The Darkness of the Soul

In Teresa of Avila's Interior Castle, she describes the darkness of the soul.  She writes, "the intention of a person who commits a mortal sin is not to please Him but to give pleasure to the devil; and, as the devil is darkness itself, the poor soul becomes darkness itself likewise"

Further, she describes the soul in sin as "rooted in a pool of pitch-black, evil smelling water, it produces nothing but misery and filth."

All this imagery that Teresa describes reminded me of an episode of Star Trek Next Generation, entitled "Skin of Evil." The creature called Armus, is pictured here. The black creature was left behind by an alien race which had perfected a means of bringing to the surface all that was evil and negative within, erupting, spreading, connecting. In time, it formed a second skin, dank and vile.

In a dialogue between Captain Picard and Armus; Picard quotes Percy Bysshe Shelly from "Prometheus Unbound"...

"All spirits are enslaved that serve things evil."

Armus: "You do not understand. I do not serve things evil; I am evil."
Captain Picard: "Oh, no. You're not."
Armus: I am a skin of evil, left here by a race of Titans, who believed if they rid themselves of me, they would free the bonds of destructiveness.

Back to the Interior Castle, St. Teresa goes onto say; "I know of a person to whom Our Lord wished to show what a soul was like when it committed mortal sin.That person says that, if people could understand this, she thinks they would find it impossible to sin at all..." That person she is referring to is Teresa, herself.

In our fallen world we are all subject to sin and this vile, blackness that can coat our soul. To me that imagery is revolting that are souls can look like Armus. In our world, we have a savior that can free ourselves from the bonds of evil. That savior is Jesus Christ. We need the cleansing, pure water of grace that can clear off the muck and slime from our souls. Pray, Brothers and Sisters that in St. Teresa's words that "surely if you understand your own natures, it is impossible that you will not strive to remove the pitch which darkens the the crystal of your soul."

I am scrubbing as we speak...