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This essay considers whether eschatological speculation is appropriate in light of the mystery of human suffering. I argue that a pneumatological construal of the beatific vision offers important resources for this question. In the beatific vision, the Spirit perfects the human person by bringing them to participatory attention to the whole of their life, so that the person participates in the final event of making meaning out of the life lived. There is no general, all-encompassing description of how this heals a history of suffering, because the redemption happens in the attention shared between each particular individual and God.
Pope Francis’s “Pilgrims of Hope” and Pope Leo’s emphasis on listening and dialogue invite us to reflect on how communal action within the College Theology Society fosters hope in a period of destabilizing social and ecclesial challenges. Hope is both a gift and a task—it sustains action for justice while being nurtured by such action. The story of Joseph of Arimathea provides an example of small, faithful acts of resistance to injustice and dehumanization, taken in community, that can generate hope. Our work together as a theological society and our new CTS initiatives—our visioning process, decolonization efforts, and renewed international partnerships—are practices of intentional communion that embody resistance to polarizing forces and open pathways for theological engagement that promote solidarity, hope, and human flourishing.
This article examines Teresa of Avila’s articulation of and response to spiritual suffering in the Interior Castle. It applies a feminist hermeneutic to the text in order to locate the resources that contribute to Teresa’s resiliency in the face of this suffering. This approach to the text reveals that Teresa’s use of contemplative prayer and interactions with her community facilitate a direct engagement with her suffering so as to make it manageable. Her successful navigation of the spiritual journey allows her the opportunity to share her insights toward resiliency with her community by speaking honestly about her experience in her writings. This article’s approach to reading the Interior Castle lifts up Teresa’s experience as a potential resource for women today who may have difficulty locating a sense of agency in their own experiences of suffering.