Teresa's Example of Faith

Homily for the Parish Celebration of the Solemnity of Saint Teresa of Jesus
13 October 2013

        My brothers and sisters, this weekend our parish family celebrates with great joy and solemnity the feast of our patron, Saint Teresa of Avila.

        The life of Saint Teresa is filled with the ups and downs of life that we all experience. Yet in the midst of it all, she continues to be for each one of us a great example of faith. Teresa did not always have the greatest amount of faith, but, like Naaman in our First Reading and the leper who returned in the Gospel, she recognized and taught that it is through our faith that we give the best of ourselves to God in giving Him thanks.

        The life of Saint Teresa of Jesus marks out to us three points regarding faith that are wonderfully exampled in this week’s readings: Faith heals; faith perseveres; and faith glorifies.

        As we consider how faith heals, we know that it is not just a physical healing that comes about through faith, but, rather, a holistic healing that encompasses our body, mind, and soul. We see the faith of the lepers in our readings this weekend, and come to recognize how faith in God allows us to be healed of all that afflicts us. This is the reasoning of the necessity of the Sacraments, why the Church holds as her precepts that all Catholics attend Mass every Sunday and receive the Sacrament of Reconciliation at least once a year: there is a manifestation of the healing power of God when we engage our faith.

Teresa was inflicted with terrible headaches throughout her life, which is the reason she is the patron saint of those who suffer with chronic headaches. She came to know the healing that comes from holding on to faith in God. But it just wasn’t in times of her physical suffering that she came to know how faith heals, but through moments of fear, frustration, discernment and doubt, Teresa was able to rely on her faith to trust in the Lord to heal her and console her.

So must faith be for us. We need to be able to recognize those areas in our lives that need healing, whether it be physically, emotionally, psychologically or spiritually, and, through our faith in God, reach out to Him to heal us from all that afflicts us. (Again, this is why our spiritual life, especially through the frequent attendance at Mass and frequent reception of the Sacrament of Reconciliation, is so important.)

The healing aspect of faith is so important because it leads us to our next consideration, that faith perseveres.

This perseverance is brought to life through our Second Reading, as we hear Paul continuing to teach Timothy. The Apostle reminds the young bishop of the necessity of perseverance in the faith so that we may attain the ultimate glory of God, and share in that glory in the life to come. If we have not allowed ourselves to be healed by our faith in God, then we will not be able to persevere, because that faith will have nowhere to lead us to.

The life of our beloved patron, Teresa, is also a model in how faith perseveres. Throughout her life, Teresa struggled: with her faith, with her mission, with her health. Yet through all of these struggles, the saint of Avila was able to persevere, for she knew that through that perseverance, the will of God was being brought forth. With this faithful perseverance, Teresa was able to accomplish so much in her life: the writing of many books, the founding of many Carmelite monasteries, and the reform of the Carmelite order, just to name a few. Her struggles never left her, yet through her faith in God, she was able to do great things – most after the age of forty!

For us, in 2013, perseverance is a difficult virtue at times. Our modern society focuses on what we want and making sure that we can get it in the shortest time possible. Even suffering through headaches is something that we can get rid of relatively fast through the taking of an aspirin.

Now, I’m not saying that certain advances in medicine or technology are bad. Not at all! However, the “fast paced” and “gotta have it now” mentality of our culture does not always allow us to persevere in faith, believing that God is working his purpose out. Even in our prayer life, our spiritual life, if we ask God for something, and He supposedly doesn’t give it to us, we get angry and annoyed. If we ask for the gift of patience, do we get frustrated when we don’t seem to get it in certain situations, or do we persevere in the moment to allow God to work in and through us so that we may be strengthened by His presence?

The more we allow our faith in God to heal us, the better our faith will be to allow us to persevere. And that perseverance leads us to that final consideration – that, ultimately, faith glorifies.

This is a wonderful image that we see in both our First Reading and Gospel today. Naaman and the cured Samaritan leper rejoice in what God had done for them. In their new-found, cured state, these men gave glory to God for how their faith not only healed them, but also saved them. These men teach us that a faith that heals and helps us to persevere is, at the end of the day, a faith that glorifies God for all that He does in our lives.

And Saint Teresa of Avila knew this well.

Yes, she suffered. Yes, she had difficulties in her life. Yes, she wrestled with sin. But in the end, Teresa was able to use her faith in God to order her life so that it may give Him the glory. All of the work that she did to reform her order, to train younger sisters on what it is to be a bride of Christ, to lead others by her writings and teachings was to give God the glory and praise that is due Him.

In her book, The Way of Perfection, this Doctor of the Church teaches us: “And since He doesn’t force our will, He takes what we give Him; but He doesn’t give Himself completely until we give ourselves completely.”

And that’s what a faith that glorifies looks like: the complete abandonment of the self to God in the same way He abandoned Himself on the Cross for us. For that glorification of God allows us to enter into the Mystery of Faith so that we may be healed of what ails us, and through that healing, are able to persevere in this life as we journey to the next.

My friends, this gift and mystery of faith that we now celebrate is that which has inspired women and men throughout the ages. As we remember Saint Teresa of Jesus this weekend, we ask the Lord that we, through her intercession, be made more secure in our faith . . . for it is, as Teresa teaches us, a faith that heals, perseveres, and glorifies.

Saint Teresa of Avila, pray for us!

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Enjoy the journey . . .