Thérèse: The Little Sheep That Changed the Wolves

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t Augustine of Hippo delivered a sermon on today's gospel text during a feast of martyrs. He observes how absurd Jesus's strategy initially seems. How can Jesus send his disciples to be like sheep among wolves. Normally even just one wolf entering a flock is enough to scatter the many sheep. Yet Christ instructs the seventy-two disciples not asking them to be like wolves but the opposite, to be like a few sheep sent into a multitude of wolves. So what do you think will happen to the few, defenseless and helpless sheep, naturally they will suffer a terrible carnage. But St Augustine gives the surprising twist: after the wolves have killed the sheep, “the wolves were changed and became sheep.”

Today we commemorate the memorial of St Thérèse of Lisieux. She yearned to enter the Carmelite Order at fourteen, but the superior general insisted that she wait until she was twenty-one. In November of 1887, Thérèse and her father were among the pilgrims who had an audience with Pope Leo XIII. Thérèse asked the pope himself for permission. The Pope replied, "Well, my child, do what the superiors decide. You will enter if it is God's Will," and he blessed her. It is said that Thérèse refused to let go of the Holy Father's feet, and the Swiss Guard had to carry her out of the room. Eventually the superiors gave in, and she entered Carmel when she was 15 years old.

On entering she took the name Thérèse of the Child Jesus and the Holy Face. Her early years of formation started as a mess because she lacked the necessary skills and focus. The prioress even called her “a disgrace” in front of the entire community because she knew nothing about even the simplest housekeeping chores—worse, she fell asleep during prayer. She also had to endure some bullying from other sisters because of her lack of aptitude for handicrafts and manual work.

Thérèse wrote in her journal that she spent seven years frequently nodding off during her prayers. She received harsh scoldings coming from strict spiritual directors. Despite those, Thérèse stood her ground, trusting that God was forming in her a childlike perfection.

She wrote in her journal: "I should be distressed that I drop off to sleep during my prayers... But I don't feel at all distressed. I know that children are just as dear to their parents whether they are asleep or awake..." She humorously noted also that surgeons put their patients to sleep before performing an operation, reasoning that God could work on her soul just as well while she rested.

Thérèse entered the Carmel of Lisieux with the strong determination to become a saint. “In spite of my littleness," she writes, "I can aim at being a saint. It is impossible for me to grow bigger, so I put up with myself as I am, with all my countless faults.”

She entrusted herself to Jesus, who alone could mold her into a great saint. She said: “The elevator which must raise me to heaven is your arms, O Jesus, and for this I have no need to grow up, but rather I have to remain little and become this more and more.”

What grounded her soul was her smallness, her nothingness. She would regularly sign her letters by adding the words, “very little,” (toute petite) in front of her name.

Thérèse once wrote, “Perfection consists in doing His will, in being what He wills us to be.” This became her Little Way. Holiness did not have to consist in doing extraordinary things. We can become holy by doing very ordinary things with extraordinary love—for God and for neighbor.

As a result of Tuberculosis, Thérèse suffered terribly. When she was near death, her physical suffering kept increasing so that even the doctor himself was driven to exclaim, “If you only knew what this young nun was suffering!” During the last hours of Thérèse’s life, the doctor said, "I would never have believed it was possible to suffer so much--never, never!”

We recall what Pope Francis once said about human suffering: “Pain is not a virtue in itself, but you can be virtuous in the way you bear it.” Until the end, this was Thérèse’s little way by simply bearing it and entrusting herself, again and again, to God.

Let us end with the same image of the lamb and sheep in the gospel.

Thérèse was like one of those little ones Jesus sends out in today's Gospel: “like lambs among wolves.” She had no great position, no political power, no impressive achievements. She simply tried to remain little with a big heart. And somehow, God takes that littleness and changes the world.

A year after her death, her writings were published as The Story of a Soul. Her story spread throughout the world like wildfire. People’s hearts were converted. Others attributed healings and extraordinary graces to her intercession.

St Augustine said: after the wolves killed the sheep, the wolves themselves were changed and became sheep.

Let us pray: Lord, teach us to remain little in humility, great in love, and faithful to You in all things, even in suffering. Amen. Fr JM Manzano SJ