Mar. 30, 2010: Divine Mercy and St. Therese of Lisieux

 (Click here for audio of homily)

In October last year, I showed up at the Basilica of St. Therese in Lisieux, France with a 40 lb. backpack on my back. I asked if I could celebrate mass at one of the altars in the basilica. The lady taking my request had a quizzical expression. I must have looked more like a camper than a priest. I didn't look too sharp either; I had not slept well on the trans-Atlantic flight and I came by train immediately from Paris. But I was determined to celebrate a mass in honor of St. Therese before I had to catch an overnight train in few hours to Lourdes. I was instructed to take an altar near the relic of St. Therese.  On the altar was a quote from Therese, "It is love alone that attracts me. Abandonment alone guides me." Few days later, I would meet Therese again, when 1,200 priests from all over the world gathered for the International Priest Retreat at Ars, France the final resting place of St. Jean Vianney. Her relic from the Basilica near where I celebrated mass was brought to our gathering. I thought, "How nice, Therese didn't want to part with me just yet."

Today's topic is Divine Mercy in the writings of St. Therese of Lisieux. To start off, I want to quote you the question that a speaker at our International Priest Retreat asked us priests. She said, "Fathers, when one enters thru the seminary doors, does he become a saint automatically? Does his weaknesses vanish and virtues increase as if by a miracle?" Now I will ask all of us here a related question, "Brothers and sisters, when one gets baptized and enters through the church doors, do they become saints automatically? Do their weaknesses vanish and virtues increase as if by a miracle?" Let me ask you another related questions. "Husbands and wives, when one gets married on the altar, do you automatically become perfect husbands and perfect wives?" Yet we are torn inside by conflicting feelings. On one hand, we feel the infinite desire to be holy, to be a saint. On the other hand, we come to confession repeatedly over and over again for the same sin. Why would God put in every one of us a desire to be holy, the desire to become saints, when He knows we're going to fail repeatedly? 

St. Therese toiled with this question, and first she tried to live a perfect life. She quickly found herself failing miserably. What to do? She knew she could not not live out such ideals and aspirations by her own strength and efforts alone. How can a simple, ordinary person like me become one of Jesus' beloved saints? Therese said, "...I have always wanted to be a saint. But I have always noticed that when I compared myself to the saints, there is between them and me the same difference that exists between a mountain whose summit is lost in the clouds and the obscure grain of sand trampled underfoot by passers-by. Instead of becoming discouraged, I said to myself: God cannot inspire unrealizable desires. I can, then, in spite of my littleness, aspire to holiness...I want to seek out a means of going to heaven by a little way, a way that is very straight, very short, and totally new." 

Then she saw an invention in the 1890s that would be a perfect metaphor to explain her  search--an elevator. She said, "I want to find an elevator which would raise me to Jesus, for I am too small to climb the rough stairways to perfection. I searched then in the Scriptures for some sign of this elevator, the object of my desires, and I read these words coming from the mouth of Eternal Wisdom: "Whosoever is a LITTLE ONE, let him come to me" (Prov. 9:4) ...I continued to search and this is what I discovered: "As one whom a mother caresses, so will I comfort you; you shall be carried at the breasts, and upon the knees they shall caress you" (Isaiah 66:13,12) ...The elevator which must raise me to heaven is Your arms, O Jesus! And for this I had no need to grow up, but rather had to remain little..." "How happy I am to realize that I am little and weak, how happy I am to see myself so imperfect." "...It is needful to remain little before God and to remain little is to recognize one's nothingness, expect all things from the good God just as a little child expects all things from its father..."

On December 12, 2006 I was reading these very words in a hotel right outside of the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico City on the feast day of Our Lady of Guadalupe. I just finished my deacon internship at St. Louis King of France parish and was wondering to myself, "How am I going to become a priest in few months when I have doubts about my own virtues, when I know I'm far from being holy?" Then these words of Therese reminded me not to look at my weaknesses and my nothingness. Rather look at Jesus who bends down low to pick up this little child, like an elevator and raise him to His Heart. I was to trust Jesus who will provide all the means and grace necessary, just as Jesus is the one providing all of us all the means and grace necessary to lift us up to His Heart. Jesus I trust in You!