Catherine, an accomplished mystic, used to pass a certain street every day on her way to the marketplace where she would shout the truth that she had attained. And for many days she had been watching another well-known mystic, Jeremiah, sitting before the door of the church and praying to God, “God, open the door! Please open the door! Let me in!”

She had laughed quietly to herself whenever she heard Jeremiah’s anguished pleas. But it was too much that day. Catherine could not tolerate it any more. Jeremiah was crying. Tears were rolling down his cheeks and he was shouting again and again, “Open the door! Let me in! Why don’t you listen? Why don’t you hear my prayers?” She went up to him. She shook Jeremiah, and said, “Stop all this nonsense! The door is open — in fact you are already in!”

Jeremiah looked at Catherine, and that moment became a moment of revelation. Looking deep into Catherine’s eyes, he bowed down, touched her feet, and said, “You came in time; otherwise I would have called my whole life! For years I have been doing this. Why didn’t you come to me earlier? I know you pass this street every day. You must have seen me crying and praying.”

Catherine said, “Yes, but truth can only be said at a certain moment, in a certain space, in a certain context. I was waiting for the right moment. Today it has arrived; hence I came close to you. Yesterday if I had told you, you would have felt irritated; you may even have become angry. You may have told me, ‘You have disturbed my prayer!’ — and it is not right to disturb anybody’s prayer. Even the king is not allowed to disturb the prayer of a beggar…”

“I had wanted to tell you for the longest time, ‘Jeremiah, don’t be a fool, the door is open — in fact, you are already in! But I had to wait for the right moment.’

Jeremiah had rediscovered the secret of the ages – that God is always with him, residing in the most sacred part of himself.

What are the spiritual laws at work here?