Never leave his humanity
The Word made flesh
Teresa issued one warning to advancing souls more forcefully than almost any other, because she had seen even devout people get it wrong. Some, reaching for the heights of contemplation, tried to leave behind the human Jesus — his earthly life, his words, his cross — as if these were beginner's things to be transcended on the way to a purer, formless experience of God. Teresa said, with great firmness: never do this. Never leave the humanity of Christ.
Jesus himself drew the line: I am the way, the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father except through me. There is no road to the Father that goes around the Son. The way to God is not a technique or a state of consciousness; it is a Person, the Word made flesh, and to try to bypass his humanity in search of a more direct route is to leave the only way there is.
This keeps the loftiest spirituality grounded and safe. We do not ascend past Jesus into some abstract divine; we go deeper into him — meditating on his life, leaning on his cross, walking with the One who was tempted in every way as we are, yet without sin. The highest reaches of union are reached by clinging more tightly to the human Christ, not by letting him go. The way in is, and always remains, Jesus himself.
“I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father, but by me.”
— Jesus, in the upper room — John 14:6 (WEB)
Go deeper into the human Jesus, never past him — clinging to his life, his words, and his cross as the only way to the Father, even in the heights of prayer.
“For we don't have a high priest who can't be touched with the feeling of our infirmities, but one who has been in all points tempted like we are, yet without sin.”
The deeper life flatters us into thinking we are graduating past the basics — past the Gospels, past the cross, past the human Jesus — toward something loftier and less defined. The interior work is to heed Teresa's sharpest warning and never leave his humanity, remembering that we are not climbing toward a condition but holding fast to a Person, and that the summit is reached by pressing deeper into him, never by skirting him.
This week, keep the human Jesus central in your prayer: meditate on his life and words in the Gospels, lean on his cross, and bring your weaknesses to the high priest who was tempted as you are — refusing to seek a route to God that bypasses him.
Pride whispers to advancing souls that they have outgrown the human Jesus and may ascend to a purer, formless divine — a flattery that lures them clean off the only road there is. Cling tighter to his life, his words, his cross, and you stay on the way, for there is no route to the Father that bypasses the Son.
There is a subtle temptation in the deeper spiritual life to think we are graduating beyond the basics — beyond the Gospels, beyond the cross, beyond the human Jesus — toward some loftier, more abstract experience of the divine. Teresa, who had gone as deep as almost anyone, warned against this in the strongest terms: never leave the humanity of Christ. The moment you try to go around him, you have left the way.
This grounds and protects everything. The way to God is not a state we achieve but a Person we cling to, and the deepest union is found by going further into Jesus, not past him. We never outgrow his life, his words, his cross, or his sympathy as the one tempted in every way we are. Are you ever tempted to treat the human Jesus as a beginner's stage you have moved beyond — when he is, and always will be, the only way to the Father?
- Am I tempted to treat the human Jesus as a stage I have moved beyond?
- Do I seek God by going deeper into Christ, or by trying to go around him?
- How can I keep his life, words, and cross central even in deep prayer?
Lord Jesus, in the deeper life I am tempted to reach past your humanity toward something loftier, when you alone are the way. Keep me clinging to your life, your words, your cross. Let me go deeper into you, never around you, to reach the Father. Amen.