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"GIVE ME TO DRINK..."
ST. THERESE OF LISIEUX
AND
MOTHER TERESA OF CALCUTTA
T hroughout
history God has built up His people on foundations "ever ancient, yet ever new".
The new Israel is modeled on the first Israel; Jesus the King of kings is still
called "son of David" the king; and Jesus tells his followers that the spirit
and mission of Elijah is mysteriously present in John the Baptist - though human
eyes saw no connection between them (Mt 17:12).
In this light, let us look briefly at the relationship
between St. Therese of Lisieux, and Mother Teresa of Calcutta. Not as an
interesting but unimportant sidelight, but in the hope that, as with John the
Baptist and Elijah, the bond of spirit between them can help us understand
each more fully, and even more importantly understand what God wishes to say
to the world through them.
A ll the
world admires the mission God gave Mother Teresa, and presumes to understand it,
for its riches are hidden beneath what seems so simple (not unlike Therese
herself). But let us not stop there, not stop at what we see - as attractive as
it may already seem. Let us seek to enter the vision of God whose "thoughts are
not our thoughts", and whose reason for calling Mother Teresa into the slums and
hearts of the world may be much deeper than even her greatest admirers realize.
The Lord is inviting us not only to look at Mother Teresa, but to look beyond
her, beyond Calcutta, beyond our limited human vision - to be open to the
richness of God’s plan.
This is our question as we consider what God did in Mother
Teresa: Does there already exist in the Church a pattern of grace which in God's
mind was the purpose and pattern for Mother’s call? Is there already a mission
the Lord wished to continue in the Church by calling her to follow Him
into the slums of Calcutta? And if it is true that her call points beyond her,
if there is someone God raised up in the past whose mission sheds light on her
own - then it follows in turn that Mother Teresa herself sheds light
on the one who went before her – even as John the Baptist did for Elijah.
I n seeking
an answer to our question, the first clue comes from Mother Teresa herself - who
chose the religious name of the saint of Lisieux, and who has always understood
her own vocation as patterned after that of her patroness, St. Therese. But if
in God's plan there is a real connection between these two calls, that
connection must be deep and substantial, beyond a common name or a sense of
devotion.
T he first
connection apparent to all is Mother Teresa’s admiration and imitation of the
"Little Way." But this is not sufficient to claim Therese as a pattern for
Mother Teresa’s vocation, nor to assert that she continues Therese’s mission in
the Church. The "Little Way," both for St. Therese and Mother Teresa, is the
fruit of something else - the expression of roots that are deep and hidden,
yet without which the "Little Way" would not be important enough to be an
essential part of their vocation, nor an essential connection between them.
What then are the "roots" of the "Little Way"? What are the
roots of St. Therese's vocation, and dare we claim they are the same as Mother
Teresa’s? The foundation of Mother Teresa’s vocation is clear and well known -
it was the experience of Jesus' Thirst for her love, and the call to
satiate His Thirst in those who most echoed it: the poorest of the poor.
Everything else springs from that experience. Both the spirit and the
mission of the religious congregation she would later found (the Missionaries of
Charity) are contained in that one grace, and continue to bear fruit only in
connection with it. There is no other reason for Mother Teresa or her followers
to go out to those in need, if not that she and we have been deeply touched by
the experience and conviction of Jesus' daily Thirst for our love, and the
desire to satiate His Thirst for souls there where He thirsts most.
But what of St. Therese? If there is any real connection with
Mother Teresa it can only be rooted in a shared experience of this foundational
grace: in a deep and personal encounter with the Thirst of God for love of souls
revealed in Jesus. A superficial knowledge of Therese would bring one to the
conclusion that there is no such common experience, and so no deep connection
between them. How many devotees of Therese have heard of the Thirst of Jesus
mentioned in relation to her life or spirituality?
And yet the connection is there... In her autobiography
alone, St. Therese speaks not only once, but eleven times of the mystery of
Jesus' Thirst. And equally remarkable is the fact that she speaks of His Thirst
in exactly the same language as Mother Teresa, describing it as a "thirst
for love… and for souls."
