Well, let’s see if with Saint Thérèse we understand it.
I hope so, with God’s favor.
Saint Thérèse of the Child Jesus (1873-1897), born in Alençon, France, the last of nine siblings. God used her parents, Louis Martin and Zélie Guérin, beatified in 2008, and her sisters to give Thérèse a Christian education of the highest quality, which made her grow in the world of grace with extraordinary precocity.
At the age of 2 she already made “the resolution to become a nun”, and at the age of 3 she decided “to refuse nothing to the good God”, to always receive his grace. She entered the Carmel of Lisieux at the age of 15 and died at the age of 24. Blessed (1923), saint (1925), universal patron of the Catholic missions, with Saint Francis Xavier (1927), she became a Doctor of the Church (1997). Her spiritual doctrine is expressed fundamentally in his Autobiographical Manuscripts, written in three school notebooks, which have been distributed in eleven chapters (I-XI). The A notebook (1895, to her sister, Sister Agnes of Jesus), B (1986, to her sister, Sister Mary of the Sacred Heart) and C (1987, to her prioress, Mother Mary of Gonzaga). They are known as Story of a Soul. There are also numerous Letters, Poems and Prayers. And from the end of her life we have the Last Conversations, noted by Sister Agnes de Jesús.
The writing that follows is an anthology of texts by Saint Thérèse on the action of God’s grace in her. And may the Lord grant that readers who have not fully understood the doctrine intellectual What I have explained so far about grace-freedom, you will finally understand it in the declaration experiential What makes her this holy Doctor.
God’s unequal distribution of his graces, so clearly experienced by Thérèse in her own life, is the first theme she touches on in her first notebook, and which she develops throughout all her writings. She might as well be called Doctor of grace.
«This is the mystery of my vocation, that of my entire life: the mystery, above all, of the privileges that Jesus has granted to my soul. Not to those who are worthy; Jesus calls those he wills. Or as St. Paul says: “God has mercy on whom he wills and has compassion on whom he wills. It is therefore not the work of him who wills or of him who runs, but of God, who has mercy” (Rom 9:15-16).
«For a long time I was asking myself why God had preferences; why not all souls received their gifts equally. It was something that amazed me. Seeing him lavishing extraordinary favors on saints who had offended him –like St. Paul, St. Augustine–, forcing them, so to speak, to receive their graces; or, when reading the lives of those whom Our Lord showered with caresses from the cradle to the grave, removing from their path everything that would be an obstacle to their elevation to Him, and providing their souls with such favors that could not tarnish the immaculate brilliance of their baptismal vestment, I asked myself why the poor savages, for example, died in great numbers without even having heard the name of God pronounced.
«Jesus deigned to instruct me about this mystery. placed before my eyes the book of nature. And I understood that all the flowers created by him are beautiful”, both an aromatic and beautiful rose, and a tiny daisy. «The same thing happens in the world of souls, which is the garden of jesus. He has created great saints, who can be compared to lilies and roses. But he has also created smaller ones…Perfection consists in fulfilling his will, in being what he wants us to be” (I,2v-r).
Thérèse’s entire life has been a wonderful work of God’s grace. «It is not my life itself that I am going to write, but rather my thoughts about the graces that God has deigned to grant me»…
«The Flowerthe Little Flower of Jesus] that is going to tell her story is pleased to make public the delicacies, totally free, of Jesus. She recognizes that there was nothing in her capable of attracting the divine gaze of the Lord, and that only his mercy has brought about all the good that is in it.. He made her born in a holy land… He wanted her preceded by eight lilies… He, in his love, saw fit to preserve his Little Flower from the poisoned breath of the world. Its corolla was barely beginning to open, when this divine Savior transplanted it to the Carmel Mountain»… (I,3v). I only write “what God has done for me” (I,4r).
A bad temperament and an excellent education. The gift of God’s grace does not act in Thérèse upon a gift of a healthy and excellent nature.. Quite the opposite. She describes herself as a hypersensitive child, prone to crying, with enormous self-love, and sometimes attacked by tantrums of abnormal intensity. Transcribed from a letter from his mother:
«When things don’t go to her liking, she rolls on the floor like a desperate woman, believing everything is lost. There are moments when she is overcome by disappointment, and then it even seems like she is going to drown. She is a very nervous girl» (I,8r). He also narrates the terrible tantrum he once had against the maid Victoria (II,15v-16r).
