A Homily for the Feast of St. Theresa
[“St. Thérèse of Lisieux” by Leonard Porter; please support this fine artist by buying a print of this painting at eBay]
If you bring a missal or something with the Mass Readings in it, you might be wondering what is going on, since none of our readings where from the 27th Sunday in Ordinary Time. Bishop Smith gave us permission to transfer the feast of St. Theresa this year, which is normally on October 1, to this weekend since she is our parish patron saint. He knew that we are having our parish picnic this afternoon, and breaking ground on our Faith Formation Center, so he wanted us to be able to make it an even more solemn celebration.
In our Gospel reading, Jesus calls us the “light of the world” and tells us not to keep our light under a bushel basket (Matthew 5:13 -16). In her autobiography, St. Theresa recalls how she asked the Lord how she could be the light of the world. Essentially, what she was asking the Lord was how to live her life as Vocation.
I am sure that all of us have heard that the word “vocation” comes from the Latin word that means “call.” We all have a calling. We just have to look at our “state of life”: whether we are singled, married, or ordained/vowed religious. Yet even in each of those general, “state of life,” vocations we are all called to a more specific vocation. St. Theresa was called to the “state of life” vocation of being a Carmelite nun who lived in strict cloister, yet she wanted to know how specifically God was calling her to live this life. Despite her youth of years, she lived a profound maturity of faith.
There are three elements of the maturity of faith that we call living life as a Vocation. First and foremost, we must be aware of belonging to an Other. After all, we can’t call ourselves. We must be called by someone other than ourselves. At the same time, this Other must know us better than we know ourselves, for how else could they call us to what will truly make us happy. For St. Theresa, she never had any doubt about who the Other was that called her. She had a deep relationship with Christ Jesus. She recognized in the Church the Mystical Body of Jesus whom she loved above all else. That is why she always drew close to the Church, for she knew that in doing so she was drawing close to the Other who called her.
The second element of living life as Vocation, is the energy of the “yes”, the “fiat” like Mary our Mother. It is the simplicity of freedom. We live as conscious human beings, aware of our feelings, thoughts, desires, actions. We live as an integral “I” so that in our “yes” nothing becomes an objection to our choice. It is all “yes”; without any of the “buts” or “howevers”. Again, we see in our patroness, St. Theresa this simplicity of freedom, this energy of the “yes.” Her “little way” was the making of her life a total gift to the Other who called her and loved her. Again, from her autobiography, even when they told her that she was too young to enter the convent, she did not let that become an obstacle – she went to the Pope to get permission.
Lastly, life as Vocation is a life of faithfulness. It is the energy to continue to follow the Other, no matter what difficulties we encounter along the way. In good times and bad, we remain in the Lord, in His Church. You may not know this, but for most of the last year of her life, St. Theresa suffered from a severe dryness in her spiritual life. All the wonderful spiritual consolations that she enjoyed most of her life were taken from her. There may have been times when her intellect wanted to doubt in God, but her heart would never permit it. She followed her Beloved in His Passion, His agony in the garden, so that she could say like He did, “not my will, but your will be done.” It was in living her life as Vocation that St. Theresa found her true place in the Church, to be love.
Since she is the patron of our parish, St. Theresa should be a special model for our lives. We too should live our lives as Vocation as she did. This past week, on the Memorial of St. Theresa, Pope Benedict reminded the world of this call to live as Vocation; “To our society, often permeated by a rationalist culture and widespread materialism, St. Therese of Lisieux shows, as a response to the great questions of life, the ‘little way’ which looks to the essence of things. It is the humble path of love, capable of enveloping and giving meaning and value to all human affairs”
I think that this message is especially appropriate as the Church in the United States also celebrates Respect Life Sunday. If we were going to point to one thing that most represents the evil that materialism and rationalist culture produces it would be the Culture of Death mentality so pervasive in our society, especially in the horror of abortion. In the Culture of Death we see the opposite of living life as Vocation. First there is no recognition of the Other – not the presence of Christ Jesus in the presence of that unborn life. Instead of an energetic “yes” to the Other that comes from freedom, there is the “no” that comes from fear. Instead of focusing on the joy of remaining in the Lord, there is a focusing on the difficulties on the road to be eliminated.
St. Theresa said that she wanted to spend her heaven showering down roses of Divine grace upon the earth. It is fitting that the symbol of the Respect Life movement is the “rose of life.” It is a symbol of the vocation of love that St. Theresa lived on earth and continues to live in heaven; a love that promotes life by the recognition of the Other who is Life itself, and gives us hope.
St. Theresa of the Child Jesus, pray for us!
