Sr. M. Zdislava of the Heart of Jesus OCD
Carmel of St. Joseph, Prague
In her writings, St. Thérèse of Lisieux recounts how she perceived the imparting of each of the sacraments she received in her life. From her words, in connection with her entire teaching of the “little way,” we can discern what each sacrament meant for her life and how Thérèse lived from them. Two basic features characterize her approach to the sacraments: she encounters God to whom she completely surrenders and from whom she receives the strength to suffer, and she accepts participation in His plan—to grant salvation to humanity. Most succinctly and accurately, she expresses this in the words with which she begins the act of offering to merciful love1 and which she so often repeats, especially in letters to her spiritual brothers: To love God and to act so that He is loved.
The date of her own baptism, January 4, 1873, is found on the list of important life dates that Thérèse prepared for Abbé Bellières, one of her "brother missionaries."2
Thérèse rarely mentions the sacrament of baptism directly in her writings; however, these references are very significant. If we adhere to her testimony, we can distinguish three perceptions of the sacrament of baptism in her life, corresponding to three stages: childhood, religious consecration (vows), and missionary calling.
Calling to Holiness
“The followers of Christ, called by God not on the basis of their works, but by His decision and grace, and justified in the Lord Jesus, have truly become God's children through the baptism of faith and participants in divine nature, and therefore truly holy.”3
Baptism conforms us to Christ. God in His love eagerly4 approaches man and Himself fulfills the basic calling He has given them, the calling to holiness: “You shall be holy to me, for I, the Lord, am holy. I have separated you from every other people, that you should be mine.”5
In her childhood, Thérèse perceives the reality of baptism in connection with this calling to holiness. She is aware of the atmosphere of grace and holiness in which God allowed her to grow, “the grace the Lord has granted me”6 and “the attentiveness she received from Jesus”:7 “It was He who provided that she was born in the holy land, which was completely suffused with virgin scent.”8
This atmosphere, which she breathes from her birth, somehow binds her to desire with all her soul for holiness. She herself interprets her gesture of a basket full of doll clothes and nice pieces of fabric, given to her and Céline by their sister Léonie: “My God, I choose everything! I do not want to be holy only halfway.”9
Behind this choice is the baptismal renunciation of the power of the evil spirit, which the “soul in a state of grace”10 need not fear. This renunciation is confirmed by a promise that “she wishes to serve only Jesus.” Thus, she later describes to her sister Marie, who was her godmother: “You are doubly my sister. You lent me your voice and promised in my name that I want to serve only Jesus.”11
She was captivated by children: “God gave me comfort to observe closely the souls of children.” She had the opportunity to care for two little girls during their mother's illness and witnessed their simplicity: “I was occupied with them all day and it was a great pleasure for me how simply they believed everything I told them. Holy baptism evidently places a very deep seed of divine virtues in souls, as they manifest from childhood, and when the hope for future goods is sufficient to consent to sacrifices.”12
Connection with Jesus
“In church tradition, religious vows are understood as unique and fruitful deepening of baptismal consecration, because through them, the close connection with Christ, which begins in baptism, grows into a gift of a clearer and fuller conformity to Christ through the promise of the evangelical counsels.”13
In line with the long spiritual tradition, Thérèse speaks of her religious vows as a “second baptism” that restores to the soul “the garment of innocence.” She wants to concentrate all her efforts on “not soiling her baptismal garment.” Thus, in the days before her profession, she says to her biological sister Pauline, and to Sister Agnes at Carmel: “Also tell Him (Jesus) to take me away on the day of my profession, should I later offend Him, for I would like to enter heaven without any spot on the white garment of my second baptism.”14
She also confides in the Virgin Mary: “Mary, my beloved Mother, grant me the grace that I may never soil the garment of innocence that you will give me on the day of my profession” (from her prayers). Finally, on the day of her vows, she asks the Lord: “Jesus, my divine Bridegroom! May I never lose the garment of my second baptism.”15
A few years later, before the vows of her sister Céline, Thérèse describes the religious vows as the “day of wedding” with Jesus, as an intimate “union” with Him and the Most Holy Trinity: “The Most Holy Trinity will descend into the soul of my beloved Céline and completely possess her when He gives her a radiance and innocence even greater than at baptism.”16
Her fear of losing the “baptismal garment” can be interpreted positively in this way: Thérèse deeply wishes to be intimately united with Jesus through the vows of the evangelical counsels. The religious vows are for her “the gift of the Trinity,”17 but at the same time also the program of her life, “the armor she received from the Almighty,” to “rush into battle by His side and conquer for Him the kingdom of hearts,”18 “so that people could recognize the overwhelming power of God's beauty and desire for it.”19
Calling to Mission
“The reason for missionary activity lies in God's will. God wants all to turn and come to the knowledge of the truth. For there is but one God and one mediator between God and men: the man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself as a ransom for all, and there is no salvation in anyone else. Therefore, all are to turn to Him and to the Church, which is His body. For Christ Himself, emphasizing the necessity of faith and baptism, also confirmed the necessity of the Church, into which people enter through baptism as the gate... Members of the Church (for missionary activity) are urged by love for God and for all people with whom they desire to share the spiritual goods of the present and future life.”20
