Memorial of St. Thérèse of the Child Jesus, virgin and doctor of the Church
Jesus excoriates the Jewish towns that were impressed by his teaching and healing miracles but now have gone back to their lives as if nothing happened. How quickly they forgot! The Prophet Baruch records their ancestors expressing their regret when they were in exile: they followed God half-heartedly, “each one of us went off after the devices of his wicked heart,” instead of seeking to live God’s commands heroically.
How many of us go to church for “fire insurance” – just in case there is a hell, God will look with mercy on me for putting in my time at Sunday Mass? Some of us go because of what it provides me in life: the sense of being a good person, daycare a couple of times a week, and connections with others who hopefully have some kind of moral compass. Yet how fully have we allowed Christ to flood through our lives and control our hearts?
St. Thérèse of Lisieux was known for her total abandonment to the Lord. When one first reads her writings, one thinks that she is kind of naïve and soft. Thérèse is soft like steel! She says that she wants to be Jesus’ ball, his plaything. She wants to be what he holds tightly to His chest and embraces. Or conversely what he slams against the wall or puts in the closet and forgets about entirely. In the end, she trusts that He will never give up His beloved toy, and for this reason, she can endure all things.
Earlier in the gospel, Jesus said it takes a very minimum to get into heaven: just a cup of water to a little one can gain access to Him, and thus His Father. He says today that it takes the minimum to lose salvation too: rejecting Him and anyone who presents Jesus. All Christ is asking for is a little turn toward Him and He will rush to expand our hearts welling up into eternal life.
Reflection by Fr. Pachomius Meade, OSB
Posted in Articles for Ordinary Time, Daily Reflections