Divine grace, on the contrary, granted Teresa an exceptional Christian education. «God has been pleased to always surround me with love» (I,4v). I will remember only some very significant details. Her sister Pauline, by the grace of God, sometimes forced him to exercise in certain expirations, as well as overcoming the fear of being left alone in the dark at night: “I consider it a very notable grace that you accustomed me, my dear Mother, to overcoming my fears” (II,18v). At six or seven years old, while going for a walk with her father, a man and a woman who greeted them politely said that the girl “was very pretty. Dad answered yes: but I realized that he was telling them by signs not to praise me” (II,21v).
Very reading, the grace of God freed her from bad readings. «I didn’t know how to play, but I liked reading; I would have spent my life reading. Thank God, I had angels on earth to guide me; They were careful to choose the books for me… God never allowed me to read a single one capable of harming me. It is true that when reading certain chivalric stories, I did not always perceive the reality of life at the moment; but God immediately made me understand that true glory was that which lasted eternally” (IV,31v-32r).
The grace of the vocation is received from God with complete certainty. At nine years old “I understood that Carmel was the desert where God wanted me to go and hide. I understood it with such vivid evidence that there was not the slightest doubt in my heart. It was not the dream of a girl whom one could carry after oneself; It was the certainty of a divine call” (III,26r).
She had many sorrows in his childhood and adolescence. “God, who undoubtedly desired to purify me and above all to humiliate me, allowed that intimate martyrdom to last until my entry into Carmel, where the Father of our souls swept away all my doubts as with his hand… If God allowed the devil to approach me, he also sent me visible angels to help me” (III,28v-29r).
At the age of ten she suffered a mysterious illness., with some headaches and deliriums, which seemed feigned. Her father, seeing her in such bad shape, gave several gold coins so that masses could be offered for her at Our Lady of Victories, in the sanctuary of Paris. «A miracle was needed, and it was Our Lady of Victories who worked it… Suddenly, the Blessed Virgin seemed beautiful to me, so beautiful that I had never seen anything so beautiful… But what touched me to the depths of my soul was the charming smile of the Blessed Virgin» (III,30r). With this joy, she was cured. A few years later, in 1887, visiting that sanctuary in Paris, “the Holy Virgin gave me clearly to understand that it had been she, in truth, who had smiled at me and cured me” (VI,56v).
A very hidden and very popular saint. Not a few saints, already in life, have been recognized as saints. But it was not like that in the case of Saint Thérèse. When she died, there was no awareness in her community that they had lived with a great saint. They only discovered it when reading his biographical notebooks. The Lord revealed this grace to him internally. The one that was to come to be one of the most popular saints of our time, until today, in life she passed hidden and unnoticed.
«I received a grace that I have always considered one of the greatest in my life, because at that age I did not yet receive the divine lights with which I now see myself flooded… God made me understand that My glory would remain hidden from the eyes of mortals, and would consist of becoming a great Saint.…This desire might seem reckless, considering how weak and imperfect I was – and still am now, after seven years living in religion. However, today I still feel the same bold confidence of becoming a great Saint, because I do not rely on my merits – I have none–, but in Him who is Virtue and Holiness itself. He alone, being content with my weak efforts, will elevate me to himself, and filling me with his infinite merits, he will make me a Saint.» (IV,32r; his emphasis).
At the age of eleven she carefully prepared for her first communion, with the help of Mary, her sister: “she showed me the way to become a saint by faithfulness in the smallest things» (IV,33r). It is the holy path already taught by Saint Francis de Sales, Bossuet, Jean Pierre de Caussade, S.J. and other spiritual teachers of the French school.
At that time, Thérèse says, the Lord kindled in his heart “a great desire to suffer, remaining at the same time convinced that Jesus had a large number of crosses in store for me. Instantly I found myself flooded with such great consolations that I consider them to be one of the most extraordinary graces I have received in my life… I also experienced the desire to love nothing but God, to find no joy outside of him. I frequently repeated in my communions the words of the Imitation [of the Kempis]: “O Jesus, ineffable sweetness! Change for me all the consolations of the earth into bitterness.” This prayer flowed from my lips without effort, without violence; I seemed to repeat it, not of her own free will, but like a girl who repeats the words that a friend inspires her» (IV,36r-v). The grace of God working in her and with her.
