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Through the canonization
of Teresa de Los Andes the Church presents to the
world one of the best fruits of the five hundred years
of the evangelization of America. She presents Teresa
as an example, understanding that the Lord wants to
use her as an instrument to renew and revive the faith
of American nations.
Since her childhood Teresa had the charism to draw
people to God; now she goes on doing it from her shrine,
through her writings, with her sympathy, her youth
and her contagious joy.
Since her canonization, Teresa, "the jewel of
the Fernández Solar family", "most
beloved daughter of the Chilean Church", gift
of God for Chile, stimulating model for its young
people, has become universal.
Increasing the range of
her action, Teresa shall continue her mission, raising
the hunger and thirst for God in our materialistic
world. She shall now quench her thirst to see people
looking for God (see Letter No. 104). Without frontiers
to limit her apostolic zeal, she shall announce to
the world the happiness of knowing and loving the
Lord.
The great doctors of spirituality
(St. Teresa of Avila and St. John of the Cross) said
it clearly: man is a being open to transcendence.
As a creature of God, he depends on Him and irresistibly
tends toward Him. He has an existential need of God
who is the center and the purpose of his life. Man
is called to enter in communication, in communion
with God. If he does not respond to that irresistible
call, if he spreads himsel foutside, he remains deeply
dissatisfied, even if he enjoys all creatures. He
exposes himself to degradation, like the prodigal
son reduced to eating like pigs.
Thus comes the pressing call from so many masters
to live in intimate communion with the Lord so that
we may totally fulfill ourselves, that we come to
control ourselves and become lords of all things.
There is an urgent need
to respond to the this call. But the marvelous writings
of St. Teresa of Avila and St. John of the Cross (the
unquestionable doctors of silent prayer), which delight
experts, do not reach the majority of people who do
not have access to them. This is why the Lord had
the goodness to offer us this sweet and nice Chilean
Carmelite, entrusting her the mission to echo and
amplify for our time the spiritual message of Teresa
of Avila and John of the Cross.
Teresa de Los Andes is in
the best conditions to proclaim this message to our
society, repeating loudly: let us no think that there
is vacuum inside ourselves. We are inhabited by a
marvelous guest, God, and we must open ourselves to
Him, trust Him, if we wish to become fully human and
truly happy. "Uniting myself to his divine being,
I sanctify myself, I perfection myself, I divinize
myself", writes Teresa (Letter No. 121).
It would be hard to find
better messenger of this truth than Teresa de Los
Andes. As a matter of fact, the nations of Latin America
are young: 60% of their population has less than 30
years of age. Teresa was a nice young girl, joyful,
communicative, fond of sport, who tried to make virtue
lovable. She speaks a language accessible to all.
"How much I would like
that all would love God, but before anything else
that they would know him", she wrote (Letter
No. 60). Her life and writings are an enthusiastic
invitation to deal with God though Christ in a familiar
way. From her first communion on, "I would receive
holy communion every day and would speak a long time
with Jesus" (Diary No. 6). Before even entering
the Carmel she already longed for her entire life
to be a continuous silent prayer. Everywhere, even
in the street and in the feasts, she would speak to
Jesus. Her brother Lucho said that "her soul
was kneeling before God". Teresa felt a pressing
need to pray. From the cloister she said that aspeople
in love look for solitude to share their love, she
finds her happiness to live hidden in Christ, immersed
in infinite Being, without the interposition of any
creature.
Teresa is convincing when
she invites us to enter into relationship with God.
She teaches us how to deal with Jesus in a familiar
way, to speak to him heart to heart, without affected
speech or complex methods. She is convincing because
this conversation with Jesus is neither an evasion
nor an alienation. It requires to listen to Christ's
voice, to be available to accomplish the divine will,
to commit oneself to eliminate everything in us that
displeases the Lord, until reaching configuration
with Christ (Letters No. 56, 58; Diary No. 16, 22,
28). Teresa is convincing because the fruit of this
conversation is to sacrifice egoism, to be buried
with Christ to raise as new men, spiritually united
to the entire world (Diary No. 58), as Teresa sacrificed
herself to get the happiness of others (Diary No.
20; Letter No. 35) and made her life an offering for
the salvation of mankind. She is convincing because
she invites us to a prayer in which we learn to know
and love Jesus, to choose him with determination and
in which we gather spiritual energy to love him for
the entire day (Letter No. 105), which is the way
to make our life a continuous silent prayer. Praying
in this way, the ordinary person, who just cannot
live in a permanent dialog with God as the monk, can
and must live his entire day for God and according
to God, always accomplishing his divine will, transforming
his life and work into a melody of love, into a host
of praise to the Most Holy Trinity.
Teresa is convincing because
her life was centered on the core of the Gospel. Touched
by Christ, in love for Him, always walking with Him,
she learnt to organize her life, to realize in herself
the enviable harmony of the divine and the human,
of the relationship with God and the relationship
with the neighbour, reaching a rare degree of self
control, of balance and maturity which are the basis
of her contagious joy.
One of the greatest services
that we, Christians, can offer to our society, sick
because of sadness, anguish and depression, is to
show ourselves happy. Teresa is an excellent witness
of the fact that the secret of happiness is faithfulness
to God: "out of Him, there is no happiness possible"
(Letter No. 116).
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