Thérèse of Lisieux: The Story of a Mission

by Hans Urs von Balthasar, Donald Nicholl (Translator)

Rare book.
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 53-9807.

288 pages, Hardcover

Published January 1, 1954

About the author

Hans Urs von Balthasar was a Swiss theologian and priest who was nominated to be a cardinal of the Catholic Church. He is considered one of the most important theologians of the 20th century.

Born in Lucerne, Switzerland on 12 August 1905, he attended Stella Matutina (Jesuit school) in Feldkirch, Austria. He studied in Vienna, Berlin and Zurich, gaining a doctorate in German literature. He joined the Jesuits in 1929, and was ordained in 1936. He worked in Basel as a student chaplain. In 1950 he left the Jesuit order, feeling that God had called him to found a Secular Institute, a lay form of consecrated life that sought to work for the sanctification of the world especially from within. He joined the diocese of Chur. From the low point of being banned from teaching, his reputation eventually rose to the extent that John Paul II asked him to be a cardinal in 1988. However he died in his home in Basel on 26 June 1988, two days before the ceremony. Balthasar was interred in the Hofkirche cemetery in Lucern.

Along with Karl Rahner and Bernard Lonergan, Balthasar sought to offer an intellectual, faithful response to Western modernism. While Rahner offered a progressive, accommodating position on modernity and Lonergan worked out a philosophy of history that sought to critically appropriate modernity, Balthasar resisted the reductionism and human focus of modernity, wanting Christianity to challenge modern sensibilities.

Balthasar is very eclectic in his approach, sources, and interests and remains difficult to categorize. An example of his eclecticism was his long study and conversation with the influential Reformed Swiss theologian, Karl Barth, of whose work he wrote the first Catholic analysis and response. Although Balthasar's major points of analysis on Karl Barth's work have been disputed, his The Theology of Karl Barth: Exposition and Interpretation (1951) remains a classic work for its sensitivity and insight; Karl Barth himself agreed with its analysis of his own theological enterprise, calling it the best book on his own theology.

Balthasar's Theological Dramatic Theory has influenced the work of Raymund Schwager.

Reviews

[Carlos Pascual · Rating 5 out of 5]

Cuando tomé la primera comunión, una compañera de trabajo de mi madre me regaló dos libros, uno sobre Juan XXIII y otro sobre Teresa de Lisieux. Del primero recuerdo que uno de sus profesores mandó una nota a sus padres diciendo que Roncalli ¨era un bodoque¨. Del segundo, que alguien de la familia se llamaba María Eunice Martín (esto lo recuerdo porque me gustaba una niña de mi clase que se llamaba Eunice Martí; ahora lo sabes, Eunice, me gustabas, espero que te vaya bien).

Batlhasar fue un gran teólogo, tan grande que a veces resulta algo abstracto y difícil de seguir si no se tiene una cierta formación religiosa (pienso, por ejemplo, en Solo el amor es digno de fe). No es el caso. El teólogo suizo sigue Historia de un alma y analiza la vida, obra y palabra de Santa Teresa de Lisieux.

Las reflexiones sobre los padres, también santos, se centran (o es lo que ha quedado en mi memoria por llamativo) en su mediocridad cultural pero profundidad religiosa, dejando claro que la fe no es la cultura ni el conocimiento mundano, es otra cosa.

Lo mejor que se puede decir del libro es que transmite el aura de santidad de Teresa.

[Kat · Rating 5 out of 5]

Balthasar describes two kind of Saints. Firstly, those chosen by God himself to herald some such message or understanding as He would see fit to endow on the church on Earth. Secondly those who become Saints in the course of their life’s work and at the behest of the church. It is into the former category that he places Thérèse, along with other great saints such as Paul. This might seem like quite a stretch—to the compare Thérèse to Paul—but he makes a compelling argument for why they are a like.

"Both types of saint live upon the same Holy Spirit, both belong to Christ and the Church; both alike prove their Christian inspiration by their adherence to the Church. But the first group is incomparably more distinctive than the second. It includes those unmistakable types of saints whom God sets as corner-stones of the Church, whom he selects to serve for centuries as living interpretations of the Gospel. They are irrefutable, beyond questioning, as indivisible as prime numbers. They proclaim whatever the Spirit of God wishes to declare at that precise moment; for the Spirit of God, blowing where it wills, discloses ever new vistas of the endless revelation. When those in the first group are canonized it is rather the Church bowing before the Lord; when the second group is canonized it is rather the Lord complying with the just desires of the Church. And because it is more important for the Church to accept God's wishes than to seek his commendation of its own, it is more important to light upon those saints whom God has without question sent to serve as models. She must receive them and herself embody their message, imploring God in virtue of the universal holiness of his Church to send more such divine messengers, at the same time conceiving numberless similar saints of her own."

