More from the Little Flower

Therese presents for me a new way to understand what Jesus meant in the story of the rich young man and his instruction to give all he has away. She along with Balthasar provides much to meditate on in two passages from Romans. Mining the thought of the Little Flower provides an inexhaustible source of golden wisdom. The text below in quotes, except for the Scripture quotes, is from the writings of St.Therese and the rest from Balthasar's Two Sisters in the Spirit (pp. 257- 259).

The mentality that confronts Therese so frequently in the Catholic asceticism of her day … is the Old Testament mentality of justification by works ….

This attitude assumes that man’s relations with God are based entirely upon justice, and this limited conception of justice … can only imagine one ideal – to step up one’s own achievements so as to produce a corresponding increase in God’s favors. But this ideal overlooks … the very basis and raison d’etre of God’s testament with the chosen people: Abraham’s faith, which implicitly includes hope and love as well.

God first revealed himself as the God of justice, not as the God of love. And besides wishing  to prepare humanity for love by means of the law, God also wished the failure of the law and its works to demonstrate what happens when men rely upon their own achievements apart from the Cross of Christ. (Rom 5:20)

Therese inserts her New Testament theology and asceticism at the exact point where the transition takes place. Her “little way” to “little sanctity” at first appears … as one way among many others and she contrasts it particularly with the “great ways” of the “great saints” …. These great saints have done mighty deeds for God, but they are so superior as to discourage Therese …. But the more she gets to know the little way, the more she realizes … that it is the only way.

… as time goes on and she assumes the role of David, armed with a sling and venturing into the open to attack the Goliath of “great sanctity”. “The great saints have gained heaven by their works; myself I wish to imitate the thieves, I wish to take it by a trick, a trick of love that will give me entry, me and other poor sinners.”

And what is this trick? “It is quite simple. Hold nothing back. Distribute your goods as soon as you get them …. If at the moment of death, I were to present my little coins to have them estimated at their true worth, our Lord would not fail to discover dross in them that I should certainly go and deposit in Purgatory.” And now she transfers  … her amused gaze … toward God, teasing the God of justice: “When I think of the good God’s statement: ‘I shall come soon and bring my reward with me, repaying everyone according to his works’, then I say to myself that he will find himself very much embarrassed with me, because I have no works! So he will not be able to repay me according to my works. Very well, then, I trust he will repay me according to his works.”

Therese is here preaching a lesson straight from the gospel of Paul: “Now to him that works, the reward is not reckoned according to grace but according to debt. But to him that works not, yet believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is reputed to justice, according to the purpose of the grace of God” (Rom 4:4-5).

And: “ since all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God they are justified by his grace as a gift , through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus …. (Rom 3:23-24)

Little Doctrines from the Little Flower

I am awed when I see the gift the "good God" had given St.Therese. What has taken me seventy-five years merely to appreciate, St.Therese so readily understood and practiced.
The following is from Two Sisters in the Spirit, by Hans Urs von Balthasar. The text below within quotation marks is taken from St.Therese's writings; all else is Balthasar's.

“Jesus does not demand great deeds but only gratitude and self-surrender. ‘I will not’ he says, ‘take the goats from out of your flocks, for all the beasts of the field are mine …. Shall I eat the flesh of bullocks, or shall I drink the blood of goats? Offer to God the sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving.’ See, then , all that Jesus lays claim to from us; he has no need of our works but only  of our love.”

It is generally recognized that “cosmetics for the soul”, “that overwrought, incessant measuring, counting, calculating, touching and examining one’s own ‘perfection’, that most dangerous distraction of attention from God to the ego under the pretext of tender conscience, and even humility”, constitute a special danger for those living the monastic life and, particularly for contemplatives, constitute the universal “temptation to perfection”

As a child Therese was trained to “collect” merit; Marie taught her to do so: “I can still hear you saying to me, ‘Look at the shopkeepers, how much trouble they give themselves to make money, whereas we can amass treasure for heaven without giving ourselves so much trouble; all we have to do is to gather diamonds with a rake’. And off I went, my heart filled with joy, overflowing with good resolutions.” And in her early letters, we see the child busy at this work of collecting: “every day I try to do all the ‘practices’ I can, and do my best not to let any opportunity pass. From the bottom of my heart, and as often as possible , I say the little prayers: they are sweet-scented like roses …, my thanks to Sister Therese of St. Augustine for her dear little rosary of practices….”

But gradually, without it being noticed, the meaning of the word changes and surrenders its kernel of Christian truth; the treasure is love, but love is the prodigality that knows neither to count nor reckon. “it’s very simple. Hold nothing back; distribute your goods as soon as you get them. As for myself. If I live to be eighty years old, I shall still be as poor. I do not know how to make economies; everything I have I give away immediately to buy souls.”

Progress does not come through acquisitions but through losing everything; it does not mean climbing, it means descending. A novice sighs: “When I think of everything I still have to acquire!” [Therese] “You mean, to lose! Jesus takes it upon himself to fill your soul in the measure that you rid it of your imperfections. I see that you have taken the wrong road; you will never arrive at the end of your journey. You are wanting to climb a great mountain, and the good God is trying to make you descend it; he is waiting for you at the fertile valley of humility.”