Teresa of Avila, The Interior Castle Chapter 2: 1-4

 

    ”I want to say that you should consider what it would mean to this so brilliantly shining and beautiful castle, this pearl from the Orient, this tree of life planted in the very waters of life – that is, in God – to fall into mortal sin; there’s no darker darkness nor anything more obscure and black.  You shouldn’t want to know anything else than the fact that, although the very sun that gave the soul so much brilliance and beauty is still in the center, this soul is as though it were not there to share n these things.  Yet, it is as capable of enjoying Hi Majesty as is crystal capable of reflecting the sun’s brilliance.  Nothing helps such a soul; and as a result all the good works it might do while in mortal sin are fruitless for the attainment of glory.  Since these works do not proceed from that principle, which is God, who is the cause of our virtue being really virtue, and are separated from Him, they cannot be pleasing in His sight.  Since, after all, the intention of anyone who commits a mortal sin is to please the devil, who is darkness itself, not God, the poor soul becomes darkness itself.

 

    I know a person to whom our Lord wanted to show what a soul in moral sin was like.  That person says that in her opinion if this were understood it would be impossible to sin, even though a soul would have to undergo the greatest trials imaginable in order to flee the occasions.  So the Lord gave her a strong desire that all might understand this.  May He give you, daughters, the desire to beseech Him earnestly for those who are in this state, who have become total darkness, and whose works have become darkness also.  For just as all the streams that flow from a crystal-clear fount are also clear, the works of a soul in grace, because they proceed from this fount of life, in which the soul is planted like a tree, are most pleasing in the eyes of both God and man.  There would be no freshness, no fruit, if it were not for this fount sustaining the tree, preventing I from drying up, and causing it to produce good fruit.  Thus in the case of a soul that through its own fault withdraws from this fount and plants itself in a place where the water is black and foul-smelling, everything that flows from it is equally wretched and filth.

 

    It should be kept in mind here that the fount, the shining sun that is in the center of the soul, does not lose its beauty and splendor; it s always present in the soul, and nothing can take away its loveliness.  But if a black cloth is placed over a crystal that is in the sun, obviously the sun’s brilliance will have not effect on the crystal even though the sun is shining on it.

 

    O souls redeemed by the blood of Jesus Christ!  Understand and take pity on yourselves.  How is it possible that in realizing these things you don’t strive to remove the pitch from this crystal?  See that if your life comes to an end you will never again enjoy this light.  O Jesus, how sad a thing it is to see a soul separated from this light! May God in His mercy deliever us from so great an evil.”