Thursday, October 1, 2015

Memorial of Saint Therese of the Child Jesus

(Nehemiah 8:1-4a.5-6.7-12b; Luke 10:1-12)

Lalia Ilivia Jones, a ninety-seven year-old African-American woman, died on August 24 at the Dominican Monastery in Marbury, Alabama.  She had entered the monastery seventy years ago, only a year after being accepted into the Church.  However, her biographer points out, Lalia Jones had converted to the Catholic faith at age six after witnessing a Catholic Mass.   Sr. Mary of the Rosary, as she was called, desired to serve God “like the Little Flower.” It is the Little Flower, St. Therese of Lisieux, whose feast we celebrate today.

St. Therese is one of the most popular saints in history.  Yet she hardly left the little town in which she was raised and where her convent was located.  Although she had some aspiration to be a missionary, she realized that her vocation was as a contemplative.  But she never abandoned the missionary ideal.  She prayed fervently for missionaries and has been declared their co-patron. 

In today’s gospel Jesus sends seventy-two disciples on an apostolic mission.  He also directs them to pray that God will send multiple workers into the fields of souls.  This is the same prayer that Sr. Mary of the Rosary and St. Therese of Lisieux took up.  Now it is felt sure that their prayer is being continued face to face with the master of the harvest.

Homilette for Monday, October 1, 2007

Monday of the XXVI Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Therese of Lisieux

(Luke 9:46-50)

What is it about children that makes them like Jesus? It is hard to tell these days because childhood has changed so much. No doubt, it was different again in Jesus’ day, but there is something residual -- existent in the first century; prominent between 1850 and 1950 when, according to social commentator Neil Postman, childhood reached its acme; and still perceptible today. Children follow the directives of their parents confident that parents have their good in mind. Jesus trusted his Father just so; many adults do not.

True, we adults have the considerable task of discerning what God wants of us. But perhaps more problematic is our ego’s attempt to visualize God’s will according to its own designs. One commentator has called “the dark night of the soul” precisely releasing “our ego’s hold on the psyche” to allow for a change in our lives which will bring about a new way of understanding our relationship with God. It is the painful process of fidelity through questioning and near desperation that ends in our awareness of being God’s children doing what He tells us, confident of His love.

Although St. Therese of Lisieux enjoyed many years of religious enthusiasm, she too underwent the dreaded “dark night.” In it she evidently doubted what was to become of her after death. Yet she did not divert her attention from the Lord but faithfully lived out her vocation. Now we know that Mother Teresa of Calcutta also had a difficult trial of faith. She also did not waver in fidelity. We want to follow these little giants by continuing on the way we have chosen even when our minds turn overcast with questions.