August 28, 2012      Martin Mallon  (Ireland)     Martin's previous articles

  Some Aspects of the Spirituality of Therese of Lisieux
 

I have been reading a book on the spirituality of Therese of Lisieux called The Little Way by Bernard Bro O.P. and I think it is worth sharing a couple of insights it contains.  

As Bro writes about The Little Flower and her attitude towards the mercy of God:  

“She begins her life-story by saying, ‘I am only going to do one thing: start singing now what I must repeat for ever: the Mercies of the Lord.’ She ends the story by saying, ‘How will the story end? I do not know, but what I do know is that the mercy of God will accompany it for ever.’ And what was the climax of her life to be? An act of self-offering to Merciful Love: ‘May my soul fling itself without delay into the everlasting furnace of your Merciful Love.’[1]  

Clearly Therese was hammering home the Mercy of God long before St. Faustina and the “Divine Mercy” were promoted and became popular. However, this aspect of Therese’s spirituality is not often emphasised.  

Bro then suggests that  we:  

“Try the experiment of talking about mercy in the Church. Take as your concrete examples, for instance, the remarriage of divorcees, or priests who have left the ministry – you can be sure of being criticised, snubbed or even denounced. This is to be expected. It is impossible to put this choosing of mercy into words, precisely because it is a concrete choice. For us to know whether we have really and truly chosen mercy, Christ has given us one clear and effective sign: ‘Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy.’ This perhaps is the deepest point from which all Christian ‘commitment’ should begin, starting with political commitment: the hatred of evil because evil is intolerable.”[2]  

This book was written in 1974 and Bro’s message still rings true, “talking about mercy in the Church” for “the remarriage of divorcees, or priests who have left the ministry” the situation has not changed nor his assessment that “you can be sure of being criticised, snubbed or even denounced.”  

In 1887 there was a famous trial, in France, of the murderer of three women. The murderer was unrepentant, Therese, who was fourteen at the time, made herself responsible for saving his soul. The murderer kissed the crucifix before being executed and Therese received the sign she had asked for “to encourage me to pray for sinners”. Robert Badinter, the counsel for the defence in the trial, wrote that:  

“Jesus opens the future to the sinner, since he testifies by his forgiveness that no one is once and for all shut up in hatred, and that his God is the very One who throws down all barriers by forgiving those who murder his Ambassador. By this act, forgiveness is acquired for every man, since he who pronounced it is forever alive. No longer may God be called on to maintain the mutual hatred of clan, of race, of class. He cannot even be invoked now as the guarantor of an implacable justice. God can only be invoked where forgiveness creates a new relationship. By liberating us from hatred by his forgiveness, Jesus liberates us from the oppressive image of the Absolute.”[3]   

Badinter is highlighting that God’s mercy, in his forgiveness, is greater than the demands of justice.  

When Therese knew she was doomed to die she wrote the following:  

“You love St Augustine and St Mary Magdalen, souls whose sins were forgiven because they had loved much (Lk 7:47 ). I love them too, I love their repentance and more than anything else their loving boldness! When I see the Magdalen stepping out from among all those guests and sprinkling her Master’s feet with her tears, I know that her heart had understood the abyss of love and mercy in Jesus’ heart and that, sinful woman as she was, that loving  heart was not only ready to forgive her but actually to lavish the benefits of his divine intimacy on her and raise her to the highest peaks of contemplation.  

Since it was given to me to understand the love in Jesus’ heart too, I tell you, it has driven all fear from my heart! The memory of my faults humbles me and leads me never to rely on my own strength – which is but weakness - but, even more, the memory speaks to me of mercy and love. When, in absolute filial trust, we throw our faults into the devouring furnace of Love, how can they possibly not be burnt away once and for all?”[4]  

Interestingly, she loves St Augustine and St Mary Magdalen for their boldness, in Mary’s case her actions were clearly radical in “sprinkling her Master’s feet with her tears”. In the same episode re the pouring of expensive perfume on Jesus, in Matthew 26:6-13, the disciples “became indignant, protesting, ‘What a useless waste!’ and Jesus retorted “Truly, I say to you: wherever the Gospel is proclaimed, all over the world, what she has done will be told in praise of her.”  

If we read the “disciples” as the current Magisterium this condemnation of the radical action of a woman bears striking similarities to the CDF’s treatment of the LCWR in the U.S.A. Perhaps the CDF will pay heed to Jesus’ response.  

It is for all of us, the People of God, to seek through prayer this “divine intimacy” so that we can discover this great mercy for our own wounds and then share this mercy with everyone. By forgiving each other, not to be mistaken for justifying negative actions, we free ourselves and the other to receive the mercy of Jesus.