Through baptism we receive a calling to mission—the mission “to proclaim the mighty works of Him who called us out of darkness into His marvelous light.”21
Thus, Thérèse lived her missionary calling in the Church. She longed to contribute to the salvation of souls and to offer them to Jesus as a gift of love:
“I seek and want for You the buds of spring,
pour out on them the water of Your baptism, Lord,
and then come and pick them!”22
In a letter dated January 31, 1897, P. Bellière asks her to be the godmother of “the first little black baby” he will baptize, “for he will be yours, you will win him for God more than I.” Thérèse gratefully accepts this proposal.23 Later, at the end of her life, she thinks “of all the good she would like to do after her death: to have little children baptized,”24 “to prevent little wild ones from dying unbaptized.”25
As a culmination of her own baptism, she desires nothing else but to one day participate in the glory and radiance of baptized children: “I too will go to the little children who have just been baptized…” (June 25, 1897). She does not want money to be spent on wreaths after her death, but “for the redemption of black children.”26
The Little Way of Spiritual Childhood
“Baptism is the most beautiful and magnificent of God's gifts... We call it a gift because it is given to those who have nothing; a grace because it is bestowed even on offenders; a baptism because sin is buried in water…”27
The whole “little way” of St. Thérèse of Lisieux is fundamentally the only right response to this magnificent gift of God. A response of trust and love from a child of God who wishes to devote all her strength, all her capacity to live and love to bringing joy to God. “How easy it is to give Jesus joy and to captivate His Heart! The only thing a person needs to do is to love Jesus, to forget oneself, and not to examine too closely one’s faults… Merit does not depend on doing and giving much, but rather on receiving much and loving greatly.”28
“Ah no, I am not always faithful, but I never lose courage; I entrust myself to Jesus' arms.”29 This surrender does not come from Thérèse not committing faults or unfaithfulness, but from “loving her littleness and poverty, blind trust in God's mercy.”30 Therefore, she can rejoice even when she repeatedly confirms her weakness when she commits faults, when she is disturbed by the foolishness she said or did… And when the misstep that troubles her weighs on her, she can even offer this feeling of sadness to God—as a test that He sends her out of love—and rejoice that He allows her to lie on the ground.
Thérèse’s attitude has nothing to do with resignation to her own weakness. It is a continually deeper experiencing of baptismal consecration: the freedom of a child of God, which we receive as a gift when we renounce sin at baptism and promise to serve God and His holy Church.
At baptism we acknowledge our desire that sin never dominate us. The continually new experience of the law of sin within us31 may take away our courage and lead us to fear, sadness, or despondency. St. Thérèse writes about this: “How little known is Jesus' goodness and His merciful love! For a person to rejoice in this treasure, he must humble himself and acknowledge his nothingness, and that is what so many souls are reluctant to do.”32
At baptism, we stripped off the old self and “put on Christ.”33 To receive this as a gift, we must increasingly encounter that old self, the likeness of which Christ took upon Himself, until, upon seeing our wounds and illnesses34, we come to the confession: “Behold, the man!”35 Then we can no longer say: “I am rich, I have everything I need, I do not need anything,” because we have already experienced that “we are wretched, pitiable, blind, and naked”36 and through our self-donation, we “purchase gold refined by fire from God, that we may be rich, and white garments to wear, that we may be clothed, and salve for our eyes to anoint, that we may see.”37
This is following Christ, who “though He was rich, became poor for our sakes, that we by His poverty might become rich.”38 The perfect greatness of His poverty is manifested in that He gives the Father everything that is His.39 “To love means to give everything and to give oneself.”40 The authenticity of this self-giving creates not only the depth of our connection with God but also leads us to love and serve others by relinquishing all selfish interests.41
“Understand that to love Jesus and to be an offering of His love, the weaker one is, the poorer in desires and virtues, the more this love can operate, consuming and transforming… Therefore, let us stay very far from everything that sparkles, let us love our littleness, let us love that we feel nothing. Thus, we will be poor in spirit and Jesus will come to us, and if we are distant, He will transform us into flames of love…”42
The “little way” of St. Thérèse of Lisieux teaches us to live from the grace of baptism: to live in the freedom of God's children because Christ has freed us from sin, to live with the joy that nothing can separate us from the love of Christ, for when God gave us His Son, how will He not also along with Him graciously give us all things, to live in trust that we can boast of our weaknesses, and that the Spirit Himself comes to the aid of our weakness, shows us all that God has given us, and continually transforms us more and more into the glorious likeness of the Son. “I see beauty and behold brightness, the splendor of Your love I proclaim, and in enthusiasm, I gaze upon this ineffable light. I plunge into my mind and reflect on myself: I see what I was and what I have become. Oh wonderful thing!”43
Literature used:
Ciro Garcia, In the Heart of Faith, the “Way” of Teresa of Lisieux, Editorial Monte Carmelo, Burgos 1996, pp. 12–16.
