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CATHOLICISM - Bishop Barron on Saint Thérèse of Lisieux — Transcript

by Bishop Robert Barron · 2,117 words · 364 segments · language en · Watch on YouTube

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0:00foreign
0:06[Music]
0:14[Applause]
0:15[Music]
0:26of this Grand and glorious Basilica
0:28dedicated to a very simple woman also
0:32one of the strangest and most
0:33extraordinary of the Saints of the
0:35churches of lesueur she was a cloistered
0:38Carmelite nun who died at the age of 24.
0:42at the time of her death she was known
0:44only to her family and to the sisters in
0:46the convent and yet within a few years
0:49of her death she had a worldwide
0:51reputation she was declared a saint and
0:54eventually a doctor of the church
0:56when a reliquary containing her bones
0:58was brought to the U.S in the 1990s
1:01millions of people responded
1:03they say when that same reliquary was
1:05brought to Ireland almost the entire
1:07country moved to see it
1:09how do we begin to explain this it has a
1:12lot to do with her extraordinary
1:14spiritual autobiography called the story
1:16of a soul
1:19[Music]
1:25[Music]
1:32I'll confess that when I first read the
1:33story of a soul
1:35I didn't like it particularly
1:37like many others I found it a bit overly
1:39sentimental emotionally overwrought
1:42and as a post Freudian I was only too
1:44willing to see evidence of neuroses and
1:46repressions
1:48then I noticed something
1:49the number of truly great intellectuals
1:51Who Loved Therese think of Dorothy Day
1:55Edith Stein Thomas Merton John Paul II
1:58Han zores Von Balthazar just to name a
2:00few
2:01and then when I was a doctoral student
2:03in Paris my thesis director Michelle
2:05Corban a very brilliant man was
2:07explaining one day to me how the French
2:09don't refer to terrez as the Little
2:12Flower as we do but rather as La Petite
2:15the little Therese as opposed to lagonde
2:18Therese the great Teresa who's Teresa of
2:21Avila but then he added this
2:23after many years of reading he said I
2:27realize
2:31she is truly the great Teresa
2:34I realized I had to take a second look
2:37[Music]
2:40she was born on January 2nd 1873 the
2:44youngest child of Louis Martin and his
2:47wife zaili two extremely Pious members
2:49of the French middle class
2:52foreign by her own admission Therese's
2:56childhood was blissful
2:58the youngest child she was doted on by
3:01everyone especially her father he was
3:03her petihua little King and she was his
3:07petite van Little Queen
3:10very early in life she had the intuition
3:13that she would follow her sister Pauline
3:15into the Carmelite Convent and become a
3:17religious
3:19she never wavered from this resolution
3:25the Bliss of her childhood came to an
3:27abrupt end with the death of her mother
3:29in 1877 when Therese was only four
3:33afterwards she became withdrawn
3:36Moody
3:38as she herself said sensitive to an
3:40excessive degree
3:42her time at school in lizira was not
3:44pleasant as she was picked on by her
3:46classmates
3:48for the first time in her life she felt
3:50herself as she put it weighed and found
3:54wanting
3:58a full effect of her mother's death on
4:00Therese would appear when Pauline her
4:03older sister and substitute mother
4:05decided to enter the convent
4:07Therese experienced a strange malady
4:10with both physical and psychological
4:12symptoms some of them quite frightening
4:14she would cry violently suffer from
4:17severe headaches fall into fits of
4:19shivering here is Therese's own
4:22description of this period
4:24I was absolutely terrified of everything
4:30saved or finally was a manifestation of
4:33Grace
4:34on May the 13th 1883 Therese found
4:36herself here in bed she was utterly
4:39debilitated physically psychologically
4:41unable to help herself and then she
4:44noticed the statue of the Blessed Mother
4:45it had been in a room before but it was
4:48though she was noticing it for the first
4:49time
4:50she said she was struck by the ravishing
4:52beauty of the statue and especially by
4:56the Virgin Mary's smile
4:58when she noticed the smile of a blessed
5:00mother all of her physical and
5:02psychological symptoms left her she was
5:05healed
5:06now how do we explain this extraordinary
5:08incident we could look at it many ways I
5:10suppose
5:11but Therese saw it as a manifestation of
5:14God's grace God's unmerited love