Grace makes everything about Thérèse, including her deficiencies, work for her good.. Everything works for the good of those who love God (Rom 8:28). Very precocious in reading and thinking, she was clumsy in manual labor and in dealing with other girls. Was very different of them, and although I wanted to get their appreciation, I couldn’t.
“Now I consider everything as a grace from God, who, wanting my heart only for himself, he was already listening to my plea “turning the consolations of the earth into bitterness.” “I had all the more need for it because, surely, I would not have remained insensitive to the praise.” He lacked, he confesses, “the ability to win the sympathies of creatures. Blissful lack of skill! How many and how great evils it has avoided me! (IV,37v-38r). «I thank Jesus for allowing me to find only bitterness in the friendships of earth. With a heart like mine, I would have let myself be caught and cut off my wings. And then how could I have “flyed and rested” [Ps 54,6]?… Jesus knew how weak I was, to expose myself to temptation… I only found bitterness where other souls stronger than mine find joy, although they renounce it because they are faithful” (IV,38v).
«It is, therefore, not my merit, far from it., having seen myself free from the love of creatures, becauseonly the great mercy of the Good God preserved me from him. If the Lord had failed me, I recognize that I could have fallen as low as Saint Mary Magdalene. Yes, I already know from the words of Our Lord to Simon that “he who is least forgiven, loves the least” [Lk VII,47]; but those deep words resonate with immense sweetness in my soul, because I also know that Jesus has forgiven me more than Magdalene, since he has forgiven me beforehand, preventing me from falling». God acted with Saint Thérèse like a doctor who, rather than curing his daughter from a fall, goes ahead to remove the stone from the path so that she does not fall (IV,38v).
«If my heart had not been directed towards God from its first awakening, if the world had smiled on me from my entry into life, what would have become of me?… With how much gratitude I sing the mercies of the Lord! Fulfilling the words of Wisdom, right? He “withdrew me from the world” before their malice corrupted my spirit and their deceitful appearances seduced my soul” [Wisdom 4:11]? (IV,40r).
The Lord “wanted to call me [to Carmel] before Celina [who was older than her], and she certainly deserved this favor better than me. But Jesus knew how weak I was, and that is why he hid me first in the caves of the stone [Song 2,14; Ex 33,22]» (IV,44r). “If heaven showered me with graces, it was certainly not due to my merits, since I was still very imperfect” (V,44r).
From suffering fragility to joyful strength. By temperament, by herself, Saint Thérèse was very weak in her feelings, very fragile and vulnerable. Was a sufferer.
«Really in everything I found cause for affliction. Exactly the opposite of what happens to me now, well God has granted me the grace not to grieve over any passing thing.. When I remember the past time, my gratitude overflows in my soul seeing the favors I have received from heaven. Such a change has taken place in me that I don’t even recognize myself. She desired, it is true, to achieve the grace of “having absolute control over my actions, being their owner, not their slave.” These words of the Imitation impressed me deeply. But only with time and at the cost of desire, so to speak, would he obtain this inestimable grace. Then she was nothing more than a girl who didn’t seem to have a will of her own; which made the people of Alençon think that he was of weak character” (IV,43r-v).
«Truly, my extreme sensitivity made me unbearable. If I happened to involuntarily upset someone I loved, I cried like a Magdalene… And when I began to console myself for the fault itself, I was crying because I had cried. All reasoning was useless; “I couldn’t correct such an ugly defect” (V,44v). How was she going to enter Carmel like that?… She needed a change, a special grace. Saint Thomas distinguishes between grace operating and grace cooperator: “the first depends on grace alone, while the second on grace and free will” (STh III,86, 4 ad 2m). Well, the Lord then granted Therese, as she herself describes it, a wonderful operating grace:
«It was necessary for God to work a small miracle to make me grow in a moment. And the miracle was performed on the unforgettable day of Christmas… The night when He becomes weak and patient for my love, for me. made me strong and brave. He clothed me with his weapons. Since that blessed night I was never defeated in any combat again. On the contrary, I marched from victory to victory. I began, so to speak, “a giant’s career” [Ps 18:5]… It was on December 25, 1886 [at the age of 13] when I was granted the grace to leave my childhood; in other words, the grace of my complete conversion…Teresa was no longer the same. Jesus had changed his heart» (V,44v-45r).
To be continued, with God’s favor.
Author: Fr. José María Iraburu
