Oct. 1, 2010 Friday: St. Therese of Lisieux
Click to hear audio homily
I'm going to read you passages from diaries of two different women saints. While I read it, I want you to listen for the similarities between the two.
The first diary reads:
"Jesus made me feel that there really were souls who have no faith, and who, through the abuse of grace, lost this precious treasure, the source of the only real and pure joy. He permitted my soul to be invaded by the thickest darkness, and that the thought of heaven, up until then so sweet to me, be no longer anything but the cause of struggle and torment..."
The second diary from a different woman saint reads:
"The people damned in hell suffer an eternal punishment because they experience the loss of God. In my soul I feel the terrible pain of that loss. I feel that God does not want me, that He is not God and that He does not really exist."
We hear something similar in both don't we? There is desire in both saints to stay with the persons who have lost the sense of God--persons who search in darkness for a light, a hope, and a meaning. Why would these two women desire to be present with someone who is undergoing suffering, tormenting trials, and painful doubts about the existence of God? They desire it because they both understood what Jesus spoke from the Cross when he said, "I thirst."
Jesus was the thirsty one who sought to quench his thirst for love of souls. How many millions of souls he foresaw from the Cross who, out of their indifference, would plunge into darkness because they ceased looking for God's presence and His Love. Jesus needed apostles who would go in search of these souls, to bring light of hope for them. And Jesus found two little women who answered his call. The first was St. Therese of Lisieux, and the second was Mother Teresa of Calcutta. Both sought to quench the thirst of Jesus by foresaking their own feelings of closeness with God for someone who needed that presence. What a great price they paid for this sacrifice. Mother Teresa wrote in her diary, "The sisters and people think that my faith, my hope and my love are profoundly fulfilling me, and that intimacy with God and union with His will, live in my heart. If they only knew...only blind faith moves me along, because the truth is that all is darkness for me. Sometimes the agony of desolation is so great and at the same time the living hope for The Absent so profound, that the only prayer I am able to recite is: 'Sacred Heart of Jesus I place all my trust in You. I will quench your thirst for souls.'"
Sometimes people ask me, "Father, I'm faithful to mass and my prayers. I don't know why I'm feeling like God is so far from me, as if He is silent?" I then ask them, "Have you at any time asked Jesus, 'Lord, I'm willing to suffer for someone. If you need me, I will do it for the love of you.'" And inevitably, that person will say, "Yes, Father. I forgot that I asked Jesus a while ago." Then I reply, "What a great privilege! You have joined the ranks of St. Therese and Mother Teresa in quenching the thirst of Jesus on the Cross."
I'm going to read you passages from diaries of two different women saints. While I read it, I want you to listen for the similarities between the two.
The first diary reads:
"Jesus made me feel that there really were souls who have no faith, and who, through the abuse of grace, lost this precious treasure, the source of the only real and pure joy. He permitted my soul to be invaded by the thickest darkness, and that the thought of heaven, up until then so sweet to me, be no longer anything but the cause of struggle and torment..."
The second diary from a different woman saint reads:
"The people damned in hell suffer an eternal punishment because they experience the loss of God. In my soul I feel the terrible pain of that loss. I feel that God does not want me, that He is not God and that He does not really exist."
We hear something similar in both don't we? There is desire in both saints to stay with the persons who have lost the sense of God--persons who search in darkness for a light, a hope, and a meaning. Why would these two women desire to be present with someone who is undergoing suffering, tormenting trials, and painful doubts about the existence of God? They desire it because they both understood what Jesus spoke from the Cross when he said, "I thirst."
Jesus was the thirsty one who sought to quench his thirst for love of souls. How many millions of souls he foresaw from the Cross who, out of their indifference, would plunge into darkness because they ceased looking for God's presence and His Love. Jesus needed apostles who would go in search of these souls, to bring light of hope for them. And Jesus found two little women who answered his call. The first was St. Therese of Lisieux, and the second was Mother Teresa of Calcutta. Both sought to quench the thirst of Jesus by foresaking their own feelings of closeness with God for someone who needed that presence. What a great price they paid for this sacrifice. Mother Teresa wrote in her diary, "The sisters and people think that my faith, my hope and my love are profoundly fulfilling me, and that intimacy with God and union with His will, live in my heart. If they only knew...only blind faith moves me along, because the truth is that all is darkness for me. Sometimes the agony of desolation is so great and at the same time the living hope for The Absent so profound, that the only prayer I am able to recite is: 'Sacred Heart of Jesus I place all my trust in You. I will quench your thirst for souls.'"