5:17when she came of age she became one of
5:19the great doctors of Grace in our
5:21tradition yes we cooperate with God's
5:24love but finally the beginning and the
5:26end of the spiritual life
5:28is Grace
5:30[Music]
5:33the next great step in Therese's
5:36spiritual journey was again a private
5:39small matter nothing to which a
5:41conventional biographer would draw
5:43attention
5:44it took place on Christmas Day
5:49there was a custom in the matam family
5:51that very early on Christmas morning
5:53just after midnight mass the children
5:55would come home and they would draw from
5:57their shoes that were arranged right
5:58here in front of the fireplace little
6:00gifts that their parents had placed in
6:02them well Therese loved this ritual and
6:05especially her father's participation in
6:07it
6:08but that Christmas morning of 1886
6:10Therese went up this staircase and when
6:13she was presumably out of earshot she
6:15heard her father say
6:17well fortunately this is the last time
6:20now that comment normally would have
6:22broken her heart and she would have
6:24dissolved in tears but something
6:26different happened
6:27significantly on this birthday of Jesus
6:29she realized that Jesus had invaded her
6:32heart
6:33so instead she suppressed those feelings
6:35she came down those stairs and with
6:37unfeigned enthusiasm she participated in
6:40this family ritual
6:42what do we see here in this very simple
6:44scene
6:45we see the invasion of Grace Therese
6:49realized now that her life had to be
6:51completely determined by the love of
6:54Jesus
6:55foreign
6:57[Music]
6:59the desire to become a Carmelite which
7:02had been inner since childhood now
7:04became a burning preoccupation
7:07after she convinced her father that this
7:09was right for her she met with
7:11extraordinary courage a number of
7:13Bishops and ecclesiastics who opposed
7:15her and told her that she was too young
7:18[Music]
7:22but she resolved to bring the case to
7:23the highest possible Court
7:27she joined a group of pilgrims going to
7:29Rome hoping to present her plea
7:31personally to Pope Leo the 13th himself
7:35[Music]
7:36on November 20th 1887 Therese had her
7:40audience
7:42though she had been told to say nothing
7:43to the pope she blurted out Holy Father
7:46in honor of your Jubilee permit me to
7:49enter Carmel at the age of 15.
7:53the pope smiled and told her to do what
7:56her Superior is ordered
7:58but she persisted Oh Holy Father if you
8:01say yes everyone will agree
8:04the pope responded go
8:07go
8:08you will enter if God wills it
8:11at that point still begging and weeping
8:14she was carried off bodily by two papal
8:17guards
8:23[Music]
8:30a month later the bishop of Bayou are
8:33relented and she was given permission to
8:35enter Carmel
8:41for the next nine years until her death
8:43at 24 Therese never left the confines of
8:47the Lazio Carmel living the simple life
8:50of a carmel-like religious
8:53but in the course of those years she
8:55began to cultivate a spiritual path that
8:58she came to call the little way
9:01it was not the path of her great
9:03Carmelite forebearers Theresa of Avila
9:05and John of the Cross not the way of
9:07spiritual athletes but a way that any
9:10simple believer could follow
9:14it had a great deal to do with spiritual
9:17childhood
9:18becoming a little child in the presence
9:20of God the Father
9:22dependent hopeful
9:25waiting to receive gifts
9:28[Music]
9:30she wrote this in the story of a soul
9:33Jesus deigned to show me the robe that
9:36leads to this Divine furnace
9:39and this road is the surrender of the
9:42little child
9:43who sleeps without fear in its father's
9:45arms
9:48it evolved to a willingness to do simple
9:51and ordinary things out of great love
9:54little Acts of Kindness Small sacrifices
9:57accepted graciously
10:00one of the most memorable passages in
10:02the story of the soul is Therese's
10:04delicious description of her very
10:06patient dealings with a cranky old nun
10:09to whom she'd been assigned
10:12at the heart of the little way is the
10:15Prudence to know in any given situation
10:17what is the demand of Love willing the
10:20good of the other as other
10:23toward the end of your life Therese
10:25experienced the intense desire
10:27to do all the things the great figures
10:30in the history of the church had done
10:31she said I wanted to be priest martyr
10:35missionary evangelist and doctor
