1 October 2021
Memorial of Saint Thérèse of the Child Jesus, Virgin and Doctor of the Church
Today is the memorial of the youngest and most simple doctor of the Church – St. Therese’ of the Child Jesus and the Holy Face. She died at the young age of 24 and in the eyes of the world lived a totally unremarkable life. Her memorial is a reminder to us today that to be a doctor in the economy of salvation is not a matter of education, but a matter of Love and a love expressed in the most simple and little ways of our daily life.
Therese’ religious name is the focal point of her spiritual life – she is devoted to Jesus as he manifests himself as a Child and in the Holy Face of his Passion. For Therese’ these moments of Christ’s life – his childhood and his Passion – was where his divinity was most hidden and she longed to contemplate Christ here, in the mundane and in the painful of his holy life. From these moments, she drew great wisdom and strength for her daily life in which she practiced simple acts with great love for her sisters and her Lord. She tried to model her love on expressing itself in hidden ways like Jesus did in his childhood and in his passion. Nothing in her life was wasted as an opportunity to love her Lord or to see him hidden in the faces of her sisters and in the joys and struggles in her life.
This great doctor teaches us that the heart of the Christian life is humility and charity, and she contemplated both in Jesus as a child and as a suffering servant. Let us pray with these images of Jesus today, his childhood and his passion, and ask the Lord to guide us to where these images of humility and love can inspire us to imitate them in our lives like Therese’ did.