2. Defence of Martha and Mary

With a strong call for realism Teresa defends unity of life with an ideal reference to the classical typology of the indissoluble unity between action and contemplation, represented by Mary of Bethany and by Martha.

First of all she speaks of the union between prayer and life, disguised with some fine irony, always relevant in reference to a pious form of Christianity that risks withdrawing into piety and prayer without offering an outlet for active love: «I repeat that if you have this in view you must not build upon foundations of prayer and con­templation alone, for, unless you strive after the virtues and practise them, you will never grow to be more than dwarfs. God grant that nothing worse than this may happen - for, as you know, anyone who fails to go forward begins to go back» ¹⁰. Spiritual life is a harmonious growth of prayer and virtues; the spiritual person grows and matures in prayer which unites him to God and in works with which he loves his brothers and sisters thus finding a harmonious unity of life. Prayer needs the vital space of existence in order to express all its possibilities. Throughout the whole of Interior Castle our authoress indicated this consistency of Christian maturation. But when the unity of life is broken we are in danger of spiritual and also human deformity: a deformity which was illustrated plastically in the previous passage with the re­ference to « dwarfishness» ; there is the danger of producing ugly people, of deforming the nature of Christian life when prayer and life are opposed to each other. Instead the fruit of a prayer that seeks consistency in Christian attitudes is genuine, balanced Christians. True love has a natural dy­namism of growth, of creativity. «And love, I be­lieve, can never be content to stay for long where it is» ¹¹.

And again going back to the theme of service we find the following observation: «This... I should like us to strive to attain: we should desire and engage in prayer, not for our enjoyment, but for the sake of acquiring this strength which fits us for service» ¹². The royal road of holiness which the Saints tra­velled following in the Lord's footsteps.

As a typology of unity of life we can remember the classical figures of Martha and Mary, now united in a harmony of action and contemplation. As usual, and against an exegesis too one-sidedly in favour of Mary, Teresa defends the active attitude of Martha, who is almost indifferent to Jesus' rebuke and the learned exegesis of theologians. Teresa was always struck by the noble and loving figure in Martha of Bethany's service. She often speaks of the necessary union between Martha and Mary. Indeed Teresa thinks of Martha's sorrow and suffering on account of Jesus' rebuke ¹³.

Teresa continues in a realistic view of the necessary link between contemplation and service: «Believe me, Martha and Mary must work together when they offer the Lord lodging, and must have Him ever with them, and they must not entertain Him badly and give Him nothing to eat And how can Mary give Him anything, seated as she is at His feet, unless her sister helps her?» ¹⁴. In line with all her thought in favour of service, a subtle rebuke, at the most, is now addressed to Mary of Bethany.

Unity of life: prayer and action, contemplation and service, listening to the Lord and welcoming him. But the best service for the Lord is to bring many others into Christ's circle of friends. The doctrinal passage to identifying the apostolate with the service performed by Martha, in this text in which there is a reminiscence ofJohn that refers to Christ's food, which is to do the will of the Father and accomplish his work (cf. Jn 4:34): «His food consists in our bringing Him souls, in every possible way, so that they may be saved and may praise Him for ever» ¹⁵. A splendid praise of apostolic life and an effective proposal for the spirituality of action.