St. Thérèse’s
Ministry of Smiles
Robin Stratton, O.C.D.
Baltimore Carmel
Elie Wiesel once said: "Memory is not exclusive. Memory is inclusive. It is because we remember the singular...that we remember its universality." When Thérèse reflects upon the mysterious illness that came upon her after Pauline entered Carmel, she is certain that "the Queen of heaven was smiling...from her throne in heaven." One day, as she cried out in prayer to the Mother of God from the depths of her anguish, turning her gaze to the statue of Our Lady of Victories, she writes, "What penetrated to the very depths of my soul was the ravishing smile of the Blessed Virgin." In recounting this experience, Thérèse uses the word "smile" seven different times. She appears to be reflecting upon the formative influence it has had in her life. Because Mary expressed her love for Thérèse with a smile, Thérèse will now express her love with smiles: smiles for God, for her family, for her sisters in Carmel, for us. She wraps her charity in smiles, hides her asceticism in smiles, and covers her suffering "with the lovely veil of her smile." This event marks the beginning of Thérèse's passage "from self to surrender," from a stance of all creation smiling at her to her own forgetfulness of self expressed in smiles that give pleasure to Jesus and others.
Thérèse's smiles are an expression of God's love shining through Thérèse's love. For Thérèse, a smile is an expression of her little way. "A word, a smile," Thérèse wrote, "often suffices to make a sad soul bloom." A smile is free and available. No one is too poor to offer this gift. A smile can transform its recipient's day--or even life, as Thérèse discovered when Mary smiled at her.
Mystic of Ordinary Life
Thérèse, the mystic of ordinary life, lived a theology of love, that "love [which] is the core and centre of christian prayer." William Johnston writes: "With [the third century church father] Origen, mystical theology...became a theology of love. And so it remains and will remain." During her last solitary retreat, about thirteen months before she died, Thérèse writes: "At last I have found my vocation. My vocation is love. In the heart of the church I will be love." If God is love, then Thérèse's understanding of being like God was to love like God. But since she was "too little" to do great things, she would have to do what was in her power. She would smile lovingly when she wanted to look away or do nothing. She would fold the mantles her sisters forgot to put away. She would go out of her way to pay attention to the sister who annoyed her. And she would perform all these little services with a smile. She would be like the mother who had smiled on her. She would be like Jesus whose sun shines on the just and the unjust.
Moment of Seeking Opportunities
Thérèse gives us a simple, but certainly not easy, formula for this way of loving: "When I am feeling nothing," she writes, "when I am incapable of praying, or of practicing virtue, then is the moment of seeking opportunities, little nothings which please Jesus more than mastery of the world...For example, a smile, a friendly word when I would want to say nothing or put on a look of annoyance." Thérèse's smile is a gentle challenge extended to each of us.