O f primary
importance is where in the unfolding of Therese’s life the experience of
this grace takes place. This experience, which will stay so alive in her the
rest of her life, took place as part of her "conversion" after the Christmas
grace of 1886. This victory over self-centeredness (the famous episode on the
staircase on Christmas Eve) opened her heart to a new relationship with Jesus;
and the first sign of that new intimacy was this unexpected and overwhelming
experience of His Thirst. She writes of this experience at a time (not in
the adolescent exuberance of the moment, but many years later, in the fullness
of her maturity of soul) and in a way that leaves no doubt that it constitutes a
doorway and foundation to the rest of her life and mission.
Therese’s grace occurred on a Sunday as
she gazed on a picture of Jesus Crucified. Years later she would describe that
experience with remarkable detail and force: she writes that in that moment
Jesus’ cry of Thirst penetrated her soul, and that the words "I Thirst" "set
aflame in me a lively and unknown ardor" of love. "I wanted to satiate my
Beloved", she writes, "and I felt myself devoured by His same thirst for
souls" (Ms A.45v). Further on she continues, "I seemed to hear Jesus
saying to me as to the Samaritan: ‘Give Me to drink’; and the more I gave Him to
drink, the more the thirst of my soul grew..." She does not hesitate to
speak of this grace as the most precious experience of His love: "c’etait
cette soif ardente qu’Il me donnait comme le plus delicieux breuvage de son
amour..." (Ms. A 46v).
In this grace we can find the source and link between her
love for Jesus and for souls. She writes of the conversion of Pranzini, of her
decision to spend her life in spirit at the foot of the cross, and of the
beginnings and reason for her missionary vocation all in relation to the
experience and the mystery of Jesus’ thirst (Ms. A 46v) – in relation to the
mystery of Merciful Love that goes beyond forgiveness and acceptance of us as we
are all the way to the revelation of a infinite yearning for us, the discovery
of His longing for us "poor sinners" that sets the heart of young Therese ablaze
from that day on.
Therese’s intuition of the Lord’s infinite desire to love and
be loved by His creatures – which will form the foundation for her little way of
confidence, abandonment, and love, and for her insatiable zeal to pour out
divine love on souls – has it genesis and source in this mystery of the thirst
of Jesus. As with Mother Teresa this mystery is spoken of little (because
of its ineffable and intimate nature) but profoundly and continuously
lived as the hidden spring that explains and fuels their lives.
B ut can we
honestly say that the experience of Jesus' Thirst was as important for St.
Therese as it was for Mother Teresa? Was it not just a beautiful but passing
grace among so many others in her life? Let us listen to her own words, words
which just as easily could be applied to Mother: "From that day on, the cry
of Jesus' Thirst on the Cross resounded constantly in my heart..." (Ms
A.45v).
From then on, Therese would live that mystery ceaselessly.
T he second
place Therese speaks of the Thirst of Jesus is at the beginning of "Manuscript
B", where she explains the discovery of her personal vocation in the Church:
"Jesus doesn't need our work", she writes, "but only our love, for
this same God is not afraid to beg a bit of water from the Samaritan. He
thirsted... but in saying "Give Me to drink' it was the love of His poor
creature that the Creator of the universe was asking. He thirsted for love..."
(Ms. B 1v). Mother Teresa will quote these same words of Therese in explaining
her own mission to her first followers in Calcutta.
Seen in the light of these words, both Therese’s and Mother
Teresa’s vocation in the Church becomes perfectly clear and logical. Because
they share the common roots of a common experience of Jesus’ Thirst, they share
as well a common vocation in responding to that Thirst. If they were given the
grace of experiencing that Thirst, it was in view of giving them also the
vocation of satiating that Thirst, as both Mother Teresa and St. Therese
have affirmed. If Jesus thirsts for love, then love must be their vocation.
In one of her most famous lines, St. Therese joyfully declares: "My vocation
is Love. In the heart of the Church, my Mother, I will be Love..." (Ms. B
3v).
It is important to see, both for Therese and for Mother
Teresa, that the fruit of the experience of Jesus' Thirst is the
vocation to Love. These are not two separate graces. One flows
necessarily from the other, and only from the other. Without the
experience of Jesus' Thirst, the vocation to Love, to be Love in the Church
is without the same sense and without the same force. Jesus’ Thirst for love and
for souls is surely one of, if not the fundamental reason for Therese’s
mission and "place" in the Church.
