HOMILY WEEK 26 02 – Year II
Called to Redemptive Suffering:
Memorial of St. Thérèse of the Child Jesus
(Job 3:1-23; Ps 88; Lk 9:51-56)
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One of the most striking teachings of Jesus is to take up our cross and follow him.
All the readings today focus on suffering. And all call us into redemptive suffering ourselves.
In the first, Job is suffering and expressing his pain and confusion to God. The psalm simply echoes his lament. It could have been written by Job himself. And in the gospel, Jesus sets his course purposefully towards Jerusalem, where he knows he will undergo his suffering that we call his passion.
The disciples don’t understand this necessary suffering, and try to both dissuade Jesus, and also resort to violence, wanting to call down fire and brimstone on the Samaritans who refused hospitality to Jesus, an extreme act in that society.
This places us squarely into the mystery of redemptive suffering. There are some lessons in life that we will learn only through suffering. If life is too easy, we remain superficial. As Fr. Richard Rohr OFM often states, it is only either great love or great suffering that is capable of breaking open our tendency to live out of our ego-dramas instead of the Theo-drama to which God calls us. It is often our suffering that produces character, that makes us deep and more compassionate toward others.
Actually, the key to the mystery of the kingdom of God is to be able to accept some inconvenience and suffering in our lives as Jesus did – without resentment or bitterness. Whether that is through forgiveness of some hurt, acceptance of some loss or patient putting up with some inconvenience, when we can be like Jesus, we get to feel like Jesus – peace and joy in the face of suffering.
Today we honour a very popular saint, Thérèse of the Child Jesus. Marie-Françoise Thérèse Martin was born in Normandy, France, in 1873, ninth and youngest child of Louis Martin and Azélie-Marie Guérin; only five daughters survived to adulthood. Their mother died when Thérèse was only five years old. The family then moved to Lisieux, where she was raised by her father, her sisters and an aunt. Three of her sisters became Carmelite nuns and the fourth joined the Visitandines. Thérèse entered the Carmel of Lisieux when she was 15. Her motto was a phrase from the great Carmelite mystic, John of the Cross: “Love is repaid by love alone.”
St. Thérèse of Lisieux
Thérèse held special devotions to the heart of Jesus and to the spiritual Motherhood of Mary. Tuberculosis limited her activities, which led her to pioneer the ideal of the ‘little way’: fidelity in the small things, trust and complete self-surrender to God. Thérèse had a gift for writing, and the prioress, her sister Pauline, directed her to write first about her childhood, then about her life in the convent. These were combined into The Story of a Soul, a modern spiritual autobiography. Known popularly as The Little Flower, Thérèse died on September 30, 1897. Though her life spanned only 24 years, her faith and simplicity were remarkable. She was canonized in 1925 and made Doctor of the Church in 1997. She is a patron of missions.
The Eucharist makes present the suffering love of Jesus and empowers us to accept some suffering in our lives as he did, without bitterness or resentment, and then our suffering is redemptive and full of meaning and purpose. This we are called to live, as did St. Thérèse.
