Thursday – 26th Week in Ordinary Time – A – Memorial of Saint Thérèse of the Child Jesus, Virgin and Doctor of the Church

My dear brothers and sisters in Christ, peace be with you. Today, we celebrate a saint who was raised by saints, a holy family if you will. Saint Therese of Luzieux or Saint Therese of the Child Jesus was a virgin consecrated to God and a doctor of the Church. Saint Therese was born in Alincon, France, on January the 2nd, 1873, the youngest surviving daughter of Louis Martin and Zelie Gorin Martin. Remarkably, parents themselves were canonized together by Pope Francis in 2015, the first married couple canonized together as a couple.

Their home was deeply rooted in prayer, the Eucharist, charity, and family life. Zelie died from breast cancer when Therese was only four, after which Louis moved the family to Lisieux.

Therese entered Carmel and the Carmelite order, at the tender age of 15 by special permission from Pope Leo Saint Leo the 13th. And she lived there for nine years. And then died of tuberculosis on September 30th, 1897 at the young age of 24 years old.

Her little way of spiritual childhood and complete confidence in God's mercy, led Saint John Paul the Second to declare her a doctor of the Church in 1997.

Today's readings reveal the heart of Therese's spirituality becoming small enough to receive everything from God. The Prophet Isaiah pictures God comforting and carrying his children, and in the Psalm we see that he rests like a child upon its mother's lap. And Jesus places a child before his disciples as the model of greatness.

Saint Therese's little way was precisely this, not childishness but humility childlike trust and confidence in the Father's love.

And so in the prophet Isaiah, in the first reading, we see God inviting us to entrust ourselves and everything in our lives to him. He says to the prophet Isaiah, “As a mother comforts her son, so will I comfort you. In Jerusalem, you shall find your comfort” (Isaiah 66:13).

This became the heart of Therese's discovery. She stopped imagining holiness merely as something achieved by her heroic personal effort and learned instead to entrust her littleness to God. A true relationship.

In the Psalm we read, “In you, Lord, I have found my peace” (Psalm 131:1). This is the response for today's Psalm. And Theresa's confidence in God was first learned within a family where she experienced profound parental love, which gave her great peace.

The image of resting like a child naturally opens toward her understanding of abandonment to God. You can only do that if you have found your peace in him.

My brothers and sisters, in the gospel, Jesus invites the disciples to consider what true greatness is, because they were arguing about which among them would be the greatest in heaven.

And so the disciples actually approached Jesus and asked him. They said, “Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” And he called a child over, placed it in their midst, and said, “Amen I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 18:1–3).

The disciples are asking about greatness, and Jesus responds with littleness, humility. Saint Therese built her spirituality upon this paradox. Our weakness does not have to separate us from God. She acknowledged humbly that it teaches us to depend upon him.

Jesus goes on to say, “Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 18:4).

The fact that Theresa's parents became saints themselves adds something beautiful to today's readings, because Louis and Zelie, originally both considered religious life. Instead their vocation became marriage and family, and they were humble enough to discern that.

They had nine children, five of whom survived infancy. All five daughters eventually entered religious life, all five of them.

Therese therefore did not discover holiness for the first time when she entered Carmel. She had already seen it at home.

How important it is that we set a good example for our children. How important it is that we feed them not only with material food, but with the spiritual bread that comes down from heaven, Jesus our Lord. The faith, what God has done for us, and how we live that faith through the sacraments.

She had watched her parents pray, work, suffer, love their children, care for others, and place their family in God's hands. The little way was eventually expressed with theological theological depth, but its first school, was the family.

She saw that littleness, that humility, beautifully lived out by her parents and her sisters.

There is a natural connection between Therese's little way and Franciscan minority. Frances deliberately called his community the Friars Minor, lesser brothers. The Christian vocation was not declined toward importance, but to take the lower place and receive everything as gift.

Saint Francis says in his admonitions, “Blessed is the servant who does not conceive consider himself better when he is praised and exalted by people than when he is considered worthless, simple, and looked down upon.”

St. Therese discovered the same gospel from another direction. The disciples asked, “Who is the greatest?” Jesus places a child before them (Matthew 18:1–2). Francis says, “Become lesser.” Teresa says, in effect, “Become small enough to let God carry you.”

And perhaps her saintly parents add one final lesson. Saints are not formed only in monasteries and convents and friaries. Sometimes the first school of holiness, is simply a Christian home where the children learn by being loved how to trust and to love the Lord God.

May he bless you this day through the intercession of saints Therese, Louis, Zellie, and Francis.

In the name of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Go in peace.