerous.

Teresa writes in her Autobiography: “Every Christian should try to consult, if he can, those who are learned; and the more learned the better.” She adds that if a learned person is also spiritual, “he is a treasure.”

Why was Teresa so insistent about this?

Part of the answer comes from her own difficult experience. Teresa lived in sixteenth-century Spain, when extraordinary religious experiences, especially those reported by women, could be viewed with great suspicion. Teresa herself sometimes wondered whether her mystical experiences came from God, from her own imagination, or even from the devil. Some of the confessors she consulted only increased her fear and confusion. At different moments, experiences that she believed were drawing her closer to God were questioned or misunderstood by the very people from whom she sought guidance.

“They afflicted me greatly and ground my soul down... They would tell me that everything was from the devil, when it was really from God. They made me live in constant fear and misery, because I saw that they did not understand me, and I did not know where to turn.” (Autobiography, Chapter 13)

She knew from experience that a sincere soul is a precious and fragile thing—and without the right direction, even a genuine desire to follow God can easily lose its way.

We can already see this in a wonderful story from her childhood. When Teresa was only about seven years old, she and her brother decided to run away from home. Their plan was extraordinary: they wanted to go to the land of the Moors and become martyrs. Fortunately, an uncle found them before they got very far and brought them home.

There was something beautiful about the young Teresa's desire. Even then, she wanted to give her whole life to God. Her desire was good; her direction needed some help.

That childhood adventure anticipated something Teresa would spend her whole life learning. She never lost her passionate desire for God. But she discovered that not everything we strongly desire is necessarily what God desires for us—even when it appears holy.

And that is also true for us. Sometimes we are simply too close to our own desires to see them clearly. We can easily convince ourselves that what we want is also God's will. Or our fears can become so strong that we mistake them for God's warning. This is why discernment sometimes needs another person—someone who can listen with us, challenge us when necessary, and help us notice what we cannot see by ourselves.

A good spiritual guide does not decide God's will for us. A good guide helps us become free enough to discover it ourselves.

Let us pray:

Lord, give us the humility to seek guidance, the wisdom to choose our guides well, and the freedom to recognize your will even when it is different from our own. Amen. Fr JM Manzano SJ