Men and Women of Deep Prayer

Homily for Thursday of the Twenty-eighth Week in Ordinary Time

For this Memorial of St. Teresa of Avila, the readings invite us to stand in wonder before God's immense and loving plan, while also examining whether our hearts remain open to that grace.

In the Letter to the Ephesians, Saint Paul blesses God for choosing us in Christ before the foundation of the world. Before we accomplished anything, before we earned anything, we were already loved, already called, already destined to share in God's life. Paul sees all of history moving toward its fulfillment in Christ, in whom God gathers all things together. This is a vision filled with hope, a vision that shaped the spirituality of St. Teresa of Avila. Through prayer she came to know, not merely as an idea but as a living reality, that God dwells within us and continually draws us into divine friendship.

The Gospel presents a sharp contrast. Jesus rebukes those religious leaders who honor the prophets of the past while resisting the voice of God speaking in the present. They build monuments to the prophets, yet fail to receive the message for which the prophets gave their lives. The danger for any of us is that we can admire holiness from a distance while avoiding the conversion it asks of us.

St. Teresa teaches us another way. She was deeply devoted to the saints and to the Gospel, but she allowed their witness to change her life. Through prayer she became attentive to God's living presence and courageous enough to follow where that presence led her.

Today we give thanks for God's loving plan revealed in Christ. Let us ask St. Teresa to help us become people of deep prayer, so that we may not simply admire God's work in the past, but recognize and welcome God's grace at work in our lives today.