10:38then she thought how could I possibly be
10:40any of these things in my little
10:42Monastery here in Carmel
10:44then she read Paul's first letter to the
10:47Corinthians and she was struck by that
10:49Magnificent Passage where Paul talks
10:51about the more excellent way the way of
10:53love
10:54Therese realized in a Flash that love
10:57was the form of all the virtues love
11:00what made the lives of all the saints
11:02possible love was what undergirded the
11:05work of priest missionary evangelist
11:07doctor and so she said Jesus my love
11:12I found my vocation
11:14I will be love in the heart of the
11:17church
11:18that is the little way
11:21[Music]
11:32I mentioned at the outset how I like
11:34many others was initially put off by the
11:37overly emotional sentimental style of
11:40the Little Flower
11:41but even the most skeptical reader is
11:43usually won over by the account of her
11:46terrible struggle at the end of her life
11:48with unbelief
11:50but began to plague Therese where doubts
11:53about the very existence of Heaven
11:56like Hamlet she began to wonder whether
11:58anything followed this sleep of death
12:02and this was no passing bout of
12:04intellectual scrupulosity it would last
12:05up until the very end of her life
12:09she wrote this trial was to last not a
12:12matter of days or weeks it would not be
12:14extinguished until the hour set by God
12:17himself
12:18and that hour has not yet come
12:20she wrote that just a few weeks before
12:22she died
12:24what's extraordinary is how she
12:26interpreted this struggle
12:28as a participation in the pain of so
12:30many of her contemporaries who no longer
12:32believe in God
12:34she wrote during the joyful days of
12:36Easter Jesus made me really feel there
12:39are souls who have no faith
12:42he allowed my soul to be invaded by the
12:45thickest Darkness
12:47[Music]
12:51Therese died of tuberculosis on
12:54September the 30th 1897.
12:57as I mentioned at the outset at the time
12:59of her death she was known only by a
13:01handful of people
13:03within a few years of her passing
13:05through the influence of the story of a
13:07soul the little way began to beguile
13:10people all over the world
13:15[Music]
13:20I spoke of Catherine Drexel's sanctity
13:22as a sort of elevated Justice
13:24[Music]
13:26we might characterize Therese's Holiness
13:28as
13:29transfigured prudence
13:32Prudence is a kind of moral know-how
13:36the little way is Prudence elevated
13:38and transfigured by the radicality of
13:41Christ's love
13:43[Music]
13:51she had a great poetic imagination
13:53that's what grabs people too
13:55she always protested that she was not
13:57one of these spiritual athletes she knew
13:59about John of the Cross and Teresa of
14:01Avila and these great figures she
14:02admired them and she would say but I'm
14:04not like that I'm not a spiritual
14:06athlete I'm not one of these great trees
14:08that grow up to God I'm just a little
14:11flower and that's where the nickname
14:12comes from I'm a little flower on the
14:14floor of the forest No One's Gonna
14:15notice me but but the sun can shine
14:20equally on all them the Sun hits the
14:22high trees and the sun comes down to the
14:24forest floor and so it's a great
14:25metaphor for the universality of Grace
14:27that we're all susceptible to the
14:30influence of Grace as The Sun Shines on
14:32the good and the bad alike It Shines on
14:35the Great and the small alike so that
14:37was a great bit of spiritual intuition
14:39she had I think that appeals to people
14:41what about that analogy of like you said
14:43she
14:45oh yeah that's a splendid one I think
14:47it's beautiful and there's a there's
14:48kind of a wry smile behind it because
14:50she again acknowledges the spiritual
14:52athletes you know oh these serious
14:54people they're climbing their way up to
14:56God and she admired them but she also
14:58with that little rise smile would say
15:00well I'm just this little child I can't
15:02climb a mountain but I can raise my arms
15:05up like this and of course of course
15:07he's going to want to pick me up and
15:09then she sort of Winks at the spiritual
15:10athletes and says and actually I get
15:12higher than you because he lifts me
15:14right up it's that kind of perception
15:16that I think people find um very moving
15:19and very attractive
15:21[Applause]
15:24[Music]

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