From separation to union: Therese's journey to God

Spiritual Life, Spring 2000 by Werning, David Hugh

DURING THE THREE YEARS (1895-1897) that St. Therese of Lisieux wrote down her memories (Story of a Soul), she

had separations on her mind, the physical kind that change relationships and the mental variety that challenge convictions. Separation is a constant theme throughout Story of a Soul because separation after separation happened to Therese. She lost her mother to death at age four, she experienced great pain in leaving her childhood, she had difficulty detaching herself emotionally from her sisters, and-as is well known-she suffered the dark night of the soul when her faith was sorely tried. Yet, the more prominent theme in Story of a Soul is Therese's complete trust in the mercy of God-her decision to believe, even amid doubt and confusion, that God would unite all in heaven (pp. 88; 212). Therese first came to see the separations of her life as a preparation for union with God and then for reunion with her family in heaven.

Desire for Union

The Christian faith has proclaimed this same insight for centuries. The story of the Bible tells of man's creation by God, his separation from God, and then his reunion with God at the heavenly banquet. The Catholic Church too, in Gaudium et Spes, has reminded the world of the common call "to communion with God": "The invitation to converse with God is addressed to man as soon as he comes into being" (GS 19. 1).1 Within the deepest part of us-the part that bears the marks of God's intimate weavings in creating us-we "know" that God has created us, that we are separated from him, and, as St. Augustine says, that we will remain restless until we rest in him .2

Even psychologists, prescinding from faith, are beginning to recognize the innate call each person experiences to union with the source of being. Transpersonal psychologists like Michael Washburn talk about a nostalgia or deep memory for the original ground of being to which persons desire to return. John Firman and Ann Gila argue, against Freud, that the human being is relational from the beginning of existence (Washburn, pp. 45-46; Firman and Gila, p. 32). The point is that each human person, having come into being, experiences separation from the source of being and spends the rest of his or her life moving towards union with the source (or trying to fill the desire for union with some lesser thing).

Christians believe the source of life is God and, having received their being from him, they desire union with him as the fulfillment of existence. This is the common story of humanity as the Bible relates it; it is the story of each human being; and it is the story of Therese of Lisieux.

Separation Leading to Truth

The moments of separation that Therese experiences are not much different from the kind experienced by others. There are of course the distinctive characteristics of Therese's life, but each person must journey from childhood to adulthood to death through the ups and downs, the joys and sorrows, of life. Therese was not the first or last person to lose her mother in childhood. She is not the only one who had to move out of the dependency and selfishness of childhood, and of emotional attachments to family life, to an adulthood of giving and loving. She is not the only one to suffer through the long illness and eventual death of a father, nor is she the only one to suffer through a personal illness. However, the way she lived and the manner of her suffering are unique, as is every person's life. Therese becomes a model of the Christian life because she respects the person's intimate relationship with God. Her life is an example of trying to follow God's lead in order to become herself-as a person truly is "in God's eyes" (P. 206). God unites himself to us willingly, even eagerly, but only as we yield to him our true selves and not some product that we have assembled in order to present our selves as acceptable.

What is the true self? Is it possible to discover? Ultimately, our true self is the person who stands naked before God without the garments of rationalization, fear, or pride-indeed anything that separates us from seeing ourselves as God sees us. Such a task is not something to be completed like we would complete a job assignment or a school course. Life is a mystery, "mystery" meaning not something to be solved but a reality to be known more and more deeply as we experience it more and more. In this sense, each of us is a mystery who is intimately connected with the mystery of God. Discovering our true selves, then, means (among other things) suffering through separations that, though painful, free us from attachments which otherwise obscure our relationship with God.

Therese walked this journey courageously. She lived honestly, purposefully, and with much love. She is a model for us who desire union with God and yet struggle with separating ourselves from created things (knowing that it is not the created thing that is the cause of trouble but our undue attachment). Therese, in her Story of a Soul, shares with the reader how she moved from one separation after another to union with God.