God’s "Thirst" is the fundamental reason for Mother Teresa’s
vocation as well. As St. Therese (and here is the second major connection
between them), Mother Teresa has also been called "to be Love" in the Church.
What greater gift could there be? This discovery should be just as overwhelming
for us who place ourselves in the school of these two "doctors of Love" as it
was for Therese: Our place is in the heart of the Church, and in the heart of
the Church we too are called to be Love. We exist to quench the Thirst of
God for our love, and in a certain sense, God "exists" in our life to quench our
existential thirst for His love.
In
the light of all we have seen, we can proceed to look at the "Little Way" in St.
Therese and in Mother Teresa; knowing now that this third (and most obvious)
area of connection between them is not merely superficial, but has a genuine and
deep foundation.
Why is the "Little Way" of such importance to Therese and to
Mother Teresa? It is more than merely preferring one spiritual way over another,
of choosing one path to God instead of another. The "Little Way" is the
logical and necessary expression of the vocation to quench the Thirst of God for
love, and the means of "being love" in the heart of the Church. Nothing
more, nothing less. Doing little things out of love is itself
their vocation (and ours if we accept it), and provides a constant means of
living it out. The "Little Way" allows the living of the vocation to love to
remain always within reach.
It should be clear what God in His loving plan has done. He
has saved the revelation of His Thirst for these times when the cry of Jesus'
Thirst in the world was never more pressing, when the vocation to Love was never
more urgent or important.
He began by giving this grace to St. Therese, who was to live
it silently and hiddenly, as Jesus in Nazareth. But as Jesus’ hidden life was to
prepare His public life, so the inner and hidden communication of this grace to
the Church through St. Therese was to prepare the public and visible expression
of the same charism and vocation in the work and message of Mother
Teresa.
Such is the harmony of soul and grace between them that one
could imagine that the life of Therese is what Mother Teresa would have lived as
a contemplative - and the life of Mother Teresa is what Therese would have lived
as a missionary.
St. Therese and Mother Teresa: these
sisters in spirit act as mutually reflecting mirrors, each revealing what is at
first unseen in the other. And this brings us to the most important affirmation
we can make in this brief commentary, but one that hopefully can have some small
repercussion in the hearts of those who feel a spiritual kinship with the path
of love God has given through them:
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What is hidden
and implicit in
Mother Teresa
(e.g., the message of Love)
is manifest and explicit
in
St. Therese.. |
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What is hidden and implicit in
St. Therese (e.g., the
mission of Love) is manifest and explicit in
Mother
Teresa...
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To better understand Mother Teresa, one need only look into
the soul of St. Therese. And to better understand St. Therese, one need only
look into the soul of Mother Teresa. Seen together, they not only illuminate
each other, but cast new light on the depths of the Trinity whose love they
reveal. Therese does so as the "word" that reveals; Mother Teresa as the
"deeds" that reveal.
These two, "word and deed" are the parallel paths of
revelation God has used throughout both testaments (Dei Verbum 1). And
these two, St. Therese and Mother Teresa, are the parallel witnesses He has
chosen to use in revealing the thirsting Love of God, and the vocation of
humanity to love and be loved - along a "little way" open to us all.
The pattern of grace in St. Therese, retraced in the soul of
Mother Teresa, is a living invitation to take up our own place along side them
in the heart of the Church, as we witness to the power of Love to each new
generation. Could it be that through them – through two very different lives, as
different as yours and mine, but bearing one vocation we too may share – that
the Holy Spirit has given us a pattern of holiness for the 3rd
millennium?
In closing, let us recall the three basic elements that
connect these two who carry a common name and mission:
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the experience of Jesus' Thirst,
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the vocation to be Love,
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and the "Little Way" of confidence, abandonment, and humble
works of charity.
And let us ask St. Therese to intercede for us, as she has so evidently done
for Mother Teresa, the grace of being penetrated by the mystery of Jesus’
Thirst for love and souls – so that for us, as for Therese, His plea may
"resound ceaselessly in our hearts":
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"I THIRST...
Give me to drink." |
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