Humility, Love, and Joy – A Lesson of the Spirit of Childhood from St. Therese of Lisieux

 Sometimes I wonder about true but hidden motive of some Catholic women, including some nuns, who argue for women’s priestly ordination – if it is nothing but their own selfish ambition stemming from envy or some kind of psychological complex, disguising it as “God’s call”. They think that it is in God’s will for qualified women to be ordained as priests in the Church. They resent that the Church has been male chauvinistic for prohibiting such women from priestly ordination – against God’s will.

To this argument, however, I should say that qualified women would have been ordained as priests in the Catholic Church – if it were truly in God’s will, because there is nothing impossible for God. And there is nothing that can stop God’s will from becoming reality. 

Whether or not the Church is male chauvinistic, women will not be ordained as legitimate priests in the Catholic Church, as long as it is not in God’s will. And those who defy God’s will but make it as if it were God’s will but it is nothing but their own selfish ambition to argue for women’s ordination shall take a lesson of humility from St. Therese of Lisieux.

In 1896, Therese wrote, “I feel in me the vocation of the priest. With what love O Jesus, I would carry you in my hands, when, at my voice, you would come down from heaven. And with what love would I give you to souls! But alas! While desiring to be a priest, I admire and envy the humility of St Francis of Assisi and I feel the vocation of imitating him in refusing the sublime dignity of the priesthood.”

Therese really loved Christ, knowing his love for her.  So she wanted to serve him, as a priest does. And she had a great reverence for priests. But she knew that she did not have to be a priest to serve Christ as she desired – as a priest does or even more.  The cleric privilege that priests enjoy was not what Therese desired. Rather, she simply wanted to serve him with her love. And she realized that human mind’s attachment to such a privilege could be an obstacle to pursue her heart’s desire of serving Christ with her love.  So, she found St. Francis of Assisi, who remained as a deacon, though he sure could have progressed to be ordained as a priest, as her aspiring role model.

St. Francis decided not to pursue priesthood as he felt unworthy for the priestly service to facilitate the Eucharistic miracle of transubstantiation through epiclesis. It was out of his humility.  And, this aspect of him was what St. Therese of Lisieux wanted to model for her way of serving Christ.

For Therese, the humility of St. Francis of Assisi is the child-like humility that is in Jesus’ teaching, as reflected in the Gospel Reading for her feast (Matthew 18:1-4).

In this Gospel Reading, Jesus taught on the virtue of humility as being like a child, saying:

Amen, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. And whoever receives one child such as this in my name receives me (Matthew 18:3-5).

 In the aforementioned writing, St. Therese expressed her desire to carry Jesus in her hands. And according to the above teaching on humility, Jesus said that one who can receive and carry him was as humble as a child.

While the Gospel Reading (Matthew 18:1-4) reflects Therese’s humility as child-like on, the First Reading (Isaiah 66:10-14) echoes how she rejoiced in her service to Jesus. This reflects that her pursuit of heart’s desire in serving Jesus brought her joy and comfort in him. The joy and comfort are not just for her but those whom she served as an instrument of Christ’s love. And Therese must have envisioned all rejoicing and being prosperous with God’s blessings as Christ’s love turns all to love God and one another. So, she wanted to be a humble instrument for this vision to become reality.

Therese’s heart’s desire was to serve Christ as an instrument of his love with her love, in the spirit of these words of Jesus in putting two mitzvoth (Deuteronomy 6:5 and Leviticus 19:18):

You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and the first commandment. The second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. The whole law and the prophets depend on these two commandments (Matthew 22:37-40).

For this, selfish ambition to power and privilege, like what priests and bishop may enjoy, can be a stumbling block to serve as an effective instrument of Christ’s love with her love. The best way to be such an instrument is to remain humble like a child.

What we can learn from St. Therese of Lisieux is that child-like humility is not only a necessary condition, as Jesus has taught, but also essential to serve as an effective instrument of Christ’s love with our love to bring rejoicing over prosperity with God’s blessings.

St. Therese calls us to live a life of the spirit of childhood, as addressed by Hans Urs von Balthasar, a Swiss Catholic theologian. And, it is the spirit of Jesus’ teaching of humility, as reflected in the Gospel Reading (Matthew 18:1-4) to honor St. Therese of Lisieux.

If you are considering to become a priest, you make sure it is not out of your selfish ambition but truly God’s calling. If your heart’s desire is really to serve as a priest, but God has not called you for priesthood, then, you can think of St. Therese of Lisieux.  Her life also shows how humility is associated with love and joy.