Among Bruce Springsteen’s greatest hits is one from the mid-nineties entitled, Secret Garden.  The lyrics describe how a particular woman welcomes him into her life.  Spending time together, they enjoy many common experiences, engage in countless conversations, share numerous intimate moments, and go deep into each other’s lives—but only to a particular point.  At that juncture, she protects the most private space within her soul where she won’t allow him or anyone to enter.  It’s her secret garden.

It reminds me of Saint Teresa of Avila’s famous spiritual guide, The Interior Castle.  Inspired by a mystical vision of the soul, she depicts contemplative existence as a magnificent edifice with seven unique chambers inside that contain various aspects of our being and reveal diverse depths of spiritual connections to self, others, and God.  Traveling through these dwelling places represents a faith odyssey of emotional development from self-understanding to union with the divine.  Like rooms in a house in a dream, opening doors can be frightening because they expose something about us that was previously unknown.  Along this mystical sojourn she guides us amidst diamonds, darkness, venomous creatures, and life-giving waters to the central mansion where God resides and radiates love to the other dwellings.  Being in God’s presence is more than most of us can handle, so overpowering that our instinct is to flee as fast as possible.  We can’t comprehend it, can’t put it into words, can’t communicate its impact upon us or even grasp how it makes us feel.  Existing in the immensity of so great a mystery throws us into a secret garden, a private place to which we allow no one else to enter.

Leon Uris, in his epic novel, Trinity, describes the place, the experience, and the journey better than anyone, I think.  Through the voice of a metaphysical shanachie, he puts it this way.  “We live with a number of rooms inside us.  The best room is open to family and friends, and we show our finest face in it.  Another room is more private and very few are permitted in.  There is another room where we allow no one to enter—a room of the most intimate thoughts we keep unshared.  And in every person, there is one room more—it’s an inner chamber into which God, alone, has access.  So hidden away is it that we don’t dare enter it ourselves.  Locked inside are all the truths that are too deep to comprehend.  And there is also a special chamber inside God, Himself, into which no one can enter but you.  There, the last of our rooms gets unlocked and all that is unknown to you escapes; and it is revealed to you that contained, also there, are the secret things of the Father.  And it is there that we catch a glimpse of the reason that we exist.”

Through the spiritual path, wisdom is unveiled to us, just as through psychology, self-awareness is made known.  I believe that it is rooted in disciplined prayer, talking and listening to God each day.  In addition, we get fortified by talking and listening to enfleshed people of goodwill, friends or caring mentors.  We can, likewise, be invigorated by trained professionals, counselors, spiritual directors, or psychotherapists who have our best interests at heart.  Whether by ourselves or with trusted guides, we experience more interesting and, sometimes, more fruitful lives when we explore the secret gardens, the interior castles, or the various rooms inside us.

Perhaps the secret garden is too beautiful to behold, like the central interior castle; or maybe it is filled with weeds, sins, or past faults that shame us and cause us to hide.  Somehow, I think our hidden chamber is tied to the Garden of Eden at the beginning of human creation, a place of innocence and joy yet also of a stunning realization of the human condition (what the church calls original sin), and it’s connected to the Garden of Gethsemane at the center of salvation history when Jesus entered the paschal mystery facing the ultimate passion of life and death while grappling with human and divine realities, and it is finally joined to the Garden of Paradise that awaits us in the world beyond where all sorrow, sadness, suffering, and sacrifice will be transformed. It is both awesome and awful at the same time.  Though it might frighten us, it also unlocks the great mystery of our existence.  I think that it is worth exploring on earth in preparation for heaven