O gracious call! We dared no longer even look upon ourselves, the sight filled us with horror, and Jesus calls us that He may look upon us at leisure. He wills to see us; He comes, and with Him come the other two Persons of the Adorable Trinity to take possession of our soul.
Our Lord had promised this, when, with unspeakable tenderness, He had said of old: "If anyone love Me he will keep My word, and My Father will love him, and We will come to him, and will make Our abode with him."[44] To keep the word of Jesus, then, is one condition of our happiness, the proof of our love for Him; and this word seems to me to be His very Self, for He calls Himself the Uncreated _Word_ of the Father.
In the same Gospel of St. John He makes the sublime prayer: "Sanctify them by Thy word, Thy word is truth."[45] And in another pa.s.sage Jesus teaches us that He is "the Way and the Truth and the Life."[46] We know, then, what is this word which must be kept; we cannot say, like Pilate: "What is truth?"[47] We possess the Truth, for our Beloved dwells in our hearts.
Often _this Beloved is to us a bundle of myrrh._[48] We share the chalice of His sufferings; but how sweet it will be to us one day to hear these gentle words: "You are they who have continued with Me in My temptations, and I dispose to you, as My Father hath disposed to Me, a kingdom."[49]
XIX
August 19, 1894.
This is perhaps the last time that I need have recourse to writing in order to talk to you, my dear little sister. G.o.d in His goodness has granted my dearest wish. Come, and we will suffer together ... Then Jesus will take one of us, and the others will remain in exile yet a little longer. Now, listen well to what I am going to say: G.o.d will never, never separate us; and if I die before you, do not think that I shall be far away--never shall we have been more closely united. You must not be grieved at my childish prophecy. I am not ill, I have an iron const.i.tution; but the Lord can break iron as if it were clay.
Our dear Father makes his presence felt in a way which touches me deeply. After a death lasting for five long years, what joy to find him as he used to be, nay, more a father than ever! How well he is going to repay you for the care you so generously bestowed on him! You were his Angel, now he will be yours. He has only been one month in heaven, and already, through the power of his intercession, all your plans are succeeding. It is easy for him now to arrange matters for us, and he has had less to suffer on Celine"s account than he had for his poor little Queen.
For a long time you have been asking me for news about the noviciate, especially about my work, and now I am going to satisfy you. In my dealings with the novices I am like a setter on the scent of game. The role gives me much anxiety because it so very exacting. You shall decide for yourself if this be not the case.
All day long, from morn till night, I am in pursuit of game.
Mother Prioress and the Novice Mistress play the part of sportsmen--but sportsmen are too big to be creeping through the cover, whereas a little dog can push its way in anywhere ... and then its scent is so keen! I keep a close watch upon my little rabbits; I do not want to do them any harm, but I tell them gently: "You must keep your fur glossy, and must not look foolishly about as does a rabbit of the warren." In fact, I try to make them such as the Hunter of Souls would have them, simple little creatures that go on browsing heedless of everything else.
I laugh now, but seriously I am quite convinced that one of these rabbits--you know which one I mean--is worth a hundred times more than the setter; it has run through many a danger, and I own that, had I been in its place, I should have long since been lost for ever in the great forest of the world.
XX
I am so glad, dearest Celine, that you do not feel any particular attraction at the thought of entering the Carmel. This is really a mark of Our Lord"s favour, and shows that He looks for a gift from your hands. He knows that it is so much sweeter to give than to receive. What happiness to suffer for Him Who loves us even unto folly, and to pa.s.s for fools in the eyes of the world! We judge others by ourselves, and, as the world will not hearken to reason, it calls us unreasonable too.
We may console ourselves, we are not the first. Folly was the only crime with which Herod could reproach Our Lord ... and, after all, Herod was right. Yes, indeed, it was folly to come and seek the poor hearts of mortal men to make them thrones for Him, the King of Glory, Who sitteth above the Cherubim! Was He not supremely happy in the company of His Father and the Holy Spirit of Love? Why, then, come down on earth to seek sinners and make of them His closest friends? Nay, our folly could never exceed His, and our deeds are quite within the bounds of reason. The world may leave us alone. I repeat, it is the world that is _insane,_ because it heeds not what Jesus has done and suffered to save it from eternal d.a.m.nation.
We are neither idlers nor spendthrifts. Our Divine Master has taken our defence upon Himself. Remember the scene in the house of Lazarus: Martha was serving, while Mary had no thought of food but only of how she could please her Beloved. And "she broke her alabaster box, and poured out upon her Saviour"s Head the precious spikenard,[50] and the house was filled with the odour of the ointment."[51]
The Apostles murmured against Magdalen. This still happens, for so do men murmur against us. Even some fervent Catholics think our ways are exaggerated, and that--with Martha--we ought to wait upon Jesus, instead of pouring out on Him the odorous ointment of our lives. Yet what does it matter if these ointment-jars--our lives--be broken, since Our Lord is consoled, and the world in spite of itself is forced to inhale the perfumes they give forth?
It has much need of these perfumes to purify the unwholesome air it breathes.
For a while only, good-bye, dearest sister. Your barque is near to port. The breezes filling its sails are the zephyrs of Love--breezes that speed more swiftly than the lightning-flash.
Good-bye! in a few days we shall be together within these Carmel walls ... and in the after days together in Paradise. Did not Jesus say during His Pa.s.sion: "Hereafter you shall see the Son of Man sitting on the right hand of the power of G.o.d and coming in the clouds of heaven"?[52] ... We shall be there!
THeReSE.
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[1] Matt. 3:10.
[2] Matt. 5:48.
[3] Apoc. 21:4.
[4] St. John of the Cross.
[5] Mme. Swetchine.
[6] Exodus 4:25.
[7] I Cor. 7:31.
[8] Cf. Ps. 136:2.
[9] Cf. Ps. 136:1, 4.
[10] I Cor. 2:9.
[11] It is remarkable that Soeur Therese applied this name to her sister Celine, who, under her inspiration, was later to reproduce so faithfully the true likeness of Our Lord, from the Holy Winding Sheet of Turin. [Ed.] [Remainder of long footnote, discussing this likeness, its reproduction, and related matters, omitted from this electronic edition.]
[12] Isa. 63:3.
[13] Cf. Isa. 63:5.
[14] Isa. 53:3.
[15] Cant. 5:2.
[16] Is. 53:4.
[17] Soeur Therese received the veil on September 24, 1890.
[18] St. John of the Cross: _The Night of the Soul,_ 8th stanza.
[19] John 4:35.
[20] Matt. 9:37, 38.
[21] St. John of the Cross.
[22] Luke 19:5.
[23] John 1:38.
[24] Luke 9:58.
[25] Cant. 2:1.
[26] Malachias 4:2.
[27] Matt. 26:23.
[28] Matt. 25:34-36.
[29] _Imit.,_ Bk. I, ch. ii. 3.