As we know, it is not only the Pharisees who are filled with plunder and evil; each one of us has to make this same painful discovery in the progress of our self-knowledge. Saint Teresa was no exception and her inward scrutiny of her heart and soul was especially thorough and unsparing. However, in the course of this difficult inward journey she discovered the Seven Mansions of her “Interior Castle.” And though she encountered evil and plunder in the outer mansions, as she entered more deeply within herself, she became aware of radiant light emanating from within, and concentrated in that seventh mansion of her soul. This light was the radiant and transforming presence of the One she like to call “His Majesty” and who would radically transform her into his own likeness. Unlike Teresa, encountering the plunder and evil in our outer mansions can make us retreat instead of pressing forward and deeper to the light that awaits us beyond the mess and squalor of our outer mansions. Let us therefore ask her intercession in imitating her courageousness and determination, so that we too can encounter, be transformed, and united eternally, to the Divine Majesty who dwells within us.