On a hot July day, when the heat tempers and makes way for the evening breeze, that is the moment Theophile the Elder will choose to visit his old friends Abel and Mary. Today, as Abel was still resting in a room next door, Mary welcomed him and they sat down for a chat. The long spiritual path they had been following together for such a long time accounted for their being united in a soft complicity. The conversation slid insensibly into Mary’s favorite topic, Saint Therese of Lisieux and her Life Story.
The Elder – What moves you in Saint Therese of Lisieux?
Mary – I love it when she says, “I love for nothing.” It shows her full worth. She can be small, weak, or even distraught, but also great, inspired and having a pretty big measure of faith. She does trust God and His love and, above all, she loves liberally.
The Elder – What do you mean exactly?
Mary – She gives the impression that God is available to all. When you read Saint Thomas Aquinas or other mystics’ books, you get a feeling that God is only for saints and angels. As for the others, well! … There is no mention of them. But Therese insists that God loves them all. That is why the humble ones could recognize themselves in Therese of Lisieux. She dared say, “I love for nothing.” Each and every one of her acts, however small it could have been, was imbued with love.
The Elder – Is the ‘nothing’ she refers to the same as the one Jeanne Guyon was talking about?
Mary – Yes, it is. She adopted silent prayer as a path. She read intensively St John of the Cross, who was the advocate for ‘nothingness’ and ‘how simple God’s Presence is’.
The Elder – How could she become so famous?
Mary – She proclaimed God loves us as we are and however weak we are. For her, He can understand and accept the way human beings behave under whatever circumstances. She can see God’s love only, a love that is pure, simple and devoid of all pretence.
The Elder – That is what we learn from the Ho’oponopono practice; we see the world as we are, and any bad or disturbing thing we see in it has its root or only reflects what is within us. So, we have to clean all our complexities or misleading memories in order to come back to such nothingness, the infinite zero, which will allow love to flow out. It is only now that I realize that it is the way Therese and some other secluded mystics chose to contribute in assisting our world.
Mary – Exactly, just as the fire of her love would consume her; she was like a candle, burning out to share her light and shine it out in the world all around her.
The Elder – And even after such a long time, her light goes on shining!
Marie. It does. When she took her final vows, she said, “I will spend my heaven by doing good on earth”, and she kept her word. She is a great intermediary for all those who suffer. Many are those whose prayers to Saint Therese are answered.
The Elder – She makes me think of the Compassion Buddhas. Buddha Gautama said that he would come back down on earth so long as one single human being will not have been liberated. What love! What a sacrifice!
Mary – Do you remember that day when we were walking the five miles distance from the Shahjahanpur ashram and Babuji’s house? On the way, that quote by Theres of Lisieux came back to my mind: “I will spend my heaven doing good on earth.” Within my heart, it had become “I will spend my good doing earth a heaven.” When we arrived, Babuji was busy, but he at once noticed something was happening within me. That quote, I still bear it within me…
The Elder – How could I ever forget such a moment?
They both closed their eyes and were absorbed in a deep silence where their hearts became one unique heart.
During these minutes of intense communion, Abel opened the door and came near them quietly. Mary stood up and slipped away.
Abel – So, you have come to visit the two hermits!
The Elder – Two hermits, at the heart of their city, just like that Sufi master who would sell his flowers on the market and was ‘all by himself (with God) among the crowd’.
Abel – All alone with God right in the middle of the crowd and of the world, awaiting the blessed day when they will be reunited with God.
The Elder – Of course, but Mary is a fighter, isn’t she?
Abel – Mary has always had within her that ‘Fire of God’, both literally and figuratively. She suffers with the world’s sufferings and she is ready to sacrifice her life for it. Everyday she is outraged at the miseries human beings have to endure. Sometimes, she will blame the humans, and sometimes she will blame even God.
The Elder – But she is also a mother, and her name suits her well, Mary having been the mother of Christ. So she is a good representative for the divine Mother. All the human beings are her children. She loves them all, she accompanies them on their earthly journey and on their pathways towards God. She gives them love and protection. She knows why they suffer, but a mother’s heart is always a tender heart for her children and she will help them by any means. She is the one who transmitted Ho’oponopono to me and I really appreciate it.
Abel – She practices it, from time to time. She surrenders to God, when she is not engaged in a brotherly struggle with Him. As you see, at our age, we can still move from surrender to rebellion.
The Elder – Why not? God is our mirror. He gives us everything we want. He is at once our father and our mother, the yin-yang, purusha and prakriti, and all that a man will entitle Him with. Hence the idea that He is that Nothing everything comes from.
Abel – Surrendering seems to be the key. But just as Mary, I find it hard to do. Yet, the fire is there. What should I do?
The Elder – Turn that fire towards the Divine, rather than towards your self or towards the human beings.
Abel – It’s exactly what Saint Therese of Lisieux did.
The Elder – Yes, and she has become a model for everyone. Each one of her acts was filled with love. She would say, “Picking up a needle counts as nothing but I do it with love.”
Abel – It is a very Zen attitude. Whatever they do, the Buddhists are totally immerged in the present. They promote compassion. “Compassion is Love in Action,” as they say.
The Elder – To Love, Therese adds humility in each one of her acts. So, with her, the ordinary is turned into something extraordinary. The smallest movement, the slightest intention must evoke God, and she gives that impression that everyone can do it, that it is accessible to all, because it is so very simple.
Abel – As simple as God!
The Elder – The humble can recognize themselves in her. If ever she happened to fall asleep, out of exhaustion, during the silent prayer, she would say, “Whether it is asleep or awake, a young child is just as dear to its parents.” She would never doubt that God would understand.
Abel – That is the reason why so many people entreat her.
The Elder – Therese is a model of innocent love. I always remember her verses, which are mere incentives to simplicity, to love:
The only service left for me,
My only work now,
Is to love.
To live out of love is to give without measure,
The only thing left to me, my only wealth,
Is to live out of love.
I looked for Truth. Knowing the truth about myself made me humble…
Yes, I have understood what humility of the heart really means.
And how just like her was her passing away, which she announced in a discreet and shining way:
So if at our common spot
No one can see me anymore today,
If no one can find me,
Say that I got lost
And that, as I was going filled with all my love,
I agreed I should lose, and then I won!
With that vision of bliss, Abel closed his eyes, and Theophile moved away without a noise.
Theophile the Elder
An excerpt from Dialogs with Theophile the Elder
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