"God will grant the elect as much glory as they can take"

Spiritual Life, Summer 1999 by Giallanza, Joel

ST. THERESE OF LISIEUX RELATES in her autobiograhy an incident from the time she was between four and eight years of age. She expressed a concern to her sister Pauline that not everyone in heaven would be perfectly happy since they would not receive equal glory. In response, Pauline used a tumbler and a thimble filled with water to show Therese that both were as full as possible. It is then that Therese writes, "My dear Mother helped me understand that in heaven God will grant His Elect as much glory as they can take, the last having nothing to envy in the first."1

Though cast in Therese's direct and simple style of writing, this statement reflects the depth of her comprehension and conviction about the interaction between divine grace and human desire. Her statement incorporates both: speaking of what "God will grant" and what "(we) can take." These present reflections will examine how this Doctor of the Church articulates this basic component of her "Little Way."

"Everything Is a Grace"

For Therese, grace is always operative; it is God's loving initiative in our regard. Thus, every experience in life is touched by grace. The temptation, often, is to think that this truth applies only to pleasant experiences or times of consolation. Therese's own example teaches us where true wisdom lies. In June 1897, as it was becoming increasingly evident that she would not be able to receive the Eucharist much longer and even that she could be found dead without having received anointing, we could easily assume that Therese would be quite inconsolable by these prospects. Yet, she tells her sister, Mother Agnes, "Without a doubt it's a great grace to receive the sacraments; but when God doesn't allow it, it's good just the same; everything is a grace."2

This is a distinguishing characteristic of Theresian spirituality: everything is a grace. Therese interprets all the events of her life through the lens of her faith in God's loving presence and activity. In her Story of a Soul, she emphasizes that "God was pleased all through my life to surround me with love.... But although he placed so much love near me, He also sent much love into my little heart" (p. 17). Therese is able to see God's ever-present grace from this awareness that God's love is around and within her. In her poem, Living on Love, Therese writes, "At each moment you give me your grace: I live on Love."' This grace of living on love sums up her life, her vocation, and the teaching with which she has enriched the church.

When reflecting on the extent to which Therese understood and experienced God's grace at work in her life and world, contemporary readers might quite naturally sense a distance from her. Possibly this grace is unique to her. However, Therese draws us close with the confident assurance that "Our Lord is occupied particularly with each soul as though there were no others like it" (Story, p. 14). For us to think otherwise is to limit the extent of God's grace and love. For The're'se, such a limitation is completely unacceptable. When her sister, Celine, is feeling the weight of caring for their father, Therese assures her that

Jesus has for her a love that demands ALL. There is nothing that is impossible for Him. He does not want to set any limit to His Lily's SANCTITY; His limit is that there is no limit! ... Why should there be any? We are greater than the whole universe, and one day we ourselves shall have a divine existence.4

By her life and her teaching, this Doctor of the Church shows us the full transforming power of God's loving initiative.

"I Shall Receive Everything from God"

In Theresian spirituality, the response to God's grace and initiative is the recognition and acceptance of one's own personal poverty. Several months before Therese died, Mother Agnes was expressing her sadness that she would "have nothing to offer to God when I die; my hands will be empty" (Last Conversations, p. 67). Therese responds that she is in the same predicament. However, "it is precisely this that makes up my joy, for having nothing, I shall receive everything from God" (ibid.). In fact, two years before, in her Act of Oblation to Merciful Love, Therese declared explicitly,

I do not want to lay up merits for Heaven. I want to work for your Love alone with the one purpose of pleasing you .... In the evening of this life, I shall appear before you with empty hands, for I do not ask you, Lord, to count my works.5

Through such poverty, Therese places herself completely and irrevocably in God's hands and comprehends her entire life. Near the very beginning of her autobiography, she makes it clear that "she knows that nothing in herself was capable of attracting the divine glances, and His mercy alone brought about everything that is good in her" (p. 15). This understanding of personal poverty in response to God's grace is one of the most encouraging dimensions of Therese's teaching. Everything in life can be offered to God in love and for the salvation of others. In her prayer, A Look of Love at Jesus, Therese offers even her failings to God as part of "a bouquet that you will not reject; we are confident of it" (Prayers, 41).