A reading of the holy gospel according to Saint Luke. A crowd of thousands had gathered so dense that they were treading on one another. Jesus began to speak first to his disciples. Be on guard against the yeast of the pharisees, which is hypocrisy. There is nothing concealed that will not be revealed, nothing hidden that will not be made known.
Everything you have said in the dark will be heard in the daylight. What you have whispered in locked rooms will be proclaimed from the rooftops. I say to you who are my friends, do not be afraid of those who kill the body but can do no more than that. I will show you whom you ought to fear. Fear him who has power to cast into a Gehenna after he has killed.
Yes. I tell you, fear him. Are not five sparrows sold for a few pennies? Yet not one of those sparrows is neglected by god. In very truth, even the hairs of your head are numbered.
Fear nothing, then you are worth for you are worth much more than a flock of sparrows. And this is the gospel of the lord. In the name of the father and of the son and of the holy spirit. Amen. And this is the four hundredth anniversary of the death of saint Teresa of Avila, who much preferred to be called by her proper name, saint Teresa of Jesus, because she was not dedicated to the city of Avila.
She was dedicated to Jesus Christ. This text we had this morning, which ends up with this marvelous parable of our blessed lord, trying to tell us how we should trust god. Now there were a lot of sparrows in his day because there were a lot of animals around. There were flocks of sparrows. They were as cheap, they were as numerous, they were as worthless in most men's sight as weeds, and Christ uses that same expression about the grass of the field.
And he tells us that even one of those sparrows is important in god's sight and that even the very hairs of our head are numbered. In other words, that even down to that tiniest little insignificant detail of our lives, our lives are held in the palm of God's hand, if you'll pardon the anthropomorphism. If there is anything I just reread A Brief Life of Saint Teresa of Avalanche. If there is anything that comes through from that woman's painful life, It's her absolute confidence upon God and the guidance of his church through the church's ministers, who weren't always the brightest nor were they always the most helpful, but she operated through them. It's a fantastic story.
Saint Ignatius of Illoyola, remember, was only twenty five years older than Saint Teresa. The first generation of Jesuits were still living. They played an important role in her life in the beginnings beginning of her new foundation of a Carmelite way of life. It's just a coincidence that there that there was a Jesuit, Alvarez, who at that particular moment was available. She was about 45 at this time, incidentally, who alone, really, encouraged her and gave approval to what she and a few other women wanted to do.
Saint Teresa had absolute mistrust in herself. Absolute. All many of the experiences which she had, and she had a lot of them. She mistrusted every one of them. I always think of her when I hear about charismatics and all these religious experiences people have.
I always think of Saint Teresa of Avila. I I know no other saint who was so active and who accomplished accomplished so much and and had such a personal relationship with God, that's the best word I know to use to describe it, and yet who had such utter reliance upon advice of confessors. She scarcely would move without consulting her confessor. And if you think she had just because she had a had a vision of a life of utter dedication to god, utter dedication to God. That well, everybody would see that.
Who could who could who could possibly oppose a movement which aimed at more and greater and fuller personal holiness, which means union with God. Of course, you don't hear much about holiness these days. You hear about social action, social justice. The word holiness is scarcely used, and yet that simply describes our relationship with God. And if we don't have that, what else do we have?
But as I say, this woman, with that great vision she had of a life of utter dedication to God and very sensibly dedicated, not erratic, not crazy, not a lunatic, you'd think that everybody would cooperate. It was just the reverse. Her main support came from Rome, not from her own people, not from her own order. You see, the trouble with us, we have a a vision of the way the good life should be. And we talk about the peace of God.
We talk about we're going to hear much more of that now. We're beginning to hear it already. The catalogs for Christmas are already coming in the mail. So we're already getting doused with this business of peace. What in the world are they talking about?
Because when we use the word peace as our blessed lord use it, and notice he says, my peace I give you, look at the lives of his followers. If you want a definition of what you can expect as a Christian, look at look at what good Christians how their lives are lived. In most instances, when we look at their lives, our one prayer is the prayer of Jesus Christ in the Garden Of Gethsemane. Lord, take away this cup. I don't want to drink it.
I don't want that kind of peace at all. But Christ said, I have come to bring the sword, to bring dissension among the brethren, to separate families even those bound with the closest ties of blood. That's what Jesus said. He said the world will hate you. It will persecute you.
It will kill you. Who said that? Jesus Christ said that. So, as Lewis said, when you ask God for his love, which will include his peace, you better be sure what you're talking about and what you're asking for. Is it frightening?
You bet it's frightening. Absolutely frightening. As I said, I've just finished reading the life of this wonderful woman, and she's absolutely wonderful. Remember, she's she's a doctor of the church. She didn't have even a a BS degree in education, you know.
She's a founder of I don't know how many houses. She's the great she's the patroness of Spain. Well, this is just fine and dandy, but that's not the way it was when she was living. Believe me. She had opposition on all sides, all sides.
And so if there's anything that comes through clearly from this woman's life is her allegiance to the church of Jesus Christ and its guidance. And we can have the wisdom of a post factum intelligence. We can look back and say, there was a hand of God guiding this marvelous woman. At the time, it certainly didn't seem that way at all. And so it is within our lives.
She is a great, great woman. She is a great saint. She's a doctor of the church. And she lives with God, not only to be a model of of any person in history, but to be our champion with Jesus Christ. Present tense.
The name of the father, and of the son, and holy spirit. Amen.