Homily for Monday of the 26th Week in Ordinary Time - St. Therese of Lisieux

For daily readings, see http://www.usccb.org/nab/100107.shtml

I was in Paris for the World Youth Days in 1996, and I’ll always remember the huge picture of St. Therese that covered a large part of the façade of Notre Dame cathedral for those pilgrims in Paris at that time. Thanks to Msgr. Krische, the director of the St. Lawrence Center (www.st-lawrence.org) at that time, I was selected as one of two delegates from the United States for the World Youth Days. I’ll always remember the evening when all the delegates from every Episcopal conference from around the world spent a night in celebrating the life of Therese, and seeking her intercession. Her memorial is also special to me in that my first pastor, Fr. Bill Porter, loves St. Therese very much, and always insisted that we pray a novena leading up to October 1st. Then in each of the three years I was in the rectory, I would receive a red rose on the morning of October 1st, a sign that the favor for which I prayed was being granted.

By the world’s standards, Therese lived such a small life, and her early death from tuberculosis would presumably have diminished the significance of her life even further. But anyone who reads the diaries of her soul ends up feeling sorry not for Therese, but for one’s self. Because of her childlike faith, the life of Therese was so big and ours in comparison are so small. Therese, despite her crosses, was able to find a childlike freedom in her relationship with Jesus, and the simplicity of her love allowed her heart to stretch out to all souls in the world.

My favorite part of her diaries is the part where Therese asks Jesus to play with her life like he would play with a red rubber ball. Therese was afraid of trying to become by her own piety that perfect figurine that was doomed to sit on the shelf forever because it is too delicate and too valuable to actually use. No, Therese wanted to be the toy that Jesus played with most often, that toy that he threw around, and got dirty, and left in less that ideal places, but that toy that He used everyday and that brought Him great joy. Through the intercession of this great saint, may we have the grace to ask for this same kind of relationship with Jesus.