"Nevertheless it is the saints of the first group who become favourites of the faithful. Although they are much less directly imitable the Christian community knows instinctively that they are God’s great gifts to them —not only as “patrons” whom one invokes for certain needs, but as the great warm centres of light and consolation sunk into the heart of the Church by God. For the faithful they are, above all, a new type of conformity to Christ inspired by the Holy Spirit, and therefore a new illustration of how the Gospel is to be lived. For theologians, on the other hand, they are rather a new interpretation of revelation; they bring out the scarcely suspected treasures in the deposit of faith. Even when the saints have not been theologians, nor themselves very learned, their sheer existence proves to be a theological manifestation, which contains most fruitful and opportune doctrine, the directions of the Holy Spirit addressed to the whole Church and not to be neglected by any of its members. Not that anyone is bound in conscience to have a devotion to some particular saint nor to believe in certain miracles or private revelations; nor are we bound to accept the words or doctrine of some saint as the authentic interpretation of God’s revelation."

The rest of this book is concerned with proving this assertion. Through extensive references to what writings Thérèse Martin has left us, from letters, poems, and of course the autobiography that she reluctantly wrote, he develops a coherent theological worldview that goes a long way in explaining why she was made a Doctor of the Church and what it is in her system that is unique and does distinguish her from the other great saints. For me personally, it was fascinating to see her writings explored in such depth so seriously. Balthasar leaves no stone unturned and extracts every little piece of meaning, and not all of it is flattering. Some criticism especially:

Ought we to say it? Thérèse—until her last months, anyway, never had a concrete notion of the reality of original sin and its effects in all who have once incurred it. Even though she is far from identifying herself with the Mother of God she is unable to appreciate properly the infinite gulf which divides her from Mary. And perhaps this gulf is most clearly revealed in the fact that Mary is never self-conscious in her humility, whereas Thérèse is constantly thinking about her own sanctity, trying to understand it and give it a name. Mary is complete simplicity; Thérèse, after her sanctity has been openly proclaimed, is anything but simple. Her intensely conscious mind sets itself to explain all the secrets of her soul."

"Even assuming that she had never in fact offended God willingly, the Christian thing would have been to think herself (if it was at all necessary to keep thinking of herself) towards a deeper, unshakeable solidarity with all the sinners in the world. At least that was the way of the virginal disciple, John, whom one may similarly imagine to have been preserved from sin rather than converted from it. He is the author of the statement which so perfectly establishes the community of salvation, and which Thérèse seems never to have dwelt upon sufficiently: “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just, to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all iniquity. If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us” (1 John i. 8–10).

Ironically this book, which is not hagiography, gives the reader a better grasp of Thérèse’s personality than any countless saccharine hagiographies could. You, who would to ascend to the summit of grace! Lo, descend instead, it is into the valley of humility that the Lord awaits you.

"All the saints have known what it is to be withdrawn from themselves, but whereas it usually lasts only a limited time, in the case of Thérèse it lasts till death. And this is the factor which puts the saints beyond the scope of ordinary psychology, and for all their attractiveness often surrounds them with a chilling aura of strangeness. They prove specially disappointing to people who base their relations with others upon the laws of natural sympathy and fellow-feeling."

"Paul must have had this effect, and the same is reported of Aloysius. And a novice, speaking about Thérèse, declares: ‘I observed her from every angle and could never find any flaw in her. I felt no natural attraction towards her. Indeed, I kept away from her. Not because I did not appreciate her; on the contrary, I found her too perfect. It would have encouraged me if she had been a little less so.’” When the saints’ acquaintances judge them by natural standards they experience a sense of alienation; it is an echo of the self-alienation which the saints have carried out for the sake of their missions."

And finally, how better to understand the saint’s view of love and life than in her own words?

Thérèse tells us of a kaleidoscope which she possessed in her childhood. “A sort of little telescope at the far end of which one could see pretty patterns of different colours; if one turns the instrument it produces infinite variations on these patterns.” She takes the magical tube to pieces to see how the miracle happens; she discovers “some little bits of paper and cloth scattered inside, and three mirrors on the inside of the tube”. And this becomes an image for her of a great mystery. “So long as our actions, no matter how trivial, remain within the focus of love, the Blessed Trinity gives them a wonderful brilliance and beauty. When Jesus looks at us through the little lens, which is to say Himself, He finds all our doings beautiful. But if we abandon the ineffable centre of love, what does He see? A few straws . . . besmirched and worthless deeds.”