St. Therese of Lisieux: A Martyr for Divine Love

Tuesday, October 1st Readings Reflection: Memorial of Saint Thérèse of the Child Jesus, virgin and doctor of the Church

Today is the Feast of St. Therese of Lisieux, the Little Flower of Jesus whom Pope St. Pius X called “the greatest saint of modern times.” Today’s Gospel reading tells how Jesus “steadfastly set [H]is face to go to Jerusalem” (Lk 9:51 DRB). In writing about this Gospel passage, St. Bede the Venerable pointed out that Jesus “both foresaw the time of His crucifixion, and going voluntarily to be crucified, sought with stedfast [sic] face, that is, with resolute and undaunted mind, the spot where He was to be crucified.”

St. Therese always had a deep longing for martyrdom. When she was fourteen years old, she attended a pilgrimage to Rome, where she and her next older sister Celine venerated the ground in the Colosseum where so many early Christians had given their lives for the Faith. While there, Therese prayed for the grace to give her life as a martyr for Christ.

Like Our Lord in today’s Gospel, St. Therese steadfastly set her face to accept whatever martyrdom God had in store for her, in answer to her prayer. Hers was a white martyrdom; while she was not killed for the faith, she experienced a living martyrdom that she offered for sinners, missionaries, and the conversion of atheists. As part of her living martyrdom, St. Therese experienced intense scrupulosity, in which she thought that everything was a grievous sin. She also experienced a sense of abandonment by God. During her illness with tuberculosis, which ultimately claimed Therese’s life, she often did not feel any consolation in knowing that she would soon be in Heaven. She said that when she “call[ed] out for help from Heaven, it is then, often enough, that I feel most abandoned.”

Two years before her death, St. Therese made an Act of Oblation to God, asking that He “grant me to be Your happy victim; consume me in the fire of Divine Love, Your little holocaust.” Through her Little Way, St. Therese arrived at such a deep love for God that she was eager to give her life for Him in any way that He willed. A few months after making her Act of Oblation, St. Therese wrote the following lines, which I think aptly summarize her living martyrdom for divine Love:

“Being consumed near my God
In the sanctuary, I would like
To burn forever with mystery
Like the Lamp of the Holy Place….
Oh! what happiness…I have flames within me,
And each day I can win
A great number of souls for Jesus,
Inflaming them with His love.”

May St. Therese pray for us, that we too may come to love God so fully that we long to give our lives out of love for Him. While most of us will never experience red martyrdom for the Faith, may we learn from St. Therese’s example and embrace our daily crosses as a living martyrdom, burning with love for God Who is present through grace in our souls.

St. Therese, ora pro nobis!