In the middle of a discussion about meditation and contemplation (Interior Castle, VI, ch 7), Saint Teresa pauses for a second to consider, not only a meditative, complicated consideration moving from one aspect of the lives of the saints to another, but a simpler, contemplative gaze on the Church of Heaven as composed of our friends and companions:
It’s necessary that we speak to, think about, and become the companions of those who having had a mortal body accomplished great feats for God. (#6)
The discussion that she is pursuing is that there is meditation, and there is contemplation. They are different. But contemplation does not mean dispensing with created things that are holy or can be used in a holy way. In both meditation and contemplation we are unable to genuinely dispense with Christ’s humanity and other created things, seen in the light of faith, hope, and love.
She says this applies also to the Church of Heaven: in particular, “those who having had a mortal body accomplished great feats for God”.
The step in which the saints of the Church of Heaven become less the object of meditation and more familiar under a simpler contemplative gaze is that they become our companions. Friends are loved and known to be present in their own unique ways. It is not meditation; it is not an exercise and mental work. It is love, which means something simpler and more contemplative.
The Church of Heaven, gathered around the Holy Trinity and the Humanity of Jesus, can also be approached in a way that is less meditative and more contemplative. And why not? The Church of Heaven is gathered around the Holy Trinity (dwelling in all those in a state of grace) and the Humanity of Jesus (received in the Eucharist). How could people who are gathered so closely to us each and every day become anything less than companions?
Some related posts:
Contemplative in the Mud 