Homily for Oct. 1st, 2020: A spiritual prodigy.
The young
woman whom we commemorate today – she died at only 24 – was a spiritual child
prodigy. Born Thérèse Martin on the 2nd of January 1873 to
deeply devout Catholic parents in northwestern France, she was the youngest of
five sisters. Her father called her his “little queen.”
Her
mother’s death when Thérèse was only 4 plunged her into terrible grief which
would last into adolescence. At age 9 Thérèse received a second blow, when her
older sister Pauline, who had been a second mother to her, entered the
Carmelite convent at Lisieux, where the family was living. Thérèse decided that
Thérèse
soon discovered the shadow side of Carmelite life. “Of course, one does not
have enemies in Carmel ,”
she wrote, “but still there are natural attractions, one feels drawn towards a
certain sister, whereas you go a long way around to avoid meeting another.”
Thérèse resolved to counter these difficulties by going out of her way to be
kind to the Sisters who
most irritated her. Over time this would become what she called her “little way.”
Since she could not do great things, she would do little things as an offering
to God. One of those little things was her request to remain a novice. To her
life’s end she had to ask permission to do things her fellow Sisters could do
on their own.
For the last 18 months of her short
life, Thérèse was suffering from tuberculosis, for which there was
then no real treatment. She
also suffered spiritual darkness, like a later sister with her name: Mother Teresa,
who is now St. Teresa of Kolkata. Death came on the evening of Sept. 30th,
1897.
A year later the account of her short
life which she had been commanded to write was published in a limited-edition
of 2000 copies, under the title, The
Story of a Soul. Translated over time into 40 languages, it would produce
what Pope Pius XI said at Thérèse’s canonization in 1925, before half a million
people “a storm of glory.” People read Thérèse’s story, invoked her
intercession, and found their prayers answered. Words she had spoken toward the
end of her life came true: “I will spend my heaven doing good on earth.” Today
we pray, therefore: “Ste. Thérèse, pray for us. Amen.”
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