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A Little Flower, blooming still December 19, 1999 |
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MARIE Francoise Therese Martin entered this
vale of tears on Jan. 2, 1873 in the Normandy region of France. She was
baptized two days later. Of the nine siblings, only four survived
childhood. She joined the Carmelite Sisters when she was only 15. Even in early letters, she demonstrated gifts for literary image, scriptural interpretation and personal reflection. Yet she often insisted: "I am nothing. Jesus is everything." Therese worked hard at daily chores, like every other nun. She also studied the Bible and Thomas a Kempis's classic, The Imitation of Christ . What she deemed "the little way" was a road toward "the surrender of the little child who sleeps without fear in its Father's arms.... (T)here is nothing to do but to be silent and to weep with gratitude and love." Her way included submission to a "Mother Superior" - one of her own blood sisters. Therese once thought that the difference between a saint and herself "was as great as the difference between a mountain peak, hidden by clouds, and a single grain of sand, under the feet of those passing by." Yet, "Instead of being discouraged, I told myself: the Lord would not inspire unachievable desires." Her desires led to a lifetime of grace. In the Bible, she found "the picture of our souls: often, we go down into the fertile valleys where our heart likes to feed, the great field of Scripture, which has so often opened up before us to spread out its vast treasures." Last week, a tiny coffin bearing her remains and items she used in life came to Oklahoma City, part of a tour that has renewed interest in this simple woman who is now considered a saint. Rev. Thomas Boyer, rector at Our Lady's Cathedral, where the reliquary resided from 4 p.m. to 9 p.m. Tuesday, told parishioners: "We are not assembling to look at someone's bones. They won't be visible anyway. We are gathering to pray, to honor the memory of someone blessed by God with extraordinary faith, wisdom and holiness. We are remembering what she can still teach us about love, the presence of God, forgiveness and the simple way of holiness Therese proposes in her letters and diary which make up a great treasure of wisdom. Jesus is the main focus, as she always lived and believed. We are not adoring relics, but respecting them by veneration, and we are using them to remind ourselves of what that person meant to us in life and now reveals to us in death." Her language often reminds readers of the confident assurance of a "baby Christian." Her love of Jesus was so personal and intimate that often her writings read like a lover's reflections. She knew this might trouble some: "How I would like to make you understand the tenderness of the Heart of Jesus, what he expects from you.... I am not surprised in any way that the practice of familiarity with Jesus seems to you a little difficult to realize; we cannot reach it in one day, but I am sure that I shall help you much more to walk by this delightful way when I have been delivered from my mortal envelope, and soon, like Saint Augustine, you will say: 'Love is the weight that draws me.' " She honored "Mary Magdalene, my heart captivated by her astonishing, or rather, loving audacity, which so won the heart of Jesus." Her humility inspires. In The Story of a Soul (released on the first anniversary of her death), Therese wrote: "Jesus deigned to teach me this mystery. He set before me the book of nature; I understood how all the flowers He has created are beautiful, how the splendor of the rose and the whiteness of the Lily do not take away the perfume of the little violet or the delightful simplicity of the daisy. I understood that if all flowers wanted to be roses, nature would lose her springtime beauty, and the fields would no longer be decked out with little wild flowers. "And so it is in the world of souls, Jesus' garden. He willed to create great souls comparable to Lilies and roses, but He has created smaller ones and these must be content to be daisies or violets destined to give joy to God's glances when He looks down at His feet. Perfection consists in doing His will, in being what He wills us to be." Perhaps she knew what was coming after illness came on Good Friday, 1896. Once, reflecting on a Psalm, she wondered what old age would "be for me? It seems to me that it could be now because in the eyes of the Lord, two thousand years is no more than twenty years... than a single day." Assurance, indeed: "Now, as He seems to be approaching her to draw her to her time of glory, your child rejoices." On Sept. 30, 1897, she told friends: "I am not dying. I am beginning life." Only 24, these were her last words on earth: "My God, I love you." Now, we call her St. Therese - the little flower. © The Oklahoma Publishing Co. and its
subsidiary, NewsOK.com. |